Happy 1st Birthday Callison!

Our sweet baby girl had her first birthday on Sunday!!  Oh how the year has flown by!  We celebrated her birthday weekend out camping with Grandma and Grandpa Oistad in Seward.  We really lucked out with the weather, it was so gorgeous there with the mountains and the ocean!  Then we came home Sunday afternoon for our friend's birthday party and had a small intimate party for our own birthday girl at Grandma/Grandpa Oistad's house. 

I was so excited to dress her up in this sweet yellow ruffle dress that I found 6 months ago! She looked so pretty.  It was fun to dress her up since most of the time we keep her in play clothes/pants since she loves to crawl and dresses tend to get in her way.  The dinner was delicious as always and Grandma Jan made her the cutest pink teddy bear carrot cake!  Our good friend Angela and her two boys joined us for cake and ice cream and helped us celebrate! We all sang her "Happy Birthday" and loved watching her dig into her first piece of cake.  She was hesitant at first with everyone watching her, but once the commotion dialed down a bit, she dived in and loved it! 

We had her one year well-baby checkup yesterday and she weighed in at 15lbs 6oz, 28 inches for height and 44.5cm for head circumference.  Doctor P noted she was "petite but proportionate" and that her growth and development was right on track.  She continues to stay right along the 3% growth curve she has been on most of her life.  Our little Miss Petite.  We tease that since she is so small that when she starts walking (which we expect to be any week now) she will look like a 6 month genius baby! hahahaha.  We are so in love with our Callie girl. 

She is doing so great on all fronts, but she still gets up 1-2 times in the night to nurse.  We were letting her get away with it becuase she was so tiny and wanted her to eat as much as possible, but her doc encouraged us to try to get her to sleep through the night since she really was only nursing for comfort not hunger during those hours.  Her room is right next to her brother's so we have been hesistant to let her cry it out for fear of waking him up two and then having TWO kids to deal with in the middle of the night. Wish us luck. The first few weeks should be interesting to say the least!

Favorite words: "ma ma ma", "da da da," "go!" and "uh oh."
Favorite foods: any table foods. chicken, rice, brocolli, salmon, porridge, cherrios. She really doesn't like baby food anymore. 
Favorite activity: anything Noah is doing.  :)

After much angst, I am sorry to announce to anyone who follows this blog, that this may be my last post or one of the last.  I just don't have the time to work on it anymore and when I do get a free moment after both kids are in bed, pretty much the LAST thing I want to do is sit in front of the computer since I do that all day for work. I am gonna print all these blog entries into a photo book and then call it good. I plan to continue writing about our kids in annual photo/year books so I can print them out at the end of each year, it just won't be available online.  I'll try to do periodic facebook updates to share a few favorite pics with family and friends here and there! Thanks for checking in with our little family!

Mommy can do anything (for now at least)

Grandma, Grandpa our good friends Rose and Steve and I took Noah and Callie to the "Teddy Bear" Picnic at the Bear Paw Festival earlier this month.  It was a beautiful day, but a gust of wind came by and blew our napkins off the table.  Noah being the orderly-minded kid that he is, panicked and tried to catch them and said, "Mom, can you stop the wind?  Please!" 

Rose pointed out it was pretty cute that Noah thought I could stop the wind in all my mommy greatness. :)  I will have to enjoy this age while it lasts. 

Callison is 11 Months Old!

Callie girl is 11 months old!  She is eating table foods now and loves to eat whatever we are eating.  She will gobble down her dinner happily and loves using her fingers to put the food in her mouth.  Lately, we have been using her as a good example for Brother, saying, "Look at sissy, she is eating all her dinner!" Works about 23% of the time. Her fav foods this month are salmon, chicken, green beans, tomatoes and cheerios. :) She also had her first taste of chocolate by accident and LOVED it.  We planned to wait another month before introducing chocolate, but oh well.  Here's how it went down: We had an unbelievable sunny day last week, so I took the afternoon off work and my mom and I had a picnic with the kids.  Next thing we know, Callie grabbed Brother's chocolate chip cookie and started munching away happily.  She only had a small piece, so I let her finish it while I snapped my camera at her smearing chocolate all over her face and white sundress. picture perfect.

