Breakin' the law

Remember how Brad got a ticket about a month ago, specifically, March 7?? Well, it looks like his driving record just keeps getting worse.


On the way to drop Nolan off at daycare this morning, I was kind of sleeping and had just opened my eyes when we were almost there. We have a few different routes to take, depending on the traffic situation. Normally Friday's aren't too bad, so we take the highway. Our exit is Speer, but sometimes we'll get off on the exit right before that, 20th Street. Once in awhile, Brad will get in the exit lane for 20th Street and then cut back over at the last second if there's an opening. Totally illegal, but he's gotten away with it a million times. Not today!!! There just happened to be an unmarked police car sitting in traffic right there, with nothing better to do. As soon as Brad said a choice bad word and said he was getting pulled over again, he looked at me and said, "Do not put this on the blog!" I said I wouldn't at the time, but then told him I was going to because he would if it were the other way around.


The damage: Disobedience of Lane Assignment, $86, 1 point. I guess it could have been worse!


I mentioned that in less than two months, he's matched the number of tickets I've gotten in the 3 1/2 years I've lived in Colorado. So he decided that maybe I should start driving for awhile.....it'll probably be cheaper! haha

6 months old!

I can't believe Nolan's already 6 months old! Everyone said it would fly by and I never believed them. Now I know better!

I took Nolan to see Dr. Zavadil on Wednesday for his well-baby check up. Brad couldn't go because of work :( Nolan weighs 17 lb. 8 oz. and is 26 inches long. At his 4-month check, he was only in the 10th percentile for height, and that's moved up to the 40th percentile now. Woo hoo! Maybe there's hope for him yet to be at least average height. haha

Dr. Zavadil said that Nolan was doing great physically and developmentally. He was super active while we were there - probably just showing off! He ripped the paper that they put out over the table a few times because he loved the noises it made while he was playing with it. Dr. Zavadil said she loves when we come in because Nolan is always so happy and healthy, and that we're doing a great job. She said we make it look easy, like it's our third child! That made me feel really good, because there are definitely days when I don't think it's easy!! When I told her that Nolan sleeps at least 8 hours a night she wasn't surprised because Brad and I are so laid back. Wait, me, laid back?! I told her my husband (and anyone who knows me for that matter!) would disagree with her on that one....she said that's usually how it goes, when one parent is a super control freak (I told her I'm the one that likes to keep the schedule) and the other one is more easy-going, there's normally a common middle ground that they can both agree on. So Brad puts up with my OCD and occasionally I let the schedule slide....but only a little bit!

We're so blessed to have such a healthy and happy baby.....having the cutest baby ever is a bonus!!

Birthdays!

April is full of birthdays in both of our families!! So far we've had Brad's grandpa, my niece Molly, Brad's sister Melissa, my dad, Brad's friend Jim, and Brad's niece Cambell. Whew!

After we dropped my parents off at the airport, we headed to Aurora to Brad's niece Cambell's birthday party. She turned 4 on April 21 and celebrated with a gymnastics party. It was really cute! It was easy shopping for her and Molly since they are both really into pricesses right now! Molly turned 3 on April 16, and even though we weren't able to celebrate with my family, we got to watch a video that my parents brought with them. She was just loving being the center of attention! Both girls loved the princess towels we got them - they both wrapped up in them immediately! haha

Here are a couple pictures from Cambell's party:

The Engle boys: Max, Brad, Morey, & Nolan

The birthday group (Mylee is on the far left, and Cambell is two to the right from her)

Evan (7 months) and Nolan hanging out

Nolan wasn't much for playing......

......but his Daddy was!!! He thought I was taking a picture....hehe

But then he caught on to my game :)

New Arrival....Part 2!

Our neighbors, Phillip & Renee, had a baby girl on Sunday, April 20! Her name is Kennedy (undecided middle name!) Bell, and she joins 2-year old Delaney. Now Nolan will have two playmates next door! Mom and baby are both doing well, and Dad and Delaney are both really excited. Phillip is now surrounded by women....even their dogs are girls! I had all my newborn and 0-3 boy clothes ready for them just in case, but I can't wait to go shopping for something pink for a change!

Congratulations to the Bell's! Hopefully we can get some pictures next week. Brad and I are both excited to hold a brand new baby again!

Visit with Nanny & Papa

Nolan was spoiled all weekend by his Nanny & Papa - and so were we! Nolan doesn't usually get up during the night (we are so lucky), but if he did, my mom got up with him and let us sleep. We didn't even have the baby monitor on in our room!! It was really nice.

We didn't have a whole lot planned while they were here, just hanging out. Thursday Brad went to work and I stayed home. That afternoon I took my parents to Nolan's daycare and they got to meet all of his girlfriends :) We picked Brad up and went out for dinner for my dad's birthday, which coincidentally is Nolan's 1/2 birthday! I really wanted to start celebrating 1/2 birthdays in our family, but Brad thinks it's a little too much. What's wrong with making a cake for every 1/2 birthday? No presents, just a little family celebration....but I got vetoed. I fought it for awhile, but I guess I'm learning to pick my battles.....

Friday while Brad and I were at work, my dad was bored. So he cleaned our garage....and put our fire pit together.....and fixed a couple drawers in the kitchen.....and put out the trash because we forgot! He just can't sit still. If anyone has seen our garage, you know it needed the cleaning! We can probably even get Brad's truck in there now - woo hoo!

Saturday, while my dad and Brad were replacing fence posts and buying a TV, my mom and I took Nolan to get his 6 month pictures taken. He was so good.....he didn't cry once and didn't even really get mad when I changed his clothes! He didn't smile a whole lot, but I didn't care, as long as he wasn't throwing a fit!

That's right, Brad finally got his flat screen TV! Mr. Researcher had been looking into it for who knows how long, and finally figured out what he wanted, which happens to be a 46" Samsung HD 1080p blah blah blah blah blah. But he did get a great deal on it - way to go!! I am SO glad that he decided to get it while my dad was here to help him hang it. Not that I couldn't help him hang it, it's more that I didn't want to help him hang it! It looks really nice and it has a great picture, but now I have to learn all the new HD channels.....haha

My mom and dad brought the Bill Cosby video, "Himself", and we watched it on the new TV Saturday night. It is hysterical! If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend watching it, especially if you are a parent or had siblings growing up. I had never seen it, but I've heard my dad saying pieces of it here and there ever since I can remember. It's 25 years old, but it just shows that some things never change!

Sunday we went to Brad's baseball game, and let me tell you, it was an exciting one!! (Are you picking up my sarcasm?) At least we had good weather! Most of our pitchers were gone, so it was a good thing that the other team's pitching wasn't good either. They normally play 9 innings and have a 3 hour time limit. They barely played 7 innings. And the score was 26-21. And we lost. But Brad hit really well - as he would say, he was a double shy of the cycle. And I missed his first home run of the season because I forgot to bring any formula for Nolan and had to run and get some before he woke up. On top of that I didn't even have my wallet with me (usually I am way more put together!) and had to ask my dad for cash. That hasn't happened for a long time! Of course everyone thought that was pretty funny.

We had a great weekend with my parents and it always goes too fast. :( Nolan loved pulling my dad's beard, and loved having my mom take him out on a walk (so did the dogs!). We took them to the airport and said a tearful goodbye....but we'll see them again in about a month! Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Guess I didn't take as many pictures as I thought!! I'll try to get a picture of the new TV once we have all the wires hidden :) And as if I didn't know it before, I really figured it out this weekend - we're going to have to buy a LOT of sunscreen for this kid. Red hair + Blue eyes = FAIR SKIN! I think all the drool wiped out the sunscreen around his mouth so he got a little burnt. Guess we'll have to keep re-applying.....fun!!

New arrival!

In my last post, I left out some very exciting new from last week!

My friend Susan (Lester) Carey, her husband Alex and daughter Kaitlyn welcomed a new little girl on April 9! Kendall Grace Carey was born at 7:42 am, weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. Suz said she and Kendall are both doing well. She is definitely a cutie!

Congrats to the Carey's!

PICTURES

Jumping!
















He looks like a little old man without his dentures in!




















Posing....
















He's got my blue eyes!
















Our little redhead....

Highlights from the past couple of weeks

We've been busy - sorry for not posting more often! Here are some highlights from the past couple of weeks....

Nolan had his last breast milk bottle last Tuesday :( I had some kind of super milk production when I was pumping and was able to store a lot of it - two shelves full in the freezer!! Since he started at daycare, I would give him a few breast milk bottles each week. He didn't seem to know the difference between that and formula, but I felt better that he was getting the good stuff once in awhile and all my hard work didn't go to waste!

We've still got a teether at home....it hasn't been too bad, he's just a little more fussy than usual. It's funny because he starts to gnaw on the nipple of his bottle and then tries to suck his thumb at the same time. Like he can't figure out which feels better!

Baseball season is back! Brad plays for a team that he's played with for the past few years, the Wolfpack. They're part of the National Adult Baseball Association (NABA) here in Denver and they have a few leagues for different age groups over 18. This is the same team Brad was playing with in Las Vegas when we met :) Anyway, they play every Sunday at different fields all around Denver. Nolan went to his very first baseball game on April 6! It was chilly, but he was all bundled up and loved being held by all the girls while he napped. The last couple of years, Lindsay (her fiance plays, and that's her in the picture) and I had kind of shared the duty of keeping the book during the game. I absolutely LOVE baseball, so I totally didn't mind. Now I'm far too busy with Nolan to even get to pay attention to most of the game, let alone try and keep score! I think he'll have a lot of fun this summer when he's able to enjoy it more and sort of know what's going on....and maybe it'll be a lot less fun for me since I'll only be chasing him around the whole time!

Nolan has started sitting up a little bit now. It's more of a hunched over, halfway sitting up, but at least it's a different point of view for him. He does pretty good if the toys he wants are right in front of him and not too far away, but if they're off to the side, he tumbles over! He's gotten pretty good at putting his arm out to balance himself, but it usually doesn't last that long. Here are a few pictures of him playing in his room - Brad says it looks like he's talking to his toys!

Brad and I have all of our workout equipment in our unfinished basement - there's even a TV, which is nice. Anyway, we've put Nolan's jumper down there so we can all be down there together. He loves it! Here's a video of him "dancing" - he was doing it a lot more than this, but of course by the time we got the video camera, he wsan't interested in performing. It cracks me up because as I'm recording this with our digital camera, Brad's recording with our video camera....I'm not sure if he even knows he's doing it, but every time he takes a video he narrates the entire time. haha And yes, that's our Christmas tree in the background, covered in plastic. We are extremely lazy and only take the ornaments off and then move it to the basement still put together. Why not, no one ever goes down there but us!

Still not crawling yet, but I think it's pretty close! Nolan's really good at scooting backwards - he gets under the coffee table most of the time, but the other day he scooted himself all the way from his blanket to the fireplace! He got frustrated and started whining/crying, but I let him go for a little bit just to see what he would do. What he did was get super mad at me!! So I had to take some pictures. Gotta love the drool! (Oh, and for the record, we don't normally keep the diaper pail in the living room.....it's broken and we haven't figured out how to fix it yet!)

This past weekend was a pretty busy one, but Nolan was a trooper! Saturday morning, we went to run some errands - I got my nails done while Brad and Nolan went to Sports Authority to look for a new mitt. Brad put Nolan in the front carrier with him facing forward - for the first time! He loved it! I love taking Nolan places for a few reason: 1) he's always really good (and I've probably just jinxed it); 2) he seems to love just taking everything in and looking at new things; and 3) if I'm talking to myself, people think I'm talking to him! I think I must have inherited that trait from my mom - one of the many!

After the errands, we met Sharon and Munish for lunch in Stapleton. They both work with Brad and we really like hanging out with them :) We just found out that they started working with an architect and bought a lot and are building a house. We're really excited for them!

After lunch, Nolan took a really good nap, and we hung out at home for a few hours before heading down the south side of Denver for Brad's brother Max's hockey game. His team made it to the championship game of the tournament - it was pretty exciting and Max scored one of the two goals for him team! As an added bonus, I got a little taste of what Brad's going to be like when Nolan (and his future siblings?) get involved in sports. He stood almost the entire game and let me know more than once how intense the game was getting. But he assured me that he was not going to be "that parent" at our kids' games! haha

Yesterday Nolan got to go to Grandma Cindy's with his cousins Cambell and Mylee while Aunt Melissa and I got to watch the Wolfpack play the 4pm game. We pulled out the win in what turned out to be an exciting game! So now we're 1-1 on the season. Brad is a really good hitter - kind of like Babe Ruth. Lots of home runs, but lots of strike outs too. haha He'll love that I made that reference! He plays centerfield and first base - I'll try to get some good pictures of him next weekend.

Tax season is almost over!! Woo hoo! At least the first round of deadlines anyway. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be to stick to my new schedule, but I can't begin to describe how happy I am that I was able to reduce my hours. It doesn't mean that I was completely stress-free, but the reduced hours helped quite a bit. If you would have asked me 5 years ago (when I started my career at good ole' Heaton & Eadie!) if I thought I would be on a flex-schedule to have more time at home with my family, I probably would have laughed in your face, thinking it would be impossible. But it's working, and I love it!

The most exciting news of this week is that my parents are coming to visit! My mom gets here Wednesday night and my dad gets here Friday morning. She's trying to talk him into coming with her on Wednesday, so we'll see. Nolan gets to stay home from daycare to hang out with Nanny and Papa on Thursday and Friday. We don't have a whole lot planned, but on Friday I'm going to take them to see Nolan's daycare and they'll get to meet his teachers. Maybe I can get some pictures of Miss Erica and Miss Hannah while we're there to share with you!

It's funny when I don't blog for a long time because I'm constantly thinking about what I'm going to say in the next blog or what pictures I'm going to post. I just can't seem to make a good habit out of it yet! I'll try to do better this week - more pictures to come soon!

My Boy

Abby has been bugging me to post and I have used every excuse in the book and I have no more....so here it goes.





What can I say, fatherhood is wonderful. I never thought it would change me the way it has and I love it. The picture below is one of my favorites, if you are wondering we are watching a basketball game and had no clue Abby was taking a picture.... he must be mine. Baseball season has started so there will be plenty more of these pics to come.



P.S. I got the speeding ticket because Abby had to change her shirt twelve times before we could leave that day.

More pictures

Nolan loves playing with his feet now















My boys watching college basketball





















He's getting so big!


















Ah, the Colts attire.....Brad's not too thrilled that we have proof that Nolan actually wears it!




















Look at his shirt.....yuck!!! He doesn't seem to mind though!

Blowing bubbles