The Hoeppner's

Firsts!

2009-12-17T18:04:00.000-08:00

These past couple weeks have been a week of firsts! First, we moved into our new house, Nolan's first night in our new house went well - better than I anticipated. He's been adjusting more and more each day. Now we just need to work on breaking him of that binky!!! We'll work on tackling that battle during vacation.

This past weekend was the first weekend our niece Abby was down to visit for the weekend (not sure she'll be allowed to come back since we returned her sick :( ) The kids had a WONDERFUL time. Nolan just loved playing with his cousin Abby. This was the first time since he's been born that they've been able to play together all weekend long. We are calling this the cousin sleepover, hopefully we can do it each year - this year was the first for the cousin sleepover.

Ready for nigh nigh (you see Abby stole Grandma's cell phone)

Here's a pic of my new kitchen, sort of!! I chopped off the kids heads and got the dogs!

Mr. Photogenic

Grandma and two sleepy kids!

Abby dancing

Saedee will take anything, the kids were sitting on her all weekend.

The kids found a plastic tub to play in kept them busy for, well, minutes.

Red Flyer tricycle rides, Jeremy took them all around the kitchen and they were loving it!

Big Cheese!!!

Kisses for the cousins, Love this picture!

And the fighting begins...

We had another Big event this week, Nolan had his first hair cut!! He was in desperate need of it. Not that his hair was long, it was just shaggy in some areas. It was growing over his ears and the back was getting curly and shaggy. Daddy held him on his lap and I took pictures and video. Love his zebra cape, Jeremy hated it but it was super cute!!!

Look Mom, Neely has snow flakes hanging from her studio!! Cheap and free entertainment while getting a hair cut.

What a look!

Nolan loves to brush and comb his own hair.

Just enough around my ears. Looks like a little boy hair cut!

6 months later

2009-10-26T14:14:00.000-07:00

So six months later and I log back on. I guess that's what happens when you have a 1 year old. That's right, Nolan just turned a year. I still can't believe how fast he's grown. It's been a quick year and I'm afraid it'll go much quicker. These past 6 months a lot has changed, not only am I the mother of a 12 month old, but we sold our house, moved in with my brother in law and sister in law, and are waiting for a new house to be built. Blogging has been second on my list of to do's! Now we're in a routine, after 3 months of living here, and I actually have time in the evening to blog. But I only have 4 more weeks and then we move into our NEW house. We're very excited, very grateful for our family members allowing us to stay here. Nolan has been good birth control for them! Us too! :) I love my 14 month old dearly, but boy is he a handful. Aren't all 14 month old's??

This weekend is Halloween - Nolan is going as a Notre Dame football player and cousin Abby is going as a Michigan cheerleader. Should be cute! Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Tiff are Michigan fans (boo on the Watson's) and of course we're big ND fans! Abby will be turning 2 this weekend, what a joyful little girl, so sweet and so delicate. She's like a porcelain doll! I love her to pieces. I know when Nolan gets a little bigger they'll be playing nonstop. As for now, he'll be chasing her around like a bully and most likely will sit on her since he weighs more than her!

This past 6 months have gone by so quick and a lot has changed for us, Nolan especially! Below are some pics from this fall outside in Uncle Chris' and Aunt Heather's back yard! Enjoy.

Grass, what's this?

2009-04-25T19:41:00.000-07:00

This afternoon was the first nice day that we had time to take Nolan outside and let him enjoy nature (well the backyard). After several hours of cleaning and getting ready for our open house we found time to take Nolan outside and let him look and feel around. I sat him down in the grass, and he just touched it. He didn't know what to think. It was so cute. He got super excited, and then started picking at each piece of grass.
Tomorrow is Mutt Strutt down at the Indy 500. More pics to post tomorrow. Hopefully Shelby cooperates for us!!

