Thursday, April 16, 2015

Snow Day!

Winter finally decided to make its appearance yesterday! 

The nice part is that our sitter had to have some dental work done yesterday (that's not the nice part :)) so I had already planned to stay and work from home (that's the nice part). And it's a good thing because we got we got a good 6-8 inches! In fact, we apparently got more snow yesterday than January, February, and March... c o m b i n e d!

We just had to take Nolan out in the morning to let him experience his first snow and snap some pictures (well I had to, Justin was dragged out of his bed ;)).

 

  Nolan's favorite toys right now seem to be his burp cloth, a pack of wipes, and the Giants cup we use for bath time. I say we don't bother buying any more toys, our wallets will thank us.



Somehow the mohawk disappeared yesterday! Don't worry though, I think it's back today. Although his hair is getting longer all the time so we'll see how long it lasts. I will be sad to see it go :(.

He's still cute though, even without it!

He loves to pull burp cloths and blankets up over his face. It's a little nerve-wracking because we want to make sure he can breath, but it's funny at the same time.

I promise he was supervised during this playtime with his blanket haha. Silly kid!





This one might just be one of my favorite pictures yet!

A quick, unrelated, and non-Nolan story...

Justin and I finally made it to the temple on Tuesday night. We went with some of the YW leaders and their husbands to do sealings. One of the leaders, Kara, couldn't come since her husband works late, so she offered to watch Nolan for us so we could go. So sweet of her! Anyway, the weather was absolutely CRAZY on Wednesday with major dust storms and 65 mile an hour winds! It was dusty and windy as I left Provo, then about at Point of the Mountain it was this really muddy rain that made it hard to see, then by the time I got closer to home it was snowing! Thanks Utah. Needless to say, the drive home was stressful. I picked Nolan up and rushed him inside in the rain, quickly changed my clothes, and headed to Kara's grandma's house (where she, her mom, and sister would be watching Nolan). Anyway, since I had never been there before, and was actually given the wrong street name :), I got lost. Plus there was a snowstorm going on! Plus we hadn't quite finished our taxes yet! Plus I felt like the most horrible mom having Nolan with a sitter all day, then seeing him for about 5 min before dropping him off with another sitter! I hadn't even held him!

Ugh

I was so stressed and upset I just wanted to cry. I almost bagged the whole thing, but I knew we needed to go. 

 I finally made it downtown and was so relieved to see Justin. If we weren't in such a big hurry, and he wasn't dressed so nice, I would have given him a big hug and cried into his shirt for 15 min. :)

On the way in I saw my old friend Aaron H from the singles ward, and then we saw the Gisseman's and Dan S who we play softball with. In fact, we just had a game the night before! So fun to see good friends at the temple. My grandma had given us 20 names (10 sealings) to do which was so great. In fact when I talked to her that morning she said my timing was amazing because she had just sent in a bunch of names but had decided to hold these sealings back 'just in case.' She's the best!

So anyway, you guessed it. Even with all the stress of getting there, we were SO glad we went! 

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

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. 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.


 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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!