Gobble Gobble 2010

Thanksgiving is a great holiday, probably one of my favorites and right up there with Christmas. I love the family getting together, the food and all that goes with it. I love the crazy grocery store and love the thought of how crazy it must be for black Friday shopping. That one I love from afar.

We had a two part turkey celebration this year. For the first time in years we didn't host it which was lovely for many reasons. The four of us headed to Jeff's parents house on Thanksgiving and my mom met us there as well. Everyone included I think there were 17 of us. I think. Before the big meal, most of us met up at a park to play football. This was my idea because I'm a nerd and I love seeing people on TV playing football before Thanksgiving dinner. It wasn't nearly as cool as it is for my TV friends. There were 7 of us playing I think. One of those, Chuck...played college and pro football. Another one, my nephew Jalen is the only Freshman on the Mountain Pointe Varsity football team. Can I continue to brag for a minute? Yes? Thanks. Jalen is listed as one of nine freshman in the country on the watch list for National Freshman Football Player of the Year! THE NATION!! One day I'll watch tv and say "I changed that famous guy's diapers when he was a kid"...but that would be a lie because I met him when he was 4 and there were no diapers at that point. Anyway, the point of that was that I stuck it out for about 7 plays before wandering away from the game and taking a few photos. I was not missed. I wore wedges so maybe they missed mocking my shoe choice that day.

Auntie Sarah and Noah Bear - I love this picture. My sister hates having her picture taken but this is so sweet that it makes me melt :)

Noah watching the game

Uncle Chuck and Connor

After our big "game" we headed in where it wasn't freezing cold (60 degrees) and got started on gorging ourselves with goodness. I saw in my MIL's pantry that she had a bunch of baby foods in turkey day themes like sweet potatoes, green beans, peas and such and Jeffrey and I decided that today would be Noah Bear's first day of real food. I planned on making all of his food like I did for Connor but this was there and now I'm over it. Over it.

Grammy Barnes feeding Noah his first few bites of real food. He chowed through an entire large size of sweet potatoes. That's a lot for those without baby food history

He kinda liked it :)

On Sunday, we had Thanksgiving part two with my dad and Corliss. It was great having two thanksgivings - now I know what all other kids of divorce feel like. Jealous. Totally kidding, stop it. It was nice and relaxed. I love the big family holidays we get with the Barnes family, but also really enjoy the smaller things with my family - the ones where you don't have to scream to get the salt passed. Unless you feel like it which is fine with us.

Connor hates green beans - hates them. It was the first food we ever gave him as a baby and he was completely inconsolable after. Just spit out nothing for twenty minutes after it was all out of his mouth. I've tried it several times over the last few years and each time he's just sick with it. This year we tried forcefeeding it. You can't see it, but during the pic above we were all eating pumpkin pie and I finally negotiated down to the single green bean on his fork was all he needed to eat to get a piece of pie too. He finally gave in and took a little bite. Then he honestly gagged and spit vommited all over his plate. So nasty. YOU WIN CONNOR.

Noah on the other hand scarfed an entire thing of green beans...and another of sweet potatoes!

Sadly, this is the only picture of the boys that I got. Oh well, there's always Christmas. I do love that we managed to dig out Connor's "1st Thanksgiving" bib so that Noah would be able to wear the same one.

That bib worked its pants off

and bear was still hungry after

Friday's Dose of Brilliance

I'm in love with this...you may not be but I'm sure you're aware of my owl obsession if you've read my blog before. I just spent 20 minutes making my own Owl Calendar and now you can too!

because i can't come up with anything clever to blog about...

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
Not really named after someone but my name came from Lindsay Wagner. sigh.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
I can't remember, but I'm kind of a crier so I'll say it was probably within the last week.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
It's probably the coolest thing about me. probably.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Turkey

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
Yuppers - Connor is 3 and Noah is 5 months old

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
Hells yeah, I mentioned my handwriting right?

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM?
Often

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
RIP Summer of 1999

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
I think I would. Not because I'm super brave but I think it would be a cool experience.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
I love so many. Lucky Charms, Golden Grahms, Kix. I really love cereal

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Rarely and I am always so mad when I'm hurrying to put them back on that I have to deal with it then since I didn't deal with it when I took them off.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
If I'm really doing it right, I love cake batter with cookie dough and brownies. go big or go home.

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
Hair probably. and jewelry.

15.WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR?
I honestly don't think i have a fav color. It was purple for so long, but I really like green and yellow.