7 & 8 Month updates

2009-04-14T18:39:00.000-07:00

Boy it's been a couple busy weeks, actually months! We've got our house on the market, we've got showings each week, so it feels like all we do is clean, keep the house clean, and arrange for Shelby to go to Aunt Heather and Uncle Chris'. Still no bites, but we're hoping something happens soon. We remodeled the bathroom, put in a new double vanity, painted, and installed new light fixtures. Hopefully it'll help - SOON! We're eager to get into a new house and to get settled into something with a basement and 3 car garage.

The week has been very hard on our family. My grandmother suffered a massive stroke last week. She recovered from a stroke in November of last year and was doing wonderfully, to the point her doctors were amazed how well she recovered. Unfortunately, there is a high risk a stroke patient will have a another stroke following recovery. This time the stroke has put her in a coma and she will not be able to return to us again. She is currently in hospital hospice with my aunts and family by her side. I'm so thankful that Nolan got to meet his Great Grandma, he may not remember her, but I have pictures to show him when he gets older. I'm also thankful Grandma got to meet Nolan, actually just a few hours after he was born and a couple other times. She has been a huge impact on our lives and we'll miss her a great deal. I keep her in my prayers and know that one day we'll meet again. She's going to soon be in a safe place where she'll be with her family and Grandpa again. Please keep our family in your prayers over the next couple weeks while we go through these tough times.

Grandma and Nolan at Abby's 1st Birthday party.

Nolan has been growing so much. He's almost crawling. He can get on his hands and knees and rock. I would say in the next couple weeks he'll be mobile. Our lives will soon change forever. :) He's been rolling all over the house, one day I was cooking in the kitchen and he was in the family room playing with his toys. It was awful quiet, I look over and sure enough he had rolled all the way into the kitchen. Time to baby proof the house and especially the light sockets! In the past couple days I've noticed he's started to kiss me, well I guess you can call it a kiss. I will lean in to give him a kiss and he'll lean back and open his mouth a little. It's so cute! He's growing so quick, but I know there are so many other milestones I'll be able to write about soon! August is coming quick, his 1 year birthday will be here soon. It's time for me to start planning his party!!!!

Bath time! Nolan loves to suck on his little rubber ducky. He's a very active little bath boy. Always kicking and splashing, talking and singing.

Such a cute little naked baby. How he's going to kill me when he gets older.

Getting jammies on after the bath. I can actually comb his hair!

8 Months, now I have to strap him in his chair, he likes to move around A LOT and sometimes has figured out how to bend over the sides of the chair and stand up a little. BOYS!

On his hands and knees, almost crawling. He can get up on his hands and knees and rock, but doesn't quite move yet. I'm sure it'll only be the next couple weeks!

He can now sit up on his own, I mean his own without worrying about him falling all the time. He still will throw himself back or to the side when he wants to get on his tummy to roll around. He's doing really good with his balance.

What's that a remote? I'll take that to play with over my toys any day.

YUMMY - he could chew on the remote all day if I let him.

6 Month Milestones

2009-02-26T09:32:00.001-08:00

So Nolan is 6 months old now. He's getting so big and has learned so much. I don't remember what it was like to have a little tiny baby in the house, wait I do remember it was screaming all the time! It's nothing like that now, he's the happiest baby I know... and I'm not just saying that because I'm his Mom ;) This month he had his 6 month check up and weighed 17lbs, was 26 inches long, both of which were in between the 25th and 50th percentile. His head is another story... his head measured in the 75th percentile, which isn't a problem. The problem is it had jumped from the 25th percentile to the 75th. The doctor doesn't seem concerned. She said that normally it shouldn't jump that much unless the rest of his body does. All of his developmental skills are fine and he's advanced in some areas over most kids his age. She said they would continue to monitor the growth of his head and if it jumps to the 100th percentile they would do a CT scan to make sure nothing was wrong. Other than that he is doing wonderfully!

