Friday, December 4, 2015

Holiday craziness!

So I've learned photography has 'seasons' and just before the holidays is it!!  I have been SO busy with doing photos this past month & while I'm grateful to have lots of business, I'm looking forward to things settling down a bit so I can focus on Christmas for my boys!

Noah was a trooper when I had to scope out a new beach for a photo session.  Noah is my non-messy kid & wasn't crazy about the sand on his feet, so we stationed ourselves on a towel & pulled out of ABCs!

My daily errands become a little funnier with this booger in tow!  He won't wear hats for me, but insisted on trying on all the 'old lady' hats while we were shopping.  He'd just hide his face under the giant hats then exclaim, "Surprise!"  Simple entertainment at its finest!

Last week, we woke to chilly weather, two snuggly boys in their Christmas jammies, and sweet moments like this.  Noah has really started to mimic Connor and enjoy being around him lately.  He still has his moments where he wants to take everything Connor has, but they still have sweet occurrences like this.

Side note:  It NEVER fails.  The days my children opt to nap a marathon nap, we have plans to be somewhere!  When I desperately need him to nap long, he'll be up after an hour!  Why, oh, why!  This child was in a deep sleep smothered in his pile of stuffed animals & I had to peel him out of bed, so we wouldn't miss all of Thanksgiving!   

Last weekend was Noah's 2nd wedding.  We had to sneak him out of Auntie Katie's wedding when he got squirmy, so we weren't sure how he'd do at this wedding.  To our surprise, he did great!  He may have exclaimed, "Airpane" as one cruised overhead during the ceremony, or shouted out "Fish" for another goldfish cracker, but for the most part, he did really well!  The bow tie and coordinating outfit with Daddy made me so happy!



All weekend Noah asked to see "Seenta," so once Connor was home, we planned a trip to go see him.  We thought for sure Noah would be excited to see him, but freak out the moment we sat him on Santa's lap.

 Santa was so so sweet & took the time to talk to Connor.  C started out kind of timid, but came out of his shell pretty quick.

When it was Noah's turn to join, he plopped right on Santa's knee & even flashed a smile for the photographer.  Matt snapped this one fast since he wasn't sure how long Noah would last.
On the way out, Noah exclaimed, "Fun with Santa!"  The boys were pretty easy this year! :) 

C's b'day!

Since my b'day never fell on a school day ever, I wasn't familiar with how much effort/expense goes into a child's birthday during the school year.  Connor's birthday fell on a Wednesday this year & I was a fool to think we could celebrate it 'simply' this year.  Ha!  I thought we could just do cupcakes with his class and something special that night, but my sweet boy said his birthday wouldn't be the same without a family party.  So his birthday festivities went on all week...

The weekend before the fair came to town (literally 5 minutes from our house), so we thought we'd start the b'day weekend off with a bang!  The boys had fun on ump-teen rides, while Matt & I realized that we aren't as young as we used to be & found some rides rough on our stomachs!

Since we've pretty much done it all with birthday parties, C & I decided picking a few friends and going to see a movie would be a fun alternative.  Although after movie tickets, snacks for all kids, and money to play arcade games afterwards turned into the cost of a full fledged party, it was really nice to have it low key & more intimate.  Connor's buddy, Michael, wasn't pictured, but he made it late after his morning soccer game.  The little stooges in theater had fun watching the new Charlie Brown movie.

After the movie 'party,' we headed home to our family get together.  We drafted up a fun 'how well do you know Connor' game and I think C loved being the center of attention for the game.

Then the morning of C's real birthday, we had to make it feel extra special as well!

We had the traditional birthday cupcake for breakfast before school.

I dropped C off at school, ran to pick up cupcakes at Publix, ran home to get myself presentable, ran back to McDonald's to pick up a Happy Meal, and met C for lunch at school with his class.  Noah may have eaten half of C's lunch and caused me to dump 1/2 the cupcakes upside down on the way, but we just rolled with it!  C was proud to have his baby brother there.

