Nolan in February

 

 

My lil Nolan-man is a big 4 year old.

 

He is my sweetie boy, my hugga-bug, my limit-tester, and my crazy ball of energy. 

 

We celebrated his birthday in Helena with grandparents this year. 

 

Here's some things about Nol at FOUR:

 

Nolan is a tenderhearted boy.  He gets sad and sometimes cries if anyone talks about death or dying or going to live with Heavenly Father.  His little heartstrings get pulled.  And so do mine.

 

He can write his name, although I am the only one who would probably recognize it.

 

Nolan always thinks that other kids are his friends.  Even if little kids are mean to him or don't want to play with him, he sorta just shrugs it off and talks about them like they're his besties.  It's really kinda funny, and I'm sure once he gets to kindergarten he'll realize, but for now I adore his innocence and genuine love for everybody.

 

He eats constantly. 

If he's not outside running and running and running, he's inside asking for snacks or a drink.

 

2 long years ago, when we were knee deep in the midst of potty training, he started drinking chocolate milk as a reward for going in the toilet. 

Since then, his love for chocolate milk has not faded one bit, and he asks for it daily (although mom doesn't always give in). 

 

Most of the time,  he is a really darling big brother.  Ez and Nol share a room and sometimes if Z baby has a hard time falling asleep and is crying (or screaming?) Nolan will sing (without any distinguishable tune- just random notes all over the place)  "Don't cwy, Ezwah! It's ok, Ezwah! You can just fall asleep and not cwy."

And the cutest part?  He calls it his "Ezwah song" 

 

 

Nolan's favorite food right now is candy.  The more, the better. 

He is also a fan of Mac n Cheese, and apples or oranges when mom wants him to have a healthy snack.

 

He was so cute on his birthday.  As he opened his presents he would say with each one "This is my FLAVE-IT!"  His excitement and enthusiasm for every aspect of life is so beautiful.  I wish I could be more like that sometimes.



This is one of the ugliest silliest cakes I've ever made, but it was made with love. 

This is my nephew, Kimball.  He came to the party. 
And we were so happy he was there to share his cuteness with us.

These two cute girls LOVE my cute dad (aka Papa Lay). 
And something tells me he's pretty fond of them too.

This is the face my daughter makes EVERY time I try to take her photo.

He had so much fun celebrating with cousins and family.

 

My sister is gorgeous.

Kimball's face SLAYS me!!  He's like "meh"

And here's some silly bath pics of the boys:

"The Holidays" 2013

Thanksgiving  2013 :

 

 

 

For Thanksgiving we went to Helena to spend some time with my parents and siblings. 

My parents sold their home and wanted to get us all together before we moved out. 

All of us were there except Ken and his family.  They went to Oregon for a reunion with Kathy's family.  We missed them for sure.

 

I also had the opportunity to take some family pictures of my siblings and their cute families.  I love them. 

 

 

 

My sister Janet blessed her baby that weekend too, so we stayed for baby Kimballs blessing.  He is so darling.  Just like all of my sister's kids :) 

 

 

 

And, this is totally random, but how cool is this dead rotten tree bark?

 

 

 

December!!!!

We decided to spend Christmas with just our little family this year in Colstrip.  It was so great to just BE!  We didn't have to pack up the crew or drive anywhere and it was calm and relaxed and perfect.

 

 

Ward Christmas Party!   

 

 

 

This year Cecily had her first Christmas music program and she did great! 

 

 

Here's the fam on Christmas Eve & Christmas morning!  We lit the wisemen candles, decorated cookies for Santa, read the Christmas Cookie Sprinkle Snitcher, read Luke 2, and topped it all off with a tiny (but fantastic) See's candy line. 

 

 

 

 

It was a good Christmas. 

 

 



Halloween & Such

October: The month all hell broke loose in my life. 

Ok, not really.

Sometimes it feels that way, though.

 

I jumped head first in to starting a small business (more on that later) in October and really, the rest of my life took a back seat. 

It's been a really amazing and fun ride, and I'm proud of myself for doing something that I was terrified about.  Again, more on this later..... 

 

But for now, here are some pictures of late September and October. 

My dear friend Leslie and I had babies on the same day! 
We stopped on our way home from visiting my parents to see her.  Her little one was born 10 weeks
 early, and was only 2lbs 8oz when she was born!  My tubbo child was 8lbs 2oz. 
 

 

Halloween! Halloween! 

This year, Grandma Vincent was nice enough to make Cecily's costume and send it up to us. There was even fancy white cloves included!   She was so excited to be Cinderella, and she made the PERFECT Cindy, if I do say so myself. 

When we dressed her up for the community Halloween carnival, I let her wear some mascara too (for the first time) and she thought that was really fun.

I love having a girl. 

 

 

Nolan talked for months about wanting to be a ghost, so I made him a ghost costume.  The day of the Halloween carnival, however, he threw a fit and did not want to be a ghost.  I bribed him because I was ticked that I had spent time on a costume that he refused to wear. 

Not my finest mommy moment....

 

Z baby was my little puppy.  He is so cute.  I'm just a little obsessed.

 

On actual Halloween, Nolan again refused to be a ghost, and I didn't care.  So, on went the old spider man costume from the dress up box and trick or treating we went!!

This is one of my favorite images of the two of them. 
To me, it is everything fun that I love about siblings.



My children in their natural state.

 

On the Day We Honor the Laborers

On Labor Day this year we went Camping in Red Lodge.  I LOVE Red Lodge.  It's so so beautiful.  And even though I was nervous about camping with a 3 month old, things went pretty darn well.   He actually slept through the night and I woke up with painful boobs. (TMI?  I don't care).

 

 

 

TIN.FOIL.DINNERS.  In my mind, tin foil dinners are the only acceptable camping food.   I got into this habit in highschool and I'd make them every single time my friends and I went camping.  You could say that by this point I've mastered the art.  I make a mean tin foil dinner.  And by mean, I mean CRAZY delicious.

 

Then we snuggled in the tent, got smokey by the fire, let the kids get ooooooh, so dirty and had an all around marvelous time. 

 

My parents even met us in Red Lodge and came to say hi at our campsite the night we got there.  I didn't get any pictures of the 2 of them, though- darnit.

 

This is what it's all about, people. 

AAAAHHHH, I loved it. 

 

 

 

my boys

love her

All you need is a stick

Cheese!

I said "CJ, kick your legs up when you jump and I'll take a picture!"

Add caption

Do you ever look at pictures where you can just FEEL the happiness you
felt at that moment?  This is one for me. The  sun, the smiles, the woods in
 the background, even the blurriness (proof that it was taken by my darling
 5 year old) all make me feel joy.

FIVE.
So blessed.