First Father's Day

Yesterday was James' first Father's Day and Gramps' and Pops' first Grandpa's Day!  Both families spent the day together going to lunch at Elysian Fields and the Mariners game.  So Nathan has now been to his first professional baseball game!  Luckily the Mariners pulled out a win at the bottom of the 9th to beat the Giants.  It was a lot of stimulation for Nathan to take in, but he did great!  We had a couple meltdowns, but mostly because he was hungry or tired.  He got his first baseball cap (but it's way too big for him to wear right now) and they even gave him a certificate to commemorate his first Mariners game! 

We are so lucky to have such amazing fathers in our lives.  Thank you James, Jay and Dad for all that you do--for being men of integrity, love, and service.  You are wonderful leaders and providers for our families and we love you so much!

One Month Old!

We can't believe that little Nathan is already 1 month old!  He turned 1 month old this past Sunday.  He's now about 10 1/2 lbs. (obviously eating is not a problem :)).  And he's becoming much more aware and alert.  He focuses on our faces and loves to look around at his surroundings.  We've even gotten smiles from him a couple times!  He's also sleeping pretty well.  We get at least one 4-hour stretch from him a night and we're only getting up about 2-3 times a night.  We feel so happy that he's a good little sleeper.  The boy just continues to delight us with his cuteness.  Most of the time we just watch him and giggle at his funny faces or sigh at the angelic way he sleeps. 

Nevertheless we have had our meltdown moments as well though.  The kid can definitely wail when he's unhappy.  We're trying to remind ourselves that it's common for babies to cry and it's not that we're bad parents or doing something wrong.  But man it's really hard not to meltdown ourselves when he melts down.  :)  Every day we're learning new things as parents and getting a little more confident in our abilities.

In honor of Nathan's 1 month old milestone, we had a little photo shoot the other morning.  After about 50 photos, these ones were some of our favorites.  (We took inspiration from our friends the Greens and are going to try and document Nathan's growth every month in his crib.  Hope it's ok we copied your idea, Tyler and Meghan!)

In Love

It's hard to believe that baby Nathan is almost one month old!  Just as everyone says time is flying by.  We've had a great few weeks though watching our sweet boy grow and even start to develop new skills.  We are so in love with our little guy and marvel at him all day long.  Here are some of our favorite things about him:

*The cute faces he makes
*When he sneezes, yawns or hiccups
*How he loves his hands
*The funny movements he makes when naked
*Bath time
*Tummy time
*How he cuddles when we hold him
*Reading books to him
*Special moments feeding him in the middle of the night
*Anytime he's awake--he has such a personality!
*His tiny little swaddled body in his huge crib
*His little feet

He had his 2 week check-up with the pediatrician a couple weeks ago and he was 9 lbs. at that point and at around the 45th and 50th percentile for head size and length.  The nurse said he's a very well proportioned boy.  :)  We love our pediatrician and he said everything is looking great with Nathan so far!

Here are some photos from the past couple of weeks:

First sponge bath

We think he looks a lot like his Papa!

Auntie Jessica visited!

The Spaulding boys

With Uncle Ryan

Nathan's first bath!

Could he be any cuter?

Auntie Karen and Taylor visited!

We are also very lucky in that we have my talented brother Ryan who's been taking more professional shots of Nathan for us.  Here are some of our favorites from Nathan's last photoshoot:

3 Years

James and I celebrated our 3-year anniversary this week.  3 years ago today I got to marry the most incredible man I've ever met.  It was a gorgeous sunny Seattle weekend and we couldn't have imagined a more perfect weekend of celebrating with family and friends. 

We celebrated our anniversary by going out on a date night to the John Howie steak restaurant.  For those of you who live in the area, you MUST go to this restaurant if you've never been.  It's SO GOOD!  Definitely a special occasion place though as it's pretty pricey.  Thanks to Barb and Jay for babysitting so we could enjoy this special night and celebrate. 

James and I like to follow the traditional anniversary gift ideas every year.  The traditional gift for 3 years is leather.  James got some new UGG leather slippers and I got a beautiful black leather purse.  James also surprised me with a gorgeous necklace with an emerald pendant and a white gold N initial.  Emerald is Nathan's birthstone and the N obviously stands for Nathan.  It was my "push" present as my sister-in-law called it--basically my gift for going through labor.  What a thoughtful husband!

James you are the greatest husband and father.  God has truly blessed me with you in my life and I can't wait to continue on this life adventure with you for 50+ more years!  I love you so much my best friend and true soul mate!

He's Here!

Our beautiful son Nathan James Spaulding was born on May 10, 2012 at 6:11pm at Overlake Hospital.  He was 8 lbs. 3 oz and was 20 inches long.  We can't believe he's finally here and we're just mesmerized with him so far!  Every day is definitely an adventure and something new to learn.  But we're having lots of fun being parents.  As you might expect, keeping up on normal life is a little challenging right now.  I barely have time to check email.  So blog posts might be few and far between, but I'm going to try and post when I can so we can have it for memories.  Here are some photos from Nathan's first week.  He's 1 week old today!!!  It's already moving fast!

Proud Papa!

Family anxiously waiting to meet little Nathan

So blessed and happy!

Meeting my little guy for the first time

We love when he makes this face!

We call this the doughnut face

Meeting Grampa

Meeting Gramma Barb

Meeting Nana and Pops

Auntie Becca and Gavin

Time to go home from the hospital!

Using his rocker chair for the first time

Celebrating Mother's Day

First stroller ride!

Visit from Auntie Kristine

He loves to curl up on Papa's chest

Visit from Jesse and Heidi--Nathan's godparents

Aunties Heidi and Leslie

First time using a binkie--helps soothe him during diaper changes

The Nest

Our nursery is finally set up and ready to welcome our new little one whenever he decides to arrive!  We tried to create a cozy, not too gender specific room with a few personal touches and I think we accomplished our goal.  There are still a few spots that are "in progress" because we want to wait to put up pictures of him after he arrives.  But for the most part I think we're done with this project for now.  Now all we need is a sweet little baby to fill it!

View from entry	Changing table.  Uncle Ryan provided the great mobile!
I'm sure I'll be spending lots of time in this glider.  Good thing it's comfy!	Our room theme is classic children's books
Stuffed monkey from Pops (Meg's dad), baby's first pair of sneakers, Meg's old Peter Rabbit bank, collectable Tigger from Uncle Ryan and homemade blocks from Etsy	Can't wait to read all these great books to our son!
James' childhood bear named Charles and Lamb Chop	Maybe this comfy crib will help our baby sleep through the night at a young age (yeah right!)
Thank goodness James, Grampa, and Uncle Johnathin redid this closet--we clearly needed the storage space!	Love this children's book cover banner that Hillary made for my shower--now it's a perfect decoration for the nursery!

Here are some more artistic photos that Uncle Ryan took for us: