8 months old....

....already!!! Nolan's getting bigger and more active every day. We love watching him figure things out and discover new things. He definitely keeps us busy! Brad said the other day, "There's no such thing as relaxing anymore, is there?" :)


We had a busy weekend.....here are the highlights:


Saturday afternoon we all took a trip to the vet. The dogs are going to the groomer next weekend (they need it!) and needed to get their shots updated before that. It was pretty hot that day, so instead of taking the no-A/C truck, we all piled into my car. Our dogs are super hairy and shed everywhere so we always put sheets over the seats to try and contain it. I think Nolan was happy to have some company in the back seat for once!





























I had an impulse buy last week at Walgreen's! I actually went to buy teething tablets that we haven't even tried yet, but in the baby section, I saw this little mesh bag to put big pieces of food in for teething babies. That way they can chew and not get any pieces that are too big. I've seen them before and my mom said she sees a lot of patients with them in her office. I thought I'd try it out. We put a couple of orange slices in there and let Nolan go to town - he loved it! He had tried a lemon for the first time Friday night and made some funny faces at first, but then couldn't get enough of it.





























Saturday we broke out Nolan's pool! It was his first time swimming and after getting used to the cold, he loved it. I got the pool at One Step Ahead, it has little sprinklers on it and you just hook it up to your garden hose. The water was a little chilly! I think I took like 30 pictures, but here are just a couple....and a video, I couldn't help it! Brad was working in the back yard while we were playing, but I promised I wouldn't post the picture I got of him.....:)














































Nolan wearing sunglasses for the first time - he wasn't sure what to think!



















Brad's friend Jim was in the neighborhood Saturday evening, so he stopped by and had dinner with us and played with Nolan. Nolan's shirt says "it seemed like a good idea at the time"....thanks for the cute hand-me-down, Sam (and SB)!!




















We had a lot of family time this weekend, just hanging out at home. Brad and I joked that Nolan barely had clothes on for most of Saturday and Sunday! It's just easier because I know he's just going to spit up on everything....I'm saving myself some laundry! haha Here are some pictures (at least he's halfway dressed in most of them) of Nolan exploring/roaming the house and checking things out:

In front of the fireplace

Crawling through the bar stools

Taking a look out the front door

Nolan's 'secret' route to the kitchen. He has sort of learned 'no', but chooses to ignore it. He likes to play with the lamp cord - I'm afraid he's going to pull the whole lamp over one of these days! Luckily, most of the time he's just happy with crawling through to get to the kitchen so he can get to the dogs' water bowl!

Sleepy monster.....

After our nice weekend, we have a short week! Nolan and I leave for Indiana on Friday. We'll be (hopefully) going to the Clay City Fair Friday night and Saturday we're going to Indy to visit my friend Tracy and her new baby, Grady. I'm so excited! Sunday morning, my mom, Cary, Collin, Mackenzie, Nolan, and I will take off for Gatlinburg. Ryan and his family will meet us down there, while my dad and Mark will pick Brad up at the airport on Sunday afternoon and then head to TN together. We don't have much planned, just relaxing! There will be lots of swimming at the pool and the water park, eating, napping, playing games, hiking, and shopping I'm sure! I plan on taking a couple of books to keep me occupied. I'll have plenty of pictures to share in my next post!

Have a safe and happy July 4th holiday!

Happy Father's Day!

Brad celebrated his first Father's Day yesterday! I made him open his gifts Saturday night though....I couldn't wait!




Brad is the king of hot sauce. We have probably 6 different kinds in the fridge at any given time. And they're used for different types of food, who knew? A friend of ours that works with Brad suggested we check out http://www.bottledhell.com/. I kept this in the back of my head and ordered him a few - Bottled Hell, Mo' Hotter Bottled Hell, Nuclear Hell, and Hellbanero Fire. He asked if I was trying to kill him - haha! We haven't been able to try them yet, but maybe tonight.




The gift that I'm sort of impressed with myself about is a gift certificate to a poop scooping service. Yep, there are businesses that will come and pick up your dog's poop for a fee. What a crappy job....pun intended! :) There are quite a few - I had no idea until some co-workers mentioned it as an idea. They'll come once a week, once every two weeks, or once a month. I got a gift certificate so Brad could decide since he's the one that does it (I absolutely refuse!) and he's the one that mows the yard too. I know it kills his knees to do it, so I thought it would be a nice Father's Day gift.....and he loved it, so even better!

My best gift didn't turn out so well. I had a T-shirt made (with the help of Brad's friend Jim) with the logo of Brad's baseball team, The Wolf Pack, on the front. I knew he would absolutely love it! I was going to dress Nolan and show up at his game to surprise him. Well.....while I was in Indiana, Brad texted me a picture of him holding up the same shirt!!! I knew I had hidden it at home and he couldn't have found it. So I asked where he had gotten it.....his brother-in-law, Jason (who's the coach), had ordered them for his daughters and Nolan and had their names embroidered on the back. I was so disappointed that I wouldn't get to surprise him!! When I got home, I pulled out my shirt and we had a good laugh. Now we have two identical shirts, one with Nolan's name, one without. I put the plain shirt in the tubs of all the clothes Nolan's outgrown to pass onto the next munchkin.....

Nolan and I haven't been going to many of Brad's games lately because it's a little bit of a hassle. You never know what kind of field they'll be playing at or if there will be anywhere for Nolan to roam around. And he doesn't want to sit still! Since it was Father's Day and the game was close to home, we went for the first hour and got to see Daddy hit a home run! Well, technically we just saw him running the bases after the other girls asked me if I saw him hit the home run. I'm distracted easily with a crawling 8-month old!



I'm so blessed to be married to such a wonderful husband and father! I love watching Brad and Nolan together, it just brings an instant smile to my face every time. My heart just melts every time I hear Brad telling Nolan what a good dad he's going to be and all the things they're going do when he gets bigger. And Daddy's the only one who can get a big belly laugh out of our little man! So Happy first Father's Day babe! We love you!

Updates

Nolan has been keeping us busy! I've been blogging about things we've all been doing as a family, but I've been keeping a list in my head (one of many, trust me) about all the new things Nolan's doing.

* Nolan is such a little explorer! He loves the doggie door, the fake tree in the living room, and any lamp cord he can get his hands on. We're still working on the word 'no'.....

* He's tried some table food lately. Cantaloupe, bananas, cheesecake, cupcakes, ice cream, puffs, potato salad, macaroni and cheese. We moved up to the stage 2 baby food, which is just a tiny bit thicker and it's got more than one fruit or veggie in it, and bigger containers. He still loves bananas and most of the fruits but hates peaches and peas. Not a big fan of peaches myself, so I can't blame him!

* He roams around in our bedroom and bathroom while we're getting ready in the morning. He loves to play in the closet with our shoes. He's fascinated by feet and shoes, it's so funny.

* Last week we noticed that Nolan's able to sit up from crawling now. Here's a video:

* Still no teeth!!! And we're coming up on 8 months now, but.....

* .....he's had a constant runny nose, won't let us put our fingers in his mouth to check his gums, and has been super fussy (which is not normal) so I think it might be here soon! I asked my mom last week 'what if he doesn't have any teeth?', and she just laughed at me. But I was serious! 'Oh, Abby, you'll just get him dentures!", she said, continuing to laugh. Real funny, Mom!

* Until Nolan got sick about a month ago or so, he was sleeping through the night regularly, 8pm - 5am. I think his system got all out of whack, because since then he's been up almost every night at least once. This past week has been especially rough, up 4 or 5 times a night, but not really awake and wanting a bottle. It seems worse that he's getting up again since we had gotten used to a good night's sleep! Finally last night he slept 8pm - 4:30am. A huge improvement! But this further validates my theory of a tooth coming. Here's a picture of him sleeping one morning this week and taking a nap with Daddy last weekend:

* Nolan is pulling up on everything in sight! Miss Erica at daycare said he pulls himself up in front of the mirror that runs along the bottom of the wall and just talks and laughs at himself. Here are a couple from this week:

* In the biggest news of the week, Nolan has conquered the stairs!! He noticed them for the first time Wednesday night and just started crawling up them. We were amazed! I'm going to have to show him how to get down the stairs the right way - he tried going head first a couple times - but that night he was only interested in getting upstairs! Brad got the first set on the camcorder, but we got the second set on our digital camera to be able to post it on the blog. He was a little tired by the time he made it this far, but you get the idea. Oh, and that would be Brinkley panting in the background, not Brad....haha

Brad's got his first Father's Day coming up this weekend. He has a baseball game in the afternoon and then his dad, stepmom, and brother are coming over for dinner. Melissa (Brad's sister) and her family will be there too. I can't wait until he opens his present - I'm kind of patting myself on the back here, but I think I did a great job this time! Stay posted, I won't be able to reveal it until Monday!