This month we also took him in for his 6 month pictures. We tried Portrait Innovations this time instead of JC Penny's, it was a much better experience and Nolan was such a HAM. He smiled at everything and everyone. On the way in he fell asleep and I thought to myself, this is going to be the biggest nightmare waking him up and trying to make him sit and smile. He proved me wrong (which I'm sure he'll try to do as he gets older, but I won't let him). Pictures are to the right of the blog on a slide show - Enjoy!

Last week I had my second tooth implant - and my last. I won't do this ever again - hopefully I won't have to. For those of you that don't know what an implant is, it's where they drill a screw in your jaw and then eventually attach a crown "fake" tooth to the head of the screw. Thanks to my parents (I don't know which one) I've inherited incredibly bad teeth, not so much bad just a lot of work. As an adult I have (had) two teeth where the permanent teeth never came in. The one tooth I lost in high school and had a bridge put in as a replacement. The second tooth was always a baby tooth and finally was removed in 2007 with a implant. That procedure was a disaster, and I promised the next time (because I knew I would have to have the other one fixed) I would go under for the surgery. Well because I'm too cheap and felt that if I could survive the first one I'd be okay to have another. Well folks, I was wrong. The surgery itself wasn't that bad, it was a total of 20 minutes, but the fact that I knew what was going on, drilling, cutting of gums, inserting screw, all of that made me sick to my stomach. Plus the fact that I had to lay down so far that my head was only a foot from ground made it worse. The recovery has been harder this time than the last, more pain killers, and more sensitivity in the teeth where the bridge was once placed. I told Jeremy anymore work on my teeth and I'm going to have them pulled and get dentures. My dentist thinks my mouth is a gold mine, I have paid his rent in that building for several months! When I have no teeth left, he'll be sorry he ever put me through this torture - he'll have no income for his rent! A week later and I'm doing much better!

Here are some recent pics of Nolan! We are finally able to break open all his toys from Christmas and he can actually enjoy them (Dad can too!).

It's been awhile

2009-02-09T15:44:00.001-08:00

In my last post I said I would post each week so I could keep track of Nolan's growth spurts. Well as you see I've failed. It seems like these past 3 weeks we've been under so much stress with trying to get the house on the market and getting our rental business started, it's been hard to keep our lives sane. Hopefully after this weekend it'll slow down a little. There's tons to catch up on!

In these first couple pictures you'll see Nolan attended his first Super Bowl party! He had a great time. Even though the Colts didn't make it to the super bowl, he celebrated in style (Thanks to Jenn and Craig)!

This is Alysia, most of you know, she is pregnant with triplets. Her scheduled C-section is Thursday Feb. 12th. All the boys are doing great and she is ready to be done being pregnant. She'll kill me for posting this, but I think she looks great for having triplets.
Matthew is going to be a great big brother to the triplets. He took a practice run on Nolan and he passed with flying colors!

As most you know, my addiction is shopping. I love to shop!! About a month ago, Old Navy had all their clearance at 50% off. I went a little crazy with the clothes (how couldn't you with clothes this cute). Jeremy made a comment that Nolan looked like he was in the Mafia. I thought he looked so cute.

He also got a new pair of shoes out of the whole shopping trip.

Since Nolan is almost 6 months old we started him on baby food. This night he tried sweet potatoes, he actually liked them. They were super watery so we added a little cereal thicken it up the next night.

The rest of these shots are from the restaurant for my 30th birthday. What a surprise for me! Tessa and Jeremy both surprised me. All my best friends from college showed up from out of town. We had a wonderful time at dinner (thanks to many margarita's). Later that evening we went out for drinks. It's felt so good to get out, but boy did I suffer the next morning. I'm not used to the "college" life and then back to normalcy and a 6 month old child. I'm still suffering...

