Hey Everyone! It's been busy at the Nulphs (just like it is all the time :)) We've been saying we're going to get the internet at our new house for months now but it hasn't happened yet... I guess we'll see how long it takes. We are loving the new house. Now that we've got our own place I can't even imagine living in a tiny little apartment again. We have been so blessed to move there. The kids actually have room to move around and we've got enough space for our storage- it is so so nice.

Speaking of the kids.... Zander is over 20 months now. He is still so full of energy! He's starting to really talk a lot- not just words but 2-3 word phrases. Quite the little copycat too- we have to watch every move we make. The saying is true: actions speak louder than words. :) Good thing or bad thing?

Zander was stuck on "the kitty movie" for several weeks in a row so we had to watch The Aristocats at least twice a day. It was nice when that wasn't so important but now it's "the puppy movie" so we have to watch 101 Dalmations. Oh well... can I really complain? They're movies I loved when I was little and he could've gotten hooked on something that I really hate. I should just count my blessings.

He does so many cute things- he loves to smell. He always has to smell his food before he eats it. ALWAYS. Not even kidding. Even if he knows that it's something he likes, he smells it first. I don't know if it's to make sure we aren't trying to feed him something nasty or if he's just going to be a professional taster when he grows up. :) He pretty much likes to smell anything though. I think he gets a lot from that particular sense. He will smell Taizlie's feet and then he shakes his head and goes, "Phew!!!" and grins at me. It makes me laugh every time.

He is such an awesome big brother too. I never would have guessed that he would be able to help me with Taizlie but he really does. If I've got my hands full and she drops her toy he will go give it back to her so that she's not sad. And when Taizlie is asleep I will turn on the monitor and when she wakes up if I don't go right away to get her he will go lay next to her and talk to her until I can get there. He is mommy's little helper with just about anything but he loves to help with Taizlie the most. He is my good boy.

Taizlie is already 5 1/2 months old! I guess I haven't written about her birth yet so I better do that. Toward the end of my last trimester my doctor informed me he was going to be gone for a few weeks- leaving just before my due date and not getting back until 2 weeks afterwards. I can tell you.... I was NOT impressed. But... it turns out it didn't matter anyway because she was 15 days late. In fact, I think my doctor got off the plane and pretty much came straight to the hospital to deliver my Taizlie. When my due date came and passed, I kept thinking that I was going to go into the guiness world records as the only woman in the world who was pregnant forever. Seriously... it felt like she was never going to get here. My doctor's PA (who I saw while he was gone) was getting a little worried too. He had never seen anyone go as late as I did without any kind of dilation. I saw him on a Thursday and when he checked me I was not dilated at all. We made an appointment to induce me the following monday (which would have been 16 days overdue). Thankfully I started feeling contractions Friday evening. I didn't sleep very well that night- the contractions were just painful enough that I couldn't sleep through them. Then I contracted all day Saturday. Greg was supposed to work that day but after staying up pretty much all night and not knowing what was going to happen that day, I asked him to take it off. I contracted all day and through the night again. Around 3 in the morning on Sunday the contractions were getting really strong and had been about 5 minutes apart for over an hour so Greg called his mom to see if she would come over and stay with Zander while we went to the hospital. Judy and Katy came over and- no kidding- as soon as they got there my contractions weakened and went to 20 minutes or more apart. Greg was all dressed up to leave and Judy and Katy had to sleep in our living room for no reason that night. I felt so bad. On Sunday morning when everyone woke up I was completely exhausted. By this time it had been two full nights and days without sleep and I could've just fell over. Judy knew how tired I was (and Greg from staying up with me) so she and Katy took Zander home with them for the day. Greg and I tried to rest as much as we could that morning and from 2-3 in the afternoon the contractions were strong and 3-5 minutes apart again. I wanted to wait a little longer but Greg knew I was so tired and we would have to go to the hospital anyway the next day so we went. When we got there and settled in (about 5PM) the nurse checked me and I was just waiting for her to say "Oh just a one" but thankfully I was dilated to a 4. HALLELUJAH!!! I sat and labored for another couple of hours and when the doctor came in I was an 8! Wow! Finally the home stretch!! She was born in the wee hours of the morning and we were so thankful to finally meet our beautiful little girl. (trust me... after 3 straight days of labor and no sleep I was READY to meet her :))

