catching up

Well, Palm Springs was a bit of a disaster. Noah and I ended up coming home Thursday morning after breakfast and spent the rest of the time hanging out around here. There were several different things that played into the disaster (which is probably too dramatic of a word to describe our time) and fortunately there was nothing bad that happened, it's just hard to have a one year old at an 8th grade leadership retreat in a house that is all tile with big tile stairs, and the weather over 114 outside. My idea of spending time in the pool didn't quite work out since the pool was about 100 degrees (literally) so it was too hot to be refreshing. Guitar Hero at 11:00 pm woke Noah up and he didn't get back to sleep until about 1 am...but then he woke up at 6am, so he was exhausted and so were we. Because of the tile (and big steps) we couldn't really let Noah roam around, but since Hylke was in charge of everything, he was out of commission...if I needed to do something, it was hard to keep track of Noah (w/o him throwing a fit b/c he wants to be exploring). Sigh. The rest of the group had a great time; I'm really glad things went so well for them. :)
Saturday we went to Temecula for a wedding. We had a great time catching up with friends. We stayed after the wedding was over and spent some great time with friends!
Yesterday I was able to accomplish some things that I really needed to get done...YAY! Hylke's parents came out for dinner to celebrate Hylke's birthday. We had a very nice time with Oma and Opa.
Today is Hylke's birthday! Happy Birthday, sweetheart!! He went in to the office late so he was able to enjoy some Swedish pancakes with fresh strawberries for breakfast at home. Our church has their big VBS this week. It's a little different than the standard VBS...it's more like camp, but sleeping at home. 8-5 mon-fri. Students get to pick electives during the day in addition to traditional VBS. Hylke is teaching a Tennis elective...he will actually drive the students to the courts and they'll do a week of tennis. He's excited. Noah and I being our mommy and me swim classes today. He just loves to swim. He goes under the water and everything...what a big boy. :) After swimming I think we'll meet up for dinner...Hylke choosing, of course. I'll try to post a more enjoyable post later (with pics :))

Confession

I am typically a glass half full kind of girl. I tend to see the good (even if it's small) in each situation and just overall very optimistic. Last night, however, optimism's evil twin, pessimism showed his ugly face and took over my thinking. You see, today we are leaving to go to Palm Springs for 3 days...FUN! But, there are a couple of factors that have me thinking...BLAH!! First, this isn't really a fun family get away, we're taking along 25 junior high students. :) I LOVE junior highers, but, it's just not the same. We're renting a beautiful 4,000 sq. ft house with a great pool...YAY....but with the weather at 113, 113, 114 respectively, I'm thinking that it's a bit too hot to have Noah outside in the pool...BLAH! The house is very nice (from pics) and my son is a new walker longing to discover all things new...exhausting. Are there breakables around every corner??? Maybe I should have opted on staying home!?!?! BUT, now I'm committed....since our car seats 8 passengers, I'm officially tied to this trip...I'm a driver. Normally I'd be super excited about this...I love youth group getaways, but for some reason (the few listed above and some others...I'm just not looking forward to it. I must confess, I've had a bad attitude and I'm praying that it changes soon. I'm making a conscious decision to begin looking at all the great things............I'm sure I'll have lots of fun things to post next week. :)

Look below

Ok, so I started a post this past weekend and didn't have time to upload all of the pics. I finished today, but it is posted as though I published it back on the 14th. So, check out my new post under my Father's Day post!!

Happy Father's Day!!

How blessed I am to get to celebrate 2 wonderful dads today.

Here are some special things/memories about my dad:

1. He loves to have fun!! I inherited my dad's humor. I'll never get tired of hearing, "you are your father's daughter". Yes, I am....and I'm proud to be.

2. summer evening swims at the Racquet Club..."anyone up for a dip in the pool?"

3. Saturday morning Fails Donut runs...a chocolate bar, creme filled, please.

4. Valley Nursery runs with a quarter mysteriously dropping behind him...just enough for a Dad's Rootbeer

5. Wrestling!!

6. Walking me down the aisle and performing the ceremony

7. Our special trip to see gymnastics at the '96 Olympics...just the two of us

8. Hawaii

9. Taking me to school in Chicago...touring around, eating pizza and setting up my dorm.

10. Bargain shopping!!! it's not a good deal unless you get paid to buy it....haha.

Thanks, dad for all that you've done for us. Thank you for making family a priority and modeling Christ for us. Thanks for loving your very first Grandson the way that you do. I can't wait for him to get to join you on your annual Christmas light walk, stories on the recliner or just a nice walk in the neighborhood. I love you and celebrate you today!

I also celebrate the father of my son, Hylke! I am so, so blessed to have such a wonderful husband and excellent father. Thank you, Hylke for all that you do. Thank you for loving your son the way you do, and making time with him (and me) a priority. I love to see Noah get sooooo excited when you come home from work, big brown eyes looking at me, "da da!!!". Thank you for taking an active roll in raising our son...not just providing financially, but also getting down and dirty!!! I couldn't ask for a better husband or father for our son. You a so truly wonderful and I celebrate you today. You are loved!

