Our Crazy Little Noah

It's hard for me to believe that my little Noah is quickly approaching 18 months. He's a typical toddler, moving fast and into everything. He's a sweet little guy, quick to give anyone a smile. He loves to go upstairs and play in his room by himself, his favorite toys being pirate guys and cars. He can be very loud and one of his favorite things to shout is "Mama! Mama!" I get tired of that very quickly.
He loves to scrounge in the trash can for food...yes, we do feed him but evidently it's not enough. Here he is trying to enjoy some of David's coke. Too bad for him...the can was empty. Come on, people. Do you really think we'd give our kid a coke to drink?

One thing he does love to drink is milk. The other morning we had sippee problems and when Noah went to take a drink, milk started leaking all over the floor. Noah just lost it. As he started bawling, he leaned over and started patting the milk on the floor. Talk about crying over spilt milk.

Noah is definitely a climber and one of his favorite spots is the bathroom sink.

Noah loves to bug his older brother and sister by getting into their stuff. Here is a picture of Noah after he found Savannah's make-up. It's hard to get mad at him because he's just so dang cute.

He's also started taking some of Xander's costumes. The other morning he came to me holding Xander's Superman cape, wanting me to put it on him. Off we headed to the bus stop with him all decked out. Looks like we have another little Xander on our hands.

Noah is also a little ham, just like Xander. Last Thursday it was time to head to the bus stop to get Savannah...and I couldn't find Noah anywhere! I had thought that he was in his room but when I went in there and called his name, he was nowhere to be found. Xander and I searched the whole house and then went back up to his room. I finally checked under Xander's bed and there he was. When he saw me, a huge smile appeared on his face and he started laughing. He had hid on purpose and thought he was pretty funny.
Here he is, making me laugh with his game of peek-a-boo.


He loves to read...well, look at books...just like his siblings.

Last week Noah was supposed to be taking a nap. Instead he had somehow retrieved some markers from the top of his dresser and spent the 2 hours of his nap time playing with markers, biting off the tops of the markers, and coloring himself, his clothes, and his blankets.

Thank goodness we buy washable markers. Even so those fingers were stained for several days.

Noah is our little cutie and we sure do love him.

Weekend Getaway

David and I spent a wonderful weekend ALONE in Gettysburg, leaving our kids at home with one of my good friends, Jeanne. We went out for a nice dinner on Friday as well as some shopping and then headed up to Gettysburg. It was amazing to be able to sleep in Saturday morning and just lounge around without a care in the world. The weather was absolutely beautiful so we spent some of the morning and early afternoon just wandering around the beautiful little town.

Saturday evening we took a horseback riding tour of the Gettysburg battlefield. What a great way to explore the land...I could envision how some of the soldiers must have felt, riding up to survey the land and prepare for the battle.



After the ride we had dinner at this little tavern behind the famous Farnsworth House. This house is one of the most recognized inns in America because of the over 100 bullet holes that can still be seen in its south wall, testimony to the massive destruction that raged all around the home during the battle. I just had to take a picture of it.

To end our day, we went on a walking Ghost Tour. The guide took us to several "hot spots" in the town of Gettysburg. At each spot we listened to the many stories, sightings, and hauntings that have taken place in this town. While we were at this one particular spot, "The Garden", our guide told us to not be surprised if weird things show up on the pictures we take. Evidently many people have discovered faces, strange colors, and all sorts of crazy things like that on their pictures. Well, later that evening as I reviewed our pictures from the day, I came across the pictures from "The Garden" and lo, and behold, there are all kinds of strange circles in my pictures. I showed David who wanted to scoff at first, thinking the spots had been on the outer lens, until he saw that the rest of the pictures I took that evening in other places produced nothing other than the picture. Check these out!


And now, a few minutes later...no spots!

Sunday morning we got to sleep in again - hurray! - and then we spent the rest of the morning at the new Gettysburg Visitors Center. It is truly amazing the collection that is housed there...it is almost overwhelming! I couldn't believe some of the things that people hung onto, like the stretcher that carried Stonewall Jackson when he was wounded (not all artifacts were strictly from the battle at Gettysburg).


Overall, it was such a wonderful weekend and I can't wait until David and I can get away again.

The Blue Rock Stars - Game 1

Savannah's soccer team, The Blue Rock Stars, had their first game last Saturday. David was off at the University of Maryland's football game so it was just the boys and I at the game to cheer Savannah on. Although her team lost, Savannah did such a great job and I was so proud of the improvement in her game.


Look at Savannah go! I loved the look that would come on her face as she chased after the soccer ball...pure determination!

Xander Starts Preschool

Last week Xander started preschool and so far, so good.

Campout!

Last weekend there was supposed to be an overnight ward camp out but due to Hurricane Hanna coming in, the overnighter was changed to an evening campfire. There were only a couple of families that came up but we still had a great time. David made us some delicious tin-foil steak dinners and then we had smores for dessert, of course! Gotta love those smores.



The frog that Savannah caught! I couldn't believe she was holding that thing.


I was a little nervous about Noah getting into the fire pit but he did just fine. The kids all ran around together and Noah just tried to keep up with them. It was a really fun evening.

I'm Baaaacccck!!!!!!

I am so glad to be back to the blogging world. We finally got rid of our Internet service with Comcrap and have gone wireless...so far, so good. I have missed blogging, especially since this is my journal. My last entry was a catch-up on the summer and this entry is pretty much going to be the same...a catch-up of the last few weeks. To us, the summer just seemed to fly by, as I'm sure it did for everyone. We really enjoyed spending time with family and friends and taking several fun vacations. To celebrate Savannah's last carefree day of school, we headed to the pool to soak up some sun and have some fun.




Savannah had her opening day of soccer. The team took pictures and then had a scrimmage. Her team won their scrimmage, 1-0, and I was so proud of how well Savannah played. Her team name is The Blue Rock Stars!




Some friends of ours moved to Texas and gave us their old piano. I have wanted a piano for so long but it has never made its way to the top of our priority purchasing list. Although the piano is old and a little beat up, it was free and it works...can't complain about that! And the kids love getting on that bench and pounding out a tune.

David celebrated birthday #36! The hat he's wearing was courtesy of Savannah. David's favorite gift this year was his new set of golf clubs.



Savannah's first day of first grade. It's hard for me to believe that she's a big first grader. I thought the first day would be a little easier for me this year since kindergarten in Maryland is all day so I went through the whole all-day, bus routine last year...but it was still really hard to say goodbye to my sweet little girl.

Yes, Xander usually dresses up for the walk to the bus stop each morning.


David has cut the boys' hair since they were babies but I decided that, at least for Xander, it was time for a "big boy" hair cut. Doesn't he look cute?

The following are just some random pictures of the kids.