Dr Appt Update

2009-01-26T15:43:00.000-08:00

I took Nolan to the doctor today and they said he had a sinus infection. He's on amoxicillin for the next 10 days! Hopefully that nasty cough and stuffed up nose will go away. They also weighed him, 17lbs 1oz. HOLY CRAP!! He's gained 5 pounds in 7 weeks. He's starting to develop fat rolls on his back and a cottage cheese butt, we make fun of it every time we see it in the mirror! He's has bumped up from the 20th percentile to the 50th percentile. We go in for his 6 month check up and shots in 3 weeks, we'll keep you posted on his growth spurts!

Splish Splash (23 weeks)

2009-01-25T17:08:00.000-08:00

Nolan is now 23 weeks old. Tomorrow he goes to the doctor for a raspy cough he's had for the past couple weeks. Other than that he's doing great! He loves to splash me while I'm giving him a bath - We had to move him to the big bath tub this week because he was making a mess all over our bathroom!

New Videos

2009-01-21T15:52:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned before Nolan just loves Shelby, he thinks she's the funniest thing ever!

22 weeks

2009-01-18T16:38:00.000-08:00

So I've decided the saying "they grow so fast" is so true. It seems like just yesterday we brought Nolan home from the hospital and couldn't wait to experience all the new things he was going to do. We were SCARED as hell about the future that was awaiting us, but just as happy to have this little bundle of joy. I'm going to do my best to blog every week with new pictures of Nolan, marking each week "birthday" to capture his changes. This way, when he gets older (and we get older and forget), we can remember him at every stage!

Cold.

2009-01-16T17:43:00.000-08:00

As most of you know it's nasty cold outside (I need to think of a good word for Jessie's Hectionary to describe the bitter cold we are experiencing here). How about Pipe Freeze? Pipe freeze is when you wake up in the morning and turn on the shower and nothing comes out! That's what happened to us this morning. We tried heating pipes through the wall with a hairdryer, we turned the furnace/water heater room into a sauna and still nothing. We waited it out till the water miraculously turned back on around 3:30 this afternoon! The water was here and we were rejoicing (happy to have the ability to take a shower). In our attempt to lower our gas bill, we invested in a blower for our fireplace. While Handyman (Jeremy) was fixing the fireplace, Nolan and I were upstairs reading books I hear a loud @$&*#@!%$#@ and yell downstairs to see what the problem is. He screams back, bring towels. Bring towels?? I'm not sure why but I run to the linen closet and grab some old towels, down the stairs and as I turn the corner I see the problem... water everywhere, in the bathroom, in the entry way, in the water heater room. At that point I didn't know what to think. A pipe had busted in the wall, water was gushing out of the walls all over. What a nightmare. I just kept thinking what a blessing it was that Jeremy and I stayed home today to work on the pipes, if we weren't there when it happened we would have come home to a house full of water.

Winter... is it over yet?

5 Month Milestones

2009-01-11T17:59:00.000-08:00

Nolan is almost 5 months now. He's been growing like a weed. He was born weighing 7lbs 11oz and 20 1/4 inches long. Today he weighs 16lbs and is about 27 inches long. He loves to make gurgling noises, blow bubbles (or at least try), and laughs at Shelby whenever she walks around him. He's been sitting up on his own for about 5 seconds at a time, then he tumbles over! Sometimes he thinks it's a game, sometimes he's too tired to think it's a game. He can stand up on his own when holding onto something, again that only lasts about 5 seconds, but still not too bad. He loves to stuff everything in his mouth including his hands - a sign of teething soon to come. He also loves to stand up on your lap and laugh at you. He loves to talk and babble, in the middle of his continuous spitting. He has started pulling his legs up to his chest and he loves to hold on to his feet.

He's conquered most of the things a 5 month old should, including recognition of a bottle. Jeremy or I will warm it and as soon as he sees it his little mouth opens wide like a chirping bird. He grabs for it and tries to put it in his mouth, most of the time he puts it in his eye! What more can I say about him, he's getting so big so fast. I'll miss these times as he gets older, but will love the new things we will do together. Soon he'll be sitting up on his own, crawling and walking, these are things I can write about and look back and remember with a smile! For now I will enjoy the new things he does each day and love every second I spend with him.

Date Night

2009-01-03T18:56:00.001-08:00

Our first date... well our first date since Nolan arrived. Friday night we enjoyed a night out at the movies, our first night out in a long time just the two of us. I miss it just being the two of us, don't get me wrong, Nolan is the best thing that's happened to us, but sometimes I just miss those moments. Moments not having to worry about: keeping Nolan entertained, finding a place to change him, warming up his bottle, feeding him in the restaurant, burping him in the restaurant (hoping the over the shoulder method doesn't result in excess milk on the people behind us), and all the other things we have to do in order to keep him happy. Aunt Heather and Uncle Chris took him for a couple hours while we went and saw Marley & Me. The movie played out just as our lives have, marriage first, dog next (Shelby, who sometimes resembles Marley) and then kids. Of course there is more to the movie but I won't ruin it for those who haven't seen it.

Nolan behaved for Aunt Heather, the movie was great, and the time spent with my just my husband was even better! I'm sure there will be more movie nights for us in the future, hopefully ones in which (WARNING SPOILER) I won't cry like a baby.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-30T17:45:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! This has been a wonderful Christmas for us, busy as usual, but thankful for great family and friends to celebrate this special holiday with. This is our first Christmas with Nolan and it was the best we've had yet! I'm sure they'll even get better the older he gets and the larger our family grows. Jeremy and I decided to celebrate Christmas this year at our house, that way we could wake up with Nolan and open presents (even though he was too small to know what was going on). That meant we were in charge of the Christmas dinner :0! Jeremy was determined to make his Grandma Hoeppner's homemade noodles. So Christmas eve he called her to get the recipe. I tried to convince him several times to just buy the frozen ones, but those weren't good enough. We headed to Meijer to get all the fixens (of course beer is a necessity, and a rolling pin as well)!

The noodles are left over night to dry, add chicken broth, chicken bouyon cubes, and yellow food coloring

Then the finished product!This was the first time I cooked a spiral ham, actually this was the first time I cooked a ham at all! The meal turned out great!

Grandma and Grandpa Watson joined us later in the morning to open more presents and spend the day with us. Grandma brought wonderful cookies and chocolate chip cheesecake for dessert.

Nolan opening presents with Daddy

Nolan after all his presents are opened from Santa

Nolan started off with ZERO toys before Christmas and now he has tons. I know it'll only get worse!

Nolan testing out his new toys His t-shirt says Santa Rocks, but you couldn't that by the look on his face Grandma and Grandpa Watson Nolan helping Mom and Grandma cook in the kitchenThe next day we traveled to La Porte, IN where we celebrated Christmas with Jeremy's Grandma Hoeppner and all his cousins. Nolan got some more great toys and sleepers. Later that night Jeremy's aunt and cousin came over for a little while to see Nolan and give him more toys! He has been such a spoiled child this Christmas. We're very thankful for all our family and the gifts they've given Nolan, we'll be thankful as well when they keep him busy! Sunday morning we left Grandma Heps and went spend Christmas with Aunt Tiffiney, Uncle Jeremy, and Abby. Abby had a great time opening her gifts, and Nolan got a bunch of great stuff too! Abby and her new motorized bike

Nolan and Grandma Watson opening more presents for him

Nolan and Abby, how we got her to sit her this long I'm not sure!! After Christmas celebration with my side of the family we went back to Grandma Watson's and then woke up early and headed out for my Dad's sister's house in Detroit. Nolan did great for his first "long" road trip. We spent the afternoon with my aunts, uncles, cousins, and Grandma. It was so wonderful to see all of them, they hadn't seen Nolan since the day he was born! We left Detroit, dropped Mom and Dad off in Freemont, IN and headed back to Indy. We got home Monday night around 11pm. It was a long week for all the Christmas' we celebrated, but it was well worth it! Now we have a whole year to recoup and prepare for next year's Christmas.

