{A day of Thanks}

Thanksgiving has come and gone and feel like I didn't even get to enjoy the moment like in years past. We were so stressed out with the move and Nolan being sick that I didn't even stop to think of all the wonderful things I am thankful for.
I think my number one thing I am grateful for right now is our wonderful friends that helped move us over to our new place. We really couldn't have done it without them. I was definitely not the best of help being a gargantuan pregnant lady. So thank you, thank you , thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I am also so grateful for my health. We have had so many of our loved ones go through some pretty difficult trials with health that it made me stop and think how wonderfully blessed I have been with my own health.
I am also grateful that we were able to move in to a bigger place just before we add another little munch kin into the family. I can't tell you how happy it makes me feel to have a place where Nolan can actually run around. It will make this winter so much easier. And last but not least, I am so thankful for my husband. I really have a great man! He does so much for me even if I complain about whatever he has done. He never gets mad or won't do something. I really can't wait to start feeling like myself again and I'm sure Jake can't wait either. I love my husband and little boys so much! They make me so happy and crazy at the same time. I am a very lucky girl.

But back to Thanksgiving. Thanks Majors for having everyone over to your place for the night. The food was amazing!! I couldn't believe how pretty the turkey looked. It was so much fun to be around friends. We love you guys! Next holiday, a baby.....and then Christmas!!

{Tools, tools, and more tools}

Aww, a boy and his tools. Nolan can't stop playing with Jake's tool set since that's all we've been doing since we moved in. Nolan loves to pull out the big socket wrench and call it, "the big one!" His face just lights up. He loves watching daddy go around the apartment putting up things with the tools or putting things together. I had no idea that the love of tools started at such a young age. It is so fun to see Jake's face light up with joy that his little boy wants to do everything just like him. We might just have to break down and get him a little tool set to help daddy around the apartment. I love my boys!

{All moved in, well...sort of}

I just thought I would update everyone on our status with the move. We are now in the 3 bedroom!!!! We have been sleeping there since Wednesday night. It is so much bigger than our last place, I almost don't know what to do with all my stuff.
We had some great help from our friends and neighbors. We seriously couldn't ask for better friends out here. The manly men helped out with all the big stuff because I really can't do much. Jake has been AMAZING! He has really been such a trooper with me nesting lately. As soon as we moved in I wanted everything out of the boxes and put up or stored away. I didn't want anything left out. Jake didn't even hesitate. He has hung up all the pictures, that I know where they are going, already. He has assembled all the bedrooms except for his little office now. I told him he can do that when the rest of the place is put together. Like I said, he is amazing!
Poor Nolan has been so neglected these past few days. I think he knows there is a big change about to happen with our family. He has been so cuddly. He will come up to us and say, "get up, paweeze!" All he wants us to do is hold him lately. I can't say that I don't mind because there is nothing better when your little boy wants a hug. Also, Nolan has come down with a nasty cold. He has been such a trooper considering the circumstances. Gosh, we move him to a new place, don't spend as much time with him, and the baby is about to get here. I feel like the worst mother. But Nolan is so loving. On a lighter note, we finally taught him how to give kisses. So cute!!! I love it!
So as of right now we are almost completely out of our other apartment. Jake is working on the little odds and ends today and whatever he brings over, I put away. The only bad thing about the move is that we can't use our new bathroom for a couple more days. They had to fix some things and it needs to settle before we use the water and the shower. So we have been going back over to our old apartment everyday to shower. It sounds worse than it is. We are lucky that we were able to move at all this Thanksgiving weekend. It was the only time Jake had off until he is done with the semester. So we count our blessings.
Thanksgiving was so much fun. I love all our friends. Thanks to the Jolley's for having us over for dinner when are place was a disaster. Thanks to the Majors also for doing the same thing and for having Thanksgiving over at their place. We love you guys! We have so many things to be thankful for this season. I wouldn't even know where to begin. But most of all we are thankful for our new little edition coming! Can't wait!

