A Fun Easter Sunday With Friends and Family

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday. Conference was amazing as always. I think my personal favorite talk was President Uchtdorf's called "The Gift of Grace." It's amazing how well he can clearly and concisely explain such a profound and deep doctrine like the Atonement, while at the same time inspiring you to want to do better. Love his talks. 

I think Nolan liked the MoTab best ;)

Our friend Carli came and watched the first session with us. It's great to have her around. 

After the second session we headed down to Lehi for a family dinner. My Grandpa Hunt's brother Roger and his wife Mauna Sue were at their daughter Kristi's house (my mom's cousin) along with Kristi's sister in law, Gabby, and her four kids (Her husband Tyler (Kristi's brother) was on call at work so he wasn't there). Tyler and Kristi's sister Rachelle's oldest son Zach was also there (he just got back from a mission to Argentina). 

(I think Justin is still getting used to the fact that I'm close with not just my cousins and aunts and uncles, but my parents cousins and aunts and uncles!! It makes for a lot of family to remember, but he's doing a great job :))

In addition to my family, we had some other very special guests - a family of four from Sri Lanka that Roger and Mauna Sue met while on the mission they just returned from. There was a mother, father, and two sons aged about 15 and 12 (I think). This family had saved for 15 years to come to the United States so that they could go to the temple. They started their trip in Las Vegas and did baptisms at the temple there. The mother told me it's the very first temple she has been to and was excited to learn that Justin and I were married there. 

She planned to be endowed on Monday and then on Tuesday they went to be sealed as a family. I cannot express in words the amazing feeling that washed over me when the mother proudly told me that they were going to the Salt Lake Temple "to be sealed for time and all eternity." Those are words I've heard before, probably a hundred times, but coming from her, from a person that had worked and saved and planned for so long - someone to whom those words meant so much. That was a new and wonderful experience.

Justin talked to them for quite a long time and learned that the husband is in the air force in Sri Lanka so he had actually been to the U.S. in 1998 at which time he had been endowed. 

On the way home Justin remarked that we have heard stories like this before, where a family works and saves for years to attend the temple, but this is the first time we have actually personally met a family like that. All the sudden it's more than just a story. 

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Mauna Sue LOVED Nolan. They were so cute together!

Mauna Sue dancing with Nolan :)

Oh and I thought this was funny. Mauna Sue told me that the Sri Lankan family was "smitten with my long blonde hair" haha.

At the park with the other kids

 The group (minus Kristi who was taking the picture :))

Time's a flyin'!

First, a video to make your day...

Not too many new things to report this month:

1. Justin has noticed that going to church is so much more stressful with Nolan haha. True :)
2. His favorite toys at the moment seem to be his burp cloth and the pack of wipes.

2. My mom commented that it seems like I am enjoying motherhood, and I am! Nolan is such a sweet and mild mannered baby that he makes it easy to enjoy it! He makes me feel like I could handle lots of babies, even though I know they turn into toddlers and that most babies probably aren't this good! :)

3. I haven't seen it yet, but Justin says Nolan has started to roll back from his tummy to his back. It's a good thing too because he can get from his back to his tummy so easily now that it almost seems like he does it even when he doesn't mean to. A lot of times he'll roll onto his tummy and then immediately start crying, as if he really didn't mean to do it and doesn't want to be there haha.

4. Nolan makes me feel like a rockstar! Everywhere he goes he's the center of attention and gets LOTS of comments on how cute he is and his awesome hair.

5. He still just wakes up in the morning and hangs out quietly in his crib until I come get him (awesome, I know). Although he does like to scratch the mesh in his pack n play which is surprisingly loud when you're trying to sleep haha.
6. He's started trying new foods! He seems to like bananas, but makes a funny face with apples :)
7. Nolan sure is a JOY to be around <3

Also, I am a little late with his four month post, but he was a champ at his checkup and he is right in the middle of the charts at 24 3/4 inches tall and15.3 lbs. Here are the progression pics.

 

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Now we'll get to what everyone wants to see...cute pictures!! 

(There are several videos throughout too so don't forget to watch those!)

He can kinda sorta hold a bottle all by himself

Sitting up in his new big boy chair!

 

First I'll choke Mr. Turtle, then I'll bite his head off :)

 

It's kind of fun having him sit at the table with us!

My friend Charlotte let us borrow her bumbo! He likes it for awhile, but starts getting upset after about 15 min. He looks so cute in it though, and he loves being able to observe what's going on!

One friend commented that he is really good at eye contact

   

Rolling over

He tried out the floor at church and seemed to like it :)

I think these two pictures are hilarious!

 

I still can't get enough of these cute feet!!

How cute and handsome is this little man of ours?

He doesn't like to use his binky, but he likes to play with it :)

Trying something new!

I think the flash scared him haha!

Cute pic of Nolan and Aunt Brianna. However, unknown to her he was at this precise moment getting ready to completely blow out of his diaper. Let's just say she's really lucky she didn't have to change her outfit before heading to the airport ;)

He likes to whack at his bottle while we're trying to feed him :)

Ahhh! We can't handle him! And as you can see from a couple of the videos, he thinks the word "bananas" is super funny!

Jeanni

It was a tough decision for Justin and I to have me go back to work after Nolan was born and my maternity leave ended. A part of me really wanted to stay home with him, but another part of me felt like that wouldn't be totally feasible right now or even necessary until we have more than one child. Still another concern was the fact that we didn't have anyone to watch him. Many of my friends that are working mom's have family nearby to watch their kids while they work part or full time. Since that's not an option for us (I'm sure not for lack of desire by the grandparents :)) we started looking at day care. But the price tag and the idea that some stranger would be watching our son (along with how many other children) didn't really sound appealing or practical either. 

Enter my visiting teachee and friend, Charlotte, who told me about another woman in our ward, Jeanni, who runs a day care out of her home and who, she was fairly certain, didn't even charge very much. I had never met Jeanni but since time was running out and according to Charlotte she was great, I decided to give her a call.

Best. Decision. Ever. 

Jeanni has without a doubt been a God send for us. Not only does she love Nolan to pieces (She greets him every morning with, "Hi handsome!!!") and takes amazing care of him, but she is so affordable! We are so blessed to have found her! I'm honestly not sure what we would have done. 

She's really sweet and sends us pictures and videos of Nolan during the day which makes being away a little easier. Here are some cute pictures we've gotten from Jeanni the past few months. It looks like he's having a good time to me! I just hope he doesn't like her more than us! ;)