We were even allowed to stay after lunch to have recess with Connor!  Noah was SO thrilled to have Connor and his friends following him around on the playground.  Connor loved having us there!  It was a glimpse into my future with Noah in school & I can totally see Noah being the kid that hops out of the car & says, "Bye!" as he heads into school without me.  Noah could have easily stayed at school for the rest of the day without me!  

We topped off the night with a trip to Chuck E Cheese.  It was a marathon week & I can sadly, yet happily say his birthday is now over!

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Another year gone by...

It's a rare moment where I'm caught up on editing and I have some free time while Noah naps!  I wanted to make sure I got a blog post in for my sweet birthday boy.  Tomorrow is the day.  My little boy is slipping closer and closer to being too grown up & 'cool' for all this little boy stuff.



My gentle giant may want to do activities on his own more than he wants me to join him now a days, but I'll still hold onto the mornings where he will still kiss me at parent drop off before going into school, or will hold my hand anywhere we go.  We still giggle together anytime he toots or anytime Noah does something crazy.  He is still my favorite snuggle buddy.  I cherish our one on one time where we can just talk & he is more responsible than some adults I know.  I love watching him grow, but hate it all at the same time.

So here's to cake for breakfast, new Imaginex superhero toys to play pretend with, video games to dominate, and cupcakes & a Happy Meal with his classmates tomorrow!

Thursday, November 12, 2015

The latest

So here's what we've been up to lately...

We had a change of pace in the morning where we weren't giving Michael a ride to school since they were out of town and our neighbor, Lydia, needed a ride instead.  It was so funny to see the dynamics change in the car with a girl around my boys.  Lydia hopped in the car all chatty & C tried to discuss Fantasy Football stats and NFL players with her to quickly realize she had no clue what he was talking about.  They finally found common ground talking about AR books from school & it was so cute to see my 1st grader giving his kindergartener buddy tips on how to read, as if he was in kindergarten so very long ago.  We had lots of giggles in the car that morning.


This kid really couldn't be any funnier.  He's a mimic-er and makes me sing a variation of songs in the car now (a good mix of the "Wheels on the Bus," "Patty Cake," "ABCs," "Open, Shut Them," "Itsy Bitsy Spider," and "Mr. Sun").  He does the hand motions and sings the words along with me.  If he's not making me sing, he shouts out, "Animal sounds," and waits for me to name random animals, so he can tell me what the animals say.  It's easy entertainment, but tends to grow old quickly!

This kid still loves his ABCs all day and every day.  After his 2 year old checkup this week, the Dr. was shocked & stated that Noah is at the level of a 4-5 year old in VPK.  It's great to hear as a parent, but still makes me laugh inside.

Then, C had a day off of school yesterday & was finally able to make a fishing trip down to Papa's trailer.  He was up bright & early and was wiped out when he got home just before bed time, but boy-oh-boy did he have a good time!  He brought home a list of all the critters they saw during their day and all the fish he caught (22 total)!  Big thanks to Papa, Nana, and Uncle Pete for making C's day!!!

Countdown is on until C's 7th birthday celebrations are underway.  More photos to come!

Friday, November 6, 2015

Sometimes...

Sometimes...just sometimes...I take my camera out with my kids in hopes of getting just a few photos of them.

I knew I needed to get a few photos now, because 

1. The crazy rush of Christmas photo sessions is about to start

2. I opted to not buy school pictures of C since I knew I could save the money & do it myself

3. I am way overdue for cute pictures of my own boys together

4. I know I have a tiny time frame before C's front teeth grow back in and I wanted to always remember his toothless grin

I only had tonight open this week to get some pictures & with the time change, I knew I needed to get pictures done before 5:45pm.  I figured Matt would be there to help me wrangle the boys and keep tabs on Noah, but when he got called into a late meeting, I decided to tackle to mission alone.