Pre-Christmas and the Hoeppner's

2008-12-21T11:23:00.000-08:00

This weekend we celebrated the Hoeppner Christmas. It was Nolan's first day opening presents (not that he knew what was going on). Jeremy's parents arrived Saturday afternoon in time for dinner and presents. Jim made his wonderful lasagna accompanied with garlic bread and salad. After dinner Grandma Hoeppner dressed Nolan in a Santa outfit (not my idea, mommy thought it was corny) we sat in front of the fire and opened presents for Nolan and ourselves. We are so thankful that Nolan has such wonderful Grandparent's and Aunt's and Uncle's. He received so many great toys, I'm not sure he'll find enough time to play with them all! Christmas day we'll open presents again with Nolan and Grandma and Grandpa Watson. After Christmas we'll drive up north and celebrate with Jeremy's side of the family and then with my brother and sister in law. This year we'll make a special trip to Detroit to see Nolan's Great Grandma Watson and spend the day with Aunts and Uncles in Detroit. One Christmas down, 3 more to go!

All of Nolan's great presents!

His new Radio Fyler wagon (we can't wait till spring and we can take Shelby and Nolan for walks)

Aunt Heather and Nolan

Uncle Chris and Nolan

Grandma and Nolan in his Santa suit

Nolan and Grandpa Hoeppner

Aunt Heather and the Sux

2008-12-18T05:58:00.000-08:00

In my attempt to lose some "baby weight" (who are we kidding I needed to lose weight before I had Nolan), I went to the gym after work. Since Jeremy had basketball and I wouldn't get home till later our sister-in-law, Heather, watched Nolan for a couple hours. I walked in to pick Nolan up and to my surprise I found him in this wonderful new outfit! After we got home, I left Nolan in his car seat so Daddy would take him out and find this early Christmas present. When I told him he better check out what his Heather did to Nolan he knew right away!

She wanted a picture for her album, so in order for the picture to be taken Jeremy had to redeem himself and put him on the Cubs quilt! Just wait Aunt Heather... Your time will come!

Back to the old way

2008-12-17T11:58:00.000-08:00

So, last night was the second night in a row I went without much sleep. After our eventful evening Friday night we continued to leave Nolan unswaddled. Saturday and Sunday night he slept wonderfully. I thought, boy this was easy! Oh, how I was mistaken... Monday night he woke up 4 times from 1:30am-4am. At 4am I had the last straw, Jeremy got up and swaddled him and sure enough he was back to sleep and slept silently till 6am. I thought for sure he would do better Tuesday night since he didn't sleep that much Monday night. Again, I was wrong (seems to be the theme of the week). At 2am the whining started, at the advise of my mother-in-law, I would just let him cry a little in hopes he would calm himself back to sleep. By 2:15 the whining began a slight sob, by 2:30 the sobs turned into a crying that made him more and more upset. There was no way he was going back to sleep on his own. I decided for my own sanity it would be best to lose the idea of sleeping free and go back to swaddling. It worked like a charm. He slept till after 6 and I didn't hear one peep out of him from 2:30 on. With two weeks vacation coming up we might just try again, until then we're going back to the old way and wrapping him nice and tight!

Just our luck

2008-12-13T09:29:00.000-08:00

So it was advised to us that we try weening Nolan off his swaddler at night. For those of you that don't know what a swaddler is, it looks like a blanket with a pocket at the bottom for his feet. Once his feet are in the pocket you wrap the blanket across him to hold him tight. This was a miracle blanket for us. Nolan had really bad startle reflexes and this was the only way he could sleep. We decided last night was the night. Boy we picked a great night to try this, here's a breakdown of my night...

