Thanksgiving

We truly have so much to be thankful for. Praise the Lord for the daily grace he gives us and the blessings which are too numerous to count.
We had a great Thanksgiving (about 21 people this year but a lot more people cooking than last year...yay!) Noah was so excited to be back over at his Mimi and Papa's with his cousins that he decided he'd rather not take a nap. He did really well considering that he needs lots of sleep to be his usual sweet self (he is my kid after all). Anyway that explains the lack of smiles in these pictures.
Here he is with "chi-us" and "aun beff." Ever since he spent the night he has been obsessed with his Aunt Beth. He walks around the house talking about her...it's so sweet. Definitely glad to know that he loves being there so much so I wont' worry about him while I'm in the hospital.
After Noah's dinner he played happily with this tractor for the rest of the evening. It was pretty amazing how devoted he was to it.
So this is the face you get when Noah is playing happily with the above tractor...and his daddy picks him up (and not the tractor) to get a family picture. Obviously we gave the tractor back...but the damage had been done.
Micah missed the family singing "Happy Birthday" to Matt, so he serenaded him all by himself. Is this kid sweet or what?
It's hard for me to believe that Micah is already FIVE. The outfit that Noah wore on Thanksgiving was a hand-me-down from Micah, and I remember Micah wearing it. So to see Noah in it, and to see Micah at 5, knowing that it seems like just yesterday that he was Noah's age...oh gees, I just don't even want to think about it.
One of Noah's favorite things at Mimi and Papa's house is their cd player, which he knows how to turn on. Early in the day, before the missing nap, he turned on the music and danced.

Still all about Noah...

This may be my last chance in a while to update you all on Noah, so here goes...

Recently Noah has started asking for a book when we change his diaper...it keeps him still, so why not indulge?
Oh, and this was right after bath, so that's why his hair looks like that.
I was doing some reorganizing in the spare bedroom a couple of weeks ago, and Noah wanted to help...he's such a good helper.
Matt turned 32 last Tuesday, and Noah actually said "Happy Birthday" to him! I hadn't even rehearsed it with him, but he'll repeat almost anything at least once. I don't remember exactly how he said it, but it sure was precious. He also helped Matt open his presents.
This is proof that Noah is my kid. One of my favorite things to eat when it starts getting cold out is a good grilled cheese with tomato soup. He's been loving the grilled cheese for a while, but I let him try the tomato soup for the first time recently and he loves it as well. (the hubby doesn't like tomato soup...)

Due...Today!

Apparently we don't like to be on time in this family. That's really fine by me, cause I wanted to get in some Black Friday shopping and I'd also like to get the Christmas decorations up this weekend. This is probably the 3rd year (I think) that I've done the early morning Black Friday thing...and it was definitely not something I'd recommend for someone else as pregnant as me. The problem was the waiting in line...definitely not comfortable to wait in line for that long. There were definitely some rude people up and about, but for the most part I had some nice interactions with my fellow shoppers (of course I didn't go to WalMart). So while I think that the whole crazy shopping for stuff so that we can have more stuff we don't need (insert anti-materialism rant of my hubby's here) is indeed crazy...I did not finish up my shopping with all hope lost in the human race. There are still nice people out there, and I'm thankful for that. I'm even planning on hitting up a few more stores this evening after Noah is in bed...but we'll see if I'll have any energy left by then (I may not be that crazy). Tomorrow my plan is to have Noah help me decorate for Christmas...I'll let you know how that goes.

Veteran's Day...so thankful.

Technically Veteran's Day is over in my time zone, but not for most of the country, so I'm going to sneak this in. It's really too late for me to be eloquent myself...but I just read something that I had to pass on. A cousin of mine, (I believe we're something like third cousins but you'd have to confirm that Dad) Ruthanne, (who I've never actually met) posted this on her blog. I don't think I can really add anything to it...just go check it out.

Noah loves Chloe...well, her stuff anyway.

We've been getting out the baby stuff lately and Noah thinks it's pretty fun to have a bunch of new stuff to play with. The "Bundle Me" was a gift form Aunt Amy and Uncle Michael, and Noah loved snuggling with it when we got it. He never had to use one since he was born in April...so he's making up for lost time.
The bouncy seat has been in his room for a while now. He likes the music that it plays, and he likes to turn the vibrate feature on and off.
The carseat came out this past week. This was while I was washing the padding for it...just look at how big he is! Especially when you compare it to this.
Oh, and aren't his little slippers cute?! No, I do not like to buy kids stuff at Old Navy too much. Seriously I do NOT have a problem. I do however have to buy at least something when they're either having a sale, or I have a coupon (which I did). Just wait till you see what I got for Chloe on that trip...

