Smiles for Daddy

(I still have plenty of pictures I intend to blog about between the last post and this one. But I took these just this evening, so it feels good to get them posted already!)

Nathan has gotten progressively more smiley. At this point (10 weeks old!) he tends to have a nice smiley period a couple times a day, where he likes to smile at and talk ("a goo" being the favorite, of course!) to somebody. It's usually Mommy, sometimes siblings, and occasionally random other people. Daddy hadn't been the recipient of a really good smiley period yet because they seem to always be during work hours. Today he got one! So of COURSE I ran over with the camera. :-)

I love all the rolls on his chin/neck!

"Nate-win!" (how nearly 4 year old Katy pronounces his name)

Sweet little guy :-)

Then I remembered that my mom has been asking for a vertical picture for Grandpa Maughan, so I turned the camera...

...just in time! I got a good one!

More Pics of Nathan: 4 weeks to 5.5 weeks

Here are my favorite pictures from the middle of April:

Tummy time has been universally disliked by all of my children. I'm pretty sure that's true of the vast majority of babies. Nathan will tolerate it for a couple minutes sometimes, then he gets tired of it and cries. Look at the size of that noggin, it's quite a work out learning to hold it up!

I love love LOVE this picture! Until Nathan starts smiling easily, this will be hands down the best picture of the four of them! All three of the big kids have nice, genuine smiles. I'm pretty sure I said "toot" or something like that. Whatever I did, Katy found it hilarious!

Nathan always gets fidgety when I lay him on his tummy to take a picture (due to his dislike of tummy time), so I sometimes use that to try and wake him up if he's sleeping when I don't want him to be yet. It didn't work this time.

Nathan likes having his little hand up next to his face. It looks like he's posing. :-) On a less cute note, the poor guy sure had yucky skin for a while there.

One of many things I have learned from having babies is that pacifier desire varies greatly! David & Nathan both loved their pacifiers from day one, Ryan & Katy gagged on them and hated them (although Ryan eventually took one a little bit). After having the last 2 not want them, I sometimes forget that this little one often just wants to suck on his "fi." It's especially true when he acts like he wants to nurse, then gets fussy once he gets started - he wants to suck without eating. He's really good at keeping it in, too. And while I think it looks ridiculous for an older toddler (like 2+) to have a pacifier, I think it's absolutely adorable on a little baby!

Apparently this was not a time that he really wanted his pacifier, though. Check out those cheeks and lips! I just want to kiss him!

Oh, to be that comfortable so easily!

Nathan is just now as I write this (at 8 weeks) starting to be a very smiley little guy. I got lucky and caught one back at 5.5 weeks though! Nothing is as cute and sweet as a baby smile. :-)

Spring Break at Grandma & Grandpa's House!

The boys had spring break this year the first full week in April. Nathan was only 2.5 weeks old when they got out the Friday before, but I've never been one to slow down much "just" because I have a new baby. So as soon as school was out, I picked the boys up and headed to Grandma & Grandpa's house. I had planned on leaving earlier, but packing, just like everything else, takes longer when you have a little one. So we ended up hitting some traffic and having to stop to feed Nathan, but it wasn't all that bad.

The day after we arrived was General Conference. I had the kids come out and watch when President Monson spoke. Here's Ryan with Grandma & Grandpa.

And here's Katy with Aunt Hannah & Sadie. Sadie is a bit big to be a lap dog, but Molly is far bigger and tries sometimes too!

Monday, April 4th (Nathan is 3 weeks!) we went to the Pacific Science Center, specifically to see the cool Star Wars exhibit. While we were trying to get out the door I came across this scene - David & Ryan admiring their baby brother. It sure melts a mama's heart. :-)

3 week old Nathan, starting to lose the brand new look

All the Morrill kids at the Science Center.

And here they all are with R2-D2 and C-3PO. Nathan sure looks like he's enjoying it, huh?

Gotta go in the butterfly house! Every time we go at least one of the kids claims to not want to, but they always end up excited!

Here, some proof that I was there too!

Katy joined Nathan on the floor for tummy time. Awwww.

Ryan had an ENT appointment scheduled for later in the week, so we actually only stayed for part of Spring Break. The kids still managed to go in the hot tub a lot! Seriously, they were in there twice a day most days. Here's a picture of Molly's favorite thing to do while they're in there - drop a toy or rock in. Naughty pup.

Here's a shot of the kids looking, if not smiling.

One night I went to the rec room and found this. Sweet Katy had put this little doll to bed on the treadmill. Love that girl!

Nathan got to take a bath in the sink. He looks worried about it.

One of the other highlights of the trip was going to get new baby chicks! They were really, really cute! We picked out six of them - one for each person (except Nathan) that went to Del's. None of them are alive still. I haven't told the kids. Maybe by the time we go again I can just say they've grown up or something.

Well, this is quite the non-eloquent post. Oh well. At least I did it. And during my precious baby sleeping time too!

Pictures of Nathan: age 1 week - 2.5 weeks

I've had some issues lately with not being able to find the camera, then the cord to upload pictures to the computer, then the camera again. I still can't find the cord (despite cleaning the office quite a bit!), so I had to take the card out of the camera to load them that way. I've had issues in the past with cards getting corrupted that way so I was hesitant and nervous, but it seems to have gone smoothly this time. So, I had nearly 500 pictures on the card. I hadn't deleted them last time I loaded them (worried about losing the brand new baby pictures until I was positive they were on the computer properly!), but there were still plenty of new ones! I'm going to do several posts over the next few days, hopefully I can maintain motivation until I'm caught up!


The last post had pictures up until Sunday, March 20th, when Nathan was 6 days old. Here we pick up the next day, at 1 week old. Check out how yellow the whites of his eyes were! Poor jaundiced baby!

Snuggling with Daddy...and laundry mountain. Just keepin' it real, folks.

Holding the baby is a favorite activity around here. :-)

Here Nathan is at 9 days old. I went to check on him taking his nap, and decided to take some pictures. I thought I might not take quite so many of this child since he's #4, but that hasn't been the case so far.

While I was admiring my sleeping baby he started to wake up. I absolutely LOVE the way new little babies stretch. They stick out their little face and arch their little back...it's just precious!

Temporarily looked like he might go back to sleep...

Then more stretching...

And yawning...

And finally started to get mad, so it was time to stop the photo shoot.

I love how squishy new babies are, how it doesn't phase them to sleep with their head at an angle like this.

My baby and his mama. :-) Yes, I have red eyes. Yes, that's an easy fix. No, I'm not going to go through the trouble of doing it and re-uploading and finding the right place in the post for it. Sorry.

Nathan got to meet Great-Grandma & Great-Grandpa Smith on March 30th, at 2.5 weeks old. They hadn't been able to visit earlier thanks to other great-grandkids giving them a cold. Thanks a lot, guys! :-P

My time at the computer has come to a close, the chubby baby needs to be fed. Again. It takes a lot of milk to grow big and strong!