Same as every month, Callie's favorite person on this earth is her brother.  She utterly adores him and is happiest when she is right in the middle of everything he is doing.  If I am trying to put her to bed or nurse her and she hears him talking or playing, she will fuss until I bring her to him.  Noah and Callie's friendship grows more and more each day.  A few days ago they were "wrestling" on our bed together and I was worried Callie would get smooshed or hurt, but she was cracking up and giggling so hard!  I just kept telling Noah to be careful and he would say, "I want to hold my sissy" and then give her a big hug and tickle her. Speaking of laughs, I noticed this month that Noah gets her biggest laughs.  All of us will get a giggle here or there, but Brother will elicit these gut-busting belly laughs from her that are just too cute. 

We started giving Callie and Noah baths together this month which is way easier on mom to bathe them together and fun to watch them play/splash in the tub together.  Noah has so much fun playing with her that bathtime is rarely a struggle.  It is cute to watch him show her how his fav tub toys work.

Poor baby girl is teething big time right now.  Her top three teeth are coming in all at once so nights have been rough.  Thankfully she still nurses at night though and that seems to really soothe her.  Orajel seems to be helping.

She loves to stand and walk along furniture while holding on.  She is pretty good on her feet.  It won't be long before she starts walking on her own.  She is a fast crawler and can go from one side of the room or up the stairs pretty quickly (especially if she is trying to get to Brother). 

Callie is a sweetheart and pretty mellow....until you try to put her in her carseat. She doesn't like her car seat and will do "archy-back" and throw a fit.  Once we get her in and she calms down and is happy, but those first few seconds are a battle. every time. 

I can't believe it has almost been a whole year since she was born! How our lives have changed.  It is almost hard to remember what it was like when we just had Noah.  She has been the perfect addition to our family and makes our hearts swell with her sweet smile.

Kids say the funniest things sometimes!

So on the way home from daycare Noah asked grandpa for some water and grandpa said he could have some when they got to the house.  When they got to the house grandpa forgot about the water and after getting settled in he sat down on the couch.  After a while, Noah climbed up into grandpa’s lap and said, “What does it take to get a glass of water around this place?”

Callison is 9 months old!

Jeepers!! Summer is here and this month has flown by! I realized I hadn't posted about Callie's 9th month and that I had better hurry because she is 10 months tomorrow!  This still counts right? ;)

9th month stats -- 14lbs 4.5oz, 27 inches for length and 43.5cm for head. She is tall and lean.  How she has stayed so slim is beyond us, we feed her three meals a day of solids with lots of milk and snacks in between meals. I think my mom has made it her personal challenge to bulk her up by feeding her as often as Callie will let her!  She loves to eat all kinds of solid pureed foods, baby mum mum crackers, Gerber stars and cheerios.  She tested a little low on iron at her 9 month well-baby checkup so we have been adding more cereal and iron-rich foods into her diet.  She is still drinking breast milk (pumped milk during the day and she will nurse late at night and early in the morning).

We noticed just recently Callie has a long torso just like her momma.  Her hair is starting to grow in a little more.  She had a ton of dark (almost black) hair when she was born, then it kinda fell out and now it is growing back brown.  Her eyes are a really beautiful blue-gray color (just like her daddy).  Most common remark from our friends and family is how much she looks like Wes. 

I feel like I write this every month, but our "Callie girl" loves her brother more than anybody else.  She thinks absolutely everything he does is amazing and facinating.  She wants to be near him always and is constantly crawling up on his back/shoulders to see what he is up to and cracking up with him when he plays with her.  Listening to them laugh together in the backseat of the car is the most wonderful sound.  This past weekend it was over 80 degrees so we set up the water table and she and Noah played so good together!

Noah is still learning how to share with his sister.  His idea of sharing is to pick out what he wants to share with her and then exclaim, "Mommy, I shared!"  like it is some big feat to be celebrated.  Too funny!  Callie is such a great sport about it though and as long as she has something to play with and is with her big brother she is happy. 

This month, Callie showed us she can crawl up an entire flight of stairs without missing a beat.  She also pulls herself up on furniture and can sort of walk along holding onto the furniture.  I have even caught her standing on her feet, barely touching the wall for support.  She continues to amaze us with her motor development progress, which seems way ahead in comparison to brother's.  She is such a busy body and loves to be in the middle of all the action.  One of her favorite "go-to" spots is under our dining table where she will pull herself up to standing by holding onto the seat of the chairs.  She is the perfect height where she doesn't hit her head on the table but she can see all the action going on in the kitchen.

