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)