Sports, Sports, Sports!

A few weeks ago our friends Brian and Liz invited us to go hit some softballs since the season is coming up. We like to get the cobwebs off a little so of course we decided to go. It was much colder than I thought it would be, and Nolan wasn't a huge fan. I decided to run home and grab his mittens and beanie and another jacket and he was just fine after that!

Watching mommy bat

  

Making sure they're all accounted for.

As soon as we got home we got him some lunch and hoped he would just sleep in the car on our way down to Provo for the BYU football spring scrimmage. I put some food on his tray and left to go in the living room. I got looking at my phone and after a while realized I hadn't heard Nolan in several minutes. I was nervous to look around the corner at him because he usually catches me and stops doing whatever cute thing he was doing. But I thought, he is SO quiet, he might actually be asleep. He's never fallen asleep at his high chair before, but he was just so quiet! Sure enough when I finally peeked around the corner he was sound asleep haha. SO tired!

Since Justin is now a member of the Salt Lake Chapter of the Cougar Club, we got to sit in the President's box. Now that is the only way to watch a football game in my humble opinion ☺. Now, if only we were special enough to actually sit there during the regular season...

 Nolan was in absolute heaven the other night at Dick's Sporting Goods. He wanted every ball - baseballs, basketballs, footballs, soccer balls - anything he could get his little hands on!

I love how he tries to fake out Justin by pretending he's going to throw it down one way, then throwing it over Justin's shoulder! Kids got the moves!

Ready to play hockey with mommy!

It was pretty funny, he wouldn't give daddy the ball. Justin was trying to get him to throw it to him, but he just smiled, turned around, and walked the other way haha!

He was walking around saying 'ball!' 'ball!' If he had one in his hand he wanted everyone to know what it was, and if he didn't, he said it because he wanted one! 

This kid sure loves balls. Gee, do you think he's our kid??!

Easter

This Easter was sure fun with Nolan, and we were SO excited to hide the eggs and watch him find them!

I had actually been thinking about and planning for Easter for a few weeks beforehand and almost bought some things a few times, but thought that maybe since this is Nolan's first real Easter, Justin might want to be there to pick stuff out. However, life got in the way and all the sudden it was Saturday night at 9pm and I'm running around to 3 different stores trying to find Easter eggs that aren't shaped like jelly beans, and that crappy Easter grass, because everyone is sold out!

But you know what the funny thing was? Even though I was stressing out a little that we could actually botch Nolan's first Easter ☺ my mind kept going to my parents and how they must have done similar things when I was young. Who knows how many times they filled Easter eggs well into the night, or cleaned up the living room we had trashed that day just so the Easter baskets looked perfect all standing in a row in front of the fireplace? And hopefully like me, even though they were a little stressed, they couldn't wait to see the smile on their children's faces in the morning and watch them hunt for the eggs they had fun hiding!

---------- ♥ ♥ ♥ ----------

Nolan hunting for eggs. It was adorable! We would kind of point out the eggs to him and then he'd go over and grab it with a huge smile and shake the daylights out of it.

Nolan's loot

This was his favorite find.

Later that evening we had Paul over for dinner and of course at Justin's request at his pineapple and brown sugar ham and mashed potatoes!

We have got to teach Nolan about the dangers of texting while walking ☺

My 2 weeks as a SAHM

Well, I spent the last two weeks as a Stay At Home Mom. I was really excited to have a couple weeks off in between jobs to really get to spend some time with Nolan and do some of the fun things during the day that I've often wished I could do with him.

---------- ♥ ♥ ♥ ----------

Some of the ladies in our ward have a play group every Wednesday and Thursday where they either go for a walk, go swimming at someone's house, go play in the church gym if the weather is bad, etc. We went twice while I was home and it was fun for me to chat with other ladies in the ward and it was good to see Nolan interacting with the other kids. He was definitely one of the younger ones though so he usually had to take the leftover toys haha.

This picture on the top left is of Nolan crawling away at lightning speed just after I put him down. Clearly he doesn't need momma around ☺

Already climbing up slides like a boss

We also went to "Toddler Time" at the Holladay Library. Jeanni takes him once a week so I was pretty excited to get to take him myself.

The kids sing songs, learn colors, numbers, letters, animals, shapes, etc., read books, and color. Nolan is still a little young for it and mostly just watches, but I think he likes it and understands a few things they are doing.

After Toddler Time I would take him to the children's section so he could play and read more books.

Nolan loved this kids keyboard they have at the library

We also got to go have lunch with daddy downtown! Nolan loves the dinosaur play area at City Creek! Although about 20 min before this mommy was dumb and let him stand on a chair while I grabbed my phone to call Justin. Before my hand was even in my purse the poor little guy fell off and bumped his little noggen. He cried for quite a while and was sniffling and snuggly for even longer which is unlike him so we were a little worried about him, but he ended up being just fine thank heaven. Some of Justin's coworkers were really gushing over how cute and talkative Nolan was, and he was even still recovering from his fall and not his usual self!

Of course there was a lot of shopping with Mommy ☺, but Nolan found ways to entertain himself. 

Hey, I need to up the amount of clothes in my wardrobe for my new job, ok?!

He was pointing at every light above him and saying, "light!"

Some people don't like going to the store with a toddler, but I absolutely love it! He is almost always really good and is always making me and strangers smile by waving and saying 'HI!!' to everyone he passes. Even the toughest, gruffest looking guys can't help but smile and give him an energetic 'Hi!' back. And it's kind of cute because he's always a little disappointed when someone doesn't wave back. I have to reassure him that they just didn't see him.

 Pushing his little walker all over the apartment

He makes mommy's glasses look good! I secretly hope he'll be a super smart, musical, jock.

And this is why we can't keep his hair looking nice for very long ☺

Lunch time!

We took lots of trips to the park

And of course, all the random cuteness during the day that I'm so glad I got to see, even if it was just for a short while.

Once, Nolan touched me with his finger and said, "I love you." It completely melted my heart.

Also, one day after one of his naps he sat on my lap and just snuggled for 20 min before falling asleep, There was no way I was moving. I didn't care how many dishes were in the sink or how messy the living room was. I guess that's also the benefit of only having one child at the moment. I didn't have to move. I'm going to get all mushy here, but I just looked at him and reflected on how much I love being his mom. He's so handsome, sweet, and fun, and I can't wait to see what great things he will do in his life. The responsibility of being his guide in this big world is overwhelming sometimes, but Justin and I wouldn't give it up for anything.