Hernandez Family

{Four}

2012-01-03T00:01:00.000-08:00

Today I want to wish my handsome little man a

Happy 4th Birthday!

FOUR!

Where in the world has the time gone?

I cannot believe that when you wake up this morning, "your number will have changed from three to four".

When you were three, you learned to use the potty like a big boy, you decided you wanted to dress yourself,

you rode your bike all over the place, you moved to California, to your "new home", you made new friends and said goodbye for the first time to your first friends.

And have easily made new friends

You love all things lego, spiderman and transformers.

Your favorite meal/snack is noodles and you still love lots of fruits and veggies.

You are incredibly smart, funny, sassy and loving.

You keep us on our toes,

and we always look forward to what you'll say/do next!

I SO adore the young man you are becoming!

I look forward to all that the number four holds for us!

Happy 4th Birthday Boo Bear!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T08:02:00.000-08:00

Our Rock Star!

2011-01-02T22:30:00.000-08:00

It seems like just yesterday I was surrounded by friends and family at the hospital, all "patiently" awaiting the arrival of our little Noah James Hernandez. I still remember the very 1st time I held you, like it was yesterday.

You were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and instantly, my heart knew what unconditional love felt like.

Daddy and I enjoyed your many milestones as you learned and grew. {And we are still amazed & amused by you every single day}.

Now suddenly, you are 3 years old. THREE! Really? I can't believe it! Time has gone by so quickly. You, by far, are the single greatest accomplishment of my life. You are beautiful, wonderful, funny, sincere, caring, crafty and adventurous.

When you turned 1, I could hardly believe a year had already passed by.

When you turned 2, we celebrated with a trip to Disney World!

At 3, it was definitely time to party like the Rock Star you are!

You are pure boy, through and through! You love...

GETTING DIRTY

BEING SILLY

BEING CREATIVE

GETTING SWEATY

AND STOMPING IN THE MUD!

You are also HILARIOUS!

You are probably the funniest person I have ever met, and you bring joy and laughter to SO many people. In your short three years you have made your way into the hearts of many special people.

Right now, at three years old, you LOVE Toy Story.

Specifically Buzz Lightyear. You run around all day long pretending you are Buzz, I am Jessie and Daddy is Woody. We have many conversations that begin with you saying "Hey Jessie..." You melt my heart! You have such a big imagination.

I'm so proud to be your Mama! Thank you for the blessings you have brought into my life. I continue to learn so much from you everyday. I look forward to what THREE brings us!

WE love you Doodles, Happy 3rd Birthday!

Our Trip to the {Mini} Zoo

2010-11-15T00:01:00.000-08:00

You may remember from the last post that we were on a journey to the Zoo. Well, today's post finds you at the Zoo, with us! Noah LOVES animals, so he had a blast! Here's our story, in pictures...

"Hi, Welcome to the Zoo, let me show you around!"

Found a giant bug

"I'm ready for my close up, lady"

Good thing we came to visit, these animals were STARVING! heh

Noah thought it was awesome feeding the goats

He made sure they all shared

And then he tried to ration with them when he ran out....too funny

PawPaw Steve took pity and bought him more food

Then it was time to brush the goats....

...and brush the goats.....

at one point they actually started forming a line so that they could all get brushed, I'm not kidding!

Noah obliged, and brushed each and every goat

"Hey little guy, you like being brushed"

See, told ya, he's still brushing, and that's a different goat...

The line

last two customers of the day

I just thought this chicken was fancy, I like her "pants"

he had some feed in his pocket that he pulled out before we left....probably explains the goat line up earlier!

And I'm PROOOOUUUUD to be and AMERICAN!...

Bear

right as I snapped this picture Noah and I got attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes

"Hi Friend"

No matter where Noah stood, this little guy would run and stop right in front of him

We had to buy a BFF necklace set before we left


Turtle! Turtle!

We had a really fun time at the Zoo and Irvine Park! I look forward to going back one day!

The Happiest Place on Earth

2010-11-13T10:01:00.000-08:00

Well....unless you are two, traveled for 2 days in a car, and are tired & grumpy. Then it's known as, the place we stayed until Kiki & Mama got tired of putting up with your crap! :) But I mean that in the MOST lovingly way!

While we were in California Kiki & Pawpaw took Noah to Disneyland. He was super excited that we were going.

Irvine Park - Train Ride

2010-11-12T00:01:00.000-08:00

Noah LOVES trains! It must be a boy thing, he's infatuated with all things train now. So he was super excited to ride the train at Irvine Park. This was the same day as the pumpkin patch.

LOOK, I really was there!


Noah still talks about this tunnel! He loved the thought of it, but HATED actually being inside of it!

After the train ride we decided to walk over to the Zoo. Here's a little picture recap of our "journey".

<~This way to the Zoo! Noah once again resumed his "Diego" the navigator role.

Hark! In the tree, I spy a GIANT BIRD!

I really think they went above and beyond with the Halloween decor....bahahaha

We stopped to ask the pony for directions

Luckily the signs were leading us in the right direction!

"Oooooh, Aaaaaaah" Random fact, there was a sock on the ground in that hole...

Well Hellooooo Mr. Peacock!

Who cares about peacocks, there are LEAVES to be examined!

"Oh wait, huh? A Peacock?"

Check back in a few days when our journey continues...yep, we ACTUALLY made it to the Zoo!

Irvine Park Pumpkin Patch

2010-11-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

While we were in California, PawPaw Steve wanted to take Noah to Irvine Park. It was a beautiful day, so we stopped at the market and picked up a few things for a picnic lunch and headed to the park! After we enjoyed our picnic we went straight to the pumpkin patch! I was SOOOO excited for the pumpkin patch, b/c the pumpkin patches near us are....well...we'll just say, lacking...in pumpkin goodness.

Noah found a wagon, but he wasn't happy when he couldn't take it with him!

Wouldn't this be SO MUCH FUN to do year after year, If we still lived in Cali I would bring Noah back to the park every year JUST to take this picture!

The HAY MAZE!

Noah totally had a "Diego & Dora" moment as he explored the Hay Maze!

There's those hands on the hips, I don't know WHERE he gets that! ha!

He was so proud when he led us out of the maze!

"Mom, I really don't want to sit on a pumpkin"

"Hi"

"Cheeeeeeese"

Where to next?

Noah enjoyed taking a picture in each of the cut-outs!

Yes, this is of 3 little pigs, and he posed in each.and.every.one, I'll spare you the other pictures!

Soooo pretty!

This is after he wanted to go in the bounce house (we've never been able to get him in a bounce house before) He was SOOO excited, he ran up and gave guy his ticket....it was all down hill after the guy told him he had to take his shoes off!

Picking the perfect pumpkin!

Pretend City!

2010-11-06T00:01:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of Pretend City? It's a children's museum in Irvine, CA and IT IS AWESOME!!!! While we were visiting in Cali we took a trip with Queen Mother {aka CMO}, Robin, Christy & Alyssa. It was a blast, I'm not sure who liked it more, the kids or us adults. It's basically a mini city with all the "fixins" and the kids can do, make & play with EVERYTHING! From a doctor's office to the post office, it's all there to pretend with! There's even a gas station and an ATM!

This is the most awesome donor wall I've ever seen! It was full hands on, but still had all the donors listed, Noah loved this so much he didn't even want to go further than this!

Making a postcard for Daddy in the Post Office.

Waiting for the cross walk!

THIS is the face of customer service!

"I have to work!?"

Playing in the Restaurant

Our beautiful friend Alyssa

5 SECOND RULE!

Noah serving up the tacos

CMO, Christy & Alyssa enjoying the feast

Drinks anyone?

The water area, complete with Lobsters!

Taking Alyssa out for a spin

At the ATM with Auntie Robin

Using his ATM cash to buy groceries

Pretend City was AWESOME! I highly recommend going when you have a few hours available to spend there.

Dodgers Baby!

2010-11-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

On Sept 11, 2010 the Dodgers played the Astros in Houston! Woot Woot! Being from So Cal, we are big Dodger fans, especially the hubs! I was so excited, I scooped up some tickets & surprised the huzby!

The boy didn't really like it at first, he thought it was TOO LOUD!

Minute Maid park was nice, it was all enclosed so it wasn't a million degrees in there (I was worried about that), it seemed a little small, but it is right smack dab in the middle of down town Houston, so you gotta take the room you can get, right!

Since it was September 11th they had a HUGE "Salute to Heroes" before the game started! They brought out a TON of service men & women, so many they spanned from 1st base all the way around home plate and third base, it was AWESOME! I especially LOVE the GINORMOUS American Flag that took probable over 50 people to carry it! Gorgeous!

Then they had people from different branches of service throw out the first pitch, that was cool, watching 5 people throw a pitch at once!

Happy Halloween

2010-10-31T00:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween Lovies!

Here's a little Halloween Inspiration from Our Family to Yours! {I took these at Irvine Park in Irvine, CA}

Atlant - Part 4 - The Main Event

2010-10-27T00:01:00.000-07:00

Well, as I've said before, the whole reason we went to Atlanta this summer was to see our cousin Kristi get married to her, now hubby, Chris.

The wedding was absolutely beautiful.

My Big Boy all ready to go

Love this picture of my two boys!

1st Dance as Mr. & Mrs.

Kristi was a stunning bride and all of the details were just simply gorgeous! If you know me, you know I LOVE weddings! So here are some of the beautiful details from their big day.

Table Centerpiece

Pretty Oranges!

Full view of the centerpiece

Inside the Church

Flowers

Decor


Father Daughter Dance (Not sure why blogger keeps turning this picture sideways! grrrr)


Dancing Machines!

Noah enjoying the Coca-Cola Wedding Favors!

Atlanta - Part 3 - Stone Mountain

2010-10-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

Another fun place we visited while in Atlanta was Stone Mountain. I was too busy having fun, I didn't take a whole lot of pictures. This was a really neat place, and I had never heard of it before. There were ropes courses, 3 D movies, sky buckets and lots of other fun stuff! Oh yea, and a big stone mountain with this carved in the side.

Atlanta - Part 2 - The Coke Factory

2010-10-20T00:03:00.000-07:00

While we were in Atlanta, we also visited the Coca-Cola factory. This was a really fun experience, if you are ever in Atlanta, I highly recommend making the visit! There really was a lot to do & see, and the kids (and adults) LOVED it, especially the tasting room!

the Coca-Cola building

The boys ran up to this display and yelled "take our picture" haha!

waiting "patiently" to get inside

brushing up on his Coca-Cola knowledge

pretty, huh?

I'm not sure what was on the other end of these phones, but the boys had a blast and thought this was HILARIOUS!

I'd like to buy the world a coke!

Coca-Cola trading pins

Random Coke memorabilia

Different Coke Bottles

Braves display, not OUR team, but exciting all the same

I love how you can see Noah's reflection in this one!

MMMMMMMM....tasting room!

YUMM-O!

Best Cousin Friends!

These two are seriously TOO COOL!

Jewel & Autumn hammin' it up!

Atlanta Aquarium

2010-10-16T00:05:00.000-07:00

One of our cousins got married in August, so a bunch of my crazy family loaded up and headed to Atlanta. One of the fun things we did was visit the Atlanta Aquarium!! Now you have to understand just how much the boy LOVES him some fish! To this day he still talks about seeing sharks, turtles and fish! He's a little obsessed!

Bridget, Jeffery, Autumn, Zander, Jewel & Gigi joined Noah, Manny and I for some fish filled fun!

patiently waiting for the adults to "get it together" so they could go explore the aquarium!

"It was THIS big"

so happy to be at the aquarium!

making friends

the kids spent FOR-EV-ER at this exhibit, seriously, forever!!

LOVED these guys!

this kid LOVES fish!

making friends with a turtle

doesn't it look like that fish is kissing Manny? ha!

love me some starfish!

this was the COOLEST penguin exhibit, you could crawl in tunnels and "pop up" right in the middle of their home!

Fish are friends! Not food!

GINORMOUS tunnel that you walked through and the fish were all around you! this was beyond cool!

watching the sting rays

Summer Fun

2010-10-12T00:01:00.000-07:00

Here's a few fun miscellaneous pictures from our Summer Fun!

Enjoying some morning cereal!

Bubbles with Dad!

