Zoo Day

Today we went to Herr's Potato Chip Factory which is right down the road.  The Herr's family is a wonderful local family that does a ton for the community.  Each year they bring in tons of animals from a local zoo and have a zoo day.  Noah was thrilled, of course!  Here he is being scared by the turkey!!

Camping!

Over Memorial Day Weekend we attempted our first family camping trip. It was wonderful! We headed out with our friends Ben and Jen and their kids who are the same age as our kids. We went to Lums Pond State Park and set up camp. Paul and I have so many memories of camping with our families as children and we wanted to pass on these memories to our children. They both loved it so much.

We bought a huge new tent that is sort of deluxe. It has lights and shelves and you can even charge your phone in it. What we didn't know is that it has a doggie door and Sophie snuck out in the middle of the night!

Maeve spent a lot of time in our hiking backpack.  She just loves it in there!!!  And we broke out our bike trailer for the first time ever.  We got it right after Noah was born and we never used it!  This weekend it was used almost non stop -- everyone wanted a turn!!!

     

Erin's family did this trip last year and they let us know that they brought fishing rods.  We got Noah a children's rod and he really liked it.  We could see the fish in the water.  We also saw lots of snakes and turtles!!!

   

On Sunday it was so incredibly hot and we had the water hook up on our site.  We let Noah and Erin have a huge water fight and we even got the neighbors involved!

It was a little overwhelming for both kids at times... staying up late, all new experiences, but overall we did a great job. We're already looking into going another weekend!!!

Consider it (my) pure joy...

It is no secret that digging is one of my past times. I have always rooted through clearance bins and final sale racks. If there is a deal, my blood runs and I get really excited. I have found that with children this has become a very fun game for me with their clothing, toys, and accessories. You could say it is also eco-friendly but I find it to be just plain fun for me! I dig through yard sales every Saturday morning, pore through goodwills, whatever I can find, I love to dig!

A few weeks ago there was a children's resale. I was there as the doors opened at 8 AM and the line wrapped around the building. I was SO excited.

for a mere $40 I walked out with snow pants for both kids for the winter, snow boots for both kids for the winter, tons of brand name shoes, clothes, swimsuits for both of them, pajamas, and more. Merrill, Gap, Hartstrings, Polo, CHAPS, all of my absolutely favorite kinds of things!!! The snow pants alone would have cost $40!!! So, I think I walked out with 40 items for a total of $40 and i just came home and lined it all up to show Paul.

Perhaps there is a weekly addicts club I need to attend?

Swim Days!!!

We picked up a "family pool" last year on clearance. It's just a large baby pool, but we've already been enjoying it a ton!!! Maeve loves to run in and out of it (crawling). And she loves her after pool tie dye (thanks AJ!!)

4, once more

Noah had his 4 year old doctor visit this week. He was 40 inches tall (3 1/2 feet) and 39 lbs. 
He is still in the upper percentiles for weight which surprised me because he is so skinny these days (as you can see in the pool picture).

At age 4 Noah is very self sufficient. He has very few tantrums any more, he is a happy, thriving little boy. We are working on reading and currently have 4 early reading books that he can do almost on his own.  We are also re-purposing those annoying fridge magnets that Noah always shoved under the refrigerator.  We line them up and spell words and then make sentences with them.  Here is an example from the other day.  Noah can move his name and the right words to make a sentence about himself.  He loves to do this and would do it all the time. 



He is so (overly) loving and has to hug and squeeze every person and child he sees, sometimes to the point of knocking them over!  He is still completely animal focused and continues to collect the Schleich animals which he plays with constantly.  He really doesn't focus on almost anything else in his entire playroom.  Here is an every day picture of how we find random surfaces in our home...animals lined up in order, marching somewhere or in little caves with their animal families.

 

I'm so happy with who Noah is right now.  I always wanted a little boy who would be sensitive and sweet, caring and compassionate. Honestly, I was afraid to have a little boy... afraid that he would be a bully or super rough.  I know Noah is only 4 but his personality right now is exactly how I had hoped it would be!

Maeve, 11 months

NOOO!!!  Don't say that we only have one more month until our baby is a year old!  I am having a hard time believing that!

At 11 months, Maeve has become quite the pudgy little girl!  Despite her tiny beginnings, she is an eating machine.  Whenever Noah has any food at all, Maeve moans until she gets something as well.  We were on a walk and Noah had a lollipop and Maeve was able to continually pull it out of his mouth.  When I took it away from Noah she screamed bloody murder and we had to head home!  She is very demanding and knows exactly what she wants!  She has, however, turned a corner and her demeanor is much happier.  When she went through teeth and a cold over the last few months she was very grumpy and it seemed that it would last a long time.  We are so glad she is happy again.

Maeve is pulling up on everything and cruising (which Paul calls "shimmy-ing") along furniture.  She can stand briefly without help but collapses quickly. 

She is saying MaMa, Dada, Baba, and other variations of this sound.  She is an avid kisser and is constantly puckering her lips, it's sooo cute.  She squeals with delight and babbles a lot.

Her favorite thing right now is shoes.  Wherever you leave your shoes she will quickly come get them and clap them together.  She also enjoys keys and things she can bang together.  

She is in to absolutely everything and especially enjoys taking anything off of any table top or end table top.  She loves Noah's toys and destroys anything she can while looking in his direction with a grin.  It is really rather amusing for us to watch.

We are having so much fun with our little girl.  Her dimpled smile can melt your heart in an instant.  Her joy and love are so evident.  Life is slowly resuming to normal and we are so excited for what the future holds!!!!

They're Here!!!

If you're wondering where we've been, Len and Sandra are here from Iceland.  It's their first trip back to the states since their move.  They are staying right across the street and so we're very busy spending time with them!!