Fun Pictures

I suppose I'm way past due to post some new pictures of the little man. We're just having too much fun with him these days to spend a whole lot of time on the computer!! Here are a couple of my faves:

I'm 10 Months Old!

Hanging out with Cousin Chayton

Ryan and Nolan at the Fair


First time at the playground

Hmm, I'm not sure I like the taste of this stick

Experience Life Magazine: Skimming the Truth

I know, I haven't blogged in a REALLY long time. Sorry! And this post is a little different from what I usually write. I just read this really interesting article in Experience Life magazine (which is put out by Lifetime Fitness). It's about dairy products and they refute the common assumption that skim milk and low or non-fat dairy is better for you. I had not heard this before, so let me know what you think!

Experience Life Magazine: Skimming the Truth

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Summer Vacation Moments

The month of July was all about family. We started the month at my Grandma Carol's (Grammi) lake house on Lake Emily in St. Peter. There we got to spend time with Grammi, Grandpa Dick, my mom and dad, Summer, Kirstin and Irene. Nolan swam for the first time and we had some fun times out in the boat fishing with Dad (G-papi). Then, my dad (Grandpa Garth) and girlfriend (aka spiritual practice partner) Hiromi came for a visit. That was also a wonderful week filled with family gatherings and laughs. Finally, to top it all off, we went with Ryan's parents and siblings to Hayward, Wisconsin to relax and enjoy each other's company on the Chippewa Flowage. Tonight Ryan told me that those 9 days on the Flowage were some of the best he's ever had. I agree, and I'll go so far as to say the whole month has been amazing. Thanks to all of our family for being so loving and so much fun!

Here's a list of some of my favorite moments from the month (in no particular order):

1. Yahtzee with the girls at Grammi's
2. Walking in the rain with Jayne and Kristen...fun conversations despite the LONG distance!
3. Reliving Dinkytown and U of M memories with Dad
4. Nolan...need I say more?!
5. Bocce ball at Grandma Sara and Grandpa Mario's
6. Summer burying Nolan on the beach and seeing how much fun he had playing in the sand
7. Talking around the campfire with all of Ryan's siblings...what a great group!
8. All of the great times spent fishing, even when we didn't catch anything.
9. Celebrating Diedrich and Grandma Sara's birthdays at the Spanish restaurant with the Flamenco dancer
10. The Anderson Olympics...Grand Champions two years running!
11. Walking with the bigger group for our 10 miler in Hayward (funny moment...washing Jake's hands off after that dog peed on them, heehee!)
12. Boating over to R&R Bayview for breakfast
13. All of the great food that Grammi and Grandpa made for us...cookies, blueberry pancakes, steak and banana pudding pecan rolls :)
14. Nolan, Ryan and I going to the drive-in movie theater to see Harry Potter. Nolan was such a cutie, looking all around and playing with the drinking straw.
15. Watching Nolan crawl for the first time. Oh yeah, I already said Nolan. But can you blame me?
16. Chasing after Chayton as he threw the football, tennis ball and bocce balls around the yard at the Landing...what a fun young boy he's turning out to be..."move back" and "No, Aunt Greta" and "put back nose!"
17. Going to the dog park with Dad, Nolie and Hiromi
18. Grandpa Ken putting Nolan in the hammock and watching his reaction

Ah, what a fun month to relive. What are your favorite moments of the summer? I'd love to read your top memories! Feel free to comment :)

Moving and Shaking

Does this face spell trouble??

Target: Football

On the move!

After a week in Hayward, Wisconsin and plenty of floor time, our little guy is now crawling! Watch out world, here comes Nolan :) He picked up a couple of other skills this week too...waving "hi" in response to other people, going from laying down to sitting up and shaking his head "no." Today he also pulled himself up to standing using the couch, the TV stand and the bookshelf. He then started pulling down anything within his reach. You can tell he's so proud of himself when he does these new things. He gets the biggest grin on his face and his eyes just light up.

Ryan and I have now started the baby-proofing process by covering our electrical outlets. We moved his crib down so that he won't fall out when he pulls himself to standing. We'll also have to rearrange our DVD player and Nintendo Wii so that he can't pull those off the TV stand. Although the basement and upstairs doors are usually closed, I'm now very aware of them and am pretty paranoid that I'll leave them open. I think this might mean a lot of extra door-checking in the next month or so!

8 Months Old!

Today our baby is 8 months old! It is hard to believe it, but he's growing so fast and he's learning new skills every day. Here's a recap of his recent achievements:

He now has 3 teeth...two on the bottom and one on top

He is pulling himself up to standing and will stay up for quite a while

He is practicing for crawling, although he hasn't made that transition yet

He is saying "dada" and "mama"

He is waving at us--sometimes with both arms and sometimes with just one

He's eating all sorts of new foods including cheese, peaches, yogurt, bread, peas, carrots, green beans, avocadoes, apples, pears, sweet potatoes, rice cereal and oatmeal

He's sleeping through the night on most nights and has a fairly consistent bedtime

In general, I have to say this is such an amazing and fun time to be Nolan's mom. He's a joy to have in my life. While the first three months of his life were demanding and difficult, the last few months have been such a pleasure. He's a happy, laughing, giggling, curious baby. He loves snuggling and giving his mama hugs. Ah, I am a lucky woman!

Father and Son Moment

So Proud to be Standing

Baseball Fan

Our Goofy Little Baseball Fan!

Yes, Nolan is already a baseball fan...

He's attended 4 Twins games already and many of our softball games (many thanks to Grandma Sara for looking after him while we played!). He watches everything with a lot of interest, and Ryan is excited already to play with him when he's ready :)

For Father's Day, Nolan and I got Daddy a Twins jersey and we went to the Twins game. Ryan's jersey is the style that the players wore in 1982, the first year that they played in the Metrodome. He wanted Justin Morneau's name on the back, and wouldn't you know, Justin had the day off yesterday. It was his first game off since 2007, so Ryan didn't get to cheer for him at that game. Oh well, that just means we'll have to go to another game soon, so I don't think Ryan will be complaining too much!

Softball is a fun activity for us in the summer. Ryan plays on a men's league on Thursday evenings. They play double headers every Thursday. We both play on a co-ed league on Friday evenings for Team Hotbox. We've had some family members sub for us this year already too. Kenny has played with Ryan and Summer played for us too. We don't win every game, but we have fun and get to see our friends (which seems to be getting more and more difficult these days).

I'm going to share a few random pictures of us at softball this season.

Three Sisters and Baby

Honk Honk!

Brothers Playin' Ball

Painting Weekend

Last weekend we painted the outside of our house, with the help of our family. Thanks to Summer, Irene, Grandpa Ken, Grandma Jayne, Chris, Denise, Reggie, Kristen, Kenny and Meghan for all of your help!! It made for a fun, yet productive, weekend AND our house now looks great!!

Here is the house with the shutters up for you all to see!