april, may, and june resolutions

I haven't been very good about updating my new years resolutions lately. But, I have been better about actually doing them!

April: MIND

For April, I wanted to do something that would allow me to exercise my mind more. I decided to work on reading more. I read a lot of books right after Nolan was born, but since he has gotten bigger and more demanding and I've started working again, I haven't really had the time or desire to read. I decided it was time to make reading more of a priority in my life. I checked out a bunch of books from our library. They were pretty much all fiction, youth novels that I knew I could read fairly quickly. I'm still not really in a place where I want to delve into a heavy book right now. I just don't have the time or patience to get through them. Anyway, I definitely accomplished my goal by reading seven books that month! I'll have to do another post on some of my favorites, but I am loving the I am Number Four series!

May: BODY

In May I decided it was time to work on my physical health again. I've really had a hard time getting back into exercising since having Nolan. I get so discouraged when I see some of my friends with babies 5 of 6 months old running marathons or even 5ks. My pregnancy and birth were really hard on my body. I was anemic for half my pregnancy, I was nauseous for the first 6 months which made it hard to do anything more than going to work every day (which ended in me gaining a little more than I wanted to), I broke my tail bone, and I've had hip and lower back pain from about half way through my pregnancy. I'm STILL suffering from pain in my tail bone and hip/back!

SO, I decided I needed to work on strengthening my lower back and hips to try to alleviate some of this pain so I can get back to where I want to be physically. I started doing some yoga at home. I'm doing a specific workout for back pain and it is really helping! The first time I did it, I was sore in spots on my back that I didn't even know existed! I don't get quite as sore anymore, but it is still a great work out and it has helped relieve some of my pain. My goal was to do some form of exercise three days a week. I did accomplish this for the most part, but not the week I spent in Utah for my aunt's funeral.

June: TIME MANAGEMENT

Life lately has been a little bit tough for me for a few different reasons. First, it has been hard for me to juggle my time between a toddler who doesn't like to play by himself; my job; and my responsibilities as wife, chef, and housekeeper. When I waste some of my time or don't have enough time to accomplish everything, the first thing to go is usually the tidiness of our house. And this leads to a downward spiral. I am less happy when everything is messy which makes Nolan less happy which means I accomplish less and become more stressed. So, no matter how many commitments I have and deadlines I have to reach, I've been working on keeping everything relatively neat. My goal for this month has been to make daily goals for myself and to organize my time well enough that I can accomplish everything I need to. Even if this means less time for things I want to do. So far things are going well and I've actually felt like I have more time! I mean look, here I am blogging for the first time in almost 3 months! :)

easter 2013

Easter this year landed about a week before Nolan's birthday (on my mom's birthday!). This was so awesome because it meant that Nolan got to celebrate two Easters before turning one!

The night before, Scott and I were up late and didn't have time to do all of the Easter bunny work, so our baskets didn't arrive until after church. Actually, Scott and I haven't ever done baskets for each other before, but we decided to do it this year. Having a toddler just makes celebrating every holiday seem necessary and much more fun! :)

Scott and I mostly got Easter candy, a DVD, and a new book each. I also got Scott an HDMI cable that he has been wanting for his Xbox and I picked out a pair of swim shorts for myself. :)

Nolan got a new book, a DVD with some kids cartoons, some rubber duckies, and some snacks! He loved his Easter basket and all of the colorful eggs and surprises!

My aunt and uncle who live about 40 minutes from us were kind enough to invite us over for Easter dinner. We had a great time and were glad to have some family to celebrate with!

After we came home from dinner, we skyped with my mom to wish her a happy birthday!

the twelfth month

Nolan turned one about two months ago! I can't believe how old he is getting! I've been so busy lately and haven't been able to update the blog as often as I'd like to.

Nolan had a great birthday! My brother Nathan was on spring break the week of Nolan's birthday, so my parents were able to come down with him and celebrate with us! We had a great time with them swimming and expolring some of Phoenix.

For Nolan's actual birthday, we decided to go to the Zoo. The Phoenix Zoo is huge and has tons of animals! It was so fun to show Nolan around. He either growled or barked at every animal. My parents even gifted us a zoo membership for Nolan's birthday. It only costs about $5 more than it would cost for 4 adult admissions -- and you get two free passes. Now we get to take Nolan to the zoo all year!

After the zoo, we came home for naps while I made dinner and Nolan's cake. We had baked ziti for dinner because I promised my mom a birthday dinner (she asked for lasagna) and Nolan loves pasta with any kind of red sauce.

Nolan's cake was a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. This was about a week before my suspicion that Nolan is allergic to milk was confirmed. So, unfortunately, this was probably his first and last experience with cream cheese ... at least for the next few years. (hopefully he grows out of his allergy!). Anyway, he LOVED the cake and ate every last bite!

We then opened presents. Grandma and Grandpa B. got Nolan some cute outfits and some books, uncle Nate got Nolan a mini soccer ball, and we got Nolan his own mini laptop, a giant animal book, and some magnets for the fridge. He loves all of his gifts! He even got a card with a puppy on it from his Nana and Pap pap. He loved the card and ran around giving the puppy kisses all day! The card came with a check which we opted to use to open a savings account for him. He doesn't really need any more gifts and we wanted to start a tradition of giving him money to save every birthday.

The best part of the whole evening was probably when we brought out the balloons. I had wanted to get them filled with helium, but we didn't end up having time to find a place to do it for us. But, I'm glad it turned out that way because Nolan was so funny when he saw them! He tried to grab one but it bounced away, so he started chasing after them and trying to tackle them. Of course, they'd always pop out of his grasp so he'd have to keep going after them. It was so hilarious to watch! He was so serious about the whole thing! It didn't even look like he was having fun! Luckily my parents got it on video. I'll have to see if I can get a copy to upload. 

After all of the festivities, we put Nolan down for the night and I ended up going to bed early as well with a migraine. Too much heat, sun, and stress for one day! But, I'm so glad Nolan had a great day!