Where's Nolan's Belly Button?

Nolan is obsessed with belly buttons. He'll lift my shirt up at the store before I can stop him and point at my belly button. He usually accompanies that by sayigng "button." He also loves to look at Abby's belly button and was very confused one day when he lifted her shirt and it wasn't there. That's because he was looking at her back! Silly boy! Anyway, when we ask where HIS belly button is, he gets SO excited! Here are some of him running around before bath, finding his belly button!

Look at this GOOFY BOY!

I LOVE GELATO!!!!

Yesterday after church Brian, Nolan and I headed towards the mall. We decided to eat at a little Italian sandwhich shop that I had seen earlier when out with Nadia, but we hadn't eaten there. Oh my gosh! It was AMAZING!!! The food was so yummy, I can't wait to go back. Then we all had our first taste of Gelato for dessert. MMMMM!!! For those of you who haven't had it, gelato is an italian "ice cream" that they make and it is...more light than ice cream, kind of like a good flavored sherbert. We got 2 scoops for the 3 of us to share and they included these little mini ice cream cones on top. They were PERFECT for Nolan who would only eat the ice cream out of the cone until he accidently bit the cone. Then he looked scared, then smiled because it tasted so good! I wish I would have had the camera, but I know one thing for sure, we'll be going back and next time I'll bring the camera.

Picnic Table

Friday Brian put together Nolan's Christmas gift from G&G M. It will be for him to play on and sit and chill out after he plays and swings on the swing set that we have tried to buy every weekend, but it's always out of stock (but that's another story!).

Anyway, Brian put it together in no time and Nolan LOVES it! We brought it inside that night so he and his friends could play on it and they loved it. Nolan even decided it would be a good place to eat lunch on Saturday. Lunch with cartoons...does it get better than that? Thanks Grandma & Grandpa, it's a BIG hit!

Here's Nolan Friday morning, right after the table was assembled.

The next two pictures have Nolan's new "smile for the camera" face. He's figured out we want him to smile, but he knows that there is a bright flash coming, so he blinks BEFORE the flash! It's not just a blink, it's like a dramatic, two-eye WINK! WINK!

Dinner with Friends

Friday we were able to go to dinner with two other couples (and their kiddos). I don't know why they gave us a dirty look when we said 6 adults & 3 kids. Luckily we went out early and beat the big dinner rush. It was lots of fun and then we headed back to our place, where we attempted a board game, but quickly learned toddlers try to eat the game pieces. Here are Cheyna & Nadia at dinner:

Tristan, entertaining Nolan at dinner:Abby trying to get NOlan to play ring around the rosey! She got him to play! Too bad it's nearly impossible to get all 3 kids in one photo!

Lunch with Jamie

Nolan and I were finally able to pin a day down to go to lunch with Miss Jamie! Between our schedules, it was actually pretty tough, but worth the wait :) We went for sushi and had a great time catching up and eating yummies! Nolan decided he wanted a bite of my sushi, and so I gave him a california roll piece, thinking he would hate it, but he ate half of it! How can someone not like green beans, but he'll eat SUSHI?? Hee hee! He ate half of it, then gave it back. It was a gorgeous day Thursday so after lunch Nolan and I headed to the park. It was so hot I was ready for the sprinklers to be on! Here's a pic of the gorgeous Momma To Be, with Nolan (whose watching the goldfish in the pond, which isn't in the picture).

A puzzle for Nolan

So a few months ago, when Nolan began throwing his cup on the floor during mealtimes for no apparent reason other than he was done taking a sip of milk, Brian and I taught him to "put it away" after each sip. Meaning the cup should go in the highchair tray's cup holder. When he did it right, he got applause. When he threw his cup, we ignored him. We were so proud when it worked and we thought, "hmm, this positive reinforcement thing really does work." Well, a couple days ago, he was drinking milk with dinner and he started saying, "Juice, Juice Juicejuicejuicejuice!" You get the idea. I look behind me and see there's his other sippy cup of juice on the counter. So, I weighed my options and rather than refusing and having him pitch a fit and not finish dinner, I gave him the juice. Now he had two sippy cups. And only one cup holder. This posed quite the puzzle for my little guy. I, of course, took some pictures of the events...its so fun to watch how his mind works!

Here are the two cups, set on the tray. Which one will win the prize of cupholder? Nolan is literally pointing out the fact that there seems to be a problem here.

Okay, we'll try the milk in the holder. After all, the milk WAS here first:

Now what? Let's try it again:Well, now what? There's still one NOT PUT AWAY!!! It's so annoying Momma!

There's really only one thing left I CAN do:

Daddy + Shopping Trip =

BUCKETS OF FUN! All 3 of us ventured out for an afternoon grocery trip, not something we all do together very often. This is what Brian did when we got home...scared me and the dogs, but Nolan thought it was so funny HE had to try!

Notice in this second picture he CONTINUES to attempt eating raisins with his spork!! I love my goofball!

Tristan's Birthday Party

Saturday Nolan was invited to a birthday party at the park! Tristan turned THREE! I met Nadia, his mom, through the base play group. She actually runs it and thinks of and implements all the fantastic activities we do! We had pizza and ice cream cake and there was lots of playing going on. Thanks for inviting us guys, it was a blast! Tristan is such a sweetie pie! Here he is below drinking his capri sun!

Here's Nolan & Brooke:And Nolan making faces at Daddy!