Hope everyone in Indiana is surviving from the floods. Dad called to update me, and Cary and Rhiannon sent me a few pictures of Clay City and I couldn't even believe it. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone that was affected.

Trip to Indiana - 5/28 - 6/1/08

Get comfortable, you're in for a long post!

Nolan and I headed out to Indiana last week by ourselves. Not a big deal, he's flown before, right? Well, we had a connecting flight this time on Southwest instead of a direct flight like usual. And it's much different when he wants to get down and crawl around! We stopped in Kansas City on the way to IN and Nolan was a perfect angel on both flights. I think I may have jinxed the return flight by bragging about how good he was to everyone! On the way back we connected through Chicago Midway, so the last flight was a little longer. He spent about an hour and fifteen minutes screaming, crying, pooping, spitting up all over me, you name it!! He finally fell asleep for the last hour or so. Not that I didn't miss Brad while we were gone, but I'd never been so glad to see him than when we got back to the airport at Denver! As soon as I saw him and gave him a hug and a kiss, I handed him the diaper bag and the stroller and was able to finally relax a little bit. I'll be flying out in just a few weeks with Nolan by myself again.....I must be crazy!!

In between the crazy airports and flights, we had a great visit with my family and friends. Wednesday after my dad picked us up at the airport, we headed to Clay City and stopped by Ryan & Rhiannon's (brother and sister-in-law) to see everyone. Molly was excited that she got to spend some time with Nolan before Kylie and Nicolas got home from their last day of school. When my mom got off of work, she picked up Cary & Mark's (sister and brother-in-law) kids, Collin and Mackenzie, and brought them over. It seems like they've all grown up so much since I saw them in February! The boys always give me the biggest hugs - I think the girls are more interested in holding Nolan! haha We stopped by Cary's house to drop off the kids and then we headed back to my mom and dad's.....I was pooped!

Nanny had the day off on Thursday, so we went shopping in the morning and ran some errands with her and then just hung out at home in the afternoon. Nolan LOVED her swing in the front yard! The weather was not typical Indiana heat and humidity - it was perfect! At least on Thursday and Friday....Saturday and Sunday were a different story!

















Thursday night we headed over to MSA (Miss Softball America - I hadn't been there in YEARS!) for Kylie's double-header. She pitched the first game and did a great job! She played 3rd base during the second game and made some good plays. She must take after her Aunt Cary....haha Nolan stayed for the first game, then Nanny took him home (with Nicolas and Molly) to play and get a bath before bedtime.
















Miss Molly Mae coloring at Kylie's game - with Nic's markers - talk about drama with the sharing! haha















Friday morning Kylie, Nolan and I headed to Princeton to visit my friend Susan and her daughters Kaitlyn and Kendall. It was my first time meeting little Kendall and she's an absolute doll! It's about an hour and a half drive, so it was nice to have Kylie along for company - she was also a big help when Nolan decided to throw a fit on the way down! We had a nice visit with Suz and her girls, I just wish we could have stayed longer. Maybe one of these days when our kids are grown up, I'll be able to all get away with all of my girlfriends for a grown-up weekend!! Probably still a few years off though.....but we can dream, right??














Friday night Cary, Mark, Collin, and Mackenzie came up for dinner and to hang out. We cooked out and then played in the back yard before it started storming. Here's Nolan on one of Nanny's many yard sale deals! I love the expression on his face, it just cracks me up!





















Nolan swinging with Papa
















Collin and Mackenzie playing - don't be fooled, they fight like siblings most of the time!