16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
I bite my nails. gross, i know.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
my kids during the day

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO COMPLETE THIS LIST?
I'm really not into forwards and pressure like that.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
Grey slacks and black pumps

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
Ryan Adams - Desire

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
I don't know...Gray maybe. No one bothers the gray and I'd like to be left in one piece.

23. FAVORITE SMELLS?
food smells like cookies and spices. I avoid the soapy smells in candles and lotions.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
I'm at work so probably a realtor or title officer - before that Jamie Seessel :)

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
No one really sent this to me but I saw it on someone's FB and she's great

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Football

27. HAIR COLOR?
Brown once colored

28. EYE COLOR?
brown - no coloring needed

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
Yes

30. FAVORITE FOOD?
Too many. I'm really into wings right now.

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
Happy endings!

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
No idea sadly. Assuming it was grea.t

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
Pinkish

34. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Winter. Summer is gross here.

35. WHO DO YOU ADMIRE?
ugh. anyone who got through this survey.

36. IF YOU COULD WORK IN A DIFFERENT PROFESSION WHAT WOULD IT BE?
I'd love to work in publishing of some sort.

37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
don't do it. i hate these things. by the time I get half way done i want to quit but i'm too invested.

38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
see above.

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
The Smallest Color by Bill Roorbach

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
A pic of connor at my dad's house from maybe 2 years ago. i need an update.

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT?
One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl - because I'm 15

42. FAVORITE SOUND(S)?
these questions are getting worse

43. IRONED OR WRINKLED?
Ironed - in the dryer.

44. BEACH OR SKIING?
Beach

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
I don't think so...I can write a mean letter like nobody's business.

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
Mesa yo

47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK?
See above some more

48. HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR SPOUSE/SIGNIFICANT OTHER?
we worked together.

DONE AND DONE

5 months old

Noah turned 5 months old a couple weeks ago and while I remembered to take the picture, I spaced on actually posting it. I think it got jumbled around with Halloween and other going ons. Here are all the pics so far with his hootie hoot :)

It's been a busy time as usual and we've had some health issues to battle. Nothing big or concerning at all, just annoying stuff. Noah caught a stomach bug or something a couple weeks ago and was out of school for about a week. Really gross stuff.

In Very Exciting News...Noah has his first tooth coming in right now :) We spotted it on Sunday night - remember the date mom...11/14/2010 - Noah's first tooth! It's on the bottom, just to the right of middle. It's nice to see an actual tooth after months of drool and crankiness over teething. Connor got his first tooth the day he turned 6 months old so Noah beat that even! A bummer about teething is that it causes all sorts of odd side effects - in Noah's case this week it brought on a bit of a cold. He's got a cough and all kinds of snotty issues. Poor baby. Ugh, and I hate the bulb thing - it never works well enough to validate putting them through the torture. But, we do it anyway because it's the only thing we can do!

Noah is really trying to be mobile right now. He's making a bit of progress, but no crawling yet - which is just fine with me. He gets up on all fours and then moves around lots. He will also lay completely flat on his tummy and somehow scoot. No idea how this happens but it works for him. He's working hard at grabbing things and while he's still a bit (meaning very) spastic with his hands it cracks him up to hold on to things...so much that he tends to smack himself in the face which also cracks him up. Being a baby is great. Watching babies learn is also great.

He's eating great and I'm anxious to give him real food. He just loves that nasty rice cereal so much that I really want him to be able to have yummy fruits and veggies. His doctor recommends waiting until 6 months and we're nearly there so I'm sure we'll just do that. Plus...I haven't got around to making any fruits or veggies yet so there's that too. I'll get around to it in the next couple of weeks. Connor started with green beans and hated them - still does. I think I'll start Noah on avocado and go from there! He's still eating a ton - 5 bottles a day at 8oz each. Piggy, but a cute piggy :)

He's got this amazing smile that uses his entire face. He has lots of smiles actually - small, medium and huge. The huge is my favorite and it takes his whole face to make it happen. It scrunches up his face and I love it! He really, really loves everything Connor does and it just makes my heart melt watching them together. We discovered mid Connor's tantrum last week that when he does that tongue spitting thing that kids do (gross, i know) it cracks Noah up! We're working on teaching Connor how to do that without actually spraying spit all over Noah. Still working on it... It makes Noah laugh, like a huge belly laugh and it's amazing. He's got so much personality now and it's so fun to watch him develop into this little person. I love my Noah Bear :)

Too lame for facebook - a letter

Dear person who is seriously trying to have everyone believe they are no longer smoking by covering it up with way, way, way too much perfume,

give it up. thanks.

signed,

unable to breathe over here.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

I haven't posted pics in a while except the family pics or halloween stuff so we've got quite a bit of randomness going on here.

