Tractor rides and coloring time

These are a few pictures from this month so far.  It's been a good and busy month for us.  We sold our Minneapolis house last Friday and are now settling into life in a small town.  So far it's great!  We like our neighbors and love that there are so many other young families with kids around Nolan's age.  Many people are out on nice days playing in their yards and taking walks around the neighborhood.  We like that we're a little closer to our parents too...last weekend Ryan's parents dropped by while they were on a motorcycle ride.  Nolan loved sitting on Grandpa's motorcycle and has pointed out lots of motorcycles that drive by since then. 

For Easter, we spent the weekend at Ryan's parents place.  It was a fun time for us and Nolan.  We dyed Easter eggs and Nolan got to hunt for his basket and plenty of eggs on Easter morning.  We had great food and a fun time with everyone there.  We also stopped by my Uncle Brad and Aunt Ann's for an Easter gathering and had a great meal there. 

The first set of pictures I'm including is from Easter weekend.  Nolan got to ride on the lawn mower (aka tractor) with Ryan and he rode on a tricycle too.  He didn't pedal, but did push himself around.  He and his cousin Chayton had a blast that weekend playing together.  They are both old enough now that they are starting to actually interact when they are playing...playing together and not just playing near each other.

The second set of pictures is from Nolan coloring this morning.  We are starting to get into the routine of having every day together, and he's really liking to color with his washable markers.  By the way, I LOVE THOSE MARKERS!  Makes me wonder why the previous owner of this house didn't let her kids use those instead of normal markers and crayons that permanently stay on walls and doors! 

Some New Pictures

It does seem like all I do on this blog is post pictures...oh well, that is all I have time for currently. I have a little boy running around who takes up a lot of my spare time! I love it...he is such a joy to have in my life :) Here are some recent pictures from February and this past week.

Visiting friends in Medford, Wisconsin.  Nolan got to put on his snowsuit and play in the snow.  He did a few face plants, but enjoyed the experience!

Daddy pulling Nolan on the ice.  This was not his favorite activity!

Toothbrushing time with Daddy.  Nolan LOVES to brush his teeth!

Checking the mail.

So much fun!

Posing with Mommy.

No, Daddy should wear this hat, not me!

Tired little guy on Grandpa Garth's visit at the MOA.

I want to drink out of a BIG cup!

January Pictures

January has been an exciting month for Nolan.  He's really figured out that he can now talk and his vocabulary is quite extensive for a 14 month old.  His words to date include:

Mommy, Daddy
Hi, bye
water (probably his most frequently used word)
banana
cheese
please (this one Grandma Teri taught him!)
spoon, bowl
key
door
up, down


As you can see, most of his words revolve around food.  This makes sense, since our little guy still LOVES to eat.  It is getting a little more difficult to get him to eat veggies, but overall he still has a good appetite. 

Nolan is such a curious little boy.  He loves to open all the cupboards, drawers and refrigerator to see what he can find inside them.  He will spend some time reading books on his own now too!  Here are some of my favorite pictures from this last month. 

Watching the Vikings game with Grandma Teri

A Car Ride with Frank

Climbing in the fridge at Grandma Sara and Grandpa Mario's

He loves to crawl under the TV stand

Reading time

Random Pictures

Since I haven't posted in so long, I wanted to at least put up a few pictures from the last couple of months here.  Here are some of the highlights of November and December.

First Birthday Party Cake

Frosting was everywhere...even in his hair

Fun in a leaf pile

Cancun, Mexico with Grandpa Garth (Hiromi, Great Grandpa Don and Janet not pictured)

Whoa!

Our Cancun group

Loving the beach

Chubby baby getting tickled in the water

Shoving face full of Teddy Grahams in airplane

I'm stuck in this basket! (look at that hair)

Helping Grandma Teri and Aunt Summer unload the dishwasher

Coolest ride ever...at the mall with Grandpa Ken and Grandma Jayne

Chillin' on Cousin Chayton's awesome Spiderman couch

#1 reason why Mom can't get house clean

That's all!  I hope to start blogging a bit more again once things settle down.  We just finished deep cleaning the house to put it up for sale, so that is one big accomplishment.  Now if only we can keep it clean! 

Nolan is walking!

I meant to post this much earlier, but with the new editor in blogger, I couldn't figure out how to upload videos. So today when I saw my friend Sarah's blog and all of her videos, I knew there must be some way to do it. By switching back to the older version, I was able to do it. Enough of that mumbo jumbo...here's the video. He started walking at about 11 months and is getting really good at it now. This video was taken 11/02/09.

Playground Fun

We've made it a point to take Nolan to the playground at the park near our house several times this fall.  He likes the swings and to be in the sand, playing with sticks and rocks (tasting them especially).  Here are some recent pictures of our playground adventures.

Bamm Bamm!

For Halloween this year, our family went as the Rubbles...Barney, Betty, Bamm Bamm and Dino.  Nolan had fun with his little club.  Every time we said bam bam, he would start shaking it!  He didn't like his head piece very much though and would try to pull it off every chance he got.  On Halloween we went Trick or Treating at the mall and stopped at Grandma Carol's and Grandpa Rich's.  I don't think Nolan really understood what the whole thing was about, but he seemed interested at least.  He did like it though when I shared a lollipop with him while we were at the mall.  Then, we headed back to the Anderson family Halloween party.  The party was a lot of fun and the decorations were amazing!  Reggie even made a coffin for the event!  Nolan liked the costumes and really liked dancing to the music with the other kids.  We had good food and a great time.