Noah {Right Now}

My precious boy is growing up before our eyes...and fast! Too fast. I know, I KNOW, that I say that often, but I am honestly amazed at how quickly these kids learn and grow. It amazes me every day! Truly, it does. As of now, my Noah...

...is becoming such a handsome BIG boy! My little boy is long gone.

...absolutely loves learning and is constanly asking questions about everything! I love his thirst for learning.

...is incredibely indecisive and is always asking for my approval on his decisions. He definitely got this from me. I think that I have become more confident in my decisions after seeing Noah question his so much...now I just need to work on making Noah more confident.

...is such a boy! He doesn't care one bit about getting dirty, eats as fast as he can so that he can hurry back outside to play before the sun goes down, gets hurt often {yet stopping to get a band aid for a cut on his head is just too much of a hassle for him...that's why he has a momma that looks out for him and forces him in to relax...and get a band aid ;) }....absolutely LOVES playing in the sandbox at my parent's house. Over the course of the summer, Noah has been begging, and begging, and BEGGING for us to get him his own sandbox at home. Well, Doug and I gave in and I bought one for $10 on KSL. All I can say is that I haven't seen Noah that happy ever. Over a sandbox! I, on the other hand, have a love/hate with our new toy....LOVE that my kids love it and HATE the mess that it makes! Seriously...such a pain in the you know what to clean up all the sand! We'll see who wins this battle... ...is an absolutley wonderful big brother to Leah and Isaac. I think that the relationship between Noah and Leah will always have a little tough love mixed in. They are constantly laughing and giggling with one another one second, then the next they are getting on each others nerves and someone is crying/whinning. It's always an adventure. BUT, Noah is getting to the point where he doesn't want to deal with the crying/whinning from Leah, so he is learning to negotiate with the 3 year old {which is NOT an easy thing to do} so that everyone is happy. I admire him for his efforts :). Now, the relationship that he has with Isaac is beyond precious. He is constantly loving on him and telling me "Isaac is the cutest baby ever!". Now that Isaac has an interest in trucks and trains, I see the bond between them growing more each day. I look forward to see them become best buddies. ...loves spending his time outside, and is constantly asking to go outside and play. He has made the most wonderful friends in our neighborhood and he looks forward to spending time with them every day. I'm so thankful for the friendships that he has made here! He also LOVES riding his bike around...of course he has to have his light saber with him just in case :)....is super lazy during the morning hours. He's always been this way...he got this from me too! He so lazy, in fact, that he will let Leah cuddle up to him on the couch while they watch their morning shows. So cute!...has come to love Star Wars, especially the Wii game, Lego Star Wars. He's always asking me to help him out, but I just don't get it. He usually figures out everything that he needs to...smart boy.

...will occasionally take naps! We have a family rule that everyone takes a nap on Sunday, and he's always willing to do so. I love him for it too!

...is becoming incredibly independent, as of late. One morning he decided to pour his own cereal because he knew that he could...and he's been doing it ever since. I always offer to help him, but he always insists on doing it himself. ...is very, very, imaginative and is always coming up with new and creative things to do at home. His latest thing was to make a slide on the stairs with the blanket...I guess sometimes you just need to let boys be boys. Thankfully no one got hurt!...is a lover of games. We have played UNO more times then I can count this summer. When he asks me to sit down to play, I have to remind myself that it is going to take a good 30 minutes or more. We always have to play "one more game", which always turns into 5 more games. The fun part about it is we've taught Leah to play too...makes it more fun with three players. ...still likes tubby time. He's a little more creative and loves to take them in our tub so that he can add bubbles...then turn on the jets so that they get really big. I think this is the last tubby picture of him that I'm going to be able to get away with posting on here ;).

...he is very, very, manipulative. Drives me nutty sometimes, but it's just the way he is. He is also very sensitive, especially when he doesn't get his way. So...these two things don't go very well together with Noah.

...is an absolutely wonderful helper and he loves working as a team. He always clears his dishes, he makes his bed every morning {after a little reminder}, he loves to help me vacuum the house, just to name a few. He also loves helping me water the plants outside...he's sometimes the one that reminds me that it needs to be done. Our life wouldn't be the same without our Noah.

Isaac ~ 15 Months

Over the past 3 months, Isaac...

