Catching Up

It feels like it's been a while since I blogged, although in actuality it's only been 13 days. All you teacher friends and family will relate to this: why is it that a 4 day week can seem SO MUCH longer than a regular 5 day week?!

Noah is becoming quite the t.v. addict. In an attempt to break this I've been trying different activities with him when we get home from school. He loves to play playdough- he'd do that for hours. But this week we tried water colors. To say he loved it would be an understatement. The catch is, he was more interested in coloring the water than the paper. And, this will not be a surprise to those of you that know my son, the only color he would paint with was red. He refused to try any other colors. He would touch them and tell me the colors but the only color he would paint with his brush was red.

Here are some pictures from our painting session (cousin Chris, you'll have to help us this summer when we see you!):

Here are the end results. I forgot to mention we also introduced scissors. He's doing really well with knowing which fingers go in which holes. I help him open the scissors and he can push them closed:

Here are my two boys, lounging on the couch:

I love that face!:

And in other exciting news, I bought bedding/etc. for Hannah's room! We went to the mall last weekend with the Shoes and I talked them into swinging by Target. I thought I would get her skirt for her crib and a set of sheets. When we got there the whole bedding collection was 50% off, and me being a sucker for a good deal, went a head and got all of her bedding. (Of course, we also hit three Targets stores to get most of it)

The butterfly, dragonfly and flower on her wall:

Her crib:

The teddy was a Christmas present from Daddy and my Granny made the afghan:

Her crib with the mobile and light switch plate:

Noah's favorite: the rug! And her butterfly night light:

And one more picture of my little man. This is the way he fell asleep this afternoon for his nap:

I Love My Cousins: Mar & El

If you ask Noah who his favorite cousins are, without hesitation he'll say "Mar-n-El" (Mary and Ellie). I'm so happy that my brother and I live so close and Noah gets to see Mary and Ellie frequently. This past week, I didn't have school on Monday and Tuesday, neither did the girls, so Noah spent two fun-filled days with his favorite ladies. Here are a couple pics:

Noah has also re-discovered my old shopping cart that had been stored in Granny's basement for years and then in one of the closets at our house. He played with it when we first got it but then, like all toys, it lost it's luster. So I put it away for a while. It was like having a brand new toy when we got it back out and it's fun to see how many of the food items in the cart he can now say.

Here's one last picture of the little "Big Man" wearing my shoes. He thinks he'd pretty big stuff walking around in Justin's and my shoes!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! We hope that you and yours had a great holiday!

Last year Justin and I decided we would start the tradition of making homemade spaghetti on New Year's Eve and invite all our local family over. This year we had both of our parents and my brother and his family. The spaghetti was yummy and the company was fantastic!

Here are some pictures from our evening:

Noah with his 2010 glasses (and one of his two favorite cousins, Ellie):

My two lovely nieces, Ellie & Mary:

Miss Ellie, in all her 2010 glory:

Noah, with his top hat (that he had to wear all through the store when we were grocery shopping but didn't want to wear for New Year's Eve!):

Ellie reading Noah a bedtime story:

New Year's Day. I got all the Christmas stuff packed up and stored down stairs! Noah caught the cleaning bug and decided to sweep up the deck of cards he dropped on the floor:

We had dinner tonight at my mom and dad's house. New Year's Day is also my dad's birthday so we were there to celebrate that.

Here's Noah "playing football (sans the football) with Uncle Aaron:

My mom holding Noah during the singing of "Happy Birthday" to my dad:

My mom's neighbors, Summer & Mic, who they informally adopted into the family and their kids, Giulia and Carrick who my mom calls their grand-neighbors, were also there for dad's dinner. Here's little Carrick on Summer's lap with Giulia and Mary:

Giulia, Mary and Noah helping blow out "Papa's" candles: