The last few months

Well, here we are in October. Yes, I'm finally updating!

July 2006--Rick and I went to see Tim McGraw and Faith Hill in concert at American Airlines Center. It was wonderful. The seats were great, the music was fantastic, and we had a blast. Mom and Mimi kept Savannah and Madeline. Madeline cried for much of the time, but eventually, she went to sleep. Here are a few pictures from that night.

This month Madeline had her first jar of baby food. We discovered that she is a huge fan of applesauce. She ate almost a whole jar.


Sice then, Madeline has avidly tried every new food we've given her. She loves everything.

August 2006: Savannah hit the 2 1/2 year milestone, and Madeline hit the 6 month milestone. We had a little party for her. She enjoyed her first taste of chocolate cake. And she thoroughly enjoyed her new rattle.

Rick had an unexpected surprise party for his 30th birthday. After tons of planning and scheming, the day finally arrived. Mike distracted Rick for a couple of hours while Courtney decorated and cooked like crazy. The guests arrived, after they all parked down the street and around the neighborhood (as to not strike up any suspicion when Rick got home). Rick and Mike arrived. Rick walked in the house, and the shock on his face was apparent when he saw 20+ people all crowded into the living room for him. He was very happy, and the party went great.

Madeline went to her 6 month check up, and all was fine. She was 12 lbs.+.

September 2006:



Courtney's birthday was this month. She turned 24. She had a good birthday. Savannah and Courtney started doing preschool at home this month. Savannah soaks everything in like a sponge. She can spell "apple," recognizes Aa, Bb, and Cc by sight, knows what "hola," "adios," and "bonjour" mean in their respective languages, and is learning many other things.
Madeline is just happy as always.

October 2006: Madeline just started babbling using consonant sounds. She likes to say "ba" over and over. And is now saying, "da" and "ga." We have a ways to go before she'll be spouting out words like her big sister, but she'll be a little chattermouth before we know it.

Savannah is learning about Dd, 4, the color green, and some Dd related words in preschool. She moved from the infant class to the preschool class in Bible class on Sundays and Wednesdays, and she's loving her new class.

Courtney is taking Intro. to Business, and just had her first test.

Rick is staying busy at work.

Go visit our band's website: http://www.myspace.com/nolanstyrade

happy girl

This picture is of the girls watching The Wiggles. Their most favorite show in the world. Yes, even Madeline loves it. And she doesn't even know what she's watching.

Madeline is a little blabbermouth now. She's always talking and smiling and laughing. She doesn't cry all the time anymore, and for that we are most thankful.

Savannah has definetly entered the terrible twos. I really think she just gets overly frustrated with things. Hopefully, this stage will pass quickly. And speaking of a blabbermouth...
Savannah comes with me to the pantry now, and when I open the door, she says, "Let's see...hmmm...what do I want to eat?" That little girl is always eating or asking to eat.

Savannah is learning her colors. She knows purple, blue, and yellow. She knows the names of all the other colors, but she isn't associating them with anything yet.

I know this update is short, but both of the girls are demanding attention. Soon, though, I will write more!

it's about time

I'm sorry. I really don't mean to update so little, I just get so busy. But here I am, with a long overdue update. Madeline will be four months old in about two weeks. She is our little bundle of joy...She really does smile more now. And she's become really vocal lately. She's squealing and trying to say things. But she does still cry a lot.

Last month, Rick's sister, Diane, and her family came to visit. We had a wonderful time. Our nephew, Jacob, is staying with us for the summer. We're enjoying that, too. During their visit we did lots of things, including going to the McKinney square, going to Lake Texoma, going to play laser tag/games at Main Event, and going to the mall in Frisco. Here are some pictures for you all to enjoy.

(l-r)

Madeline, Barbara (Courtney's Mom), Courtney, Margie (Courtney's grandma), Jayden , Diane, Rick, Jacob, Gidget, (on couch) Gabby, Savannah, Cylina, Jeramyah

Savannah and Jeramyah hanging out

Savannah, Jacob, Jayden, and Gabby on the four-wheeler at Uncle Toby and Aunt Brenda's house

almost 2 months

Well, as you can see, Madeline is growing, and she is becoming a happier baby with each passing day. She goes to the doctor sometime in the next week for her 2 month appointment. Can you believe it's already been two months? We sure can't. Madeline is still staying awake and eating for much of the night, but some nights are better than others. Today, she didn't sleep for over ten minutes, and now she is fast asleep. Hopefully, the lack of sleep today means that she will sleep tonight, but that usually isn't the case.

Savannah loves her baby sister just as much now as she did when Madeline was born. She always says, "I hold her? Please?" And then we let her "hold her" with our help, of course. She tells her all kinds of things in her two-year old lingo and then she gives her tons of sweet kisses.

Easter was nice. We hid a bunch of plastic eggs for Savannah to find, and she was just amazed by the prospect of hunting down the colorful plastic eggs. She managed to find them all with our help. She got all kinds of little surprises in her easter eggs, along with an easter basket full of goodies. And Madeline and Savannah had matching Easter dresses, and they both looked beautiful.

