The many birthday parites of Noah

It seems that we can never get both our families together for birthday parties. Maybe it will be a tradition, our kid's first birthday will always have 2 separate parties - one for each family.

Noah's first party was last Sunday at my parents house. I made a turtle cake because Brock was giving Noah a stuffed turtle to sleep with. It was cute - but not very good - but that's OK.



Noah thought the candle was really cool and was way jazzed that everyone was singing to him. Brock was really good about being excited for Noah and understanding it was Noah's cake and Noah's presents - but in the end Brock had to help Noah blow out his candle - which Brock was more than happy about.

Noah got to eat the turtle's head. Noah seriously dove right in - he loved it! He had it everywhere - up his nose, in his ear, down his pants... it was so funny.

His favorite present was probably this ball my sister Ashley gave him (you'll see it in both pictures - he carried it around the whole night). And my parents gave him this cute turtle car.

We gave him this awesome dinosaur ball thing that I scored on Craigs List for 10 buck! Both my boys LOVE it.

Then on Saturday we had the Herberts over to our house for Noah's next party. I made Herbie Special (a Herbert favorite). Noah was a little more leery of the candle and the singing this time - I think it was more because I wasn't holding him. And again... he dove right it - but he wasn't so messy this time - I think he learned his lesson.

Matt and Janina got him this really cute book that sings to you - it has only been like 12 hours since we got it and they haven't put it down - they both dance and march to the songs - super cute. Grandma and Grandpa Herbert got Noah a foreword facing car seat - yea!! Although it will be a while before he can use it. But surly all this cake and ice cream had to put on a pound or two... right??

We love you Noah and are so happy you are in our family. We can't believe you are almost a toddler! You started to really walk this weekend (taking 8 to 10 steps at a time). Thank you for bringing so much joy into our lives!

Noah's Birthday - day

On Noah's actually birthday we went up to Bridal Veil Falls to... well... throw some rocks in the river. It was a lot of fun - they both could do it for hours. Brock was thrilled to have Jason with us because Jason picked up HUGE rocks and threw them in, making HUGE slashes - the boys were in heaven (all three of them :)

This is how Noah hiked

Noah sat on this bank and threw rocks in the whole time - when he would run out of rocks he would try to lean over and get more.

Brock and Jason searching for good throwing rocks

Noah is One!

My baby turned one last week! I cannot even begin to describe my little Noah-boo and the joy that he has brought into our lives. It is funny that I was so nervous to have him because I didn't know how it was going to all work (having a second child) - and life just seemed so normal and great with Brock - but now I can't even remember our family without him - when I look back it just seems like it wasn't complete.

Favorite things:

• Noah has been happy since the day he was born. He smiled at us from the first day in the hospital. His smile is one of those that light up a room - you know it comes form pure happiness and joy - it warms my heart every time I see it. As a disclaimer - he has not been a happy baby lately - a lot of tantrums and whinny - but that is just true to his age - hopefully it will pass.
• Noah loves singing - especially finger-play songs, and loves to read books. He loves to turn pages and lift flaps. He loves to dance to the song your singing or to any music he hears. He loves to play catch with anyone that is willing. He mostly just loves one on one attention.
• He also appreciates his "alone" time. He likes to lay in his crib for about 15 minutes after he wakes up and just looks at the ceiling and plays with his toes, if he doesn't get this he is grumpy the rest of the day. He also likes to be left alone for about an hour a day to just crawl around the apartment and on the balcony and play with what ever he wants - he doesn't want me or Brock involved. I can't give this to him everyday - but if he goes 2 or 3 days without it - you can tell.
• He loves water and isn't afraid of much. He is not a timid child - whatever it is he will dive right it. He loved to splash and get wet, he loves loud noises and animals, nothing seems to scare him or make him nervous.
• He thinks he is Brock's age. This is one of the main reasons for his current tantrums. He absolutely thinks him and Brock are equals and strongly feels that he should get to do everything Brock does or have everything Brock has. This is especially hard because Noah doesn't really have any teeth and can't walk - so Noah gets frustrated often throughout the day. He loves Brock and tolerates him very well - Brock is ALWAYS tackling him or throwing balls at him, and Noah never minds, he just sits there and takes it. It is so funny.
• He is EXTREMELY attached to his mother right now. The only other person he willingly goes to is Jason. If I leave the room he screams or if anyone even LOOKS like they might pick him up - he screams. Sometimes - even if strangers in the super market smile at him he cries and reaches for me. The upside is I can leave him with baby sitters ok - he cries while he sees me leave - but they say within 2 minutes he is fine. I do take him to the gym 2 or 3 times a week and leave him there - so he does get over it.

Our last Brighton Football Season

My littlest brother, Daniel, is a senior this year - and as such this is our last Brighton football season, so we are going to try to make it to as many as we can. Fortunately for us Brock
L-O-V-E-S football (any sport for that matter). He will just sit and watch - and he totally knows what is going on - in fact he prefers to watch sports to any thing else on tv - it is really frustrating when my 2 year-old makes me watch sports!

Anyways - Brighton is doing great so far - they have played 3 games and shut out all 3- I think their combined score is like 112 to 0 - way to go Bengals!

We might have a hard time with Noah - the games are right during his bed time - but after he gets past tired/cranky stage - he gets pretty happy in the "delirious" stage.

My great aunt Pat with Amellia and my mom with Noah.

My aunt Leslie with her newest little girl - Amellia

After the game the boys went down on the field to play some football.
Let's just say Brock was IN HEAVEN!

Farm Country... again

Noah liked the horse way more than Brock - especially at this age.

Our Cabin

My family has a cabin up in Idaho on the Teton River. My great grandpa built it and the whole extended family shares it (great aunts and uncles, second cousins etc) - it is a beautiful place, but sadly this was only the third time in my life I have been up there. I hope to start making it a tradition.

I went with my family and took the boys (Jason had to work) - I as a little nervous taking Noah because he is in the stage right now where he just wants to be down all the time and the cabin is not really suited for babies - but he did awesome and it was pretty easy and really fun.

There is this beautiful tall grass everywhere - it makes me want to run through it!

My grandpa and grandma, my mom, my little sister, me, Brock, my older sister, Noah and my niece, Audrey.

Brock, Noah, and Audrey

The River
We have a little motor boat to go out on the river. It was so breath-taking - the water is so clear, you can see right down to the bottom and can see all the schools of fish! I wished I could just take the boat out on the river and read a book and just drift - it was so peaceful!

This is the best picture of my Grandpa - he is so wonderful and hard working. I have such a deep love and respect for him.

Brock did great for about 15 minutes - then he just wanted to get in.

The Slides

We go up to this girls camp past Driggs. It has these HUGE slides (sadly no pictures) and fun swings and teeter-totters. It was a blast - I do remember these from my childhood.

Me and the boys on the teeter-totter - Noah absolutely loved it!

Then we did my boys FAVORITE thing - throw rocks in a river - they could both sit on a river bank and throw rocks into it for an hour.

Fishing

Everyday my dad and grandpa went fishing out on the river - and the kids were always sad they couldn't go - so they took the kids to this great children's fishing pond. Within 10 minutes we caught about 7 fish - it was a great experience. Brock was stoked - until the fish died - he wasn't really expecting that - then he got scared and wanted nothing to do with it.

I don't have any pictures of Noah doing what he did at all these events - mostly because I didn't want to document my failures as a mother - but who cares - I am who I am... right? Noah basically crawled around in dirt the whole time eating rocks, mud, and I am sure a few bugs. I just had to let it go if we were going to have any fun, my motto for the week was, "if it was ok for the pioneers it is ok for me!"

Summer Fun

I am officially depressed that summer is over. I know it is still nice outside - but the most telling part that summer is over in Provo is that they close the Veteran's pool. This is my favorite place to go in the summer - it is right up the street, really cheap, and lots of fun. I had all these grand plans to go several times a week - but it rained most of June, we were sick most of July, so all we really had was August. We went about 6 times - and 3 times just last week.

I was nervous at the beginning of the summer to take the boys all by myself - I didn't know if they would stay by me. So my mother-in-law went with us the first time so I could get the hang of it - turns out they are super easy and really good (as always) - so I was able to take them by myself the rest of the time.

Not great pictures - but best I could get with my horrible camera!

Milestones

I have not been very great with blogging lately - I have about a million posts to do, and I will be doing them a lot more soon, mostly because we have had a lot of milestones in the Herbert family the past few weeks and because of them I can start blogging more.

• Brock is potty trained! We started about 6 weeks ago - and after about 2 1/2 or 3 weeks I felt I could say "he is potty trained". There were a few days I wanted to do a post saying, "it's not working - HELP" - or just wanted to give up, but then it all turned around and he is doing great. The key for us was just 100% staying out of it - I never ask him if he needs to go - or tell him that he needs to go, if I stay out of it he is responsible, but if I get involved he uses me as a crutch and then we have accidents.
• I stopped breast feeding Noah. This one was just a few days ago, and I have mixed feelings. I am glad to be done - I have been either pregnant or nursing for over 3 years now and I am excited to give my body a break and hopefully regain some energy and gain some weight (about 10 or 15 pounds). But I will REALLY miss that alone - one on one - time with Noah. I now really feel like I have 2 little boys and no baby... when did that happen??
• We had Noah's one year appointment last week (even though he is not a year for another week) and he is in the 1 percentile!! He had only gained like .25 lbs in the last 3 months. Umm... can I still put him in a foreword facing car seat?? I really want to!
• Brock and Noah are now sleeping in the same room! I wanted to wait until I stopped nursing before we did this - I liked just having Noah awake in the mornings to nurse him before Brock woke up. So far they are doing good - but it has only been 2 days - but we are so excited to have our apartment back - hence the blogging.
• Jason's job officially ended on Friday... anyone know of a company needing a Human Resources rep?? We are bummed - but secretly excited to have him home with us during the days.
• Noah has 2 teeth - we thought he maybe just didn't have any teeth (Brock had 12 by the time he was one). But Noah now has 2 - and I cannot wait for him to get a whole mouth full so I can stop making baby food - fun for the first 3 months... then after that, just annoying (but worth it).
• A few quick Brock updates: Loves letters and counting, says the ABC's all the time, can spell his name, and can (usually) identify the letters: A,B,C,D,K,M,O,P,R,S,Y, and Z. He talks all the time and says the funniest things, his sentences are 6 or 7 words long and usually grammatically correct. He sings songs all day, mostly: wheel's on the bus, ABC's, Old McDonald, Amazing Grace, Old Man River, Be still My Soul, and Jesus wants me for a Sun Beam. He loves Noah and actively tells me what he needs and gets mad when he thinks I am not taking care of Noah very well, "Mom, Noah not want food, Noah wants binky." or "Mom, stop cleaning, Noah tired, put Noah sleep." or if Noah wakes up early and I tell Brock we are going to let him cry for a minute he says, "Not want Noah cry, go get him." then he proceeds to yell at Noah's door, "I come get you Noah, don't worry."

Boating

So I have actually decided that boating is my most favorite activity in the whole world. I didn't grow up with a boat - but we always went boating once or twice a year with my grandparents - and in the last 5 years (since I have been married) I have only been once or twice - but the boys and I got to go a few weeks ago - and I realized it was what my life was missing! (Is that dramatic enough for you!)

When I see people driving, pulling their boat behind them I think, "I hate you - I want to be you." It was just a quick trip with the wonderful Thomas' - we were only on the boat for about 15 minutes and I didn't get a chance to ski or really tube or anything - but it was just enough to make me happy and solidify what I already knew - I love to boat, I love the water, I love the air, I love the beautiful scenery - I love everything about it!

On a side note - for any of you boaters out there - check out Brock's life jacket - it is a new design - "Coast Guard Approved" - it was awesome! He swims in it great and it is so comfortable and it doesn't hit their chin or anything - the only catch is they have to be 30 lbs - sorry Noah :(

Both the boys really loved the boat. Noah would only cry when the boat stopped - he loved to sit right on the bow (like Leo in Titanic) and have the wind in his face.

