Dancing and Playing Hooky

Well, I played hooky from school today for the first time. I usually only take off if I am sick, have a doctor's appointment that I can't schedule at any other time or I am going to a conference. I also have the day off on Monday! I never do this, it's such a pain to write sub plans and such but Noah and I both needed it. And I lucked out that the sub I had is the same lady that subbed during my maternity leave and she wanted to write her own plans- score for me!!!
It's been hard on Noah with me being gone so much the past two weeks due to conferences. He's cried when I've had to leave in the morning and has been really clinging. It was so nice to be together today. Unfortunately I have a workshop tomorrow, but then I have all day Sunday (except when I'm directing a church choir in the morning- subbing for another music teacher) and all day Monday. October is a busy month (I have a commitment EVERY Saturday this month), but then November will be busy and of course December is really busy. So if there aren't a lot of posts between now and January I apologize now for that!

Here's another picture from the Race for the Cure, these are all the people on the team that Noah and I walked on (except for Connie who was taking the picture)
And here's my little dancer. He is dancing more and more be it when you sing to him or play music for him. Here he is dancing in his high chair at dinner last night. The Spice Girls are playing in the background but for some reason it's really hard to hear.

Here's wishing everyone a good weekend!

Race for the Cure and other happenings. . .

Noah and I were early birds today, leaving the house at 5:30 in order to walk in the Denver Komen Race for the Cure. Connie Sprenger (now Kurtz) who I went to high school with organized a team, so we walked with "Gladys's Girls" in honor of her mom who passed away in January 2007 from breast cancer. For me the title of her team had another meaning. My Granny (Gladys James) also had breast cancer. She was diagnosed while I was living in Oregon and it's one of the main reasons I moved back to Colorado.

Walking in the race was a lot of fun, and as always, Noah was a champion. He was alert and watching people the whole time. He'd dance when we passed a group that was playing music that he liked and he's smile at people that talked to him. It wasn't until as we crossed the finish line that his hunger started to get to him. We sat down and I fed him his morning yogurt and fruit. He also had some of the cheetos that they gave us in a goodie bag. Made for an interesting breakfast!

We had a great time and I hope that we can do it again next year!


Yesterday we spent a lot of time at Granny's. Aaron's band was marching in the Lafayette Days Parade so we went over there to be with Granny so that my mom and dad could attend the parade. Grandma came home with Ellie. It always makes my heart smile to see him with the girls. He loves them SOOOOO much! He also got some time to play with Uncle Aaron and Aunt Janis. We don't see them as much as we'd like to, especially with Aaron busy with marching band season.




Noah is really getting around and getting into interesting situations. At Granny's house he likes to crawl under her drop-leaf table which requires him to crawl over the bars of the chairs, it's always very amusing to see him do this.
Last night he was crawling under my chair as I was sitting eating dinner. Daddy actually had to help him get out of this situation. Usually he can get himself out of the tight corners that he gets into! What a goof!

We're spending the rest of the day relaxing at home. None of us have been home much this week, me with conferences, J and Noah with dinners at the Shoes'. It's nice to be home!

Happy Birthday Cousin Sue!

A little birdie told me it's cousin Sue's birthday today! Sue lives in Illinois, we won't be able to wish her a happy birthday in person so, Sue, here are lots or cyber-hugs coming to you from the three of us!
We hope you have a great day!!! We love you!



(Don't forget to break out those birthday hats and have a piece of cake for J!)

Check out. . . .

the view from our back door this morning! I noticed when Noah and I got up this morning that there were some hot air balloons off to the west. Imagine my surprise as I am feeding Noah breakfast and one of them lands in the field behind our house! I took Noah outside to show him the balloon, I think he was a little perplexed as to what it was and why it was so cool, if he was only a little older! (I didn't just say that!)

