First Mother's Day!

Mother's Day was especially nice this year because it was my very first to celebrate being a Mommy! Last year at Mother's Day, we had just found out we were expecting, but no one else knew at the time.  This year made it that much more meaningful, knowing we've come full circle and were able to celebrate with our little guy!

Nolan gave me the cutest card that he wrote in himself (maybe Dad helped, a little), and he also treated me with a gift card to the Spa at Green Valley Ranch!  Ever since my prenatal massage there right before my due date, I have been wanting another visit SO bad, but never really thought I would be able to go back.  I'm thankful Jason will let me take a day to enjoy for myself and I am so excited to book this massage, ASAP!

The boys also spoiled me by taking me out for not one, but TWO meals for the day!  We wanted to try a new place for brunch, so we planned on driving across town to DW Bistro.  Online, the website said they would not be taking reservations for Mother's Day.  So we braved the crowds and tried it anyway.  When we got there, they asked if we had a reservation!?  Because we didn't, it was a 2.5 hour wait, so we politely declined.  No place is worth waiting that long for!

We decided to try Bachi HLK, instead.  We frequent Bachi Burger a lot and love it, and had heard they recently opened a new restaurant serving brunch and lunch.  When we got there, there was no wait and we got seated and started right away!  They offered complimentary mimosas for Moms, so I definitely took advantage and enjoyed one, which didn't disappoint.  Our food was amazing and we will definitely be making the trip over there again to visit for brunch.  Jason got the HLK Classic Eggs Benedict, and I got the Almond Brioche French Toast.  It was SO good, the prices were decent, and we highly recommend it!

Nolan was amazing through our morning outing, and spent the half the morning awake and up with us and the other half snoozing for his nap.  Although he's becoming more alert, he can still (mostly) manage to take his naps in his carseat while we are out running around, which I'm thankful for!

We spent the afternoon running a couple errands and then resting at home before going back out to dinner with my mom at Elephant Bar in the District.  Again, Nolan was a good baby and had fun playing with his toys and the menus, as well as snapping a few pictures while we waited for our food.  Once we got our dinner, he took a nap in his carseat and let us eat!  After dinner, we went to one of our favorite dessert places, Sweet Addictions, and got some yummy Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches.  Nolan was over being out so much for the day, and decided he wanted to leave ASAP, so we booked it home and put him to bed.  

Words can't even express how it feels to be Nolan's mom.  Being a mommy is all that I imagined it to be, ten times harder than I thought but a million times more rewarding than I ever could have expected.  I'm so lucky to have this little guy steal my heart four months ago, and I can't even remember what life was like before he came along.  I'm also thankful for having the most supportive husband who works his butt off to allow me to do my dream job and stay at home with our baby!  Being a stay at home mom is HARD, despite what most people think, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.  I feel so lucky and proud to be the mom of an amazing family!

April Happenings

This month we started off with company in town... and Nolan finally got to meet his Auntie Stacey!  She came into town the first weekend of the month, and got lots of snuggle time in with little man!  She also bought him the cutest fedora that he loves wearing!

While Stacey was here, we visited the Linq and played tourists for the day!  We went to all the shopping and dining areas to check them out, and spent our afternoon walking around downtown in the cutest little area Vegas has to offer!  We visited the Polaroid Store, Brooklyn Bowl, took pictures in front of the High Roller, and also snapped pictures on the digital billboard camera!  Nolan was so good the whole day.  He took a few catnaps and stayed up with us in between to enjoy the day.  Before we left, we definitely couldn't pass up visiting Sprinkles Cupcakes... and instead of buying just one cupcake, I decided to splurge and get a Sprinkles Sundae.  I tried the strawberry cupcake and mint chocolate chip ice cream, and it was AMAZING.  Seriously the best cupcake I've ever had, and the ice cream wasn't too bad, either!

While we were down at the Linq, we realized that the Academy of Country Music Awards show was in town, and there was a concert that day (Friday) and Saturday down where we were.  We randomly looked up tickets to see who would be playing on Saturday, and realized it was such a good deal to go see so many great country artists for fifty bucks!  So, on a whim, we bought tickets online and decided to hang out all day Saturday right back at the Linq for the concert!  We went back and forth between the venue and the Linq area, stopping for pizza and beer at Flour & Barley, and also stopped back at Sprinkles Cupcakes to use the Cupcake ATM that we missed the day before!  We got to see Kip Moore, Lee Brice, Joe Nichols, Chris Young, and Keith Urban perform.  It was so much fun, but I really missed my little guy!  This was only the second time I had been away from him longer than an hour.... and I missed him like crazy!  We were at the concert from 4PM to about midnight, and I really did have the best time and enjoyed the music, the weather and the good company!

One afternoon, I caught Daddy and Nolan looking so alike while both zoned out, watching T.V.

We celebrated Jason's grandfather's 84th birthday, and snapped a 4 Generation photo while we were there.

Nolan turned 12 weeks old!

We dressed super cute throughout the month!

One weekend night, we tried a new place to eat called Monta Ramen. I had been craving a noodle restaurant like the one we had on our honeymoon in Hawaii, and found the reviews on Yelp to be pretty good for this restaurant.  We really liked it and got a TON of food for super cheap!  We will definitely be going back.

Nolan practiced more tummy time, and I found a solution for him to be entertained for five minutes instead of screaming after one minute.... the laptop!  He watches himself on the Photo Booth camera and keeps himself decently entertained for a few minutes longer than normal.  Progress, people!

Nolan slept through the night for the first time and has been ever since!

Nolan turned 3 months old!

We hung out with our friends during the week, and Hudson and Nolan had some BFF bonding time.  We also made a cute Easter craft thanks to Jess' help.  It was messy but super adorable!  

We took adorable Easter pictures and celebrated the holiday!

Nolan played with his new toy, Scout, that he received from the Easter Bunny.  He likes to sit and chat it up with him, and Scout knows Nolan's name, favorite color, animal, and food. While playing with Scout, we practiced sitting up and Nolan is getting pretty good at finding his center of gravity and spending a few seconds sitting up, unassisted!  Although he slouches a lot still, he's getting there!

We got a new carseat from our Britax Registry Rewards, and Nolan wasn't thrilled about trying it out. (Sidenote: When we purchased our carseat, stroller, and carrier, all Britax products, they were offering a promotion to buy 5 participating items, and receive a free convertible carseat!  I did my research and we purchased two extra accessory items that we needed anyway, sent in the UPCs, and then received an email to choose the seat we wanted!  Two weeks later, they sent it to us, and we saved over $300 on a convertible carseat!  Although we won't use it for another few months, it was still a great deal that we took advantage of and I love the seat!)

Nolan started a new trick of placing his feet at the top of the Pack N' Play to wake up Mommy in the morning!  It is really cute and he giggles as he does it!

We enjoyed lots of time in the exersaucer and Nolan is getting really good at pressing the buttons himself, slamming his hands down to make the noises and jumping around in his seat!  

We took lots of cute, smiley pictures and selfies!

Nolan proved how big he's gotten at the end of the month when he wore his 6-9 month Jammies!  Chunker!!

The weather's starting to warm up so hopefully next month we'll be starting to spend some more time outside and introduce Nolan to some water, soon!  ...Until next month!