It’s hard to imagine that mine and Natalie’s baby is turning 14 today. I love telling new parents that once you have kids it’s really hard to remember what life was like without kids. You have memories of things you did before them, but the feeling of life without kids quickly disappears. But there is one feeling that I had without kids that I’ll never forget, and that was how overwhelmed, happy, & scared I was that morning in February 1997, when I drove Natalie back to Stanton to see our childhood, hometown doctor, Dr. Charles Noss, to see why she was so sick. She got back in the car and said, “I’m pregnant!” I’ll never forget that moment as long as I live. In so many ways, the first 27 years of life as I knew it, ended at that moment, and a whole new chapter began.

I can say that Nolan has taught me more about being a father than my other two kids. When people see him they say he looks just like me. My reply is that I put all my eggs in one basket. And what they don’t realize is that Nolan on most days is truly reliving my life. He has all my characteristics, both good and bad. I look at pictures of me at his age and we could be twins. He tells me about the struggles of middle school, and I think, “yep, I was right there in 1982, 1983, and 1984.”

Nolan is my first born, he’s my military man, he’s my History Channel Freak, and he’s my hunting buddy. Happy Birthday Nolan!

Nolan has never been short on hair, even from day one.

Well…what’da you know. I used to be skinny. That all changed with kids too.

There’s a slight possibility that he’s flipping the camera off.

Nolan relaxing with a sippie cup, watching Barney, after a long hard day at the baby sitters. Nolan was a Barney fanatic!!!

The Cu l-de-sac Kids:  Riding the Gator with Cameron

His athletic days only lasted a few years, when we figured out he was more of the hunter-gatherer type.

Taking pictures with Daddy

Nolan’s very first day of school

His 5th Grade trip to Washington DC
Nolan wins Model’s science fair, with what else, rifle ballistics

Hitting the waves at Indian Shores, Florida
Mr. Military Man sits in the cockpit of a WWII bomber at air museum in Midland, Texas

Nolan, Laura, Cameron in the Rocky Mountains

Deer Hunting 2009

Disney World 2010

Pouting behind Mommy’s truck 2001
Looking cool at cool at Disney World, 2010