Happenings in December

Nolan still loves to come into our bed first thing in the morning and I have to admit, I kind of like it - He gives the best snuggles!! He started asking us to get up and go in the living room with him a little too early though so Justin taught him to look for a '7' on the clock and told him that he has to be quiet and can't leave the bed until he sees a '7.' It's actually worked pretty well so far, except his head pops up every few minutes to look at the clock haha. As soon as he sees a 7 he'll jump up, pat/hit one of us, and ask to go "out there."

We recently picked up a set of animated Book of Mormon cartoons and he loves them! He's picked a couple of the videos and latched onto them. Currently he only wants to watch Nephi and the Promised Land and Samuel the Lamanite, but we can sometimes get him to watch Ammon or The Brother of Jared, etc. It was so cute how much he talked about The Book of Mormon because of those videos! 

The problem was that after awhile we started realizing that he was possibly picking up some bad habits from them. I know, right?! Who would have thought we'd have to worry about Book of Mormon stories?? He would hit (presumably because he saw Laman and Lemuel hit Nephi), or say the word "kill" (I guess after watching Nephi kill Laban), or use his fork like a sword (maybe after seeing Ammon defend King Lamoni's flock?). It's tough, and we're still not sure what to do, because he is learning stories from the Book of Mormon, and it's not like he won't or can't pick things like that up somewhere else, but he just doesn't quite seem to understand yet the difference between what is "good" behavior and "bad" behavior, even after we try to interpret the movies for him. So anyway, for now we've put them away, but not before getting these cute videos of him singing the song from "Nephi and the Brass Plates." 

 

In case you can't understand what he's saying, the song goes like this: 

I will go and do what the Lord has commanded,

no matter what others may say.

For I know in my heart if I trust in Him,

the Lord will prepare the way.

He delivered Laban into Nephi's hands.

For Moses, he parted the Red Sea.

He led father Lehi to the Promised Land.

He can do a miracle for me (or Nolan likes to say "you!"☺)

He also likes to sing this song while walking the isles of Target ☺

Oh and I should note also that Nolan has already found a way to access the videos, despite us putting them away. YouTube has one full length video, and it's Nephi and the Brass Plates. The first morning after we took the videos away he asked for one of them and we told him some story about how we had to "give them back." Without even pausing he said, "dat's ok, I watch it on YouTube." ☺

One more story related to the BofM stories - I took Nolan to McDonald's one day after Toddler Time at the library and while playing at the playplace he went right up to some kid, pointed his finger at the kid's chest, furrowed his brow and sternly said, "Obey! The LORD is in charge!!" hahahaha! I about died laughing!

He LOVES singing and is always singing What Does the Fox Say, The West Wing theme song (I know what you're thinking, there are no words to TWW! Don't worry, he's created his own ☺), Sesame Street songs, songs from the Book of Mormon videos, etc. It's adorable.

My favorite part of this video is his booty shake!

Nolan's negotiating skills are still on point - One evening we went out to dinner and Justin was eager to get home to watch BYU play in the Poinsettia Bowl. Nolan almost always wants to commandeer the TV for his shows so on the way home Justin was prepping him in the car saying, "Alright Nolan, when we get home we're going to watch the Cougars play football, ok?" Nolan paused for a moment, then with all the confidence in the world said, "Ok, here's the deal. Fox one time, then West Wing, THEN the Cougars." ☺

Speaking of TV, we try really hard to limit screen time. Not that I feel screens are bad necessarily (he's learned a lot from TV shows and apps) we just want to make sure he likes to do lots of other things first. I'm kind of proud to say he never uses tablets anymore except on very rare occasions (I guess our detox worked) and he also doesn't usually get to use either of our phones for video watching anymore. However, TV has been much harder for us to reign in, partly because we like to watch TV, and it helps me get stuff done, not to mention that with us living in a small apartment it's just always there, right in the middle of our lives. I don't know, it just feels harder to escape. Anyway, we may have to cut back even more because the other day during sacrament meeting Nolan loudly said, "I want to go home and watch TV ALL day!" #embarrassing #wedontactuallywatchtvallday #ever. Luckily it was during a song so I don't think anyone heard haha.