Biking at Kiki's House! (Better hope PawPaw doesn't see this picture of you riding your bike inside the house buddy!)

Cool Tricks, COOL TRICKS!

Hanging out with Scruffy!

{Easter Pictures}

2010-10-09T14:50:00.000-07:00

Uh...yea, I'm THAT far behind in my blogging!

At Easter we took the kid down to a pretty little boat slip to take some Easter pictures. MY KID didn't want to participate in the whole "group shot" thing, what a brat! Here are some of my favs from that shoot though!

Yep...that's MY kid! :)

Adventure Cove!

2010-09-27T00:01:00.000-07:00

Here is another of our fun local parks! This was a fun play date at Adventure Cove. When we went, Adventure Cove had just recently opened. So everything is new, and the equipment is super fun! Noah loves going to this park!

Looking at these pictures make me realize what a Bad Bloggy Mama I've been! He's SOO much bigger now than when these were taken!

The Circus!

2010-09-20T00:01:00.000-07:00

One day this summer, while PawPaw Steve was visiting, he took Noah to the Circus! Noah LOVED it!

He really enjoyed the elephants and motorcycles, but I think his very favorite part was eatting cotton candy with his Pawpaw Steve!

Hard to see, but that's Noah and PawPaw WAAAAAY on the other side of the arena buying cotton candy (it came with a wizard hat!)

Don't let his "grumpy" face fool you, this kid had a blast that night! But for some reason, was really irritated by my camera, gee, I can't imagine why! Haha

Park Tour Update

2010-09-13T19:57:00.000-07:00

Well, we didn't quite finish our tour. We actually made it to about 5 parks, and then life got crazy, and then the weather got WAY too hott! So we are looking forward to going back on our park tour when the weather cools off again!

Here's a visit to one of the parks, Hillcrest, this was on my birthday! The boy's hair was REALLY out of control that day!

Hillcrest is a REALLY nice park. It's right behind a small community center, and has covered basketball courts. There wasn't anyone there, so we had the whole playground to ourselves! The playground equipment was all shiny & new!

Picking flowers for Mama!

My Aunt Gina came and had lunch with us and she brought cupcakes for my birthday! The boy REALLY enjoyed that!

Good Times!

20 Parks in 3 Months

2010-03-13T21:06:00.000-08:00

Ok, I've come up with a little {perhaps crazy} plan! Noah LOVES to go to the park {don't most 2 year olds?} Anyway, if we drive past one he'll beg to go, "Mama, park, pleaaaaaaaase!", so cute {& annoying}. Anyway, now that the weather is nicer we've been spending more time outside & going to the park. We actually have a TON of parks in our city, and last year I noticed the city was out "revamping" and cleaning them up! Awesomeness, so anyway, somewhere in my crazy brain I decided that Noah and I would tour parks this spring to help keep us busy. I intend to invite our little friends to come join us for playtime & picnics, I think it's going to be fun. And, if no one can show up to play, it won't matter, b/c Noah will just have fun playing at the park anyway! Win/Win!

So, I've decided to document our Park Tour, here on our little blog. I'm calling it "Noah's Spring 2010 Park Tour - 20 Parks in 3 Months" catchy right? HAHA. I think I've finally lost my mind! Should be fun! We'll see how this works out, I invite you to come along for the ride!

Happy Heart Day!

2010-02-13T00:01:00.000-08:00

By now it's no secret that I like to get my craft on. And Noah, after having watched his mama get all crafty and messy has developed his own love for the crafts! So when I saw this project at The Idea Room Blog, I knew immediately that I wanted to try it with Noah. Now since he's only two, I knew it wouldn't be perfect, or easy. But it sure was fun (and messy) and messy in Noah's book is ALWAYS fun! Love that kid!

First I tried washable finger paint, but when we tried to put his hand print on paper it just slid right across the sheet of paper....grrrrrrr. So much for "easy clean-up", so I grabbed my red & pink acrylic paint and painted his little hands. He giggled and told me it tickled! Then the fun part, trying to explain to him to hold his fingers together, the more I stressed TOGETHER the farther he spread his little pudgy fingers apart! LOL. It took several tries....(which means presents for the grandparents, haha)

But we finally got this as an end result for Daddy!

I LOVE it, isn't it the sweetest thing you've ever seen. I wish I had something more profound to write around the heart, but I was fighting a nasty sinus infection and my brain wasn't working properly.

And then, because I knew making a bunch of those would just be too hard on both of us, I found these online. LOVE! I took my big boy out into the backyard and he actually posed for me how I asked him to!! I know right? Can you believe that? And we made these for all his buddies at gymnastics and church!

Aren't they awesome!? Yep, I'm pretty proud of them! Noah is too, he laughs every time I show them to him.

I read somewhere about instead of celebrating a hallmark "love" holiday that we could instead celebrate a holiday of God's love for us. That was so simple, yet so profound, so, instead of celebrating hallmark's Valentine's day, we'll be celebrating God's Valentine's day. "We love because he first loved us!" John 4:19

Have You Seen it?

2010-01-26T10:25:00.000-08:00

If you follow us on facebook, or read my "other" blog, then you've probably already seen it. But, for those of you who haven't....Here is Noah's new & improved Big Boy Room, ala, Dr. Seuss!

You can see pictures of the full room HERE!

Crazy for Crafting

2010-01-15T08:23:00.000-08:00

Noah and I have been crafting together a few days a week. He is SO my kid, loves to craft (and make a mess). I think his crafts are pretty impressive for a kid that's not even 2 yet! Here's a sampling of a few things we've been working on. (warning, picture overload ahead)

Clay handprints (this was hard, Noah couldn't push hard enough to get a good impression, & 1 of his hands came out with only 4 fingers)...these are still a work in progress, I sense a fancy paint job in their future!

Handprint Turkeys (Mush)

Coloring

Painting

Making ornaments

painting ornaments

and our latest project...making a "choo choo"

We've had so much fun, and we still have a few projects left to do. Noah liked making the choo choo so much that I'm planning to go back and get a bunch more (they are the $1 kits from Michael's and they have planes, cars, boats, trains, etc.) lots of stuff to keep us busy, while he's still interested.

My Big Boy

2010-01-10T20:43:00.000-08:00

I'm kind of a failure at updating this blog, with facebook, I have instant gratification letting everyone know about Noah's new milestones and what we are up to. BUT, here is a milestone we just can't over look. My baby is 2 years old. WOW. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be the mother of a 2 year old. (and a sarcastic 2 year old at that). But I am, and he's all mine and (when he lets me) I can hold him and squeeze him and color with him and play cars with him and scare him and tickle him and make him laugh and just have the best time with him. So how did we celebrate his 2nd birthday?

We hopped in the car (with our Goonies DVD) and drove 13 hours to Florida, Disney World to be exact. 13 hours you say? Wow, that must have been hard with a 2 year old, you say? Nah, my kid is a veteran traveler. Remember, this is the same kid who has made the drive to California (2 days) several times. So, 13 hours, piece.of.cake!

And once we got to Disney World...LOVE at first site. The kid had the best time! The parent's had the best time too! There is nothing like the world through a child's eyes.

I'll try to keep this short and sweet, and hopefully add a little more later (but most of you already know the details from facebook). We did the Disney World thing for 3 days. The first day we went to Animal Kingdom. Noah LOVED seeing all of the animals. His favorite animal (there are TONS to choose from)...yea my kid loved...

THE FISH!!! HA! He didn't want to leave the fish we had to literally DRAG him away from this aqarium thing. We left the fish tanks and headed to the Nemo Musical, totally AWESOME! It held Noah's attention the ENTIRE time (about 30 minutes). He LOVED it. At some point the kid behind him was telling his mama "look, mama, Nemo!" and MY KID, turned around in his seat, put his finger over his mouth and SHOOSHED the kid behind him. (aw, I was so proud). HAHA! He seriously loved it. He talked about Nemo the rest of the trip (and btw, he now does a fantastic impression of the nemo birds - you know the ones...."mine, mine, mine") ha!

Noah, are you having fun?

Yaaaaaaaaay!!!!

The 2nd day, we went to Epcot. So much fun, Noah's favorite thing at Epcot.....The Nemo ride and aquarium exhibit. Surprise, Surprise!

Who knew this kid had such a love for fish!

Noah are you still having fun?

"Heck Yea, I got Meno!" (that's not a typo, that's how he says Nemo..hehehe)

Day 3 (we saved the best for last) was the Magic Kingdom.

Oh we had so much fun. We got to ride everything we wanted and never had to wait in long lines (at any of the parks). It was great! Since they didn't have anything "Nemo" at Magic Kingdom, Noah settled for riding all the rides. But he still asked for "Meno", over and over and over and over again. Even without Meno, he still had an awesome time. His favorite rides were all the boat rides (small world, peter pan, jungle cruise, etc.).

This was a great way to celebrate Noah's 2nd (and Manny's 30th) birthdays. It was our first official family vacation and will definately be remembered as a great vacation for many years! Thanks to my boys for such a fun time!

Noah, are you still having a good time?

"Wooooooohooooooo!"

SNOW DAY!!!!

2009-12-05T08:33:00.000-08:00

Living in SWLA we don't really have "snow days"....because, well, we don't really have snow. But a few days ago we got SNOW (we also got snow one morning last year too). The kids got let out of school early and we all eagerly anticipated its arrival. It was so much fun! It was Noah's first time in the snow and he really like it.

A Drop Off the Old Paint Brush....

2009-11-05T07:37:00.000-08:00

Get it? Drop...paintbrush...chip...block...NO? Just Me? Ok then....nevermind...

It's no secret that I like to craft. Most projects I work on while Noah is asleep, but some require daylight, so I usually spray paint or sand something outside while Noah runs around in the backyard and plays. He is always semi interested, mostly just curious of what his crazy mom is up to. I decided it was time to share my joy of craft time with my little monkey man. I set out to have him make handprint turkeys. I thought it would be so fun for Thanksgiving.

I squirted a big glob of brown acrylic paint in his hand and told him to rub them together (he's good at this b/c he likes to wash his hands and put on lotion - he might have my hand washing OCD). Then we put his hands down on the paper after he lifted them back up he looked at his hands, covered in paint, and promptly wiped them straight down his shirt onto his pants...DOH! (note to self, need crafting smock for clean hand ocd kid).

Then I gave him a piece of paper with globs of paint on them. I thought he could use that paint to decorate his hand turkeys. He thought it was more fun to mush that paint around on the paper. Turkey Hands, not so much. REALLY happy future Kandinsky, YEP! Once he was satisified with his "mush" painting, we promptly washed his hands off and cleaned off his table. Then, in an effort not to stiffle his creativity (wink) I gave him some more paper and CRAYONS. He's so serious when he colors!

It was fun, and Noah enjoyed it. He really likes to color and has spent a little time each afternoon this week coloring. He hasn't broken any crayons, but 2 are missing and he fed the gray one to Lola...(sigh)...but so far he's pretty good about not coloring on the walls or anything. Today we are off to shop for some supplies for him (washable paint, a roll of craft paper, etc.). I plan to be like his own personal craft dealer...heh

I took the picture that Noah colored and put it on the fridge, I brought him over and showed him his picture and oooohed & aaaaaahed and told him I was so proud of my little artist. He took it off the fridge, crumpled it up and threw it in the trash....LOL, perfectionist in the making? Nah, just a kid who LOVES to throw stuff in the trash, never know what you'll find in there.

Cheeeeeeeeese!

2009-10-25T20:24:00.000-07:00

Because he is a ham....

....or because I've been a mamarazzi with a camera in his face since the day he was born. What can I say, the boy LOVES a photo shoot!

A Boy & His Pals

2009-10-21T20:08:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that we live in a mad house. Yes, friends, with a toddler, a mini horse, a crazy cat and a ghost cat, there is always SOMETHING going on. This is a typical day in the life, at our house. Noah starts out with his Lola Mutt. These two are some serious BFF (partners in crime). Lola is such a good sport, she lets that boy drag her ALL over. He locks her in his room and he MAKES her play. Poor Lola....

But you can't feel bad for her for too long, because pretty soon, crazy gets into the mix. You know that old saying "curiousity killed the cat", yea, that will TOTALLY be the case in our house. Because Scruffy just CANNOT stand to stay out of it. Pretty soon it's all out WWF. Lola gets Scruffy, Noah gets Lola, Scruffy gets Noah. Total circus. Lots of meowing, laughing, crying, barking, growling, hissing, tail pulling, fur grabbing....is it bad that I just let them go until they poop out? .....Nah!

