Sunday, February 26, 2012

Our Home, Renaissance Festival, AMY, Noah is a Genius

A Picture is worth a thousand words so this must be a long post. I could make 3 posts but I just don't want to so you're stuck with one long one. I promised pictures of our new home so here they are!

Our Home 




Pretty huh? Yeah we like it a lot :)

Renaissance Festival 
Last Monday was Presidents day so we went to the Renaissance Festival to celebrate. Unfortunately ASU doesn't care about our country because they made Sean go to school on that day and he missed the fun. Sean has never been so we will have to make another trip there someday.
 This is the group that we went with. Noah, Andrea, Amy, Jessica, Ken and Amy's Dad is in the back, Emma, Kirby and Ken. I was taking the picture. 

 The weather was perfect all day. Twas wonderful.
 Noah wasn't a fan of the jester hat. He pulled it off

 Jess and I at a show.
 The rest of the group at the show. 

 Noah fell asleep a couple times throughout the day. He is such a sweet sleeper.

 This is the one picture I got of people at the festival. This guy is the whip cracker. It was a pretty awesome show. He had a whip and hit some flowers out of that girls hand.


Arizona Museum for Youth
Amanda got free tickets to the museum so she invited Mom, Dad, Justin, Me and Noah, Chris and Rylan to go. Chris is Corey's brother and Rylan is Chis' son.

 Cortney loves planes! Like a lot, she points at them in the sky, in books, and any where else she sees them and proudly yells PLANE! Noah thought it was pretty cool too.
 They are buddies <3

 Noah is a Mallard. Thats his wing span. 

 This was a fun sitting area for the kids. Noah liked this chair a lot. He was so excited to be sitting in it and when we turned him he giggled so much.

 Noah is an advocate of fine music. The next Bach. True story. 
We took him to Jessica's sisters high school jazz band concert last week and he was so fascinated by the sounds. He sat so still staring and smiling. It was great to watch his reaction. 


 There was a green room with a podium where kids could lay or sit and look like they were floating above different scenes like  the city or ocean.
 I accidentally let Noah fall off the podium. He was laying totally fine and then just rolled over and fell off but I ran over like a mama ninja and caught him before he hit the ground. I still felt like a horrible mom for letting him fall. There was a dad standing near by with his kid and he let me know that he dropped all of his kids when they were small too. Justin said that God makes babies like rattlesnake eggs, they bounce. Haha. Then Amanda let me know that she dropped Cortney when she was 3 months old on accident. Dad said that I'm pretty good for not letting Noah fall til he was 7 months. Its good to know I'm not the only one.

 
 Grandma was being read to by Cortney. Twas cute


There was a black light room for the kids to pretend they were camping in. 
It was a fun trip. There was a lot of other exhibits but Noah was too small to be interested in them so no pictures. We will be going again when he is older for sure. 

Noah is a Genius 
 He discovered String Theory! . . . . Get it?. . . I had to explain it to Ken. You know what string theory is right? Well Noah was playing with the string from the blinds and moving it around watching the ball up at the top move and bounce around. He loved it. Lots of laughs and oooh's and leg kicking.
My little guy is just cute cute cute cute cute. Yes that's many cuteness because that's how cute he is.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

I've moved so many times in the last 19 months I'm a pro

That's right! We have yet again moved. That makes 4 times in the 19 months I have been married. First we lived in apartments for about 5 months, moved into a house we were renting for 11 months, lived at Sean's moms house for 2 1/2 months and now we are at our friends house. I am happy to say this is a more long term residence. We will be here til the end of the year. I know, I know, you may be asking
Who wants to live in a house with other people when you are still newly weds and have a baby?
It seems that everyone gives us that look of "why" when we tell them where we are living. The four of us just think its awesome. I agree it may not be the most ideal of situations to have roommates but that just seems like the path we keep going down to help us with what life gives us. And you know what? Its really not bad. We had the first 5 months of living on our own, then when we moved into the house we had my sister and Brittany move in with us. It was a good learning experience for them and we enjoyed having them there. It helped their relationships with their families as well. Andrea is closer to my mom not living at home with the stress of my brothers. Britt had her own issues with her family and I'm glad to have been able to help them. Renting the house was nice because it taught us something pretty important and in a safe way. You don't have to have a house just because you are starting a family. I thought in the beginning 'hey we are married now and have a baby coming, we should have a house.' Well guess what? Not everyone gets a house right away. Its nice when some people have the means to get one and thats great for them but its not for everyone. We found out real quick how much upkeep, money and time goes into having a house rather than an apartment. The utilities are much more expensive in a house, repairs are too. Getting a house isn't something you do just cuz you want to. You need to be ready and make sure you can afford it later not just right now. Jess and Ken lived with family for a year while they got stable jobs and saved money to buy this house. Someday we will own a house but thats just not right now. Sean still has more schooling to get done and we aren't sure where that will take us yet. This is the reason we decided to move in with Jessica and Kenny. We can live with them for a low rent (saving tonz of money) and no lease. When Sean is ready to apply to school for his Masters we can just pick up and go. 