Now Miss Taizlie is a big girl. She's got her two front teeth on the bottom (and she really uses them- REALLY...) She doesn't want anything to do with real food- just still on the breastmilk. And she doesn't want it from a bottle, she wants it straight out of the tap. She is so so cute and getting more so every day. She sits up on her own and loves to play with Zander. She will smile and giggle at just about anybody but Zander makes her laugh the hardest. Just like her big brother, she is a huge fan of the shower. She's already getting close to the 20 lb mark (I can't believe it- I swear I was still pregnant just a couple of weeks ago).

Greg and I are staying busy with our babies. I still get to just stay home with them and it is SO nice. Greg is taking over as a spreader operator this spring and he is pretty excited about it. I think he's looking forward to something different and what man could say no to driving a big powerful truck right?

Our little family is going to go to Missouri in a couple weeks to visit my sister and we are super excited. It will be a fun trip to take- especially right before Greg's busy season hits at work and we pretty much don't see him for a couple months.

That's pretty much the big update for now! Sorry some of the pictures are sideways. It was already taking forever to load and I didn't want to take the time to figure out which pictures needed flipped.

- The Nulphs

Taizlie Mae Nulph is here!

Life in the fast lane...

It seems like it's been forever since we posted... I guess it kind of has. Things have been happening like crazy! My mom always said that as you get older and have kids, time keeps going faster and faster- she was so right. The last few months have been pretty full: Zander is about 14 months old and running so fast my pregnant body has trouble keeping up with his energy sometimes, I am 36 weeks pregnant now with our little girl, Greg is keeping busy at work, and... we bought our first house!

We closed on our first house in the middle of June and we got to move in about a week and a half later. The house is pretty good size with 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms but it was a foreclosure so we had quite a bit of work to do before we could move in. Thank goodness for such a wonderful family! Since Greg was working most of the time and I'm so pregnant, we had family in the new house almost every day cleaning and painting and I never even had to pick up a paintbrush. Zander and I did all the running around and picking up supplies while everyone else cleaned and painted and all that good stuff. Greg would come up after work and do anything else that needed done. We needed to clean, paint, and carpet the new house, move out of the apartment, clean the apartment, and move in to the new house all within 2 weeks... There is no doubt in my mind that without our family we couldn't have done it. They were so great and it was just reinforcing how thankful we already were to have them around.

Now we are just trying to get totally settled in before the new baby gets here- due August 14th. It's all coming together and it has been so nice to have a place we can call our own home.

We are so excited for the coming weeks... it will be fun to have a new baby around and for Zander to have a sibling- he seems to love babies right now so we'll see if that holds true in a couple weeks. :)

36 weeks pregnant- Getting close!

Helping make belgian waffles... mmmmmm....

Playing in the water at Grandma and Grandpa Nulphs

The New Nulph Residence

What a cute boy!

My boys swinging

Playing in the sprinkler at the new house- SO MUCH FUN!

He got his own Buzz Lightyear cell phone for his birthday- it makes lots of noise so it's perfect for him, but no off button.... not so perfect for mom and dad.

Looking at Grandma and Grandpa Corrigan's chickens...

We went to Challis and played at the Hot Springs for Zander's Birthday- He loved it! It was a giant bathtub!

Happy Birthday Zander! He got some new tractors to play with.

The Happenings for the Nulphs

So I know its been awhile.... I'm using my in-laws computer because we got rid of our yucky internet. But... here goes:

I can't believe Zander is going to be a whole year old in less than a month! On the 21st of May our little man will be the big 1 and its crazy. He is getting so big: 23 pounds and 32 inches already. He isn't walking around yet but he sure tries. He tries to stand in the middle of the floor and pulls himself up on everything. As long as he's got one of your hands, you better hang on for the ride because if it's up to him, you're cruisin'. He is so busy! I'm excited for him to be able to walk because then he'll be more independent but I'm afraid because what if I never find him again?! If he's awake, he's getting into something. And he loves to wrestle- if you lay on the ground, he's coming to get you.