Happy Birthday Mom M!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to youuuu, Happy Birthday Mom M, Happy Birthday to YOU!!!!!

Sorry!

I feel so behind! I have lots of pictures and stories I want to share, but I am just having a tough time finding time. I have decided to turn off the computer when not using it, so I am not sucked in to coming back and checking on all my fellow bloggers and emails. It's a great concept for housework, but I am getting behind on you, my blogging world. I'll catch up this afternoon, I promise! In the meantime, I'll share with you that yesterday I recieved a battle wound from Nolan (although we were just playing "I'm gonna get ya!" not truly battling). I caught him and we were both laughing and I was hugging him, from behind and (like I said we were both giggling) then I felt this awful, unidentifible pain in my arm! It hurt so bad, I screamed bloody murder. My sweet boy bit me...BIT ME HARD! As I was rubbing my arm and assessing the damage (moaning in pain), Nolan got very upset, as he didn't know what was going on. I'm not even sure he knew he bit me, I think since he's teething he was just biting my sweatshirt (thank God for the thick sweatshirt, by the way, it added some padding).So Nolan is crying and he climed into my lap and buried his head in my shoulder and I was crying because it hurt and because I would rather be in a world of pain than hurt his feelings for something he didn't mean to do. Anyway, I had quite the mark...it was red, purple, swollen. Yek! Of course, even by evening by the time Brian got home it looked much better. But Brian said something to Nolan about "good job, I'll give you the cookie I promised you later." Not sure what that's all about! Ha ha! I'll update this afternoon with pics of our weekend and other fun stuff!

Baytown Wharf

Right across the street from the hotel we stayed in is a little "town" called Baytown Wharf. My friend Nadia kept telling me I HAVE to go there and I was like, Okay, okay, what's the big deal? Now I see! It was beautiful and so much fun. It kind of reminded me of a trendy ski resort, except not in the mountains, but on water instead. Friday we ate dinner there at a fairly new restaurant called Funky Blues Shack. It was out of this world fantastic!!! The atmosphere was just as good. Sunday we headed back to the Wharf for breakfast at Another Broken Egg Cafe (very yum!), then we played on the playground and I did a little shopping in some of the shops. Then we headed home and had to come to terms that our weekend away was going away...

Anyway, here we are at the playground!

Building Sandcastles

After Nolan's long nap on Saturday morning/afternoon, we headed down the street for a quick lunch. We were going to grab a sandwhich at the deli in the hotel but you would not believe what they were charging for a sanwhich. So we went "off base" as we kept saying to a local sports bar/restaurant Beef O Brady's (we have one in Crestview, too). We chowed down and then walked around a bit before heading back to the hotel for some beach fun. Saturday was pretty chilly, but luckily sunny. When I say chilly, I mean mid 50's, with a slight breeze. Brian and took our shoes off, but kept Nolan's on since he's been battling a cold. We coudn't believe it, but there were people swimming!!!! Braver than me, it needs to be HOT when I get in the water. Not long before that is, I'm sure. We actually had to keep holding Nolan back, who kept running straight for the water. He wanted to go in SO bad. Only a couple months, buddy, then we'll go! He & Daddy built a great sandcastle (actually Brian would build, Nolan would destroy and laugh and Brian would rebuild)!

You'll notice the duck in this first picture...Brian kept putting it where the tide would ALMOST take it away. Nolan thought it was the funniest thing ever to wacth Duckie riding the waves. I was having a heart attack because I thought Brian may be so concerned with making sure the duck didn't actually go out to sea that he would let Nolan run into the sea!

Family self portrait taken by my lovely hubby!

The Castle:

Swimming

Saturday morning after we had breakfast, we headed to the hotels indoor heated pool. Too bad the towels weren't heated, it was still cold when we got out of the water. But it was lots of fun. Nolan loved splashing around and flirting with the 4 month old baby girl who was also taking a swim.

Nolan chilling out before we swam, looking at the pool thinking, "That's one BIG bathtub!"

Momma & Nolan:Daddy & Nolan:

After the swim, all bundled up:

Swimming takes ALOT out of you!!!

Friday's Sunset Walk

Before we headed to dinner Friday night we took a stroll on the beach, right at sunset. It was so beautiful. Nolan loved the seagulls and kept calling them "ducks." Here are some photo's (of course):

You can see Nolan pointing and he's saying "duck!"

The Tiki hut on the beach:

Nolan kissing Da-Da:

Da-Da kissing Mamma!!! Whoo hoo! Nolan takes good pictures, don't you think?

Weekend Getaway

This past weekend Brian, Nolan and I took a mini-vacation. It just seems like time is going so quickly and it always seems like there's SOMETHING to be done, so we figured, we better get away for a bit and enjoy the precious stage Nolan is at and enjoy each other's company! So we booked a hotel room in Sandestin at the Hilton Golf Resort. Gotta love those (winter) military rates!!! We had SUCH a good time and both Brian and I were really sad to see the weekend end. Nolan was probably sad too, but he was asleep when we asked him...he was one tired little guy from all the fun we had. Since it was such a nice hotel we were relieved to see other young couples with little ones of their own. Here are some pictures of our room and what not. There will be plenty more pics to come!

This was Nolan's bed...JUST KIDDING! He did love playing on the lower bed, though, he could climb it. And he would lay his head down and say Night Night! We probably could have let him sleep there, but we weren't sure vacation was the time to test those waters out. So we slid his pac n play in there. Perfect!

This was the view from our balcony: