A Fun Saturday Hikin' and Hangin'

A little over a year ago my good friend Sue's mother passed away somewhat unexpectedly. Since the anniversary of her passing Sue has been working to get all of her temple work done. So last Saturday Sue, Brittany, Sara, Justin and I went to the Salt Lake Temple so that she could seal her mother to her grandparents. It was an honor for Justin and I to act for her grandparents and to feel the spirit so strongly as an eternal family was created. In the room also was another family who was having four sisters sealed to their parents, and Brittany, Sue, and Sara got to be at the altar for that sealing. I don't think I've ever seen such a large family sealed together like that and it was very special to witness. It really is such a sweet feeling to be with friends and family in the temple.

My cousin Paul was awesome enough to watch Nolan for us while we were in the temple and since he lives at the Brigham Apartments downtown it was super convenient! From the pictures Paul took it looks like they had a blast!

 Scripture study. I always know Paul will help us take care of Nolan's religious education.

Joking aside though, I'm in love with this picture! 

 Familiarizing Nolan with a paintball gun so he can take him in the near future. Mom says no though ☺

 Reading with Brother Brigham.

 Fun at the dinosaur play area at City Creek!

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Timpanogos Cave National Monument

We've been wanting to hike Timpanogos Caves for a while now, but always thought of it on a Friday night when it was too late to get tickets for the next day. Finally we did some planning ahead and made it happen. So worth it! It was a paved path, and not very long (maybe 1.5 to 2 miles), but pretty steep in parts. The views were amazing and the caves were cool to walk through!

I borrowed a baby carrier from a coworker, and our friends Brian and Liz, as well as Brianna came with us for the hike. Nolan had a blast and even fell asleep a couple of times in the carrier haha. Speaking of the carrier, it took some getting used to to carry the extra weight. After all, Nolan is 20 lbs now! So we took turns carrying him. Brian even took a turn saying he needs some practice since they are expecting their first baby in February ☺ It was pretty cute.

 Beautiful view down American Fork Canyon!

 Sleeping Nolan walking up to the caves.

 Waiting for the cave tour.

  Justin took this awesome picture right at the entrance to the cave.

It was a little chilly in the caves and I didn't even think to bring jackets! A good Samaritan however offered his jacket to put around Nolan which was so sweet. Luckily it wasn't too cold, but I was still glad to have it for him.

We teased Brianna a little bit that she wanted to take her turn with the carrier on the way down ☺ 

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Other Random Fun

 Trying to crawl away from us while wrapped up in a huge towel. Also, you know you're a parent when...the smallest member of the family has the largest, softest bath towel. AmIright?

At dinner with Carli for her birthday.

He is always such a good boy at softball, even during the late games! Here he is eating Ritz crackers and cheering the team on with Liz.

Being a good boy at church on Sunday. He likes to crawl around and make lots of noise in the Family History Center, but he still manages to charm everyone in there. Justin has been doing a lot of research on his family the last couple of months.

   

He loves drinking out of a glass these days and it's pretty cute. As you bring the glass to his lips he opens his mouth and sticks out his tongue. Then as the water is coming in he pumps his mouth open and shut like he's trying to chew something haha. He loves it though and is able to get most of the water without spilling too much!

I tried to get a video of him trying to pick up food and eat it, but he decided to just be cute instead.

Nolan passed the beginner swimming class and is a "Super Swimmer!"

Nine Month Nolan

Well it's official, Nolan has now been outside of me for as long as he was inside of me. How is the time going so fast?!

Last week I read an article on motherhood and seriously cried some ugly tears. Poor Justin didn't even know what was going on because I had my phone out reading while we were watching a show. All of the sudden he looked over and I was bawling my eyes out haha. 

Anyway, the article was called "You Won't Remember, But I Will" and it was about a mother who was pregnant with her second baby and worried about how a sibling would affect her first child and how it would change their family dynamic. NOTE: I am NOT pregnant ☺ (read that again haha) but I also know that it won't be like this forever. What hit me the most about the article though, was the thought that Nolan won't remember this time at all. He won't remember how much we love him and how much he has changed our world for the better. Here are some snippets from the article that really struck me and gave me even more motivation to keep writing on this blog:

...You won’t remember how doted upon and spoiled you were; mommy and daddy’s first baby, [Grandma] and Grandpa’s first grandchild, the first to smile and crawl and walk as we cheered you on like maniacs and filled up our memory cards with 8 billion pictures of your towheaded, gummy-smiled self. You won’t remember that all the clothes and books and toys were yours first and that, for [many] months, you never had to share them with anyone at all...

...You won’t remember that you were the one who made me a mother, who gave me the most fulfilling, life-affirming job on the planet. That you literally changed my entire world the very moment you entered it, red-faced and wrinkly, gulping lungfuls of new air. That the second the nurse placed you on my chest, I loved you with a ferocity I could have never comprehended in a thousand previous lives before you...

...Thankfully, you also won’t remember the steep learning curve of new motherhood and all the times I royally screwed it up...Or all the many times I failed you in little ways - like prioritizing the wrong things over my precious time with you – ways that your lack of early memory will whitewash over, never to be remembered.

No, you won’t remember…and I know it’s just as well...You will never remember that you once had mommy and daddy all to yourself, that our attention was never split or compromised...You won’t remember anything of life before this moment when [a sibling] joined us in the world. It’s a clean slate, a new beginning…

But that’s why I’m here: because I will. I’ll remember it all – every precious second.

I’ll remember for us both.

- See more at: https://www.scarymommy.com/you-wont-remember-but-i-will/#sthash.eIp3jqaD.dpuf

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Some things that are new with Nolan lately:

• This week he drank from a glass! He saw Justin and I drinking so he climbed up on Justin and, mouth open and ready, he grabbed his glass and put it to his lips. It was pretty cute! Of course as soon as we got the camera out he wouldn't do it again, but this is our attempt to show you. 

• He can now pick things up and put them in his mouth! This is both exciting and terrifying. Now we have to really pay attention to everything he picks up and/or go fishing in his mouth every time we see him chewing and didn't see what it was he put in his mouth! But on the other hand it is fun to watch him learn to feed himself.
• He's started doing "fish lips." Whenever we try to put a bottle in his mouth that he doesn't want he'll purse his lips together and nothing is getting past them! He'll also do it other times just for fun and it's pretty cute.

• He stood up all by himself for as long as 3 or 4 seconds a couple different times this week! One night he was standing up and holding onto both of my hands. He let go of one and then a few seconds later he decided he didn't need to hold on anymore and let go of my other hand too! Crazy kid.
• Still no teeth. Earlier this week I could have sworn I felt something hard sticking out of his gums when he was crying one night. It was dark though so I couldn't really tell. I was so sure I'd see a tooth the next morning that I couldn't wait for him to wake up so I could check. But...nothing. We don't mind though because we love his gummy smile☺
• He's learned how to scream...loud. One night Justin was holding him and he just screeched right into his ear haha. 

• He still likes his Mr. Binks at night and, mercifully, he'll also take it sometimes when he's screeching and we need to quiet him down, like say, in church...during sacrament meeting.
• He loves clapping and it's the cutest thing ever!

• He officially knows his name and responds to it when we call him! This video is of him being a chatterbox and at the end he responds when I say his name ☺

• The things Nolan finds funny seem to change from day to day, but the one constant from the time he first laughed until now has been blankets. He loves them and laughs so hard whenever Justin twirls a blanket above his head! Here's Shelby and Carli having fun with him with a t-shirt/blanket.

• He loves his daddy!!

Swimming

I'm so happy to report that Nolan still loves swimming class! It's been fun for me to do the class with him and we've always had dad there as our trusted photographer!

Brianna came to watch the last class and he must have been showing off for her because he was holding onto the side all by himself!! Since day one of the class the instructor has asked us to do a thing called "walking the wall" to teach the kids to grab onto the side and move along the wall. I usually just held him up with my knee and kind of moved his hands for him because he was always too busy splashing on the side to grab on. Seriously, he never grabbed on so I just figured he was too little to get it. Well, on Tuesday the instructor came over to us and told me that I just needed to let him go. Then she took him from me and let go of him right next to the wall. And you know what? He grabbed right on!! It was crazy! At first I was tempted to reach my hand out to him, but the instructor stopped me. I guess mom has been holding him back this whole time ☺ 

It's kind of crazy to think that I already need to "let my baby go" and do things for himself, but I know without a doubt in my mind that that is what's best for him and it's the only way he'll grow and learn all the things he needs to in his life. What a great metaphor this was and something that I hope we'll always remember as he grows up.

Check him out!

Getting warm after class!

Cougar Football, In 'n' Out, and Other Random Silliness

We are seriously the luckiest parents! Nolan is such a little trooper and let's us drag him to all of our activities. Last Saturday we drove down to Provo for the BYU football pre-season scrimmage. It was right in the middle of the day and it was HOT! We slathered on the sunscreen and put his Y hat on, but he was still sweating and had some bright red cheeks by the end. No bother though, he still had a smile on his face and plenty of energy to charm the people behind him with his cuteness and giggles!

Daddy's little Cougar fan!

We were all pretty wiped out and hungry after the game so we stopped at Thanksgiving Point for some lunch. 

Nolan has been loving these new little 'to go' pouches of food lately.

After lunch we headed to Ikea for some shopping, and you know that's never a short trip. But he was a champ and didn't fuss once! ♥ 

Justin discovered that the carts at Ikea can go sideways so he and Nolan had a blast while I tried to get Justin's attention long enough for input on some purchases ☺

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Date night at In n Out

He really wanted some strawberry shake - how could we say no!?

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Some randomness...

It's tiring waiting for mom while she's shopping!

I love this kids bedhead

Why haven't I ever thought to stick my thumb through a cucumber to eat it?!

Hangin' with dad

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Random pictures from Jeanni's house ☺