5 Month Pictures

This post is going to be short and sweet- here is the link to view Nolan's 5 month pictures from Sears. I think they are adorable!!!

https://www.searsphotos.com/?shareid=S205925287l6XCPT4556Z

Christmas Cookies and Holiday Hearts

This past week has been filled with fun Christmas activities. I've almost felt like I'm back in Utah with my family. (Boy do I miss them!) We had a sleep over with Gabe and Caleb where we made and decorated sugar cookies- more ended up on the floor than on the cookies.

Brennan and I have been baking up a storm. First, we made White Chocolate Chocolate Cookies which are a new personal favorite of mine. Brennan is turning into a mini Don because, just like Don, he now just wants to eat the cookie dough instead of baking the cookies! The next night we baked cinnamon rolls and peanut butter bars to take to Don's work for a Christmas treat. While we were baking, Brennan and I sang Christmas Carols to Nolan. Nolan thought we were the craziest people, but he just smiled and laughed the entire time. That night, we received a large ice storm that shut down the schools, so when Gina and I delivered the treats, we had the entire entourage in tow! There were more of us than of people working for Don. All in all, it was a great week with lots of love and baking!!

Snow!

This weekend we received about 3 inches of snow- just enough that you have to shovel it. Well, we all know that I'm not going to get out and shovel (as evident by the many times I've gotten stuck just outside of the drive because I'm too lazy or running too far behind to shovel). Anyway, because I didn't want to shovel, Don and Brennan went outside to shovel out the Mercury so we could go to Ben and Gina's to eat dinner and play Settlers. And we all know that nothing could keep Don away from Settlers!!!

Hearing Don, I grabbed my camera and took some pictures- Yes, there was some shoveling going on between the snowball fights and snow angels!

Better Late than Never- right??

Nolan and Gram
Nolan's 1st Thanksgiving
Such cute Brothers!!
He's such a happy baby!!

Now I know that I'm not the best on keeping up with things- there are so many things that I've started on and done well for a month or so and then just give up, but this is not going to be one of those things!!! Between Thanksgiving and Brennan's school and Don's work, and Nolan's everything, I just haven't found time to slow down and write, so I just decided that I would make time.

Right now seems like the perfect time to just write- It's snowing outside. The first snow of the season and the first real snow I've seen in years. I never knew that I'd miss it so much or that it would bring back such vivid memories. Memories of growing up and playing in the snow. Memories of snowy nights and long conversations with family and friends. Memories of Christmas' that I thought I'd forgotten. I can feel the childlike anticipation for Santa and the reindeer. I can feel the spirit of Christ and peacefulness of the season. But most of all, I feel the COLD!!

Last night, Brennan and I went with our neighbors Ginger, Jacob, and Haylee to see the Stake present "The Light of the World" (a church presentation of the birth of Christ). I went expecting to see a so-so production and have Brennan not watch the play. It was much better than I expected and Brennan watched in amazement at the chorus and actors singing about the happenings before Christ was born. He was full of so may questions-"Where is God?", "Why are there angels" and the most common question "This is non-fiction, right mom?" (chalk that up to school). I answered all the questions I could and came to a realization that I have a very inquisitive child who will take what I tell him as the law and never question it. I realized what my mom has been telling me about all these years. Teach him about Jesus. So I explained to him about the birth and why we celebrate Christmas. He was full of questions (but then again, when isn't he?) and every answer I gave him he took as the full truth. I was amazing to see such understanding in such a small child.

Since moving here, I've come to realize just how much I've been blessed these past few years. I've been blessed with such a large family to love and such amazing sisters!! I've been blessed to have such wonderful true friends in my life who are always willing to do anything to help out. I've been blessed with luck!! Luck in finding a job in Houston- luck in finding a great husband- luck in having great in-laws!! I'm not saying there weren't trials and really tough times in my life (we all know there were), but I have realized that I've been given a lot.

Okay- enough with the emotional part (it makes me cry because I think of mom), so I'm going to post some cute pictures and I think that you'll like them as much as I do!!

Brothers

I'm going to keep this post short and sweet.

