Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I think it is safe to say that everyone in the Donohoe household had a great Christmas! We are very fortunate to have such wonderful and generous family and friends. A lot of things felt different this year... for starters we now have Nolan! He adds so much joy to our lives. I think most people will agree that holidays are even more special when there are little kids involved (no matter how old they are)! Nolan had a great day yesterday - apparently even 3 month olds get exhausted on Christmas. It will be interesting to see how next year goes when he is a year old!

Another thing that was different about this year was that we had a white Christmas! I can't remember the last time that's happened around here. I kept looking out at the snow thinking "this is how every Christmas should be!" It just felt right.

Anyway, we hope you all had a great Christmas and enjoyed celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Lazy Saturday

Nolan and I had a nice relaxing Saturday today. Nolan was dressed for a lazy day too... notice the slippers :) We started the day off hanging out and watching Christmas Vacation together. Then we did some baking while listening to Christmas songs. It was a good time. Nolan wasn't much help in the kitchen, but he was great company. Now if only I could train him to clean up the mess we made... oh well maybe we should work on walking and talking first!

This weekend we have a few Christmas parties to go to... should be fun! I'm sure we'll post more pictures soon!

1st Snow of the Season!

Last week we were fortunate enough to get some snow. For some that might not be a big deal - but we were all pretty excited around here! It is always fun to get snow in December. It makes getting ready for the holidays even better! Plus everything is more fun with kids around. Even though Nolan is not old enough to care, I was still pretty excited for him to see his first snow! We were going to go to the Christmas parade on Saturday but decided not to take Nolan out in the cold and snow. Instead we just got him dressed up and pretended we were going to go play outside (See pic below) but stayed cozy and warm inside!

More Thanksgiving Pics

I think these are mostly self explanatory...

Nolan's 1st Thanksgiving:

Donohoe family:

4 generations!

Family pic:

Thanksgiving!

This year marked our 3rd year of having Thanksgiving at our house. It is hard to believe that we have been living here for 3 years! We are lucky to have this place because it means both families - Donohoes and Massey's alike can gather for one delicious Thanksgiving meal. And a great meal it was! You can see the turkey Jack cooked in the picture... it was really good! Everyone chipped in and brought different dishes. I have to say that overall, this was probably the best food I've ever eaten on Thanksgiving. We had pretty much everything you could think of to eat - and lots of pie too! But enough about the food...

As to be expected I think Nolan stole this show this year. He may not remember any of it but I think he had a pretty great 1st Thanksgiving. Here is a glimpse of what the day looked like for him:

Taking a little morning snooze while mom & dad (Katie & Jack) cooked and cleaned:

Hanging out with Omi (Nolan's great-grandmother!)... I don't think she put him down the whole time! I'm glad they finally got to meet and spend some time together. I think they both enjoyed it.

Hanging out with Uncle Mike after dinner... this spot on the couch is Nolan's new favorite. He is only 2 and a half months old and already a regular little couch potato!

Weekend Fun

This past weekend Nolan and I got to go to Blacksburg (Jack had to stay home to work).  We got to hang out with Pat and Nina, and visit Uncle Ben at Virgina Tech:

On Sat. I got to go to the Tech game. Nina graciously offered to babysit which I think she and Nolan both enjoyed. Before the game we walked around campus, made our usual trip to the bookstore, had a tailgate party, and Nolan got to meet the Kassner's! This is what we call Hokie camo... all the maroon kind of blends in...

We made it home late Sat. night. Nolan actually slept for 10 hours in a row that night. I think he must have been worn out from all the weekend festivities. Then on Sun. Nolan got to meet the Boyd's. I think this was the beginning of a long friendship between he and Jace!

Karaoke Night

As most of you well know, Jack is a karaoke all-star. He looooves karaoke. Unfortunately for him he has not had the opportunity to do it much lately. But this past week he finally got to get back to it. Tuesday night we all went out to Hard Times cafe for karaoke night. Part of me felt like a terrible mother - I mean, who brings their 2 month old to a bar? But Hard Times has a non-smoking restaurant portion as well, so Nolan and I hung out there with some friends. Jack did a great job as usual with his singing. He did the usual Meatloaf song. Nolan got to here his dad sing in public for the first time. Lucky for him he is too young to get embarrassed yet ;) He didn't scream or anything so I will assume that he liked it!

Here are some pictures from our night out:

Random people getting into Jack's song by waiving their cell phones in the air:

Jack belting it out:

Nolan getting ready to go out to Hard Times. Notice he is wearing his camo just like any good Spotsy boy ;)

(not sure what he was doing in this picture but I thought his expression was funny)

Another picture of Nolan in his camo (with a more normal expression this time):

2 Months!

This week we celebrated Nolan's 2 month birthday. It is hard to believe it has been 2 months already! It feels like just yesterday I was writing about his 1 month birthday.

