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!

A Long-awaited update

I know it has been forever since I have updated this thing. I do apologize.

Savannah is 20 months old now. I still find that to be amazing. It doesn't feel like it's been so long since she was born. She's a little motor mouth. It's becoming hard to say anything around here without her repeating whatever we say. Whenever I'm on the phone, she'll sit there attentively and repeat my whole conversation, as I'm saying it. While the person on the other end is saying, "who is that?" Her latest phrase is "I love you." There's nothing like hearing your baby say "I wuv ooo" in her cute little voice. I love it every time.

Due to pre-term contractions, I am basically on bedrest now. I thought it would be more difficult this time around, since I have Savannah, but she's such a wonderful little helper. It's not really hard at all. Yesterday, I had a drink on the coffee table, and whenever I told her to bring me my drink, she'd carry it over to me with a big smile on her face. Then she would stand there and wait until I was through and carry it back to the table. She's good at entertaining herself, and that comes as a relief right now.

Rick's staying busy working at the hospital. His schedule is nice. I think I'll appreciate his 6 days off even more now. It just gets kinda lonely when he's not here. I'm adding pictures to our Yahoo album, so go take a look! That's all for now. More later....I mean, sooner!

big announcement

We are no longer going to be the Nolan Trio. We are going to be welcoming an addition to our family in about seven months, as we joyously discovered last week.

Savannah is doing wonderfully. She's walking everywhere, which is sometimes good, sometimes not. She likes that she's allowed to venture into the kitchen now. She likes to play with her magnetic letters on the refrigerator.

Our dogs are also keeping us busy. Sampson is as lazy as ever, and Chachi is just a mile a minute. He never quits.

We went to Granbury, TX over the weekend for a little R & R. We had a wonderful time there, as always. Mom went with us, too. We went fishing again this year, but we still didn't catch anything, not even a chair. hehe.

Anyway, there wasn't much to write about besides the fact that we'll be having a baby, so we'll write more later.

Little Walker

I am sorry it has been so long since I have updated. There's a lot to write about. Of most importance is the fact that Savannah has started walking. She'd been taking a few steps now and then for a while, and then one day last week, she just took off. And ever since then, walking has been her preferred mode of transportation (besides one of us carrying her). She really likes when we let her down in stores, because she can reach all the bottom shelves and pull everything off. Fun for her...not so fun for us.

Savannah has started singing part of her ABC's. She can sing through G. We got it on video. That's another one of those things she just did one day. And she counts, but she only says "theeee." So she'll point to things and say "theee, theeee, theeeee." Sometimes she says "two." She's also learned "highchair," "cup," "book," "ball," and the lovely art of sticking out her tongue. Oh yes, and we can't forget, the greatness of a tantrum. Her tantrums consist of laying on the floor and whining. She doesn't do it too much, but enough is enough.

We got a new dog. He's a chihuahua, and we named him Chachi. He's like the exact opposite of Sampson. He's hyper and active and quite small. He likes to bite Sam's lips and ears and then pull on them real hard. Sampson's so laid back that he just lays there. It's a funny sight. Savannah doesn't seem crazy about Chachi, but Chachi really likes her. She does like to crawl all over Sam. She really really likes to sit on his back and rock like she's riding her rocking horse. And, of course, he just lays there.

Rick started his new job at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas. He'll be on the day shift and it's an 8 on/6 off job...meaning he'll work 8 days and have 6 days off. So, it's like a vacation every other week. We think it's wonderful, and it's so much better for Savannah. He's really happy about it. Plus, the hospital he was working at here in McKinney is allowing him to work there on some of his days off as he's needed. So, that's nice, too.

Anyway, there's an update for ya'll. I won't wait two months to update again.

back home, doctor appointment

Well, we are back from Colorado. We had a wonderful time visiting everyone! I was so glad to get to meet all of Rick's family, and I was really happy that everyone got to finally see Savannah. Now that we are back home, things are pretty much back to normal. Savannah went to see her new pediatrician on Wednesday. We switched because our old pediatrician mysteriously left the practice she was at. Our new doctor is within walking distance of our house. Savannah weighed in at 17 lbs. and was 29 1/2 inches long. All news was good news. She got two shots, but she only cried for a few seconds.
She's got a few new words! She says dude, no, hi, and a semi-understandable version of thank you. That brings her total number of known words to somewhere around 10. Oh, and when I say "nose" she says "no," but I think she thinks that I'm saying "no." Anyway.
I better go and tend to our screaming baby. I'll write more later.

standing up

Savannah stood up all by herself the other day. She was sitting on our bed, and all of a sudden, she just pushed herself right up, and threw her arms up in the air just as proud as could be. Then she did it a few more times and said "yayyy." It was so wonderful and cute.

Today, I feel rather ill. I don't know exactly what has caused this sudden onset of ickyness, but it's no fun.

We are going to Colorado in a couple of weeks, and we are so excited. I'm really excited, because I'll get to meet everybody, and everyone will get to see Savannah. I can't wait!

Photofriday entry. Rest. My little angel. 

the not-so-looked-forward-to milestones

Savannah has learned how to pick her nose. And when I tell her no and pull her finger out, she thinks it's funny and laughs at me. Actually, she laughs at me whenever I try and discipline her. She's also learned how to climb up the safety gate to the kitchen. I looked over the other day when I heard her crying, and saw that she was half-way up the gate. She's done that a few more times since then. She never makes it very far up though.

She's growing like a little bitty weed. She's the most curious little thing. She has to investigate everything! Lately, hide and seek has been her thing. She likes to grab the bottom of her dress and throw it over her head and then "reappear." It's funny when she thinks we can't see her, cause she'll be laughing under her dress.

She knows who people are now. She knows who mama, dada, and nana are. As well as doggy and Bubba. If she even hears the dog's collar shake, she'll sit up and say "doddy!" It's amazing sometimes.

What a pose!  

after all these days

Savannah is calling everything "Bubba" now. Bubba is one of our cats' names. It's really funny to see her chasing him around going, "Bubba! Bubba! Buuuubbaaaa!" She's also said something that closely resembled "turtle" in reference to her chewy turtle. That was exciting.

Still no walking, but I'm sure it will happen with time, eh? She's crawling as fast as ever, and she's managed to make it all the way up the stairs in our house by herself a few times (with Rick or me closely supervising, of course). It's kinda scary watching her change so much so fast. It's just all flying by.

The doctor told us that she needs to gain weight. Apparently, she doesn't realize that Savannah is small like me. Everyone else thinks that Savannah is perfectly healthy. So what if she's not fat? She's active, she's happy, what more could we want?

She's learning new things everyday. Lately she's been getting her toy phones and holding them up to her ear and talking. And she gets her board books and turns the pages and points to things while she "reads." It's so cute. She loves books. Sometimes she'd rather look at a book than play with her toys.

The cutest bug face you've ever seen Photofriday entry for Faces. 

Where's the baby? PhotoFriday entry. 

not much to say

Well, Savannah has been a year old for over one week now. She's been quite awnry lately. She'll be happy for a while, and then be in a horrible mood the rest of the day. She did manage to wave bye bye, and she's been saying "mama" every now and then. What else is there to say? She's been pretty stylish lately in her new birthday clothes with her new little purse. She takes her purse with her everywhere, as a girl should! :)

Besides that, there's not much to say today. See you all later.

Happy Birthday!

Happy First Birthday, Savannah! We love you!!!