Noah is 4!

Let's say that this post is so super long because I feel so badly about it being an entire month late...and not because I'm simply too indecisive to narrow the pictures down! Ok, realistically it's a little bit of both. Anyway! Our sweet Noah turned 4 years old one month ago today.

Stats from his 4 year check up were as follows:

• Height - 38.78 inches (16th percentile)
• Weight - 37.92 pounds (65th percentile)

During this last year our Noah:

• Went from diapers to underwear
• Began sitting in a regular chair at the dinner table
• Advanced from nursery to primary at church
• Dramatically improved his speech & articulation, but there are several things that he says which are still cutsie...He still pronounces his l's like w's - so he says his brother's name as "Winken" (Lincoln) or says "I wuv you". Also, if a word starts with an s (followed by another consonant) then he omits the s. As in, "That's too cary" (scary) or "Top!" (Stop!). He also mispronounces one of his favorite things to eat - sandwiches, which he pronounces as "snawiches". We've been working with him on manners too - so having him ask to be excused from the dinner table or saying 'excuse me' to get someone's attention or if he needs to interrupt a conversation...but he pronounces it as "Accuse me!" or "May I be accused?"

I have to mention that Noah and I took a little shopping trip together to find a shirt for his photo session. We shopped and chose things together, and he even tried them on in the dressing room. Noah picked out the jacket that he's wearing in the picture below and loved it - he begged me to buy it. He was so cute that I could not resist getting it for him...and luckily he even had good taste - the jacket was cute!

Last but not least his obsession over the last year has been all things fire fighter related. If he hears the words: fire, smoke, hose, or fireman...he is immediately tuned into the conversation with 100 questions. He absolutely loves the show Fireman Sam and began informing me sometime last year that he really wanted a Fireman Sam birthday party when he turned 4. So! We did do a Fireman Sam party, and we also had his 4 year pictures done at a fire station. Joanna did them (we've used her many times) and she did a great job as always. There were so many cute ones, but I had to be choosy about which ones to buy. I have to mention my 2 favorite parts of the session...First, Noah getting to sit on a really cool antique 1919 fire truck (that people normally aren't allowed to touch), and what Noah said during the time when the picture below was taken. Noah was wearing his fireman costume and sitting up in the firetruck (serious business) with a real firefighter's hat on. He turned to the fire fighters and said with conviction, "Some day when I grow up, I'm going to be a real fire fighter!"...This wasn't new for me to hear, but it was just the way he said it and the context. So sweet.

Now...Noah's Fireman Sam birthday party! Don't feel foolish if you haven't heard of Fireman Sam. It's a series of Welsh claymation episodes (which later turned computer-generated) that I stumbled across on Comcast On Demand...and Noah was smitten by it. And his new obsession began. When I began planning the party I was disappointed with how difficult it was to find licensed Fireman Sam stuff. I finally did score a yellow fire hat on e-bay (that has a button on it that plays catch phrases & music from the show), but I did have to have it shipped from England. Totally worth it though. Noah was really excited. AND...check out Noah's costume (below). My friend Claire told me ahead of time that she wanted to make Noah a Fireman Sam costume for his birthday gift, and it turned out so-o cute! (Check out, among other things, some of the other cute costume's that she's created here). Noah opened it the day of his party and loved it! He went through his checklist of specs for Sam's uniform...blue jacket with silver buttons, black belt with silver buckle, yellow pants...perfect! Thanks, Claire!!!

Now to show about the decorations and party itself...I bought butcher paper to make flames for the wall, redecorated an old hose decoration from Drew's hose party, and this is what we got (thanks for making it happen, Mark!):

Firetruck suckers that I made (and I made beanbags for the kids to toss into fire hats, which somehow didn't get photographed...but they were made out of the same fabric that's lining the sucker basket):

Fire chief badges for the kiddos...

Garland, balloons, fire hats, photos...

Coloring books, pencils, erasers, stickers, etc. from our local fire station...

We did good ol' pizza for lunch - with Acini de Pepe salad (thanks, Mom) and green salad. And I went just nuts over these cute plates I found...

Emily (Josh's girlfriend) dishing up her plate.

My parents enjoying their lunch.

Mark's parents digging in too.

A shot of the kids' table - how cute are those fire hydrant sippers?

Michael, Noah & Drew.

Ava & Jake.

Claire & Ryan.

After lunch it was time to blindfold the kids and play a little "pin the badge on the dalmatian". Here's Mark guiding Noah...

Anna sticking on her badge...

And then the surprise arrived! I think I was almost as giddy about it as any of the kids since I'd been keeping it a secret...I arranged for our local fire fighters to come and bring a fire truck to the party! Wahoo! They were really nice and fun with the kids. They let them climb on the truck, try on a real fire fighter jacket, and gave them a tour of all the parts of the truck. Here is Michael wearing their jacket...

One of the firefighters teaching the kids about the functions of that part of the truck...

A peek at the hoses...

Cousins - Jake and Noah...

Noah's buddy Isaac.

Noah listening intently to the fire fighter...


The kids seemed to enjoy themselves.

Cute Noah blowing his whistle (yes, Claire, a "rookie mistake" to hand those out before the end of the party). Oh well.

I'm not sure where Ava was during this picture, but here are all 7 of the other kids at the party (plus Kate and Mark) in front of the fire truck.

The birthday boy on the front bumper of the fire truck. Oh, and notice his super cute boots! They were a gift from the Nielsens - thanks, guys! He loves them!

