Merry Christmas!

Keeping With Tradition

We frosted sugar cookies tonight at Nana's house.

She's been using the same cookie cutters for decades.  And the cookies are always frosted in the same colors: green trees, yellow stars and pink bells.  Well, unless we decide to get creative and then the colors and shapes get changed up a little.

 

Noah followed directions and frosted his bell pink...

...with a LOT of sprinkles.

And after all of that diligent frosting, he simply couldn't resist sampling the sweetness.

Continuing traditions like this one are made even more fun now that there's a little one to enjoy it with.  I was grateful as well that, thanks to Nana, we had cookies to leave for Santa on Christmas Eve.

A Night Out!

On Friday night we went to the BFBA Christmas party.  Oh, how this mama needed a night away, especially after having Nate out of town for three days.  We left the boys in the very good care of Nana, Tina and Jason.  I wasn't the least bit concerned.  How things change with child #2!

It was a fun evening, as usual.  I look forward to going every year.  Nate has great coworkers, and they sure know how to plan a good time.  There's always something a little different at each year's party.  This year it was a photo booth. 

Wow, there were a lot of silly pictures taken.  What a great date night for the two of us.  Can't wait for next year!

Celebrating TWO!

Saturday afternoon the family all came together for Noah's birthday.  Oh, we had a great time.  It was pretty low-key, given the side effects we're experiencing with a newborn.  But I'm so glad we celebrated.  Noah has been a pretty patient guy since his little brother arrived, and he was definitely due for some extra attention and focus on him.

Before the celebrating began we took the traditional 'kiss sandwich' picture that started on last year's birthday. 

I hope the day Noah doesn't absolutely love a kiss sandwich is far, far away.

After that, it was all about food, presents, playing and cake.  Every single gift Noah received was perfect for him and something he loved: trucks, blocks, BYU and SF Giants clothes, and books all put a smile on his face.  He's also pretty happy to have a 'tar' (guitar) like Daddy does.

He was even excited to have a new winter coat, thanks to Nate.

I didn't really want a theme for the birthday, so I decided to have Cookie Monster and a few of his friends accent our party and decorations.

Just little bits made it not so obnoxious.  Noah is a big fan of Sesame Street, especially Cookie.

That cake was fun, but, wow, it took forever to pipe the frosting.  A typical late newborn night became even later as I just kept covering the cake in what looked like blue shag carpet.  But the finished product turned out, and I really was happy to do it for my sweet guy.

Noah did a great job blowing out his candles one at a time and didn't waste any time digging into his cake.

I don't know yet how I feel about my boys' birthdays being less than two weeks apart, but one thing is for sure: every year we'll be squeezing in a lot of celebrating during the busy holiday season. It sure was fun celebrating Noah turning 2.  Can't wait to see what this third year will bring!

Seeing Santa

Noah's birthday on Saturday started out with a pancake breakfast at church.  He definitely ate his fair share of pancakes, and then waited patiently for Santa to arrive.  We had a great time getting to know our new ward members.  There are so many people to meet still.

The next day at church a lady was telling me that she just happened to be looking in our direction when Santa walked in the room, and Noah immediately caught her attention with his big eyes looking at Santa with excitement.  She said it was 'magical' and how every kid should look at Christmastime. 

Noah was definitely excited but also a little reluctant at first.  All it took was telling him that Santa had candy.  After that he was ready to wait in line with the other kids and climb up on Mrs. Claus's lap.  I wasn't planning on squeezing Luke into the picture, but he was being such a good boy and it worked out.

It seemed like seconds after saying good-bye to Santa we turned around and saw this:

Silly boy.  He thinks the off the shoulder look is pretty funny.  We do too, but we try to mask our smiles and laughter a bit, so we're not encouraging the behavior too much.

Two Year Pictures

We've been a bit busier than usual the past couple of weeks.  I was worried that I wouldn't have the time or energy to squeeze in some pictures of Noah as a new two year old.  But we found a small window of time and both the weather and the big boy cooperated.  I will say taking pictures of a busy little one by myself was definitely a challenge.  But, thankfully, we still got some cute pictures.

This one is my favorite:

But this one is a close second. He's very into the shoulder shrug lately:

 Who am I kidding? I pretty much love all of them of this sweet guy!

 

Two Years Old

Noah is TWO!

Height: 36 inches (88%)

Weight: 29 pounds, 6 ounces (68%)

Head circumference: 50 centimeters (83%)

Every time I think that we're in the 'ideal' stage with him, something changes and it gets even better.  We are having so much fun with this guy.

He is an awesome combination of smart, silly, and independent.

And, wow, he can make us laugh.

Noah is still a great, not very picky, eater.  He's very into dipping these days, and it's not just french fries in ketchup.  He dips bananas in oatmeal, toast in yogurt and grilled cheese in tomato soup.  We hear 'dip' requested a lot at meal times.

We love that Noah is such a talker.  He uses the words yes, yeah and yep interchangeably, and sometimes one right after the other.  Noah used to say, "Thank you Mama," to anyone he was thanking, but now he's just shortened it to "Ah Mama"  Everyone gets, "Ah Mama."  I'm working on it.  When he's made a mistake Noah is quick to say, "I sorry," and give an I'm sorry hug.  It's pretty sweet.

Noah continues to love books, especially Curious George.  That's been a blessing because just about any time Luke needs feeding we sit down with a big pile of books and start reading.  He'll sit for 45 minutes sometimes and read with me.  I think it's all of the time we've spent with books that has helped him to learn most of the letters of the alphabet.  Numbers are coming a little slower - - he only knows 2 and 3.

Oh how this guy loves to play.  By far his favorite place is the park.  Noah asks if we can go just about every day.  He's very into garbage trucks and fire trucks.

I love when he gets down on the ground with his toys.

He always watches for school buses, vans and trailers when we're driving in the car. 

Noah loves the temple.  We've been singing "I Love to See the Temple," to him at bedtime since he was tiny.  Maybe that's how it started.  He points out the temple when we're on the freeway, looks for pictures of the temple in books or on the computer, asks us to sing the "temple song" a LOT, and the first thing he says when church is over on Sundays is, "Empul? Empul?"  So we visit the temple pretty regularly.  I think my favorite though is that he knows "Oh-Nigh" (Moroni) is on top of the temple and points it out in pictures or when he's at the temple.

This kid loves getting and giving hugs and kisses.  He is a pretty tender guy, and gives kisses to his bear and characters in the books we're reading.  For a two year old, he's also quite patient.  Lately he's heard the words, "just a minute," a lot, and, for the most part, he's content to wait.

Year two has been more fun than we ever could have imagined. It has had it's challenges as well, but we are so grateful that this whirlwind of happiness is a part of our family!