While I couldn't get Noah to smile with Connor, I still managed to catch them being super cute together along our nature trail walk.  Noah didn't fall through any of the large openings along the boardwalk into the swamp and C was the sweetest, most patient child the whole time, so it was definitely a success!

(Noah refuses to hold anyone's hand 99% of the time, but he will hold C's hand.  They are becoming best buddies.)


Oh, the weird, silly words I have to say during pictures with C to avoid the cheesy face & get his real smile to come through!

My almost 7 year old.  He's my little boy one moment, then looks so grown up the next.  It's a very strange transitional age he's in right now.

Scoping out the fish and turtles, while I pray the moment I try to step back to get a few pictures, Noah doesn't fall through the huge openings into the lake!

Love these little moments.

C was so proud that he could carry Noah all by himself.  It would have been an opportune time to get Noah to smile next to C, but...nope.

Oh, but I got one smile.  Looking and smiling is way too much to expect at this age.

We ended the night at Chickfila and it was pretty close to perfect.  The boys played beautifully together, C helped Noah up through all the steps/tunnels, and I sat and watched them together.  

It was a great night with my boys!

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

One funny kid

The last few days I've been walking around telling Matt how we have got to video Noah more or I have got to write down his funny, adorable antics, so we don't ever forget how Noah is at this age.

So here is my best attempt to document the Noah-isms.

Noah will get hurt and ask himself, "You okay?!!"
I think it rooted from him falling a lot when he started walking and I continued to reassure him, telling him, "You're okay," or asking him if he was okay.  It's just too funny to see him wipe out, you brace yourself for possible tears, and he just stops and asks himself, "You okay?!"

This two year old phase is sooooo much easier with a talking toddler this time around.  I can ask him to use his words and he'll try to say it, or I'll ask him, and he'll respond with a loud and proud, "Yesssss!"

While Connor never ever tried candy and still is confident he doesn't like chocolate or soda (even though he's never really had it), Noah is quite the opposite.  While I stand firmly on the no soda thing, Noah will eat just about any candy.  When we were trick or treating, half of his candy was eaten before we made it back to the house.  Some of his fave candies are "pops" and "M's."


Noah repeats everything, especially if you say it with a tone.  We've had practice being extra careful with using "good words" all the time with Connor growing up, so we're accustomed to not saying words like "stupid" or "butt" or definitely no curse words.  Well, Noah has the tendency to drive you crazy at times.  Just this morning I was trying to wrap a present box to use as a photo prop for a Christmas session this weekend and I asked Noah to not touch since it had to be perfect.  He leaned forward and was taunting me, acting like he was going to touch the wrapping paper, and would look right at me the whole time.  When I moved him, he decided to pick up my tape roll and stretch out a good 3 feet of it before I noticed.  When I looked up, I said, "Oh crap! Oh my gosh!"

Then the pistol exclaimed, "Cap! Oh by doshhhhh!"

You just can't help but laugh at this child.

Noah is just now getting to the age where he likes playing with other kids, especially his big brother.  Every night at bath time, he runs to Connor and says, "Bath with me?" and continues to ask over and over until Connor agrees.

When we drop Connor and his buddy, Michael, off at school each morning, we drive away and Noah waves to the window and says, "Buh bye Dah-dah.  Buh bye Bi-cul."

At random times during the day at home, Noah will ask, "Fun with Ella?"  It's his way of asking if he can play with Michael's little sister, Ella, down the street.  He's learning to say the kids' names on our street and its so cute to see them come to the door to ask if Connor can come out and play, and Noah goes to get his shoes, so he can go play with him.

Speaking of shoes, Noah is the shoe patrol.  If we go outside, he makes sure we all have our shoes on.  When we come into the house, he will not stop telling you, "Shoes off," until we all take our shoes off.


When we go over a bridge, Noah will exclaim, "Papa boat," as we look outside to see if we see any boats like Papa's.

Noah says a lot of things pretty clearly, but continues to call chips, "poop," and Connor is "Dah-dah."

