Noah's Birthday Parties

Noah's birthday parties came a little late this year... sorry Boo (that is what we call him), life just kept getting in the way.

Grandma and Grandpa Herbert couldn't make it to his party so they came a few days earlier with their own cake and present and we had an impromptu birthday party.

It was a cupcake-car-cake. He loved it!

And they got him this wonderful table and chairs. He loves it (and Brock too).

And he loves the cars. (he is a sucker for cars)

This year I broke down and made an Elmo cake. Both my boys have LOVED Elmo from about 8 months on. But I never wanted to make an Elmo cake because it was too... pathetic. But I like to make cakes that mean something and Brock is always easy.. just make it into a ball. So for Noah, I just had to do his most favorite thing... Elmo.

Here is my CUTEST two year old. I could just eat him up!

He got some great presents. An art kit from Grandma and Grandpa Hanna, some clothes from Katie, a loopy bead thingy from us, and ....

the cutest cowboy outfit and horse ever! Made by his Aunt Ashley I might add. (You will see this outfit again during Halloween... nice to have something checked off my to do list)

Blowing out the candles.

Some shots of the party goers...

The one with uncle Michael - has Noah doing the "I am two" thing.

Mom and Dad with the Birthday Boy!

And a sibling shot. Confession: This is the FIRST picture I have taken with the three kids together... kinda sad, but not really.

Dear Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

I wrote a blog post regarding my annoyance with eating. At the end I said, "when do all my kids go to school?" Then I got this comment:

Anonymous said...
Your kids never all go to school if you just keep having them . . .

September 11, 2010 11:55 PM

I don't know who you are or what exactly you mean - I find your comment to be hostile - however it is factual. If someone would continue to have many children, they will never all be in school at the same time. So, if for some reason you are stating a fact, then thanks for pointing that out.

But if I am right, and you are trying to make me feel guilty for the choices Jason and I have made regarding our family - thanks, but no thanks. I had actually intended on writing this post explaining our choices in having three children so close together. But in the moment I feel like simply saying: I do not have to explain anything to you. And if my choices bother or offend you, please stop reading my blog. I find joy in my role as a wife and mother, and I am going to have more children.

Quick little happenings

Our Nephew, Sam, got blessed - we were all in our Sunday best... so we had to grab a family pic.

I keep taking these hoping that ONE time all three will be looking and smiling... probably won't happen... but a mamma can hope.

And my sista and me with our babies

Megan loves to hug things when she sleeps.

This is how the shot looked to us... dark and sweet

Then I put on the flash to grab a clear shot of that sweet face.

Brock found this first pet. He named him Rollie. I have never seen Brock so sweet and careful with something. He found him at the park one day and very carefully brought him home. He loved his bug. He told us often. He took really good care of it. It was so endearing for Jason and me to watch Brock love and take care of something all on his own.

We were all sad he had to leave us so soon. We miss you Rollie.

Boating

Probably one of my most favorite things to do is boating. Which is weird because I never get to go. My family doesn't own one, I grew up just going about once a year when my grandparents would take the whole extended family to Flaming George. But it is one of my most favorite things and one of my goals in life is to own a boat.

Anyways, I asked my grandparents to take my family boating before summer ended and they agreed. We also had Katie and Audrey along as well (My sister and niece). It was a lot of fun.

My men - we left Megan at home. She would have been NO fun

The boys getting ready to watch me ski. Brock was VERY concerned about me being in the water. He thought is was very dangerous and did not want me to fall and get hurt.

Our flag holder... Miss Audrey

Life jackets on kids are funny

Noah really wanted to get in the lake. From the moment we pulled up to it he said, "I need to get in water". So we threw him in with me - he was SHOCKED at how cold it was - way funny.

Brock, however, had no desire to get in. But once we were home he said his favorite part was swimming in the lake.

Auge on the tube

Surprisingly both my kids wanted to tube.

EVEN Brock. Here is me and him getting ready...

And tubing... at about 5 miles an hour...woohoo!

Me and Noah

Brock with his Great Grandpa Brown

This is actually the same life jacket I wore when I was Noah's age. He actually looks a lot like me in this picture. I have an almost identical picture somewhere... I may try and find it. I sure hope safety standards haven't changed in the last 20 years :)

Katie and Audrey

And one of the fam.

And if anyone can tell, my kids were in DESPERATE need of some hair cuts. Some of you may have notcied Noah's cut in his previous "birthday" post. I thought I liked my boys' hair long, now that it is short I can't stand to look at the pictures of long hair. I think I will keep them short for a while.

