Christmas Eve Suprise!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
This Christmas Eve had in store a wonderful surprise for our little family. As most of you know we had the ultrasound of our baby last week, but decided to have the nurse seal up the photo of the gender of our baby in an envelope and we would not open that until Christmas Eve. Well, it's been a long 7 days later and I'll admit I've actually lost some sleep over that envelope tucked into our Christmas tree containing vital details to my future! But it was worth the wait, and also really quite exciting!
When we FINALLY sat down on the couch last night we asked Nolan if he thought the baby would be a boy or a girl, his reply was "it's a girl"... AND HE WAS RIGHT!!!
We're having a girl!
We're so excited! Kenny is a little shocked-and has already started talking about buying a shotgun for when she starts dating! I had thought this baby was a girl all along, until the day of the ultrasound and after watching how wiggly and jumpy the baby was I was convinved I was having another boy! I was really getting used to the idea though, we'd have the ultimate little boy's room and not have to buy too many new clothes we'd be all set.
Oh well, Break out the student loans-we're going BABY GIRL shopping!

Breakfast anyone?

This lion and elephant was a gift to Nolan from Aunt Allyson. They sometimes don't get along though, and Nolan has to put them in time out because the lion will bite the elephant's trunck or attack him in a not so nice manner (He'll tell the lion "No bites!" and then make him give the elephant a kiss better). This morning though things were going pretty well, and all three of them were having some "nummies" together. Nolan thought it was very nice to share, so each glob you see in front of the animals is their yogurt, and his grin shows just how proud he is of himself.


I also wanted to show his method for drinking hot chocolate...it's very effective.

Thanksgiving Break

We had been counting down to our Thanksgiving break for about a month. Kenny had been SOOO busy with school exams and tutoring etc. that we all just really wanted some time to inhale as a family.
So we decided the Weds before to take a little day trip to Lake Geneva about 60 miles from our house. It was a nice, chilly day and it was a beautiful little ride to remind us that not everywhere in Wisconsin is city. Nolan slept in the car for the first time in a VERY long time (he likes the car ride a lot more since we got our van). Lake Geneva is a nice little town-I think it may be more of a retirement community/tourist trap, but definitely worth a look.
We visited the lake, fed some ducks and took a little walk and had dinner at McDonalds. Nothing too exciting, but it was still really nice.



We spent Thanksgiving dinner with some close friends hosted by John and Karisa McAllister. Everyone brought a few yummy dishes to share and the food was fantastic-but the company was better. Here is the only picture that was taken of the group-thanks to Karisa for being smart enough to have her camera!Too bad we don't have a picture of her though! In the photo are: Todd, Jessica & Malia Pitts, John, Garrett, Kenny & Echo,and Chelsea & Matt Rowan. Nolan and Isabel Rowan are in their repectable seats to the side of the table.

Once there was a snowman...

Nolan is very excited about the snow this year, and after a nice snowfall on Nov. 23rd, we decided to go have some fun. The snow was perfect for snowman building, so Nolan and I built our first snowman together (with him actually helping this time). We had him built in just a few minutes and found some rocks and sticks for his face and arms. Nolan had lots of fun playing with our new friend and would only leave him when his fingers got cold enough through the gloves that he kept saying "It hurts...it hurts...". Thankfully, hot chocolate helped cure that though. Later that day we had to run some errands and when we came home the head had fallen off of the snow man, of course that was the first thing Nolan noticed and we quickly rebuilt him almost to his original glory. We continued to do that each day when little parts of him would disappear, like an eye or nose or ear. Eventually he melted and it's just been too cold since to go out and build a new one. But don't worry, Frosty will be back again to play some day!





A few more modifications....


Perfect!

Hide-n-Seek

Nolan has been learning some new games and doing more and more pretend play lately. He likes to take his trucks, trains, cars and anything with wheels and make long trains with them-he's always very proud of his results.



Another new game is Hide-n-seek, here are some pictures from our first lesson, it was pretty successful. See if you can find him in these photos....it's pretty tricky-Good luck!

The Rest of Halloween...

So I can't move onto Nov & Dec without posting the rest of our Halloween fun photos! So here are a few before it gets really too late!


Our train conductor...


Bruce Leap & Liza M from our Disco murder mystery dinner...


Our "Boo at the Zoo"...


Next year's costume...(We bought on a 60% off sale)


"Hai-Yah!"

Pumpkin Pickin!!

We welcomed October with a quick family trip to Jim's pumpkin farm in Germantown, WI. We took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch which detoured through a little patch of haunted forest that was super cheesy-but fun. Nolan was more impressed with the old tractor that pulled us than silly witch legs sticking out of an old barrel. We picked out a big 'ol pumpkin and then wandered around the different Fall & Halloween scenes that were on display. It was such a gorgeous day-perfect for pictures and getting excited for fall and Halloween.

Kenny & Nolan surveying the options...

He made sure the perfect one didn't get away before Dad could come pick it up.

We found the pumpkin express...


and took a little ride!

I'm sure we'll be back next year!

Apple Holler

A few weeks ago we took a little trip south to the Apple Holler farm in Sturtevant, WI for a family Branch Playgroup activity. We took Karisa and Benson down with us in our new Toyota minivan on a beautiful, and suprisingly warm October afternoon. There are acres of apples to pick, kids rides & attractions, a yummy restaurant, a little petting zoo and several other things. Too bad we picked the perfect day to go because so did the rest of southeastern Wisconsin! It was packed! So we enjoyed what we could and grabbed a few pictures to prove that we had been there.

