Joe Summer

"Hey, how you doin'?!"

We had a great weekend and I have lots of pictures to share but can't because our Internet is EXTREMELY slow for some reason. Last night I tried about 5 times to upload pictures and today I tried numerous times and am unable to get them uploaded, except this one. J's going to try to call about it tomorrow, so once this is fixed I will share some pictures from our weekend.

One of our purchases this weekend was Noah's shades, how do you like them? They are actually a little small for him (the package said 3 years and up. They fit Mary fine, but they're tight on Noah- Justin claims it's because his brains are so big)

We went putt-putting on Saturday for Ellie's birthday. There was a couple there that have a baby a month younger than Noah, so at the party it was fun to see the babies interact with each other. I'm excited for swim lessons this summer mainly for him to be around other babies!

I'll get those other pictures posted ASAP- have a great week everyone!

Happy Birthday Ellie!!!

Happy Birthday Miss Ellie! We can't believe you're 6 years old already!!

I remember the night she was born. I had a 3rd grade concert that night. Aaron called me before it started and told me that they would be unable to make it as they were going to have a baby instead! Justin and I went to the hospital after the concert and a little while later Ellie was born. We got to hold her when she was brand-spanking new!

We hope that you have a great day!!! We'll see you at your birthday celebration on Saturday!! We love you, Ellie Kay!!!!

It's Amazing How. . . .

Noah puts EVERYTHING in his mouth, except food! We decided to try to give him a "biter biscuit" so he can start eating finger foods. These are designed to dissolve in his mouth. When he got it he stared at it and couldn't figure out what to do with it. Now, had it been the t.v. remote, the phone or the camera it would have gone straight to the mouth. As you can see in the picture above, he had to hit it against the lid from his baby food. And to the left is the one split second that the cookie was actually in his mouth. Sad to say the cookie ended up being thrown away because someone didn't eat it.

Well, we struck out with the "biter biscuits" so we decided to give "puffs" a try. Puffs are about the size of Justin's Corn Puffs and there's 80 in a serving and only 25 calories, why don't they make adult snacks like that? Any how, I think his facial expression sums it up: "you want me to put it where?"
He did actually eat two of them. Hey, only 78 more to go for the full serving! One of the problems he was having was that his fingers would get wet from his spit and then the puff would stick to his hand. I was actually quite impressed with the fine motor skills he had to pick it up! I can't wait to have him try them again.
I mentioned in the previous blog that Noah's new thing is standing up. Justin (who had the day off) took him over to Grandma & Grandpa Shoe's and he stood against their footstool while Justin let go. I enjoy watching him grow and accomplish new feats, however it's all going WAY too fast!

Fun Family Weekend

This weekend just flew by! And we spent SO much time with family, it was really nice.

Friday night Aaron, Janis, Mary and Ellie came over. Here's Noah playing with his cousins. We had pizza and played games. It was so nice to get to spend time with them.
No, Saturday was not Halloween, although from the looks of Grandpa Tom I could see where one would get confused. It was the second time the Shoemaker clan got together for poker night, so he was "dressing up". Now I know I haven't been to Vegas in a while, is this how they're dressing there now?
Here's Noah with the reigning poker champion: Leahna. She won the last time we played in March and she won again Saturday night. She and Adam will be leaving for Washington state in May for a couple months for Adam's internship. The good thing about this is it will give someone else the opportunity to win!
One more picture from poker night. Here's Noah with Uncle Seth. Notice the kicked up feet on the table, just a lazy Saturday for him.
This brings us to Sunday. We went to my parents' house for dinner where we got to see the cousins again. Here's Justin, Ellie and Noah in the backyard.

So, while Noah got to wear many hats this weekend, (son, cousin, grandson, nephew; cowboy & baseball) he also worked on learning some new tricks. The most impressive one is standing next to the coffee table at my mom's house. My mom jokingly calls him "jello legs" because whenever we go to stand him up his legs turn to jello. I think we started noticing it yesterday that all of a sudden he was standing up, nice and straight, with no jello legs! He still isn't crawling, but he can roll across the room like no body's business.

And did I mention how LOUD he is? This kiddo's got a set of pipes! He loves to yell and then laugh and give you a great big smile! It's so much fun to see this little guy's personality develop more and more each day!

My Book Worm

So Noah has enjoyed being read to for quite sometime. Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Tom read to him everyday when he is at their house. I read to him every night before he gets ready for bed. We read to him during the day when he needs some downtime. We've even started taking him to the library baby story time, he's going with Grandma and Grandpa tomorrow in fact. Well, the past couple of days his favorite thing to do is pull lots of his books out of his book basket that we have sitting on the floor by Justin's chair. He'll grab a book, sometimes open it but most times chew it and punch it, set in on the floor and grab another one. He ends up sitting in the middle of a pile of books. It's really pretty cute! But then again, I'm his mom and I think everything he does right now is cute!


Noah got to see his cousins, Mary and Ellie this past weekend at Grandma Debbie's house. It feels like we hadn't seen them for a while. Aunt Janis came by after she got off of work. Noah LOVES his Auntie Jan, he always laughs and has a great time when she's around. Sunday was no exception. All he had to do was look at Aunt Janis and he would start laughing.
We're planning on getting together with them this Friday for pizza and some more laughter!

Too Tired To Title This Post

I just can't think of a clever title for this post today. All I know is it's been a busy day. Susie's bridal shower was today. It went really well, but this morning was hectic. Between getting everything organized, picking up the cake and balloons and borrowing tables from Seth, we also had a little boy who wasn't interested in eating. And as you can see below, he's sticking out his tongue. Both of these behaviors they (the parenting book) say are signs of teething. All I know is if he is cutting a new tooth this one is a lot more painful and difficult for him than the first 2! Poor baby!
Here's Noah playing with his farm that Santa brought him. This should make his dad happy. The other night as we were sitting with Noah, who was playing with his train, Justin was commenting on how he wished Noah would play with the farm because he likes the music from the farm better than the music from the train. Well, J finally got his wish!
Noah has learned to eat prunes: woo hoo! Go prunes! But this isn't why I took this picture. We're going to have to teach him soon that it's not polite to put your feet on the table when you're eating dinner!

My little book worm: he can't get enough of his books. He enjoys having books read to him but he also enjoys eating them. Now that he's got those two bottom teeth we have to be careful: there are a couple books that have got chew marks on them!

Two To Go

What a busy week!! My 1st graders had a concert on Tuesday and the choir had a concert tonight. My mom is watching Noah tomorrow and Monday. And on Saturday I'm throwing a bridal shower for my best friend, Susie. The good news it there are only 2 more concerts this year!!! And as much as I love teaching my choir students, it's going to be nice having 2 planning hours in the morning. Maybe I can find my desk again!

These are pictures that Kathy took when she, Tom and Noah went to Poudre on Monday. Aren't they great?! It was hard deciding which ones to post! It seems to me that Noah really enjoys the outdoors. This summer is going to be so much fun taking him for walks, going to parks and going on mini-day trips.

It looks to me like Grandpa Tom might have a new fishing buddy in a few years! Don't these two look like they'd have a grand time fishin' together?!