...now weighs 21.6 pounds.

...has become a pro at making messes. The upside is that he is actually pretty good at cleaning them up :).

...is still the best little sleeper ever! He usually takes one short nap in the morning, a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon, and then sleeps from 8:00 pm to 8:00 am every night!

...is a great little listener! He comes to me whenever I call for him, he'll clean up his toys if I ask him too, he'll come running to me when I tell him that I need to change his diaper, etc... And the expression on his face when he comes when I call him is the best...he just comes running to me with the biggest grin on his face right into my arms. Makes me smile every time.

...is the cutest little dancer and will get his groove on whenever he hears music. The best is when Noah and Leah watch The Backyardigans...Isaac will stop whatever he is doing and run to dance to the opening song. It's adorable.

...absolutely LOVES to read books with me, and I love him for it! Noah and Leah were not at all interested in books until they were about 2, but not Isaac. He'll sit on my lap after he wakes up in the morning and after his nap for the longest time reading books. Or he'll just randomly bring me a book to read to him during the day. I love that he already loves to read!

...has discovered the joy of new real food, and he LOVES it!

...will come and sit on my lap whenever I am sitting on the ground playing with the kids. And if Noah or Leah comes close to me, he'll push them away and scream. Take that kids!

...has started to throw fits when he doesn't get his way, which includes lying face down on the floor and kicking his legs. Marvelous.
...has become the best little hug and kiss giver. I absolutely LOVE those slobbery kisses!

...now has beautiful brown eyes, just like his brother and sister! They're a little lighter, but they're definitely brown!
...absolutely loves having a good time! During the evening this summer, the kids would get a kick out of me spraying them with the hose with their clothes on...especially Isaac! Good times.
...has become a lover of hats! He is gets such a kick out of walking around the house with Noah or Doug's hat on, and so do I :).
...has found a friend in Leah and absolutely loves playing with her every day. Yes, he enjoys playing with Noah too, but the bond that he has with Leah is just different.
...still lets me cuddle him to sleep, and I absolutely love it. I pretty much rock him to sleep for every nap during the week, and I just cherish the moment every single time.
...has discovered technology and is quiet the little mimic when he gets the Wii remote in his hand. He points it right at the TV and just starts clicking away. By the looks of this picture, he's also become a little couch potato ;).
...loves spending time outside, especially in the sand/dirt playing. Classic boy.
...LOVES balls! Noah loved trucks...Isaac loves balls. And, to our amazement, he is really good at throwing and kicking them.

...is an absolute cutie and has all of us wrapped around his little finger!

My Boys

One fun thing about Isaac is getting to use all of the cute stuff that I used with Noah, with him {plus it makes me happy to know that I don't have to buy many clothes for him!}. I always enjoy pulling out Noah's old clothes and the memories that come with it. I also enjoy looking back at pictures of Noah and seeing the similarities between my boys. When Noah was Isaac's age, we let his hair grow out until we just couldn't handle it anymore. With Isaac, I've pretty much just kept it short...easy maintenance :).

Noah at 14 months...
Isaac at 14 months...

I am so happy that these two have one another. The bond that they have is just precious...and they are just so dang cute! Love my boys!

Noah is in Kindergarten!

It's crazy how it feels like it was just yesterday that I was sending Noah off to Preschool for the first time! I better brace myself because I get the feeling that the rest of my kids lives are going to fly by like a bullet...and I'm not ready for it, not one bit!

I promised myself that I was going to keep it together today. I was going to keep that smile on my face and not show any sign of sadness. But it's hard...I'm not sad because he's getting bigger and going to school...I'm mostly sad that my little buddy isn't going to be home with me every day. Noah and I are very close...we kind of lean on one another throughout the day. Maybe it's because he's my first baby...whatever it is, it was hard to send him off to school, and come home without him. I know that I have done this before, but now he was going to be at school every day. And the kicker is that he will only be gone for half a day...what in the world am I going to do next year when he is a true big kid and is gone all day?!?!? I better not think about that now, because I'll get to experience it first hand very soon...and I just don't want to go there.