Oh yea, the ghost cat...Fiona. She's the smart one of the bunch, only comes out of hiding once everyone is safely asleep. Well, that and she is kind of mean and they just KNOW not to mess with her. If you ask Noah, "what does Scruffy say" and he'll answer you with "meow" or "kitty kitty" but, you ask him "what does Fiona say" his answer is always "HIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!"

He EXCELS at jumping!

2009-10-20T06:15:00.000-07:00

Noah and I started a Mommy & Me Tumbling class. He LOVES it! I do too, b/c it's more of a Noah Tumbles and mom ~~laughs~~ watches class! Wooohooo! Noah's a rock star at his tumbling class. On his very first day, he was already better at everything than the other kids (who had been in the class a few weeks)..HA! That's MY boy!

He loved EVERYTHING! He laughed, he pointed, he said "MAMA" A LOT! He did everything 2 or 3 times. He even went on the high balance beam and walked all the way across (holding my hand) and never fell off!! Superstar material...seriously!

And then it was time for the parachute, you know the big colorful parachute thing that you all hold on to and go in a big circle then float it up and everyone runs underneath....

Total MELTDOWN!

Every week he hates the parachute less and less. But he'd still rather go play on all the fun stuff than with that stupid parachute!

Chatty Cathy....er...Noah

2009-09-28T08:52:00.000-07:00

Sooooo...it's been FOR-E-VER since we've had a nice little blog about what the crazy monkey boy has been up to. He's SOOO big now. He's 20 months going on 12. And he is chattin' up a storm! I can't even tell you the words that he is saying because everyday is he saying new things! For example, last night he was playing and singing with his cousin and he sang "Ooooh baby!" yea seriously...total rock star on my hands! He says all of "his people's" names, Mama, Dada, Kiki, PawPaw, Gigi, BB (bridget), Zanna (Zander), Audi (Autumn), Lola, Scruffy, Lulu (Lexi), Winnie (Vinny) notice how most everyone has a double name "ma-ma, da-da, ki-ki", etc. Well my aunt and uncle have a dog named "Er", yea really (it's short for "her", so weird, right?! LOL) Noah calls her ErEr, makes sense though, right!

He's also movin and shakin. Last week we started a Mommy & Me tumbling class. He had a lot of fun playing on the mats and climbing, flipping, etc. He was awesome on the balance beam, and even climbed up and did the high balance beam. His teacher said for his age he "excels" at jumping! Too funny. He did have a total meltdown towards the end of class. So I'm hoping this week goes better! Wish us luck! I'll take pictures this week, I didn't want to be "that mom" last week! heh

My Cutest Kid!

2009-09-18T04:59:00.000-07:00

So recently Noah was entered in a local "Cutest Kid" contest, hosted by one of our fabulous local photographers. I posted about it here on our blog and about 200 times on facebook. I have the best friends in the world, because Noah received a TON of votes and WON the contest! What does that mean? Well, we already knew he was the cutest kid in town, but now we'll have free pictures for a year to prove it! If you live in the Lake Charles area, I highly recommend J. Langley Photos. Not just because we get free pictures, but because she takes the most beautiful, awesome photos! Thanks to everyone who voted for Noah! Muah!

A new journey...

2009-09-12T10:02:00.000-07:00

When I began blogging, nearly 2 years ago (wow!) my whole intention was to blog about our family - we had just had our first, and only, baby boy. We were moving out of state, to be closer to family, and so that I could have the greatest opportunity of all, to be a stay at home mom. Well, this blog, started out innocently enough. Each and every post was dedicated to telling our loved ones what Noah was up to, new milestones, etc. As time when on and I learned more about blogging, blogland, and all those wonderful blogs out there, our family blog began to....drift a little. I began to blog about shopping, my crafts, decorating, all of the fun things I enjoy. But I was doing little blogging about my precious monkey boy, Noah.

I know a lot of bloggers have multiple blogs, so I decided now was the time to start a new blog. I really enjoy crafting and decorating and sharing those ideas/projects with my blog community. But I need to redirect our family blog back to its original intention. So from that, came the idea for The Craft Monkey! I look forward to sharing lots of fun projects on my new blog. I've added the old posts from our current blog (a very tedious task!). I hope you'll enjoy The Craft Monkey and visit it often! And The Hernandez Family will once again be dedicated to our very special boo boo chicken, Noah!

My Heart is Full

2009-08-10T08:51:00.000-07:00

So, two weeks ago, on Thursday morning, at 5 am, Noah, my Mom and I drove off headed to California. Noah and I were going on a mini vacation to visit friends, new babies, family, etc. (My Mom has a really cool gig, where she works in Cali 2 weeks and then gets to come to Louisiana to play for 2 weeks - best of both worlds, or something like that). We made the trip in record time, arriving in Huntington Beach around 5pm Friday night. Saturday morning, Noah and I loaded up the car & headed to the "Inland Empire" for a few days to visit with our peeps.

Our first stop was Robin's house, Noah played with Robin's family and later Devyn, David and Baby Chloe came over and we all went swimming. It was so nice to get to meet and hold baby Chloe.

Then I got a text message from Manny that said "call me as soon as you get this." I called and got the news that my Nana had had a heart attack and was in critical condition at the hospital. I loaded up the car while Noah chomped on a hot dog. Said some quick goodbyes and drove back to Huntington Beach. My Mom and Stephen had already been working on getting us all tickets home while I was driving back. Mom was on an early flight, that was full, so Noah and I had to get on a later flight. The night was hard, we'd get updates from family that things were looking up, and then they would quickly go back to bad or worse.

Bright & early Sunday morning we all headed off to the airport. Noah and I had high hopes of being able to get on the early flight with mom, as standby. No such luck. So we spent a few hours in the airport waiting for our flight. My mom was supposed to land in Lake Charles at 4:30pm. At 5 when I landed in Houston, I didn't have any texts or messages from her. I knew that wasn't a good sign. But I kept praying and tried to keep my hopes up. As I climbed down the steps of the plane in Lake Charles I saw Manny, my Mom, my brother and Bridget. My heart sank. It was true. I had lost my Nana.

We drove to hospital, where the kind staff had kept her body in her room until I arrived at 8pm so that I could say goodbye. It was surreal to say goodbye, I knew she was finally at peace and without pain, and her body didn't even look like her anymore. But I still kept thinking that at any moment she would wake up and hug me.

Most everything else is a blur, we were all together on Monday making arrangements, Tuesday there was a viewing and Wednesday was her funeral. I spent a lot of time with family last week, Nana would have loved that. My cousin Darla and I don't get to see each often enough, and we really enjoyed each other's company and comfort.

My Nana was a loving woman, if you were lucky enough to be a part of her life, then you were lucky enough to feel the touch of her love. She loved flowers and hummingbirds, wild animals, gardening, crossword puzzles, winning at a game of cards, reading books and she loved her family! In her lifetime Nana was so much to so many. She raised 5 (nutty) children who gave her 13 grandchildren and later, 13 great-grandchildren. Nana had a way of making each of us feel as if we were the world to her. With so many people in our family, there was always plenty of love, hugs and kisses to go around.

At her service I learned things about my Nana that I had never known, like the fact that she was always reading 3 books at once. She'd read one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening! Incredible! My cousins and I shared lots of fun memories last week as we looked through old pictures, we also got to meet a side of Nana that many of us didn't know existed! Nana was definitely HOT STUFF in her younger days.

So my Nana (in her older years) started collecting UGLY vases. She'd pride herself on finding the ugliest vase in town for 10 cents at a garage sale. She had two cabinets FULL of these ugly vases. And growing up, she always told Darla and I that when she died we were to divide the vases (her precious collection) between the two of us. I don't know about Darla, but I honestly never believed that day would ever come.

But, per my PawPaw Smitty's request, our family went to their house on Saturday to collect Nana's belongings, including hundreds of her beloved books, and yes...those darn vases. I believe that Nana always imagined Darla and I wrestling over the very BEST of those vases, she probably would have been disappointed that we so easily just took, which ever vase (hey, they were all equally ugly). Why am I telling you this? These darn vases, I have a china hutch FULL of vases now! Little ones, big ones, brown ones, pink ones, red ones, bowl shaped ones, odd shaped ones, anything you can imagine.

Everything but the "tooth" shaped one. Nah, that one Darla and I suckered Aunt Gina into taking. Seriously, it looks like a giant tooth! I'll have to get a picture of it. The expansiveness of this vase collection is kind of like Nana's love, there was always plenty to go around.

My Nana, my heart, I miss you. I know you are up in heaven sitting around a big card table, looking down on us. I'm so thankful that I've been able to live in Louisiana for the last year & half and visit my Nana & PawPaw more in this time than I would have if I were still living in Ca. I'm am also grateful that Noah was able to know and love his Nana. As we were working on pictures for her funeral Noah would see a picture of her and say "Nana." It broke my heart and made me smile all at the same time. I am sad to say goodbye, but so filled with joy that Noah was able to know his Nana.

We have been surrounded by love and comfort from family and friends. I am happy that so many of my friends were able to know and love my Nana. So many of my friends were able to make memories with this wonderful woman. Thank you for all of your support and prayers during this difficult time. I think my cousin Darla said it best, "keep praying for us, our family is still hurting." While I know it will take a long time to get over the hurt of our loss, it is comforting to know that Nana is at peace and there is no doubt in my mind of the love she had for us all. She loved, and was loved.

MORE!

Bye Bye Bottles!

2009-07-21T19:31:00.000-07:00

So, here's the back story...about 7 months ago we decided it was time to take his bottle away during the day and start using sippy cups. We had a hard time transitioning to sippy cups, the boy just didn't get the concept very easily. But after a few days we found a sippy cup that he liked and we were good to go.

Of course, we still gave him a bottle of milk at nap and bedtime. Putting Noah to sleep was super easy once he could hold his own bottle, we'd give him a bottle, lay him down and out he'd go. Really, easy peasy. Before we went to bed we'd sneak in and take his bottle (so he wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night and suck on a nasty milk bottle - is that normal, others have told me they leave/left the bottle all night, maybe we are just weird...LOL)

Generally, Noah would wake up between 5am - 6:30am and we would give him another bottle of milk and he'd go back to sleep until about 7am. So at night we'd make two bottles, one with cereal to send him off to bed with and another for the fridge for that 5am wake up call.

I very quickly got used to being able to toss him a new bottle in the morning and go back to sleep for another hour or so (it was a like my very own baby snooze button). Anyhoo, so you can see my own very selfish reasons for not being very eager to take the bottle completely away from the boy.

But the time had come, now that he has a full mouth of teeth, I knew it wasn't good for him to be sucking on a nipple all the time...so wasn't looking forward to taking away his bottle. The first night was a bad night to choose, I wasn't feeling well and we had to wake up early the next morning. So when we put Noah to bed with no bottle he of course cried and cried (hey guys you forgot my bottle!!!) Because we all needed to sleep, I gave in and gave him a bottle, deciding we would start the following night instead. Fast asleep he fell.....so not helping my cause.

So the next night we put him to bed with no bottle and he cried for awhile until he finally fell asleep. The next night I decided to give him a sippy cup to go to sleep with. No tears that time. But after about 3 days it was obvious that he wasn't even drinking from the sippy cup. So I cut out the sippy cup. The last 4 or 5 nights (and naps) I've just been putting him in his crib and he just lays down and goes to sleep...WOOOOOHOOOO! Success! (Thank goodness because I already got rid of all of his bottles because I'm not strong enough to have them in the house!)

So apparently it was harder for me to give up the bottle than it was for Noah. He hasn't even acted like he misses his bottle. I should have known, I mean, this is the same kid that took himself off of the pacifier when he was just a few months old. So, how did you do it? Have you done it yet? I find it fascinating how different every kid is when it comes to all this stuff. A mom will either tell you that her kid was super easy or very difficult, there isn't really an in between. Weird, Huh?

Robin Is A Pest!

2009-07-14T19:33:00.001-07:00

Have not been blogging b/c I have a VERY needy house guest. Will blog when (if) she leaves! heh! Actually I'm only posting this b/c ROBIN (said naggy, needy house guest) is giving me a hard time about not updating my blog regularly. It's been a busy jam packed summer.

