At the beginning of the month Mike got promoted to the FTO (field training officer) position and with it he got some fancy stripes to put on his sleeves and a raise (YAY!) At the award cermony Nathan was really good about sitting still throughout the whole thing and clapped and everything.
The next week we went to Gatlinburg for Mike's weekend and rented a cabin to stay in. We had a grand old time going around everywhere.
We went to Ripely's Aquarium and looked at all the FISH (which you know that Nathan loves)
We had fun time looking at the Tuna fish, Sharks, puffer fish, petting horseshoe crabs, an octupus playing in the kids feel & touch area
Afterwords we went on a trolley ride in Pigeon Forge to look at all the Christmas Lights, which Nathan went from being adorable to annoying to adorable again.
Back at the Cabin, Nathan and I had a fun time playing with the very noisy and very loud slot machine that they had in the "game" room. It just goes to show that it is never to early to teach your kids to gamble, ;p.
After that he find one of the boxes that I had used to bring the food down and just had a ball climbing in and out of it. At one point of time we closed him all the in it and let him burst back out of it again.
We also went to go visit the Arensbak's at the Five Arts Studio in Cosby. They are the people that make the Smoky Mtn. Trolls that we have around the house. They have known Nathan since he was little and they always enjoyed getting a visit from us to see him. We also took over family christmas picture at the shop this year.
Then we went over to the Arts & Crafts village to look around all the shops. Nathan was so cute looking to some of the artist that they even gave him an apple to eat. Which he enjoyed greatly.
We also went up to Ober Gatlinburg and saw some snow!! and got to ride the sky lift up to the top to look out over Gatlinburg. Nathan had a good time looking around and picking up the snow but he quickly got angry after being out in the cold for so long. So we had to go back inside to sit by the fire to get warm.
One the day that we headed out we went to look at Newfoundland Gap at the Great Smoky Mtns. And boy was it COLD!! we did not stay long at all, maybe a whole 15 mins just to take some photos and get back in the car to head home.
And just because they are cute, here are some random pictures of the cats. AWWW!
I also finally finished my Christmas Stocking this year.
Here is Nathan playing around with his clothes basket
On Christmas Eve we spent the day at our house to spend some family time together because Mike was off from work. That is also when I finally got the confirmation for something that I had been expecting for about 2 1/2 weeks. I was finally able to take a pregnancy test and of course it was postive. So Nathan will be getting a new sibling in late August to very early September. So that was a good Christmas present. We played Christmas music and made & decorated gingerbread cookies. Nathan was a great little helper and had a great time eating all the gingerbread dough.
Then it was bath time
Afterwords we had a nice christmas dinner, we (I) cooked phesant this year which was very unique but it was very good and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Later we opened presents under the christmas tree and played with all our new toys!
After that Mike read the Night before Christmas and we set out cookies for Santa. And then Nathan went to bed.
The next morning we got Nathan up for his Santa presents and he was a little grumpy. But after a little bit he cheered up some and then we went over to the Lewis's house for breakfast. The my parents came over and we opened present to and from them. Nathan then had a fun time playing in new play tunnel that "Santa" had brought him. The cats also got presents and had a really good time playing with them.
And then christmas was over and so were all the pictures, whew!!
