December in a Nutshell

December has flown by! By the time finals were behind us we only had a few days to squeeze in some christmas fun. The second Rich finished his last test (literally) I picked him up and we headed to Midway. It's a little Poulsen tradition. We get a couple of condos and the whole family gets together for the weekend. It was a VERY welcome getaway.
This is an ice sculpture garden that is being grown out infront of the Zermatt resort. The artist said that by February these babies will be atleast 40 feet tall and all lit up with different colored lights. We might have to sneak back up to see that, they were amazing.

This is Noah all bundled up for his first snow experience. He didn't mind the hat/coat/pants, but he fought with those gloves the entire time.

The cousins. It might look like he is upset, but truthfully he's laughing. The little sweetie on the other side...she's a little upset.Next, a trip down to see the lights on temple square. We braved taking trax down because it was free (we're crazy).

Word to the wise: never take that trip the Monday night before Christmas.

Reasons: #1 they hold that annual christmas sing-a-long at the energy solutions arena (had no idea) which equals mass crowds all by itself #2 It's family night in Salt Lake City #3 If you're thinking about taking trax, so is everyone else.

It was FREEZING and Noah wasn't quite as into it as I thought he might be. So it was short and sweet. The travel took much more time than the actual sight-seeing. Rich and I have learned that when you add children into the mix, you don't linger. Get in, get out, move on. His patience grows very thin very quickly.

This pretty much sums up Christmas morning. You just can't beat the smile that comes from opening up a bunch of balls. We had a very nice Christmas, relaxed, full of love and family. We have been very blessed this year in so so many ways:)

Not a fan.

Santa came to our family Christmas party last night. Noah reacted just as I expected, but it was fun anyway.

Biggest Loser Couples, here we come!

So Rich and I just finished watching the Biggest Loser finale. Can't say that I've followed it at all this season, but we caught the finale and I still teared up a little. What an inspirational show! (too bad I watched it sprawling out on the couch chugging hot chocolate)
Anyway, I later found myself in the kitchen staring at him wondering "I wonder what you would look like with an extra 230 pounds?"
Lo and behold here we are. I love my husband and his skill with photoshop:)

Pretty good at climbing up, not so good at getting down...

Happy Birthday Babe!

Love This Guy.

Drat.

Noah just had his first blow-out diaper in atleast 6 months. I fooled myself into thinking I was done with them.
Now I find myself missing those runny, milky newborn blowouts, as apposed to recognizing last nights dinner smeared all over my baby's back. And I'm kind of missing what I used to think was a blow out, as apposed to a blow out-up-over-around.

Strange.

Noah and I have been studying anatomy. He's really good at hair, eyes, nose, mouth, tounge, teeth, ears, hands, and feet.
And we've recently learned neck.
He has this strange fascination with it. He likes to grab my neck and squeeze as hard as he can with a scary fanatical face expression. And once I pry his fingers off he laughs hysterically. If I didn't know any better, I would be terrified. I still might be.

The First House...

Here we are, walking up the driveway to our first trick-or-treating house. He thinks we are just coming for a normal visit to great-grandma and grandpa. Little does he know....Either way, he's pretty thrilled with this kitty-cat bag he gets to carry around. He's just not yet aware of how cool that bag will soon become."I got to ring the doorbell all by myself! Hey, why are you guys all standing so far away from me? Whats going on...""Here comes Grandma! Quick Noah, say Trick-or-treat! Hold up your bag hold up your bag!"
"What? This super cool bag? Okay okay stop shouting at me..."

"What is this...she's holding these out for me to take? Just for me? As many as I want? (he took 3) I wont say no to that...""Alright I'm outta here! And they're not even going to stop me! I could get used to this..."(And he did)After making a few stops around our neighborhood we went over to Rich's sister's house and went Trick-or-treating with all of the cousins. He made quite a haul! Even though we skipped almost every other house because he was too slow. Half-way through he quit walking all together and we had to take turns towing him around. He was pretty beat by the end but was as happy as a clam!

