The last few days

I downloaded a few pictures from my phone (still no cable for my camera) so I thought I would shock you all.....or anyone still reading....by posting again. I know....it boggles the mind.

Here is a picture of Noah yesterday as we were getting ready to go to lunch with some family. I was backing out of the driveway and saw him looking so cute and had to stop the car and snap a picture. His carseat is now front facing and he likes it. The first time we put him in there like that he just kept smiling. He looks so much bigger and smaller at the same time facing this way.
This isn't a great picture but I like those dangly little legs. It was his first time at the park. When we first put him in the swing he wasn't too sure about it but then we pushed it and he thought it might be kind of awesome. His little legs kept kicking away.

Getting the hang of it.

We went to Mt. Vernon today to get Jason some new glasses. Don't you like them? :) Ok so he didn't pick those. I love Noah's face. Even he knew they were a little too silly.

Noah's 1st Birthday

Noah turned 1 on Tuesday March 20th. I can't believe it has been a year since our sweet little guy was born. My sister Laura came after church on Sunday and stayed with us until Tuesday night and my parents came on Monday and stayed until Thursday morning. We had such a good time having family stay with us. Amy and the kids were going to come but the twins got the flu and they decided not to share. The night before his birthday the Sister Missionaries came to dinner and we had some BBQ. They even brought Noah a present which he loves.

Noah with Sister Lowe and Sister Grover. We love those Sisters. :)
Noah "talking" with Grandpa Barnard on his birthday.

I dumped Noah's cake out of the pan and this is how it looked. Kind of cracks me up. Looks like a happy little frog or something.

Here are the cakes I made for Noah's birthday. It is the caterpillar from the beginning of the Baby Einstein videos.

Party time!

I have learned my lesson. Next birthday we won't be making dinner for everyone. :) It turned out really good but the day was insanely busy. I felt like I was rushing around all day and only got everything done because of the help Laura and my mom gave. Thank you both of you for your help. I really appreciate it. Most of Jason's family was able to come to the party and we had a good time. I'm glad we have such wonderful family.

This picture seriously cracks me up. He's looking at the cake as if to say, "What the heck are they going to do to me now?"

Trying to figure it out. Notice his little ankles crossed. He has them crossed most of the time and I love it.

He did not want the cake. Nor did he want me to continue to try to get him to eat the cake. :)

Sitting on Daddy's lap was better. I gave him a fork and he smashed the cake and fed Jason (his new favorite game).

The best shot I could get of me and my best little guy. He did not want to look at the camera.

I am so grateful to have him in my life. He seriously amazes me everyday and I love him so very much. He brings such joy to my life.

We went to the doctor a few days after his birthday and had his 1 year checkup.

weight - 22 lbs 8 oz

height - 31"

We love you, Noah!!

St. Louis Temple

Jason and I were able to go to the temple this past Tuesday and do a session. I am ashamed to admit we haven't been in a long time (years). We were so glad to be able to go and so thankful to my sister Laura for watching Noah. It was hard for me to leave him but it's also so important to go to the temple. We will be trying to go once a month. It was also nice to have time with just Jason and I. It doesn't happen very often (barely ever) and I know that's important too. I didn't take this picture. I found it on a site that has free temple wallpaper pictures and this one is so pretty. I also realized just how important it is to go to the temple as often as we can. We keep hearing we need to go and keep attendance up since the Kansas City temple will be dedicated soon and so many people will then attend that temple. We went to a 2:00 p.m. session on a Tuesday and there were only 2 women and 4 men at the session and that was including Jason and I. I was shocked because there had always been many people there when I attended. I hope we can all start attending more often. Such a beautiful place and what a wonderful spirit it brings to our lives. I hope to be able to attend sometime when my parents are working. That would be so fun. I didn't even think to take a picture of us outside the temple. I was just anxious to get back to Noah and try as hard as we could to miss rush hour traffic since it was 4:00. We lucked out. :)

Today

Okay so I took a couple pictures on my phone today (still haven't found that stupid cable) so I thought I would make a quick post to prove to you that I am trying to start posting more. :)


Here is Noah today. I think we really have to get those locks installed. The little stinker. I kept calling his name and making silly noises so he would look at me and smile for the picture but since he knew he wasn't supposed to be in there he completly ignored me. :)
Here he is tonight at Jason's basketball game. He plays on a city league. I debated on whether or not to go because his game started at 7 and that is Noah's bedtime. As you can see....he was a bit sleepy. He never fell asleep but he was sure tired. When we first got there I was worried because he kept fussing and getting freaked out by the noise. It was really loud and the whistles scared him. Luckily Jason's game was much quieter. He mostly snuggled up and near the end of the game he kept looking up at me with this look that said, "seriously? We're still here? I'm so tired." Poor kiddo. He was really good during the game though and is now asleep in his bed. Here's hoping that he sleeps longer then 5:40 (yes this morning he woke up that early....again.) since he went to bed later. A girl can dream can't she?

