Just Goofin' Around with Mary & Ellie

What a different Sunday we had today.  Justin and Noah let me sleep in, which was great.  But shortly after Justin took his shower this morning he started feeling really sick to his stomach.  I had a ROCKE board meeting and Justin finally decided it would be best if my mom could watch Noah while I went to Denver for the meeting.  Lucky for my mom she also was watching my nieces.  Noah LOVES his girls so it made for an easy transition for me to drop him off and leave for Denver.  I left around 12:30 and told my mom that Noah would need a nap soon.  Well, she tried without luck to get him down.  That was until she discovered that he wanted Mary to help put him down for a nap!  So, his 9 year old cousin helped put him down for his nap: she's going to make one fabulous babysitter one day!

After the meeting, Noah and I hung out at my folks house and had dinner while Justin had some peace and quiet at home.  Somehow we started messing around on my laptop.  One of the features on my laptop is a "Photo Booth" application. It's fun to play around with and the girls had never done it before.  Here are some pictures of Mary, Ellie, Noah and I in the "Photo Booth":

This one is "black and white":

This one is "Pop Art":

"Glow":

"Thermal Camera":

"Colored Pencil":

"Comic Book":

"Normal": 

Mmm, mmm, Corn Dogs!!!

So, anyone who's ever had a toddler or has been around a toddler for a while understands the difficulty one faces when meal planning.  The quest to find something they will eat is always a daunting task and seems to be a feat that is never met.  

A few weeks ago, when contemplating Noah's lunch repertoire, I picked up a package of corn dogs.  I was excited about these corn dogs, sure that my little boy would devour them, like any red blooded American male.  Much to my dismay, he wouldn't even touch them! 

Well, today for lunch, after his daddy so lovingly made him a grilled cheese sandwich and, in our need to clean out our freezer before we move, fixed himself two corn dogs, Noah decided that he no longer wanted the grilled cheese and the corn dog was his choice of cuisine.  Poor Justin did get to eat one of his corn dogs before he had to forfeit the other to his son.   

Here are some pictures from Noah's "Corn Dog Experience":  (I love the fact he's sitting in his "big boy" seat, wearing his ball cap!)

Dippin' the Dog, in ketchup that is (Auntie Jan, aren't you proud?!):

Checking out the proportion of ketchup to corn dog.  Yep, it seems correct:

Going in for the bite:

Still biting:

Yea for corn dogs!  Not only are they yummy, but they come on a really cool stick!

Yes, corn dogs are good.  That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.  (Okay, I posted this one because look at his cheeks: are those Abbott dimples that I see?):

Non-corn dog related: we've been busy packing.  I have most of Noah's stuff packed, the linen closes, our room, the living room and down stairs is wall to wall boxes!  Thank goodness we don't spend much time down there!  Well, the lunch lady at school has been great about saving boxes for me. So, everyday I've been packing boxes home.  Noah this week has discovered boxes aren't just for packing things in: they are also a great hiding spot!  He was playing peek-a-boo with me yesterday.  Here he is after he just "popped up.":

Opps, looks like we found him!!!

Easter 2009

All things considered, it was  a nice Easter.  Cold and rainy but fairly nice.  Personally, it was a hard Easter, the first missing Granny.  In addition to missing Granny, Justin's family lost a member of their family this past week.  While I never had the opportunity to meet her, I know that she is deeply loved and will be missed. My thoughts and prayers go out to all of our family that is grieving the loss of Annie.  

It was also odd in that Uncle Adam was in California and we didn't get to see Aunt Leahna, Uncle Seth or Aunt Julie. But we did get to see cousin Casey, Uncle Adrian and Aunt Connie which is always a treat.  

Here are some pictures from dying eggs Saturday night:

Grandma Kathy, Grandpa Tom, Noah & mommy

Hummm, pink egg:

He actually cracked this one open!

"I don't get this egg thing!"

The Easter bunny was quite generous this year.  Who am I kidding, he was quite generous last year too!  Here's Noah playing with some of the toys left in his basket (or beside his basket: his basket runneth over)

His new phone:

His new slinky:

His new lawn mower (it's actually a bubble mower, but I wasn't about to have Noah shampoo the carpets!!!  We'll add the bubbles when we move to our new house):

His new puzzle:

Relaxing with Daddy and watching his new Elmo DVD:

Relaxing with Mommy before going to Church Easter morning:

Playing with his bath boat before Church:

After Church, his first hot chocolate!!!  It was YUMMY!:

At Grandma Debbie & Papa's house:

My beautiful 9 year old niece, Mary:

My beautiful, almost 7 year old niece, Ellie:

My three favorite kiddos:  Ellie, Noah & Mary:

I LOVE this picture: it embodies how much Noah adores his cousins and how he loves to spend time with them:

The trio at my cousin Joanne's house for Easter supper:

"Hmmm, what is this?"

"Bunny?  I think you need a hug."

"Mmmmm, my first chocolate bunny!  Oh, so yummy!"

Maracas the Easter Bunny left!

Spring Break is Over :(

Well, Spring Break is over and that means I'm back at school tomorrow and Noah goes back to the Shoe's tomorrow.  Kathy and Tom had a two week spring break: Justin and I teach in different districts and we have different spring breaks.  They drove out to California to visit Uncle Adam and were gone for a week and a half.  Noah was very excited to see Grandma and Grandpa when they got back on Friday night.  The picture above is from Saturday night when grandma and grandpa invited us over for pizza.
During Justin's spring break Noah was so sick with a stomach bug.  Lucky me, he was over it for my spring break!  One of those sick mornings he vomited all over his car seat (luckily we live close enough to the Shoe's that Justin could go grab the other carseat).  We finally put the freshly cleaned carseat together on Saturday.  Who knew that having a carseat in the living room could be such fun?  Noah thought it was so funny to go sit in it. . . . he even had to be buckled it!
In the past two weeks we have done a great deal of packing, gearing up for our move.  No, we're not packing Noah up quite yet, but it's such fun to play in the boxes!! :)
Here he is Friday night, playing a the play area in the mall after we had dinner at Red Robin.
On the last weekday of our spring break, Noah and I went to the WOW Children's Museum here in Lafayette.  I had no idea something so wonderful was less than 5 minutes away!  Above, he's admiring the stamp on his hand that they gave him. . . . he was quite tickled by it!
Here he is looking in the crazy mirror at the WOW museum. 
There were two trains: the BRIO train track like he has at home and the electric one in the case above.  He loved watching the train go around.  There were buttons on the side of the display that made different buildings light up and when the train stopped you had to push one of the side buttons to make it go again.  This kiddo was in HEAVEN!!!
They also had a train depot to play in. Here's Noah looking at me through the window, showing off his "button."
At the BRIO track.
Spring break was relaxing, for the most part.  It was so great to spend time with my ever changing little boy.  I'm going to miss spending all day with him but I just have to keep thinking of all the exciting things that are coming up. . . . for one, we close on the house three weeks from Tuesday!!!