Well, folks, I had planned on writing more here, but the baby summons. :)

the much hated time change

I hate time changes. I especially hate the "spring forward" time change. We are all still trying to catch up on that lost hour of sleep. What can I say? It was a much needed hour. The only good thing so far is that Madeline and Savannah's schedules didn't get too far off course. Although, Madeline doesn't have much of a schedule. She just eats and sleeps and cries and goes to the bathroom all day. Although, there's the occassional spurt of spit up and the occassional outstanding smile. (She even smiled at me yesterday! And it wasn't just gas)


Savannah's allergies are making her (and the rest of us) miserable. She's been sneezing and blowing and coughing the past two days. And this morning she fell asleep every time she laid her head down. But she's starting to perk up a little bit. She wore herself out playing outside yesterday. Both of the girls love to be outside. I discovered yesterday that going outside is almost certain to put Madeline to sleep. The exception is when she's hungry. There is no distracting her when she wants her food.


Madeline gets more beautiful every day. And she is growing by leaps and bounds. She finally fits in some of her newborn clothes. Most of her clothes, though, are still too big. But some of the outfits that I thought she wouldn't fit in for ages actually fit now. We have the same sock problem with Madeline that we did with Savannah. The newborn socks are what fit her ankles, but her long feet don't fit in them all the way. The next size up fit her feet, but slide off her ankles. And hats are history now. She cries whenever they slide down over her eyes, and all of her hats do that, so we just quit putting hats on her. She doesn't seem to mind. In fact, she's even started kicking the blanket off during naptime and during the night. It's very reminiscent of Savannah when she was a baby.


Everything else here is going great. Life is good, even if we are sleep-deprived. We have two beautiful, healthy girls. Who could ask for more?

Adventures of having two babies

Well, we've managed to survive our first week of having two children. It's certainly had its ups and downs, but overall, the experience has been wonderful. We couldn't ask for two more beautiful girls, and we feel incredibly blessed.
Madeline grows more beautiful every day. She's quite the little eater, too. It seems like she's always hungry, especially in the middle of the night. But since we're trying to put some weight on her, her desire to eat all the time is a good thing. It's amazing sometimes how much like Savannah she is. She makes some of the same facial expressions that Savannah used to make, and she looks so much like her, too.
Savannah has been a great big sister so far. She loves to give her baby sister kisses. She really wants her to play with her, but obviously, Madeline's a little too young for that. Anytime Madeline crys, Savannah says, "Baby sister crying" and then she'll bring me her pacifier. She hasn't shown any signs of being jealous, she just seems fascinated with her little baby sister.
We also added two new little bitty members to our family. Savannah's Grandpa Richard bought her two goldfish. So far, Savannah has named one of them Nemo. The other one remains nameless. Savannah is completely enthralled with her fish. She loves to show them off, and she loves to go in her bathroom and look at her fish. Our house is now full of all kinds of critters! Haha!

Presenting ... Madeline Diane Nolan

Madeline Diane Nolan

Born: 02-28-2006

Birth Time: 8:15 am

Weight: 4 lbs 11 oz

Length: 17 in.

the baby's coming soon

We have a date scheduled for the C-section. Our baby girl will be born on February 28th. The surgery is scheduled for 7:30 AM. 6 weeks and counting!!

Since I haven't updated since November, here's what has been going on around here the past couple of months.

Savannah's favorite TV show is Sesame Street. Some days that's all we watch all day, thanks to our Dish Network DVR. Lately, though, she's been watching The Wiggles, and I think she likes it almost as much as watching Big Bird and Elmo. For the longest time, if you asked her who she was, she would reply with either "Bee Bird" or "Elmo." Only in the last couple of days has she started answering with her name...or her version of her name. She says, "I Sannah."

Her favorite song right now is "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." She likes to use her own words in it, though. For example, she'll sing "Elmo Elmo Elmo Elmo" to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Other versions are: The Mommy Song, The Daddy Song, The Toby Song, The Baby Sister Song, and The Potty Song. Her ABCs are improving. She can go through D, then she sings some gibberish, and then she clearly says P, Q, R, and S. And then she sings whatever she feels like singing for the rest of the song.

Christmas went well. Savannah got a surplus of presents. Her Nana and Mimi bought her SO many things. Rick and I got her 4 or 5 presents, our neighbors got her a present, Toby and Brenda bought her three things, and Christian and Crystal bought her three things. Oh, and her Auntie Lacy bought her a couple of things and Auntie Meagan bought her a big ol' Elmo.

I think it's impossible for my mom and Mimi to not spoil Savannah. They went in Big Lots yesterday, and when they got in the car, Mom said, "Savannah saw Elmo, so we bought her Elmo fruit snacks, and then she saw a puzzle and said "puzzooo," so we bought her the puzzle. And then we saw a book, and I wasn't going to buy it, but then when we got a few aisles farther down, she said "Book!" So I went back and got it, too."

I've also discovered that Savannah likes things to be nice and clean. Well, most of the time, anyway. For example, I bought her some bathtub crayons for Christmas, and she'll color with them for a second or two, and then get all panicky and say, "Off! Off!" And then she'll get her little sponge and wipe all of her coloring off the side of the tub. She also has to have a napkin when she eats, and she can't stand to have even the tiniest little crumb on her hand. Oh, and she picks up the tiniest things off the floor and throws them in the trash...just to do it. On Christmas, when she was opening her presents, she was so worried about getting wrapping paper on the floor. She would tear off a tiny piece, grasp it in her hand, and tear off another tiny piece. Then when her hands got full, she'd crumple all the paper up and put it in a little pile off to the side. We thought she would never finish unwrapping her presents. Also, when she colors, she'll sort her crayons in piles by what she's colored with and what she hasn't. It makes us laugh.

We're looking forward to making it through these next six weeks and having a new baby to write about!