Anyway...back to Noah's first day of Kindergarten. He's been talking about starting school all summer. I know that time to kids is very hard to understand, but I did my best to explain when he would be starting. More than anything, I pretty much told him to just enjoy summer and all that comes with the freedom of it...which he did! Once we went to back to school night, all of those unknowns that Noah had about school started to get answered, and be became more and more excited.

Then the big day came...and he just couldn't wait. The night before, Doug explained to Noah the joys of school and gave him his first father's blessing...which really was so sweet. I so look forward to this little tradition with all of our kids when they start school! Noah goes to school in the afternoon, and all morning long he kept asking when we were going to go {this goes back to the whole time thing with kids...}. We finally got him all dressed and went out and took some traditional back to school pictures...
THEN came the hard part. We live very close to the school, so I told Noah that it was time to walk to school, but he just flat out refused and said that he wanted me to drive him. I wasn't in the mood to disagree with him, so we got in the car and I drove him. He was quiet the entire time. I parked the car and looked back at him and he had tears puddled in his little eyes. I unbuckled him and had him come sit on my lap and asked him what was wrong, to which he said "I'm just nervous, mom." I proceeded to tell him that it's completely OK to be nervous on your first day of school...and I know that's the truth, because I remember being so, so nervous on my first day of school. So, he sat there on my lap and started to take deep breathe, after deep breathe to calm his nerves. Let me tell you, it took all that I had to keep it together during this little moment, which was hard to do! I'm a very emotional person, and holding back those tears and putting on my brave mommy face...ugh. So hard. But I did it, I held it in and just sat there and hugged my little guy and told him how wonderful of a time that he was going to have. When he was ready, we got out and started walking towards the school. He gripped my hand so tightly, so I knew that he was still nervous. We stopped to take a quick picture in front of his school, and you can just tell by the look on his face how he was feeling.
THEN...we got to the little playground and all of those nerves were gone in a flash! He ran over and started to play and was back to his happy and excited little self! Thank goodness!And then it was time to line up and go to class...for the first time. When his teacher came out, she asked them all to get in a line and to wave goodbye to their mom and dad's. Before he went to get in line, I gave him a huge hug and a kiss and told him that I loved him and how excited I was to see him after school. And then he went......and Leah, Isaac and I went and got in the car and totally let go of all those emotions that I was back. And I was ok with the fact that I was crying...I was happy for my little guy, but a little sad at the same time that he was growing up so fast. He is such a great kid...and these tears were for all the love that I have for him. I'm so proud of him! And the best part about my little sob-fest was that Leah came and sat on my lap and said "Mommy, I'll take care of you." Can you believe how cute that is...and of course, I just started to smile and be happy again. We headed home and took naps, and 3 hours later we eagerly went to go get Noah...
...and he had the most wonderful time! Just like I knew that he would! He even said to me when we were walking home that he had the best day ever! Music to my ears! I am beyond happy that his first day of Kindergarten was all that he thought that it was going to be. I am also so thankful for his most wonderful teacher...I just know that she is a good fit for my little guy and I so look forward to all of the wonderful experiences that we will have this year!

Lagoon ~ 2011

Last time we went to Lagoon, I pretty much swore that we weren't going to go back for a loooonnnng time...well, that didn't happen. Doug's work had their summer party there, again, and we decided to look past the fact that the place is dirty and the lines are sooo slow, and decided to look on the bright side and how kids are kids and they just don't care about that stuff and they really have so much fun there! So, we went, and we actually had a great time! The only downfall was the heat...oh the heat! Not only was it HOT, but it was humid too...man, this day in the sun made me thankful that we don't have to deal with humidity all of the time!

Anyway, here's a look at our day...

Noah and Leah could not wait to go on a ride and this was the first one of the day.

They were troopers waiting in all the lines.

And I just love that they decided to go together on pretty much all the rides...they really do love one another :).

Can I just say that Isaac is the best.baby.ever! He was such a great little guy and was pretty much happy the entire time. The heat was so bad that he was sweating non-stop...plus he couldn't take a nap because it was so hot.

Fun on the carousel.

Even Doug and I were able to go on some rides with the kids. We decided to forego going on any "big kid" rides, mostly due to the fact that the lines are so, so slow. We still had a grand time taking turns going with Noah and Leah though. Oh...to be a kid again :).

We ended our day with a ride on the train. Always a favorite in our fam.