Another long recap....

Our little man is 11 months old already. Time is sure flying. In less than 2 weeks he'll be a year old. I am excited for it but I also know it will be bitter sweet. He only really says mama and dada and has on occation said bu bu bu when waving so I assume that's bye bye. He is a very sweet little guy...until he is either way too tired, hungry, or you stop him from doing something he REALLY wanted to do. In those cases you had better watch out because his temper comes flying.

He is working on his 9th tooth and I'm not really sure why I was so excited to see it coming in because Noah is a biter. Mostly he only bites for something to bite on I guess but he has bit me when he was mad. I can see his nursery days now. I am sorry in advance to all the poor little kids who are in the path of my little biter. I am doing my best to stop it but as we all know.....that doesn't always work.

Noah is starting to use many different items as a phone. Real phones, play phones, remote controls, spoons. You name it. It is insanely adorable.

Here he is on the phone with a wooden spoon. Told you it was adorable. :) About a month ago Noah started crawling into the kitchen and then turned around and waved bye bye. Yeah, my kid's cute. Our Christmas was good. Noah mostly liked the ribbons but he did get a lot of fun toys that he really likes playing with. I would post pictures of Christmas but I can't find the cable to my camera to get the pictures off of it. I can only post the pictures I took on my phone. Unfortunatly Jason had to work on Christmas but we had fun on Christmas Eve with him and Jason's side of the family. Then Noah and I spent Christmas morning together and then drove down to spend the rest of the day with my side of the family.

Noah is now usually sleeping well in his crib at night. He is waking up very early but at least he is going to bed at 7 and that finally gives me some time to myself at night. He also takes his naps in his bed (these are major accomplishments around here.) Those don't usually go really great. 20 minutes usually but sometimes he surprises us and sleeps longer.

I am now the Relief Society chorister and also the compassionate service ....(leader?). Jason is the 2nd councelor in the Young Mens organization. A week ago Jason was playing basketball up at the church and he and another man were wrestling for a loose ball and I guess as Jason was coming back up the man fell and landed on Jason's head so all his weight shoved Jason's mouth into the ground. He knocked out 2 teeth and messed up 2 more besides that. He got into the dentist first thing the next morning. He had to have oral surgery, root canals, bridges and crowns. It took almost 6 hours for them to do it all. It was not a fun couple of days for him and his mouth and face still hurts but it is getting better and I am so grateful the denstist was able to get him in and get it all done. Jason took a picture of his mouth the night he busted it but I will spare you all. Pretty gross.

Jason's sister Serena and I have started watching Americal Idol together. I never really watched it before but it is fun watching it with her. We also are watching The Voice together. She has a DVR so we are able to watch them whenever we have time which is good because it is hard to get together with her schedule and a little boy who goes to bed at 7. Luckily she will gratuate with her degree in Respitory Therapy in May and then we will have more time....until she has her sweet baby boy near the end of June. I can't wait for him to come but I will. At least until the beginning of June. :) Isn't it funny how the exciting things in my life are now milestones in Noah's life and watching a tv show with my sister-in-law. :) Not that my life has ever been much more exciting then that.

I am sure there have been many more things happening but I can't think of anything at the moment. I hope to find my camera cable as I go through the house cleaning, organizing, and throwing things away or donating them. I will try to update more often. Especially with Noah's birthday coming up. I hope people are still reading my posts (even though they come very far apart) and know that even though I am not posting often I am still checking and reading your posts.

Hope everyone is well and check in often....I'll post more often. :)

Santa Claus is coming to town

We took Noah to the mall a week ago to see Santa for the first time. We thought for sure he would cry. He did look like he might but in the end silly mama made him smile. It's funny the things you do to make a baby smile or laugh. He is sitting with 2 of his cousins, Ethan and Ashton. He loves them and so do we. This picture turned out so cute. I'm not sure what Noah told Santa he wanted for Christmas though. I guess I will have to wait until Christmas morning to find out. :)
Then brilliance shown and thanks to www.picnik.com I realized I could crop the picture perfectly so I could print (yes it's legal if you bought a cd of the pictures which my brother and sister-in-laws did) pictures of all 3 boys for Jason's family and the one with just Noah for my family. Totally awesome program!!

