A Wonderful Celebration

The weekend of July 24th, my whole family gathered at my Grandma's house in IN to celebrate her 80th birthday! It was a WONDERFUL time with the whole family. We usually all get together every Thanksgiving, so this was a nice time to hang out together in the summer. Chris and I camped in Grandma's backyard with our families in our campers. It was very fun, despite the HORRIBLE storm on Friday night. My kids slept through it just fine. Tyler and I did not.

Saturday morning Dad was all excited to do a big "camper" breakfast. Kevin did the cooking out in the garage and we all ate sitting on the driveway on our camping chairs. It was very fun. I told Dad we should do it at Thanksgiving too (maybe not in the garage). In the afternoon we went to my aunt and uncle's little lake in the middle of their subdivision. Tyler took Noah out on the little boat and did some fishing. Ty caught a TON of fish, and Noah reeled a couple in too! He had such a great time out there.

Saturday night we had a birthday dinner for Grandma with her sisters and my family. Tyler grilled some burgers, hot dogs, and brats (of course). It was just a really nice time talking with everyone. After that we hung out around the fire for a few more hours. By the end it was just me, Chris, Sandy, and Dan left talking. Pretty cool to have some time with my siblings.

It was a wonderful time, but it was over much too quickly. I'm already looking forward to Thanksgiving!

Noah on a scooter:

Catching a bubble:

Grandma with Naomi

Daddy and Noah on the boat
Look what I got!


Scuba Dan
Mmmm, ice cream!
Grandma and the grandkids

4th of July

I'm at home relaxing before Tyler and I have to head out to 2 different parties today. Noah's grabbing a quick nap and Naomi is playing right next to me so she'll be tired out by the time we leave. We had a great time at the parade this morning. Noah was AWESOME!! This was the 1st year he really enjoyed it and payed attention to what was going on. He sat right by me on the curb, never once trying to get up and run across the street or in front of vehicles. I was very impressed by that. He enjoyed the fire engines, all the bands, and all the dogs that are always in the parade. His favorite part by far were all the "dancers". There are many different high school dance teams that march, and he was always asking about the dancers. It was really fun to watch him this year. Naomi just slept the whole time, which made things very easy!

Naomi is becoming so much more interesting. The first weeks there's not much going on with babies. Eat, sleep, cry, poop, that's about it. Now she's awake and alert for longer periods of time. She loves to lay on her blanket and just kick around. She also really enjoys tummy time. Naomi already has many funny facial expressions. I'll leave you with just a few.

Happy 4th everyone!

Baptism Weekend

Last weekend Naomi was baptized. I was very excited to have most of my family. Mom, Dad, Chris, and her girls were all here staying at my house. It was very busy but tons of fun! Noah loved hanging out with his cousins. They played so great together. Noah has been asking me where the "girls" are ever since. :) The weekend just reminded me how much I really miss my family. I wish we could be together more often.

We also celebrated Peyton's 5th birthday while everyone was here. It was great! The pictures are a random mix of those days.

Grandma and Naomi

Noah and Cousin Addison
Daddy and his little girl
Most of the fam

Birthday girl Peyton with Addy and Noah

My twin sis, Chris, with her girls

Naomi on her baptism in my baptim gown
My family

Chris with Addy and Noami

Adjustments

Well, my maternitly leave is going well. I'm happy with my decision to keep bringing Noah to daycare. He really needs the structure, and I need the time to get a schedule figured out for Naomi. He's doing very well with her so far. He wants to help feed her and hold her. Noah does get a little rough sometimes, but he's a boy, so I guess that's normal. There is a little jealousy at times, like when I'm feeding her or calming her down. That's the time when he all of a sudden needs me for some odd reason. I'm sure that's pretty normal. I'm happy that it doesn't happen all the time. We also moved Noah into a different bedroom and he has a new big bed, so that's cause for some stress for him. He calls the bed his "cool bed", so I know he likes it. Right now he's just waking up 2-3 times a night for no apparant reason. That too will pass in time (I hope sooner than later).

Naomi is doing great. We aren't on a set schedule yet, but I'm working on it. Right now she's gets up 1-2 times a night, depending when her last feeding was. I try to nap during the day when she does, but I can't sleep. The same thing happened with Noah. I think there's so much going on in my head that I can't relax enough to fall asleep. I'm sure that will change once Naomi naps at set times each day.

It's funny, but I can't remember anything from when Noah was a baby. I don't remember when he got on a schedule or anything like that. I'm hoping Naomi does get on one by summer. Once summer starts we're tackling a new obstacle: potty training!

Naomi is here!