We've been going to the library on Monday mornings for story time (and Noah even earned an awesome "A Library Champion Lives Here" yard sign. I've been to GA Camp for a week, worked with 5th graders at Vacation Bible School for a week, spent several days hobbling around on crutches, had visitors from Tennessee and now "the" visitor from California, been to the WORLD's SMALLEST WATER PARK, spent lots of time in the pool, spent a fun filled night in New Orleans and am planning to drive to Cali with my 1 1/2 year old in 2 weeks. WoooHoo!

Eventually I will catch up on my blogging (or perhaps I'll just stash it in the guest room closet like my scrapbooking stuff) LOL!

Enjoy my UPDATED BLOG ROBIN! heh!

Happy Summer!

Stop Cats from Shedding! Family Secret Revealed!

2009-07-01T11:56:00.001-07:00

Do you have cats that are shedding like crazy because of this beautiful summer weather? I do. I have a simple home-made solution.

Get one of those handy storage containers we all have laying around. Insert Kitty.

Add lid, and store until the weather cools. No more pet hair to clean up!

This particular kitty (Scruffy) likes to find the smallest spaces possible and squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze himself into them. I have NO idea why, it's like his own little personal goal in life. It took him a good 5 minutes to get all arms, legs & tail inside & be able to sit.

*Disclaimer* No kitties were harmed for the sake of this post. This kitty put himself in the box. The lid was only on the box long enough for a picture, the kitty is not hidden away on shelf in a closet somewhere, he is happily alive and well and still shedding all over my house.*

FOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE!

2009-06-10T18:05:00.000-07:00

Golfing with Dad!

Manny, Noah and I have gone on two golfing outings in the past few weeks. Golf is one of Manny's favorite hobbies, and he hadn't gone once since we moved here over a year ago. The old golf clubs were collecting dust, so one day we decided to dust them off and put them to good use. I don't golf, I don't even try to hit the ball anymore...I'm the driver, I like it that way. The world is a safer place that way! heh!

Noah getting the technique down

So, Manny decided to teach Noah a few golf tips and let him have some fun. Noah is an awesome golf buddy. He has so much fun on the course. His favorite part is throwing around golf balls and picking them back up. But, he does try to actually golf, Manny wants to get him some clubs made for kids. Here's a few more pictures from our first outting.

Some crazy storm that came up on us fast while we were golfing! Isn't it pretty

Driver..heh

Manny's awesome golf swing....psh

Our sweaty mess of a boy (before haircut)

putting his skills to use!

taking a break in a seat just his size

Ok, so this is where you tee off....Noah pulled this out of the ground and threw it (he thought is was a ball) i was mortified...but nearly died laughing, all at the same time...hehe the old people were not amuzed. Also, did you know that serious golfers frown upon children being there? Hmp...sucks for them, because we have plans to go back...heh

What's the BUZZ about...

2009-05-21T18:53:00.000-07:00

Before....

and After....Noah got his hair did!

I've got lots of fun stuff to blog about (soon) like a fun family golf outing and lots of craftiness!

Sometimes I Forget

2009-04-25T19:49:00.000-07:00

Sometimes i forget just how lucky i REALLY am. Sometimes i forget that i've been blessed with a beautiful, loving, wonderful, funny, amazing, healthy, active, bouncing, baby boy. Sometimes i forget that i've been blessed to live a life where we are able to survive on a single income so that i can spend everyday with my precious boy. Sometimes i forget how TRULY amazing motherhood is, has been, and will continue to be. Sometimes i forget what life was like before January 3rd, 2008, I don't miss it, but i forget sometimes. Sometimes i forget that the little things in life are most often the best. Sometimes i forget to cherish every single one of those moments, because i get caught up in life. Sometimes i forget that there are people in this world that are far worse off than i could ever comprehend. I'm going to try not to forget...his smile and his laughter will be my reminder.

Well, we told Peter Cotton Tail to look out!

2009-04-15T11:53:00.000-07:00

Soooo, my neighbor just came over to inform me that I had a dead bunny rabbit in my backyard. What? A huh? Dead? (side note, Lola spends her days out in our backyard, and last night, I had a hard time getting her to come in!) She then laughed and said, "yea, your dog is still playing with it and dragging it around your yard!"

Sooooooo apparently the neighbors kids got REAL live baby bunnies for Easter. And apparently, one of said baby bunnies got out of the cage and into our backyard. Where it met the ginormous and ferocious Lola the KILLER basset hound!

The hubby is traveling this week, so I had to go into the backyard and dispose of said dead baby easter bunny! What? Huh? Eeeeeeewwwwwwooooo! Seriously? Yes, apparently so. So, using my best "dead animal disposal skills" I grabbed a trash bag and kind of scooped the bunny 'dog poo style'. You know, they way you turn a bag inside out to grab a big handful of poo and then turn the bag right side out. And then I put it in the trash can (the trash can that was just picked up TODAY!) crud! So now what? Am I supposed to do something differently?

BAD DOG LOLA!

And for all of you animal lovers out there who are just as shocked and appalled that Lola killed a bunny. I was SHOCKED that Lola could have killed a bunny, you see every night she plays with Scruffy the wonder cat and she has NEVER ONCE bit or hurt him. She's very gentle and playful, she doesn't bite or anything. She's more of a lover than a killer. So like me, you'll probably be happy to know that she didn't actually "attack" the bunny. You see she apparently "played" with the bunny, like she does with Scruffy and the boys' stuffed animal (tossing them in the air, rolling on them, etc.) The bunny had no puncture wounds, no teeth marks, no blood or guts! He simply was "loved to death" by Lola....R.I.P. Mr. Baby Bunny

I thought I'd spare us all the horror of "actual" photos...

Look OUT Peter Cotton Tail!

2009-04-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter Friends!

Getting ready for Easter, I couldn't help but think back to this time last year. Noah was sooo small! Noah was not even 3 months old yet. He spent a good portion of his day hanging out in his swing.

This year, was SO much different. This year, he was ALL over! This year, he played with his cousins, went for a boat ride with Zander, PawPaw and Daddy and splashed in a big mud puddle in his cute little easter outfit (before mom could get a picture). Such a boy!

Last year's Easter Basket

This year, there was no way I could force my little monkey to wear a sweet bunny hat, no matter HOW cute it is. This year, he got to run freely at Uncle John's camp (where we had our AWESOME Easter Crawfish Boil). This year, he got to eat a WHOLE chocolate bunny! and this year, lots of people gave him way more candy (and SODA and COFFEE!!! are you kidding!) than I'd like him to have!

This year, he is 15 months old, and he's walking, and he was READY.TO.GO!

*i promise to post the few pictures that i took this Easter, later*

Warm Day, Cousins & We're 100! + a WHOLE LOTTA Pictures

2009-03-22T18:34:00.000-07:00

Wowzers! This is my 100th post! Apparently I've had a WHOLE lot of NUTHIN to post about over the last year or so! Ok, enough about that, on to the FUN stuff!!
We spent ALL day Saturday outside enjoying the beautiful weather! Manny worked in the backyard, I worked in the front yard in my sad, sad flower beds {which by the way don't look that sad anymore} and Noah went back and forth until we all settled down in the backyard. I even potted a "salsa garden" {tomatoes, jalapenos & cilantro}. Even Scruffy came out to enjoy some warm sunshine! We really had a GREAT day, and A LOT of fun, and we treated ourselves to a mid-afternoon snow cone! {the perfect treat on a warm day!}

So here's the story... in November, Manny's parents visited us, and they bought Noah an AWESOME play set for his birthday. Manny and his dad started putting it together, but the weather wasn't good, and there just wasn't enough time. So basically, we've had a 1/4 built play set in our backyard since November. UGH! I told Manny that for my birthday I would like him to finish Noah's swing. Boy did he DELIVER! Ladies and Gentlemen, I am proud to present....Our Backyard, brought to you by "a beautiful sunny day in Lake Charles!"

**disclaimer** please ignore our 3 ft high grass. Manny has been traveling A LOT, and last weekend it rained the whole time he was home, so he didn't get to mow. I mowed the front, b/c seriously, I was expecting cars to start growing in it! {The backyard was mowed, edged, raked today}**

So here are the monsters enjoying the sunny day together

Here are the monsters fighting

(don't be fooled, they LOVE each other)

Noah working so hard he lost a shoe?

Manny testing out the strength of the play set

Noah and his "peeps" (look how hot & sweaty the boy was!)

Some BIG ole' puppy L.O.V.E.

Peek-a-boo!
Hot, Sweaty, & Cranky!

Big Boy climbing up the slide (yup, he can make it ALL the way up!)

Sliding Dooooooown!! (he did this about 50 times!)

Oops, time for a phone break! {He's SOO popular}

Just can't put THAT phone down!

Enjoying his swing!

It has to be said, that after such a "busy" day, and climbing up the slide 50 times, Noah was a little tuckered out at the end of the night (to say the least!) He actually nodded off in the bathtub!! Poor little guy, it's rough now that he can get around on his own, apparently there is a WHOLE lot of stuff that he has been wanting to do! :)

Today after church, Bridget, Angie & I took the kids to Sam Houston Park to take their pictures. Every year Bridget takes pictures of the cousins, and now that we live local (and have a kid) Noah gets to be a part of the picture madness! We had such a beautiful day and beautiful subjects to work with. Bridget is the pro picture taker, so these are just my favorites that I captured with my non fancy schmancy camera. I'm pretty proud of some of these though!

Ok, first of all, we really upset these CRAZY Geese!

They were NOT happy that we were in their home,

and they let Jewel know it!

Noah & Zander

Cecilie & Marlie

Group Shots

My Favorites of each cousin

Marlie

Noah
Zander

Autumn

Jewel

Cecilie

We're {in}famous!

2009-03-20T00:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, so do you remember a few weeks ago when I posted about Noah's First Haircut?

Yea, you remember, we took him to that fun place with the airplane chair. Well we went back today for Noah's 2nd haircut (because the boy was growing the mullet back already!!) and the ladies totally recognized us and knew we talked about them on our blog! It was our first (and probably only) "blog citing". They were all "hey, you're the ones who put us on your blog" and I was all "yea!" {turning red with embarrasement and thinking "oh please, i hope i didn't put anything stupid"}.

And then Noah was a total demanding diva and cried until we put on shrek and then cried {again} when we took him out of the airplane. But then he looked all adorable with his cute little spikey doo'. But, OH MY, how those ears stick out now! And it's especially adorable when the light shines through them!!

And then the nice lady at Pigtails & Crewcuts gave us a discount for the free advertising we gave her! And then I was all "SWEET," and the whole time I was thinking, "I can't wait to get home to blog about this!" and that's when I realized....I might have a problem! LOL. {and yet b/c of my killa procrastination skillz, it's taken me over a week to post this b/c my picture of Noah's spikey doo, has been stuck in my camera...bleh!}

**They actually found out that we blogged about them when they started doing advertising with our local news channel, and their advertising guy told them about it!! We are SO big time! Ha!**

Ladies & Gentlemen....Mr. ELTON JOHN!!!!

2009-03-12T07:05:00.001-07:00

i know, cute, right? how lucky am i to not only have the CUTEST baby in the world, but also the FUNNIEST!

Soccer Team Champions of the World....or not

2009-03-06T07:52:00.000-08:00

Melinda, over at Bloggin' it from the Burbs, does this cool "flashback friday" where every friday she posts "flashback" photos. The theme for March is sports, and I couldn't resist posting one of my favorite pictures of Manny showing off his awesome athletic abilities. This was during a"Greek Week" soccer game when we were in College. The Sigma Chi's, having already lost their "STAR" player, Lucas, in the first 15 seconds of the game (uh, while he was warming up..hahaha) decided they wouldn't "quit", they'd just have fun, in Sigma Chi fashion! Oh, I miss these crazy days!

Manny is playing in flip flops, and Lee is on a "very important" phone call...I think he was ordering pizza...LOL. You can see the ball (in play) right next to Manny, who is more interested in getting in on that pizza order than in kicking the ball.

And, just to show their more competitive side....here they are playing tug-o-war, at that same greek week.

"What's gonna work?....Teeeeaaaam Work!....What's gonna work?.....Teeeeaaaam Work!