Here's Karisa and Benson getting an October tan!

Nolan checking out the produce...

and deciding that it would be better to throw than to eat. Check out that form!! He's got quite the arm for a 2 yr old!

Aww, and a nice Fall family photo

Merrell Look-alike Meter

Well here is the proof just for good measure anyway I guess...

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family tree template - Family history

Look-a-like Meter...

I don't need to take one of those look-a-like meter tests online to see who Nolan look more alike. It's quite obvious I believe...

Priceless...

This picture was taken in August at my parents cabin in Mt.Pleasant, Utah. Nolan and Beagsly were pretty good pals that whole week and this picture just captured the perfect moment.
Looks like a Norman Rockwell painting....well except for the Lightning McQueen shoes.

The importance of a good role model...

We purchased a potty for Nolan's 2nd birthday as well in anticipation that we will begin the big step to potty training someday soon. I placed the potty in the bathroom and have tried to make Nolan familiar with it's functions and encourage him to sit on it whenever he'd like. Well, for now it's just been a fun chair and and interesting toy to take apart and drag all over the house. Thanks goodness Kenny has stepped in and directed him in the correct usage of the potty chair....

Such a good role model.

Official Announcement

To all of you who haven't heard the news about our new baby coming along next spring, I apologize! We were trying to be somewhat strategic about spreading the word, but I'm afraid in doing so we've made things a little more difficult. Instead of just telling everyone that we see, we've started with our parents first, then siblings and grandparents, and then it just sort of took off from there and now I can't remember who we've told and who we still need to. So here goes the major announcement...
WE'RE EXPECTING OUR 2ND BABY ON MAY 9TH! WAHOO! Nolan's going to become a big brother, and Kenny and I will be parents of two adorable children...crazy huh? We are very excited and looking forward to adding to our little clan. This pregnancy has been great so far, no morning sickness just kinda tired. But I have gone from eating about 3 meals a day to being hungary every 2 hours! Now I have to pack snacks for both Nolan and I whenever we run errands! I'll take that though-it's a good time of year to want to eat all the time right??
So we'll keep you posted on any new gender news, beacause yes-we are definitely finding out that I am right about having a girl this time...Kenny's just going to have to have a co-ed soccer team.
We are also open to name suggestions for both genders, as of right now we have absolutely none!

Happy 2nd Birthday Nolan!!

We did it! We made it to 2 yrs, and what a wonderful couple of years it has been. Nolan has grown and learned so many things, that we are so proud of. For his birthday he went to "preschool" with his friends, Thanks Kristin for making that day his first "birthday at school" experience!

Adam, Nolan & Amy


He was totally into the birthday candles thing this year!!

He has developed a love for the Disney movie CARs since last December, so of course we had a CARS themed party for him.
I made him a race track cake...and it turned out very well I must say. Thanks to Karisa McAllister for lending me her cake decorating kit!



More candles!!

A new "bike-bike" as Nolan calls it.

We had the McAllisters, Pitts, Burnetts, and Leavitt's over to celebrate with us and are so glad they could make this day even more special for Nolan! Thanks Guys!

We closed the night with webcam visits to each set of Grandparents, and one tired and sugared-out little boy!

Guilty....

So after big vacations to Utah or Seattle I always feel like I have to blog a big post for each and put up lots of pictures. So when I get home I have that in the back of my mind while I am trying to get back into the swing of normal life. So it gets put off and put off, and now it's October and I haven't blogged anything because I haven't done the August vacations and now I'm months behind and I feel so guilty I don't even want to look at our blog and it is actually causing me a lot of unnecessary stress!!
So I have decided that this time I guess I'm going to have to just move on-our families have all of the pictures that we took (all like 400 of them I think). So I will now be moving onto our fall activities....sigh..I already feel better now that's off of my chest. Whew-I should have done that weeks ago.

Summer Recap

We all know what a crazy winter it had been, and after waiting for so long to have summer finally come around we were determined to make the most of it before the humidity set in and killed the desire to be outside. I must say that when people told us that Milwaukee's summers are really nice, I really didn't believe them. When we moved in last year it was like 100 degrees and 100% humidity!! We had no air conditioning at the time, and it was a very long few months before it switched from extreme heat to cold. We were prepared this year though!! We bought window A/C units back in March/April and were just waiting for the heat to bring it on! Thankfully it really never did-well not too badly. A few days were pretty warm and sticky-but for the most part summer was very kind to us. We've done a lot of biking, splash pad swimming, outdoor BBQ's, visiting nearby lakes, and exploring a bit of the areas around us. It was the first 4th of July that I can remember that wasn't scorching hot-it was kinda nice!
Here are a few of the summer's highlight photos-We kept ourselves busy enough that I was really bad at keeping up our blog...sorry everyone!


Balcony sandbox for one...

or two as the case may be...

A new found love of bike helmets...

and the American flag. He also liked the 4th of July parade too!

We also learned how sad it is to loose our first balloon-that was a heart breaker!


We spent a day at the beach at with our playgroup friends.


We went to Madison and experienced the farmer's market...mmm fresh peas!


Played volleyball weekly

And even caught a few fireflies!

AND THAT WAS ONLY JUNE AND JULY!! BRING ON THE REST OF SUMMER HORRAY!