Happy Halloween!

It's hard to believe that this was Noah's 2nd Halloween! I was tempted to put a picture from his first Halloween on here since I didn't have the blog at this time last year, but I think you'll find that I posted more than enough pictures today!

Here's my little pumpkin before we left this morning for Grandma and Grandpa's house.
Here he is showing Daddy where his nose is. He will now point to your nose, ears and mouth. We're working on the eyes, but he can find eye glasses quicker than anyone's business!

5 Little pumpkins sitting in a row, aren't they cute?!

Oh, found the pumpkin's eye!

And a leaf!

Here's our little Yoda with his two favorite girls. I wish we had gotten a better picture of the girls; they were on their way to go trick-or-treating and we got to Granny's house late so we didn't get a chance to snap to omany pictures. (Maybe Aunt Janis got a better picture of the three of them?)

Mary went as Princess Leia and Ellie was Strawberry Shortcake.
Here's Mary and Noah trick-or-treating at the Rangel's house (Granny's next door neighbors).

Little Yoda was SO excited to walk down the street with his cousins. His feet couldn't move fast enough. It was so cute to hear him squeel with delight at trying to catch up with the girlies.

Here we are walking back to Granny's house.

And visiting Grandma & Grandpa Shoe. . .

And back at home. What a little trooper. He was so cute in his costume and was so excited everytime we were walking outside. Which, by the way, the weather was fabulous!! I don't remember every having better weather for Halloween, it was perfect outside. (I remember having to wear our coats over our costumes- no fun!)

I hope you all had a great Halloween!!!

(Hey, Uncle Aaron, enough pictures for you?)

The Pumpkin Patch!

We took our little pumpkin to the pumpkin patch today!!
I think that he will have a lot more fun next year when he can walk around on his own. This year he seemed more interested in the cars that were driving by rather than the pumpkins! But it was fun, none the less, to take him. We went to the Rock Creek Pumpkin Patch, which Justin drives by everyday on his way to school. They were VERY busy. Aaron and Janis took the girls to the same patch last weekend and from the sounds of it they were just as busy, if not busier last weekend!

We are all starting to get back into the swing of things. I only taught a day and a half last week! I got hit with a stomach bug in the middle of my 5th grade class last Tuesday. About an hour after I had then I could barely stand, had the chills and was so sick. Then Tom got it, Justin and Kathy. Then my dad and then my mom! I did go in to teach choir on Thursday & Friday morning (Thursday I called in sick and Friday I had to go pick up the ROCKE clinician at the airport in the middle of the day) Come to find out the pe teacher I work with was also hit with it on Wednesday. It's nasty and I'm glad we're on the tail end of it, we've got trick-or-treating to do on Friday!!!

Happy Birthday, Uncle Eldon!!!

We heard you had a great time celebrating your birthday on Sunday.

We hope your actual birthday is great!!!

We love you (and miss you!!!)

Happy Birthday Uncle Sethie!!!

We're headed over to Uncle Seth and Aunt Julie's house for cake to celebrate Seth's birthday, which is today.

We hope you have a great day, Uncle Seth, and we look forward to seeing you soon!!! :)

We love you!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Poor Justin has parent/teacher conferences on his birthday. He has a pretty easy day otherwise. It's late start and his first class is taking their Pre-SATs (I think) for part of their class period so he only has two and a half classes. But, it's still a long day to be at school.
Noah and I hope it goes quickly and that you have a good day, we love you!!!

Jackie called last night to wish Justin a happy Birthday and as you can see from the first picture, Noah wanted to be part of the action!
Here's the little pumpkin, it's not his Halloween costume (you all have to wait a couple weeks to see that) but a fun, cozy outfit we put him in after his bath since it wasn't bedtime yet. It's been cool here and finally feeling like fall. All three of us were cozied up in our sweats!
This weather makes me think about how the holiday season is upon us and how Christmas will be here before we know it. In fact, we bought Noah's Christmas outfit this past weekend and even bought him a Christmas gift!!!

Here's my little helper helping me unload the dishwasher on Monday morning. (He's pulling himself up to standing when the door is open.) He was even trying to help me take the dishes out, I thought for a minute one of the bowls was a goner!

He's venturing out and eating lots of new foods. He really liked the lasagna my mom made a couple weeks ago so tonight we had spaghetti. Of course it was very messy, good thing it was bath night! And we learned from the lasagna to strip him down first! :)
I hope everyone has a great day, please send some Happy Birthday vibes to J! Happy Birthday, honey!!! Noah and I love you very much!

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!