Friday night it stormed like crazy! It was so loud that it woke me up and I was sure it would wake Nolan up too. I guess when that kid is tired, nothing will bother him! He slept really well the whole time we were there and kept his Denver schedule, so instead of going to bed at 8pm, he went to sleep at 10pm. I was glad for that, it made things easier when we got back home.


Saturday afternoon we headed down to Clay City and went to the park. Mom had invited some friends and family to stop by to see us while we were home, and Clay City was more of a central location for everyone. We saw Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Pat, Aunt Lucy and Uncle Dick, Granny Ruth and Lyle, and Jennifer, Meghan, and Olivia. It was SUPER windy that day! Nolan played on the swings and the merry-go-round at the playground and had a great time. It was nice to see everyone and enjoy the nice weather while the kids played.


Abby, Nolan, Olivia (3 weeks older than Nolan), and Meghan















Nolan with Aunt Lucy - can you tell she's related to my mom???
















Nolan and Granny Ruth




















Saturday evening we headed over to the baseball diamonds for Nicolas' game. This is his first year of coach-pitch baseball. He played catcher for awhile, and then moved to 2nd base. He did a great job and had a couple of good hits! Ryan even coached 1st base during the game....I have to say I got to tease him a little for that!

















Nolan playing with Rat-Cat....her real name is Patches, but Dad started calling her Rat-Cat and it stuck with all the kids!

















Nolan held his bottle for the first time - of course, for Nanny! He's only done it one other time since then. I don't think he's too interested in this yet!
















Kylie - holding Nolan every chance she could! She's going to be a great babysitter, just a couple more years...




















Nolan LOVED the hearth that runs in front of the fireplace at Nanny & Papa's. He stood against it and was almost cruising along it the whole time. Too bad we don't have one at home!




















When I told Cary and Rhiannon that I wanted to get a picture of all the kids, they laughed at me. It was so easy! Everyone came up for brunch Sunday morning before we left for the airport, and I noticed at one point that all the kids were in the living room and I just said "Everybody get on the couch for a picture!" After we got them all on the same couch, it was a piece of cake. They even sat like this for probably 8 pictures! My mom was video-taping the whole thing too, so I'm sure that'll be pretty funny to watch when they're all grown up. :) Left to right: Nicolas (6 1/2), Molly (3), Collin (3 1/2), Mackenzie (almost 2), Kylie (11 next week), Nolan (7 1/2 months)















Here's Nolan playing horsey with Nanny at the airport before we left.

It's always nice that we're able to get back to the good ole' Hoosier state to visit as often as we are. Too bad Brad couldn't go with us, everyone missed him, and I know he missed us too. But he kept himself busy working in the yard at home and at our rental house in Aurora. Oh, and having poker night with the guys too. :)

Everyone got to say hello to Brad Sunday morning - I hooked up a web cam at my mom and dad's house, and Brad had set one up at our house the week before. It was surprisingly easy to install and figure out, so I think it'll be great for Nolan to get to see everyone more often. If we can just get my mom to understand that she doesn't have to yell for us to hear her.....hahaha

Our visits always seem too short, but we'll see the fam in just 3 more weeks. Our annual July 4th trip is coming up - Gatlinburg, TN with the whole clan! Nolan and I will fly into Indy on the 27th, then drive down to TN with my mom and Cary on Sunday morning. My dad and Mark will pick Brad up at the airport that Sunday afternoon and head down straight from there. Ryan and Rhiannon will be leaving somewhere in between. We'll be there the whole week, then head back to Indy and fly home that following Sunday. I'm excited! It will probably be Nolan's first time swimming, and I'm sure a lot of other things!

I didn't get to take many videos when I was in IN, so I'll try to get some of our little man doing his best to keep us on our toes. He's gotten to be such a fast crawler now, we can't even believe it!

Hope this finds everyone doing well and having a great start to your summer!

New Arrival!

Welcome to Grady Michael Havens!

May 29, 2008 - 6 lbs. 11oz. - 20 inches. Proud parents are Mark and Tracy (Saunders) Havens. Tracy and I were roommates at Franklin college for 3 years, and Mark is her college sweetheart. The whole family is home and doing well.

Congratulations, Mark & Tracy!!