Some fun pics

Some of my favorite things

Well, some of Noah's. Here are some of Noah's favorites:

1. Dogs- Noah loves dogs and if we are with a dog he will go around saying, "dog" the rest of the day. He knows what a dog says ("ruff, ruff") and will follow the dog around wherever it goes. He doesn't mind being licked all over, and doesn't really care if they bark. In fact, if we're inside and hear a dog bark, Noah immediately looks at the window and says, "dog!". The only trouble we now have is that any animal is a dog. He has said "cat" a time or two, but dog is definitely the animal of choice. We were watching a horse the other day and Noah looked at me with his big brown eyes and said, "DOG!"

2. Balls- Noah also loves balls. One of the reason I had lots of different balls at his party is that he just loves balls. He will carry them, throw them, lay on them, and play with them. Again, if he spots a ball, even in the distance, he will let everyone know that there's a ball around. A couple days ago I was in the grocery store getting an onion, as soon as I grabbed it Noah looked at it and said, "ball". No, sweetie, not everything round is a ball...but that's ok. :)

3. Other kids- Noah loves his friends. He gets excited when we are with other kids and he can't wait to get down to play. I'm trying to teach him how to be gentle (especially with the girls) but it's a work in progress. We've had so much fun playing with Rachel and Luke the past couple of days. We're going to go swimming with them after naptime.

4. Food- Noah loves anything and everything! I'm so glad that he's not a picky eater. I'm trying to expose him to as many different foods as possible, even if I don't like it. He just tried PB this week (dr. ok'd it at his 1 year) and he loves it! He absolutely LOOOVES yogurt and enjoys helping daddy eat his every morning. He also likes peas, greenbeans, sweet potatoes, cheese, cottage cheese, turkey, watermelon, banana....I could go on and on!

5. Sleep- Noah is a great sleeper. We have had our weeks for sure (teething isn't very fun) but for the most part he sleeps very well. He takes great naps and doesn't fuss at bedtime...just turns over and goes to sleep. We're trying to get him to stay up just a bit later now that it's light out longer...but he's usally in bed between 6:30 and 7pm.

6. Ma ma and Da Da- Noah loves his mommy and daddy. We have soooo much fun with him. He's getting such a fun, sweet little personality. I love to see it developing more and more each day. He knows when he's being funny and loves to laugh at himself. He loves laughing at his mommy and especially his daddy.

7. Songs- Noah loves to sing songs with us. Recently he's being doing some hand motions to, Itsy-bitsy Spider. As soon as I start to sing it, he does the hand motions for "down came the rain". He also knows a dutch song, "Klap eens in je handjes" In the song you clap your hands and then put them on your head and then you rock your head from side to side. It is so cute watching him do it. We did it with him for awhile and then one time I was singing and he did it by himself. He even knew when to go from clapping to having his hands on his head....wow, I'm such a proud mommy. :)

8. Water- Noah loves to swim and loves taking baths. We've been out in the pool several times a week. He likes to sit on the side and "jump" to me on 3.

What do YOUR little ones like??

Our little walker

Noah is officially a walker! He's actually been walking for a couple weeks now, I just haven't posted a video. At the beginning of May he started taking more and more steps together; by the week of May 11, he was taking 12-15 steps and it just progressed from there. We have so much fun with him walking, though we have faced a couple of challenges. The main challenge is that when he wants down, he wants down! He wants to walk around and explore everything himself!! Sometimes he's good about holding our hand, but if he wants to go explore something different, he'll let us know. :) Here's a short video of our walker.

First Birthday Party (part two)

I'm using this post (and last) to journal some of what I did at Noah's party while it's still fresh in my mind. I'm sure I'll come back to it and make some hard copy notes so that I can remember what worked, at what didn't!

The Food:

We decided that grilling hamburgers and hot dogs would work the best for us. Our friend, Kirk, offered to be the main man at the grill. That helped free us up to mingle with friends and family. I had a table set aside with all the fixings and a separate table for chips, macaroni salad and watermelon. We ordered a Costco cake for everyone and Noah had his own special cake from Albertsons (a FREE first birthday cake) that he could dig into (and he DID)! The food worked great and we had plenty for everyone.

Noah's cake:

Noah enjoying his cake:

As you can imagine we had to give Noah a quick bath (in the sink :)) right away...he had frosting everywhere. I'm glad I decided to strip him down to his diaper, it saved his clothes from the impending mess...I don't think a bib would have protected him all that well.