{I can't believe I'm posting this....}

Something must be incredibly wrong with me to be posting such a scary picture. I am now officially at 36 weeks!!! Wahoo! And I am feeling bigger than ever!
This kid is beating the heck out of me. Yesterday I completely fell over with intense pain coming from my lower right side. I couldn't stand up straight for about 40 minutes. It was so crazy. I have never experienced anything like that in my life. Poor Nolan just didn't understand why I couldn't move to play with him. Then the rest of the day that same sharp pain kept coming. Jake was so concerned. He kept asking me, "are you sure it is not contractions?" Oh honey, I think I know what a contraction feels like since I have already been through labor. But it is so sweet for him to be so concerned.
I really want to hold out to have the baby until Jake is finished with this semester but I really have no clue what this kid is doing to me and if he will come early. He is so much lower than Nolan was for me, so the uncomfortable feeling is so different and more intense. Plus, we are moving this coming week and stress tends to bring on early delivery. So my goal is to be relaxed about the move. Take it easy, take it easy. (that is from Seinfeld for all you fans)
We are so excited for the bigger apartment. And just in the nick of time. Anyway, I start going to my weekly appointments tomorrow. Yipee! No, not really, I hate all the checking they have to do. But it does mean that I am at the end of this pregnancy. Thank heaven. Can't wait to see this next little guy!! I already love him so much! I think Nolan does too. Four more weeks!!!!!

{Twilight}

The most anticipated movie of the year.......TWILIGHT! My friends and I have been planning this night forever! We couldn't wait. We purchased our tickets way before the day and decided to splurge and get "VIP" seats. Well worth the $17!!!
Our night started out with us grabbing a pizza from Papa Murphy's and hanging out. It is always a good time with these girls. They are crazy and I love it! Then after pizza we headed over to the movie theater, in no rush I might add. Because we bought the "VIP" seating we had no reason to go early and wait in that ridiculous line. For getting the "VIP" ticket you got a $5 food thingy to purchase anything in the movie theater. Perfect! We used ours to get some delicious ice cream and treats for the movie. I have never been to such a nice movie theater.
After we ate some ice cream we headed to our seats. We waltzed right in five minutes before the movie started. Our seats were amazing! We didn't have to worry about being near some annoying teenagers. And were they ever! As soon as Robert Pattinson came in on the movie the entire audience started clapping and screaming. I hope I wasn't like that when I was a teenager.
I really enjoyed the movie though. I went in to it with low expectations so that the movie would seem amazing. It worked. Edward has really grown on me. I'm not completely sold by him and lusting after him. I personally think my vision of Edward is far better and will stick with that. But nonetheless, I loved the movie! I can't even wait for the next couple of ones to come out. I had such a fun night. It felt like I was back in high school staying out late again. I didn't get home until 12:45 pm. I'm an animal!!!! Thanks girlers for the awesome night!!! I wonder what we will do next time.....?

{what has the Nolan boy been up to?}

Our little pirate has been up to no good lately. Well, I shouldn't say no good but he thinks he is the most clever kid on the block. Nolan has figured out that if he uses his bulldozer he can reach higher places and get things he knows are not suppose to be touched. For example, first to my right there is a picture of him struggling to get to the toaster oven. He likes to turn the oven part on to broil and then leave. No good! I have to watch him like a hawk. Then there is the fridge. He has learned that the bulldozer can get him to all the magnets his heart desires. He loves to pull everything off the fridge and then leave once again.



Third, he has learned to use his bulldozer to get to the sink and anything we leave in it. It was a good thing that daddy was there because I put all the dirty knives in the sink thinking that Nolan can't get to them there. I stand proven wrong.
Fourth, he uses his bulldozer to grab anything and everything down from our very "spacious" counter top. In the last picture he is trying to get to the nice grapes I had just purchased.
Because of this bulldozer situation we have been using the word "NO" a lot around our place. And Nolan has been using the word, "paweeze!" Which stands for please. He thinks that if he says please that he will get what he wants. Not in my house buster.

But really, lets be honest. It is pretty cute to see our Nolan boy using his noggin to think up clever ideas. It means he is growing up and exploring his surroundings. I really can't get enough of him. Sometimes I think about how we are in our last days of just the two of us. We only have just under 5 more weeks together. I like my one-on-one time with Nolan. He makes me laugh all day long. Even when he is crazy and throwing temper tantrum after temper tantrum I still love him to death! He is so much like me and so much like Jake that I laugh just thinking about it. I think he got a little too much of my stubbornness. My mom always said that she will get her glory and I think that Nolan is my match. He is a run for my money. But I love him. So there you have it. This is our crazy Nolan boy.

{Super Saturday Part II}

Some of my neighbors here in the cul-de-sac go to the Branch instead of the ward. Well they were having a "Super Saturday" as well. I asked them to send me an email of what they were doing to see if I would be interested in any of it.