We are all doing pretty well. Noah will be 9 months on the 20th and I can't believe it. Still no crawling although he is getting pretty close. He is hilarious and makes funny faces sometimes because he knows it makes me laugh. He's a pretty funny little guy. He is finally sleeping in his crib at night. He's done it for almost 3 weeks and it is awesome. I finally got tough and made him cry it out. It was really hard for a little while but now he goes to bed usually with little crying and he usually sleeps about 10 hours. He's a tummy sleeper apparantly. I wish I had done this a long time ago. Live and learn. I guess that's why they call the first child the practice child. :) I am enjoying the Christmas season although it is going by so fast.

I have been going to get IV iron for the last 5 weeks and I have 3 more weeks to go before being tested again. Apparantly even with extra iron it has still been very low. Add one more medical problem to the mix. But 2012 will be here soon and since I have decided that I won't have any more medical problem past this year then I should be okay. Right??

I am sure I will not get back to post anything before Christmas. I sure wish I had a computer/internet so I could post more often but then you wouldn't get the thrill of the surprise you get when you discover I have posted. I'm just thinking of you. :) If you still are checking my blog. I sure hope so. Anyway, I hope you have a very

Merry Christmas!!

Updating

Well my mom has been here for a little over a week (will explain in a minute) and is leaving this morning so I figured I'd better make a post before she leaves and takes her computer. It's so hard to decide which pictures of Noah to put on here because I think they are almost all adorable. I don't think however that everyone is interested in seeing every picture ever took of my son. Wierd as that is. :) The top picture is Noah just a few days ago at 5 months.

Noah is learning to sit up. He can probably really do it but he feels the need to reach for his toes and goes face first most of the time. He does a lot of leaning forward still. He also has discovered here lately the joy of being upside down and has also learned how fun it is to fall backwards while sitting up and have me catch him. He's only done that a few times but oh what fun. All fun and games until Mommy doesn't catch you in time. But, that day is not today. He has rolled from his tummy to his back a few times but is mostly content to lay on his back and roll side to side. He is in no hurry to roll, especially since he hates being on his stomach. HATES.

I love this picture. He just looks so adorable sitting there. I know he's my kid so I am a bit biased but I just think he is such a little cutie. Love my boy. He loves to be kissed and loves to kiss. I even realized the other day that he understands the word kiss and sleep. He doesn't like that last word. It's a 4 letter word to him you know.

When I feed Noah baby food I tend to make mmmm noises and say num num a lot to keep him interested I guess. I have noticed before him making lots of mmmmm noises as he is eating but it wasn't until yesterday that I noticed him saying or trying to say nums in there too. It happened a few times during one feeding and then a few times the next feeding. One time very clearly. CUTEST. THING. EVER. My mom noticed this too so it's not just me. :) Poor kid probably thinks that's what you are supposed to do when you eat. It'll be my fault when he comes home from kindergarten crying because the kids teased him at lunch when he kept saying mmmmm and num. :) No, but seriously. Adorable right. The kid is 5 months old.

Okay so why my mom has been here. I had a large ovarian cyst that wouldn't go away so last Thursday I had surgery to remove it. The surgery went well and I even got to keep my ovary and I am healing well. My doctor is amazing. I seriously recommend him to anyone living in this area. It has been a bad medical year for me. I had never been in the hospital before or had any surgeries before and this year I have been hospitalized twice and had surgery twice (or maybe three if you count my incision being opened again). I don't think I posted about that.

I mentioned the blood clot I had while pregnant with Noah and about the need for an emergency C-Section. Well two days after getting home with Noah my incision started bleeding out a lot. We went to my doctor who said that because of the blood thinners it created something like blood pockets or something to that effect. He drained it and we hoped it would work. That night it kept bleeding out several times so the next day (yes the doctor told me I should have gone to the emergency room) the doctor had to open the incision to let it heal from the inside out. Crazy I know. I got an infection in the wound and had to have IV antibiotics for about 10 days. It took 3 months for that stupid wound to completely close but it finally did. It has been a long year but a good year. One I would do over and over again for my boy. Which is a good thing because those things may happen again with another child since I will be on blood thinners from the time I find out I am pregnant.

I am off blood thinners now and only take a baby asprin a day. So that is my crazy medical year in a nutshell. Thanks to my mom again for selflessly coming and helping me.
We are doing well. Loving our Noah and getting ready for Fall, which even though it's not officially here and still occationally gets warm, it still feels like it's here and I love it. I can't wait for fall and Noah's first Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas (hello - way exciting).

So I must end this crazy long post so that my mom can pack up and go which makes me sad. I really enjoy her help and more honestly her company. I wish all my family lived closer together. I love my family. I am now rambling so I am ending this now. :)