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! 

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. 

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!

Recent Pictures

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the last couple of weeks. Sorry if you saw these on Facebook too, but at least I'll discuss them a bit here.

Here's Nolan checking himself out in the mirror on his activity mat. He just kept doing this over and over again. He'd catch a glimpse of himself in the mirror and then open his mouth and try to take a bite!

This was Nolan's first time at a lake. We were at Grammi and Grandpa Dick's house on Lake Emily. I think he really didn't understand what we were doing, but he was enjoying the new experience!

Grammi had such fun nursery rhymes to sing to Nolan. He loved spending time with his great-grandma!

Training Walks

Grandma Jayne, Kristen, Chayton, Grandpa Ken and Nolan

This year I got the idea to participate in the Breast Cancer 3 Day, which is 3 day, 60 mile fundraising walk for breast cancer research, treatment and education. Kirstin, Jayne and Kristen are all walking with me (there are ten of us in total), and we've gotten a good start on our training already. The reason I mention this in my blog is that Ryan and Nolan have gone on just about every walk with us! For a couple of the walks, Ryan met us halfway with Nolan in the stroller. Last week we walked about 5 miles (no GPS, so we can't be sure of the actual distance) with Grandpa Ken, Grandma Jayne, Jake, Kristen, Reggie, Ryan, Chayton, Nolan and a pack of dogs. What a fun time! I wonder what the other bikers on the trail thought of such a big group of people and animals.

Nolan sat in the stroller for the first hour, just looking around and chewing on his pacifier attacher. Then he got a little antsy and we all took turns carrying him back. He looked so cute in his little sun hat :)

Grandpa Ken and Nolan

Another funny incident was when Pika, Kristen's pug, started to get tired. She was a little trooper and kept up for quite a while, but eventually she just started to lay down in every patch of shade along the pavement. Someone got the idea to put her in the carrying basket below the Chayton's stroller, but Pika just wouldn't have it. She'd jump out every time we put her in there. Finally, because she was so tired and really just needed a rest, Grandpa Ken took Pika's leash and tied it so that she couldn't get out of the basket. She looked so funny just sitting there and panting. It got the job done though because soon her breathing returned to normal and she found a way to hop out and jog along with us again.

Pika Hitching A Ride

Visiting with Grandpa Garth

Wow, that was almost a week ago already! We had a fabulous time with Grandpa Garth (I know, it still sounds weird to say that) last week. His plane was a little delayed on Monday, so we had to get going right away to the Progressive building to pick up my car. By the way, I think my car looks even better now than it did before the accident! After that we headed back home and had just a little time before Kirstin and Ryan got home. Ryan, Nolan and I left for the Twins game with G-papi and Grandma Teri (if you get me pics of this I'll post them) while Kirstin, Irene and Grandpa Garth took Frank to the dog park. Irene was the brave one who picked up the poo...but Grandpa Garth had to do it later in the week! After the game, we spent another few hours chatting at our place. It's so great having family all in one spot and catching up!

Tuesday and Wednesday I worked and Grandpa found things to keep him busy (tennis with Wilk and lunch with Diedrich). Wednesday night Grandpa went to salsa, which has become a regular activity for him when he visits us. Thursday Grandpa, Nolan, Frank and I went to the dog park again. Later that night we all went over to G'ma Sara's and G'pa Mario's for chili and Nintendo Wii. It was fun seeing everyone get up there and trying out the Wii...Kirstin is a natural snowboarder and stepper. Diedrich and Grandpa Garth picked up tennis pretty quickly too! All in all this was a great visit because it gave me a chance to really talk to my dad and he got to see how much Nolan has changed these last few months. Here two pictures from his time here:

Proud Grandpa

Future Guitar Player?