Noah turns 3!!!

Noah turned 3 on Saturday! He has been very excited for the last several weeks leading up to his birthday, and hopefully the weekend matched his expectations. His birthday festivities took place in 2 parts. First there was a party with his "friends." As he was turning 3, he got to have 3 buddies over. Fred, Calvin, and Evie came over on Friday to play. Aunt Philie scored major points for finding a Captain America mask. Noah already had an Iron Man mask, so Fred got to be Iron Man. Fred is not much into superheroes, so it was hilarious when he kept pausing while saying in a deep, voice, "I am ..... (who am I with this mask I'm wearing?).... IRONMAN!" It was like an actor searching for lines, it was classic!

Friday night Mike spent 4 hours making the cake and decorating. We were interrupted once at about 9pm when Noah woke up after sleeping for awhile and came out fully dressed ready for his birthday, only to be sent back to bed. Noah wanted a Captain America party, and I'm pretty sure daddy delivered, big time...

This picture was taken at about 6am at the big reveal. Noah was so thrilled about the cake topper action figure...

He pretty much forgot about the bike we got him. Typical, he loves the 6 dollar toy and pretty much tosses the more expensive one. Oh well, when the weather gets warmer, I'm sure he'll appreciate it.

I finally relented in my "don't cut my baby's hair until he's one" stance because poor Sam was struggling with hair in his face constantly. So, as is now tradition, Auntie Kimmy gave him his first hair cut before Noah's party started on Saturday.

Doesn't he look handsome! You can actually see his beautiful blue eyes now!

Everyone knew the strong love for superheroes that Noah has. Therefore he ended up with about 12 more superhero themed gifts, despite the fact that we only invited a few people this year. Uncle Cliff even showed up in his Captain America shirt!

Nick took a turn being Iron Man and even added in the lights on his palms. Noah was psyched!

I couldn't help but think about how big he looked when he got his cake. I vividly remember him smashing his first cake 2 years ago. Now he's a kid!

No complaints on the cake dad! Homemade fondant was a hit!

Rare occasion for a family photo, pretty good considering how crazed Noah was at this point and how tired Sam was.

The cousins all together. Noah had a great day, thanks to everyone who came!

8 months is great!

Well, Mr. Sam has made it to 8 months old! And I can finally say he is a JOY to be around. Not that we weren't happy to have him in our lives before, but he has really started to be super fun and super happy the last 2 weeks. As Mike said, "it's like someone turned off the crying button!" He is full of personality and grunty giggles and big drooley smiles and we love it! So here's to Sam, Sammy, Sammo, Samsonite, Sammy-go-B, whatever you call him he is too cute!
At 8 months he is sitting beautifully for long stretches at a time. In fact, he much prefers to be upright than laying down or on his belly. He is not crawling yet, and we've started having some informal mommy/daddy PT sessions to work on his mobility. I know he will be mobile, and I will long for these days of calm, but we're working on it! My biggest concern is that he walks before he crawls. Then I would really be screwed!

Like his brother, Sam is a great sleeper and a great eater. He takes 2 or 3 naps a day and usually goes 11 hours at night without a peep. He still prefers veggies over fruits, but he's pretty much a human garbage disposal and would eat anything put in front of him. He is taking a bottle much better now, and is moving to formula pretty easily (woohoo for mommy!). As for Noah, he's been down with a fever for 2 days (can you tell how pale he is in the photo?), so we've enjoyed some calm snuggle time. Hopefully he'll be fully recovered for his big 3rd birthday which is coming up this weekend.

Noah had his first sleepover this past weekend at his cousins' house. He had a wonderful time following Nick around everywhere and visiting with Francesca, Auntie Kimmy, Uncle Frank, Aba-Aba (grandma), and PaPa (grandpa). I swear, these two could be brothers! Stay tuned for next week and all the birthday madness. All I'll say now is that Mike is making fondant to cover a cake, should be awesome...

Noah the Paleontologist

This weekend Mike went to St. Louis for a bachelor party, hence I was solo with the kids for Friday/Saturday/Sunday (a LONG weekend with an almost 3 year old). So on Friday we went to LaGrange and met my mom for lunch. She mentioned that her students were working on dinosaurs and that at the start of the afternoon, they would be cracking open some dinosaur eggs. Of course, we were in...
For those that know Noah, you know he doesn't enjoy large groups of kids that he doesn't know. He loves messing around with his cousins and his friends, but when faced with a big group of kids (think like McDonalds play place or mall play area) he kind of hangs back. I was shocked when all the kids started coming in the classroom. Noah said hello to them and was excited to see them.

Bamma even asked Noah to introduce himself in front of the class, which he did and tell his age. And she asked what the glasses were for, he replied "safety first." Then the kids descended on the tarps and they started cracking the eggs. The eggs were like a formed sand that they had to chip and dig away to reveal a dinosaur inside.

It was neat to see him with all the kids enjoying himself. Especially since we'll be registering for preschool soon. We had to leave for nap, but I know Noah enjoyed himself as he excitedly said goodbye to all the kids. Fun times!

Mom's big day!

We hosted a family party for my mom's 60th last nite, the boys got all spiffed up...
Somehow we managed to actually surprise her! Dad had told her he was taking her out to dinner, she thought they were meeting Josh (and maybe Apryl, due to a slip by dad) there. She thought the boys and I were in Iowa with friends. Obviously, once she pulled into our driveway and saw all the cars she figured it out. She came in yelling, "You liars!"

Noah had a blast playing with his cousins. He and CJ re-purposed the Elephun game nets. Note how Noah (mr. bean head) can fit it over his noggin. And CJ (mr. einstein) cannot.

The highlight of the night was presenting her with a book of some 40 letters that friends and family had written to her. They included some great memories and embarassing photos. Josh did an awesome job putting the book together.

We spent much of the evening going through some old photos and people had brought to share. If you can see, in Dave's hand are pictures of Grandma B.

Here's to 60 more years with these monsters! Congrats Mom, we love you!

Congrats around!

I have 2 exciting congratulations to offer up this morning... First to my awesome mom, she is celebrating her 60th birthday today! And I'm sure she is thrilled that I am sharing that info on my blog! But we love you mom/bamma and we hope you have a fantastic day!

Second, my dear friend Erin was supposed to have a baby girl like 10 days ago or so. Shocker, she had a baby boy yesterday! Mr. Connor arrived, all 10 lb 2oz of him, yesterday afternoon. So of my high school friends we have 5 boys and 1 girl now! I glad he's safely here and I hope this means the resurrection of her blog (Krak blog) with many baby pictures. Congrats to Erin and Nick!

And now for some fun pictures from the week (since we all know that's the reason you come to the blog, mom!) First up some hair styling with Sam. We tried a small amount of mousse to see if we could tame the beast. I love his facial expressions! His eyebrow control is also impressive!

Here are some shots from yesterday when Evie was over. We decided with cabin fever and cranky teething babies we need some entertainment. So, baby cage match it is!

Aren't they cute!