Pictures

I finally went and got the boy's pictures taken at JC Penny's - they are fast and cheap (notice how I didn't say good!) It was supposed to be Brock's two-year-old pictures and I got some taken of Noah just because we were there.

The photographer was HORRIBLE! He was this 18 year old boy that stood there holding the camera and said, "Brock, stand on the X, fold your arms, look at me and smile." I said, "um... two year olds don't really respond to that kind of direction, how about we do _____?" He kept saying, "I don't know, we don't really do that kind of stuff." I was so frustrate I was almost in tears. Brock is so dang cute (I think) and it broke my heart not to get a good two year old picture. Since it was HIS photo shoot I got one for free.

This was the best... lame!

I got two of them together - he wanted Brock to hold Noah for the pose... um... no. Hello - Noah crawls, Brock is 2. That would not work. I had to pose them and get them to look and smile. Pathetic - there is a reason I have not jumped on the "momphotog" bandwagon.

On the other hand I got some good ones of Noah, so I feel bad being so negative. Except for he didn't get any of Noah smiling - which he smiles ALL THE TIME - so... come on! And these weren't even Noah's pictures. But they were pretty precious so I had to get some.

I complained after to the manager (which I normally NEVER do - I usually very passive) - and she was like, "oh I am sorry that is too bad."

My wife

This is Jason, Jamie's wife. I rarely check her blog; usually to make sure she isn't giving away too much important information. I'm positive this is the only post I'll ever make on it and she doesn't know I'm doing this so please don't tell her. I simply needed to make everyone aware of how much I love and respect everything that she does for me.


My wife is everyting I wish I was and certainly the only good thing about me. We only have two things in common, our fierce independence and an ability to talk about the gospel. Dispite the lack of mutual interests she always makes time for me to engage in my hobbies and always finds the courage to engage in her's independent of my support, for which I am sorry. She is more intelligent than she gives herself credit for and usually wins all of our gospel discussions. She is kind and thoughful of others. She is constantly giving of herself and I can't ever recall one complaint she may bear consistently, or any complaint for that matter.


She raises two extrememly energic boys pretty much by herself. I don't get home unitl 5 and they go to bed at 8. Add some time for dinner and it should be obvious that I only have enough time to teach them bad habits like hitting each other or tripping each other. My boys are clean and healthy. They are obedient and extremely smart. They love to read books and sing songs and are so friendly with everyone. She has done all of this while making sure they get exposed to the outside world through walks and duck pond trips and journeys up the canyon. They can tell you stories about the gospel and know how to take the sacrament. One of Brock's favorite books is the bible and he often wants to read scriptures. She is the best mother I could want for my children.


I am a difficult man to live with. I am extremely intelligent and worse, I know it. I am independent and stubborn. I am also commonly angry about something or someone. Dispite all this, she loves me. I honestly feel her love and know that is supports me. To think someone as precious and important as her could love someone as insignificant and recluse as me gives me hope and a conviction to do better. She is everything I am not and everything Christ wants from us. As many have read she is wiling to admit her shortcomings and as she didn't post, her loss of faith in the face of our trials is never as severe as she claims. She is strong like Oak and nobly erect in the face of the destroyer. I know I married up and I'm constantly afraid that my good fortune hinders her; like I stole her away from a much better man who has many more important things to do and could have used her support and love for better things.


The truth is I needed her more. She is everything to me. I'm so afraid she'll wake up one day and realize she can do better. Her love has seen me through my darkest days. I can not remember life before her and I do not want to think of a life without her. The friends and family who read this blog are lucky to know her and have her in their lives. She is a well of compassion, strength, and clean living. A true friend in a societal sea of deceit and banalities. I am forever blessed to have this time with her. I miss her when she is gone from me. I am more at peace when she is with me. I love her and I hope that you do too because she is special. Once in a lifetime moment special. A breeze that comforts you; a warmth you internalize rather than just feel before it moves on into another fleeting moment. I love her.