Life with Zander has been amazing. I'm so thankful every day to have him- I can't believe our little family's unbelievable luck.

I don't know how excited he is about it but Zander is going to be getting a little sister in August. That's right! I am going to have a baby and we found out a few weeks ago that it's a little girl. At least that's the word for now... the big ultrasound is tomorrow so I guess we'll see for sure. :) We are so excited- it's going to be great to have Zander and the new one so close because they should be best friends (either that or I guess we'll have fights on our hands all the time; it'll only make them tougher, right?) Remember how I said he loves to wrestle? Well one of his favorite things to do is wrestle my tummy... This new baby will probably have to be tough from the beginning!

Greg is just busy at work all the time. I can tell you, I didn't love the adjustment period when the busy season hit. I missed Greg but it was nothing to Zander. From about 4:30 to the time Greg got home (usually around 8:30 or 9) Zander was fussy and just kept looking at the door. When he hears the doorknob start to turn he gets so excited! But... hopefully the busy season is on the downhill slope.

As for me... just being busy and feeling pregnant. I keep track of Zander all day and that wears me out enough. We've been looking for a house now for a long time and still haven't found "the one" yet but we're hopeful it will be soon. :)

Oh and Happy Easter! Having our own baby for Easter was alot of fun this year. I'm not sure how much fun Zander had, but I had TONS of fun dying eggs yesterday and hunting eggs with him this morning. He was probably wondering why we were doing all these crazy things and why I was so happy about it but oh well, right? He seemed to really enjoy it... especially the candy part.

Really...

I don't understand how things can be moving this fast! Zander is already 5 1/2 months old and it's November!?!

Happy late Halloween to everyone. I wanted to show you a picture of our little bumble bee:

The costume was given to us and ended up being way too short (he's tall like his Daddy) but we put his top half in it anyway just because I had to have a picture of his first halloween. :)

Here's an update on our little guy: He's eating all different kinds of fruits and veggies now and he's liked every one except squash (he would fuss with every bite but we got it down). His favorite seems to be anything with mango.

Zander is also rolling all over the place. I know he really wishes he could run and play and when he can, I know Greg and I will be in for it. He has so much energy! He can sit up by himself as long as the toy he's playing with is sitting in front of him- if it's to the side, when he reaches for it, he falls over. He thinks that's funny though. :)

His absolute favorite thing is showering. He LOVES it! The water doesn't faze him at all- in fact, he tries to eat it. If he's fussy and nothing seems to be working, a shower will always make him relax.

And last but not least.... he's teething. He's not loving it and I can tell you neither am I, but it's ok. He likes to suck on cold washcloths and drools a lot, but other than that it's no big deal. Here's a pic of him in his sunday best:

As for Greg and I, same old thing. I stay home and get run ragged by our little man and he goes to work to get run ragged there. There's no doubt that we both keep pretty busy and we're probably lacking hours and hours of sleep (probably more than I even want to know) but that's ok. We're happy and that's all that matters, right?

Just a few more pictures of us and our little character:

Big 4-Month Man!

I can't believe Zander turned 4 months old yesterday! He is getting so big and Greg and I are having the BEST time getting to really know him. He's giggling, very talkative, and so active now. And SO ticklish! It's hilarious. He and I made a trip to Aunt Crystal's massage class because she was learning infant massage and needed a "model". He absolutely loved the leg and feet massage but when she got up to his belly, back, and head, Aunt Crystal had to stop because he just kept wiggling all around.

Greg's favorite thing is to come home from work and play with Zander. He definately knows who his mommy and daddy are now and sometimes when other people hold him he just doesn't quite know what to think about it.

Zander was pretty excited this past week to get his first taste of real foods. He got a little taste of cantelope and apple. He LOVED them. I couldn't help laughing because he tried to attack the fruit with his face... It was like he couldn't be patient enough to grab it with his hands- he just had to literally dive in.

Zan the Man is Keeping Us Busy!

He giggles now! It's so adorable and totally melts your heart. He was blessed on the first of August and as you can see he got a new suit for the occasion. He looked like quite the little gentleman. It was so nice to have family up for the blessing. Greg was nervous but came through just fine and Zander didn't cry... he only tried his best to wiggle out of his Daddy's arms. :)