Later, Alligator!

Nathan, Jenny & Tanner officially moved away today. They're off to the land of Hell. . . I mean Arizona. . . to a great new job. And while I am happy for them and all that jazz, I'm also rather bummed. With both of my brother's families leaving the state inside of a couple of weeks, we feel a little friendless lately. . .

Anyway, the day that Nolan got his pictures taken, Tanner was with us, helping to get Nolan to smile, and requested some pictures of his own. He also wanted his picture taken with Nolan. How could I refuse?

This is what we came up with:
The silly smile

The real smile

Cute cousins

Sorry, Tanner, but this weeble is far more interesting than more stinkin' pictures

RIP Sydney Pollack

I don't know why this shocked me so much this morning when I heard it. . . perhaps because I've watched him for so long, and always respected his talent. . . and he didn't seem that old to me. I also didn't realize he had cancer.

Those of us that love movies will miss him.

A Few More

I went and met with Mary last night and got a CD of all of the photos from Saturday.

I thought I'd share a few more of my favorites:


He does the big open mouthed smile so easily, but I love these other moments that aren't quite so obvious. . . They capture some of his other sides so beautifully.

6 Month Photos

Photos on Saturday went really well. I have to admit, I was a little nervous about how Nolan would react to the lights and flashes. But he was a pro!

Here are a couple of shots. . . Mary has more on her blog. And I get to go pick prints and get my CD at 4 today, so I'll soon have more to share.

Made My Day

Not often does something I see in the mall food court make my day. . . but today, at lunch, I wandered past this guy:


It's hard to tell, because I was trying to be sneaky in my picture taking, so let me set it up.

Oldish guy, slight slump to his shoulders, fully gray hair, khaki shorts, tennis shoes and socks pulled half way up to his knees.

But the crowning glory, a navy blue t-shirt with the words, in big white block letters:

I AM HIP-HOP

Yes sir. . . yes you ARE.

Random Friday Thoughts

#1-- I am so glad this week is almost over. Ben has been out of town since Wednesday morning and let me tell you, the single mom thing is REALLY not for me. He'll be gone through Monday, but I will be taking advantage of my close proximity to my parents this weekend and going up there for some back up.

#2-- We're getting Nolan's pictures taken on Saturday. I am so excited, and a little nervous that his cute clothes will be too big. Mary is an awesome photographer, so I'm sure they will be adorable, just like Aubrey's were.

#3-- Like the good Americans we are, we went out and spent our economic stimulus check, just like "Curious George W. Bush" (as Tanner refers to him) asked us to. The result, a new TV to replace the dimming dinosaur that has been living in our house. This is our new toy:

I can't believe what a difference HD makes!

& finally,

#4-- I never thought I'd say this, but we hired a nanny. The babysitting situation was just at the point where I couldn't take it any more, it was stressing me out so much. I just couldn't seem to find an acceptable situation that would stick. SO, I got on Craig's List one day, and started emailing people that were advertising. And we found someone great! She lives close (Mapleton) and her husband is deployed with the Marines right now, so she was just looking for something to fill her days. She is obviously more expensive than a day care, since she comes to our house, but not unreasonably so. And Nolan likes her. I mean really likes her. It has taken such a HUGE weight off of my shoulders. I hope she lasts a very long time.

6 Month Check Up

Weight: 19 lbs 5 oz

Height: 27 inches

I will admit I was a little surprised at how little he'd grown in 2 months, but it makes sense. He can't possibly keep growing at the rate he was growing before. . . The Dr. says he's perfectly healthy, growing great, and ready to start eating more varieties of foods. We're pretty excited to try that out.

In other news, Nolan decided to have his first accident this week. He was sitting on Ben's lap and decided that he needed to nose dive into the corner of the coffee table. He's a quick little bugger these days.
He smacked his eye and left a cute little bruise. Crazy kid.

Ben took a picture to document his first self inflicted bruise.
It was gone the next morning, and most of you probably won't even be able to see it.

Phone Photos

It's pretty common for me to snap random photos with my phone when I don't have my big fancy camera on hand. My phone takes pretty good resolution shots, but the color and focus leave something to be desired, especially when trying to capture a squirmy 6 month old.