Sunday we purchased Nolan a high chair and started him on solid foods (loves bananas, hates pears). The high chair we got matches the swing and makes jungle noises- it entertains both Nolan and Brennan. So tonight Brennan wanted to play with Nolan and his high chair, yet Nolan wanted nothing to do with it. Note the bored expression!

For the past few days, Brennan has been running around the house with this monkey wanting me to take a picture of it. His monkey is named Unkey and has the same birthday as Brennan (info from Brennan). He is such an imaginative child!

Tagged

Now look at what you've started Stephanie! I have to continue your tag (per Sheena). So here goes!

4 Places I've Lived- Northern Utah, Southern Utah, North Texas, South Texas and North, North Illinois (that's general enough, don't you think?)


4 Jobs I've Had- I only wish I could say that I've only had 4 jobs- I've worked many retail, fast food, restaurants, and of course Teaching jobs (I've been employed by many good companies)


4 Favorite Desserts- Creme Brulee (Jakob's is the best), Don's Chocolate Shakes, Chili's Chocolate Avalanche with Ice Cream, and of course mom's brownies


4 Interesting Facts About Me- I used to play the bagpipes. Even though Stephanie is the accountant, I used to have to explain things to her in Mrs. James accounting class and even had an accounting scholarship to UVSC (thank heavens that isn't wasn't what I really wanted to do). I make lots and lots of list (and I even try and make them cute!), and I can still play two of the five instruments I used to (piano and trumpet, but not the bagpipes, french horn or soprano trumpet).


4 Favorite Movies- Ever After, Shawshank Redemption, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and now, thanks to Don and Brennan, Transformers the Movie


4 People I'm Tagging- Well, none of them blog, but maybe it will give them something to blog about: Tammy, Janet, Gram and Elaine (I know you all can do it- If I can, you can!)

Illinios in the Fall

This past week has been almost uneventful. Almost-

Brennan was out of school on Friday, which was nice because we had an Indian Family Report to do together. It took us a few hours, but we completed this really cool looking, touch and feel Anasazi Indian book. It was probably more than was needed, but I've been lacking a creative outlet for a while now and well, I was in my element. (It was a scrapbook of Indian information!!!) I wish I could have posted a pic, but it was due today.

Saturday was spent raking leaves. It was very reminiscent of my childhood and the never ending piles of leaves from the Poplar trees. How ironic we now live in Poplar Grove!! Anyway- I raked while Brennan pretended to rake and then jumped in the piles I made. What began as a quick yard clean up turned into an all day event, eventually ending with the paying of the neighborhood teenagers to bag the leaves. We bagged 40 big black garbage bags and put them in the garage until next Saturday when the compost pile is open to dump them in. And I've learned a few things about bagging and storing leaves: they are continuing to decompose inside the garage. It smells like a COMPOST PILE in our garage!!! It got to be so bad that last night we left the garage door open for a few hours to air it out. We figured if anyone wanted to take anything and made it through the smell, they deserved it!

Just an FYI about Nolan- we started him on solids yesterday. He loves bananas and rice cereal but will not eat pears. I tried to feed him pears this morning and all I got was a gagging child and pears all over the high chair! He would not even open his mouth for them. It was actually quite comical :)

Scrapbook pages

One of the main reasons that I decided to join the blogging world was so that I could share my scrapbook pages with Tammy and Stephanie. These are a few of the last pages I've done- nothing fancy, but I'm trying!

A Weekend with Papa and Gigi

After much debate, and a few phone calls from Nolan, Papa and Gigi decided to come and visit us this past weekend. Brennan was so excited and because Brennan was excited/happy, so was Nolan. Papa and Gigi arrived late Friday, so both boys were asleep (Nolan in his crib, Brennan at his "best-friend" Gabe's house).

Saturday was filled with a lot of playing, shopping and eating!!! Our first outing was to the mall where we went to nearly every store looking for matching sweater vests for Christmas, socks for Nolan (Do you have any idea how hard it is to find cute little boy socks?) and a coat for Brennan. We also had a few good finds at the Yankee Candle Store...yum cinnamon candles! After a quick lunch at the mall and some more shopping, we were going to go to a pumpkin catapult contest, but were too late for any of the action, so we proceeded home where we took some much needed naps and then went to church.

