Little Blessings

Nash's nap time and nighttime routine usually consists of reading two books then laying down in his toddler bed with his yellow blanket while the book reader lies on the floor next to his bed waiting for him to fall asleep.  I should say, this is how it goes unless Daddy puts him to bed and then he ends up sleeping with Mommy and Daddy.  Daddy is such a softy when it comes to sticking to the routine!  On a really good night, I get Nash to bed at a descent time and we have a chance to talk about his day.  I like to ask him what his favorite thing was about the day.  Then I ask him if he wants to say a prayer.  My hope for my boys is that they will have a relationship with God.  Nash and I are learning to pray out loud together and it has been SO awesome.  Last night was a great example.  I asked him if he wanted to say a prayer.  He said, "Thank you God for my house, thank you for my table and for my chairs.  God bless the kids who couldn't go trick or treating (I had prayed this with him the other night), God Bless Montana and Trinity and Sophie and Brian and Patty (our awesome neighbors), and God Bless my puppies."

For this, and so many other reasons, I feel so blessed!

The Skunk and the Dinosaur

Once upon a time there was a skunk... 

and a dinosaur.  They loved to play together.  

 One Halloween Skunk decided he really wanted to get his hands on a Snickers.

So, he recruited Dinosaur, Nana and Nini to help him find some.

Dinosaur was so brave and went up to the spooky houses to look for Snickers.  He gave a big, scary ROAR!

He learned his big, scary ROAR from his Aunt Nini.

 This made Daddy Skunkosaur very proud!

 Skunk was so grateful to Dinosaur for being so brave and getting lots of Snickers for him. Skunk did a great job of looking cute and distracting the other trick or treaters.  Every once in a while, when things got a little scary, he let out a spray and cleared the entire sidewalk so they could make a quick get-a-way.

 Once back at home, everyone enjoyed the treats that Skunk and Dinosaur had found.

 Mommy and Daddy Skunkosaur were so happy when they thought they had successfully hid the candy (so Dinosaur would not eat it all in one day).  This made Dinosaur very unhappy.  Skunk didn't really mind at all.  The moral of our story is...out of sight, not necessarily out of mind!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! (A big thanks to Grandma Alonna for all of her hard work on these awesome costumes!)

Time flies when you're having fun!

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted.  Sorry about that.  Life happened!  :0)  I don't even know where to start.  I need to look at my pictures to even remember what we have been up to the last few weeks.
My Aunt Cynthia and my mom wanted to go to the craft barns one morning.  I took the boys out to my parents' house and Cynthia brought her grandson Brennan.  The three boys and I hung out while the Nana's went shopping.  We had so much fun.

(everyone keeps asking me if I take Nolan to the tanning bed, now I see why!)

(Nash and Brennan)

(Brennan and Nash looking for acorns)

Just this past weekend Jason and I got the chance to go to another Iowa Football game together.  Of course Jason has gone to every home game this year but my parents agreed to watch the boys while we both enjoyed some time away.  We took Nash and Nolan up to Nana and Papa's house on Friday evening.  We had some chili and corn bread muffins before returning home.  It's pretty strange to be at home without our boys!  Saturday morning we were up VERY early because the Hawkeye bus left our house at 6am!  

After making two stops along the way to pick up more tailgaters, we had a full bus of about 24 people.  It was a little chilly to start out and sprinkled on and off a few times but for the most part, we were really lucky with the weather.  Whitney, Evan, Will, Daniele, and my cousin Jenny were all in on the fun.

Unfortunately, the Hawks couldn't come up with the victory this time.  We lost to the Wisconsin Badgers by ONE POINT!   GRRRRRR!  Better luck next weekend against Michigan State I hope.  Jason is going to the game again but I will be watching from home with the boys.

(Nolan)

(Nash)

We got home late from the Hawkeye game Saturday night so the boys spent the night at Nana and Papa's a second night.  On Sunday we decided it was time to finally get some pumpkins and start carving...it's a tradition.  Usually we go to a pumpkin patch just across the river but they did not have a good crop this year.  Instead, Jason and I got up and went to Wal-Mart (after a quick detour to Starbucks).   We got some groceries and 10 pumpkins.  When we got home Jason spread them out around our front yard and we had our own little pumpkin patch.

(Fox Hollow Pumpkin Patch)

(Megan, Nolan, Jason, and Nash)

 (Nolan, Nana, Papa, and Nash)

 (Nolan, Great Grandma Phyliss, and Nash)

 (pumpkin carving)

Nana came over after church.  Great Grandma Phyliss and Papa brought the boys down after breakfast.  Whit, Evan, Will and Daniele joined us too.  We had some lunch and started carving.  Nana was in charge of baking the seeds for us which turned out really good.  Who wins the prize for the best pumpkin this year???

Will's pirate..Megan's ghosts..Daniele's sign..Whitney's spider..Papa's portrait of Nolan..N for Nash and Nolan..and Jason's I for Iowa..(Evan took his home before I could snap a picture of his traditional jack-o-lantern face)

Baby steps

Nash started walking around 15 months old.  Nolan is showing signs that he is not going to wait that long.  If I hold his hands, he will take steps now.  He just started doing that this week.
Yesterday he picked the baby monitor up off of the floor and put it up to his ear.  He started to make a noise like he was answering the phone.  So cute!
He is starting to point to people when we ask him where they are.

Quotes from a 2 1/2 Year Old

Today we were driving to the park.  I had one hand on the steering wheel and had a can of pop in the other.  Nash says to me, "Mom, put down your coke.  You will use two hands, one on the top and one on the bottom."

The other day he said to me, "Stop Mom.  You are crazy!"

"I threw the mulch at the boy, then the boy threw the mulch at me."

Almost everything he says this week ends with "maybe."  "I want to put my new shoes on maybe."  "Dad is fixing the mower maybe."  I'm not really sure why he started doing that but it makes me laugh anyway.

Nolan's tooth count and a new trick

Nolan's tooth count has increased to 3 today!  Another tooth popped through this morning on the bottom left side.  You can't really see it yet but I can feel it.
It seems like every day Nolan is showing us a new trick.  When Nana asked him where his ear was this morning, he grabbed his ear.

Nolan Jace-10 months old

Nolan is 10 months old today although if you ask him, he holds up one finger.  At least he's prepared when December 5th rolls around.

He is crawling like a pro and pulls himself up onto his knees whenever he can get a hold of something.  We are trying to transition to a sippy cup but he still gets a little frustrated and eventually we resort back to the bottle.  He naps twice a day and loves to watch his brother.  He likes to watch Wheel of Fortune.  He's a "wheel watcher" like his mama.  Whenever we say "yay" he immediately claps his hands.

  He puts everything in his mouth.  Today this included a leaf, a stick, some dirt, and chalk.  Wow, it sounds like I wasn't keeping a good eye on him but honestly, he's a quick one!  For the record, none of that was swallowed!  :0)

He still does not like having his diaper changed and he LOVES to splash in the tub.  Right now Nana is working with him on pointing to different parts of his face and different animal sounds.  If we ask him where his nose is, he likes to point to our noses rather than his own.  I think the only animal noise he does semi consistently so far is doggy...even though it sounds more like "uh, uh" than "arf, arf."  I know this is barking though because he does it when he sees Daizy and Memphis.

He's been a little fussy again lately.  It looks like tooth number 3 is going to pop through any day.  He looks like a bruiser but is so sensitive.  If he falls over or gets bumped he cries and cries.  I could listen to his laugh all day long.  I never knew 10 months could fly by SO quickly.  We love you, Noley!