Santa Claus is Coming to town!

A few weeks ago, my co-workers came over and brought me lunch so they could see Nolan. It was fun to see them all and lunch was good!
He was sporting his super cute Gopher's outfit.

At the base they have Santa Claus come out so the families of military members can come out and make toys in Santa's workshop and visit with Santa. Being that it was my last month of maternity leave (booooooo!) I took Nolan in to visit, we had to wait way too long and Nolan passed out and missed all the fun. He is wearing a little Santa's elf apron that could probably fit him two times over but it was too cute to pass up. I can't help but be excited for next year in what the photo's will look like!

Nolan has just recently allowed me to start putting a hat on him that he will keep on, Grandma Bayer gave us this one on her last trip down. It was Aaron's hat when he was little so that makes it all the more fun, plus he looks absolutly adorable in it.

His personality is really starting to come out, he is laughing and cooing and smiling on a regular basis and of course he has his loud moments as well, but for the most part he is still a really happy baby. Although he has decided that he no longer wants to take a bottle, which is not good since I am going back to work in a few weeks (booooooo!!!!!!!) so we have had to make sure that he gets a bottle a couple times a day (vs nursing) and he protests almost every time. He is standing and has been for a few weeks now (with our help to balance of course) and he has started using his hands and grabbing things, at this point we are not sure if knows exactly what he is doing but it is fun to see him start to figure things out. We have been playing the Baby Einstein movies for him and he is very attentive to the screen while they are on. This morning he was laughing and shreiking at the TV while they were on. We also have been reading to him a lot and he is starting to notice the pictures, versus just staring off into nowhere.

We are really excited for Uncle Jeff to get here, he is coming in tomorrow and will meet little Nolan for the first time. He is driving in from North Carolina as we speak, and will be here for two whole weeks so we are excited to spend lots of quality time together. Nolan is also getting baptised on Sunday, we scheduled so close to Christmas so Jeff could be here and Grandma and Grandpa Bayer would also be in town so we have a busy weekend. Here are just a few more cutie pics.

Mommy Play Date

I got together with a couple other mom's the other day to have a little girl time, its fun to get all the babies together although scary to think about when all 5 of them are walking and running around.

Here are the babies, Lauren on the far left is just about 6 months. Emery in the middle is 9 days older that Nolan. We laugh all the time because Emery and Nolan weigh the same but Nolan looks so little next to her. Here are the toddlers below Dylan and Leslie, always being cute and causing trouble.

Mandi's Home, Thanksgiving and my first cold.

So Nolan got to meet my friend Mandi for the first time a few weeks ago. She was in Iraq when he was born. Little Nolan liked hanging out with Auntie Mandi!

On Thanksgiving Eve we took Nolan to church service, here is Nolan with his surrogate grandma Suzi

and Pastor Bonnie

Here are some fun photos from Thanksgiving.

My neice Bonnie getting to be a big girl! The wanted to hold him all night it was really cute. I don't think she quite understood that he was really a person and not a doll.

Grandma with her grandkids!!

Uncle JeremyAntie Sara

Yesterday we had friends Thanksgiving and Nolan had a fun time with all the other little babies. But in the middle of the night he woke up with an awful cold. Poor guy kept chocking on all the gunk in his throat, it was awful. Although we cleaned him out as best we could with the bulb syringe (genuis invention) and napped all day with a humidifier and some essential oils and he is much better this evening. We are thankful for that because it was really hard to listen to him hack and cough and not be able to do anything for him.

Maternity leave should be at least a year long!

It has been awhile since I have posted a blog mostly because Nolan and I are running around all day and then at night we just want to relax with Dad. We have been having a good time doing all sorts of things. Last week Nolan hung out with Auntie Sara and Uncle Johnny while we went out on a date. We went to the Olive Garden, and then went and bought Wall E and came home and watched it. It was wonderful. We have lots of play dates with Emery and Amanda. We made it down to Grandma and Grandpa Wildes house two weeks ago, and got to spend some quality time.

This last weekend we went to Peyton's 5th Birthday party. It was fun and also a little sad I remember the day that Peyton was born and I cannot believe how fast it has gone. Peyton was very excited and wanted to help with Nolan

The week before I had lunch with one of my oldest friends Lindsey and her daughter Annaleah, she is also growing up way too fast.

This is kind of a somber blog. As the days go by my heart keeps getting heavier and heavier at the realization that I will have to leave my son and go back to work. I keep hoping for a miracle or maybe someone to sponser me (like pay me my current salary to stay at home :) I do not want to go back, we keep hoping that Aaron will get a promotion and then maybe it will be a possibility but at this time its not.

Anyway on to more exciting things we are really excited for Thanksgiving. We are going to my parents house on Thursday and then on Friday we are going to John and Sara's house for dinner with Aaron's family. We are hoping to get the house decorated for Christmas and relax a little over the weekend. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

My boys snoozing away together!

To Grandma and Grandpa's House we go!

Nolan had his first babysitter this past week! I was aching to get back to the gym, and they don't take infants until six weeks so my gracious neighbor Jean offered to watch him so I could go to water aerobics! They had a great time together and she offered to take him every week so I could go work out which is so great because she is right next door. She also has offered to watch him during broomball season.

We took our first road trip this weekend to Grandma and Grandpa Bayer's cabin this weekend! They are getting settled into the cabin as their new full time home. The entire family was there. Nolan's aunt Sara and Uncle John (also Nolan's goodparents) were there. Sara's parents and her brother and his girlfriend Laurie also joined us. The guys all spent the weekend hunting and us girls went into town to shop while dad and Nolan stayed home to watch the Gopher game. Unfortunatly the gopher football game was a disappointment and the guys came home with no deer. In fact the only one they saw the entire weekend was on the way back to the car when they were headed home. However we had a fun time just hanging out and playing Settlers of Catan. Of course the major highlight of the weekend was the Vikings beating the Packers! woohoo!!!

On the way up we stopped in St. Cloud to visit my cousin Becky and her daughter Claudia again! She is growing so much, she still looks so tiny next to Nolan. He is out growing so many of his clothes already! Claudia looks so much like her dad! I am wondering how both Becky and I carried these babies for 9 months and there is no physical evidence that they belong to us!

We then stopped at my good friend Missy's house, she also lives in St. Cloud and had not yet met Nolan! Here is a picture of Missy, her son Peyton and Nolan. It was so much fun. Nolan was telling us he was hungry in this picture.

Grandma Bayer and Nolan.

Grandpa Bayer and NolanUncle Johnny, Aaron and Nolan



Auntie Sara and NolanAnd just another cutie picture..




Today we went a visited Dad at his school and got to meet all his students. It is so funny to see at a baby through the eyes of 1st graders. I forgot my camera though, I'll have to bring it next time.

1 Month Old already!!!!

I have decided to start a blog to update everyone about little Nolan. He was one month old on Sunday, I cannot believe how fast it has gone. Aaron and I are both loving being parents, he is so much fun. Nolan has been making lots of new friends, last week he had future wife Emery over for a play date ( Emery and Nolan are 9 days apart for those of you who don't know that) and later on friends Dlyan and Leslie came over for a dance party.

Amanda, Emery and me and Nolan Enjoying the nice weather at the end of Oct.

My Aunt and Unlce and cousin Phillip were in town last week. They came in to meet Nolan and Claudia who my cousin Becky also just had 2 weeks ago. So on Halloween we took our first road trip up to St. Cloud to meet Claudia, she seemed so little compared to Nolan.

For Halloween were a Pirate Family. We went to our Church and participated in the annual Trunk or Treat. It was fun.