Beginning of August

Here's a quick rundown of what we had going on the beginning of this month - which has flown by!

* I volunteered for the second time at Night Owls, and I was super excited to find out that I was paired with an infant! A little girl that loved to be swaddled and cuddled....I couldn't wait. But one of her siblings got sick and they couldn't come that night - I ended up leaving early, but I'm hoping that next week when I go back that she'll be there this time! :)

*My niece Mackenzie turned 2 years old! Here's a picture from her party that Cary sent me. Cary said Kenzie wore the tiara and clip-on earrings the entire time. She's very girly and loves to wear dresses and act like a princess. If you know my sister, you'll know why that is hysterical! Cary was the biggest tomboy ever when we were growing up. Maybe Kenzie takes after Aunt Abby.....

* Some of Nolan's new tricks are:

-holding his bottle with one hand

-mimicking some sounds we make - he's made the sound dada, but not said

the word....yes, there's a difference! Brad actually thinks Nolan said 'doggie' because he

looked right at Brinkley when he said it. I didn't hear it exactly, so it's not going down as his

first word just yet!

-going all the way upstairs by himself, even when it's dark up there and no one else is with

him.....a couple of times we've had to really look for him!

-eating dog food and playing in the dog's water bowl

-falling out the doggie door and cutting his nose - had to consult Nurse Polly on that one!

* Nolan is pretty much eating only table food now, so whatever we eat we feed him too. He does a really good job at feeding himself, he can pick up just about anything with one finger and thumb. The other night he pushed Brad's hand away when he put his hand near the highchair tray - too funny! We haven't really found anything that he doesn't like or that he seems to be allergic too, so I hope that keeps up. Miss Erica and Miss Hannah at daycare said he's doing a great job with everything they're feeding him - he gets to eat what the big kids eat now!

* We're trying to introduce the sippy cup and it's going, um.....okay. Nolan seems more interested in chewing on it than drinking from it. But big surprise that Nanny got him to drink from it at her house last weekend! We just put water in it at first because we knew it would get everywhere, but we've starting giving him half water and half juice. We'll keep at it because I want to break him of the bottle in just a few months!

* Nolan got to spend the night with Grandma Cindy and his cousins Cambell and Mylee stayed too. I think he had a lot of fun because he was totally pooped the next day! We got a night off too, which was nice. I think we had actual plans, but Brad ended up messing around with the sprinkler system in the front yard for a little longer than he thought, so we stayed in and broke out the fire pit in the backyard. Nothing like a s'more and a glass of wine, right? We're classy.

* We had a play date with our neighbors and their two daughters, Delaney (2) and Kennedy (4 months). Brad's friend Travis gave us a blow-up pool, so we put it in the backyard and they had a great time! The water was a little cold, so next time we'll have to fill it up earlier. Lesson learned!

* Colorado set a record for the most consecutive days above 90 degrees....I think it was 22 days. At least it isn't humid though! But it definitely took a toll on our grass. Right after those hot 3 weeks, it cooled off for a few days and that paired with the addition of a sprinkler in the front yard helped out. Now we don't have the ugliest yard on the block - whew!

Here are a few random pictures - I have no idea why some of them are so small!

Going straight for the condiments....definitely my kid!

Reminds me of when he was little....

What a look!

Nolan and I were up earrrrrrrrly one morning, so I tried to get creative with the camera.

All the boys :)

Long time, no blog.....

So it's been almost a whole month since my last post....we're still here and every thing's fine, it's just busy season for us tax people! September 15 is a big tax deadline and we've all been swamped at work. I'll do my best to catch everyone up to what the Engle's have been up to lately!

Since the videos of Nolan waving, he took a little break from showing off his new trick....until about 2 days ago! Then he decided to bring it out in full force at the mall to flirt with some girls. :) He's doing the backwards wave now though, like he's waving at himself....it's really cute!

Remember the new tooth I couldn't get a picture of? Well here it is!

Quick updates

Last week Nolan got his second tooth (still not able to get pictures!), had a laughing fit at the dogs chasing the tennis ball, and started waving bye-bye all of a sudden!! Here are a few cute videos - I know the videos of him laughing are pretty much the same, but I couldn't resist posting both of them....it just cracks me up how he kind of bounces up and down because he's laughing so hard :)

And yes, we are both video taping at the same time with the digital camera and the camcorder. We can't help it!

Exciting week!

Monday - I had a migraine and had to stay home from work. Awful! Brad took Nolan to daycare and forgot his bottles. They had extras to use in case that happens, but I thought it was funny! :)

Tuesday - I felt Nolan's first tooth!!! Woo hoo!! I couldn't see it until the next day, but it's definitely there. It's the bottom left. You can bet I'll be trying to get a picture of that sucker soon!

Wednesday - Nolan had his 9-month check-up with Dr. Zavadil. He was super active and talkative while we were there and even got into her lap for a few seconds. She said most babies she sees at his age won't do that.....our little social butterfly! He got a great report, everything looks good developmentally, he's ahead with some of his milestones and right on track with the others. Nolan weighs 19 lb. 6 oz. (30th percentile) and is 26 1/4 inches long (5th percentile). Dr. Mary's only concern was his height - he'd only grown 1/4 inch in 3 months. We're going to check it again at his 1-year check-up and if it isn't back up (at his 6-month it was in the 40th percentile) we'll have to do some 'investigating'.