Plus this is going to be a blast living with friends. I guess for some people it would be bad to live with friends after your married but for us it works. I have known Jessica since the 7th grade, we are best friends and have lived together before. Kenny is awesome as well. The 4 of us get along great and there is no drama. We will have our own space still as well, which is a big factor. Sean and I and Noah have the 3rd floor, so that means Noah gets his own room again! Yay! Jess and Ken have their room on the 2nd floor and we share the rest of the house. Kenny is so funny he says that Jess and I can hang out together on widows weekend. Thats what he calls it because he works nights and Sean works all day Saturday so Jess and I used to be real lonely on Saturdays. Now we get to hang out every weekend. Noah loves his new home and so do we. I'll post pictures later.

Moving this time was super easy. Like I said, Ive done it so much I'm a pro. We moved small stuff over the last couple weeks and then yesterday Jess, Ken, Kirby and I (Sean was at work) moved the big stuff like the bed and dresser to the house. Noah was being watched by Grandma Howell. Ken went to work about 5pm and Kirby went home. The rest of the night Jess and I decorated and put everything away. It looks so pretty Ken said I could decorate the rest of the house too. lol.

IS anyone there?

No one reads this. Sigh**** Sadness.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

This baby makes my heart happy

 We come in to check on him and the blanket is often on his head. It started out tightly swaddled around him haha
 He loves to give my face kisses. I love to get them!

 Swinging outside while mommy moves stuff around in the garage and gets ready for the move. I love outside. 

 Yes I am Houdini. I managed to get the shoulder strap off one side while mom was driving home.

 It was funny when she caught me. I just looked cute and innocent.

 I'm a sleeping angel

 Daddy and I like to sit and chill when he gets home from school

 Uncle David and Uncle Jim like to stare at me sometimes and marvel at how adorable I am. I don't mind.

 Bath time!

 
 Smiles!!!! And Laughs!!!!





Dressed up for Church :)

Thursday, February 2, 2012

A Tooth, Food & Growing Boy

Two big firsts for Noah happened this week. Tuesday January 31st Noah had his first solid food! We had been giving him rice cereal for about  2 weeks before but it was so diluted with breast milk it was practically breast milk with a hint of rice cereal. Earlier this week I decided it was time to just jump right into giving him the real stuff. Guess what? He was a big fan of solid food! The first thing that his taste buds got to delight in was applesauce. Sadly it was not homemade but soon all his food will be. (once I can use our baby bullet, which is still in the garage) As soon as the applesauce touched his lips he was overjoyed. He literally lunged at the spoon to get more haha. At one point he grabbed the spoon and pulled it toward his mouth because he decided it wasn't coming fast enough. Since then we have given him some baby food once or twice a day just about 2 table spoons full.
 He was moving so the picture is blurry. See how he has a hold of the spoon ^

The other first is that he had a tooth cut through. I had felt a bump on his gums the night before but there was not a tooth. Then the same day Jan 31st after giving him the food I was washing his face and noticed a white dot on his gums. Lo and behold it was a tooth. We never would have known he was teething if we hadn't seen the tooth. It is common for babies to get fussy, drool and not sleep through the night while teething. We have experienced none of these with Noah so far. I really hope I'm not jinxing us right now by saying this but I'll go ahead and say it anyway. We have the most mild mannered baby ever. He is so calm and just smiley.
 I love how determined his face is here. Oh! I'm going to get this whole thing in my mouth!

 Baby say what?!haha

 I love love love his smile here. He is just so happy. I think we have the same eyes. I have the most cutest baby every.

In other updates with Noah: He is just so very cute and cuddly lately. Sean and I love it. He will wrap his arms around our neck and just hold us and coo. Also he has been "talking" more and more. He loves to hear his voice and all the noises he has learned to copy. He oooh's and aww's and ooo's and squeals. Every night before bed he goes on a talk fest til he decides its time for bed. Then we wrap him up bounce and sing for a couple minutes and he is out like a light. One of my favorite things about Noah right now is his sweet smile. He loves to smile big and wide and he tilts his head away like a shy little guy. love it! He just makes my heart happy and full with love. He is sitting up all by himself now with no props holding him up. He doesn't do it all of the time but quite a bit. This just started a couple days ago. He loves grabbing at Sean's beard too. He must like the texture. Oh he had his 6 month doctor appointment on Monday. So here are his 6 month stats: 15lbs, 26.5 inches happy as a clam :)
Can you believe he is half way to 1? Crazyness right?! I love how much he has grown and yet it doesn't seem like that long ago when I first had him placed in my arms.