Party #2 and 3

We celebrated Nola's real birthday with dinner and a cake.  Nothing too crazy.  I bought some balloons because she has been really into them lately.  I blew a couple up for her and they entertained her for most of the night.

After dinner she opened presents.  She is really getting the hang of opening packages.  It's fun to watch her tear into them.  We got her a stuffed cat that meows.  She liked it but I think she likes Elmo better.  We also got her some Elmo pajamas that might have been too big?

And of course there was cake.

Her third and final party was in Lincoln with her Grandparents, aunts and a few friends.  I was so busy chatting with friends that I didn't get any pictures.  Oops!  She had a great time and got a lot of fun stuff.  She especially loved a baby doll and stroller that a boy from daycare gave her.  After her party she had her first two-year-old melt down because I was carrying the stroller and she wanted to hold it.

Hello terrible twos!  

She's actually pretty terrific

:)

Happy Birthday Nola Jane.  We love you!!

Party #1

Nola is Two!!

             Two days old with Boca                                                One year old                                            Two years old

I can't believe my baby is 2!  Like a true diva, she had 3 parties.  One was the weekend before her birthday in Andover.  My whole family was in town to celebrate!  We had a Minnie Mouse party at my parents house and my mom went all out for it!  There was a lot of cute decorations and even some Minnie Mouse cupcakes.  Nola had a blast (and only a couple of melt downs.)

Everyone was in the mood to party!

Babies and Elmo and clothes, oh my!

She REALLY loved Elmo.  He talks and hugs and is generally pretty creepy.

She also got a microphone and likes to sing into it.  She's not just a singer, she's a performer!! 

And of course there was cake!

We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out, playing an inappropriate card game, attending a beautiful wedding and getting our family pictures done. It was another great weekend in Kansas!

9 Week Recap

For the last 9 weeks we've been busy, busy, BUSY!  I spent all of my time at school or softball.  The little time I got to spend with Nola was not enough, but now that softball is over I'm excited to spend my weekends with this cutie:

Rather then writing out a bunch of stories to catch you up on the last few weeks I'm just going to do a photo dump.  Hold on tight, here comes a lot of pictures of an (almost) two year old!

She loves flipping through an empty photo book.

Mother/daughter photo shoot.

We've already used a sick day!  Luckily, she felt better quickly.

Loving the samples at Sam's

This picture is moving.  New feature in Blogger?  

Second haircut, a cute little bob.

I'm loving these GIFs!  She is the cutest!

The JV softball team after our last game, we won 12-9.

The back of our oven.  We are on week 3 without a range!!  It's getting fixed on Friday... hopefully!

Driving back from our weekend spent with family in Wichita.  Post on that coming soon!

We've got a big day coming up- Nola hits the big 0-2 on Friday!

Boca & Gramcy

My parents came to town last weekend to spend time with me Nola.  Nola loves Grandpa (she calls him Boca) and Gramcy.  

Let's eat Grandpa!  Let's eat, Grandpa.  

Punctuation saves lives.

My Mom brought Nola's Halloween costume with her.  When my twin sister and I were 18 months old my Mom made us dinosaur costumes.  My younger sister and brother also wore them when they were little.  This year, Nola is going to be a dinosaur just like her Mom, Aunts and Uncle!  She liked it?

Well, she got use to it.

She is going to be the cutest dinosaur ever!!  

Mom and Dad were nice enough to hang out with Nola at the house while Robert and I worked in Lincoln (me at a softball tournament, Rob at the office) and then went and saw a movie.  It was nice to have a break.  

They also mentioned something about buying us a shed but I haven't heard anything else about that.....

Love you Mom and Dad!  

Day at the zoo

A few weeks ago my brother and his girlfriend were in Omaha.  We met them at the zoo and had a great time!  Nola LOVES her Uncle Kyle.  When she sees a picture of him she actually says "Uncle Kyle!!"  It's cute, and I think Kyle really likes it too.

Uncle Kyle even got some kisses.

If Uncle Kyle wasn't holding her then she wanted to be held by Allegra.  Thankfully, Allegra loves kids and was happy to show her around the zoo.

They were pretty cute together.  Did you notice Nola's shoes?  Before we left for the zoo I tried on some cute wedges that her Aunt Cathy got her.  She already had socks on so I slipped them on over her socks to see what they looked like.  She wouldn't take them off.  All day.  She wore socks with peep toe wedges.  Fashion faux pas.

We had a great day!  The zoo was fun and the company was awesome!

Last Day of Summer

My 6th year of teaching has officially started!  We started with a few teacher days last week and will start seeing kids on Monday.  I'm looking forward to this school year but I'm sad to see the summer end.  I've really enjoyed spending time with Nola and getting some stuff done around the house napping.  I wanted to start a tradition with Nola so Robert took a day off work and we spent my last day of summer together as a family.  We went to Lincoln and spent the morning at the Children's Museum.  I've never been and wasn't sure what to expect.  It was awesome!  There were different rooms set up as local grocery stores, banks and stores.  There was also a space area, farm area, water area and much, much more.  Nola had a blast.  So did Robert.  Get ready for lots of pictures....

Hanging out in the 3 and under area.  It had games for toddlers and a tree house that Nola loved.

Sam and Louie's employee.

Riding a horse in the Farm area.

Grocery shopping at Hy-vee

Father/Daughter time on the Lunar Rover.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles.  Nola's favorite because of the steering-wheels.

In the kitchen.

Her favorite part- the water room.

Nola was sooooo good the whole morning.  She was so excited.  We will defiantly be going back.  I think it will be even more fun for her as she gets older.  We spent the rest of the day running errands and had a nice dinner.  The next day I went to school and Nola went back to daycare.

When Robert dropped her off at daycare he said she immediately started giving hugs to all the kids.  That makes me feel a little better about going back to school!!