Andrew at 4 months

Took a lil photo shoot with Andrew today.  He usually is totally distracted/straight-faced with cameras but he must be getting the concept, cause he kind of started smiling today.  He also kind of smiled at Grandpa Gary through FaceTime.  We love Andrew-he's a totally chill baby (like Jake was) and is super happy.  He only fusses right before nap times when he's getting tired, or when Jake is crying really loud-then he gets this SUPER pout that will inevitably make everyone looking at him gasp and say "awwww".  (he has a powerful pout).  

He can kinda hold up his head and chest during tummy time for a few minutes at a time if he wants to, and is super steady in the bumbo seat.  He takes 3 naps a day @10:30,  1:30, and 6:00, and goes to bed at 10:00 and sleeps til 7:30/8:00.  I think we'll work on moving his bed time earlier (around 7:30/8:00) once he's down to 2 naps a day and eating some solids, so prolly around 6 months.  He has become super smiley and is really good at these short lil gut laughs, but hasn't out and out giggled a lot yet.  These past few months Andy has had to take some medicine to reduce the acidity in his tummy so that his reflux wouldn't burn/leave his throat raw.  His reflux has def gotten less and less frequent and so the dr has us not increasing his dosage so that, as he grows, he's naturally and gradually weaning himself off of it, so we'll see if he doesn't need it anymore.  So far he seems to not be bothered by the shrinking dosage-fingers crossed!  We'll be going in for his 4 month appointment next week so we'll have stats by then.

We all love Andy so much, and only have to work on Jake learning what "soft" means :)

Enjoy Grandparents:

(I think his hair has a lil red to it but it only seems to show up/is noticeable in pics.  Jake is the same way-when in certain light).

love this one, it makes me laugh:

and one of Jake, just because :)

Musings

I was reading in the Book of Mormon today.  I'll be honest, my personal scripture study has kind of wilted.  I still do it every day so at least the outward habit of doing it every day is still there, but to be honest I don't get a ton out of it.  Now, this is mostly my fault.  I admit I don't put a lot of mental energy into it (I think it's a common problem with young moms-our brains get lazy.  Let's just say there's a BIG difference between my brain 5 years ago in college and my brain today, but I'm trying to fix that).

Anywho, I was reading in Jacob and he was talking about prophecies, the gospel, and the jews.  Then I read a verse that I hadn't read in awhile but seems more and more appropriate these days:

"(the Jews)...sought for things that they could not understand.  Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall"

So the real question then is: what's the mark?  Elder Maxwell (an apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) said,

"it matters so very much how we regard and view Jesus Christ. Some seek to substitute Caesars for Christ. Others are blinded because they are “looking beyond the mark” (Jacob 4:14) when the mark is Christ."  And goes on to say, "Many sects—without the reinforcing rods of revelation—have been badly shaken by theological tremors; the resulting ecclesiastical erosion has been so rapid it is measured in months, not centuries. Some crusaders without a cross have actually removed the divinity of Jesus Christ from the center of their doctrines—only to see all the other doctrinal dominoes tumble, too.

Thus, foolishness, fear, and fashion have flattened the theology of many. For them, there is neither shelter nor landmark on the horizon."

I don't know if you've noticed but, there have been a LOT of articles, blogposts, and heated debates on social media threads the past few years on varying topics amongst current and former church members. Gay marriage/homosexuality, priesthood, women's roles in the church, polygamy, and the Prophet Joseph Smith, to name a few.  Usually I enjoy social media.  I like being able to see what my friends are up to and see what's going on in the world, but I do feel like social media becomes a major distraction when it comes to these very real issues of the members of Christ's church.  It's not wrong to ask questions, seek out knowledge, and try to find truth.  Social Media, however, should not be your go to resource.  

Let's be honest, Social Media is a place where people care about reinforcing their already held views and appearing smart, right, and popular in the eyes of others- let's see how many "likes" I can get.  Oooo, I got 100s of likes/comments I must be on the right path here.  The only person's "likes" and approval we should be seeking after is Christ's.  If I am having a spiritual or moral dilemma, that is between me, my husband, and Christ.  That's it.  Now, of course the Lord can use our fellow brothers and sisters to answer our prayers and provide guidance, but let's face it- I've rarely felt the spirit when scanning through the multitude of threads debating certain controversial topics that, by the way-we DONT have all the answers to.  

It seems that while we are an entitled generation in the traditional sense, we are also extremely entitled in regards to the flow of information.  We are so used to getting a library's amount of information and all the answers we could want (whether right or no) with a few clicks of a button.  Heaven forbid our internet is slow or crashing and we have to wait longer than 5 minutes to upload something.  We go crazy right?  How does this affect how we view revelation, and what information we think we should be privy to.  If we want to know something than that's enough of a reason right?  Wrong.  

