Odds & Ends

Some might call me a photoholic...I can't seem to stop from putting so many cute/fun pictures up of life with a 1-year-old. But I want you to get to know the fun, goofy, silly, adorable little boy that God has blessed us with. Every day that I wake up to this special gift (and his special dad), is a miracle to me. So, enjoy my photo addiction:)

I love watching my boys interact. What a special bond they have and I love the gentleness Aaron exudes around Noah. I couldn't have asked for a better father for my child.

This picture cracks me up!!! This is a great portrayal of Noah. So goofy, he is constantly giggling and silly. Can you just imagine the joys and frustrations we will go through in the years ahead because of that goofy smile?

Noah is in LOVE with the vacuum! I think I've said it before, but this is by far one of his favorite things. Whenever I bring out the big vacuum, baby vacuum makes its way out and has to cover the same ground, perhaps to catch anything the Mommy vacuum might have missed?

Noah found a new use for the newly emptied entertainment center...a jungle gym! I had to pull him off of it multiple times! He thought the side shelves made great stairs and the back was so much fun to crawl in and what do you know... you can see out the other side!?!?!

Noah has a daily "cacker" snack after nap time. He knows that after nap time, he goes to the kitchen, sits down and starts shouting for 'cackers'! And he told me that he wanted to make sure you all knew he was blowing you a kiss during his snack this week.:)

After getting ready the other day, I came out into the hall to this sight....Noah had found treasure in one of Mommy's drawers and had preceded to empty the entire bag of Mommy's hairbands onto the floor.

WELCOME TO THE CONSTRUCTION ZONE!

I'm your host, Noah, jack-of-all-trades.

Noah has thoroughly enjoyed being involved in the construction process of redecorating the living room/kitchen. He loves to help and find ways to keep Mommy and Daddy extra busy.

Perhaps, knowing the background of his grandpas, he is going to make a great go at the construction business.

This is what we've been living with for the past few weeks but hopefully, we are going to be finished soon, so I can show you the big reveal pics.

Okay, so maybe we need a few more years before he's ready to join the work force.:)

Past & Present...
Below is a picture from April '07 and late March '08. Isn't it amazing how much can change in year!

Easter

We spent Easter with our great friends from church, Dan & Rita with their boys: Jake, Luke & Micah and some of her extended family. We had so much fun and the food was amazing! (they even had a pineapple casserole-man, was that good!!)

We also did the traditional easter egg hunt. Rita's dad hid all the eggs outside and they we were off! They labeled everyone's eggs and made sure to put all of Noah's in plain sight. He had so much fun picking them up and putting them in his basket.

I was so bummed when I forgot my camera, but thankfully Rita had her's on hand. And she put a couple pictures on her blog. Click here for the pictures. And hopefully she'll send me the rest of the pics soon so I can share them with you!

A different descent down the steps

Noah took his first tumble down the stairs this week. I am so amazed at how wonderfully God made us that when we are first growing, he keeps us low to the ground with the natural ability to relax when rolling down the stairs:) He was climbing the stairs with a baseball toy he has and when I went over to check on him, he looked up and that was all it took. Thankfully he was only 5 steps from the bottom. And I think it shook me up more than him, but he walked away without a bump or bruise.

I suppose this is just the beginning of life with a growing boy, but man....how much can one heart take?!?!? Thank goodness, God has promised that he will be right there along the way!

"The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; don't be discouraged." Deuteronomy 31:8

He is Risen!

Matthew 28:5,6

"The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he is risen, just as he said.

This year, as Noah is growing older, I want to start some traditions that help him understand that this holiday isn't just for the Easter bunny. I want him to know that this holiday is really a day that we celebrate the fact that Jesus didn't stay in that grave...He was triumphant over death. I want for Noah to understand what exactly his Lord went through to make sure Noah could have the chance to spend eternity with Him. The story below is one my mom told me about. (its long, but very worth the read.) It is my prayer that when it comes Noah's turn in some similar exercise, he will immediately think of his Savior and the price He paid.

