Presents!

Thanks Grams & Grandad!

Thanks Lambie & Crowdad!

And the grand finale...

Hermie the hermit crab!

Our Little Man Turns Four!

Newbie to the world

6 months - Also known as the no neck stage.

1 year!

2 years!

3 years!

4 years!

Happy Birthday Noah! We love having you as a part of our family!

Makeup Truck

Lipstick (ascending) on Caterpillar truck 1969

 What does lipstick and a truck have in common? I don't know, nor do I understand why there was actually a picture that came up when I did a Google search. But what I do know is that for some reason my son has gotten the word makeup confused with the word pickup, and has now switched them out. So, if you happen to be standing near us to hear Noah yell, "Look Mommy, there goes a makeup truck!" you will understand.

Offering Anyone?

Noah will be turning four next month, which means he will be graduating out of the nursery and into "big church" with us. So in order to prepare him for the transition, we have started having him come for the singing portion of the service. On his first Sunday to come in with us, we prepped him of what he should expect and what we expected of him. Just one little problem, we forgot to tell him about the offering. Joshua passed the offering plate around Sydney and Noah to me. As soon as it made it into my hands, Noah's head dipped down and his face went into full pout mode. I leaned over and asked him, " Noah, what's the matter?" Noah raised his face just enough to look at me with his sad puppy dog eyes and a protruding lip to say, "I thought I could have some money!" Joshua then leaned over and tried to explain to him that the money was for Jesus and the church. Noah did not like that answer and gave Joshua the look that said, "Why isn't Jesus sharing?" And then it was off to the nursery so that we could hopefully avoid a scene. I don't think we succeeded though, considering we were sitting on the second row from the front, and Noah maintained his "it could go either way face" (cry or throw a fit, maybe both) all the way down the aisle. Ah, the first joys of being a PW with a little PK.

Funny Man

This is a glimpse into Noah's funny personality. He will go to great lengths to make us laugh, even going a little overboard with the alphabet stickers.

Grasshopper Tears

This story starts out with a very excited boy as he discovered and captured a very large and active grasshopper that was playing in the backyard. For a little over an hour, this boy took great delight in playing catch and release with his jumping friend. But this all ended in tragedy, when his new friend was spotted by a black bird. As the little boy was chasing after his friend to catch him again, the black bird swooped down and stole his little grasshopper. The black bird then perched himself on the fence in front of the little boy and maliciously crunched down his little friend. In turn the boy was screaming at the black bird with tears running down his face, and shouting, "Bad bird, bad bird!!!"

True story.

Lizard Army

Noah's new "it" toy is his collection of lizards. He has been carrying the lizards around the house for the last couple of days, and yesterday he came up with a new way to play with them. So I just couldn't pass up taking a picture of my cute little man with his lizard army.

Banana Buddies

I took this photo the other night to demonstrate how Lizzy loves her big brother and wants to do everything just like him, right down to holder her banana with the peel.

The Accused

Mugshot #1

Charged with embarrassing his mother.

The incident happened earlier today inside the Albertsons grocery store off of I-35 in New Braunfels, Texas. While in the check out line, the accused overheard a conversation taking place between his older sister and mother. It was a discussion on modesty, because his sister noticed some women dressed in bikinis on the cover of magazines. His sister said, "Mommy, those women are naked!" His mother then explained that "No, they were not naked, just dressed immodestly." The accused then proceeded to laugh and say, "Naked women? Oh, I see them." His mother then turned the magazine around and said, "Don't talk about it anymore." The accused, catching on to the fact that what he had just said was not an appropriate thing to be saying, and that he had been asked to stop (opportunity to disobey), got a gleam in his eye and a giggle in his voice, and at the top of his lungs screamed, "NAKED WOMEN, NAKED WOMEN, NAKED WOMEN!!!" After his mother returned to her natural color, and "the looks" from around the packed check out lines stopped, he and his family retreated to the car. A complaint was filed with the Judge (Daddy) upon arrival at home.

* The sentencing should be light since the Judge couldn't stop laughing.

Noah's Look-alike

We discovered while reading one of our books from the library called "Too Many Toys", that Noah had been used as a model for an illustration. As you can see by the picture they only changed the color of his eyes so that they wouldn't have to pay him any royalties.

Snail Man

Noah is the resident snail keeper at our house. For the past 2 weeks he is in the backyard with snails crawling around on his shirt, and one in his hand that is always named, "Little Fella." Sensing that this was going to be a long term fascination with the "little fellas", we decided to make a snail garden. Their favorite plants to take refuge in grow on the side of our back porch, so with a few logs and relocating 25 snails from around the yard, they are now enjoying their new habitat.