3am - up fussing, binky solves that

3:30am - still fussing, change diaper and binky

4:00am - moving around grunting and making all other kinds of noises that keep mommy up

5am - loud shriek, in to check and sound asleep, must have been a bad dream

5:15am - Dad up to check on Nolan after the loud shriek and to our surprise a diarrhea accident from Shelby

5:17am - Mom cleaning up the accident... not fun at 5am

6am - up to feed Nolan, back to bed

8:30am - laughing and giggle and cooing, time to get Nolan

9am - downstairs to feed Shelby, time and get up, another accident on the rug in front of the sliding glass door.

9:30am - wash rugs, call vet

It's been a long time since he's woke up in the middle of the night, I'm hoping tonight goes a little better. We called the vet, he suggested Imodium for the dog and no food for 24 hours. Hopefully this will solve cleaning up messes at 5 in the morning. Needless to say we apparently picked the wrong night to lose the swaddler. I'm thinking tonight will be the same, less the accidents.

My lungs are working

2008-12-11T18:29:00.000-08:00

Nolan was abnormally loud last night, screaming and squealing. It was so cute - as soon as he would squeal, I would squeal louder and then he'd come right back and scream and then I would scream louder. Jeremy loved it!! After about 20 minutes of that both Nolan and Jeremy got tired of listening to it! He's definitely developing a pair of lungs on him that are for more than just crying. He's SUPER cute at this age, makes me want to have another one right away!!

Today was Shelby's grooming day, I love when she comes home from the vet, smells great and looks so cute and festive!!

Leave me alone Mom... what the heck! You're pissing me off!

I thought this day would never come!

2008-12-06T19:23:00.000-08:00

Need I say more, I've whined and complained about the fireplace for months now! The day has finally arrived, we now have heat! I LOVE IT! It's almost too warm, I've had to turn it down a couple times. Now we wait in anticipation for the gas bill.

Big Boy

2008-12-06T08:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Nolan's 4 month appt at the doctor's. He passed with flying colors! He weighs 12lbs 11.5oz and is 24 inches long. He's ranking in the 25th percentile for heighth and weight, but his head is measuring in the 50th percentile. He has an extra large head for his body! We're trying to beef him up a little so his body matches the size of his head. The doctor suggested we start introducing rice cereal and foods. Well last night was our first attempt at rice cereal. I'm not sure if it was how I made it or what, but he wasn't too impressed. I think I put too much formula in the mix, so today we'll make another attempt with less formula. Hopefully in a month he'll get his tongue working right and we can introduce foods - that'll be interesting!!!!

Tis' the season

2008-12-03T18:12:00.000-08:00

Tis' the season for decorating! With Christmas fast approaching decorating in the Hoeppner house is moving right along. Last Wednesday we got our tree trimmed and decorated. Every year we get the finest tree from our local Home Depot, bring it home on top of the car and Jeremy trims it with his finest skills from when he worked on a tree farm in high school. Every year he strings the lights and I decorate with bulbs.

After pulling down all 5 tubs from the attic to my surprise I find each year I buy more and more decorations and have no place to put them. This year we have a new addition to the christmas decorations, well kind of, it's the fireplace, a place to actually put all the decorations. Years past we always hung the stockings from the tv entertainment center with care, BUT this year we have a chimeny/mantel to hang the stockings with care. I don't have them hung yet, I still have to purchase those hanger things and an additional stocking for Nolan! In those 5 tubs I also found 10 boxes of cards. Ten boxes of cards you ask, why so many? I asked myself the same question, actually it was more like "what the hell was I thinking". Our normal mother daugter tradition is to get up early the day after Christmas and stock up on more decorations for Christmas. Apparently these cards were too cute to pass up! I remember I was 5 weeks pregnant last year at Christmas and probably wasn't thinking along the lines of actually sending out Christmas picture cards of Nolan instead of actual paper Christmas cards this year. Looks like these will go back in the attic and wait for another Christmas to be used! It looks like this year I should probably clean out some of those tubs, donate some of the Christmas goodies and make room for MORE!

Excuse the paint on the fireplace, we haven't finished trimming it out.