Don't get me wrong, Revelation is amazing and we are so blessed to have it in our day.  We should seek after it daily, but we shouldn't use it as our spiritual google.  We should seek after it, not just because we're curious or want to prove that we're right in our personal opinions, but because we honestly want to know and follow God's will.  In the Bible Dictionary under prayer it describes it as being an act that enables the worshipper to bring their will inline with God's, not the other way around.  Can we ask to know or understand something?  sure.  Is it important for us to to be coming from a place of sincerity and faithful righteousness in our quest for this knowledge?  yes.  Will God give us what we're asking for?  It's up to Him.  The answer could be yes, here you go, or not right now, or just plain: no.         

If we get an answer that frustrates us or doesn't click with our timetable do we focus on Christ, (the Mark) trusting that if it's important, we'll know and understand in time? Do we lean on Him for the patience and faith we need in the mean time? Or do we start looking beyond the mark-start going to other sources who are more willing to give answers of their own?  Answers that more fit with our already preconceived ideas?  Suddenly it's no longer about understanding God's will and why He does what He does, but it's all about us.  It's all about how we feel about something and we start to stumble and fall away.  

The past few months we have been focusing our FHE lessons on the very basics and foundation of a testimony: Christ, his life, mission, and atonement.  Then we studied Joseph Smith for a month.  It was so refreshing to focus on the basics, and it was amazing how quickly the spirit filled our home.  Does that mean that we now understand the why's and when's of everything in the gospel? No, but I feel close to my Savior and I trust that the rest will work itself out in the Lord's time, and I'll accept his will when it comes.

I think of all the question's we have: the what, how, why, when, where's of life if you will.  The most important (in my humble opinion) are the What's and the How's because the answer can always be related to Christ.  What does the Lord want me to do? What's important/what should I focus on? Christ.  And the hows: How can I get through this, How should I help/make this situation better? (turn to and follow Christ's example).  The Why is the happening?  and When will this happen/I understand?- Not so important.  Those will be answered in time, whether in this life or the next, but as long as Christ is the answer for our "What's and How's"  we can get through the rest.

Valentines Day

We had a great Valentines DayS this year.  We decided to go out the day before V-day to avoid the crowds plus it's easier to find a babysitter, so I planned a nice night-in for the day of.  Then we realized that Cody's brother was coming to stay with us on Valentines Day so we did our night-in Thurs night, and before you knew it we had two Valentine's Day Dates before the actual day, but it was fun cause it sort of extended the holiday.

So for my date, I borrowed some patio furniture from the ward (can't wait til Spring to get our own!), strung up some xmas lights on the patio, and rented a space heater so we could create a sort of cafe atmosphere and I made a fancy dinner followed by a viewing of "Return to Me" (one of my favorites).  I couldn't get a good angle where you could see the whole of our patio so I just took a lot from different angles:

Ambiance is half the battle.

I made the pioneer woman's steak oscar with a terrigan (sp?) hollandaise sauce topped with sautéed shrimp and roasted asparagus.  It was my first time cooking shrimp or making the sauce but I think it came out pretty good and Code loved it. 

For dessert we had chocolate fondue in our new fondue pot, it was super easy/fast to make and of course VERY yummy with strawberries, raspberries, bananas, shortbread cookies, and rice krispies to dip, ok, ok, DUNK.

On the night before Vday we went out to eat at Spicy Corea and then saw a play at BYU and got some DELICIOUS Belgium Waffles on center street at a new place right across from the new temple.  I see many date nights in our future that include temple and yummy waffles!  Code also got me some beautiful flowers (I don't really like roses so he always gets me bright colorful flowers).

The day of we did a lil tradition that I grew up with.  My dad would always leave our Valentines treats/presents whatever on the doorstep and ring and run around to the back of the house.  This year we got Jake a pink tie and a lightening mcqueen stuffed pillow-thing.

couldn't really get him to hold still or smile with his goodies but he was excited!

That night we played games with PJ (or Peejee as Jake called him) and Megan.

Andy and PJ!

It was a fun couple of days and I love Cody and my boys so much!  I'm surrounded by studs ;)

Life is so dramatic

Let's just say that living with a 2 year old is never boring.  Most days are fine with only minor breakdowns over things like eating dinner or me saying no to watching a movie.  Every now and then tho, I wonder what it'd be like to be his teacher or his nursery leader where he's generally well-behaved for them, and always happy to see them, whereas he seems to save all of his not-so-charming moods for me.  Why am I so lucky?  I know I know, I just happen to spend the most time with him.  I guess I just have to hold on to those sweet little moments like when I pick him up from his weekly play group/school and he shouts Mommy! with the biggest grin, rather than focusing on 30 min later when he's screaming and crying because he asked for something and I gave it to him.  I know, the nerve.

And yet, when it's time to go down for a nap-something you'd think he'd hate and fight, he's happy as a clam and goes quietly.  I guess I should get used to not trying to understand/predict what he's going to do.