Happy Easter Everyone!!


It’s Empty
Harry Pritchett, Jr. wrote an interesting Easter story in Leadership magazine. It starts out “Once upon a time I had a young friend named Philip. Philip was born with Downs Syndrome. He was a pleasant child-happy it seemed-but increasingly aware of the difference between himself and other children. Philip went to Sunday School at the local church. His teacher, also a friend of mine, taught the third-grade class with Philip and nine other eight-year-old boys and girls.
You know eight-year-olds. And Philip, because of his differences, was not readily accepted. But my teacher friend was creative, and he helped the group of eight-year-olds. They learned, they laughed, they played together. And they really cared about one another, even though eight-year-olds don’t say they care about each other out loud. My teacher friend could see it. He knew it. He also knew that Philip was not really a part of that group. Philip did not choose nor did he want to be different. He just was. And that was just the way things were.
My friend had a marvelous idea for his class the Sunday after Easter last year. You know those things that pantyhose come in-the containers that look like great big eggs-my friend had collected ten of them. The children loved it when he brought them into the room. Each child was to get one. It was a beautiful spring day, and the assignment was for each child to go outside, find a symbol of new life, put it into the egg, and bring it back to the classroom. They would then open and share their new life symbols and surprises one by one.
It was glorious. It was confusing. It was wild. They ran all around the church grounds, gathering their symbols, and returned to the classroom. They put all the eggs on a table, and then the teacher began to open them. All the children stood around the table.
He opened one, and there was a flower, and they oohed and aahed. He opened another, and there was a little butterfly. “Beautiful,” the girls all said, since it’s hard for eight-year-old boys to say “beautiful.” He opened another, and there was a rock. And as third graders will, some laughed, and some said, “That’s crazy! How’s a rock supposed to be like new life?” But the smart little boy who’d found it spoke up: “That’s mine. And I knew all of you would get flowers and buds and leaves and butterflies and stuff like that. So I got a rock because I wanted to be different. And for me, that’s new life.” They all laughed.
My teacher friend said something to himself about the profundity of eight-year-olds and opened the next one. There was nothing there. The other children, said, “That’s not fair–That’s stupid!–Somebody didn’t do it right.”
Then my teacher friend felt a tug on his shirt, and he looked down. Philip was standing beside him. “It’s mine,” Philip said. “It’s mine.”
And the children said, “You don’t ever do things right, Philip. There’s nothing there.
“I did so do it,” Philip said. “I did do it. It’s empty. The tomb is empty!”
There was a silence, a very full silence. And for you people who don’t believe in miracles, I want to tell you that one happened that day last spring. From that time on, it was different. Philip suddenly became a part of that group of eight-year-old children. They took him in. He was set free from the tomb of his differentness.
Philip died the next summer. His family had known since the time he was born that he wouldn’t live out a full life span. Many other things had been wrong with his tiny body. And so, late last July, with an infection that most normal children could have quickly shrugged off, Philip died. They mystery simply enveloped him.
As the funeral, nine eight-year-old children marched up to the altar, not with flowers to cover the stark reality of death. Nine eight-year-olds, with their Sunday school teacher, marched up to the altar, and laid on it an empty egg-an empty, old, discarded pantyhose egg.

I LOVE YOU!!!

Accent?

So, I saw this quiz on someone else's blog and thought it would be interesting to find out. Who knew my 5 years here could so impact me:) That or maybe, Colorado just moved only recently to the west and so all the Coloradans have a Midland accent:) Let me know when you take the quiz what accent you have.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
The South
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Mr. Personality and his big mouth, literally

Below are some pics from our week that can clearly represent Noah's big personality:)

He's already helping me organize:)

Reading with Daddy

Last Saturday I had let Aaron sleep in and when Noah and I finally decided it was time for Daddy to get up, we went in to wake him up. Noah discovered this ingenious idea for waking up Daddy super fast all on his own! And he was cracking himself up!

This picture makes me a little sad...a younger version of Noah's first day of school picture?!?! YIKES! I know that day will be here before I know it.