Nolan's First Thanksgiving

2008-12-02T13:08:00.001-08:00

Although he didn't each much turkey, he enjoyed the day with his cousin Abby!

One down, One to go!

2008-11-28T17:04:00.000-08:00

So I managed to conquer one holiday, now only one more to go! As usual it was more of the same, driving all over Indiana to visit family. It makes it so hard with a 3 month old - feeding in the car, changing, cleaning up spit up, and all the other wonderful stuff that comes with having a baby. As I titled, one down, one more to go.

Thanksgiving for me means time to shop! Black Friday is something I look forward to for months prior to Thanksgiving. This morning, my Mom, my Aunt (her sister), and I got up at 4am to hit the road for some great deals. Of course we had to make a stop for coffee on the way. Coffee is a must at 4:30 in the morning. We hit Wal-mart right at 5am, spent an hour there and then headed to Target. We were in and out of there in 40 minutes (after a second round of coffee, this time the necessity - Starbucks)! To my surprise that was just what I needed - we had a second boost of energy, or what I call an double shot high. We were off to Old Navy and Kohl's. After picking up most everything I was looking for, and a lot more (I went crazy on toys at Kohl's for Nolan's first Christmas) we were headed home. It was great - and start October 2009 I'll be searching the internet for black Friday ads posted early.

Oh the holidays...

2008-11-25T16:52:00.000-08:00

Well it's that time of the year again... THE HOLIDAYS. How I dread the holidays, ask me why... Traveling all around Indiana, now with a 3 month old and a dog. Staying at one parent's house and then driving an hour to another. It feels like the holidays are just a time for us to bitch at each other and complain about one persons family over the other. I hate it! We can never agree on anything. It's our first Christmas with Nolan and I would like to have Christmas at our house. Wake up Christmas morning, have a nice breakfast, open some presents and sit by the fire. Just relax and enjoy the day. Of course that won't happen, the past 5 years and not once have we done what I want to do, we always do what Jeremy wants to do. By rights, it's my turn. So, I sound like I'm 5 years old, but still it is my turn.

I ask my husband one question, logistically how are we going to haul up a kid, dog, and several gifts, on top of all of our luggage. Most of all... how are we going to haul a kid, dog, luggage and several gifts back! It could be the 2008 version of Christmas Vacation sans the motor home! I'll post the final decision (hopefully it's mine!) ;)

Grateful

2008-11-23T17:43:00.000-08:00

So this is my first blog post... I don't know if I should be excited or scared, scared that I don't know what the heck on doing on this thing. It can't be that hard right???? It's Sunday night and we're watching Sunday night football. Nolan is sleeping in Papa's arms. My Mom is here from Granger for a couple days for doctors appointments. She complains that she has to keep seeing her doctors since it's been 7 years since her bone marrow transplant, but she's alive and that's what we're grateful for. The past 7 years and the time we've spent with her, the grandchildren she has now and the wonderful things she's been able to accomplish after her transplant. I sit here and think of this as my best friends Dad is dying from ALS(Lou Gehrig's disease). He was just diagnosed in May of this year and won't make it past tonight. What a horrible thing to have to go through, watching your parent die, right in front of your eyes. I remember there were many mornings I'd wake up and pray that today wasn't the day. I can't begin to imagine what it's like for her, especially so close to the holidays, but can only pray for her and her family. As I do this, I have to thank God and tell him how grateful I am for all the work the doctor's have done for my Mom, all the hospital stays I thought she'd never get to come home from, of course I'm VERY thankful/grateful for my Mom's donor - without her my Mom wouldn't be here today. She and her family have become a special part of our family. She has inspired me as a person because of the little things she has given in order to save a life. In October of this year I registered myself on the bone marrow list. Doing so little to save a life, how can I not? If any of you are reading this please take the time to visit this website http://www.marrow.org/ and take time out of your life to save someone else's life. In closing, please keep my friend and her family in your prayer's as they struggle through this difficult time in their lives and be grateful for the time you have with family and friends.