These are a quick catch up of some of my favorites that have been hanging out in my phone, waiting to see the light of day:

Real banana in his mesh bag thingy
He liked bananas SO much more this way than as store bought baby food
Anyone know of an easy way to clean the banana out afterward?
That was a PAIN

Playing the "drums" with some wooden spoons

Time to retire the bouncy seat
This is him trying to escape the chair to grab the vacuum cord
Good thing he was buckled in

He's been a sick little boy this week
You can tell because he's willing to cuddle up to me long enough for me to take a picture
I had to capture it, it doesn't happen enough any more

Sharing a "fish" with daddy at Smart Cookie

His first restaurant high chair experience
We went to a tiny hole-in-the-wall Chinese place in Springville and tried the high chair
He did pretty well, with the exception of trying to grab everything in sight and put it in his mouth

Movies

Yeah, I'm apparently going to post a million times today.

We have finished a bunch of Netflix movies lately, and I realized it's been a while since I updated my movie list. . . So, here you go.

Jane Austen Book Club
I read this book before I saw the movie. I felt pretty much the same way about the movie that I did about the book. It was OK. Not great, but OK. The cast was good, but the screenplay was weak. And I'm fairly sure I wouldn't have cast it the way they did. . . The Jane Austen thing is really quite secondary to the plot, so if you're looking for something reflective of the ultimate girliness of Jane, this probably isn't the one for you.


Fierce People
I really didn't like this. It had good moments, but just moments. It also had some REALLY bizarre moments. And some icky moments. And some downright confusing moments. Don't waste your time on this one. . .

I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With
I really wanted to love this. The preview made it look so charming. A sweet chick movie with some less typical cast members. I should have known it would be more like Curb Your Enthusiasm. And if you love that show, you may love this movie. I don't, so I didn't.


Lars And the Real Girl
And the bright spot. This movie starts out a little slow, a little odd. . . but it sneaks up on you. I was crying by the end. It's definitely independent in feel, but it is so sweet and so charming. Also, Ryan Gosling is a genius. Rent this one. Watch it.

Sneaky

He may be a sicky little boy right now, but that doesn't stop him from trying to be sneaky. I turned my back on him for a second, and he went for the remote.

He knows how cute he is

Random Cuteness

Baby Einstein is fascinating!

That crazy duck picture.
He could play with it all day

Contortionist

Still sticking his tongue out at me

His First Fort

Is it a little boy thing? My brothers loved building tents and forts in the living room when we were growing up. Nolan seems destined to be the same way already. When he's playing on the floor in the living room, he now inevitably ends up under the coffee table. I'm not sure why it's so much fun for him under there, but he loves it. Ben got under there with him the other day to try and appreciate the fun.

I'm Famous

OK, it was sort of a Lindsey Lohan, throw yourself out there and people will look, kind of famous, but still. . .

For cupcake fans, this is THE blog to follow. So I sent in a picture of my graduation cupcakes, and they published it! I'm a little happier than i should be. :)

Multi-tasking

I call this series
"what happens when you have a really really long day with your cousins"
Or
"falling asleep while eating"

6 months!

Nolan turned 6 months old on May 1st. I was having a crazy work day that day, so these pictures are rather candid. . . but they work. We needed to document the day, at least.

One of his favorite things, recently, is to bounce in his jumper. Now that Ben raised it up a notch for him, there's a lot of bounce to it. He LOVES to jump up and down, and he's finally figured out how to spin the seat around on his own so he can stay entertained a lot longer.

All in the pursuit of a picture of him sitting up on the couch.

But with the ball, he can sit up all day. . . or at least for 2 or 3 minutes.

Graduation

Nathan graduated from his MBA program on Friday!!

We're all so proud, even if we're bummed that they're moving to AZ as a result of it.

Thanks to my awesome zoom lens, I was able to get some shots of him, even though the set up was AWFUL for families to take pictures. I wish they were a little more in focus, but without a tripod, it was iffy.


Jenny asked me to make cupcakes for the event, and this is what I came up with. I don't know why I had to mull over this for so many days to come up with it, but I did.

It's red velvet cake (because he was graduating from the U), chocolate frosting, and the caps are made from upside down Reeses Peanut Butter cups and Ghiradelli chocolate squares. I piped on red chocolate tassels and stuck a red mini m&m in the middle for the button.

Tulips

I have a million photos to catch up on. . .
I'll start with the pretty tulips growing in our back yard.

Somehow they all turned out to be in the same color family, even though I bought them in 2 separate years. I need to get some variety going for my spring flowers.



In the background are the bleeding hearts.
SUCH gorgeous flowers.
I'm so glad I took a chance on those.