Noah is a very good snail keeper and takes great delight in talking to them and carrying them around, everywhere. There have been a few accidents as a result of his undying affection for his "Little Fellas" that have been mourned by all. Last night, on our walk, Noah brought up such an incident that had happened earlier in the day and said, "It was my fault." Joshua and I both encouraged him that accidents happen and that maybe his snail would find a new home. I never would have thought I would be trying to comfort over the loss of a snail, so funny! It has been so sweet to see Noah's compassionate heart towards his snails, now if we could just channel that toward his sisters... :)

Snail in the front and one on the back.

Sweet snail keeper

Baby Gibbon

 

We enjoyed another lovely day at the Zoo on Saturday. Our highlight of the outing was seeing the new baby Gibbon that was born October 19th. He was a cute little guy and was having a ton of fun showing off for the crowd by swinging around on the fence. The daddy Gibbon was not too fond of the crowd that had gathered to admire his son, so he proceeded to perch himself in such a way as to pee on everyone standing below. Of course my son was standing front and center as the stream began to flow. Luckily, I noticed what was happening just in time to yank him back before he got doused. Noah of course thought that it was hilarious and it became his highlight when he got "peed on by the Monkey." He keeps a running list of animals that he has seen go potty at the zoo. I'm sure this experience will be added to the top of his favorites list. Such a boy! :)

Dino Mess

Today while I was washing the dishes, Noah came in with his little dinosaur in his hand. With a serious face he told me that his dinosaur had just made a big mess in his room and that I needed to come and see it immediately. My response went something like this, "I will not be happy if your dinosaur made a big mess in your room. You need to go and clean it up." He then responded with, "No, I didn't do it, my dinosaur did." Hmm..."OK, then I guess I'm going to have to take away your dinosaur until he learns not to make big messes in your room." Noah then looked at me and then back at his dinosaur and said, "Well, Dinosaur I guess we better go and clean up the mess!"

Sprout's Movie Quotes

 

Sydney and Noah are big fans of the Pixar movie "Up." If you ask them what their favorite line in the movie is they will both quote the little boy Russel when he says, "Phew, I thought you were dead!" 

  

 Their second favorite movie is the "Swiss Family Robinson's." They love the pirates, the animals, and of course the damsel in distress. Which brings me to their second favorite quote.  The scene in the movie where the 2 boys discover that the boy they rescued from the pirates is really a girl named Roberta. Frits and Ernest ask her why she was pretending to be a boy and why she cut her hair. She starts sobbing and in this weepy, funny voice she says, "It was because of the pirates!" When the sprouts hear her say that they start rolling in laughter and mimicking her voice and her sobbing. It is the funniest thing to see your children develop their sense of humor and wonder where they got it from. ;)

Crawling Monkey's

 

 One of the daily exercises the sprouts do is chase each other around the house crawling. Lizzy is always the leader of the pack while her siblings race to keep up with her. She is still our resident super crawler, and therefore is much faster on all fours than her older brother and sister who are accustom to walking on two feet.

  

 The race is on!

  

 The winner is...Lizzy Grace!

 

My precious three.

A Week of Spring in January

 

 We all enjoyed a week with temperatures in the mid 60's a couple of weeks ago. The sun was shining bright and spring cleaning was calling, so out went the sprouts to play. I began to tackle a closet where the majority of its contents were destined for the shelves at Goodwill, but not before I got a few snaps of the sprouts enjoying a sunny day.

Sydney with her plant she found on our treasure walk.

  

Yes, we are finally growing her bangs out. 

  

 Cheesy grin

  

 Popeye the Sailor Man

"He's strong to the finish 'cause he still eats his spinach, he's Popeye the Sailor man."

 

Simply cute

Sleeping Handsome

 

 A sweet moment with Daddy and No'ie as they read the "Dangerous Journey" together before nap time.

 

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this precious moment of my little man sleeping. He often falls asleep with his hands behind his head like this. Priceless.

Noah's Recycling

Our little man has started inventing things out of our recycling.

Just in case you can't tell, he made this hat from a cereal box.

Another one of Noah's little inventions this week was unrolling the toilet paper roll in the bath room in order to make a telescope. I told him next time he needed to wait until the roll was empty. His response was, "Mommy, I'm a pirate and I needed it to find buried treasure."

Noah Turns Three

Happy Birthday little man.
We love you and can't imagine our life without our favorite funny man.

Tractors & Potties

What does a tractor...

and a potty have in common?

A potty trained Noey boy who got a prize for filling up his potty chart.
Good job little buddy!