5 Months Old & Full of Life

We have had such a fun and exciting few weeks. February was full of lots of play dates and traveling to Atlanta. My friend and colleague, Casi, came over for Liam and Nolan to play together. Ok, if truth be told, Casi and I ate lunch and went shopping, and the boys tagged along. Liam is 2 months older than Nolan and we plan on getting them together quite often to play and become great buddies. The picture below shows them hanging out together. We also met some great neighbors, Ben and Dawn, who have a 6 month old son, Carter. Carter and Nolan have already played several times together, and Dawn and I are becoming fast friends.



We made a trip to Atlanta over President's Day weekend to see our close friends David & Jenny Fancher, who welcomed their son, Samuel David, in to the world on February 4th. Samuel was born a couple of weeks early and was a wee 5 pounds. He is just adorable and we can't wait for him and Nolan to start playing together. I'm sure they will have lots of fun times on the beach in the coming years. Nolan will grow up knowing that "cousin" Samuel is a very special and close friend.



Jenny and I spent the afternoon going to lunch and getting pedicures while Phil and David stayed back with the babies. We both enjoyed the girl time, free of parental responsibilities. Jenny is a very close friend of mine and it has been so fun to watch us both encounter major life milestones simultaneously. I know our sons will grow up knowing each other very well. We are thankful for such great friends.

We had our first Valentine's Day as a family of 3. We didn't do anything too exciting, but just having Nolan was enough to make this the most special Valentine's Day ever. He is our bundle of love.












Nolan is 5 months today. The time is just FLYING by!! He is such a wonderful, loving, and fun baby. Nolan, here is what you have been doing lately:

*Have just recently been introduced to sweet potatoes and like them a lot.
*Enjoy sitting in your high chair.
*Do not like your car seat.
*Rolling over to your side and staying there.
*Love to play airplane.
*Blow raspberries out of your mouth ALL day long.
*Like to walk around the block with mommy and daddy.
*Wearing 6-9 months clothes.
*Love to "stand" on daddy's legs.
*Started to laugh.
*Play with your toys.
*So ALERT that everyone comments on it.
*Do not love your passie. You'd rather sit up and look around or suck on your fingers.

I'm about to get a new camera. It took me having a child to realize that a digital camera just doesn't cut it. I can't capture those adorable facial expressions because my darn camera takes forever to reset and by the time it is ready, the expression is long gone. So, I've gotten several recommendations and I hope the Best Buy guy is ready for me because I'm about to go in and play with lots of cameras and find the right one that I can go click, click, click and get a gazillion pictures at a second. Hopefully, I will take my interest in picture taking to a higher level-to more than just turning the camera on and pushing the click button.

Believe it or not, Phil and I do have responsibilities and hobbies we are currently pursuing that don't involve Nolan. I know it is hard to believe, but it is true. We are both in a bible study at our new church called "Empowering Parenting." We are enjoying the curriculum and the new friendships that are being formed. We try to go out with friends or with each other at least twice a month, and having the best babysitters across the street makes it pretty easy. Phil is really a pro a networking and is seen all around town at different public events. He is growing his business and loving his new career. While I enjoy teaching, I really LOVE the tutoring I do everyday. I'm toying with getting back into running, but I'm not sure how passionate I want to be since we ARE trying to get pregnant again. I haven't found much time for scrapbooking, but Nolan's first year WILL be done by his first birthday. But what I enjoy most is entertaining. We haven't had too many people down to visit yet this year, but then again, the season is just now starting, so we can't wait to have people in and out of our house this year.

So, if you read the above paragraph, you read that we are trying to get pregnant again. Some people think we are crazy for wanting to add to our family so quickly and to take time to enjoy Nolan while he is young. Well, he is so amazingly wonderful that he adds to our desire. We also want to have our kids close in age in hopes they will be close friends. I realize the consequences that come with having children so close in age, but we truly hope and believe that God's will is to add to our family very soon. So, would you please join us in praying that God will bless our family with another child soon (and hopefully without the complications we experienced the first go round)?

Well, I'm off to go cuddle on my little Nolan. Can't wait to post pictures with my new camera soon!