Wanna play along? Head on over to Melinda's blog and join in on the fun!

Get UP and GO!

2009-02-26T19:33:00.000-08:00

My "get up and go", has done "got up and gone!"

So, everyone always says "One day Noah will just get up and start walking". Well, that day was last Saturday. We were at Church most of the day for basketball games. I took Noah to the little play area to play and he was doing his crazy little monkey scoot on the playmat. Well, all of the sudden he stood up (something he has been able to do for a long time) and he just started walking. He walked back and forth on the mat about 5 or 6 times. Then he headed off to see what else he could get into.

And that's it. He's been on the move ever since (except of course for when I say, "oh yea, Noah's walking" - b/c then he only crawls). I can't believe it, he's really walking.

On another note, last night we visited a local church to see the African Children's Choir perform. WOW!!! They were wonderful! Noah LOVED the music, he danced, clapped his hands and swayed to the music. It was WONDERFUL! We had to duck out early because it was passed Noah's bedtime and he started to get sleepy. Oh I wish we had been able to stay the whole time. But what we did get to see was AMAZING.

Hey Mister! Throw ME Something!

2009-02-23T07:52:00.000-08:00

This weekend and up until Tuesday, we're celebrating Mardi Gras in Southwest Louisiana. There have been parades, parties, children's activities, a mardi gras museum and lots of other fun stuff. Friday night we packed up the boy, and headed out to the main drag to meet up with his cousins Autumn and Zander (and their parents) for a little parade action. This was Noah's 2nd parade, as his first was the McNeese State U. homecoming parade. He was prepared this time, and he knew exactly what to do. He waved at all the floats, he danced along to the music, and he mumbled words and screamed with delight as his daddy caught handfuls of goodies for him!

Mmmmm...cotton candy....

Zander caught that monkey & then was DONE with the parade, he got in the back of the truck and played with the monkey the rest of the time!

Saturday we were at Church most of the afternoon, Manny's coaching basketball and I'm coaching Cheer, but we did try to make it out to the pet parade. Unfortunately, by the time we got there the parade had ended, but we still got to see all of the cute little (and some REALLY BIG pets) all decked out for Mardi Gras!

Waiting for the parade to start

Getting the hang of this whole bead thing!

Sunday, we took Noah to the Children's parade. Again, Autumn & Zander met up with us, along with Audi's little friend Emily, and Gigi & Kiki came to the parade, they knitted while we waited...because they are old. (no offense old people, but it's true!) : )

Emily, Zander & Audi

See....old people knitting...

Noah was so excited for the parade, it was during the day, so it wasn't as cold, Jeffery & Manny parked next to each other, we put the tailgates down and the kids hopped back and forth between the two trucks. Autumn even hopped in the back of the car of the people next to us. She was VERY embarrased when we told her that she wasn't in one of our cars, oh but the embarassement of a 9 year old was hilarious entertainment for the rest of us.

Mmmmm....icecream...

Here it comes!

And, if you can believe this, I ACTUALLY remembered to bring my camera to the Children's Parade. And...I took about 1/2 a billion pictures. I took a picture of every.single.float...I have no idea why...Here are a few of my favorites.

This was a little mardi gras prince, he was all tuckered out
& passed out in the middle of the parade!

A hot wheels bounce house float (complete with actual kids bouncing away!)

Noah's bag FULL of "loot"

Mini 18 wheeler

2 weeks, 2 Disney Trips, & 2 Road Trips in 2 minutes or less (or your money back, guaranteed)

2009-02-17T20:13:00.000-08:00

Sooooo, a few weeks ago, Noah and I loaded up (in a car) and headed west with my mom and her two freak dogs (aka, red dog & black dog) *the dogs' names have been changed to protect their privacy* We made the trip from Louisiana to California in 2 days!! Can you believe that? We popped Shrek2 into the DVD player and watched it about 17 times (but it kept the boy quiet, so Shrek2 it was) Noah was AWESOME on the drive. He was a road trip superstar!!! Seriously, on the way there and the way back, the boy was the BEST that you can imagine. Way better in the car then at home! HA!

We got to visit and hang out with lots of our oh so cool friends and family. Anyhoo, we had oodles and oodles of fun!

Psspt, this is what oodles and oodles of fun looks like, in case you were wondering.

Which included a superbowl fiesta at the Crane Casa (also known as the Super Noah Bowl), a weekend with our pregnant auntie Devyn & Uncle David (where we got to find out that they are expecting a beautiful baby GIRL!!) FYI, I've already put in my vote for the name Chloe' (with or without the '), we spent time with Auntie Robin, had dinner with some OLD friends from high school, had two visits to Disneyland (one with Alyssa, a fabulous superhero pirate kinda kid!) and the other with Kiki.

So, yea, this is what the boy does when someone holds up a camera!

And this...

Strolling through Disneyland with Noah's BFF Alyssa

One of the coolest parts of our trip, Tigger autographed Noah's "Tigger" shoes!! I know, I know, I'm such a COOL mom!

I have more pictures to share, later, when I'm not so lazy and actually download my own pictures from my own camera, instead of just stealing everyone elses! Ha!

**ok, so maybe this took you longer than two minutes, but we are not responsible if you have a slow computer, or are a slow reader, and really, let's be honest, this crap is free anyway!**

I Heart Silly Kid Faces

2009-02-10T10:50:00.001-08:00

No ONE is cuter or sillier than MY kid, right?

This photo was taken last summer when my mom came to visit. We picked her up at the airport and went to lunch. Noah was teething, at that time he LOVED to chow down on celery, seriously, frozen celery is a GREAT teething tool. (except your kid always smells like celery). So, we gave Noah a piece of celery and somehow snapped this picture. I think it's hilarious, he looks like he stole that celery from someone's bloody mary or something!

Tagged...

2009-01-27T19:31:00.000-08:00

So a few days ago, my alpha phi sista Katie tagged me. She didn't quite explain it, or perhaps I'm just perpetually confused, but the jist was something about the 4th picture in the 4th album...Sooooo...here goes!

This picture was the fourth picture in my fourth folder on my laptop. It's a picture taken at avery island this past summer when my bff Devyn and her super cool hubby David came to visit. Avery Island is where Tobasco is made, and has BEAUTIFUL grounds (with alligators!) While this picture just shows pure beautiful nature, it brings back awesome memories for me!

And, because the whole "trees" picture was kinda boring, here's my fourth picture in the fourth folder of the "Noah" folder! This was taken in April. I swear, I don't remember him being this small!

Party "Leftovers"

2009-01-19T21:23:00.000-08:00

Just a few extra pictures and tidbits from Noah's First Birthday. We had a great time celebrating Noah's first birthday. My last post was meant to be about his birthday and his birthday party, but somehow I got distracted (probably by something shiny) and just went off on a tangent about my beautiful baby boy and all of the things that I love so much about him! Typical day in the life of Heidi right there! LOL. Anywho... I had strategically planned his party time around his nap schedule (score 1 for mom!). So, in true Noah spirit, he refused to take a morning nap that day (score 2 for Noah!) and threw me for a little loop. He still did great, just pooped out a little towards the end, and was in bed for a nap before most of the guests had finished their cupcakes. (It could have been a sugar coma from his birthday cake!)I was so busy with the party and visiting that I didn't take any pictures of the actual party. I tried to video tape the pinata (I even remembered to charge the battery in my camera the night before) but, just as soon as I turned the camera on, it said "memory full" UGH!!!! I did manage to throw my camera at my cousin Bridget before Noah opened presents and said "here, take pictures!" Everyone is so nice when I'm bossy! : )

We had a great time because we had great guests. Robin, CMO, Mike & Shetara all flew in from Cali, and PawPaw Jeff & Lucy drove in from Tennessee to partake in the festivities, again, how lucky is Noah to have all of those people who love him enough to take off time from work, and spend the money and time to fly/drive to attend a 2 hour baby party (where the only food served were hot dogs and cupcakes?!?!) I tell ya, that is one lucky little boy! Kiki was also in town, and PawPaw Smitty came from DeRidder (Nana wasn't feeling well enough to come, that's what happens when you get old! Poor Nana), PawPaw John & Gigi came, Aunt Bridget, Uncle Jeffery, Autumn & Zander were there too, Aunt Angie, Cecilie, Jewel & Marlie stopped by, Uncle Mike, Michael Shane & Tori also came to play, and we couldn't forget our favorite little friends, Rachel & Emily & their hot mama, Karen. So much fun, so much love, soooo many presents. Really, what does a kid need with so many toys, next year we'll ask for people to bring socks instead of toys (because, really, we never have enough of those! Ha!)

The decor, monkeys, of course. Would you expect anything more from me? We hung teal and lime green paper lanterns from the ceiling (with monkey faces on them) - those are now hanging in Noah's bedroom and look WAY cool, I need to get some lights for them and put them to good use! We had lots of teal and yellow balloons too! And, our little friend the monkey pinata. We got the kind where you pull the ribbon, instead of hitting it with a stick. Yea, that sucked. It's way MORE fun to hit a pinata with a stick. And the kids were way confused about not having a stick or a blind fold. Because really, how could you pull a silly ribbon if you had a blind fold on. I bought WAY too much stuff for the pinata, because Robin and I are just two big kids and kept saying "oooh, this is cool" so our pinata was stuffed to the brim with candy, disney watches, bracelets, small toys, etc. And all the "leftover" candy was in a bowl, given to CMO, who chucked candy at the kids' heads when they pulled the ribbon! HA! Let's just put it this way, there was SO much candy, and SO few kids, that they all took what they wanted, filled their bags, and walked away, leaving a giant pile of candy on the ground. (That never would have happened when I was a kid, btw!)

We had a really fun time, and I want to thank everyone for celebrating Noah's birthday, all of our family and friends who came to the party and/or sent birthday wishes and all of our Aunties in Cali that sent cards and presents, you girls are the BEST! Thanks so much for helping Noah have the best birthday ever! I heart you all!

I just love how the camera captured him clapping at all the fun he was having!

Hair Today....Gone...a few days ago?

2009-01-12T19:55:00.000-08:00

Sooooo, the baby mullet is NO MORE!! Noah got his FIRST haircut! Let me tell ya, he did better than I ever would have imagined, AND he still has both ears!! (and let's be honest...with ears like his daddy's, it's only by God's will that he didn't lose a little bit of em!) : )

Bye Bye Baby Mullet!

We took him to this new cool place in town that just opened up, Pigtails & Crewcuts. They had 3 different "chairs" for Noah to choose from, a Taxi, Airplane or Firetruck. Noah chose the airplane, and he got to watch Cars, the movie (on his own private flat screen TV!).

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Ok, I couldn't resist putting in that picture. Noah really didn't cry much when he got his haircut, he was just upset initially after we strapped him into his airplane. But, once the movie started and he got his sucker, he was totally over the freak out! As part of the "first haircut package" Noah got a keepsake photo and a cute little bag of hair. So sweet! I of course, took a bazillion more photos (and drove the stylist a little crazy too!).

Just a little off the top, ok lady?!

My big boy, doesn't he look like a little man now?!?! (tear, so sad!)

On another note, Scruffy & Noah were playing hide-n-seek again today. Those two boys are so silly!

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are!

Are you in there buddy?

And, here is what Noah was looking for (at). "Found You!"

Never a dull moment around here folks!

I'm This Many!

2009-01-08T12:30:00.000-08:00

**don't miss it, there's another new post just below this one, I'm making up for being a blog slacker**

My baby boy is already one! Holy smokes, how did that happen? You know, as soon as you get pregnant everyone's all like "enjoy it while it lasts, it goes by fast" no one ever said it goes by in turbo speed! It seems like just yesterday they were laying my slime covered baby on my chest, and I was all teary eyed saying "it's ok baby, don't cry baby." Then he was smiling, and pooping, and putting himself on a schedule. He went from breast milk, to formula to whole milk and real food (today he ate sushi, I know, he's so cultured!) When we first brought him home from the hospital he just layed still in your arms, then he was a dancing machine, and then he rolled from front to back, but not from back to front for a loooong time. And then he was "moving", bouncing, and rolling, and doing that silly little "scoot" crawl thing he does. Now he's pulling himself up, standing, taking steps and just plain gettin around. He's just about as fast as the time that has passed.
Remember when he was born we had visitors, visitors, and more visitors. And then we moved away, and the visitors still came. This boy is SO loved. Aunties came to play with him in the summer, and Aunties came to celebrate New Year's with him, and more Aunties came to celebrate his first birthday with him. The boy is truly blessed, he has the best people in his life. I know he will continue to be surrounded by love and encouragement his whole life.

