Easter Festivities (and a little extra)

Thanks for your patience with this blog post. Due to severe weather in our area we were unable to post yesterday. We are thankful to have been spared any damage and are praying for our friends in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham.

MSU Easter Egg Hunt

Joshua attended the MSU Easter Egg Hunt at President Keenum's home. The egg hunt starts when the cow bell is rung from the front porch and within mere seconds the hunt is over.

An added bonus to the egg hunt was that our sweet friend Shelby was there too. Joshua loves Shelby although based on this picture neither of them seem to be enjoying themselves.

Joshua could be described as a picky egg hunter. He opened each egg to inspect its contents before deciding its worthiness. Most of the eggs he tossed back on the ground open and moved on to the next one.

School Easter Party

This cupcake sure tastes good and I don't even have to use my hands to eat it!

Saturday before Easter
Dave's high school friend Nat stayed with us Friday night. Nat was on his way from Alabama to California on his motorcycle. He was gracious enough to allow Joshua to "ride" on it.

Joshua loves to "help" around the house and yard.

We are blessed to have fantastic neighbors who love Joshua. Mr. Jerry is one of Joshua's biggest fans. This afternoon they were discussing Joshua's golf clubs and swing.

Easter Day
checking out the Easter basket loot

A word of warning: the following pictures are not for the faint of heart.

While most parents have posted beautiful pictures of their angelic children on Easter Day, our dear child had a tough day and did not want his picture taken.

Unfortunately Joshua's mood did not improve much during the day so these are the only pictures we have of him.

Happy Easter from our joyful family to yours!

2.25 years old

Joshua is growing taller, getting more and more hair, talking a lot and curious about everything.

Joshua loves the playground, eating apples, his firetruck bed and counting.

Joshua wants to play with a football or basketball, his tricycle, or his Dinosaur Train coloring book.

Joshua loves to read the Jesus Storybook Bible, If You Give a Moose a Muffin and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (every night).

Joshua loves to sing Oh, How I Love Jesus, I've Got the Joy Joy Joy, Rain Rain Go Away, and ABC.

Joshua is working on learning his colors, obeying the first time and potty training...sort of.

And a funny story...On our way home from church Sunday, we asked Joshua want Bible story they talked about in the nursery. He said, "Jesus night night in the boat. Friends said, 'wake up!'" I asked, "Why did Jesus' friends want him to wake up, were they scared because of a storm?" Joshua's response, "No mama. The giant said 'fee fie foe fum.'" We are grateful for his listening to at least part of the story.

Super Bulldogs

Super Bulldog Weekend 2011 took place on campus last weekend. Lots of people, lots of games, lots of sun, lots of fun.

Our contribution was cheering on the team at the spring football game.

Bully was much more important to Joshua than anything else. He convinced Dave to climb over our row of people and take him down to the field to see the bulldog.

Joshua waves and states, "Hi bulldog"...

then promptly bursts into tears and starts wailing. All Bully could do was cover his eyes.

Thankfully Joshua recovered quickly from his Bully encounter. Several times while watching the game Joshua pointed to the players and called them "Bama." And in since the only hat that fits his head right now is a Bama hat, we had to bring it to the game.

We left the stadium at halftime and had a picnic on the drill field.

Joshua barely stopped running long enough to eat. He talked about the "big bulldog" all the way home. To top off a fun afternoon, we got to see Aunt Cindy, TomTom and Monica Lee at the game too...what a treat!

"Ride a airplane"

Last weekend 2 friends of our got married in Gainesville, Florida. In celebration of the happy occasion, all 3 Nolens boarded a plane bound for the Sunshine State. Joshua could not have been more excited about "ride a airplane" and he did excellently on the place (in the airport is another story though).

We experienced ferocious turbulence on the way into Jacksonville. The other passengers were sitting, white knuckled trying not to scream while Joshua was laughing, clapping and asking for the pilot to do it "again!" We are grateful he doesn't know to be scared and his giggles certainly lightened the mood.

