December 23

On December 23rd Grandpa and Laura flew out to spend Christmas with us. (Grandma came a week earlier) We picked them up from the airport, went to dinner and then took them to the Washington DC temple to see the lights. It was quite an adventure. But once we were able to finally get there it was so nice to be able to see all the beautiful lights. We were able to see a really nice Christmas program put on by the Sister missionaries and see all kinds of nativities from around the world.

Noah warming up to Grandpa. He wasn't too sure at first but by the end of the night they were best buddies.

One of my favorite nativities.

We were so lucky to have everyone here for Christmas.

I feel blessed to have these people in my life.

First Party~ Part Two

First Party~ Part One

THE ZOO

Aunt Susan came up to spend the weekend with us and help us celebrate Noah's first birthday. We spent the morning at the Washington DC zoo. Noah didn't feel very well so we cut the day short and headed home.

(one sick little boy)

(best picture ever taken of me)

There are days I wish I could lock them in a cage.

a year...

(well technically he won't be one till tomorrow but I had to get this up today so I can post about his big birthday party tomorrow)

Tough decisions...

11.01.2010

Myles had the day off from preschool. We had a tough decision to make. We could either stay home all day and clean and do laundry {or any one of the other 1,000,000 things I have to do} or we could drive into the city and go to the zoo. We decided to go to the zoo. It was a spectacular day. We made the right choice.

Can I just say how much I love living here? You know what our total cost to go to the zoo was? $0.00. That's right. It's free.

Halloween...

Scary. Sweet. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Lots of candy. Trunk~or ~Treat. Next day crankiness. Candy wrappers everywhere. Till next year...

What a year...

The past few days I have really be reflecting a lot on our lives this past year. It has been a crazy one. One year ago Matt left for Afghanistan. I was pregnant and heartbroken. I still cannot look at the pictures from the day he left without crying. So let me just review... In the past 365 days my husband left for a deployment. I gave birth to a pretty amazing little boy. I survive (only because of my mom) 7 months and five kids. We had a joyous reunion with Matt. We had a harder time acclimating to our new "normal" than we expected. We moved half way across the country. Matt started a new job that requires him to be gone way to much. We are having a hard time adjusting to our new "normal". I wish that in all of my reflecting that I could say that I survived this last year and am a stronger person because of it. I am not sure that is true. I had a lot of moments where I wasn't on my best. A lot of things I probably would have done differently. But I learned... No time like now to change things.

11 months

11 months have just flown by. I cannot believe that in just a month we will be celebrating this little guy's first birthday. He is so much fun and we all just adore him. He is growing so much everyday. He is exploring and learning new tricks all the time. Noah is seriously the happiest baby I have ever met. I have people stopping me all the time just to tell me what a radiant, happy little man he is. He makes friends instantly. He will flirt and laugh and wave. He loves kisses and gives the best hugs. This past month he got 4 new teeth! He is learning to eat table food. He loves to drink from his sippy and we have to be very watchful because he loves to steal Myles' sippy cup (with chocolate milk).

His hair is getting darker and really getting some curls. Love it!

First Day of Preschool

Despite the look of pure anxiousness on his face, he was so excited to start preschool. We really wanted him to go to some sort of preschool this year even though he will probably not be going to Kindergarten next year. So we looked all over town for a program for him. I visited several but when I walked into this school I knew it was the one. It is in a little Lutheran church about 4 miles from our house. Myles is in the Brown Bear class. There are ten kids, five boys, five girls and two teachers. All of the staff are so wonderful and they just adore these kids. He has been going for a couple of weeks now and just LOVES LOVES LOVES it. We are so excited to watch him grown and learn new things.