And did I mention how cute he turned out to be? He started off all alien looking (with that big ole cone head and those great big eyes), and then he just turned into this happy little man. A happy little man who loves to dance, take baths, read, play and make people laugh. He's been working on his comedy routine since he was old enough to realize he had the ability to make people laugh, and he also figured out how to make those people do exactly what he wanted them to do "dance monkey's, dance!"

And he's SOOO big now. And he can feed himself, and entertain himself, and sit forward in a big boy seat, and terrorize the cats, and destroy the house, and melt your heart all in about 2 minutes. And he's a camera ham, and he loves to smile and laugh and bite "i'ma Pa-rana", and he loves to growl and try to scare you, and he's teething and in so much pain, but still in such a good mood. And he's so happy and loves to play peek-a-boo, he loves to give sweet baby kisses, and he has one eye that droops when he gets sleepy, and he loves to lay his down on soft things.
He called me mama and he made me something I never knew I wanted to be. And he's changed my world in a million different ways, and loved me in a way I never knew was possible, and I'll forever be grateful for all that he is to me, and for me. He is fantastic, he is mine and he is ONE!

Year of the Dragon!

2009-01-08T11:27:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! (A little late, I know, but I've been "busy") It's the Year of the Dragon! (in our house anyway!) Our crazy Mountain Folk Friends, the MacPeeks (actually, they just moved out of the moutains, so I guess we need a new name for them) gave Noah this Dragon suit when he was born. Since it was FREEZING outside (and in sticking with my costumes for holiday outfits theme -hehehe-), I thought what would be more fitting for him to wear than a Dragon costume! He loved it, and it kept him warm. Score two points for mom! (wish I had a better picture of him so you could see his tail!)

Ok, seriously...that firecracker is the same size as my kid!

We started off New Year's Eve with a BANG! Our friend Robin flew in on New Year's Eve, we went to my Uncle's camp and had a feast of fried fish and let the kids play with ginormous explosive fireworks (sorry, the batteries in my awesome new camera died right before we started shooting off the serious arsenal of fireworks). UGH!

Jeffery and his sparkler art

Anywho, the old folks pooped out on us at about 9:30, but my mom offered to take Noah with her! Whooohooo...so, we headed home (with a quick stop at the drive thru daiquiri place) by 11:30pm Robin confessed that she could no longer stay awake, so off to bed she went. My response to Manny "thank goodness, I'm exhausted, come on, let's go to bed!" I quickly fell asleep, I woke up a few minutes later and asked Manny "how long till Midnight?" "2 minutes", he replied. "Oh sheesh, I don't know if I can make it that long!", I remember hearing the countdown...10..9...8...7 (you get the picture), I had one eye (barely) open, a little dribble of drool hanging dangerously at the corner of my mouth...I counted to down to 1..."happy new year, give me a kizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz" (sigh) I tried so hard to stay awake!

Something I've learned this year, my end of the year is going to be CRAZY every year. With a husband who's birthday is 4 days before Christmas, and a boy who's birthday is a week after Christmas, I'm going to have my hands full!

Where did all this come from?

Speaking of Christmas....oh it was wonderful! On Christmas Eve we attended a candle light service at church (it was a really beautiful and moving service). Then we headed to Kiki & PawPaw Steve's house (my parent's for those of you keeping notes) with (Gigi, PawPaw John, Bridget, Jeffery, Autumn, Zander and Bridget's parents Mike & Carol). My mom made two delicious gumbos and Manny, Mom, Steve, Bridget & Myself chowed down on a few oyster shooters - YUM-O! We let the kids open one present, shared lots of laughter and love and then headed on our way home to get ready for Santa! "Santa's Coming! It's SAAAAAAANTA!! I Know HIM!!" Oh my, such a good movie.

He figured out how to make it work right away!

Oh wait, speaking of movies...at some point during the Christmas festivities my Aunt Gina (Gigi) saw A Christmas Story for the first time...{What the? Ok, I'm not sure what rock she's been living under}, but all I can say is she only saw about 2 minutes of it. She tuned in right when the boy is triple dog dared to stick his tongue to the pole. One glimpse of his tongue stuck to pole and she starts yelling "horror! aaaaah, this is a horror movie! change it! change it!" Oh man, good times, SOOOOO hilarious. Ok, so just a little poll...anyone else think "A Christmas Story" is a horror movie??? Yea, didn't think so, it IS just YOU Aunt Gina! HA! Anyway, I digress....

Taa-taa the duckie

Manny and I exchanged gifts on Christmas Eve, we wanted to clear the tree for Noah. I decided to unwrap and put together all of his toys except 1 from Santa, and 1 that CMO and Mike sent. Noah woke up Christmas morning (mom & dad actually woke up before him for ONCE!!) and we brought him out to his Christmas tree. Noah's response when he saw the toys under the tree...exactly what you would hope for. Pure delight! He just looked in awe from the toys to us. Noah opened his presents, played with his toys and then we headed off to Kiki's for more Christmas excitement with the rest of the family. All in all, Noah got something like half a billion toys, played with his cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, great grandparents, and just had the best time. Which made (for me at least) the best Christmas Ever! There is nothing better than experiencing Christmas through the eyes of your child, pure delight!

This is what "Pure Delight" looks like in our house!

Happy 1st Birthday Boo Bear!

2009-01-03T12:17:00.001-08:00

I cannot believe it's already been a year...

Question for the Masses (all 3 of you who read this)

2008-12-18T17:53:00.000-08:00

Why today did I have to utter the phrase, "Noah, stop biting the dog!"? (sad, sad, sad day).

That is all...

What's Cookin? Good Lookin!

2008-12-13T13:31:00.000-08:00

So, the boy has a new favorite place to play. Ever since he has been able to venture out around the house on his own he has been intrigued by the stove, dishwasher, bottom shelf of the pantry and all the cabinets he can get his grubby little hands on. He loves to rearrange (by rearrange I mean throw in to the middle of the kitchen floor) all of the canned goods on the bottom shelf of the pantry. Why do I keep them there? B/c it's the only stuff in the pantry he can't destroy and make a mess with. (It only takes once before mom learns her lesson!!)

He always loves to open cabinets, take stuff out, put stuff back in (and not in the same cabinet, I am convinced that this is just to drive mom crazy!) If the dishwasher is opened, forget about it, no matter where he is he will come scooting as fast as he can to get to it. It's like opening the dishwasher is his personal bat signal or something.

And, once he learned that the bottom drawer of the stove pulled out he would pull it out, bang on it, slam it closed, and start all over again. Well, the other day he apparently figured out that the draw opens much farther than he originally thought. Voila, instant new favorite place to play. I love to open the drawer and find all sorts of goodies he has hidden for safe keeping. (What an odd boy, I swear he gets that from his dad!)

Everyday since, the boy sits in the stove, I don't ask why, I don't understand the joy it gives him. (Please note the "toy" of choice on this particular day...chip clip...apparently good for banging noises - that is his only criteria for toy of choice) He climbs in, sits, laughs, he climbs out. He climbs in, sits, laughs, bangs on door, he climbs out. Over, and over and over and (you get the point). The only thing I can say is thank goodness that drawer is not the broiler!

I am NOT that kind of Mother!

2008-12-06T15:21:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year, Christmas, which means....pictures with Santa!! I always vowed I would NOT be that mother who made her child sit on Santa's lap and take a picture if they didn't want to. To me, there is nothing worse than seeing a baby all freaked out and tear streaked, b/c Santa scares the bajesus out of them.

In fact, last week, I got Noah all dressed and shiny looking, took him to the mall, walked right up to Santa and handed him over. Noah began to cry, so I took him back and said "Sorry Santa, today's not your day, no offense!", Santa said "none taken, just keep bringing him back and maybe he'll get used to me!" Hmmmm...good idea Santa. ( I was SO proud of myself, I am NOT that kind of mother, no crying Santa pictures for me!)

So, today when my Aunt Gina called and said her friend and his wife were playing Santa and Mrs. Claus and taking pictures, I thought Oooh, Cool, another shot at Santa! But when we walked in and Noah saw Santa, he immediately burst into tears...what the heck? Ok, my kid is not one of those "scared of everybody" kind of kids. He'll go off with a complete stranger, he usually doesn't care who holds him, or who's with him, as long as he's having a good time. Santa, apparently not that exciting to him (perhaps it's the freaky hat)...my theory is this....Santa is always sitting down, the kid likes to be held by people who are standing up....maybe if Santa would get up off his lazy bum the kid would smile. No such luck....the kid hates Santa. And I am NOT that kind of Mother to make him take a picture with someone who obviously freaks him out.

But HIS DAD IS!!

Seriously, I was nearly in tears b/c Dad thought it was funny to take the crying kid picture with Santa and I was all "give me my baby, he doesn't like Santa" was my Aunt any help??? NOOOO, she's all, "here let me get a picture with my camera" Aunt Gina, my Nana will get you for that!! And, as my Aunt is saying goodbye to her friends some lady walks over and hands me that "adorable" crying baby with Santa picture. What?!?!!?! I didn't even know they took one, I have lost this battle....but for next year, I'll teach the boy defense mechanisms...like peeing on his Dad if he tries something like that again! Sorry Noah, Mama tried...

I Can-NOT Be-Lieve It!

2008-12-05T11:48:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I LOVE to craft, I'm not very good at it (my stuff always looks like 1st grade art projects) but I enjoy it. The fact is, I always have these grandiose visions in my head, and I have very little patience and lose interest very easily. So I start these various projects and decide 1/4 of the way through that it is way too hard, and just hurry up and "finish" it. (Sigh) In my mind, I AM Martha Stewart, in reality...I am...craftily challenged.

My arch nemisis is the paper cutter! Seriously, for the life of me I can NOT make that thing cut two pieces of paper the same size. And I'm not talkking about being just a little off, nope, I'm talking about being like inches off. I just never can figure out what I'm doing.

So, when I decided to make the boys birthday invites, I kind of knew I was in for failure. But, I did it anyway. I was actually quite proud of how they turned out. Somewhere along the way I MASTERED the paper cutter and only wasted 1 sheet of my very expensive stampin up cardstock. Last night, grinning ear to ear, I proudly addressed, sealed and stamped the boy's birthday invites....and then...it hit me.... I NEVER put his name in the card. What? So it just says to come to a party, when and where, but not for who??? Noooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! What's a girl to do. I thought about just leaving it, maybe no one would notice....but I didn't even put a picture of the boy inside, so how would they know who it was for? So, rip, tear, shred...(tear)...I "carefully" opened each envelope and wrote the boy's name on the outside and inside of the card (just for good measure!).

Just in case you are wondering, that little weird looking animal thing is a monkey...cause, we call call the boy monkey...he has monkey toes...etc...(sigh). Had such high expectations for these...One day, I'll learn my lesson and not make everything so overly complicated...must. learn. simplicity...

Handy Santana?

2008-12-03T07:28:00.000-08:00

Ok, just a glimpse of how "babyfied" my life is...So we are munchin on some cheerios and watching the Disney channel, and then all of the sudden we are rockin out to some awesome tunes and guitar solos (similar to Santana) I look up and Handy Manny apparently has HIS own music video on Disney. (you know how all those "real" disney kids all have videos?) Ok, so he's singing some song about Kelley's Hardware store, but the tune is sooooo Santana...cracks me up...next week, Handy Manny gets a groupie. (Actually, that already happened, anyone catch the new episode with Flicker?)......oh my life is so sad.

What the boy likes to watch....

Baby Einsteins (his fav fav fav!)

Handy Manny (2nd fav)

Happy Monster Band (I told you he loves to dance)

Those weird "did the monkey mail come" monkey things

The Wiggles (haha, Manny HATES this!)

and UFC (Ultimate Fighting) - yep, that would be his dads fault, "dada" lets him watch it, and then they wrestle...(sigh)

Ok, back to "charlie and lola" and then....bathtime!

Holly, don't laugh at me, YOU are next! Muahahahahahahaha

Double Trouble...

