[Best News]
A healthy baby is on its way
and will be here in September

An important first for a Russell boy

[Best Sight]
My little boy teaching himself how to eat
pizza by the slice!

That piece of pizza is seriously the size of his head!

Nate and I took Chris's favorite lunch up to him at the law school yesterday. I came fully prepared: bib, plates, napkins, and a knife to cut up Nate's pizza. He took 2 bits of his diced pizza and got up, pulled off the bib and left. He found himself a new seat by the pizza box and grabbed himself a slice- and to my surprise- stared to eat it without having me cut it! He ate it upside down, so the practical mom in me was cringing at the thought of him dropping that greasy slice on his shirt, but the good mom in me grabbed my phone and snapped a picture of this very important first in our baby's life. Whenever I see him to things like this, I hear that Pullups song in my head, "Mommy, wow! I'm a big kid now!"

Best Part

Today my best part of the day was this: After Nate's nap I gave him a cracker and he took off running. Curiously, I followed him to see what he was up to. He ran to the front door and sat down then started doing scissor motions with his legs- opening and closing them (something he does when he gets excited) and then pat the spot next to him for me to come sit. Completely random, but so sweet. Check out the nice bed head he still has from the nap. And of course, another good part of the day was more furrowed brow displays. Sorry this picture was bad. I was laughing at the furrowed brow and not looking at the picture itself. This is his TRUE furrowed brow look- chin down, brows furrowed, looking up at you. He was trying to show me his disappointment that I didn't come to sit by him right away because I was trying to take a picture of him to email to Chris. What a manipulator!

Gelato, YUM!

Tonight Chris' parents came over after Nate was down so we could go out on a mini-date. We went to Capanna for some gelato off the recommendation from our friends the Dixs. THANK YOU! It was so de-lish! And here is the great part- it has up to 70% less fat than ice cream! Check out their website
http://www.capannacoffee.com/gelato
For those that live here there are 2 locations, one up by Stoddards and Streets and one in the ped mall. I know it isn't really the season for frozen treats... but just do what I did- wrap a napkin around your dish to keep your hand warm- OH! Here is the best part! You can get muliple flavors- the bigger the dish size, the more flavors you can get! Bambino= 2 flavors all the way up to Grandissimo = 5 flavors. I got a grandissimo with 2 flavors, Berry also Chocolate Peanut Butter. It was like having a chocolate cake with berries on top- so good! Okay, just thinking about it makes me want more!

The Furrowed Brow

When Nate was a baby he would furrow his brow, which was so uncharacteristic of a baby and made people laugh. Now the furrowed brow has returned. He does it when he dislikes something- like me trying to take a picture of him. I tried to get a couple of pictures, but it is hard to take pictures of a moving target. I think some are still clear enough to be laugh-worthy! He is covering his eye in some of them because of the flash. I finally got a clue and turned the flash off. I love the expressions kids make. Hats off to Kate Oldroyd. I think she has some of the best expressions I have ever seen a kid make. Maybe we will get lucky and Nate is going to be an expressive kid like that. This new face sure makes us laugh!

18th month bliss

Ever stop to think.... I finally have it all. This is what I have always wanted. With pictures like these... how can I not?

Graham Cracker Train

The tradition: on Christmas Eve growing up, the Russell kids would make a graham cracker train (much the same as ginger bread houses- lots of frosting and cand) to use up some of the kids excitement about Santa and kill time before going to bed. The rule was you got to eat the candy off of your train in the days to come- so they used to mainly be cargo trains packed with candy... now it's just for fun so we really get creative. Daz made an aquarium this year... Jon made a med school (fitting since he is applying right now). Mine was very uninspired- just very colorful. We always have great memories of the trains and every Christmas we talk about "remember the year when "so and so" made this train" etc. It's been a fun memory. This was the first year Nate "participated" but it is my 5th. We didn't get any pictures on Christmas Eve itself, of the creation process, just the days after of Nate trying to sneak candy.

The captions that go along with this picture is I told Nate "no" he couldn't have any candy right now and walked out of the room- thinking the train was safe since all of the chairs were pushed against the wall. Ha! The little sneak pushed the chair right up to the table. I didn't think he could do that! THe next picture I am trying to stop him from demolishing Trudy's car.

BUT AT LAST... I GAVE IN!

CANNEEEEE!

AND NATE WENT TO TOWN!

THERE HAS GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY... OH THIS IS BETTER!

ONCE AGAIN, HAD TO RESORT TO DESPERATE MEASURES


I SAID "ONE MORE" AND NATE SAYS "2 MORE"

Did you know...

Did you guys see the extra scene at the end of Pirates III that starts out by saying "Ten years later..."? If you haven't seen it, go to the end of the movie, right after the credits. You can't find it by scene selection, you have to fast forward through all the credits to see it. It is definitely worth seeing! Adds to the story!

CHRISTMAS!

Opening a cash register from Uncle Jon

Playing with Gma Trudy's stuffed Santas.............Nate with the German Nativity he loved!

Chris opening a big one! ..........................................Nate LOVED his Curious George slippers

Nate opened one gift early... 3 days early!........... Nate and Aunt Daz. She loves him so much!

Merry Christmas Daz! ...................................................Grandma Trudy and Uncle Jon

I will never...

The stocking my mom made for me. Cute, huh?

I know as I type this that it is a lie but I will never make another home-made stocking! My mom made each of her kids these darling stockings and so I thought I would follow in suit! Ha! I finally finished it at 2 am on Christmas Eve. I had been working on it nonstop for the week beforehand. I thought I would sit down and whip it out in a couple of hours. I worked from 8pm-2am for days before Christmas. Well, at least I finished it on time!

Nate's stocking I made.

Oh yeah... I still have a blog!

Okay, I realize that I have been pathetic about my posting the last few months- but life has been crazy! But I am back! I will be posting every day this week to catch you all up on what we have been doing, Christmas, etc. But my first post is a big one!

It's gone! I finally did it!

10 inches really isn't that much after all! I thought my hair would have to be so much shorter than that! I know these pictures aren't very good of my actual hair cut, so I will have Chris take one from the shoulders up tonight so you can really see it. I have never actaully liked a hair cut while in the salon. I usually go home and cry and then get use to it- but I really like it! And love my new stylist Kelly. She's wonderful. If anyone needs a good stylist in the area go to her! I went to Trendz over by hwy 1 in Iowa City.