Thursday, November 24, 2011

Thanksgiving!

This year for Thanksgiving we stayed home and spent the holidays with family.  It was nice to be with family, although I was wistfully remembering that last two years we spent Thanksgiving in Hawaii with our good friends, the Dodges. Now both of us have added baby girls to our families since then.  So much can happen in one short year!

Thanksgiving morning, my mom stopped by the house to give Noah a special present from Vegas.  A big Mickey Mouse plush toy!  It was so cute to watch Noah show Mickey around our house, his bedroom and play with him.  He acted like Mickey was a famous friend who was coming to pay him a special visit!  Now Mickey has been added to the large reportiore of his bedtime pals (puppy, his water and his three "danks").  A few times a week, Noah will wake up around 3-4am and crawl into our bed.  He does not come empty handed.  He will make several trips from his room to toss up his danks, toys and water into our bed and then lastly climbs up himself. 

We had Thanksgiving dinner at the Oistads' with my parents as well as Wes' godparents.  The spread of food and desserts was incredible and we all enjoyed each other's company. After dinner we were looking at the Black Friday ads and I spotted a crazy good deal on Barbie dolls and games at Walmart starting at 10pm Thanksgiving night (which is just a few miles from my house).  I had already planned on skipping the early morning shopping madness on Friday, but I thought I could "swing by" Walmart really quick at 10 and just pick up those few items. Yeah, right! When I arrived at the store at 10pm, there was a long line of cars the parking lot was completely full.  I lucked out and a car was leaving so I got a spot pretty easy.  I headed into the store and there were no carts! I had to go back to the parking lot and find one. When I headed back in, it was pure chaos.  I will spare you all the play by play, but long story short, all the advertised specials were scattered around the store and I ended up leaving without the items I wanted.  What a nightmare.  Never again!

Noah showing Mickey around the playroom!



Pao Pao and Callie on Thanksgiving

She loves her Pao Pao

Gong Gong, Pao Pao and Callie girl
Auntie Renee can always make Callie smile!

The Grandmas

Don and Bonnie Bladow (Wes' Godparents) and Callie

The Oistad Fam (even Lucy!)

Our family + our newest addition Mickey Mouse

Our little architect!! Noah has been having so much fun building with legos and blocks the past few months!


Friday, November 11, 2011

Vegas Baby!

As a final hurrah to my maternity leave, we headed down to Vegas for a week of fun with my parents!  It was sunny, albeit a little chilly.   However, it was a nice change considering we are in freezing wind/snow storms in AK right now.  Both Noah and Callison did really really well on the plane and in the airport both ways which was awesome!! Noah played with his V-Reader and coloring books and Callie slept almost the entire flight (except for when she woke up to have a smiling contest with us).

At first I was worried there wouldn't be enough kid activities in Vegas, but Noah had a blast! His favs included the lights on the strip, the tunnels (parking garages and bridges), Bellagio fountains, Venetian gondola ride, M&M store, the sports cars people could win in the casinos, monorail (aka train), Children’s discovery museum, dolphin habitat, shark reef, park and going to dim sum!  Callie slept most of the trip as 2 month olds do, but we showed her all the lights and sights too! When she was awake, she loved all the lights and action of Vegas!

My parents generously offered to watch the kiddos several evenings so Wes and I could check out the Vegas night scene.  It was fun to have a few date nights together (our first date since Callie was born)!  We had dinner with Kalei’s bro, Stuart, one night and then went to a dance club.  We also saw a show and had several nice dinners out.   We did go to “Coyote Ugly” in the NYNY casino but we didn’t like it.  The dancing girls just stood on the bar, yelled at the 20-something guys and said rude things to them.  We left and found a nice quiet bar where we could actually talk and hear each other.  We are officially old.  

All in all, it was a nice getaway, our first as a family of four!

Yummy Dim Sum

Noah LOVED this car exhibit at the Children's Discovery Museum!  He spent a good 40 minutes "fixing" the car! Every time we tried to show him something else, he would break away into a sprint back to the "red car!"

Our little mechanic
 
Noah loved all the hands-on exhibits at the museum

Gong Gong and Noah
Dad and Noah racing cars at Circus Circus

Can you tell our boy loves cars?
 
Noah was excited to point out all the big flashy McDonald's signs in Vegas

Sweet Callie girl
Noah loved the flashy sports cars in the casinos
 
We took our little man on a gondola ride in the Venetian Canal.  He loved going under all the tunnels!

First family vacation as a foursome!


I gave Noah a dollar to place on the platform.  Instead of setting it down with the other bills, he walked right up to the statue and placed the dollar in his hand.  Then the statue gave Noah a little wink.  Too funny!

Noah's first gelato!

Noah resting on daddy's shoulders.  Such a cuddler!

It was cute at first, until he thought it was hilarious to claw out daddy's eyes. Poor daddy!

Like father like son.  I often catch them sleeping in the same position like this! 

Pao Pao made Mickey pancakes for our favorite Mickey Mouse fan.  (Note the Mickey jammies!)
Noah loved checking out all the fish in the various casino aquariums

Hanging with the Yellow M at the M&M store

The M&M race car was awesome!

Noah got to meet Mickey Mouse!

Heading into Sigfried and Roy's Secret Dolphin Habitat!

Three dolphins swam right up to say hi to us!

Dolphin Love!

The aquariums were neat and Noah loved the underground tunnels

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Noah loves his sissy!

It has been so sweet to watch Noah interact with his baby sister since she joined our family.  He loves to rub her belly, hold her hand, turn on her bouncer chair music, pat her head and give her kisses.  Here are a few of my favorite shots of them together!




Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Cupcakes with Pao Pao

Getting Noah's hair cut has always been a hit or miss experience.  Sometimes he does great and other times, well, not so great.  One morning I took him to get his haircut and he threw the biggest tantrum you have ever seen.  I gave the hairdresser a huge apology and a big tip for wasting her time and headed home in defeat.  A few hours later (after he got a good nap) I decided to try again because Noah REALLY needed a haircut and I don't like losing to a three year old. This time, we took him to my mom's hairdresser and she lured him to sit still with a "cupcake" app on her iphone.  Noah was fascinated with adding the ingredients and the process of making the cupcakes.  My mom and I couldn't wait to get him home and make some real cupcakes with him!  So we did.