Birthday Boy!!!

Today is Nolan's 5th birthday! I can't believe that this little guy is already 5....it just doesn't seem possible :)

He had two birthday parties. One was with Matt's mom and dad on the 24th of January. They were taking off for vacation, but wanted to celebrate his birthday with him. Teresa made Nolan a really cute Spongebob cake and he got some new games for his V-Flash....and he got some new clothes which I appreciate, but Nolan's not so hot on receiving clothes as gifts!!!

His other party was on the 31st. We just had family come up again. He got a body torso from my dad with organs that come out and have question cards with "fun facts" about the human body. Matt and I bought him a chemistry kit that came with a microscope. He got a couple books from the Helpers, and he got some cash from the Baileys and Aunt Kim. Matt took Nolan to Wal-Mart last night to spend some of his money. He bought two Bakugans. I had never heard of these before, but Nolan's been asking for them since before Christmas. We went to our neighbor's birthday party on Sunday, and he had these toys....so I wrote down the name, and finally located them online and knew that Wal-Mart carried them.

The pics from the party didn't turn out too great, but I'll share what I've got.

Teresa's Spongebob cake.

V-Flash games.

Nolan and Judson checking out some organs!

Ready for some cake.

Nathan with Pops....we think they look alike.

Bathing Beauties

These are just some pics of bath time!

Nicholas in the baby bathtub.

Natalie with her bath time Barbie.

Nate with his spiky hair.

We double up on their baths.

Nolan taking his shower!

Doctor Day

Natalie, Nathan, and Nicholas had their doctor's appointments on Tuesday. Matt went with me cause I knew it would be hard to manage 3 kids in the exam room, but Nolan ended up having a snow day, so he went too....the six 0f us in one tiny exam room....use your imagination on that one!!! It was funny to hear the nurse call us back as "The Cook family."

Natalie did GREAT this time!!! The last time I had her to a doctor's appointment, she wouldn't even stand against the wall to see how tall she was and refused to be weighed. This time, she was a bit hesitant at first, but as soon as she started receiving some praise from the nurses, it was smooth sailing. She had an eye test this time too. It was funny to listen to her when they were trying to get her to read the really small line....she was trying to guess the shapes, and you could hear it in her voice's inflection...."Circle???"

Nathan behaved very well too. Since Matt was there, and Nathan is quite the Daddy's boy, he was in charge of him. I told the doctor that I had some concerns with Nathan's eyes. It's probably just me, but it looks like one of his eyes takes time to get in focus....and Nathan tends to stand closer to the TV when he's watching a show. So, the doctor is going to schedule him to see a Pediatric Opthamologist. Like I said, though, it's probably just me, and he'll end up just fine at that appointment.

Finally, Nicholas did pretty well too. He's growing very well and was in the 90th and 75th percentile on height and weigh...but I'm not sure which is which. He got his first round of shots too. He had been asleep on me when I had to lay him on the table. He immediately started crying. The fist vaccine they gave him was oral and it took a while to administer....so he was not in a very good mood for the shots. Natalie and Nolan were standing by the exam table trying to soothe Nicholas, and Natalie even sang him a song. When the nurse stuck him with the first shot, Nicholas really started whaling....this sent Nolan into a sobbing cry because someone was hurting his brother. As soon as I picked up Nicholas, though, he was okay. He must have slept about 14 hours or more that night and spent a great deal of time asleep yesterday as well. I think the only reason he woke up from his sleep was because he had peed through his outfit.

So all the kids are doing great. Nolan will be the next one who goes for a doctor's appointment, and it will be a doozey. Since he will be having his 5 year check-up, he'll get some shots.....maybe I can talk Matt into taking him to that one!!!

Nicholas and His New Blanket

Jennifer and Barbara stopped by yesterday, and Barbara had made a beautiful blanket for Nicholas. I took some cute pictures of him with the blanket. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up carrying this blanket around as his security blanket, because it's so beautiful that I'm going to use it in his bed often. Here are the pictures.

He's getting chunky for sure.

Nicholas is such a pleasant baby :)

Nathan had to get in this shot too.

Snowman!

Matt had the kids out playing in the snow today. They built a snowman, and it looked great! I had to watch them from inside (poor me, didn't get to go outside and freeze! LOL).

Nathan wouldn't turn around..or maybe "couldn't" due to his clothes! He was struggling to walk!!!

The Father-Daughter Team!

Nolan just loves the snow!

Nathan is not too thrilled with his outfit!

Natalie is sooooo ready to go outside!

Here's Natalie pulling Nathan on the sled!

While the kids were napping, Matt noticed that the snowman was beginning to tilt backward quite a bit. So he went out to fix it....in SHORTS!!!

What a great Daddy! He's making repairs to the snowman and freezing his legs for the sake of happy kids!!!

World Geography

Nolan got a Kid's Atlas book for Christmas from Pop-paw David and Shirley. He's really been studying it a lot lately, and is now interested in World Geography. He can spell a few countries, recognize lots of flags, and even tell us which continent several countries are on. Here's a pic of the "game" he did yesterday....spelling the countries with magnets.

Brazil :)

Putting the "C" in Cuba.

The kids also used their Tinker Toys to create some weights. Here are Nolan and Natalie lifting some weights with their hands and feet!!!

Toothless!

It took a bit of coaxing last night, but Nolan finally let me pull his tooth! He had wiggled the back root out himself, so it was only hanging on by the front root. I tried to get him to pull it himself, but he was a little too scared. I tried and tried to get him to allow me to pull it, but he refused over and over again Finally, at nearly 8:00 last night, I pretended that I was a dentist....Dr. Loofadoo. I had Nolan sit in my dentist's chair, and I shined my dentist's light in his mouth. I took a paper towel and used it to grab the tooth, and then easily popped it out! Nolan was a bit shocked when I did it, but after he realized that I got his tooth out and it didn't hurt, he was ecstatic!

The Tooth Fairy visited Nolan last night, but Nolan was a little disappointed that he only got one dollar. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't think the Tooth Fairy kept up with inflation. I told him that those one dollar bills add up after a while, so that got him satisfied.

Here's a pic of my toothless boy!

Teeth!

About a week ago, I noticed that Nolan had pretty much cut his 6 year molars on the bottom. He was really excited about getting new teeth. As we were eating lunch today, he started complaining about one of his teeth hurting. I had him show me which one it was....it was one of his front bottom teeth. He brushes his teeth really well, so I figured it wasn't a cavity and decided to stick my finger on it to see if it was loose. It most definitely is a loose tooth. Now Nolan is extremely excited, and I'm sure he'll be wiggling it every chance he gets......so pretty soon he'll have a visit from the Tooth Fairy!!!

My Last Baby

As I sit here typing this blog, Matt is doing his part for population control!!! His surgery is this morning, and we'll officially be having no more babies. So, it dawned on me last night that I had better cherish all the baby stuff with Nicholas while he's still so tiny. I got out my camera and took a bunch of pictures of him last night....I'm not a great photographer, so some of the pics are a bit out of focus.

So serious.

Happy boy!

Cock-eyed grin....so cute.

Slobbery chin.

He looks so precious.

Nathan, the big brother.

I couldn't ask for cuter boys!

I Couldn't Resist

When the kids are teenagers, they're really gonna hate me for this post....but I couldn't resist! When I was pregnant, the kids would shove balls up their shirts to look pregnant too....now look what they're doing!

Just feeding the baby dolls the way Mommy feeds Nicholas!

Christmas & Nicholas

It's a little bit late for my Christmas post, but I'm finding my time to be a little limited these days! Christmas was great. Santa came to our house early in the night (thank goodness) because a little boy (Nolan) was ready for his presents in the middle of the night. At 1:45 a.m., I was fast asleep on the couch, when I heard a little voice say, "It's everything I wanted!" I turned my head, and saw Nolan looking in awe at the presents under the tree. I told him to go back to bed, and he did....for a little bit. He made a couple more trips downstairs before I convinced him that it was still time to sleep!

The rest of the bunch woke up around 8 or so in the morning, and we actually had to get Nathan out of bed for the big event. The kids were happy with their presents, and boy did they get a lot of stuff after all was said and done. We finally wrapped up our Christmas activities on Saturday after all of our company had given the kids their gifts. And Sunday, I was so ready for my house to be "normal" again, that we put all of our Christmas decor away....it's nice to get rid of some of the clutter!

Here are a few Christmas pics and a couple of pics I took of Nicholas yesterday! He's growing more and more each day.

Nolan with his race track.

Natalie with her Polly Pockets.

Nathan got a Big Wheel. He'll have a blast this summer keeping up with his big brother and sister!

Wide-eyed!

Starting to smile!!!

Pre-K Christmas Party

Yesterday was Nolan's Christmas party at school. Our whole family made it to the party, and I'm so thankful I had Matt's help this time. Miss Aimee took Nicholas immediately, and then when she was finished holding him, another mother held him and kept him for the entire party....so it was nice to have free hands!

