Goofing Off

November 24, 2011

I wanted to take some family pictures when we were all home for Thanksgiving this year to put on our Christmas cards. We got all dressed up and tried to take some out at my parents' house but that didn't work out so well. Matt suggested that we head into town to try to find a better place. We packed up everyone, headed to town and ended up finding a pretty cool group of old run down buildings to take some pictures in. The problem was that Noah and Jakob both fell asleep in the car on the way there. Cody offered to stay in the car with them for awhile so we got a little bored waiting. Then, Matt decided to just go and get some gas (or something) while we were waiting so all of the girls got left in the middle of this weird place with no cell phones or a car. We got really bored so we starting taking some funny pictures while we were waiting. Then they just never came back. We were stuck there for over an hour. We were getting a little scared by the time they showed back up plus Mom was expecting us back for Thanksgiving dinner and we were late. Finally they showed back up and apparently had gotten a flat tire that had to be fixed. Here are some of the funnier pictures from the outing:

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 24, 2011

I can't really believe that it's already Thanksgiving! Life has just been flying by since I had Jakob. He's no longer a little helpless baby. He's already growing up so fast and I can't believe that he's almost 5 months old. It seems like just yesterday that Noah was turning 5 months old.

We spent Thanksgiving out at my parents' house as usual. Noah just loves being out there and always has so much fun playing outside with Papa. They take off in the morning and I don't really see Noah much after that. They spent all their time outside playing and mama gets a little break (and so does Noah). Papa is a great babysitter and loves hanging out with Noah! I'm very thankful to have such wonderful parents and for my kids to have such great grandparents that love spending time with them.

Hunter came down for Thanksgiving this year so we really had a good time seeing her and relaxing with the family. We are very blessed and thankful for everything we have! We have such a wonderful family that sometimes I don't really know how I got so lucky!

Noah munching on an entire block of uncooked Ramon noodles...super healthy!

Playing with his favorite toy at Papa's house...an old lawn sprayer filled with water

Helping Grandma cook Thanksgiving dinner

Matt attempting a gang sign...hmm..

Eating an entire bowl of sprinkles...I'm seeing a bad trend here. I have a lot of pictures with Noah eating something that a parent should never give a 2 year old. Maybe I should work on that!

Matt, Jakob and Hunter hanging out

Raking leaves with Papa

I love this picture! We were trying to get some cute ones of Noah and Jakob in the leaves together but Noah was going nuts and Jakob wasn't too happy about it. This picture pretty much sums up the experience.

Eating dinner with Daddy

Trying to keep Noah contained a little. He didn't eat much of his food this year either. We are still working on the eating thing but he is getting a little bit better.

Mommy and Jakob relaxing after the big meal we just ate

Noah back outside again after dinner. He's getting really good at riding his bike.

Jakob hanging out with the girls looking at old pictures. We decided that Jakob looks exactly like Abby did when she was a baby. I had noticed resemblances between them for a long time now but I didn't realize how much they looked alike until I saw Abby's baby pictures.

Playing with "Unk Code" as Noah likes to call him

Playing with the fishing poles. I can't wait for it to warm up so Papa can take Noah fishing. He really loves to play fish!

Noah's Thanksgiving Party

November 23, 2011

Noah had his Thanksgiving feast at school this past week. I actually didn't get to go but I had one of his friend's grandma email me some pictures of it. I love watching him interact with other kids and I love that he makes friends so easily. He loves all of the kids at MDO and both of his teachers. He's always excited to go and loves "playing with the kids". I'm very thankful for such an easy, outgoing 2 year old. It's just one less thing I have to worry about. We have a lot to be thankful for this year!

A fun visit

November 20, 2011

Matt's mom and sister came by to see us the other day since Matt's mom was down here visiting from Canada. She brought tons of great gifts for the boys and they had a good time hanging out with her and Stacey. The cutest presents were the animal hats they both got. Noah actually liked it and wore it long enough to let me take some good pictures of him which doesn't happen very often with hats and Noah. It was great to see them! We always have a lot of fun when they come to visit.

Daddy and Noah hanging out with their IPOD's. Noah is still obsessed with the thing and watches YouTube videos constantly. His favorites are still the trash trucks videos. Speaking of trash trucks, they put out all of the toys for Christmas at Wal-Mart and Noah spotted the biggest trash truck I've ever seen. It's all he talks about and will not let it go. Now all he wants to do is go to Wal-Mart to see the trash truck. I have a feeling we will be getting it for Christmas.

Playing with Jakie

Still trying to get Jakob to eat his baby food. Not much success yet though...

Noah got his school pictures in...here's one of them. Very cute!

Everyday Life

November 15, 2011

I took Jakob and Noah to church with me the other day and put them both in the nursery as usual. When I went to go pick them up, they had put Jakob in the exersaucer and he was having a great time hanging out in it. It then occurred to me that he was big enough to drag out the old exersaucer at our house. Time just goes by so fast that I forget how much Jakob is growing up already.

I got it out and Jakob loves it! Now he can hang out on the floor and watch Noah play without having to worry about getting attacked by Noah. He gets his little legs going like crazy and jumps up and down the whole time he's in it. I probably should've gotten it out awhile ago.

Jakob has now officially started having cereal and baby food. It is NOT going well. I expected some resistance from him at first but he isn't going for it at all. He hates the cereal and won't eat it at all. I tried to mix it with a bunch of different things including breast milk but he hates it. He won't even eat fruit baby food. He just really hates the spoon and clamps his mouth shut as tight as possible anytime he even sees the spoon. I tried to make him laugh then shove the spoon in but as soon as he figured out what I was doing he would laugh but keep his mouth shut tight. Pretty funny but I don't know what to do with him. I guess I'll just keep trying. Surely he'll figure it out soon.

And then there's the sleeping situation. Or the non-sleeping situation. Jakob is just not a good sleeper. He is still waking up about every two hours or so and has done this since the day he was born. So at this point it's been about 4 and a half months since I've slept more than a couple of hours at night. It's pretty difficult to say the least. I kept thinking that he would slowly start getting better but it's just not happening. If anything, he is just getting worse. He's been a little congested for about the last month so I decided that was causing part of it but now I'm not so sure. I've done everything I can think of. He's on a pretty good schedule during the day. He takes 3 pretty good naps and is nursing well so I don't think he's really getting hungry. But he's up nursing at least 3 times every night. I think that the real problem is just bad habits now. I've really never just let him cry because his room is right next to Noah's and I didn't want him to wake Noah up. I've mentioned before that Jakob has a very piercing cry. And when Noah wakes up he doesn't go back to sleep easily. I don't think I could handle been up with 2 kids all night. I don't really have a plan at this point but I'm trying to hang in there and hope that it gets better soon.

Pictures from my new favorite app - Instagram!

This is Noah "thing" right now. He loves to spray water on everything so Matt let him have an old bottle of nasal spray to use as a spray bottle. We refill it with water and he sprays it everywhere. It's a compromise with the actual spray bottle which sprays way more water and makes a much bigger mess. I just got tired of constantly telling him no so I gave it with the little spray bottle. He calls it his "daddy's water".

Eating some shredded cheese - his favorite!

Shaving in the bathtub

Riding the car with the monkey in Wal-Mart