Waiting for Carter

One good thing about Carter being in preschool is that it gives Noah and me some time alone together. On Thursday we had a gorgeous Indian summer day and as I looked around at all the leaves on our yard, I thought, "Hmm, Dan really needs to rake our leaves." Then I thought about all those fall days when Mom would make us rake the leaves and how much fun we had jumping in them. I realized on Thursday that while I was not quite dressed appropriately for the occasion, it was time to jump in some leaves.



Noah then heard some birds in the trees and started yelling, "Bird, bird!" and pointing to them way high in the trees. Then he ran to me with his arms held up high yelling "Up, Momma, up!" Ah, the faith of a child.

Just a little late

Well, it's a little late, I know but here are the boys in their costumes! My favorite moments of the evening:

1. All the adults calling Carter the "land shark" (if you're not a Saturday Night Live fan, you might not get it!)

2. Noah periodically deciding he needed a rest and proceeding to stretch out in the middle of the sidewalk as if he had nowhere to go, and thereby pulling a Moses as he parted a red sea of candy hungry little kids who either had to go around him or step on Nemo.

3. Carter deciding he would sneak a red sucker into his mouth (even though I told them no candy until they got home) and staining his shark teeth a very realistic blood red. A nice touch, I thought.

4. Wondering who got the shark costume next? Mary?

5. Noah getting so excited over the candy that he'd squeeze it in his hand until it was pulverized. I mourned the loss over quite a few Milky Ways.

6. Holding my boys' hands and thinking it wouldn't be too long before they'd be too grown up for holding Momma's hand.

7. Trying and trying to get a picture of the boys together. The picture below is unfortunately the best we got! At least Dan was looking at the camera.

8. Picking out the best candy for myself. Yea!

Happy late Halloween!

High School Musical

Here are the girls at High School Musical. Nate and Steven were at the concession stand, surprise, surprise.

They thought the lead (Troy) was pretty cute. He did have some groovy moves (LOL). Anyway, we had a good time!

Pumpkin Patch

We took the boys and Nate and Vilen to the pumpkin patch on Saturday. They had a lot of fun blowup toys for the boys and a corn maze. They got filthy but were happy. What more can you ask for?


Noah was in a blow up pumpkin and the color is all weird because I kept sticking my camera through a little hole trying to get a picture.






We tried and tried to get them to take a picture smiling together, but they just weren't interested!

They loved the hayride out to the pumpkin patch.


Nate thought he was at the beach and decided to cover himself with the hay.




Dan told the boys to hug the pumpkins. I'm not quite sure why.


I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but Nate stuck a piece of straw in his mouth, so Noah grabbed one and stuck it in his mouth, too.


On our way back from the pumpkin patch, dirty and exhausted. And no, the Great Pumpkin didn't make an appearance, darn you Charlie Brown.

The zoo -- again

Well, summer has officially been over for a while and fall has finally kicked in. When you start seeing pumpkins at the zoo, you know summer is gone. Sigh. I love summer so much but then again, I really love candy, and since Halloween is right around the corner, I guess I'll be OK!!

Here are a couple of pics of the boys (and a friend) at the zoo. And yes, Krista, I know you never see the animals in my zoo pictures, but really, my boys are so much cuter! The highlight of my zoo trip?? I had just complained to my friend that I have never seen Jack Hanna at our zoo, and then boom, there he was!! We stared shamelessly at him for quite a while. He is much more handsome in real life than on TV. Who would have guessed? (And he actually does wear those tan clothes, too).

Our baby turns 2.

It seems time just slips away from me, and the little baby I once held in my arms is now 1/2 my height! I remember seeing Noah for the first time and just marveling at him, how big he was and how little at the same time. That beautiful dark hair and those chubby cheeks. That cute little upturned nose and perfect fingers. We had been so nervous and frantic before his birth, hoping we'd be bringing home a new baby but not quite sure how things would turn out. I didn't get any sleep the night after he was born, just thinking about him and praying he would be ours. And then our prayers were answered, and "J" gave us the privilege of being Noah's parents. How grateful we are to her and to her family for their support and love. Happy birthday to our not so little boy.

Noah, here are just a few things we love about you:

1. Your great big hugs!
2. The way you love your big brother, always trying to be near him and asking about him constantly if he's gone.
3. Your love of reading.
4. Your chubby little cheeks.
5. The way you dance around, bopping to music.
6. How you love to sing, especially your favorite song "All I want to do" by Sugarland.
7. The way you snuggle.
8. How excited you get over the little things.
9. How you always try to dance on our tables.
10. How you call every tree "a bird."
11. How determined you are.
12. Your laugh.
13. How you seem so shocked at the messes you make.
14. How you want to brush your teeth every 2 minutes.
15. Your hair! It is the most beautiful color and and lays down just so perfectly.
16. How you love to talk on the phone.
17. The way you love to play "night night" even though you hate really going to bed.
18. Your love of animals.
19. The way you remind us so much of "J" and her family, especially "N."
20. That you are indisputably our son.

Birthday boy

Happy 2nd birthday Noah! He loved, loved the cakes he got. He looks so sad in the below picture because we told him he had to wait for the cake until we took a picture.




A friend of ours made him a caterpillar cake which he just loved.



Opening a present.

A few kids from his party.



His best buddy's birthday is a week apart from Noah's, so we had a joint cake for them.


Noah did a great job blowing out the candles.


Our little boy is growing up. Sigh.

For me???

Noah was thrilled with his presents he got at our little family party. Carter, unfortunately, was not so thrilled. He cried and wailed the entire time Noah was opening his presents. He'd run around the house crying. It didn't faze Noah at all.




Noah looks so loving towards his Ernie. It took only 2 days before he started pulling Ernie's hair out.

Presents and more presents!

Noah was thrilled with his dancing and laughing Ernie, who exclaims "Rubber Ducky save me!" Even I got a kick out of that one.


Noah is really hilarious at opening presents. He grunts and groans and puts 100 percent into tearing them open. It cracked Dan and me up.


Noah is just thrilled with all the presents.


Giving Ernie a hug.

Noah looks like a mad professor in the below picture, but it was hilarious watching him
grooving on the piano.



P.S. Noah loved, loved the cards he got so thank you to those of you who sent them! They were perfect and he loved carrying them around (as well as carrying around the pics you sent, Marsha!)

Fire truck!

Today, I started to hear sirens and horns blowing. I thought, "Hmm, there must be an accident somewhere outside our subdivision." Carter woke up from his nap due to the noise and when we went downstairs, I peeked out the window and there were about 4 firetrucks and 10 firemen at our neighbors. Two trucks were parked right by our house. Carter was thrilled to see the firetrucks, and I was thrilled to find out no one was hurt. There was a gas leak at our neighbors. A fireman saw Carter staring longingly at the truck and invited him in. He got to sit in the back and at the wheel where he got to blow the horn and scare all our neighbors. Dan got home right in time to take pictures. Carter thought it was great and talked about it all night. Poor Noah slept through the whole thing!

First Day of School

Carter's first day of school! He was very thrilled with his backpack but didn't really grasp the concept of "school." In the five minutes he was outside before we took him to school, he managed to get dirt and grass stains all over his shirt. That's my boy!




This is his nervous face.

Carter at the end of the day with his teacher.


He is loving school! At the end of each day, I'll ask him what he did at school and he'll excitedly exclaim, "I ride the bus!" Apparently, they spend 3 hours driving Carter around town in the bus.

And everyday, Noah asks for Carter about a million times before he gets home. Even when we run errands, he'll ask people in the stores, "Where's Carter?"