Nolan loves going to the store with me whether it's Target (he always wants to go look at the phones haha) or the grocery store. He gets really excited if I ask him if he wants to come with me somewhere and he's always really fun to be with! It's not even like he gets a treat for going with me, I think he just likes getting out or something. Case in point, he also loves getting the mail with me, even if it's 15 degrees outside!

 One documented outing to get the mail in the pouring rain!

On the way back from a restaurant one night Nolan had a balloon in the back seat that he was playing with. All of the sudden it popped really loudly and we braced ourselves, not sure how he'd react. Scream from fright? Cry? None of the above. It didn't even phase him! After several seconds of silence, Justin and I just started laughing so of course Nolan joined in ☺

Nolan made me a card for my birthday last year with his hand print on it. I grabbed it out of my file recently and when he saw it he pointed at it and excitedly said, "I made that fuh you!" and when I said, "You did! It's my favorite." He chuckled and said, "Me too."

Some Nolanisms lately:

"I'm soooo excited!"

"Ooone moh thing."

"Bess you mommy!"

"How about ooooone more?" - about shows, cereal, you name it.

"No daddy, I don need yo help!" Mr. Independence

"I come wit you!" "Come wit me." And the real heart wrencher, "Don' leave me daddy!"

"Peas pay wit me." (please play with me)

"Peas a come out dere wit me!" (please come out to the [living room] with me)

or "come sit wit me"

"I luuuuuve it!"

"Ohhhhh"

And his current favorite: "But, but whyyyy?!" (about everything! oey)

His favorite books at the moment are probably: Goodnight Moon, Where's Waldo, and How Do Dinosaurs Go To Sleep.

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Nolan was SO excited to get a new Roku and help daddy set it up. Branson was supervising ☺

Movie nights are still going strong with Sara and Lis. Good thing I have amazing friends that love my kids, and don't mind pausing the show to put Nolan to bed, stop a tantrum, fetch some milk, etc. etc. They are seriously the best! Nolan was even using Lis as a human jungle gym the other night and she didn't seem to mind ♥

For Christmas I got all of my friends a Jane Austen coloring book. When Sara and Lis opened theirs Sara quipped, "well, you'll definitely like your present then!" They had gotten me a coloring book too haha! It's funny because we have seriously never talked about it. Maybe one time like 2 years ago. GTMA. So sometimes we spend movie night coloring and passing Branson around.

Intently watching Alma and the Zoramites and asking daddy to put on another one. For awhile after he discovered DVDs (or in his words "DDDs") it took a lot of energy to get him to NOT try to take the DVD out of the case (which would almost guarantee a broken disc at one point or another) or touch the DVD player. I'm happy to report that it has (mostly) worked and he usually hands us the case to take the movie out and only opens the DVD player with the remote ☺

So many snuggles with Bran-man ♥

 Nolan loves to go to the library. Probably 70% of our outings as a family involve a library or bookstore. We're not sure if he likes the books or the toys and computers better, but hey, it's a great place to be. And we hope our boys always like going to the library.

Aren't these little shopping carts adorable?! This is at the Whitmore Library on Ft. Union Blvd.

 Playing trains with daddy at Barnes and Noble

Bubble hair! 

Hats!

Justin and I got to see Star Wars: Rogue One for free and kid free!

New Years with the Bailey's

We left Las Vegas a few days after Christmas to head back to Utah where Pam, Doug, and Brianna were waiting for us! (Well, let's be honest, they were waiting to see the boys  ☺ and, in Brianna's case, meet cute Branson for the first time!).

I'd say they hit it off

Brianna got him this adorable onesie from The Shake Shack, a New York favorite.

Branson with Gp Bailey

Gm Bailey enjoyed some snuggles of her own

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Early one morning we dropped the boys off at Paul's apartment and went to the temple (thanks Paul!). I'm so glad we went, it's been way too long for us.

I've been wanting to take Nolan to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum for awhile now so we took advantage of both Justin and I being off work and went! It was an absolute blast watching Nolan have so much fun.

All of the different sections of the museum were meant to teach kids something. Whether it was math, science, career paths, life skills, etc. Everything was so cute and well done. I had so much fun watching Nolan discover new things or get to do things he sees mommy and daddy doing, but on his level.

This cool area had all kinds of balls that you could play with in different ways. These pipes had air coming out of them so when you put a ball near the opening it would float in the air!

Other pipes sucked the balls up into winding see-through pipes. SO fun. We kept grandpa busy collecting balls for Nolan.