The weekends always go too fast! We went out to the mall yesterday afternoon, we visited Granny yesterday and today, we grocery shopped and Noah slept in both mornings!! (Score for us, he slept until 7:30 on Saturday and 8:00 today. I know I needed the extra sleep) Then of course he slept during the Broncos' game (I think Justin and I wish we would have done the same thing- What happened in Kansas City?!)

Getting ready for a crazy (not fun) week. I have parent-teacher conferences on Tuesday and Thursday until 8:30 - blah! And student council starts this week on Wednesday after school. The good thing is Wednesday is a late start day which means no specials classes, so I'm going to run to the Shoemakers to get Noah and bring him with me to student council. Otherwise I would barely get to see him between Monday and Friday. Wish me luck on a busy week!

13 Months Old!!!!

Holy cow, Noah is 13 months old today!!! It's so hard to believe that! Since he's been born it feels like time just flies by, but I guess that's what they say happens when you're having fun. He is doing so many things, it seems like everyday there is something new. And he is such a happy little guy (I keep calling him a baby even though everyday he is becoming more and more a toddler). We are so lucky to be his parents.

Here are the boys sporting their Obama shirts before Friday's big debate. Of course the bigger boy was much more into watching the debate than the little one. The little one was content cruising around the room, playing with his toys, knocking over the blocks that I stacked, talking up a storm and of course reading before bedtime.
Noah is finally pulling himself up in more places than just the bath tub. Earlier this week as I was getting us ready to leave for the day he saw his "Wheels on the Bus" book and decided that he had to have it. He pulled himself up on the basket, reached over the basket and the crate (where more books are stored) to get his beloved book. In the bottom picture he is showing off the book (kind of reminds me of a fisherman showing off his catch).
Noah is talking so much. He can tell you that sheep say "baa," cows say "moo," the snake says "hiss," the bear says "grrr," and the lion says "rrr." He says "mama," "da," "this" (sounds like diss), "that" (sounds like dat), "bath", "stop" (he says this when reading one of his books that has a stop sign, of course it sounds like "dop") to name a few of the things he says. Oh, and Grandpa Tom would be the first to tell you he's saying "Grandpa," well, not quite yet but he does say "pa" and I think that he's associating that with Grandpa.

A VERY Busy Weekend

What a busy weekend we had! It started off by going to see Uncle Aaron's band perform at CU Band Day in Boulder. I posted some pictures below of Uncle Aaron and his band. It was fun to watch his band and more importantly take my mom out to see them perform. Granny isn't doing well at all and I could tell that she was having a hard go of it Saturday morning. I'm glad my dad talked her into going, I think she needed it to get her mind off of things for a bit.

Saturday night we went to dinner at the Shoe's. Tom's brother, Chuck and his wife Laurie are in town until tomorrow. We hadn't seen them since Seth and Julie's wedding so it was great to see them again.

Then today we got a slow start, Justin let me sleep in (thank you J!!!) then he made an apple pie, I got Noah down for a nap and it was lunch time! After lunch we went grocery shopping, Noah took another nap and then went over to my friend Kari's house for dinner. Noah and I met Kari and her son Finn through swim lessons last summer. We hadn't seen them for a while so it was great to catch up with them and finally meet her husband, Adam. Adam is a pediatrician in Broomfield. They are a really nice family and it was great to see Noah play with another baby similar in age. Finn is 18 months, about 5 months older than Noah. He's been walking for a while (since we were in swim lesson in June). Finn was pushing his truck around the kitchen and Noah was chasing after him, trying to keep up by army crawling, it was too cute. You could tell he was having a great time. Justin even said after we left it's nice for Noah to have someone similar in age to play with. Now we'll just have to invite them over for dinner sometime soon!

Here's my "baby" bro- the band director. The pics a little fuzzy, I was zooming in from the stands. I just realized it looks like he needs puppets on his hands :)
His band warming up.

One of the sets during their show.

Say Cheese!

Noah LOVES to eat cheese. Tonight he started "double fisting it," grabbing for his cheese with two hands. In this clip you can hear Justin cheering him on, silly boys!