2008-12-02T10:24:00.000-08:00

Oy yoy yoy, so this morning I called the Dr. to get in to see him b/c Noah had an ear ache. Well, apparently he has a double ear infection. The Dr. said it was probably "left over" from his sinus infection, that the original antibiotics weren't strong enough. So he gave us some new stuff that Noah has to take for the next 10 days...(sigh, it doesn't make him sleepy, DARN!). Poor baby, he seems fine, except he's a little fussy, and he's pooped like 10 times in 2 days, but I doubt that's from the ear infection...LOL.

His Abi and Tata left at dark thirty this morning to go back home. As I'm typing this Noah is knocking on the door to the room they had been sleeping in. : ( Poor guy, I'm sure it will take him a few days to get used to them not being here.

Noah's new tricks: (hey, remember when this blog was purely about Noah and what HE was doing? Yea, apparently now it is just my outlet for whatever I feel like blogging about..lol)

Noah has been clapping for a long time, but now when he watches Little Einsteins (his fav show) he claps along when they make rocket go. (I guess you'd have to watch this to know what the heck I'm talking about) but, anyway, they say things like "we have to make rocket go faster" and then they tap their legs and say "tap tap tap" well, Noah claps along. Also, he's turned into quite the prima ballerina, ok not really, but my monkey LOVES to dance. Any time he hears a beat, you can bet he's rockin out to it. Noah also points now, which is kind of hilarious. He wants milk, he points, he wants the owl in the christmas tree, he points, he wants mama, he points and says "dada" (UGH, I know he just does it to mess with me!)

Ok, gotta run, I can smell the boy again...dang what did they feed him?

Happy Black Friday!

2008-11-28T18:22:00.001-08:00

Yay, one of my fav days of the year was today, Black Friday, the Day after Thanksgiving...the day the stores SLASH (haha) prices and we crazy shoppers wake up well before the butt crack of dawn to dash down to the Mall to save $5 on a down pillow. Oh but I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! It's been something I've done every year for as long as I can remember. And my precious Manny, a shopping lover himself, also enjoys the madness that this day brings.

So, this morning after finally laying down for bed at about 12:30am. I settled in for a short "nap" before the 3:30am alarm went off....(how bad do I REALLY need that air mattress? should I just hit "snooze", Nope, gotta have the mattress, GET UP UP UP!!!"

I have a really bizarre method to my madness. On Thanksgiving I scan the ads quickly looking for anything that catches my eye. I make two piles of ads, 1. look through again, 2. toss out. Later on in the day I look through the ads again, this time again separating into two piles, 1. places to go, 2. toss out. I then organize my ads in order of opening hours and how badly I want something. For instance, 2 stores open at 6am, but I really want something from Store A. Store A goes before Store B in my pile. And please, someone tell the boy to leave Mama's piles of newspaper ads alone. Next year, he may lose an arm.

Manny and I hurried off to JCPenny to snag a queen sized air mattress at the unbelievably "door busting" price of $40.00, what is this craziness?!?! I nearly had a meltdown when the cashier called for her drawer to be filled so she could give me change....didn't she know I had to hurry over to the Academy (a sporting goods store) before they opened. (And thank goodness I was in a hurry, other wise I may have punched her lights out - because after standing their for 10 minutes (no exaggeration) waiting for "the key master" she opened up her draw and gave me my change, and said "here, just take this". WHAT?!?! She had the forty stinking bucks in her drawer that WHOLE time!?!?! Lucky for her she had one of those extra mickey mouse snowglobe giveaway things at her register, so I TOOK it! Made me feel better about not punching her in the nose! (And it wasn't really stealing, they were giving them away free anyway!) still made me feel better....that and she let me use my coupon for $10 off early!! Whoohoo, made the impulse buy pillow that I threw in there only $10.

We quickly dashed off across town to the Academy, "oh good, the lines aren't too long! (SCORE)" Grab a place in line, make friends with some silly old man who wants to buy 6 reels and we wait. Once in I quickly grab the fishing shirts, undershirts and BBQ utensil set that I had my eye on. Manny runs off to grab a reel. He wasn't going to get one until silly old man made such a fuss about them! Done, check the academy off the list, toss out ad.

Next, Walmart...ugh....sigh...brace myself....but they had luggage on sale for $44, I CAN'T pass that up, we NEED new luggage...(no really two of our suitcases are missing wheels since our last trip to CA...damn baggage handlers...) I also need a cabbage patch kid for my niece..only $10. Manny drops me off at the door while he looks for a place to park. I run back to luggage (and run over the back of some ladies shoe with my shopping cart) Ok, first of ALL, it was TOTALLY HER FAULT! She stopped right in front of me, no warning, right smack in the middle of the aisle and I couldn't get around her or stop quick enough. I apologized, and smiled at her, I really WAS sorry, until she gave me a dirty look and a "tsk", so then I said, "whatever lady" and went on my merry way. Found the luggage...YES, jackpot, a HUGE stack of luggage....wait, originally priced $46...HUH, what kind of sale is this? Eeeeeeew, cheap luggage...what a waste. Manny grabs a CPK and we meet at the checkout. We wait 20 minutes in line for a $10 doll, a coke and a bag of chips...UGH...this is why I hate Walmart. I suddenly feel ashamed standing there with my doll and soda while everyone around me has carts FULL of flat screen tvs, toys, clothes, and (gasp) $44 luggage. Apparently I was the only one that caught on to THAT memo. We leave Walmart feeling a little dirty and abused....next stop, Michaels.

As we enter Michaels, I tell Manny how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE Michaels the day after Thanksgiving. There are never a lot of people, they have PLENTY of the item you came for and they have coupons. (And they lived up to this another year!) I snatched up two storage shelves for 12x12 paper (a steal at $17 each) and I got a lighted wreath and garland set for $9. Seriously (this was NOT a sale price either, it said $9 on the box) ROBBED from my 'sale'. But I still got it, and a bunch of floral stems to decorate them with, at 1/2 off they were only $1 each. Cha-Ching! (later when I got home, I made this).

I know, I'm SO Martha Stewart (ok, so not really, but I was proud of myself).

After Micheals we head to Rite Aid, they have an ipod docking station alarm clock thing for $10. That's the only thing I really wanted for Christmas, but I told Manny I didn't want to pay too much for one. I'd say $10 is NOT too much, finally, a REAL bargain! At Rite Aid of all places!

So, our shopping trip was successful, we left the house before 4am and arrived home at 7:30am, we got everything on our list except the stupid luggage, and we are happy. Tomorrow, I will decorate the tree (we had a minor malfunction and will have to attempt the assembly again tomorrow). We have a beautiful PRE-LIT fake tree. Well, pre-lit except for the one strand that the stupid cat chewed through while I was putting it together, and now one strand of lights doesn't work. Stupid Scruffy, too bad it wasn't plugged in when he chewed on it. Wouldn't be the first time he got electrocuted (or the last, (sigh) I am sure!)

Oh yea, the boy ate pineapple upside down cake that his Abi made. He LOVED it! (from head to toe)!!

Mamarazzi on Strike

2008-11-25T21:03:00.000-08:00

So, has anyone other than me noticed that I have not had any pictures to accompany my posts lately? What is happening to my world??? I've gone from taking 100's of pictures a day, to tens of pictures a month...poor Noah! Later on in life he'll be all "well, the first 8 months of my life are chronicled (and filed) by day, but after that, I guess Mom became a slacker". Ugh...well, I don't have an excuse, so I won't try.

I've just been a TOTAL slacker lately. For instance, change of address cards, you all know how much I LOVE to send mail, and it's taken me months to finally do a change of address to send out. It was SUPPOSED to be a "happy thanksgiving, ps., we moved 6 months ago) but they haven't arrived yet. So it looks like they'll be an "oops, we missed thanksgiving, oh yea, and we moved, don't forget to send us a Christmas card!" LOL. (Sigh)

Manny's parents are in town visiting (Abi and Tata). Noah is THRILLED to have his Abi and Tata here. He already says "tata" or something that sounds more like that than "dada". I guess I never blogged that Noah was speaking...well, ok, one day he started saying "mama" but not directly at me, so I kind of figured it didn't really count. Then he started saying "dada" but not at Manny...so that TOTALLY didn't count.

Then he kind of started making it count, but I can't tell you what his first word was, b/c well, he kind of used them both. (Am I in denial, and could I really be THAT bad of a parent - I don't know what my kid's first word was! UGH). So, NOW the boy ONLY says "dadadadadadadadada" and when he says it while looking at me, he has an evil grin and a snicker to go along with it! Seriously, he's all evil villain tying a girl to the train tracks about it.

So, I guess my new year's resolution will be to be a better mamarazzi again (maybe I'll get a new camera for Christmas!!) (quick, someone tell my husband).

On a side note: I'm so excited for the holidays this year. I just feel like everything is going to be so much more magical because of the boy. I can't wait for his "first" everything! And, I've begun making birthday invitations...the BIG ONE, already....I can't believe next week he'll be 11 months...holy rusted metal batman!

Cheese & Whine Update...

2008-11-18T18:55:00.000-08:00

So, Yesterday I took Noah to see Dr. Landry. Apparently he has a really bad sinus infection. FUN! He's on some antibiotics and seems to be feeling better already, but still not sleeping through the night...UGH.

Quick side note about our trip to the Dr., Ok, so first when the nurse calls Noah back she stops next to this measuring stick thing on the wall (which I never noticed before) and asked me to stand him up next to the wall so she could measure him...I guess she saw the "huh" look on my face, you know, the whole fact that he barely stands up on his own thing, so she looks at his chart and says "oh, he' s only 10 months old, never mind. Wow! He's big for his age!" (So apparently Noah is a Giant?!) Guess I should schedule his first match up with baby sumo!

Flash forward through all the boring nurse stuff and to Dr. Landry walking into the room and greeting Noah by saying "Well, looks like his hair hasn't laid down yet" (referring to the peacock look that Noah sports because of the awesome cowlick right smack dab in the middle of the back of his head) To which Noah responds by bursting into tears and screaming at the top of his lungs.!!!...Ok, so I KNOW that Noah's feelings weren't actually hurt, but talk about comedic timing...this boy has a future!

Yes! I WOULD like some cheese with my Whine!

2008-11-15T11:17:00.000-08:00

Whaaaaaaaaah!!! Poor Noah was up all night with a fever, and then to make things even more fun, he started throwing up after I gave him some tylenol at 2:3o am. (Sigh)...my poor baby, he seems like he's getting better today. He's had lots of rest and his fever have gone way down and he's back to his normal happy, dancing self. But last night was just awful for him, it just breaks my heart to see him not feeling well.

His Mom and Dad, on the other hand, "slept" on his floor, I took the night shift and Manny relieved me at about 5:30 for the morning shift. I think I got about 3 hours of sleep (only because Manny let me sleep in a little bit this morning)...Thank goodness he was in town when Noah got sick! Well, I guess this is better than poo on the walls...of course, that wasn't as stressful or exhausting.

The Noah & Scruffy Show

2008-11-13T07:16:00.000-08:00

He's my beee-eest friend...(imagine the rob & big song playing in your head)...

So Noah has a BFF., It's his buddy Scruffy. These two are nuts, they play together all day long. And, even though we got Noah is very own "puppy" (aka, mini horse) Noah doesn't care for Lola as much as he LOVE LOVE LOVES Scruffy. Everytime he sees Scruff his face lights up and he loses focus on whatever he was doing, and his only goal is to get Scruffy.

Scruff is such a good sport, he loves his baby too! He lets Noah wrestle with him, tackle him, bite him, pull his tail, everything you can imagine, and he has never once tried to bite Noah. In fact, Scruffy looks for Noah, and tries to get his attention. If Noah is playing by himself, minding his own business, Scruffy will make sure to go lay right next to him or right in front of him. Whatever it takes to get Noah's attention. And, if Noah is making a mess, you can bet the farm that Scruffy will be right there in the middle of it with him. If Noah dumps over the trash can and pulls all of the trash out of it, I guarantee you'll find Scruffy laying IN that trash can. BFF's, Partners in Crime, Brothers....whatever you call it, these two crack me up.

So, here's a few pics of the bad boys.

Let's play hide and seek...