I made it through all the wedding festivities without taking the first picture. I am hoping a couple will be sent my way by other wedding guests so I can post them for you. Joshua sat through a brief portion of the wedding. He cheered loudly for Dave during the processional when Dave walked a bride's maid down the aisle. Then at the beginning of the homily, the minister asked something like, "So why have we come here today?" and out loud, from the back row, Joshua replied, "I not know, why?" It was at that point that I knew we needed to make our exit so he wouldn't later try to participate in the vows. And to top off his first wedding experience, Joshua caught the garter!

Good friends of ours from Tuscaloosa were in town for the wedding and helped us keep Joshua entertained. We cannot thank Tim, Melissa and Austin enough for loving on Joshua throughout the weekend.

After the wedding we took Tim and Melissa to campus to visit a couple popular spots. We first stopped at Lake Alice. Lake Alice is home of numerous alligators. We came uncomfortably close to 2 6-foot alligators on the shore of the lake.

Joshua wanted to ride the alligators, splash in the lake and hold a snapping turtle. Needless to say, we didn't dare put him down for fear he would try to swim with the gators. If you ever visit Gainesville you should go to the football stadium.

Not only is the stadium open to the public but so is the football field. Joshua loved playing "football man" on the field.

Sunday we attended church with several of our friends and the Carey family was nice enough to host us for the afternoon so that Joshua had a place to take a nap. Becca, who by the way was Joshua's age when we first met her in 2003, was so sweet to play with Joshua.

We caught our flight home Monday morning after a very fun weekend. Joshua again enjoyed the turbulence coming into Birmingham. As soon as we got in the car he started crying and asked to "ride a airplane again?"

yard work and fire trucks

Spring has sprung and that means our yard needs some attention. Cowboy Joshua decided to help out a little bit Saturday morning.

We have had several variations of a "big boy" bed over the last couple months. We stared off with a toddler bed to which Joshua preferred sleeping on the floor. We then moved to a mattress on the floor, then a trundle bed and now...the fire truck bed!

Dear family friends from Birmingham have been gracious enough to allow Joshua to use the fire truck bed. To say that he loves it is a gross understatement. Here he is in a practice run of napping just after it was set up.

Joshua loves to just sit on the bed and say, "new fire truck bed...mine!" He no longer wants to play anywhere but in his room. Thankfully he has slept beautifully on the new bed too.

A BIG thanks to Mr. Don, Miss Betty, Mr. Mitch, Miss Cheryl and Tyler for sharing such a wonderful gift with us. We love you all!

Something for Everyone

Joshua only increases his cool factor by wearing his helmet and sunglasses at the same time.

brrring..brrrring, out of my way!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

meeting "baby Luke"

If there was audio to this picture you would hear several voices saying, "gentle, gentle, be gentle with baby Luke."

After the meet and greet with Luke, Joshua joined Abigail in the sandbox.

The sand mixed with the sunscreen and turned to a cement-like layer all over both kids. We tried to let them rinse off in a big bucket but that quickly turned into a bigger, wetter mess.

Aunt B transported both kids directly to the bathtub.

Two very tired-but almost clean-little ones.

Joshua had a great time visiting Jackson. We got to see most all of the Jackson-based family members. In addition to being with family, we watched as much of the basketball tournament as possible. At this point...after 3 rounds, Joshua is in the lead in the family bracket. We'll see how well he does in these later rounds. He picked Pitt to win so he has already left the door open for someone else to step into the winner's spot.

Hooray for CousinS

Joshua's new cousin, Luke, joined us on Thursday the 10th. He weighed 6 pounds and has a head full of soft fuzzy hair. Abigail and I got to spend the day together while everyone else hung out at the hospital. It was the first time the two of us got to play by ourselves. We went shopping, had lunch and enjoyed a nice afternoon nap before going to the hospital to meet Luke. It was an exciting day for everyone. Gloria and Luke are doing well and the Nolens are looking forward to seeing them this weekend.
(enjoy a sampling of the many many pictures taken)