Noah is 2

Wow! To be honest I feel like Noah has been two for quite a while. Developmentally he is far past where Brock was a two. Plus, Noah's birthday (and due date) always sneak up on me - I think, "oh his birthday isn't until fall that is a long ways away" and then BOOM there is it. We haven't had a party for him yet - but I still wanted the day to be special. So I organized a few of his favorite things.

#1 - Noah loves to jump. He thinks the whole world is a trampoline. He just jumps up and down on the floor... strange. So I took him to Kangaroo Zoo in American Fork. He loves it, and two is a great age to go because they can finally do all the things themselves.



I invited some of our best friends, Currens and the Braleys, and both the older girls were in school so we made it an all boys trip - which was great since it was Noah's birthday.


Plus one cute little girl!



Me and the birthday boy. We also took Brock to Kangaroo Zoo for his second birthday. Click here to see me with that two year old or here to see the whole event.





A failed attempt at getting a cute picture of my handsome two year old.


Then we did a special mom and Noah trip to the pool. My mom watched Brock and Megan so I could have some much needed alone time with Noah. Being the middle child right now, he rarely gets the alone time he deserves, I am going to start making sure this happens more often, it was so much fun.











Then we went to an ice cream shop for dessert with my family (thanks mom). Ice cream is Noah's favorite dessert, he likes it best cone style, but sadly they didn't have any, but he will take it any way he can get it.




I absolutely adore Noah. He makes me smile and laugh everyday. I am working on a "10 reasons I am in love with Noah" post - I have the ten things, I am just trying to get pictures of all of it. Remember Brocks?

updates

Thanks to all those who prayed for me :) We woke up this morning and Super Why was on at the usual 8:00 hour. I checked on line and they are going back to the original schedule. I am thrilled.

And after many days of hard work - I have got my milk back. I doubled my calorie count, ensured I drank 70 oz of water a day, and pumped every hour (including the middle of the night). My milk has returned... hallelujah!

I am furious

This is so stupid to be so upset over, but I am actually crying I am so mad.

PBS changed their morning kids schedule. haha, I know how dumb that sounds to be so upset, but it is a huge part of our day. They added this new (stupid) show, about the Cat and the Hat - I hate it. My kids' favorite show is Super Why and they moved it to 1:00 (their nap time). They watch TV from 8:00-9:00, which used to be Super Why and then Dinosaur Train, so I can shower, get ready, clean, and feed Megan. But now it is The Cat and the Hat and Curious George during that time and my kids won't watch them.

I am literally so upset. And again, I know that in the grand scheme of things this matters very very little. But it is important to me right now. And I just needed to yell at someone right now, so I will yell at me blog. AHHH!

Enjoyable, necessary, luxury, inconvenience

Those four word describe my evolution with eating over my lifetime.

Once upon a time eating used to be enjoyable - I only ate when I wanted to and most often for fun, social situations. I ate out a lot and ate really yummy things.

Then I got pregnant and for the first time eating became a necessity. I ate because I HAD to. I had to learn about the cues my body was giving me about what to eat, how to eat, and when to eat.

Then I started bearing these children and eating something yummy became quite the luxury. I would find quiet moments throughout the day or during nap times to make myself a yummy snack or lunch (just for me) and sit down and enjoy every piece of it. I could no longer just go into the kitchen whenever I wanted or needed to - if I did I would soon here the running of little feet and the question, "mom, what are you eating? Open your mouth - let me see it?" I looked foreword each day to my quiet time with my meals.

Now eating has become a total inconvenience. There is NO good time to do it - there is always something else I should be doing. I hate having to think about it, prepare it, actually eat it, and then clean it up. I am getting weak and losing weight fast, and yesterday I lost my milk. I have to change my attitude. I thought, "I will just eat when my kids eat, we will all sit down and eat together." As luck would have it at EVERY meal yesterday Megan would either need to eat, be put down, change her diaper, or just be fussy. I didn't get one meal with them. Then today I sat down to eat breakfast with the boys and my blood was going a million miles an hour. My mind kept saying, "the boys are being good and distracted, you could be unloading the dishwasher, changing the laundry, cleaning up the mess you just made by making breakfast, making beds, or finishing getting ready." The LAST thing I wanted to do was sit down and eat, ESPECIALLY since the boys were just sitting there eating. I felt like it was a total waste of time.

Once day I hope the list goes full circle and I will be able to enjoy eating again and maybe even go to lunch every once in a while. When do all my kids go to school?