Easter Arrives!

Happy Easter everyone! Hope you had a glorious Lord's Day celebrating our Risen Savior today.

Today begins Holidays: Round Two for Noah Thomas. Of course I'm proud of my little man and his spiffy Easter outfit, which his Dad picked out, of course. He's also sporting a new hair cut (sniff, sniff, the curls are gone). But he looked pretty sharp.

Noah took off running after church today with an egg he found in the bushes. I was lucky to catch up with him and catch this pic!

The boys and their ties.

Family photo op


Noah "hunted" for Easter eggs for all of 30 sec. or so, then preceded to go tromping through the yard. We did manage to coax him into putting about 3 eggs in the basket before he was done. They didn't have any candy in them, so I don't really blame him for not be that interested. He learned about 2 weeks ago to shake them and squeeze them to get the candy out.

Easter 07 / Easter 08

Check this out! A big difference a year makes.

Aunt J comes to V town

Hooray, I finally figured out how to add these pictures onto the blog without uploading all 532 images from my camera onto the computer, again. Sorry for the delay, Jessica.
Here are a few fun shots from when Aunt Jess was here this week. We didn't have a whole lot of picture worthy opportunities, but maybe that's just because I take pictures of Noah nearly every day.
Tuesday evening A. Jess, Matt, Noah and I headed to the beach for a windy, but fun little picnic dinner, some play time on the playground, and a few runs on the beach. It was super windy, and a bit chilly, but all were good sports and we had a nice night. We got Rita's Italian Ice on the way home, but unlike Carrie, I did not take a picture of that.
Then, on another day, I don't know exactly what I was thinking, but instead of mooching off his aunts, I thought I'd let him let hold my fudgesicle for a second... and he would NOT let me take it back. So, this is what resulted from that. (This used to be a brand new shirt.)

A. J also got to experience Noah playing outside in the hose. He has discovered how fun it is to splash in all the puddles and wave the hose back and forth in the air, but his favorite thing is holding it to his mouth and drinking the water as it runs all down his face and entire body, completely filling his diaper. Those diapers can hold a LOT of water. I've let him play in the hose probably 3 times now, all this last week, and every single time I see him, I literally crack up outloud, he's so funny. When it's "time" to put the hose away and dry off, oh the tears!

My little Ladies Man

Speaking of bow ties...

I am a total blogging slacker! I was supposed to post this photo back in Feb. for Valentines' Day. This is a little outfit Matt's Grandma sent to Noah for Christmas. I couldn't find the bow tie when it came to taking his picture. But he's still a little stud, huh. Thanks Grandma Salter/Grandma Esther!

Happy Late Valentine's Day everyone.

One Year Chair Photo

Noah's first birthday wouldn't be complete without the monthly chair photo. I hope you understand that I didn't feel the need to make him a sign to hold since I had the birthday hat for him to wear and since he hasn't held the sign well for several months now. The only way I could get him to sit in the chair and wear the hat, which he did not like very much, was to let him keep his apple.

And now a few more cutie pictures I couldn't resist posting.


That's pasta sauce on his face. He LOVED the bowtie pasta and marinara I warmed up for him at lunch. How did it get so perfectly round on his face?

The beginning of YEAR TWO

I know the markered tshirt is a little bit redneck, but look at it--it barely covers his belly as it is. I didn't think he'd be wearing it again. His dad loves to dress Noah in a plain, white tshirt and mesh shorts (that's what HE wears for comfort) so when Walmart restocks their 18 mo. white tees we'll get him some more.
Here he is, checking out that belly button of his. (or the sand) We took him to the doc for his 12 mo. appt. and found out he's sitting at 26 and 1/2 lbs. 31 1/4 inches long/tall. That puts him back in the 90%ile for both. His head size is thankfully only in the 45%, or else we'd have a REALLY big baby!
Just a funny shot of Noah running on the beach.