In other news, I'm trying to get back in the swing of keeping up my house a bit.  When I have a kid I kinda give myself a lot of slack for the first month or so until we settle down into our new routine.  Well, we are def in the swing of things and I've let our bathrooms go a ridiculous amount of time without a good cleaning....TMI I know.

I'm not necessarily OCD/crazy neat freak, but I grew up in a very clean/minimalistic environment so I definitely notice when things aren't that way. At the same time just because I notice, doesn't bother me enough to jump right on it cause I'm a bit lazy when it comes to things like that.  I do want to get better at just picking 1 or 2 things to do a day that way our house is always pretty clean.  I have to admit, I kind of like it, tho I don't want to be one of those wives/moms who is going crazy cause their kids/husbands mess things up-I don't mind it being lived-in and want to be relaxed.  Clean, not sterile is what I'm going for.

In other news, last night Cody and I went to see the Count of Monte Cristo (the musical) put on at BYU.  Apparently it's the first run of the show in America so that's pretty cool.  The cast was really talented, tho the sound mixing was a lil off-or at least we were sitting way forward so it was hard to hear what they were saying over the music, plus I usually like to generally know a musical before I see it-enjoy it more.  Still, it was really cool and now we're going to watch the movie tonight cause it put us in the mood.  Love that movie.

Andrew's Blessing

I just realized that I never blogged about Andrew's blessing day-whoops!
We had my parents and Cody's dad in town which was special-Jake was naturally on cloud 9 going back and forth between his grandpas every 5 minutes :)
We had some family from Provo, Salt Lake, and Ogden come down for some breakfast before sacrament meeting and it was fun to chat and catch up.  We felt very loved and supported.  Cody gave Andrew a beautiful blessing and the name: Andrew Gary Nolden, and thankfully he was good and quiet the whole time-you always worry that they're going to cry in the mic. :)
 It was hard to take pictures with everyone cause we taught second hour and had to run off to our class, so not much time for loitering, but we managed a few-but took them mostly at home after church:

 Aunt Rosie & Uncle Steve- Andy is sort of smiling here!

 Gpa & Gma Richards and Andrew:

Gpa Frank and Andrew:

Andrew was obsessed with the fan so that's where he's looking in all of these haha

I realized only after the fact that we hadn't gotten a picture of andrew and his lil outfit so we snapped a few real quick (of course he had a huge scratch on his face from his sharp lil newborn nails- I HATE trimming nails/so scared I'm going to cut them too short/make him bleed):

 He's really good at staring with wide eyes:

Yeah...we tried to get him to smile but he wasn't having it

Our Family of Four, we love our boys! And I love how sweet and interested Jake has been in Andy from the get-go.  During the day if I pull out a blanket Jake's all: "tummy time!" and always asks where Andy is when I go to get Jake up in the morning/or if he's down for a nap.  Such a sweet older brother, and I can tell these two will have too much fun when Andy is old enough to join in :)

We had so much fun seeing so much of our family!  Every now and then Jake still asks where "papa" is and we remind him 1 papa is in texas and 1 papa is in Georgia.

It was a great day and I'm grateful for the power of the priesthood and all of the priesthood holders in our family.

Life has been pretty good here at the Nolden household.  Andy is getting better and better at nap time and is now sleeping in his crib in his room which makes his parents very happy :)  He's been sleeping through the night for awhile now, but his naps range from 45 min long to hours long so you just never know what to expect come naptime.  He's a very happy, chill kid though and only cries when he's hungry or is putting himself down to sleep.

Jake is doing great-we've been practicing and learning our ABCs.  Thanks to a leap frog letter factory DVD and some ABC puzzles and rug in his room he gets lots of repetition.  He's got most of his letters and their sounds down.  It's fun to see him grow up.

Cody recently got called to be the priest quorum advisor in our ward and is loving it so far.  His job is going well and I'm so proud of how hard he's working/all he's accomplishing.

Riley (our trouble-making havanese) turned one yesterday.  His favorite activities include: fishing trash out of the trashcan and tearing it up in little pieces and spreading it around our front room, playing tug of war, and pulling the socks off of Jake's feet.  We were going to take him to Petco yesterday for a lil field trip to pick out a new toy but Jake's come down with a cold so we'll have to do that next week.

I'm excited for 2015 and having fun with my boys and watching them grow up, not to mention, come Aug, it'll be our 5th Anniversary and to celebrate we'll be taking a trip to London!  Traveling is one of the things we want to do with each other over the years.
(we like to go somewhere for our anniversaries even if it's a lil local 2 day trip etc, and then every 5 years we'll try to take a big trip-have a list of places we want to see over the years that we've been saving up for for the past 5 years).  I can't wait!  We'll have to start planning and seeing what we want to do/what we want to see :)

It'll be a great year!