Nick and Nolan went on their first sledding adventure last weekend. Nolan enjoyed the ride long enough to make about two runs down the hill and then he was ready to come in and get warm ( just like his mom!) The expressions on Nolan's face as they came racing by were priceless!

Snow Day

It has been a snowy winter thus far and our deck has been piling up with snow. Nick and Nolan worked on shoveling it off this morning. Nolan is such a good helper, even to the point of dumping snow all over himself while trying to lift snow over the railing!

Harvest Time Happenings

I realized that I never put pictures up from our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. As you will notice, there are a limited number of pictures where Nolan is actually looking at the camera. He was busy the entire time and it was a challenge to get him to look at the camera long enough for me to snap a good picture. Nolan was also a little golfer for our church's harvest party. He received many compliments on his costume and he even left the hat on the entire night!

Swing Set!

Nolan received a new swing set last week from his grandpa and grandma and thanks to the great weather he has been getting a lot of good use out of it. He loves climbing and going down the slide most of the all. Swinging seems to be fun for about 30 seconds! The only problem is now every morning he sees that swing set and says "Side!" - his word for outside. I think he would spend 10 hours a day outside if his parents would let him.

Jump around!

Our neighbors have a trampoline in their backyard. Nolan loves to watch the boys jump on it and apparently has taken notes on how to land successfully! He was practicing his landing skills on our bed last night!

Cape Cod

Nolan and Danielle took a little vacation out to Cape Cod last week and were joined by Danielle's dad, Steve. It was rainy many of the days they were there but they were able to see quite a bit and spent one day on Martha's Vineyard in the midst of the President's vacation with his family. It was a zoo around there and they did their best to stay away from the action but the Presidential motorcade followed them around the island from one town to another! Apprently they were always at the happening place.

Laugh

Nick took this video last night of Nolan laughing. He is usually such a fun and happy little guy. Enjoy!

Splat

Isn't is amazing how closely kids watch their parents actions? Last week I saw a big fat fly on the window and decided to swat him against the window. Guess who was watching? Not more than 5 seconds later Nolan grabbed the spatula which was the closest thing he could find to a swatter and proceeded to also "kill a fly" like daddy. Funny stuff.

Elephant Tail

Nolan is a fan of sucking his thumb. He is pretty good about only sucking it if he has his blanket and is in bed but there are a few things that he will use as a substitute for his blanket. The tail of his stuffed elephant is one of those substitutes! He likes to pull elephant Horton around by it's tail or lay with him on the floor and roll around.

We also had a little drama here the other night when Nolan put his blanket into the bathtub before I had a chance to fully drain it. Spot the blanket was soaked and there was a very unhappy little boy because he couldn't have his blanket and mom had to go in search of another one from the laundry. Nolan kept trying to pull it down from the shower rod where I had hung it up to dry.

Water baby

We have a situation on our hands. Nolan is a HUGE fan of water. Baths, lakes, pools, they're all good! He is a little too eager sometimes since he doesn't know how to swim yet. Danielle took him to the pool yesterday and he wanted to be in the "big people" pool the entire time instead of the baby pool. Today, she set up a baby pool in the backyard and Nolan loved splashing and dumping water all over. He even took a run through the sprinklers!

Hair Cut

Seeing that Nolan turned one and is quickly becoming a small man, he needed a hair cut. Badly! The curls were adorable but they were becoming unruly and extremely long. Besides the fact that he was called a "cute little girl" on numerous occasions! A friend from church who owns a salon here in town gave Nolan his first hair cut and did a great job.

Little Helper

Nolan has become obsessed with the dishwasher in recent months. If he hears it being opened, he comes running to help. A couple of weeks ago, he decided that helping me unload the dishwasher means that he can take each piece of silverware out and lick it and then set it on the floor. Such a good little helper!

Birthday Bash

We hosted Nolan's 1st birthday party this weekend. The theme was monkeys since he climbs around like a little monkey. Danielle made his cake and Nolan got to enjoy a blue frosted cupcake. The party was a great time and Nolan thoroughly enjoyed his cake and presents. His sugar high has finally worn off and the presents are all getting broken in. Here are a few highlights from the party.

Up to something!

Nolan is always up to something! Not always things that we approve of! Nick was recently cleaning out his old baseball card collection and Nolan had a lot of fun with the ones in the throw away pile. He has also figured out how to open the lazy-susan... much to my dismay! His favorite bottles to pull out are the olive oil and the syrup. The next picture is one of him walking around the kitchen like a big boy, feeling pretty pleased with himself. The second to last photo was taken about a month ago while Nick and I were sitting on the couches one evening. Things got very quiet behind the couch and we looked over to find him standing on top of the laundry basket reaching for goodies that are supposed to be out of his reach! The last picture captures Nolan's infinite love of toilet paper. We're not sure what it is about it but he goes for it every time he gets into the bathroom. Spinning the roll is tons of fun but is only trumped by the delight of biting into a brand new roll and leaving a few teeth marks!

A Few of My Favorite Things

Nolan has many passions right now but a couple of his favorite things right now are: 1) the TV remote and 2) showing the world how big he is by raising his hands in the air. He thought he would just multitask and enjoy both activities at once! We have tried to keep him away from the real remote by giving him a spare without batteries ... unsuccessfully. He relentlessly pursues the real remote and is so proud of himself when he gets to it.

Sun, Sand and Shivers

We are back from Florida and thought we should share a few photos from our trip. It was a great week although it was quite cold so we didn't get to spend as much time on the beach as we would have liked. Nolan loves the sand and can't wait until he can actually take his sweatshirt off and get his feet in the ocean.

Favorite spot

Nolan has taken a strong liking to his "spot" blankets. He has enjoyed it since he was tiny but he has become quite obsessive about it recently. If he finds it, he has to stop, suck his thumb and hold onto the blanket for a minute before he can move on. The other day, I was doing laundry and spot was sitting on the top of the basket. He noticed and then proceeded to crawl into the laundry basket and lay down to suck his thumb. Then, this morning we were putting away laundry in his room, and he saw spot through the crib rungs. Needless to say, he had to pull it out and have a little suck of the thumb. He doesn't typically suck his thumb outside of his crib and rarely without spot in his other hand. Spot and thumb go well together!