And did it ever. These adorable present decorations caught my eye! I had to have them. Aren't they the cutest thing? It only cost $9 for all three of the blocks with everything on them. When we first got there we had to paint the blocks. Then after they dried we had this power sander to sand the edges. Once that was finished we used an oil base stain to cover the paint to give it that worn look. I have never heard of that, but I am not the crafty so no wonder. Then it was time for the embellishments. I did my own thing and I think it turned out so stinkin' cute! I couldn't have been happier. I can't wait to set up all my Christmas decorations.

I also signed up for the "no knit scarf." I was thinking it was going to be a piece of cake. Turns out the whole thing is made of square knots. Um, I didn't even know what a square knot was. So the beginning took a little while but after I got the hang of it I finished in no time. Well, finished at my house at 11:00 that night. But I love it! I feel so domestic making all of these things. Who would have guessed I could do this kind of thing. I had a great time at the Super Saturday!

{goooo Packers!!!!}

We all know Sunday is a great day to watch football. Normally we don't get to watch that much because we have church from 1-4. But since we had Stake Conference we were finished with church at noon. So we tuned in to the Packer's game. I think Nolan already gets the idea of football. He really will watch it for awhile. We taught him how to say, "go packers." He was saying it so loudly and with such energy until we got the camera out. So the video isn't as good as what he giving us. I think he gets a little camera shy. But it is still pretty cute. We'll try to get a better video next time. Go Packers!!!!

{bLoCkS}

Does anyone else think that daylight savings in no good when you have a kid? Either way we end up getting out of bed early. So this means extra hours with the boy on an already long day. So we decided to break out the blocks that Great Grandma Critchlow gave us. Nolan loved it!!! He especially loved playing in the box while Jake made some cool castles. Eventually Nolan got the idea of how to stack the blocks and he got about ten blocks stacked up high. He would say, "square" every time he put one down. Then he would tell us what color they were. This kid amazes me. I never think he is paying attention when I teach him things.


So that was our activity for Sunday morning before we went to Stake Conference. Thank heaven we had some cool blocks to play with. Thanks Great Grandma Critchlow!

{Dance, Dance Marathon}

Jake's class set up a Dance, Dance Marathon on Saturday to raise money for their free clinics that they have and raise money for uninsured children.  We had to take part.  You were to dance the day and night away.  It started at noon and went all the way until midnight.  We got t-shirts and water bottles and yummy food.  It was such a great cause and we had a great time with all our MCW friends dancing the night away.  

We were the only ones that had a kid there so Nolan got full attention.  It took Nolan about an hour to warm up to all of the people, the loud music, and all the balloons he could ever want.  He was obsessed with the balloons.  He wouldn't put them down.  Most of them were connected but he didn't care.  He would drag around the entire bushel of balloons.  But he would only hold on to the blue one.  Later on in the day he realized there were beach balls.  So the balloons were out of the picture and the ball was his thrill for the rest of the night.   He was all over the dance floor kicking the ball, hitting people with it and just loving life.  Plus all he got to eat was yummy ice cream and snacks the whole night.  We couldn't get him to sit down for one minute to even eat.  So we ended up chasing him around with food shoving it in his mouth.  It was very exhausting for me.

The whole thing was a great success.  Jake was able to sumo wrestle and act like he was a kid again.  I was able to mingle with good friends and laugh at all the funny dancers.  And Nolan was able to run around till we had to go home for bed.  So fun!  We hope you enjoy the pictures!

{the great pumpkin}

I think that Halloween is a hit in our home. After we went to the pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins all Nolan could say and point to is, "Nolan's pumpkin." He is in love with his little pumpkin. We decided last night that we would carve Nolan's pumpkin to be like ours. He loved watching Jake cut through the pumpkin. There was true excitement in his eyes. After we finished carving the pumpkin we headed outside to light'em up. Jake did the scary mean one. I did the scared one. And Nolan's is the cute little guy.
As I was looking at the picture of us sitting by the pumpkins it came to me..... I realized that Jake and I had actually carved each others personalities right now. I am the scary mean pregnant lady and Jake is the scared little husband. Interesting how we didn't even realize we were carving each other. I'm really not that mean but I do have my pregnancy moments.
After we had lit the pumpkins Nolan was wired. Probably from all the cupcakes he had throughout the day. He kept running around the grass and down the slide we have and yelling, "Nolan's pumpkin, Daddy's pumpkin, Mama's pumpkin!" He was crazy. We let him run himself tired for about an hour outside. I wish you could have all been there to see how cute this kid is. We had a great Halloween and can't wait for Thanksgiving and then the BABY!