Decorations:

This is where I had some fun with the monkey and banana theme. I had brown table covers, yellow tableware and brown/yellow napkins. On the table with the chips/watermelon and macaroni salad I had two inflatable monkeys, one on either side. I got these for $1.99 at Party America. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the decorations until after everyone had eaten...here's a picture of the table after some wear and tear:

On the round tables (that guests ate around) I had a bouquet of brown and yellow balloons tied down with a bunch of bananas. I loved that idea. It also worked well when the little ones needed a snack. I saw several kiddos eating bananas by the end!! I figured that I'll just make banana bread with the leftovers...a task for today, maybe. I was also able to find a Mylar balloon that was a bunch of bananas. I alternated having one of those in the bouquets.

I used a die-cut machine to cut several monkeys to hang from the patio cover...I forgot about them until it was too late! Anyone need some die-cut monkeys?? :) I'll save a few for Noah's scrapbook, but I have several left if anyone needs some.

The friends:

I had Noah right around the same time that several of my friends had their first (or second or third :)). In fact, there were 7 other babies Noah's age and 3 of them are within 2 weeks of Noah! Here are the faces of some of Noah's friends and family:

Noah and his cousin Lily:

Eva and her Mommy and Daddy:

Luke and Rachel some of Noah's favorite playmates:

Noah's cousin Ryleigh and friend Gracie:

Noah's friend Karis:
Noah's cousin Isabella:
Sweet Sienna:
Noah's buddy Mason:Noah's buddy Joel:

Check out this picture taken when Noah was 1 week old:


Yep, Noah, Joel and Mason!

First Birthday Party (part one)

Yesterday we celebrated Noah's first birthday with friends and family at his first birthday party. We had so much fun! I was a little nervous because Noah had been sick the past three days and unfortunately his naps yesterday were about 1/2 hour each. He usually takes 2 naps that are between 1 1/2 and 2 hours and occasionally a 45 catnap in the evening and he is in bed by 7 pm. Yesterday, he took 3 naps that were 1/2 hour and was obviously not feeling well. I now know the remedy for his infirmities...a big party with lots of balls and lots of friends!! As soon as he was outside he forgot how yucky he was feeling. He had some moments, but for the most part he did OUTSTANDING!!!

I decided to go with a monkey/banana themed party...it wasn't overly thematic, but I wanted there to have bits and pieces of monkeys here and there. I ordered some super cute monkey invitations from vista print; I highly recommend them. Here is a picture of the invitations:

We had the party at our friends house. They have such a beautiful, large backyard with plenty of shade space, a covered patio and lots of room for kids to run around. Since both sides of the family came out for Noah's party along with all his other little buddies from church and Temecula, we needed some space for kids. We had 2 inflatable basketball hoops for the bigger kids, but the little ones had just as much fun! I think my niece Isabella has a promising future in sports:

We also had a mini pool filled with ball pit balls...the kids had alot of fun with that, especially with the younger ones. As you can see, the big kids enjoyed it too:

Add a couple soccer and beach balls and the kids had a fun time keeping busy. Since we work with youth, we had most of this stuff right at our fingertips, one of the great benefits of JH ministry...:). Finally, we had a friend come and do balloon animals/flowers/swords/hats for the kids. Now that was a big hit!! The oldest kids were just under 5 and I would say that the 2 1/2-5 year olds had the most fun with this. Thanks again, Adam, for coming out!! We love you!

Part 2 will be posted in the next day or so....

Facing Forward

Noah is officially a big boy. He is no longer in his infant carseat, he has upgraded to the big boy carseat...and is facing forward!! Here's a picture I took when we got home this evening:

Happy Birthday, Noah!

I can hardly believe it...my baby boy is 1 today!! What a great year this has been and what a wonderful boy Noah is. I'll post more about birthday stuff later...we're getting ready for pictures right now!

A little funny

Yesterday, while Noah and I were at the grocery store, I had a funny conversation with our cashier. It went something like this:

Cashier to Noah: "What a pretty girl you are"

Me to Myself: "haha, that's sooo funny, most people think he's 'all boy' !"

Cashier to Noah: "You are such a pretty girl...so, so pretty!"

Me to Myself: "Please, dear Lord, don't let her ask me 'her' name!"

Cashier to Noah: "I don't see babies as pretty as you very often"

Me to Myself: "Ok, he is a pretty baby...but a girl??"

at the very end of my order:

Cashier to Me: "Wait, that's not a girl, he's a boy!" I just couldn't tell...he's so pretty...maybe when he grows more hair I'll be able to tell. :)

Me to Cashier: "Oh, that's ok. :)" I then think to myself, don't most people get it wrong when girls have little hair?? :)

Those things never bother me, I just chuckle to myself and enjoy the moment. I do, however, think that it is sooo funny that the 2 times he's been mistaken for a girl (yesterday being the second) he was wearing what I think are pretty obvious boy clothes. Yesterday he was wearing the Nike outfit in the above picture...a basketball jersey and shorts, navy blue and yellow!! The first time was in the swimming pool last summer when he was wearing blue swim trunks. I love it!!