I thought I'd take this time to share some pics of our beautiful new daughter, Naomi Gwendolyn. Tyler picked out her first name, and her middle name is after my grandma. She was thrilled! Noah is a very good older brother. He wants to touch her head, give her kisses and "nosies", and even hold her. So far Noah is transitioning very well! I just pray that will continue. Naomi is a good baby. She's up a couple times at night right now, but that's not so bad. Hopefully by summer we'll have more of a schedule nailed down. We're looking forward to watching both our kids grow up!

Maternity Leave!!

I really haven't written anything about my current pregnancy. Well, I was officially due YESTERDAY!! I'm not surprised I'm late though. Noah was a week late himself. I feel fine right now. I don't feel anything really happening at all. I've had a very uneventful pregnancy, which is a good thing. Everything is good right now too. I go in for a non-stress test on Tuesday to check movement and stuff. My dr. will see where I'm at, and if nothing has changed too much we'll be scheduling something. I'm thinking this baby girl will make her appearance next week sometime. It better be next week! I have officially started my maternity leave from school. Today was my last day. Hooray! I am very excited. I won't have to go back, and I'll have the whole summer off to be with my kids. I'm very excited about that. If nothing happens on it's own, then I'll have a couple of days next week to get my house in order. You know me! I've got to have things organized.

It's now time for me to do a little shopping. My school is having a HUGE rummage sale in the gym tomorrow and teachers get to shop early, so I'm here tonight to get some little girl stuff. How great!

I'll leave you with some pics of Noah. This is actually his 2nd haircut since I forgot my camera the first time. Oh well. It's still the same! He really loves getting it done.

Spring Break

Well, spring break has come and gone. Noah and I had a great time hanging out together. We did something every day. Last Wednesday we went to the YMCA for open gymnastics time. Noah had the time of his life!! He loved hanging from the rings and having me swing him. There were bouncy surfaces to jump on and roll on. It was great! The only bad thing was leaving. Noah threw the worst tantrum of his life when we had to go. I had to hang on to him tight just to get out of the room. Then I had to pin him down with my leg to get his socks and shoes on. He walked out of the building, but cried the whole way out. Besides that, it was a great time!

On Thursday we went to storytime at the library. Noah goes every week with his daycare friends and behaves well every time. Well, he didn't for me! He wanted to stand up and mess around while the stories were going on. He wouldn't sit down when I asked him to, so we had to leave early. My mom says that's because I'm his mother. Kids behave better for people other than their moms. I've heard that from the parents of my students before, but now I understand!

I don't want you to think he was a little pistol the whole break. We actually had fun and he was great. I just have to wonder why kids don't behave when you really, really want them to!

Below are just some pictures of goofing off in the house. There's one of Tyler and Noah where Tyler put gel in Noah's hair and made a little mohawk. I couldn't resist taking a picture.

He loves talking on the phone:

Stacking cans is his latest fun project:

He looks ready for school!

Reading the Sunday paper with Daddy:

Ready for Spring

Long time, no write! Yeah, I just have been so busy lately. We're all doing pretty good in Wisconsin. Another big storm is supposed to hit us tonight. Activities are already getting cancelled in anticipation of it. I'm ready for spring!

I don't have much news to say. Just wanted to take some time to put some new pics of Noah on here. He loves to play with Daddy's hats and gloves. Tucker, on the other hand, doesn't like gloves that much. (No Noahs were harmed in this picture.)

Noah made his friends some little Valentine's bags. He just had to put some Teddy Grahams in baggies and I put a little note with them. Noah ended up eating a lot of them too. (One for my friend, two for me. :)

Here we are playing a little hide and seek. Noah likes to hide and seek at the same time.

Snuggling with Daddy is a favorite pasttime.

Here's an icicle that I broke off the house by our kitchen window. It was pretty huge!

Noah's Birthday

Noah's birthday was actually a few weeks ago, but I just never seem to have the time to update! He turned 2 on Jan. 15. My little guy is NOT so little! At his last dr. appt., he measured 36 1/2 inches tall! Gotta love that Hospers height (thanks, Dad). The doctor also said that he was impressed by Noah's coordination for his height. Hopefully he'll be able to use that height and coordination for basketball. :)

We had a little party for Noah on Jan. 17. His birthday is so close to Christmas, so it was very nice of people to get him gifts. Tyler and I got him a play kitchen with some baking supplies and fake food. He really liked it! I did NOT enjoy putting it together. :(

Below are just some pictures of him with some of his new things.

I had a day off b/c of the cold on his b-day, so he had a b-day waffle with me.

He did GREAT blowing out his candles! He didn't want any cake though. Noah definitely doesn't have my taste for chocolate.
Here's my little chef!