8 months

Hello everyone (I never really know how to start each post...)! A few things have been happening around the Holt house. Nathan turned 8 months old today so as is tradition around here we took some 8 month pictures. Here they are:

He's kind of a turkey some times:

This is Nathan's mode of transportation. He spreads his legs out and reaches his hands in front of him. He grabs the ground and pulls the rest of his body forward. Kind of funny to watch.

We have friends in our ward who only speak Spanish (okay for Blake...not so easy for me). They are the nursery leaders in our ward. One Sunday last month I had Nathan during the first hour of church (Relief Society...backwards I know). Well the wife came up to me and in her very broken English said something like "I take Nathan...." Well I thought she just wanted to hold him but before I knew it she just stood up and walked out of the room with him. I sat in a daze for a minute then I walked out of the room to find Blake waiting for me. He asked, "Where's Nathan?" I just looked at him and said, "I have no idea."

Come to find out she had just taken Nathan to nursery with her. Blake went to check on him and she insisted that he stay so we enjoyed a peaceful Sunday School minus our 7 month old baby (kids usually go to nursery at 18 months). Blake got him from nursery and he walked into sacrament meeting holding Nathan who was wearing his little crown. Funny day.

Nathan has a new found love for his toes. Maybe I should stop this but....I probably won't!

Loves his dad:

Nathan is in love with the mirror these days. He is so funny too because he would rather look at you through the mirror so even if you are sitting right next to him he will lean wherever he needs to so he can see you in the mirror. Notice how dirty the mirror is due to the fact that his favorite thing to do is LICK, yes I said lick, the mirror.

Last month I went to get Nathan out of bed in the morning. He had been making some particularly unhappy noises and when I opened his door this is what I found (no wonder):

On a non-Nathan note we took the carpet out of our house a couple weeks ago. It was so gross and dirty (literally dirt everywhere). The paint is going on this week and the carpet will be in next week. It has been fun to see it all come together. Oh and we discovered Nathan's allergies to all the dust when his face broke out in some pretty yucky hives. Luckily it didn't last long...went away just before the doctor came to get us from the waiting room (felt a little silly).

We've got a couple exciting months before us full of weddings and reunions. Can't wait to see all of our family soon!

6 & 7 months

So I'm a little bit behind with blogging but we've had some fun the last few months that I need to remember so here I go. In January Nathan turned 6 months old. He weighed in at 19 lbs 14.5 oz. so his outfit here is very appropriate (thanks Aunt Ashla).

In the middle of January Nathan and I flew to Idaho Falls to spend a week with my family. My lifelong friend Jessica is having her first baby within the next month and so I got to be there for her baby shower....so fun. She and Jonny will be the cutest parents!! While in Idaho Nathan got a lot of face time with these two wonderful grandparents which always makes me so happy.

Nathan was excited to see his Daddy when he got back. He loves doing what Blake does so I come in the room to this all the time:

Nathan has loved getting to know his great-Grandma Twitchell here in Enterprise.

Happy Valentine's Day from Grandma and Grandpa Batt:

And from Grandpa and Grandma Holt:

On February 8th Nathan turned 7 months old...it only took me a week or so to take his pictures.

Nathan is at SUCH a fun age. He is a great little eater and sleeper. He is rolling all over the place, sitting up like a pro and just gabbing away all day. He loves to sing along with his mom and dad. He is such a laugher. Sometimes he just laughs out of nowhere when he's all alone in the next room. It is so much fun to have him around.

To update you on our living situation....we are still in Blake's childhood home. We are currently doing some home improvements to the house we bought. Blake's taking out all the hardware to make the painter's job easier (and cheaper too). I have been tearing out wallpaper and closet liners (which is actually incredibly therapeutic and fun). We're ordering carpet this week. Our estimated move-in week is the 2nd week of March. All in all we have loved living in Enterprise. Blake's brother Jared keeps telling me that I'm warming up to Utah more and more every time I see him and it's so true. I miss being by my family but I am really enjoying being by Blake's family. They are wonderful and make living in Enterprise great. I feel like Enterprise is the right place for us to be. There are so many kind people here and I'm grateful my kids will get to be surrounded by such great people.

Merry Christmas

Happy Holidays everyone!! We had a great Christmas this year. We spent it in Enterprise with Blake's family and loved catching up with everyone. It was fun to spend Christmas with Nathan this year (even though he had NO clue what was going on).

I think all of the holiday celebrations took a toll on this little Santa:

We sure love you all and are so grateful for such wonderful family and friends!

5 Months and A Move

Well hello from Enterprise everyone! That's right...we have made the move down south. This year we spent Thanksgiving with the Batt fam in Idaho Falls and then the next week we packed up our apartment in Chubbuck and moved to Enterprise, UT where we will be permanently residing now. We moved into the house that Blake grew up in. We are grateful to have a place to live and this house is full of a lot of wonderful memories. On December 1st Blake and I bought our very first home and we are very excited about it. We should be moving into it sometime next year.

The Batt grandkids on Thanksgiving (minus William and Emma)

During Thanksgiving break we got to see our dear friends Caitlin and Trent and their cute boy Ethan! We sure have missed them!

This week Nathan turned five months old. He is getting so big and learning so many new things (I'm pretty sure that's what I say each month but it's true).

Last week we thought we'd try introducing some rice cereal. Oh what a funny experience. I'm almost positive that he did not swallow anything but we had fun trying.

After the first bite:

At the end of the bowl:

(Notice the pool of food on his bib...we tried a couple other times and they all went this way...maybe we'll be brave again and try in a couple weeks)

We are getting really excited for Christmas this year. I'm excited for Nathan to experience Christmas even though he will have absolutely no clue what's really going on. We are spending Christmas in Enterprise this year and we're so grateful that so much family lives nearby for us to celebrate with. We hope you all have a very merry Christmas!!

Halloween and 4 months

I guess it is time for another update. We are still in Idaho. Blake has one more week at his internship. They offered him a job but we've decided that we will be moving to Enterprise so that Blake can work with his family. We're both getting excited. Here are a few pictures of the last month. 

Nathan ends up with toys on his face all of the time and it's pretty cute to see him try to wiggle them off.

The Batt family had a Halloween party a few weeks ago and it was a blast!!

Our skeleton veggie tray

Party favors

We froze spiders into the ice cubes.

This is sideways but we decorated cupcakes to look like monsters.

Born to farm...with Uncle Dave checking his breathing.

Blake took me to The Bridge in Pocatello for my birthday. Snake River Cattle sells Kobe beef to this restaurant and we had to try it before we move.  

Last weekend we went to Boise to visit Aunt Nancy and Uncle Rhea. It was so much fun to see them. They took us to the Williamson orchards and we bought yummy Honeycrisp apples and winter squash. (The sun was shining in our eyes....hence our squinting eyes and the back of Nathan's head). 

The three youngest Batt grandsons. Emmitt (almost 11 months), Mason (20 months) and Nathan (4 months).

The Batt grandkids minus William and Emma

Nathan lovin' Dad

Nathan turned 4 months last week. He is weighing in at 17 lbs 10 oz and he is 26 inches long.
He is so much fun to have around. He smiles and laughs all the time. He is starting to be a great little sleeper. He basically sleeps through the night and takes two good naps during the day. He just rolled over for the first time as I was writing this blog post so woohoo!

3 months!

Hello everyone! Long time - no blog! These past few months have been busy ones. On July 31st we blessed Nathan in our Provo ward. We felt so grateful to have so much support from both sides of the family.

The Batt Clan

The Holt Clan (minus those who had to leave before we could gather everyone)

Our new little family

We sure love this little guy!

In August we went to both family reunions and had a blast!! We went to Enterprise with the Holts. It was so much fun to see everyone and catch up. On August 6th Dad Holt and Marge got married and we were grateful to be there for that special occasion. The next week Blake finished up his last finals at BYU and then we headed to Red Fish Lake in Stanley, Idaho for the Batt family trip. Red Fish is one of my favorite places. It is beautiful and so much fun. Just to give you an idea of the fun we had here is a picture of some of the brothers playing in the sand:

Blake, Mike, Dave and Roland dug a trench and had us bury them

After both family reunions we packed up and moved to Chubbuck, Idaho. Blake is doing an internship with Agribeef which is a part of Snake River Cattle in American Falls. We live about 45 minutes away from my family so it has been really nice to spend a lot of time with them. When we first moved to our apartment we had a bit of a hobo (the spider not the person) infestation. The first morning I killed 5 spiders and every time I'd go into a different room I'd see a brand new big spider. It was awful. I was nervous that Nathan would get a deadly hobo spider bite so I put his play mat on top of some of our unpacked boxes to keep him above ground level. Looking back now I see that I was probably a bit over paranoid but it seemed so logical at the time. Anyway, we had pest control spray our apartment and then I felt a lot better and he now can lay on a blanket on the ground like a normal child. 

After telling you that last story you can maybe understand why he does the following quite a bit:

"Oh brother!"

We went to the cabin for Nathan's first hunting trip. Blake insisted that we bring Nathan's camo. Erin and I stayed in the cabin with the kids while the men went hunting. We had pouring rain all Monday and Tuesday morning. It was beautiful  but quite muddy. We had an interesting trip home through the rain and mud. 

Last Saturday Nathan turned 3 months old. He is growing up so fast and learning so many new things. He smiles all the time and with a bit of work he will laugh and give a high pitched squeal of delight. We feel so blessed to have him and love him so much.

2 months!!

Our little guy turned 2 months old last week and he is getting so big. He had his 2 month check up today and he is doing great! He weighs 14 lbs 5 oz (94th percentile) and he is 24 3/4 inches long (95th percentile).

We are doing well here in Chubbuck, Idaho. Blake's enjoying his internship with Snake River Farms and I am loving staying home with Nathan. Our ward is really great and it has been fun to live so close to my family. I am working on a post with the happenings as of late and I will post it soon!!