Par-tay

I'll write more later but I wanted to get a few photos up for those of you who are checking and waiting.
Noah's 1st Birthday Party: Noah's new turtle "sandbox" aka ball pit. A definite hit of the party...
The Baby Einstein-inspired caterpillar cake:

And of course, the eating of the cake.

R, S and later T

R is for

Rain-- I LOVE a good rainstorm. Nothing like curling up on the couch with a good book or mag listening to the rain outside. I love the sound of the rain on the roof or windows, especially a tin roof like the one on the Ranch House at Golden Bell. I also love the smell of rain--that dusty, earthwormy smell. And I love the feel of a warm, summer rainshower. Aren't there more than a few love songs that talk about dancing in the rain? I've never tried that yet, but I do like to play soccer in the rain. We get our share of rain here in FL, and I love it.

Rachael Ray--I used to catch 30 Min. Meals every once in a while, but I've never purposely watched RR until this year. Now that I'm staying home, 2-3 p.m. Channel 5 is a pretty regular thing around here. I've picked up a few cooking tips, although Matt wouldn't appreciate all the recipes I'd LIKE to try.

River Rafting-- One of my favorite outdoorsy things to do is go rafting. I have been 3 or 4 times in Colorado, 3 times in Idaho, and twice out East here. By far the best place we rafted was the South Fork of the Payette River in ID--huge rapids and huge adrenaline rush. I took a rafting class (Outdoor Ed) in college and the time I went with my college classmates was class IV rapids, and was a serious thrill.

Roller Coasters--I LOVE a good roller coaster park. A dream vacation for me would be to spend a few weeks driving across the US hitting all the best coasters. (skipping the rest of the twirly rides.) Living here in FL there are some good rides --The Hulk and Dueling Dragons at Univeral's Islands of Adventure, Busch Gardens, etc. Kings Island (Cincinatti) was pretty good, but the best place I've been by far is Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH. They have something like 17 in all, several that are record setting for the highest, the fastest, the largest wooden, etc. On that note, I reeeeeally don't like wooden coasters, but any metal one is good for me. The more loops the better.

Rascal Flatts--one of my favorite bands. Yes all their songs sound pretty much the same and yes the lead singer can be kinda nasally sometimes, but I have worn out their c.d.s .

S is for
Shopping at Sam's Club--I just realized during a recent visit how much I enjoy shopping at this place. I love to get a good deal, and the variety of items they have there is also pretty good. I've always enjoyed cooking for our teens on the mission trips we take because it means at least 2 or 3 trips to Sam's, and people are always impressed with the meals we're able to eat at an affordable price. I wish I had a deep freeze freezer so I could go shopping at Sam's once a month and stock up!

Saturday Samples from Sam's--'nough said, right?

Sports--in general, I love sports. I played 3 sports in highschool at the varsity level and would have played softball too had it fit into the year. I still love to play and watch sports of all kinds, everything from whiffle ball to croquet.

Soccer--probably my favorite sport, I miss playing so much. I played from 2nd grade all the way till a Senior in College. I feel very lucky to have been able to play at the collegiate level, because of all the opportunities it provided me to travel and meet people. My friends from the soccer team have remained my closest. I wish we had a women's league here like they do in Boise, that is one thing that I continually hope I'll find one day-- a group of women to play with.

Snow, and snowskiing--2 more things I grew up with in Colorado and miss very much. I've skiied since I was like 5 and could ski through my dad's legs. It was one of the things we used to do 5 or 6 times a year as a family. The older we got, into highschool and college, the less we were able to go. Matt and I got to go skiing with some young adults just 2 weekends ago, at Snowshoe in WV and we had a great time. (Skiing out East is totally diff. than CO skiing. The runs are soooo short) There was actually powder in some places and more than just 3 or 4 ski lifts.

and finally
Scrapbooking--I don't do it as much as I wish I could/would, because I am indefinitely behind, but I love the way it feels when you finish a page, and then an album, and it looks good.