Making noise, er music

Construction Zone!

 Nolan's favorite area was one that was made to look like a Harmon's grocery store. He took his little basket around and grabbed all his favorite foods. Then went up to the cash register and said, "I pay for it!" A lot of times when we're at the store he'll see something he likes and say, "I pay for it!" Sometimes adding, "It's 20 bucks." haha, not sure where he got that number!

 

They also had a cute little house that he loved. His favorite part was the little piano. It was my favorite too. I mean, look how cute it is! I want one, but Justin says we don't have room #eyeroll. 

His next favorite room was the kitchen ☺

Playing in the water. I thought he'd like this area more than he did. But after awhile he came back to it and discovered the kid sized hand drier. Well, now you're speaking his language! He went back and forth between splashing in the water and drying his hands probably 20 times haha.

 In a 'treehouse'

Riding a horse

Driving and pumping gas in the car

And of course he found the tablet

We planned to go to Top Golf after the museum, but it had started to snow pretty heavily so we decided to just go to Nordstrom Rack and then dinner. We had a bit of a hiccup though when Justin and I and the boys got rear ended coming off the exit to get to the rack! It felt like a pretty hard hit, but luckily the damage wasn't too bad. There is still a crack in the bumper and the whole thing will need to be replaced, but I really thought it would be more smashed than it was. Even more lucky was that our sweet boys weren't hurt in the back seat. Both were sleeping and Nolan jolted awake for a second and then fell back asleep, and Branson didn't even cry. We waited in the Shopko parking lot right next to the rack for probably an hour before the police came (annoying, but I'm guessing there were lots of accidents that night) and the boys were seriously angels. Not a peep out of them, even while awake! Pam and Doug came and waited with us and then we all went to the rack after giving our statement. Not the best way to spend an evening, but we were glad to have family there.

Also, Justin is a very, very mild mannered guy. But I learned that if you mess with his family, he will say something. After we got hit he got out of the car and said to the other driver, "Come on man! You gotta be careful! I have kids in the back!!" And he got a kick out of the cop who, when he asked the other driver what happened and he explained that he just slid in the snow and ran into the back of us, said to him, "so you were going too fast." The other guy tried to defend himself, "well, I just slipped and couldn't stop!" Cop dryly: "So...you were going too fast." ☺

Nolan at the Rack where daddy got a new pair of jeans for Christmas. And he tricked us by "trying on" his old pair and asking what we thought. Oh Justin.


After shopping we went to Sugar House Barbecue for dinner.

Saying bye to Aunt Brianna :(

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We waited to open Christmas gifts to/from the Bailey's until we could all be together. 
Opening some belated Christmas presents!

Nolan, of course, was most interested in ripping the paper.

Nolan got a personalized shirt with his name and lyrics to his favorite song on it! He was pretty excited☺

For my Christmas present we went to the golf store so I could pick out a new putter! It was so nice of them to get one for me. I can't wait to bust it out in the spring.

 

Nolan was having a good time with the balls and flags too.

And Gm Bailey enjoyed some Branson time. 

Texas Roadhouse after the golf store

At one point before the holiday's Pam and Doug asked me for ideas for Justin. I gave them a few normal suggestions and then added, almost as a joke (but not really) that if they wanted to fulfill all of Justin's childhood dreams they could get him this dinosaur toy. He has seriously been salivating over it every time we go to a toy store. Well, they got it for him!! 

In this video Justin acts all nonchalant and 'I can't believe they got me this' about this dino, but rest assured, he was excited! I'd say these boys were in heaven!!

Putting it together. When Justin opened it up Nolan had a huge smile on his face, clapped his hands together, and said, "Yay! Ima so happy foh you!" haha, it was so cute!

We also learned that in the case of arrows being shot out of a huge scary dinosaur, Nolan has no problem pushing women to the side and using them as human shields to get out of it's way.

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Some more pics

 If there's a computer around, my Nolan will find it.

The Christmas sweater that Nolan wore for his first Christmas!

This cute (and true) onesie was also resurrected for Branson to wear.

Justin and I (and Branson) stayed up until midnight on New Years Eve playing our new board games with Pam and Doug. I've never been one to like going to big parties, plus newborn, so it was a perfect way to spend the evening in my opinion.

Thanks for coming Bailey's! Also, Happy Birthday Grandma Mathews!!