Maybe she says this about all her patients, but she said Nolan made her day because he's always so happy and healthy! Made us proud :) He must have worn himself out because he zonked out in the car on the way back to daycare.

Thursday - Brad had to do some work on the rental house after work so we drove separate that morning. Good thing! Daycare called around 2pm and said our little guy had thrown up twice. Yuck. So I left work early and grabbed some Pedialyte on the way home. We played for awhile and he went to bed a little early, but not throwing up once we got home....yay! They said he'd be playing and everything would be fine, then all of a sudden, throw up everywhere! At least he wasn't really fussy....what a good boy :)

Friday - I stayed home with Nolan a couple extra hours to see how he was feeling before taking him to daycare around 9am. I was almost to work when I realized that I'd forgotten my computer at home....ugh! I drove all the way back home (about 30 minutes one way), got railroaded on the way, and headed back downtown. By the time I got to my desk I had a message from daycare saying Nolan had gotten sick again! So Brad left work early and hung out with Nolan the rest of the day. It must have been just a 24-hour bug or something because he's been fine ever since. Or else it was just a huge coincidence that he didn't throw up in front of either of us!

Nolan was supposed to spend the night with Grandma Cindy last night, so she stopped by to see how he was doing/feeling after work. He'd been fine since he was home with Brad and had even been eating like normal and keeping everything down. So Brad and I had a date night while he went to Grandma's! I still woke up at 7:30 this morning, but I guess that's better than 5am, right? And for the record, Brad's still asleep and it's 9:30! We'll go pick him up shortly but first I'm going to try and get the house cleaned.....fun!

And, also for the record, I'm finally caught up on my blog! Woo hoo!! Sorry, no pictures this time. I'm sure I'll get some good ones this week of Mr. Nolan....stay tuned!

Back to work and school!

After going to bed super early when we got back from the airport Sunday night, we settled in to a relatively normal week. Back to work and daycare like usual!

Well, sort of.....Nolan started in his new room at daycare last Monday! He began in the Purple Room and has now moved up to the Red Room. All the kids are in each room for 6 months until they're 18 months old. Fortunately, his teachers, Miss Erica and Miss Hannah move with them until they go into the preschool classes. There is a bigger play area in the Red Room and Nolan got a few new 'classmates' too. The biggest difference is that towards the end of his 6 months in the Red Room, all the kids will be eating lunch and snacks at a table together to teach them how to socialize during mealtimes. As if Nolan has a hard time being social.....haha :)

Not much exciting last week....whew! Here are some pictures of our little monster!

Bored with being handsome I guess :)

It's like I'm bothering him by taking his picture....again.....haha

This kid loves to get into things that aren't toys

Yes, I think it's ironic that I have a book called Colorado Mountain Ranges and we can look outside and see them!

He made it!

Another non-toy! He eventually needed some help getting out though....:)

Makeovers for Brinkley & Nuke

The day after Nolan and I left for Indiana, I had scheduled an appointment for Brinkley and Nuke at the groomer's. They needed a trim! Brad dropped them off at 10am - last time it took them pretty much all day, so that's what he expected this time. He told the groomer to do the same thing as last time, but he didn't remember (they hadn't been there since October!) so he asked if we wanted them shaved. Brad said yes, thinking he meant trimmed.

So the day goes on and late in the afternoon Brad starts to get a little worried. He called me to see if I thought he should call the groomer and check on the dogs. They were fine, of course. They didn't end up calling him until late that night, around 7pm! I'm sure Brinkley and Nuke were freaked out being there all day. But probably not as freaked out as Brad was when he picked them up!

Here's a 'before' picture from 12/14/07.....look how little Nolan is.......and how furry the dogs are!

And here are a few 'after' pictures.....Brad said he had to do a double take to make sure it was Brinkley when he picked them up!

Brad e-mailed me a couple pictures of them that night so I could see them. He felt so bad because they looked so funny! It's starting to grow on us though. :) Brinkley looks pretty good, but Nuke's head looks so much bigger than his body because they didn't shave his head. Apparently Chow's aren't supposed to be shaved that short, but oh well....it'll grow back! Their undercoat looks really rough, but it's actually very soft. I'm sure they're a lot cooler this summer, and it's made vacuuming a lot easier on us!

Random pictures

Front view of our cabin


































Molly feeding Collin

































Ready to get into something
































Brad and Kylie

































Kylie & Nicolas - the resort had an activity called Stuff n Fluff and they made an alligator and a horse. Kylie named hers Nolan :)






























Ryan and Nicolas

Molly and Kenzie

Nanny playing Dr. Mario on her Gameboy.....yes, it's actually her Gameboy! haha

Getting some sudoku time in

Brad, Dad, and Mom - I always have to play euchre when I'm home because no one in Colorado knows how to play!