Just coolin' off

It has been so hot around here lately, we've been doing anything we can to try to keep cool. This turned into quite the challenge the other night when our air conditioing broke and we couldn't get anyone out to fix it until the next day. I was very stressed out and hot and so glad when the guy could get out to fix us up...it had already gotten up to 82 degrees in the house and it was not even noon that day! But for the rest of the time, staying inside has been our main activity because it's so hot to do anything else....except for playing in the sprinkler!! The kids were outside running through the sprinkler last night, and let me tell ya, I was this close to putting on my swimsuit and running through it a few times myself. I think they had so much fun. I don't know why the pictures look so dark on here, but here are just a few of the kiddos.

They had a Dawn bottle that they kept filling up with water to squirt each other, but Noah and Shae, being the gardeners that they are, used it to water the plants.

And this was my attempt to get all the kids to stand together and get a shot of them all jumping in the air. Needless to say, I did not achieve that....but I think I got some funny ones of them trying.

A few nights ago we went for a playdate at Chick Fil A with one of my friends and her little boy Dylan who is just a couple months younger than Noah. I think they had a great time and ran all over that little play area. There were a couple of older kids in there playing also and they kept saying, "Look at the babies." And Noah (being the giant that he is, was quite a bit taller than Dylan) was standing there and they asked us, "Can the big one talk?" We got a real kick out of that. I think by the end of the night, they realized that those 2 "babies" were capable of playing just as hard as they were. : ) We really enjoyed it and have to get together more often. As much as Noah LOVES his girls (Shae, Gabby and MC) I think he also enjoyed having a boy and someone his age to play with too. Now, this weekend we're off to another wedding. I hope to have lots of pictures to share when we get back from that. My last 3-day weekend for a while. : ( That's ok though, while I've loved our busy summer, I'm glad for things to slow down for a little while too. Have a great weekend!

Why is it...

...that boxes are so much more fun to play with than the toys that came in them?

Maybe....just maybe....it's because daddies make everything more fun.

2nd Birthday!!!

Today is Noah's 2nd birthday!!! Oh my goodness I can't believe I now have a 2-year-old. My sweet baby boy is not a baby any more. I say this at every age I think, but he's at such a fun stage now. He loves to be silly and laugh and I don't think there's any better sound in the world than his sweet belly laughs. Oh and his daddy can really get him laughing so hard he almost loses his breath...it's the funniest thing. He brings so much joy to our lives and we love him so much. And to celebrate his 2nd birthday, we had a party for him yesterday. It was a Yo Gabba Gabba party because that is the one thing that he is absolutely in LOVE with and I knew he would be excited about it. I had no idea how excited. When he got up the morning of his party, I had the decorations up in the kitchen and he ran in there and totally lost it. He started yelling for us, wanting us to come in there and see and was jumping up and down, squealing, and running in circles. It was like Christmas morning! He even had to take one of the Brobee plates in the bathtub with him. If I had known he would react like that, I totally would have gotten it on video. So needless to say, the Yo Gabba Gabba them was a good decision. He had such a good time and was so excited to see his family and friends. He was so wound up all day though, he kept running around the living room in circles.

Noah got really embarrassed and shy when we sang Happy Birthday to him and climbed up to Mimi. But once we stopped singing, he was ok to go blow out his candle.

The cake came from Shelby Lynn's...I just love them and they always do such a great job on our cakes. They are sooooo yummy too. : )

And here are the Muno cups I painted to give out as party favors...

This is a picture I was able to snap quickly on one of his running trips around the living room with his balloon. Every time he would grab that balloon he would just take off running and yelling "balloon, balloon" like a crazy person. It was so cute to see him so excited.

And of course some of the kiddos had to go outside to try out the bubble blower, even though it was probably 150 degrees outside.

 Of course, being the hugger that he is, he had to give hugs to his friends when they left. Here is a super cute one of him and Jack saying their good-byes. (This was right before the fist bumps : )

Afterwards, he was modeling his new backpack that I got for him.

And of all the new toys and things that he got, once the party was over he was playing with what else but the box that his basketball goal came in. Aren't boxes always the most fun?