This is him with the tickle of blood that we added after dinner, I think it was a nice touch:)

I'm too proud to go without adding that I made his cape! I originally did it to save money because the fabric was half off, but it ended up being way cuter than anything else we had been looking at buying! I was pleased to say the least. I have to brag about all of my sewing conquests for the time being, maybe once it becomes a more regular thing I'll shut up about it, but till then... Here's our festive fam, I went as a witch (well, the top half of me atleast, you can't see my killer purple eyelashes) and Rich went as Danny from Greese (he had to take advantage of his incredibly long hair).

Hope everyone had a fabulous Halloween!

Finally!

I celebrated a fabulous 23rd birthday last week and on Tuesday I finally got the last of my birthday presents! Rich scheduled an appointment for me to get my hair done. I've been complaining about it for months but have been too lazy and cheep to take any action. I don't know how many inches I cut off, but if was a heaping dustpan full! It was halfway down my back (and very blah). But I love this cut, it's so much easier, and faster to do.

BEFORE

AFTER

And this is the cute outfit Rich got me earlier for my Birthday. Picked it out all by himself! He's pretty good at that:)
Thanks for making my birthday great babe! And thanks for making me look pretty again! Loves!

I made this! Woot woot!

I know I know, I am the queen of domesticity. Thank you thank you.

A rough couple of days...

This is what happens when you try to run down the driveway and you stop yourself with your face!

Funny funny boy. This was actually a couple of weeks ago but I loved this picture to much to keep it to myself.

Then imagine, the following day he trips while hiking and adds another goose-egg/scrape on the other side of his forehead:)

Kitchen Complaints

I've learned something about myself. I've noticed that the cleanliness of my kitchen directly effects my mood.
Do you ever have those really busy weekends when Monday rolls around and you're looking at a pile of dishes that began accumulating on Thursday? And you see, I don't have a dishwasher. So when I'm staring at a counter that is piled high with almost every dish we own it kind of gets me down. And I have to accept that this project will likely take all day, what with Noah clinging to my leg and screaming and me frequently running out of room on the drying rack.
When I have a bunch of dishes soaking in my sink and my stove is cluttered with dirty pans, I don't have much motivation to cook (or let be honest, I don't even have the motivation to make a PP&J). So without that motivation I scavenge for something quick and easy to ebb my hunger, and I ussually come up with something really clever like that half eaten bag of chocolate chips:)
So I end up eating crap all day and in turn feeding crap to my poor child and then I end up feeling like a terrible mother and a fatty.
So, you see... whatdaya do whatdaya do...

Noah and his Trixy Self

Noah is pretty trixy these days. I left you all thinking that he was still 9 months old, but I assure you, he is the smartest little 14 month old that I know, hands down:)

Upon demand he is able to show me where his hands, feet, shoes, ears, belly and tongue are (ears down; head shoulders knees toes eyes mouth and nose to go).

He is very talented at waving hello and goodbye. He comes up with a different variation of waving almost every day. It's a handy trick, now he can let me know when he wants to leave somewhere, he just waves bubye.

He is an excellent dancer (inheriting his moves from his father I assure you), his favorite song being the intro to Gilmore Girls. I probably conditioned him into that one. I was on a pretty fanatical Gilmore Girls kick just as he was discovering his rhythm.

Out of all his toys, he treasures his books the most. We have quite a supply because we were lucky enough to get some passed down to us. All day, if he is ever feeling like he's not getting enough attention, he waddles over to me with a book in his hand. I really can't resist him, so if Daddy's not around and I can't say "Daddy will read to you! Go find daddy!" Then I automatically sit down, he crawls into my lap, and we peruse the pictures. Most of the time he doesn't have patience for me actually reading the words. But he's getting really good at recognizing animals and he likes to flip through and see if he can point any out to me (I swear about half of his books are about farm animals)

He is able to recognize and say Mom, Dad, Momma (Grandma), Poppa (Grandpa), Kitty Kat (tit-tat), Jesus (cutest one by far), this, that, uh-oh, bubbles, and he tries to bark like a dog whenever he sees one. He is at the point where he recognizes much more than he can say, so it's really fun to try to teach him to say new things. I LOVE this stage!