Noah will come stand below me and ask, "Up with Mommy?"  Can't say that will ever get old. :)

Noah knows how to go potty on his frog potty.  He just chooses when he wants to and how much he wants to go.  I have begun to promise him a sticker which gets him to use the potty, but my biggest hurdle with him is that Noah has the ability to push out a tiny bit of potty instead of letting it all out.  He will go potty, cheer "Yay," pick up his frog potty to help dump it into the real potty to flush it, and says, "More."  He then sits down and does it over and over.  He loves the cheering part and pouring his potty into the big toilet, so he just wants to keep doing it.  Yippee doo.  We'll see if it gets easier!

Noah continues to be crazy obsessed with the alphabet.  He knows his alphabet inside and out, his letter sounds, and can spell 4 words--cat, dog, bee, and Noah.

Noah is really easy and predictable at bed time.  He will grab his "kee-kee," turn on his white noise, run into the kitchen to grab a snack, run back into his room, wait for Matt and I to put him in bed, and he chats in his bed for a few minutes, then goes to sleep.  I thought life was going to get really difficult when he climbed out of his crib a while back, but I think he really enjoys his crib now.  He prefers to have a pile of stuffed animals, his ABC foam puzzle, and his ABC book in bed with him too.

Every morning when I go into his room, he says the same thing.  He does a role call to see where everyone is.  "Mommy, Daddy, Dah-dah?" and then he looks onto the floor where he launched each letter from his foam letter puzzle onto the carpet & says in the funniest big man voice, "Alllll dah wettttttttters."  It's literally groundhog day--every single morning.


I could probably go on awhile on all the funny things Noah does and says, but I'll stop here for now, so I can enjoy some quiet time while the little Monster naps!

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Happy Halloween!

This is my 1st Halloween away from my C.  I was not looking forward to it!  We decided to make it exciting still and planned a Halloween block party with all the neighbor kids.  It was a small get together of about 20 people that turned in a large gathering of about 40 people with a bounce house in our driveway!  

The morning started with C waking up and exclaiming, 
"My tooth is missing!"
We found it in his bed, so somehow it came out in the night.  He was SO excited to sport a new smile & hear his new lisp when he spoke!  My cute little Cat-in-the-Hat was ready for his Storybook parade at school with his cute new grin!

As I had plans to run to a few stores after I got C to school, the bounce house company decided to deliver the bounce house for the party a little early.  As soon as Noah saw the bounce house up in the driveway, I knew my plan for running errands was going to be postponed.  


Once the big kids were all home from school, it didn't take long for them to all migrate over after seeing the bounce house.  The party wasn't set to start until 5:30pm, but the bouncing started around 4pm.  It took some convincing to get the kids to take a break & get their costumes on.  
(These are most of our neighbor kids in nearby houses.  I tried to get a picture of the kids in costume before the party got hoppin'.  By mid-party, we had about 25 kids here.)

My sweet Mario & Luigi!
It was a miracle that Noah kept his hat on.  I wasn't going to push hard for a smile on top of that!

Connor and his best neighbor buddy, Michael

Another cute neighbor, Alyssa.

The Falcones--our neighbors from the other side of the community--in their home made "Nightmare before Christmas" costumes.

Heather & Ella (Noah's little buddy & Michael's little sister).
*Noah will be playing in the morning & just exclaim randomly, "Fun with Ella?"  They're only about a month apart in age & are starting to play well together.

Bowser & Yoshi
 (I had hopes of a family shot with our Mario & Luigi to complete our ensemble, but I didn't want to pull the boys away from bouncing).

I looked up some last minute easy games for oodles of kids that afternoon & found "Mummy racing." I may have cleaned out my toilet paper stash, but the game was a hit with the kids!

And...the coolest Nana & Papa that ever lived.

Friday, October 23, 2015

Nightly fishin'

There was a fabulous breeze, the fish were biting, snacks were yummy, and Aunt Kris was here!

It was a great night fishing!

(A blowfish and snapper combo at the start of our fishing evening)