Noah had such a fun time at his little party and we're so thankful for our family and friends that came and made it so special for him. I decided a long time ago that I was NOT going to have a big huge birthday party, especially for the first couple of years (until he's old enough to tell me what he wants!) because I wanted to really enjoy the day and most importantly I wanted Noah to enjoy it, and he's going through the phase where he gets overwhelmed in large crowds right now. So the party was perfect and he had a lot of fun. I just can't believe my baby is now two!! Happy Birthday Noah! We all love you so much and can't wait to see what the next year has in store for you!

Another weekend road trip

Ahhh....another wedding weekend in what seems like a never-ending summer of weddings this year. This time it was in Hot Springs and we went without Noah. Since he's been on the road so much lately, and we've discovered that long road trips with a 2 year old should be kept to a minimum if we value our sanity, we decided he would stay at home and Mimi came up to spend the weekend with him. We had a fun weekend but of course missed our little guy. He was having his own fun though going to the park, going out to eat and of course, watching lots of Yo Gabba Gabba. I'm sure Mimi will be happy for the break from DJ Lance, Muno and Toodee for a while. Small doses is all I can take of that show at one time....very small doses. Noah seems to be getting better at talking every day and even though he was very slow to get started, he has advanced so much and is now learning new words every day and repeating things all the time. It's so crazy to hear him say sentences and really communicate with us. I can't believe how fast he's growing up. He'll be turning two this weekend! Wow...two years. I could totally get really sappy right now just thinking about it, but I'll pass on that and try to at least wait until his actual birthday. So anyways, back to the wedding...we had lots of fun, but I didn't get any pictures all weekend. So sad because I can't even remember the last time Jeff and I had our picture taken together all dressed up, but we've got another wedding coming up so hopefully we will take advantage of that photo op and get some pics made. So since I have nothing to document our weekend with, I'll just have to leave with these pictures from the night we got back of us doing Noah's favorite thing outside....blowing bubbles!!!

 I just love this last picture because it is SO him! Dirty little nose, smudges on his cheek, but as happy as can be about just blowing some bubbles. I LOVE it!!

4th of July Weekend

This year for the 4th of July, we spent our weekend in Pine Bluff and Conway. My cousin had a wedding reception on Saturday that we went to with my parents. I think Noah had a great time because they had a kid's table with fun little activities to keep them occupied so he got to play with cousins and new friends while we ate and talked with everyone.

Then, on the 4th we went to a cookout at Uncle Greg and soon-to-be Aunt Kelly's house. They had a little pool set up so Noah and Greg cooled off in the water for a while. Noah loved splashing, pouring the water out with cups and trying to spray everyone with the hose.

Then we headed back to Jeff's parents' house where Noah rode around on his super-fancy fire truck, complete with flashing lights and working water hose. It was starting to run out of battery so Papaw had to do a little pushing, but Noah was having a blast riding it all around the yard. He likes to drive while looking off to the side...great for taking pictures but not so good for safety. Guess we'll need to make sure we cover that in the driver's education class before he takes to the road in a real car. : )

Then we watched some fireworks at their house before Noah went to bed. He seemed to like watching them but I think the loud noise scared him a little bit. But he loved the little Snap and Pop things that you throw on the ground to make a popping noise. Once he tried those, he had to keep throwing them over and over until the whole box was gone.

All in all, it was a very fun weekend. And I think Noah enjoyed it too...at least based on the smile on his face for most of the weekend, I'm going to assume he had a great time!

21 month pictures

Back in April, my friend Jenny Marrs took some precious pictures of Noah and my neighbor's little girls. I wanted to do them when he was 18 months because I had been having pictures taken every 6 months since he's been born, but time got away from me and we ended up being a few months late. She did such a good job and even though they're several months old now, I wanted to post a few. There was a cute little old barn that she found and it made a great setting for the pictures. But it was soooo windy that day, so everyone's hair was blowing all over the place. Mrs. Tracy fixed Noah's hair and it looked so cute, but as soon as he stepped out of the car, it was all messed up with the wind. I wasn't planning on getting in any of the pictures, but ended up in a few anyways. I think she did a great job of capturing his personality.....