By far my favorite new trick is him learning how to kiss and hug. It started out as blowing kisses which was great (people at the grocery store loved it especially, he gives his kisses away like candy when it comes to blowing them). But now he gives kisses on the cheek, mouth, leg, whatever he can reach when he's in the mood really. He especially loves kissing his stuffed animals and makes sure that I do so too everytime he wakes up in the morning. He loves kissing his puppy dog slippers and I love watching him bend in half to do it:)
Now that he is secure in his independence and mobility, he is becoming much more cuddly. He likes to sit in our lap and watch movies, for a few minutes at a time, and he likes to lie in bed with us on Saturday mornings.

I've been saying this for the past year but this time I'm really serious, I DON'T WANT THIS STAGE TO END!!!

Big fat fatty FAT post (and excuse)

I'm back, and I have a really good excuse for my absense. I was involved in a tragic hang-gliding accident!!! I know, who would have thought?! Anyway it was really awful, I broke 3 ribs, both legs and my spine so needless to say, I've only just begun to walk around so naturally I haven't been able to blog for the past five months. No one can blame me for that...

Okay okay, my spine is fine, I've never actually been hang-gliding, and I have absolutely no excuse for my absense. Maybe I just really wanted to hear that people were missing my blog so I went on strike. Thanks to all you people bugging me to get back on it, I appreciate it:)

So wow theres alot to catch up on so prepare yourselves, and I'll only cover the big stuff, starting where I left off...

First things first, we went to WICKED in April (just a few days after my last post) and loved every second of it. It was my second time and Rich's first time seeing it. We were both perma-grin the entire time:)

A month or so later I graduated, or went to my ceremony rather, I technically graduated in December. But it was fun. I'm not really a fan of any of the pictures from the ceremony (my ears were sticking out through my hair like an elf, I really hate those hats) but Rich did a photo shoot of my cello and I at wheeler farm and it turned out really cool. I meant to post some of those, but they are hiding from me. Once I find them I'll get them on here.

Next big thing - we went to Lake Powell for a family reunion on my moms side. This is my cousins boat we stayed on, seriously the ONLY way to go to lake powell. Noah was a huge fan...Noah's first fireworks the night of the 4th. We had barely gotten back from the Lake so we didn't have much energy for more than sparklers.Noah's first birthday! One of my favorite memories of the summer. We had a big family BBQ and it was a blast and a half. Noah LOVES playing with his cousins.He was so entertaining when it came to eating the cake. I wish I could put the video up here but I can't figure out how get it off my video camera. He wasn't shy about it lets put it that way, and he literally ate the entire thing, well, what didn't end up in the grass that is. It wasn't just a piece of cake either, it was his own little cake, so cute. (Albertsons gives you a little free cake for your baby's first birthday, awesome) This is a picture of the rocking horse that Rich was given on one of his first birthdays. He refinished it and gave it to Noah for his birthday.It turned out looking like this! He pretty much loves it:)

Literally a day after his first birthday, he decided he could do this walking thing. He had been walking around furniture for quite awhile, but I guess he just didn't think he was old enough yet. He just needs to decide he wants to do something and it happens pretty fast. This video is definately not current (but nothing stays current for very long at this stage). These days he is very sturdy and running more often than walking. But I love those shaky baby steps.

This is Noah at his first Parade on the 24th of July. This is pretty much the look you can count on whenever he is seeing something new, he's always very concerned. But eventually he really warmed up to the festivities, not so much the parade exactly, but he does like crowds.Come August we had another family reunion, this time with my dad's side of the family. We all had a nice vacation up a Bear Lake for a few days. My grandma rented this big house up on the hills. It was paradise for Noah. Easy access to rocks and dirt, and even a playground in the back. It was a really relaxing and chill getaway, and really fun to have the entire family together. It's been awhile since that's happened.

We definately had our fare share of the beach this summer.

A couple of weeks later all of the guys on my mom's side of the family took a little fishing excursion to Ketchikan Alaska. I'm told it was a blast. We now have a freezer full of Salmon and Halibut:)This town looks SO beautiful, I would love to visit it someday.This is what they caught while out at sea, there werent a ton of pictures because it was a pretty stormy day. Half of the guys were losing their lunches...

This brings us pretty much to the present. Rich is back in school and Noah and I are still doing our thing at home, he's learning a new trick everyday. It's amazing how fast they start to learn things, which brings me to my next pictures.

Noah is doing his best at using a spoon, and loving the independence. (This one is of him eating breakfast, bed head and favorite puppy dog slippers included)