We've been pretty busy over the last few weeks with weddings, family stuff, tball and a bit of traveling. Mix in Halloween and there have been lots of opportunities for pictures of the boys and going ons.

when bear gets fussy and i'm trying to get something done we tell Connor to go and dance or sing in front of him. Apparently, awkwardly patting him on the head works as well.

two funny thing in this picture...1. when we took connor to the dentist last week the dentist gave Noah a toothbrush too. He loves it and has been carrying it around and playing with it for days. 2. When Noah sleeps he sleeps on his tummy, propped up on his knees with his rear up in the air. For about an hour after he wakes up, he has these red circles on his knees and you can see them in this picture.

Noah was sick with a stomach flu or something a couple weeks ago. I was home with him one day. I brought a bunch of work home and this is what my "office" looked like for a while that day.

Grammy Barnes bought personalized pumpkins for all the grandkids. We took the boys to decorate their pumpkins and this was the end result. Connor painted his whole pumpkin dark green. We put his hand print on it but he choose light green for that part so it barely showed up against the dark green color. I painted Noah's and we stamped his feet on the sides.

pouting over something or other during his tball game

Connor and "Coach Jeff". Connor hears other players and parents refer to Jeffrey as Coach Jeff so he will ask "Are Coach Paul and Coach Jeff going to be there?"...I don't think he gets it. lol.

Connor and Aidan waiting their turn to bat

showing Noah his drawing

Connor told me that this was Santa and his sleigh with reindeer. What? You can't see it?

We surprised Connor with tickets to see Mickey's Magic Show a few weeks ago. It wasn't as great as Mickey on Ice but he had a good time. Clearly so did Noah by the look of this photo.

Whenever the Dbacks offer up suite tix to employees for something like this we jump at the chance...so much easier to let Noah roll around on the floor and let Connor run around with the other kids rather than confining us to seats. Having the restroom right there certainly helps too!

I'm not really sure what Connor was doing here during intermission, but he looks like a frog

We got Noah a bumbo a couple months ago and he seems to like it in small doses. After about 15 minutes if he's not being entertained he tries to escape which I find hilarious.

Sneak Peak - Family Pics 2010

We had our family pictures taken this past weekend with Megan J Photography and here's a sneak peek she offered us. We went to ASU and walked around finding fun places for our pics and it was easy and the kids were great. Megan took a lot of family pics and some from Connor's tball game earlier as well so I'm anxious to see all of them too!

Halloween 2010

This was not a year for great Halloween pictures. Not a bit. My camera is great for a point and shoot but really not stellar for totally dark nights so there were a lot of crap pictures to sort through but that’s ok. :)

Connor was a super cute Handy Manny. I made his dbacks hat into a handy manny hat which makes me domestic I think. He loved his costume. Check the comparison :)

(hint...connor is on the left)

Noah was an adorable Tigger. This was Connor’s Halloween costume for his first Halloween too so we wanted Noah to wear it this year. It was too short in the legs but that’s ok. Check the brother Comparrison. Wish I got one with Noah Bear smiling but he still wasn't feeling 100%.

Tigger's (Noah) tail placement is funny to me. Yes, I'm very immature

Noah, Connor and Jacob

The kids were all running around this chair and then Connor immediately stopped when he saw baseball on tv

Bella and Katie

We trick or treat with my bro in law's family so that the kids can all be together. This was our 4th year doing it I guess and it's always the perfect way to spend Halloween. This year, the Blum family made a trick or treat train for the kids to ride around in. It was awesome. They hooked it up to a riding mower and pulled the kids around. It took way longer since we were getting them in and out all night but it was easily Connor's favorite part of the whole holiday. Next year, they are planning on lighting it up and adding more train cars. Awesome idea, right?

Our only niece Maddie was asleep the entire time...

...and Noah chewed on his seat belt all night

Jacob was some character from some show or something that I know nothing about. I do know that they've been growing his hair out for a while for the purpose of this costume. You can't really see it but it's sticking up all over the place and stayed just like that all evening!

this idiot scared the pee out of me. twice.

all night I tried to get a pic of Bella. This was the best of all of them. The prettiest Snow White ever :)

It was strange having Halloween on a Sunday but we had a great time. I had a flight to be on super early on Monday morning so we had to rush home and deal with packing and getting Jeff and the boys ready for the upcoming school days. It just doesn't seem like Halloween when it's near 90 degrees. Stupid Arizona.