As you can see from the picture we celebrated his birthday (Sunday) by watching the Redskins and cheering them on to victory! (finally!) Nolan had a great time watching the game. He smiled a lot! (but as usual I am too slow with the camera to catch it on film). For once he got to wear his Redskins outfit with pride and not hide in embarassment.

At Nolan's 2 month checkup this week we found out he is 12 lbs 6 oz and 24.5 inches long! He is in the 75th percentile for other kids his age. He is definitely a growing boy! Pretty soon he is suppose to start rolling over and laughing (although the two are not necessarily related to each other). I'm pretty sure I might have actually heard him laughing in his sleep on the ride home today. If not a full blown laugh it was pretty close - and definitely cute whatever it was! It was a nice treat and cheered me up after having a rough day at school.

This weekend we get to go see the Hokies play and visit Blacksburg. We can't wait! More to come on that later I'm sure! :)

New Clothes

It has become evident that Nolan is growing like a weed (which means his clothes are no longer fitting). Most of his pants were starting to look like capris. I decided last weekend that it might be time to do a little shopping and find some warmer clothes that would actually fit him. Luckily I decided to go through his closet before I went out and spent any money. As it turns out I hit the jackpot! I had stored away a few boxes of clothes that we had gotten from a friend and finally went through them. I found tons of cute clothes that are the right size! The picture here is one Nolan's new outfits - Go Hokies! So I just wanted to post something on here to publically say thanks to Aunt Stacy and Lesley/Tristan for all the great clothes! Nolan will now be stylish and warm for a good long while!

Happy Birthday MeMaw!

I'm not sure if I even spelled her name right (this is a new name after all), but I wanted to make sure to wish MeMaw (my mom) a very happy birthday!

So, Happy Birthday!!

We all love you very much and hope to celebrate many more birthdays togethers!

Man Time

Nolan is lucky to have a great father that he gets to spend some quality "man time" with. Most of this bonding time comes while watching some sort of sporting event or the morning news. Occasionally they have some serious talks...

I'm not sure what they were talking about in the picture above but Nolan seems to be mesmorized by it.

He isn't always so serious though...

Nolan has been smiling a lot lately. I wish I was better at catching it on camera, but it never fails that as soon as I get the camera ready the smile has vanished. I guess you will just have to come visit him in person to see his smiling face!

Happy Halloween!

Yesterday was Nolan's first Halloween! To be honest Halloween is not really my favorite holiday, but having children changes everything. Even though Nolan obviously had no clue what was going on it was still really fun to get him dressed up!


We went to "Trunk or Treat" at church for a little bit. We didn't let Nolan get too much candy though ;) Mostly we just walked around and looked at all the fun costumes everyone had. Then we went to a Halloween party at a friend's house. It was good fun. Nolan was a hit in his tiger costume. Jack thought it was a girly costume so kept trying to get Nolan to growl. Personally I thought he was adorable without the growl...

I think his tail was my favorite part of the whole costume... so cute!

Jack and I went as a farmer and his cow... or "whipped cream." Get it?

Back to School

It's amazing how time flies. Nolan is already 6 and a half weeks old. He had his 6-week check-up this week, and discovered that he has grown to over 11 and a half pounds and 23 inches. It is hard for me to believe he has grown 4 inches - I guess that explains why all of his pants are now capris! The doctor says everything looks good!

We are definitely excited and thankful that Nolan is a healthy, growing boy. Now that he is 6 weeks old that meant time to go back to work for me. Going back to school is never something that you look forward to, but I'm proud to say we all survived the week. I haven't been able to take as many naps (and therefore feel extremely sleep deprived), but otherwise all went well. Nolan was a hit at his daycare - there are 2 other little girls there that just adore the "new baby". He is a stud already. I didn't cry at all when leaving him, so I was proud of myself for that. It helps that Jack has been taking him in the mornings so I don't have to drop him off. I just get to pick him up in the afternoon which gives me something exciting to look forward to all day at work. The only nice thing about going back to work is that it has helped us begin to establish a little bit of a routine. Jack and Nolan hang out in the mornings and then go to work/daycare together. When I pick Nolan up in the afternoon he is usually wide awake. I like to think he is excited to see me and spend time together so he doesn't want to waste time sleeping. The only problem is that he stays awake all evening, so I don't get to take my usual nap ;) The good part of that though is that he usually goes to bed between 9 and 10 and will sleep sometimes until 4. It feels pretty good to get 6 hours of sleep in a row!

Anyway, enough about that. I don't really have and fun new pictures, but here are a couple random ones from the last week or so...

Here is Nolan all bundled up for the colder Fall weather... he is so cute in his hat (that Kim Hill made)!

And here is Jack and Nolan watching football together...

And here is Nolan and Boomer playing on the floor together...

Pumpkin Patch

Today we did what everyone should do on a brisk Autumn afternoon... we went to the pumpkin patch! Nolan got to experience his first trip to the pumpkin patch - he slept through a lot of it but I like to think that he had a blast. If nothing else Jack and I had a blast pretending that Nolan was having fun.

Our adventures took place at Westmoreland Berry Farm. We had never been there but it turned out to be a good time. It was much cheaper than some of the other local places. We got to go on a tractor ride to the pumpkin patch (for those of us that grew up on a farm/in the country this wasn't really that exciting, but it was fun to see everyone else so excited about it). This is us on the wagon ride:

We also saw some goats (again, probably more exciting for the city folk), drank delicious hot apple cider, and of course picked some pumpkins. Nolan picked out a little one for himself (or more like I saw him eyeing a pumpkin so I picked it up and set it next to him). All in all it was a fun time. I really love this time of year!

Here is a picture of Nolan meeting the goat:

And one of him pretending to be a pig:

Sunny Days

The past few days have been extremely rainy and cold so Nolan hasn't been outside much. This week has started off on a different note though, so we have been trying to enjoy the beautiful weather before it turns cold for good! One of our favorite things to do during the day is go for walks. It's nice to get fresh air, and it helps Boomer and I both get our exercise for the day.

Boomer leading the way

Boomer checking up on his buddy

Happy Birthday Nolan!

It is hard to believe but this week we celebrated Nolan's 1 month birthday! I can't believe he is that old already. Time flies! I can really tell in the last week that he has grown. He is officially too big for newborn size diapers and is outgrowing some of his clothes. He is still as cute as ever though!

Here are some pictures to show how much he has grown...

20 weeks old in the womb:

the day he was born:

1 month old:

Nolan's 1st Roadtrip

This past weekend Nolan got to experience his 1st roadtrip. Jack was in a wedding in TN, but we decided that might be a little far to take Nolan in the car. So Nolan and I hung out in Blacksburg for the weekend. I made sure to dress him in as much VT stuff as possible to get him in the mood for the trip...

You can't really tell but he is wearing a VT shirt and socks in this pic to go with his blanket. Nolan got to watch the Tech vs. BC game with his grandparents. He is a good fan - Tech is undefeated during his lifetime!

 

We both had a great time visiting with everyone in town. Nolan especially enjoyed hanging out with Pat and Nina. Maybe because they spoil us so much? :)

Nolan also got to visit his Uncle Ben and see his dorm room. He was a big hit with the ladies! Actually, Nolan was a big hit with everyone. He also got to meet the Mock's, Sarah, Kim, Rocky, and lots of people from BCF and BMS (Nina's teacher friends).

Overall it was a great trip and we are excited to go back soon (hopefully Jack can join us next time)!

Down on the Farm

Yesterday Nolan got his first real taste of being on the farm...


It was a little cooler so we had to get him bundled up... notice he is wearing his special farm outfit!

One of our favorite things to do at the farm is go for a walk. To do this Nolan got his first "ride" in the backpack. He seemed to really enjoy it. He stayed awake for the whole thing!

On our walk Nolan got to see his first ever cows! I don't think he knew what was going on, but I like to think he enjoyed it.

He also got to meet his first cat! Hopefully he didn't like it too much because Jack and I don't have very good luck keeping cats... so that is one pet Nolan will probably never get to have.

Man's Best Friend

A lot of people ask us how Boomer is doing with Nolan. So here is an update...

Here are some pictures from the first time Boomer and Nolan met:

Boomer mostly likes to sniff him...

But he can also be very calm and protective...

Most of the time if Nolan is at sniff level, Boomer will go for it. Any time he is in his car seat or bouncy seat Boomer likes to be in his face... Most of the time Nolan doesn't seem to mind which is good. I can already tell they are going to grow up being great friends!

Whenever Nolan makes a noise (no matter how big or small) Boomer has to go over and check it out. I think he is still really confused as to how someone that small can make that much noise (or any noise at all for that matter). I guess if I were to somehow go deaf I would still know when Nolan is upset because Boomer would let me know.

He especially loves to check on Nolan while he's in his cradle. I don't think he means to do it, but he likes to paw at the cradle and make it rock back and forth. (I had a picture but not sure what I did with it)

The other day I was getting out the shower and Nolan was getting cranky. I need not worry though, Boomer was laying right next to his cradle keeping watch over him. It's not like Boomer could really do much to quiet his crying, but I like to think that Boomer thinks he is looking out for him. This seems to be the beginning of a long and wonderful friendship!