We're still here....

Sorry it's been so long. Between selling our old house, buying a new house and living at my parents' house for the last month, life has been a little hectic. But we're all hanging in there and doing well. Cole turned 4 months old yesterday...can you believe it! Time seems to be going a lot quicker with the second. We had his check-up on Monday night and he's doing great. He's 18 lbs, 4 oz. and 27 5/8 inches which is 97+ percentile for both height and weight. No surprise there...we grow 'em big! Just for comparison, Nolan was 19 lbs, 2 oz. and 27 inches at 4 months old. Cole is a sweet little boy and has a very mellow disposition. He just lights up when Nolan talks to him and you can just tell that Cole adores his big brother. Over the last couple weeks, Cole has started sleeping 7-8 hour stretches at night so that is a much welcomed change!! He's cooing/"talking" all the time and the doctor thinks it'll be no time before he's rolling over.

We closed on our old house on Tuesday, August 25th and closed on our new house in Downers Grove on Tuesday, September 15th. We hope to move in there in the next 3-4 weeks. We're getting the whole inside of the house repainted and new carpeting laid before we move in. We're really excited about the house and can't wait to have people over! We also had the back wooden deck ripped out and we're currently in the middle of having a Unilock patio installed. Here's a picture of the outside of the house. Don't mind the weeds...we're in the midst of getting the lawn and landscaping under control. It was a foreclosure and pretty much sat empty for the last year.

We've been able to squeeze in some fun despite all the craziness lately. Uncle Bob and Uncle Ryan took Nolan fishing for the first time and he caught his very first fish! It was cute...Nolan really enjoyed using his Spiderman fishing pool that he got as a 2nd b-day gift from Uncle Ryan.

Here's a slideshow of pics from that same weekend up at the lake. It was extra special because Jennie and Damien were back in the states visiting.

We discovered the River Trail Nature Center by our old house. It's along the Des Plaines River in Northbrook and has a nice walking trail. Nolan liked seeing the frogs and bald eagle and thought it was cool to use binoculars to look for birds. He was also really proud of himself using his big walking stick that he found as he used it on our "adventure walk".

One of the highlights of Nolan's summer was going to the "Day Out with Thomas" on August 22nd. It was at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, IL and everything was Thomas themed and we even went on a train ride pulled by Thomas.

We helped Brandon Beth celebrate his 1st birthday on August 16th. Here's a picture of Nolan being very brave on the inflatable water slide they had set up for the party.

We went to Brookfield Zoo on Sept. 11th with our good friends Ronan & Josephine Marsh and Luke & Dexter Honda.

On Sept. 19th, we went to a party called "Paint the Town" in our friend Susan's hometown of Morrison, IL. It's a small town just north of I-88 just before you get to the Quad Cities. It's a cute city-wide party where you buy a 5x5 ft. square on the main street and the kids/adults paint until their heart is content. Most kids end up covered in paint. Nolan clearly displayed his love of yellow! It was a great day. Afterwards we went to Susan's parents' house where we BBQ'd, went on Ranger rides (that was even equipped with a car seat!), explored their farm, and the kids caught frogs.