An interesting side note about church... I must say that for not being Catholic, I knew more of the songs than Don did :). It was kind of weird- they have the same music/melody as some of the LDS songs, but with different words.

After Church, we went to a fabulous restaurant, Granite City, that I have been trying to get Don to go to since we moved here. The food was amazing, though Papa pulled a quick one on us. You see, we (Don and I) told them that we were paying for dinner, then right near the end, the waitress brings a receipt for Papa to sign- I didn't even see him pass her his card!

On Sunday, Papa had to fly home early for work, but Gigi stayed to play with the kids. I taught her how to make Pot Stickers (here is the link for the recipe I used: http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/78/TGI-Fridays-Pot-Stickers73801.shtml) which turned out wonderfully!

And since it was time to get Nolan's four month pictures, we decided to do that as well, so we went back to the mall and Nolan got the cutest pictures done! Here is the link to view those as well (though you may need to sign up to see them): https://www.searsphotos.com/?shareid=S205778394lR8BCKMHNQ6

Now comes the not so great part of the weekend. Last night was truly horrid! Brennan was sick all night, so he slept in our bed and just tossed and turned and coughed like he was dying. When we were getting into the car to take Gigi to the bus, Brennan threw up all over the garage floor! I called the doctor's office to see if they could squeeze him in at the same time Nolan had his and they were able to work him in. Nolan had to have his four month shots and Brennan ended up having to have a breathing treatment for his asthma and x-rays to diagnose his bronchitis. He's going to be on streoids for at least the entire winter and using his inhaler daily. I just hope he's okay. Both of them are asleep right now (FINALLY!!) so I decided to post this blog- I know it's nothing great, but just wanted to let ya'll know what's going on.

-Janice

Halloween in Illinois

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year, and this year was no exception.

I purchased Nolan's costume in August (he's the cutest little pumpkin you've ever seen!) and Brennan selected his in September. Since the beginning of October, he's asked every day if it was Halloween yet- and he'd get so sad when we'd say not yet. They do things kind of weird here though- In Utah, if Halloween ever fell on a Sunday, it was moved to Saturday. Here it is the opposite- Trick or treating was done on Sunday from 2-6 (because there are no sidewalks or street lights in the CWL).

Brennan and Nolan dressed up- Nolan hated being in his- Too HOT and Brennan refused to take his off ("I can sleep in it, it's just like pajamas"). We accumulated tons of candy and got to know a few of our neighbors. So that was T or T #1. #2 occured at the church last night for Trunk or Treat (or as Don called it "Trunk or Trash" followed by "Trailer Trash" or was it "Junk in the trunk"). Brennan had a blast playing with the other kids in the ward and accumulated more candy. When we got home, he wanted a few pieces and then promptly brushed his teeth, because "Candy will rot them and I don't want to go back to the dentist".

And that brings us to this morning. Brennan's class had a Pumpkin Party (not to be confused with a Halloween Party, which they weren't allowed to have) and I volunteered to help them with their centers. The things these students said!!! One little girl told me that she couldn't go trick or treating because her mom was going to the bar! Brennan was so happy I was there- he kept coming up and giving me kisses. He is for sure the most outgoing/attention grabbing child and he was soaking up the attention from his friends for having his mom there and his mom brought treats. So I would say that Brennan is loving life today.

Nolan is not ever sure what to think- Most of the time he is just as happy as can be. He's really only fussy when you're not paying enough attention to him or there is nothing to keep him entertained, so when I'm cleaning I'll put him in his pack and play and turn on the tv and he'll watch it through the mesh and be content. I have crazy children!!! Did I mention that he started wearing 9 month clothes? My not even 4 month old is wearing 9 months clothes- oh well, at least he's healthy.

On a side note- we were sitting eating dinner and Brennan states that "It is so annoying when mom interupts the TV to have me clean my room and clear the table. Don't you hate it when she does that Dad?" as if I was never there!!!