Some humble pie

"The trial of faith basically serves four functions. 1) it determines if a goal you are seeking is truly a desire; 2)it lets you learn if you are really dedicated to the Lord; 3)it is a means of purging you so that you become clean; pure, and spotless - literally free from blood and sins of the world; and 4) it humbles you and brings you to the realization that you cannot rely on the "arm of the flesh."

- Drawing on the Powers of Heaven

Grant Von Harrison

I actually own this book but have not read it in years - and then this quote was quoted in Sacrament meeting - wow - guess I failed that trial of my faith. Good thing for repentance... right!

I know it is sometimes hard to see the forest through the trees - but I always knew the forest was there. For those of you wondering (and could not read into my sarcasm), I never really lost my faith, I thought I made that clear. I have always known everything would turn out ok - but sometimes I just want it on my timeline and not the Lords - big mistake. I hope I am not the only one that falls into that trap sometimes?? It is funny writing these two blog posts while simultaneously my friend Ashley is writing post about her undying faith in her Heavenly Father - as he has recently asked them to go through hard trials. She has always amazed me and continues too. On any other given week I could pronounce the same undying faith - but I guess on weeks like this is when it really counts.

I am disappointed in myself that I gave into my self-indulgence to accuse my Heavenly Father of not caring or not keeping his promises - nothing could be further from the truth. I had mistakenly thought that I had had my trial of faith and that I was awaiting the blessings that follow - so when they did not come- I thought I was abandoned... not realizing it was another trial of my faith, and I am sure there will be another and another and yet another - until I get it right. And for that I am grateful; he lets us continue to try... how merciful, because I sure deserve to be "struck down."

So here is the summery: I know Heavenly Father lives, I know he loves me, I know he has a plan for me, I know his plan will ultimately lead to happiness, I know he listens to me and cares about me, and is involved in my life. I am just not sure what that plan is, I am not sure if his plan is the same as my plan, and I am currently nervous that there are a lot more bumps in the rode before we get the the aforementioned "happiness". But that is what life is right?

Faith

Warning - this is a negative post, as I am in a negative mood - just trying to stay true to myself.

There is a scripture (don't want to find the reference right now) that says something to the affect of "quench not the spirit". When you re in a very faithful/spiritual period in your life you may wonder, as I have, "who would quench the spirit? Why would you ever not want the spirit to speak to you?" Well I am beginning to understand why the warning is given, because right now I know I am quenching the spirit - and willingly too. (Just to make things clear.)

For me I have found that the desire comes when I feel like I have been betrayed by the spirit. Without getting into too much personal detail - When, after prayers, study, fasting, temple going, obedience, and a lot of pondering, I feel as though I have had an actual conversation with my Heavenly Father, and I know EXACTLY what he wants me to do, I know what the terms are, I know what the blessings are, I know what has lead me up to this point, I have received answers to my prayers, and I just know. And this knowledge gets reconfirmed time and time again. And then... nothing. I don't get it, I don't get the blessing I thought for sure I was going to get, I don't get the opportunity I felt was right, and I feel like the rug has been pulled out from under me, and I feel completely betrayed. I am left wondering, "what happened? Where did I go wrong? Did I actually feel the spirit prompting me to do those things or was it just thoughts of a "frenzied mind"? Do I even know what the spirit feels like? Have I ever known? Does Heavenly Father even listen? or answer?" The answer to my questions are always yes, which I think is worse. To know that I really did feel the spirit and it really did speak to me and it really did tell me to do that thing - but I was just not going to get the blessing I thought I was going to get. Then I just feel lied to and betrayed.

So today, as I have been asking myself these questions and trying to figure it out, I have felt the spirit try to tell me (what I already know), that God does love me, that he is aware of me, that he has a plan for me, and that everything will work out for my good on His time. But you know what? I do not want to hear that right now, for now I just want to be mad and say, "what the heck! We had a deal." I guess I want to "quench the spirit."

I am fully aware that this attitude will get me no where, so please NO comments about it - I just wanted to vent for a minute.

Told you it would be negative.