She is babbling like crazy and can say "ma ma ma ma ma"  and "da da da da da".  We are considering those her first words. :) Sometimes we think we hear a "yeah" or a "yep" in there too.

Callie still has two teeth on the bottom deck and we know her top teeth are just a few weeks out.  We can feel them coming in and poor baby girl has been teething for what seems like forever so hopefully they pop out and give her some relief.

As I mentioned earlier, summer is in full swing up here in Alaska which means I am outside enjoying the sunshine and warm weather!! After record breaking snowfall, sitting in front of my computer blogging is a low priority whenever the sun is shining.  Until I can figure out a faster way to upload pics, pictures will just have to wait for those rainy and cloudy days.  ;)

Memorial Day Camping – Byer’s Lake

This year’s annual camping trip to Byer’s Lake was a little botched.  We had planned to leave Friday afternoon but then Noah got super high fever on Sunday night and couldn’t really shake it all week.  We took him in to see his doctor twice and stayed home on Friday with him.  As it goes with kids, he seemingly bounced back to good health on Saturday morning so we packed up the truck/camper and headed North to meet up with our good friends, the Andersons, Wes’ parents and my parents.  It is a little over a 2 hour drive up there, but anyone that knows Wes and I, knows it takes us FOREVER to get anywhere with the kids.  So after packing up the camper, stopping at the grocery store, swinging by Home Depot to get a few supplies and making a few potty breaks for Noah, we finally pulled into the campground around 4:30 (4 hours after we had pulled out of our driveway)!! 

The weather was kind of cloudy and there was even some rain, but we still had a great time!  Noah and Bodi rode their bikes down to the lake, played on the dock and we went on a hike around the lake.  We ate yummy camp food, made smores, played games around the campfire and Jan made awesome scratch margaritas.

Callie did great on her very first camping trip ever and was a trooper during the long car ride.  She did get a little antsy being held and put in the baby carrier most of the time because she loves to crawl and explore.  Probably her happiest moment was when we set up the pack n play outside and she crawled around in there and made faces with Bram through the net.

Another great trip to Byers with friends and family!

(I am way behind on posting photos ... hopefully I can get caught up soon cause we have some great ones from this camping trip.  this blog entry was written almonst a month ago so I figured I would just post it and catch up on pics later.)

Callison is 8 months old!

Yikes, this past month just flew by and I nearly missed my chance to report on Callie girl's 8th month!  This month was crammed full of milestones for Callie.  She is crawling everywhere, still an army crawl but boy can she book it from one end of the room to the other!  She is learning how to get her knees underneath her though.  The baby gates are back up everywhere. 

She loves to pull herself up to STAND holding onto her crib rail, the sofa, or whatever she can reach! She hasn't quite figured out yet how to get back down to the ground without falling so once she gets herself up, she gets kind of stuck and cries out for one of us to help her out.  We still can't believe she is standing.  Since she is so petite, it looks kinda funny to see a little baby standing. 

She is also babbling tons and using her voice. Dad swears he heard her say "da da" but I am holding out her first word for when we both hear it.  Plus, that gives me more time to practice "ma ma" with her when dad isn't looking. :)

I know I have said this before, but Callie is Noah's number one fan!  Whatever Noah is doing, she wants to be right there doing it too.  At bedtime, we read books to the kids and have both of them on the chair/couch with us.  Noah will point things out in the book as we read while Callie will lean way into the book and happily slap all the pictures on the pages.  If Noah is playing with something, she will crawl over to him as fast as she can and crawl on his back/pull herself up on his shoulder to see what he is doing.  She loves to be close to him all the time.  Thankfully, Noah seems to have lots of patience with her and doesn't mind sharing (of course, he wants to decide what he will share with her which is a little backward, but she doesn't seem to care as long as she can be with him).

One thing that we really noticed this month is that Callie does not like to be put down to entertain herself. We used to be able to set her in the jumperoo while we cooked dinner, but now the moment you go to set her down, she will cry to be picked up.  She will play on the floor with toys or brother but doesn't like to be by herself much.  Her favorite spot is in our arms, making cute faces wtih us and smiling at brother.  She also developed a little bit of stranger anxiety this month and doesn't like being held by others.  Previously, anyone could hold her, but now she definitely is more reluctant with new faces.

Last weekend, Mommy had to travel up to Fairbanks for work and was gone from Callie for two whole days, one night.  It was our longest separation yet and I missed her so much!!  Daddy was on kiddo duty and said they both did great but that Callie girl didn't smile as much with me gone. My poor baby missed her mama! It is so hard with babies because it isn't like you can explain why you are leaving and when you are coming home.

Pictures to come soon! The sun has been shining up here in AK, work has been super busy and I am training for the summer races.  This all leaves very little time for blogging/downloading photos, but I will try to get on it this week.

We are excited to take the kids camping this weekend for our annual Byer's Lake Camping trip!  Noah has been talking about going camping ALL winter long so he was jazzed to see the camper back up on daddy's truck.  Can't wait to introduce Callie girl to one of our favorite family/friends outings!

One-on-One with Noah

A few of my good friends recently interviewed their young kids and posted the responses on their blogs.  Kids say the funniest things.  They inspired me to do the same, although my interview with Noah took a couple attempts.  The first time I interviewed him, Noah thought it would be funny to answer all my questions with a color.  What is your favorite activity?  Red!  What do you like to eat?  Brown!  He thought this was so silly and and would crack up at himself.  The other night, he was in an especially talkative mood, so I tried again and had more luck.  (I used explanation points because he was excitedly SHOUTING back his responses to each question).  Love. :)

What is your favorite show?  The McQueen Show!

What is your favorite snack?  Cereal!

What is your favorite color?  White!  (is this a color?)

What is your favorite number? Three!  (his age, of course)

What do you want to be when you grow up?  An astronaut.  (Sadly, the U.S. no longer has a space shuttle program, but I didn't have the heart to tell him that)

What is your favorite toy?   Mickey Pumpkin! (This is a stuffed pumpkin with Mickey ears that Grandma Jan brought him back from Disney world.  It is an odd toy, but he loves it.)

What is your favorite game to play with dad?  Guns!

What is your favorite game to play with mom?  Cars!

Who is your best friend?  Mommy, sissy and Bodi!

What is your favorite book?  The McQueen Book!

Our "Mean Old Dinosaur"

Noah is such a crack up sometimes.  Yesterday, we were at Red Robin for lunch and all of sudden Noah jumps up on the seat and starts singing this dinosaur song to the tune of "I'm a little teapot,"  with hand gestures and everything into his reflection.  Wes and I were laughing so hard!  We were so amazed because he is usually too shy to sing or dance in public!  Since Noah learned the song at pre-school, we had never heard it before.  We googled it as soon as we got home.  Below are the words.  It was just too cute!!

I'm a mean old dinosaur   (make mean frown)

Big and tall    (stretch arms high and wide)

Here is my tail   (point to imaginary tail)

And here is my claw   (curl fingers on one hand)

When I get all hungry   (rub tummy)

I just growl   (growl the word "growl")

Look out people   (hold hand above eyes like you are looking)

I'm on the prowl!!  (lunge left and right)

We love our little dinosaur!  Here is a video that we took with my iphone. (Disclaimer: There is a lot of background noise so you might have to crank the volume to hear him.)

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Family Picture Day!

We recently headed out to take some new family pics to document Callie's six month (actually 7 month) milestone and get some pics of the kids together.  While we are waiting to get our photo proofs, here are a few "teasers" our photographer posted.  We lucked out on the weather big time.  The very next weekend it was BOMBING snow!!  

Noah is 3 ½ and all boy!

Noah is 100% boy.  As he is coming into his own and getting older, he has really gotten into pushing his rules/limits with us…. and pushing in general. Sigh.  Daddy can be kind of a pusher too when joking around with his buddies and looks like Noah has inherited that trait.  The worst part is that Noah pushes kids out of nowhere, unprovoked.  One minute he is playing nicely and the next minute he is pushing them down and says “I want to say sorry!” or “I want to go to Timeout” like it is a game.  We are really working on correcting this bad habit with him and hopefully next month we will have good progress to report!

However, he isn’t always so rough.  He can be very gentle, especially with Callie.  He will often ask if he can “take care of his sissy” which means he wants to hold her and give her hugs and kisses.  I also catch him holding her hand gently in the car since he sits right next to her in the back seat. 

This winter we had the highest snowfall that has ever been recorded in Anchorage!!   My good friend Annie and I had decided to co-host an Easter Egg Hunt for all our friends who have young kids at a nearby Elementary school playground the day before Easter Sunday.  That morning, we woke up to huge snowflakes coming down (this was the day the snowfall record was broken)! Nearly everyone we invited showed up and we had 27 CHILDREN ranging in age from just a few months (in strollers/baby carriers) to 6 years old running around digging for plastic easter eggs in the snow and in full snow gear.  It was hilarious to watch and so much fun to get everyone’s kids together.  This hunt is definitely an Easter tradition we will continue for years to come, but hopefully there will be less snow next year!   Noah loved the egg hunt and even when all the visible eggs were collected, he still had fun trying to find more eggs in the snow... he was able to discover two more eggs with daddy’s help that had been buried way down deep.

He is still a whiz at his puzzles and remains obsessed with anything related to the Cars movie or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  Disney is making good money off the Oistads and the 4 grandparents who love to feed his obsession. The Easter bunny brought him a “Miles Axelrod” toy in his basket and Noah was so excited that he even mentioned it to his teacher on Monday.  He can recite several short books from memory (Good Night Moon, Brown Bear Brown Bear, the Good Night Book by Sandra Boynton (he will say the author’s name when he says it) and the Artist who Painted a Blue Horse book.  It is really fun to see him read these short books to his sissy.  We also catch him singing several songs from time to time.  The other day he was on the potty singing “I’m taking home a baby bumblebee, won’t my mommy be so proud of me?....”  so cute.  We say “catch” because if we point it out or start singing along with him, he often stops singing.  Our shy guy!

Love our little man so much.  It is so neat to watch him grow into this smart, funny, strong willed little person.  This morning he wasn't feeling well so we kept him home from school but he still had enough muster to softly sing Jingle Bells to Callie and I all the way down to Pao Pao's house.  Love.



Noah and his sissy



kisses from big brother are the best!

The boys love playing in all the snow!

Our little pusher in action.... poor Nathen!  Aiden thought it was funny though.

Noah always gives Lucy her treats.  Shake Lucy!

Our favorite little swimmer!

Easter Egg Hunt in the snow... only in Alaska!!

We tried to get a pic of the kids together... here is a handful of them.  Classic.

Dying Easter eggs with Grandma Jan... one of Noah's favorite Easter traditions!

Our baby boy is no longer a baby.  He is getting so big!

Noah was so careful with the eggs and didn't break any of them!

Daddy's tee = makeshift smock!

Ta Da!!  Noah and Grandma did a great job!

Noah proudly holding his "Noah" egg

 

Noah wanted each of us to have our own eggs.



Easter morning

The Easter Bunny hid chocolate eggs around the house

The Easter bunny brought Noah a basket of goodies with a puzzle, mickey book, Miles Axelrod car, batman tee, candy and a microphone!

My handsome boys



Noah reminded me of a mini business tycoon in his Easter suit.  He looks ready to take on the world!



Noah smiling at me during Children's Sermon



Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Easter book take 2! 
Noah got this book last Easter and we read it so much thoughout the year that it was missing several pages and stickers.  I was so excited to find it at the store again this year.  It is one of his all time favorite books!



Noah and his Pao Pao





Callison is 7 months old

Our sweet “Callie girl” is seven months old and oh so sweet.  She is our Miss Petite!  At her six month well-baby checkup, she weighed in at 12 lbs 12.4 oz (4-5%).  She was 26 inches long (50%) and 42.5cm for head (50%).  Dr. P said that her motor skills are definitely on track and tried to assure me (her neurotic mommy) that her weight is okay even if she is on the small side.  She can sit up on her own, roll both directions, push up on her arms, spin around, jump in her jumperoo, pass objects back in forth between her hands and do mini sit ups.  She is very active! When she is on her back, she lifts her neck and head up so she can see what is going on.  She does more crunches than anyone else in the family.  Her favorite activity is to watch big brother ALL THE TIME.  She loves him so much.  You can actually see the look of adoration in her face when she watches him.

Biggest news this month is that Callie sprouted her 1^st tooth! It is the bottom left front tooth!  She loves to put things in her mouth. Favorite thing this month for her to suck on are her shoes. She grabs them off her feet and in her mouth they go!  Thank goodness she isn’t walking yet, so the shoes are not dirty, but still.

She still doesn’t like to eat if there is a lot (or anything) going on.  She doesn’t want to miss out on anything. This is nearly impossible with a 3 ½ year old brother running around the house especially if just one of us watching both kids, but we try to accommodate Callie when we can and when we can’t we just hope she will learn to eat in noisier environments.  Last month we started her on rice cereal (she was not a big fan of this), but she loves her 1^st foods of peas, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, peaches and apples.  The only food she didn't love was bananas.

Last weekend we had fun celebrating Callie’s 1^st Easter!!  My mom got her a pretty pink dress and white patent mary janes (that she kept in her mouth nearly the entire church service).  The dress was a little big on her since we got it a while ago thinking she would need a 6-9 month size, but she still looked so darling in it!  Love playing dress up with my pretty girl!

One of the things I love most about Callison is her easy-going and happy personality.  We recently took family pictures and I have to give her the best baby award for that day. We had scheduled pictures at 11am in South Anchorage. On the 40 minute drive into town, she was kinda tired but big brother was playing with her in the back seat and she didn’t fall asleep…. until 5 minutes before we met with the photographer!!  I tried to let her sleep as much as I could by having the photographer take pics of Wes and Noah first but after 10 minutes I had to wake her up.  I felt so bad about waking her, but she was fine with it and rewarded us with lots of cute smiles for the pictures.  Then when we got back in the car to head to the photographer’s studio for more photos, I thought for sure she would fall asleep or be cranky from missing her morning nap. But she hammed it up for more adorable pictures for another hour!   I could not believe it.  She is such a trooper!

Can't believe she is already seven months old!! Time flies when you are having fun!  

Baby girl LOVES her brother so much!

MMMMM... squash!

Daddy and daughter have the EXACT same expression.  hilarious.

Cheerleader face!

Loves to grab her toes

Sit ups!

Lazy Sunday.... love.

Grandma Jan and Callie girl



Callie, Kendra and Bodi reading and snuggling together!

Auntie Renee and Callie on Easter - they matched!

Our family

The Easter Bunny gave Callie a basket of goodies for her 1st Easter!

Pao Pao and Gong Gong

Pretty in Pink

Daddy loves his baby girl so much!

Grandma and Callie -- love her tongue!

7 months and loving each moment with our sweet girl

Bedtime Funny

Last night Noah was doing some serious stalling at bedtime. He was pulling out all the stops:

"I'm still hungry"

"I'm not tired"

"I wanna play"

"I don't want to go to bed"

After giving him snack and letting him play a few more minutes, he still didn't want to go to bed.  By 9pm we had heard enough excuses and decided to lay down the law.  Wes picked Noah up,  started taking him upstairs and said, “Son, it is time to read some books and go to bed.” 

At this point Noah whined, “But I’m not tired yet!”  Wes and I both responded at the same time, “We don’t care.”  Then Noah said in his most meek and sincere voice, “But I wanna care.” 

Wes and I started cracking up.  Too funny! It was a great last resort play by Noah, but he still had to go to bed. 

He was fast asleep shortly after.

Fun in February/March!

Kekoa and Callie -- they are the cutest; they are exactly one week apart in age (Callie is the older woman)

She's already got him eating out of her hand

The whole crew.  Big brothers Kailer and Noah are too cool for school.

Best buds Bodi and Noah have fun with flashlights, PJs, popcorn and a movie! By the end of this night, Noah's room was completely destroyed (and covered wall to wall with popcorn).  Boys! You gotta love 'em!

   

Hiking Baldy with my Callie girl.  Our little family went up the mountain one sunny Saturday morning.  It took longer with the kids but we made it to the top!

Noah had fun on the hike and sliding down the mountain!

Ice Fishing Derby at Finger Lake! The boys digging out the hole and trying to see the fish

Noah fishing (or trying to stab a fish).

After a while, we gave up on fishing and just played in the snow!

Daddy took Noah for a short ride on the fourwheeler.  Gorgeous winter day!

Bram goin in for a smooch!

Annie and Callie

Noah loves to play with his sissy and make her smile

My pretty girl and her furry purple parka.  Getting her dressed is so much fun!

Noah has been doing so great at his swimming lessons!

He puts on the googles and likes to look underwater and blow bubbles.  He is getting good at his kicks too!

Noah's cheering section



Daddy and Noah

Daddy horse back rides? yes please!

Noah likes to mix and match his jammies so he can wear two kinds at once.  This night he was very specific that he wanted the Elmo top and Christmas Mickey pants.

Winter fun at Ravenwood Elementary

Sledding!

Noah wanted to pull daddy on the sled!

Icicles!

"Pile on dad" sled rides are the best!



Family movie night with the Andersons!  The boys lasted about 10 minutes before they started running around the living room.