Found You!

playing in the window

still in the window

And, this doesn't really have anything to do with Noah and Scruffy, other than it's Noah's room, but this is my newest project that I'm so proud of, I LOVE it!

Coupon CrazE & Crap

2008-11-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I've kind of always been a coupon freak. I LOVE the high of seeing a grocery bill that is nearly cut in half once they swipe my grocery card and scan all of my coupons. I especially love stores that double coupons! So, how excited was I when I recently discovered this website that lets you load coupons onto your store card!! Seriously, you click the coupons that you want, and then, when you swipe your store card those coupons are automatically applied! How cool is THAT? Maybe I'm WAY out of the loop and am the last to catch on to this phenomenon. But just in case I'm not, here's two websites that let you load coupons to your store cards. Whoohoo...

http://www.shortcuts.com/

http://www.pgesaver.com/

Ok, so I may now officially be the most boring blogger on the net. So to counteract my "boring coupon" post. Here's a little tidbit to make you giggle, and hopefully feel just the tiniest bit sorry for me. Originally, I had decided not to share this story, but..ah, it's better than coupons at least.

So, Noah has had an upset tummy since yesterday. Well, I think after this morning, that is officially over. After the boy had breakfast, I set him up in his high chair with some cheerios and Handy Manny! (He's LOVES that show) I start running his bath water and when I pull him out of his high chair I am immediately disgusted by the warmth I feel on my arm. And then the smell hits me...gag...disgust...gag... UGH, the boy has diarrhea and it has leaked ALL out of the side of his diaper, down his legs, between his toes,all over the high chair, and now (gasp) all over me...SERIOUSLY...is that what I signed up for?

So, after a quick panic attack of "what do i do? what do i do?" and holding him away from me like a ticking time bomb... I decide to take him to my bathroom and "hose" him down. Since his bathwater is already run, after I hose him down in my tub I can just go dump him in his tub and then clean myself up. Seems easy enough, except that on the way to my bathroom, stretch armstrong manages to "wipe" his poo foot on every wall that we pass! (gag!).

Lucky for me, life is better now, the poo machine is down for a nap (not put out at all by his poo escapade), I have cloroxed down all surfaces that came in contact with said poo (including my self, I think I'll just throw out my pajamas...) Oh, but the good news, since I was prepping for bathtime, poo boy was only wearing a diaper. For once he didn't ruin HIS clothes! Lucky for you, no pictures!

Happy Day! (sigh) it's only 10 am...

Not even a little bit??

2008-11-02T14:45:00.001-08:00

Ok, so everywhere we go, everyone always says how much Noah looks just like his daddy. I know he is totally Manny's little "mini me". But....Noah does resemble me a little bit...

Dontcha think?

Piss Off!

2008-11-02T09:18:00.001-08:00

Ok, so luckily for you (and Noah), there are no pictures to go with this post....I just felt the need to share my pain...

The other day I was getting Noah ready for his bath. I went into the bathroom, turned on the water, added a little bit of bubbles, dumped all of his bath toys into the tub and headed on into his room to get him. I undressed my little monster and as he normally does, he crawled off towards the bathroom. I grabbed his towel and stepped over him into the bathroom...I checked the temp on the water and turned around to pick him up and dump him into the tub. But as I turned, I caught sight of my little monster on all fours looking down in awe. And then I saw it....the carpet turning dark beneath him, HE PEE'D!!! My little monster pee'd on the freaking floor! Are you kidding me???

So, has this ever happened to anyone else? Guess I'll have to be more careful from now on...no more crawling around necked! Yes, I said "necked".... :)

Pumpkins, Football, Candy & More

2008-10-29T19:46:00.000-07:00

Whoa, it's been a crazy few weeks. Where to begin???

Pumpkin Patch Mayhem

Today I took Noah to the "pumpkin patch", Ok, so apparently, pumpkins, not native to Louisiana...no real pumpkins growing anywhere. Our "pumpkin patches" are churches that put out like 10 pumpkins and some little fall decor. Voila! Instant pumpkin patch.....yea, not so much...So, Noah enjoyed the pumpkin patch for about 10 minutes and then we left. For one, there was a preschool there so Noah wasn't interested in posing for pictures, he wanted to watch all of the kids run around. I managed to get a few decent shots, but yea, not what I envisioned this trip to be like AT ALL!

This weekend Manny and I took a quick trip to Dallas to catch the Cowboys game with our buddies Christy & Tony.

It was a surprise trip for Tony's birthday. He's a HUGE cowboys fan and had NO idea that Christy had bought tix to the game. Boy was he surprised when Manny and I showed up and Christy told him the good news. We had a great time. Our seats were pretty awesome (I don't think there is a bad seat in the house) and an added bonus, the Cowboys WON! And, with Christy's super cool billion dollar camera and 4 foot long lens, we were able to catch a picture of Romo sitting on the bench, bandaged hand and all!

We looked really hard to find J. Sim, we didn't find her....or did we.... :)

I told you she had a really cool camera! LOL...

This was the first time I had spent a night away from my monkey boy. Auntie Bridget came to pick him up and he was so excited to go with her he didn't even want to tell me goodbye. I put him in her car and he started laughing and getting all excited. I tried to kiss him goodbye and he just pushed me away. Needless to say, when I went back into the house after they drove away I broke down into a bumbling ball of tears. Manny, of course, laughed at me and said I was being silly. But he's MY baby, and he didn't even care he was going away without me....so sad...he's such a big boy.

Last week, Noah attended his very first parade! Early on he caught a football and he held on to that thing the WHOLE time! Even after I gave him a piece of licorice, he had candy in one hand, football in the other. Manny says it's a sign that he's gonna be a baller!

Speaking of candy....reading all of the other mommy blogs, I think I may be a REALLY bad mom....

Ok, so it's like this, last week, 3 different moms posted about their kids who are like 15 months old having their first suckers, and one having his first chocolate milk. Oooooook, so apparently, I missed that page in the parenting 101 book. Noah had his first sucker when he was like 4 months old, and chocolate milk...well...as soon as the Dr. said he could have real milk I gave him some of that chocolaty deliciousness...So, just mark me down for an "F" in that department...on a healthier note, Noah DOES love ALL fruits and veggies! (But he still grubs on cookies and candy, or in the case of the picture below, birthday cake with blue icing!!) LOL... (sigh) oh well.

I finally figured out how to upload the pictures off of my phone...here are a few fun ones that were lost in my phone for awhile!

The funniest thing ever...Noah falling asleep while eating. Yep, chewing while sleeping, HILARIOUS!

Noah's new fall hat!

Noah and the black dog

P.S., I thought I was the only crazy one who took a picture of this...

And before any of you get some crazy idea about me being pregnant, this photo was taken like 18 months ago!

Moo-vin On Up!

2008-10-05T18:42:00.000-07:00

Soooooo, the boy is 9 months old! Holy Schmolly! 9 MONTHS? How can that be? Is it possible that time has gone that quickly? Apparently so! So here's a run down of stats for my "very" healthy boy....hehehe

Weight - 21 lbs and 9.10 oz (GULP)

Length - 29 1/2 inches (whew)

At least he doesn't weigh more than he is long...hehehe. Oh yea and his Dr. told him "whoa, that's SOME forehead you got there boy!"

Noah enjoyed this trip to the Dr. way more than the last few. He didn't need any vaccinations, yep, he's all clear until the big 12 month check up. He got a flu nasal spray thing (which he didn't seem to mind), they gave him one more dose of some diarrhea vaccine thing (but that he takes by mouth, and he always enjoys anything he can eat!) AND, he got his finger pricked for a little blood test and he DIDN'T even cry. Nope, he just looked at the nurse like "what the?!?!" and then she stuck a bugs bunny band aid on him and he was hopelessly lost in trying to get the band aid off. (Took him about 2 minutes).

Moo-vin On Up....Hehehe..Noah's Dr. took him off of formula and put him on whole milk! Oh yea! Whoooohooo! (that's what the blood test was for) My wallet says "ah, thank you so much Dr. Landry," and my mommyness says "wait, how do I travel around with milk?" for that part, formula was SOO much easier. It's amazing how many places don't have milk on the menu. Any mommies have suggestions on how to make this part easier? I mean, besides carrying around a luke warm gallon jug in my diaper bag?

And, I'd like to leave you with some entertaining moments from life...

Noah helping his Daddy hang up some blinds in his colorful room! (At some point we may actually put up the chair rail - hopefully before he leaves for college).

Noah at a middle school football game.Yep, my niece is a cheerleader, can I just say, middle school football, NOT so fun. (middle school volleyball, not fun either) AND in the same week - Noah also went to his first College football game. We watched McNeese (our local team) beat the crap out of Southern Virginia. I'm not sure what the final score was, but when we left at the beginning of the 4th quarter it was 68 to 0.

Scruffy's Halloween Costume (he was jealous of Noah)

Yep, he's a "catfish"...oh man, I make myself laugh...don't let the look on his face fool ya, he LOVES it!...LOL

Happy Day!

Huh? Did I miss something?

2008-09-30T20:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, so you may have noticed I've been absent from the blog world the past couple days...or maybe you haven't, whatever! :) The truth is, I've been....distracted.

::SIGH:: I've given in to the temptation, peer pressure forced me to do it...I started reading the Twilight Series. In my defense, nearly all of my girlfriends had read it, and they all babbled on and on about how great it was. So, I figured, I had better check it out. Well, I started reading Twilight (the first book, there are 4 total) on Saturday...and I am ashamed to admit, that today...I started the third book...

There are dishes in the sink, there are dirty clothes piling up around me, the dog hasn't been for a walk, and the boy...uh, well I'm sure he's around here somewhere....(just kidding, the boy is fine). I seriously can't believe how great this series is. So I've forced my cousin Bridget to start reading it (seriously, everyday I'm like "have you started reading yet? you need to start reading") The kids had a dentist appointment today, so she finally started reading, and now she's hooked too. Seriously, this Stephenie Meyer series is like literary crack. I LOVE it!

And, you'll be happy to know that I haven't been so absorbed in my book that I haven't noticed that Noah is popping out 5 teeth all at once. He's already got two sharp little teeth on the bottom, but now, he's not playing around anymore. He's got 4 on top and one more on the bottom all coming out. He's been incredibly happy (especially for all those teeth) and Friday he goes in for his (gulp) 9 month check up. Holy Cow, when did that happen, when did my little boy suddenly become 9 months old (well, he'll be 9 months on Friday anyway). So, more details after his doctor appointment...

Happy Day (Gotta get back to Bella and Edward)

Lost Zoo Pictures

2008-09-18T19:37:00.000-07:00

Ok, so when I got home from Dallas I was really sad that some of the pictures we had taken at the zoo weren't on my camera. But guess what, they were somehow in another folder. I guess after so many pictures it saves to a 2nd folder. Anyway, all I really care about is that I have THESE great pictures to share! I think they were the best pictures we took (by far) so please enjoy...and down at the bottom of the post...a sneaky peak at Noah's Halloween Costume. hehehe

Noah's first carousel ride!

Hanging out with his people!

Watching his brothers and sister play...

Noah found his long lost brother! Isn't the resemblance AMAZING! LOL

Not having much fun playing with Daddy and the Gator!

All tuckered out!

Ok, so Noah's halloween costume...I think I must have a tendency to over complicate things...I searched and searched and searched until I found what I thought was the PERFECT halloween costume for my monkey boy that NO ONE else would have. So online, I found a sock monkey costume!! Sooo cute right? Until it arrives and is the wrong size, WAY too big. So, I decide I'm going to have to mail it back and exchange it. Except that before I ever make it to the post office, I go to target and what do I see??? A whole shelf of stupid sock monkey costumes. The SAME EXACT one that I bought for Noah. So much for being unique. So, I buy the right size (and it was cheaper than the online one!) and I'm just going to return the big one....So here he is in his costume. :)

I think he likes it!

The most adorable Turtle EVER!!

Look at the little feet! Too Cute!!

And then I couldn't resist torturing him a little! LOL

So you must be thinking, "huh, I'm confused, that's NOT a sock monkey...OK, so the truth is after I left Target I went to the mall and found this adorable turtle costume at the Children's Place. Soooo, at some point, Noah was the proud owner of THREE halloween costumes, but I have since returned both stupid sock monkeys and we only have this adorable turtle...which I think he loves!