We also got the double stroller this week. After much research I went with the Combi double stroller that Leah has and had recommended. It just so happened that I hemmed and hawed long enough for it to go on sale on Amazon. While I wouldnt call any double stroller a "steal" I think did alright. Noah has had lots of fun with the stroller itself. He likes to sit in it and he loves riding around it it. Matt made a comment about how he likes the double stroller so he can pick up chicks, and Noah responded with "Anya". So there you have it, he's pretty much in love with Anya. I think he'll like having Chloe sitting next to him too. The real fun so far has actually been with the box that the stroller was shipped in. See for yourself...

Cold again...but we still love it outside!

I brought home a garbage bag full of balloons from work about a week ago...ended up being roughly 20 balloons that are blown up the perfect amount. Noah can hold them with one hand and throw them all over the place without them popping. If you're wondering how I could have happened upon a bag full of balloons at my work...then you obviously don't work at a place as fun as Rosetta Stone. Every time Noah has come to visit me at work he's found balloons somewhere from someone's birthday or some other celebration. So the only thing better than the 20 balloons to play with in the living room is playing with a balloon outside.

Cutest Tiger Ever!

It's that time again. Noah was a stinking cute skunk last year (if you don't remember here's the proof) and this year he was a stinking cute tiger. Noah and I were flying solo this weekend since Matt had to work. We stopped by to visit Matt so he could see Noah in his costume before heading over to the Fall Festival. Mental note...never let anyone take my picture from below...it gives me a double chin that I do NOT have in real life.
Noah certainly had a fun afternoon. He started out on the toddler sized moonbounce which I think he would have been happy to stay in all day. I was only able to coax him out by telling him we had to go look for Anya and Atti.
Noah haphazardly followed Anya around the rest of the afternoon. He mostly ran around like a very excited toddler and every couple of minutes he remembered that he wanted to play with Anya. So we would find Anya and then he'd go off running again. It was a pretty exhausting afternoon but I had lots of help from the Ks (thank you!)

Pretty sure Noah thought this was a slide at first...
But Anya set him straight. (Watch out Lillian...you've got some competition!)
We were on our way out when Noah decided he needed to play in the little car. I'm thinking he needs one of these for the coming summer (this or a wagon - what do you moms out there think would be better?) Anyway he was pretty tired at this point, so he was done smiling although he was still having plenty of fun.
After we got home I thought it would be fun to have Noah hand out candy with me. Noah did a fantastic job of sharing candy with all the kids that came by. (We must have had at least a hundred in the 45 minutes or so we were out there - CRAZY!) And seriously...the kid below is super cute, but why does a kid that age need to go trick-or-treating? But that kid was SUPER cute...he wanted to stay and play with Noah - precious!
When we had a lull Noah still wanted to give his candy out so he kept giving it to me and our neighbor. "Here Mommy, have a KitKat."
It was so sweet how happy he was to just sit on the stoop and share his candy. This is the only year it will be like that and I LOVED it...I'm pretty sure next year he'll know what candy is and the evening will be much different.
Hmm, is someone getting a little tired? When Noah started rolling around on the stoop I knew we didn't have much time left.
We headed in a few minutes after Matt got home to get the little tiger into bed. Definitely a long day, but so much fun. Praise God for the extra hour we got last night. (Except Noah decided to sleep the lesser of his 11-12 hours and with the time change that meant he was up at 5:30 this morning...but my most excellent hubby got up and let me stay in bed till 7.) Praying Noah will sleep till at least 7 tonight...PLEASE!

Oh, and who likes Matt's new glasses?!
Oh, and one last thing. Since both year's Noah has been so stinking cute, I'd like to give a shout out to Old Navy for having some super cute kids costumes. Woot!

Happy 2nd Birthday Allison!!

We wish we could have been at your party - we miss you so much!

And the picture Noah was looking at and kissing is this one...

There's Matt, Noah, Allison, Amy (Noah's Aunt) and Luke. This is the best picture of the three kids that I have from our beach trip. Classic. Don't worry Luke, Noah really only kisses girls and his daddy recently. I'm sure he would have given you a big hug if he could have! We love and miss you all!