The kids were all great. Nathan was excited about all the treats there. I had to keep a close eye on him because he was grabbing at other kids' plates and drinks, but I think I kept him from snatching anyone else's stuff. Natalie was a little disappointed that she didn't get to participate in the songs they sang, but she didn't throw a fit about it....she just had a pouty look on her face. She was as good as gold at the table for refreshments, and even told me that they shouldn't have the TV on because everyone was eating (that's one of our house rules).

I got to meet Nolan's girlfriend at this party. He has told me about her, and she frequently puts drawings in his backpack, but I had never really seen her before. I was surprised when she came right up to me as soon as we walked in the class. She said, "Hey Nolan's mom." I said hi to her as well. She then proceeded to tell me that Nolan was really cute. I just laughed and thought back to my elementary school days when I always had my little "boyfriends" She was about twice Nolan's size.....she towered over him....it reminded me of the movie Sixteen Candles with the foreign exchange student and his girlfriend. But it was really cute to see how much she liked Nolan. Another mother told Matt that her daughter came home from school one day and said, "I got my first kiss today." When her mother asked from whom....she replied, "Nolan." We asked Nolan if he had kissed any of the girls in his class, but he denies it....so it's hard to tell what's the truth, unless we ever get to ask Miss Aimee.

Here are a few pics from the party.

Nolan and Emily (his girlfriend). Some other kid took this picture...Nolan thought it was a good idea to share my camera with his classmates.

Nolan eating some snacks.

Natalie took a moment to smile for the camera.

Nathan was loving all the food. I didn't give him a snowman cupcake at first. But he starting pointing to them, and saying "snowman" so I had to give in.

Natalie and Nathan's Birthday Party

We celebrated Natalie and Nathan's birthdays yesterday. It was actually Natalie's birthday, but instead of having everyone drive up to our house again next weekend, we went ahead and celebrated Nathan's big day as well. The kids had a ton of fun opening their presents and eating their cakes. We messed up and let Natalie skip a nap before her party, so she wasn't exactly pleasant for most of the day.....but when it came to opening her gifts, she was good as gold. Everything she opened, she would say, "Oh!!! A new (whatever toy it was)" It was so cute when she tore off the wrapping paper of one present that was then in a decorative snowman box... she assumed that the snowman box was her present...since the wrapping was off. She then exclaimed, "Oh!!!! A new snowman!" But she then realized she had to open the box as well.

Here are some birthday pics.

The pretty birthday girl!

She got a great big baby doll.

Nathan was proud of the mess he made with his cake!!!

Bad pic of Nolan (my fault)....but he wanted me to show off his blue teeth and lips.

This was a few days ago....

I just love this pic.....Natalie loves her new baby brother.

Christmas Pictures and a Snow Day

I'm updating today just because I know I've fallen a bit behind on my blog since Nicholas has arrived.

Everything is going well with the kids. Nolan is still spitting out all the states and capitals, and he has recently learned nearly every state bird and flower thanks to the book that Aunt Pam sent.....he absolutely loves it!

Natalie is so excited for Christmas, or at least looking forward to the toys she will get. Anytime a commercial comes on the tv that shows a girl playing with a toy, she shouts, "I want that for Christmas!" And, of course you have to acknowledge her everytime...."Okay, Natalie. You want that for Christmas." That's why I love the channel Noggin....they don't have any commercials! It's even gotten so bad that she says she wants raisens for Christmas because of the Sunmaid Raisen girl!

Nathan is as rotten as ever. He's becoming quite the talker as well. He repeats EVERYTHING he hears. I'm sure that if he sat with Nolan for a bit, he would probably run around here saying the names of states too! I was so impressed with him the other morning. After he burped, he said "Excuse me."....and it's not even something I've been working with him to say.....he's just picked it up from his siblings!!!

Finally, little Nicholas is great as well. He's such a good baby...which I must say all of my babies have been good as babies too. He's waking up only twice during the night for feedings, but it's not so bad. Though, I must admit that one full night of sleep for myself would be fantastic!!! I haven't had a full night's sleep in months.....and I'm still sleeping on the couch so I don't disturb anyone during the night. I've slept on the couch since June, so I'm really looking forward to Nicholas sleeping all night so that I can get myself back in a bed!

I don't have many pics this time, but here are the one's I do have (and no pics of Nicholas.....this is what happens when you're number 4!)

I was trying to get a super-cute Christmas picture of Nathan to send to a radio contest....but he's not been very cooperative thus far. The deadline is Saturday!

Natalie was participating for a Christmas shot too, but she's over the age limit. Isn't she cute....ketchup face and tangled hair...she's still a beautiful girl!

Natalie and Matt having fun in the snow.

Nolan loves the snow....look how huge his gloves are....we couldn't find his, so these are adult-sized.