Now that the weather is warmer, we are opening up the house to let in some fresh air and Noah loves the new view.

Noah's big mouth---Literally!

This seems to be a common pose when I use the camera...

Projects...

This has been a quiet and busy week all at the same time. Monday and Tuesday were days we just spent at home. With the price of gas, we are trying to find ways to combine everything and avoid driving:) So we enjoyed some Mommy/Noah time and the beautiful fresh air outside. Noah loves his independence and I am often chasing him as we go around the block. Noah is starting to show more and more of his little personality and I am falling more and more in love with him all the time. Just this morning, we sat in the rocker together, he with his money counting piggy bank and me with my bible. It was great just to sit together and hear his noises and grunts. The rest of the week has been spent with great friends and the planning of our next big project. As some of you might know, we purchased a giant armoire from Colorado and Aaron parents will be driving it out sometime at the end of April/beginning of May. So before this Mammoth piece of furniture arrives, we figured now would be a good time to repaint the upstairs living room and kitchen. Although we have accomplished many projects around the house together, we weren't quite fully aware of just what we were getting ourselves into. This project seems to just keep growing! Since we are going to be taking it all down, we might as well paint the ceiling and trim, change out the light switches and outlets that don't match the rest, purchase an energy/$ saving thermostat and several other key features. So, we are off this weekend to search for great deals and start planning how this is all going to play out. We have a friend coming over to help fix the settling cracks in the room and once that is done the painting can begin. Part of the fun of all of this for me is not only see the changes the paint colors we have chosen will make, but to also re-decorate a bit. I probably won't go buy much, but I can definitely start over with what we have...put it in different places, get things out that have been in storage...and so on. And my biggest accomplishment lately and addition to this project is creating new valances for the room. They aren't your typical valances, its more of a tube of fabric that is bunched up on a wide, flat hanger. So, I couldn't just go out and buy new ones, I needed to make them. So I recruited the help of a friend who sews and last night we purchased the material and cut all of the material for the valences. I just finished sewing it all up and now we are just waiting to put it into place. It was so much easier than I had imagined and I can't wait to put them up. Some of you might recall that I have often referred to my sewing skills as worse than a blind kindergartener. I am soo bad at sewing that Noah could probably do just as good as I could. But this time, I was determined to try. And it worked!!! I did it!! (I was even given permission to sew alone with no one watching over my shoulder)And, you know, they don't look half bad! Thank goodness it was an easy project! I will keep you all updated as this project progresses. And then of course, you'll see my favorite part of all...the big reveal. I can't wait!

Daddy's return, giraffes and goalies

We were anxiously awaiting Aaron's arrival last week to surprise him with the bathroom makeover. So to make it a little more fun, we (okay, I) made feet that went from the back door to the bathroom door. We made Mommy feet and Noah feet...it was fun to see the 2 sizes together:) And was Daddy ever surprised...

He loved the surprise:) Although he found a few of Mommy's mess-ups and couldn't help but keep looking at those...oh well...atleast I made the effort.

When Aaron came in the door, Noah rushed out to greet him and like any good doorman, he helped Daddy with his luggage.

And helped him take it all the way back to the bedroom. He loves to help us with anything.




Noah's Giraffe Tent!

Our neighbor got this for Noah for his birthday and we decided to put it up this week. He was really mad at me when I wouldn't let him 'help' me put it together, but once it was done he had a ball. He would walk in and laugh and then walk back out...over and over and over again. And he doesn't quite understand that you have to duck when you go in so he keeps hitting his head on the top of the opening.

He told me that he wanted to show you how he goes into the tent, so here is our picture story of his explanation:)

TA DA!

I am finally feeling pretty confident in Noah's ability on the stairs. So, yesterday after being downstirs, I asked Noah to come back upstairs with me. He follows at his own pace and I had already made it back up the stairs and started dinner when I heard him clomping up the stairs, laughing. I went to look over the rail and this is what I found. He was carrying these 2 remote control goalies of Aaron's and I guess he thought he was pretty funny.