One down, thousands to go . . .

Noah turned in his first homework assignment today. Of course, it was a family effort, but the assignment was to find pictures of his favorite foods and put them on a paper plate. Here is Noah's plate, featuring fruits from the stickers my mom sent him, pizza, ham, pasta (really he likes spaghetti), Goldfish, cookies, lollipops, and Chic-Fil-A. We couldn't find pictures of his favorite vegetables (broccoli, carrots, peas, and corn), so hopefully, he mentioned those today at school. He actually got upset once because he wanted broccoli and not pizza! Anyway, here is his homework assignment, the first of thousands to come . . .


This next part is just for laughs. They are discussing gratitude this month, and today, Noah came home with his "Thankful Book."

Apparently, Noah is thankful for a "Fence."
The thing that is so funny to me--we are 99.9% sure he actually said "friends." I can only imagine what he was thinking when Ms. Patricia or Ms. Chelsea drew a fence. Knowing Noah, he just went with it. Guess we need to keep rolling with the speech therapy!

Photos

Yesterday, we took a quick trip to Lexington, NC to have some maternity pictures taken by Beth, one of my friends from high school. It has been YEARS since we've seen each other, and it was amazing to meet her hubby and four children! Noah had a BLAST running around and playing with their kids and was totally worn out at the end of the day. He had the most fun pulling the wagon and playing in the leaves! Anyway, check some of our pics here. And if you ever need a photographer, let me know!!! Beth is amazing!!!!

Two Peas in a Pod

This past weekend, we traveled to SC to take our youth to a girls' retreat that my amazing sister-in-law hosts every year. My sister was so gracious to love on Noah for us while we were busy with our youth, and most of these are her pictures. Noah and Cooper had a lot of quality time together this weekend--they love each other so much and have a BLAST together. Their bond is truly special and very apparent when seeing them together. What a gift they both are!

Noah arriving at "Cooper house!" He can finally say "Cooper" clearly after going through an evolution of "Poopa" to "Pooper" to "Pooker" to "Cooper."

Getting ready to run . . .

Male bonding at its finest . . . (The next three pics are going to be great photos for their weddings!)

My sister said after potty breaks they would run around like this and object to being re-clothed . . .

Sharing breakfast

Cooper was a pirate for Halloween and taught Noah how to say "Argghhh!" with his sword.

Truck races . . .

Book club meeting . . .

Cheers!

Building . . .

Being silly--notice the other little monkey under the pillow . . .

This box was a huge hit--Uncle Chris cut doors and windows in a huge box, and the boys loved it! Who needs toys with a box like this?

Bath tub bonding--also wedding picture worthy!

Moon and Stars

Although the time change has messed up Noah's sleep pattern, the one thing that has been so neat is that he now gets to see the sunset and the moon and stars. Today, he was talking up a storm about the colors in the sunset. He is FASCINATED by the changes from day to night--so much so that we stood outside for a few minutes to moon and star gaze and actually saw a shooting star. It was a great moment for talking about God's creative hand! I got out the camera when he started talking about wanting to climb to the moon . . .

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Halloween '09

Yesterday, we had an eventful, exhausting Halloween. The last day of Noah's soccer season was yesterday, so we did that in the morning. Here he is at the "medal ceremony." They put their hands on their hands to get a stamp . . .

. . . and then they each got a medal. Notice Noah is standing on an orange dot. Every week, he picked the orange dot to sit on in circle time!

One last team huddle . . .. . . and cheer.

He gave Coach Chris a five before we left. Excuse the blur--also I-phone pics. We went ahead and signed him up for the next session of soccer since he really loves it. Besides, I think with our new addition in January (or sooner), we might have to take a hiatus from soccer for a few weeks.

When we got home, he did not want to take his medal off, so I took advantage of the situation and got him to pose with it!

Later on in the day, we headed out to church for trunk-or-treat. Chris and I were involved in the planning and execution of the whole thing, so it was a rather tiring experience. We had our youth make the signs one night:Since we were going to be outside and it warmed up to 78 degrees, we decided to let Noah go as a soccer player since his monkey costume is rather warm. We definitely got plenty of use out of it this season, so we didn't feel bad about that at all. Here is my costume, which drew a lot of attention:

Here is our trunk. We set up Noah's Little Tykes basketball hoop, Chris dressed up like a ref with crazy hair, and kids shot baskets at the hoop for candy. It was a big hit!

Noah loved it!

He also enjoyed "helping" Daddy with the whistle:

Here is Noah eating a lollipop with one hand and popcorn with the other. I am so glad candy season is OVER!

We got a bounce house for the event, and it was a huge hit with the kiddos! Noah had a blast!

Here he is jumping with his church friends. He is all about the girls at church, and they are happy to oblige him!

Here he is on the way home chowing on more popcorn. He said, "Fun church!" the whole way home . . . in between singing with his CD, of course . . .

Overall, we had a lot of fun this fall season with costumes, parties, and events! The best is yet to come among Thanksgiving, Christmas, and a new year with a new baby!

Fun at the Factory

Our crazy monkey made another appearance yesterday at the Factory's "Spooktacular" event. All the businesses do trick-or-treating, and they have various activities and such for kiddos. Here is our experience in I-phone pictures . . .

Monkey in action . . .

Candy, candy, candy! Actually, it ended up being a great exercise in saying "Thank you!" so that was positive.

I don't think this next sequence needs an explanation other than a newly discovered irony: a monkey costume inhibits monkey-like climbing . . .

The standard lollipop is by far this year's fave in Noah-land. I just wish someone would invent a non-sticky lollipop laden with vitamins and teeth-strengtheners. Then, maybe I could relax about them.

Pumpkin painting . . .

The end! I'll do another post tomorrow on our actual Halloween day activities!

Costume Parade & Fall Party!

Today Noah's school had a costume parade and party. It was so absolutely adorable to see 14 two-year-old's dressed up! I thought it was so perfect that Ms. Patricia chose monkeys as the class symbol . . .

When I got there, our little monkey was all decked out and ready to go!

Here he is, getting in line to parade!

Noah was eating his fake banana and talking to his friend Clarke about it.

I love this shot because of Clarke's face. I can see the wheels turning: "Why is he trying to eat that? Does he even realize it's not real?"

They got lollipops at one stop, and all the kiddos couldn't wait to tear into them, so they absolutely didn't wait.

Happy to see Daddy and show off his lollipop . . .

Before he sat down to party, I changed him out of his costume since it is so thick. (He is sitting next to his friend Warren.)

Daddy brought our contribution to the festivities--Chic-Fil-A nuggets! Here he is serving them up to the kiddos:

Here is Noah saying good-bye to Ms. Patricia. He loves her, and she clearly loves her students. She is just one of those happy, positive people who is divinely gifted with children, and I am so glad his first school experience has been so positive!