A shot of the birthday boy with Mom & Dad.

And a shot of Noah with Captain Reese.

Isn't this little-bit-shy-smile of Noah's so dang cute?!

The firetruck leaving our house with its lights on...

Then it was back inside for the fire truck pinata (which Mark converted to a pull-string pinata - thanks, babe)!

Scrambling for the candy...

Anna putting candy in her baggie.

I was pleased with the way the cake turned out. Jen from Layers of Love did a good job making the elements I'd requested come together...right down to the multi-colored flames and replicated wheels on Jupiter (that's the name of Sam's fire truck). We supplied the Fireman Sam figurine (also ordered from the U.K. and yes, we paid more for shipping than we did for the figurine). The very, very best thing about the cake though was how much Noah loved it.


I was trying to just get a shot of Noah standing by the cake, but he insisted on posing the same way that the Fireman Sam figure on the cake was posed (holding the hose). Pretty cute, huh?

You can see the hydrant on the side of the cake from this angle...

Close up of the truck and Sam.

And from this side you can see the dalmatian. Noah was really excited that "Radar" (the dalmatian on Fireman Sam) was even on the cake!

Noah doing his litte-bit-shy face while we all sang Happy Birthday to him.

Noah blowing out his candle (the fondant number 4 on top was made to slip the candle right into it, so the flame on top kind of looked like a continuation of the flame-like fondant).

And Noah was thrilled that Sam was not edible, so that he could keep and play with him.

Claire helping to cut up the cake...I think she was muttering something through her smile about that she was going to kill me for taking this picture (appropriate while holding a butcher's knife).

Most of the pictures are of the birthday boy, but our other little guy has followed suit in developing a love for fire fighters too...and (as you can see) he had a great time too!

Isaac and his mommy Allison...

Anna, Kate & Kyle.

Anna playing with her dad while running around in one of the firetrucks that we made for the kids to play in.

Michael and Drew enjoying the firetrucks...

We love you so much, Noah. We love that you are so inquisitive and such a talker. We love that you are spunky, outgoing & shy all wrapped up into one cute little kid.

And...oh, how that sweet little smile can melt our hearts.
Happy Birthday, Noah. Well, happy 4 years and a month anyway!

January Wrap-Up

While Jen was in town over the holidays we were able to get away for a girls' night without any kiddos. We enjoyed a delicious (as always) dinner at the Red Iguana, and chatted it up so much that we actually got shushed by the table next to us. Thanks for a fun evening, girls! (Photo left to right: me, Allison, Jenny, Sara)

My cute little guys being buddies on the couch (oh, how I love those smiles)!

We got a good chuckle out of watching Noah do the ski jump on our Wii. Check out his expression (hilarious), and watch him wave after he lands...and "stop" his parallel skiis at the end. And of course Linc wanted to copy everything Noah was doing, so we gave him a phonebook to use as his own Wii board.


Lincoln pleased as punch about this fort they put together with their daddy.

Noah peeking out too...

This is from when we took the kids to Boondocks. I thought this picture was funny because of both boys' tongues while they were concentrating.

Linc (with freshly cut hair) riding Bullseye the horse.

There's not much that I love more than watching the boys when they play together like this.

A really bad cold ran through our house during January. While Noah had it I snapped this short clip to capture that even when he's sick he is still a pretty cheerful kid. There's something so pitifully cute about when that little dude is sick.


Starting in January Anna began initiating this running in circles and laughing thing. It usually starts with this cute little fake sounding laugh and evolves to a real laugh as she gets someone to join in with her. Noah was about to head down for his nap (hence the diaper), but bought himself a bit of extra time since he and Anna were being so entertaining...


I posted this on facebook quite some time ago, but figured that it was funny enough to post here too. Make you dizzy?

Whose hose?

Anyone who really knows me knows how much I love a good themed party - especially birthday party! However, I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical when my friend Claire (who is excellent at everything she does...parties not to be excluded) told me that her son wanted a "hose party" for his 3rd birthday. Yup. He wanted a party themed with green garden hoses. Well, if anyone could pull it off, Claire could...and she did. It was fantastic...down to every little detail! Let's start with the wreath on the wall (pictured above). Clever, huh?

Here is Claire with Drew (the birthday boy) under an arrangement of balloons made to look like sky, clouds, and the son...and a hanging garden hose amidst cut outs of garden vegetables (which she decided were more masculine to theme with hoses than the flower alternative of course). And, I have to point out...how cute is the turf she used as a table covering under the cake?!!

And look how adorable these little veggie shaped beanbags are that she made to toss into the burlap covered baskets!

Drumroll please...the cake! So cute! The crushed gingersnaps were the perfect color for the cake (which was a scrumptious carrot cake) and the details on the veggies were so dang cute!
...which was flanked by these adorable little mini-cakes for the kids that were baked in little terracotta pots.

Seriously. The cake even had this cute little basket filled with corn on it!

And I had to include a close up of the HOSE!

Mark playing a little go fish game with Noah and Lincoln. Drew also mentioned that he wanted fishing poles somewhere at the party...isn't Claire accommodating?
Lincoln loved the fishing game. And we were astonished by his level of concentration with it, as well as the length of time that he stayed interested in it! Check it out:


Then on to more active pursuits. They found this box to push each other around in (not a scheduled activity for the party of course).

Every kids' party of Claire's always has a cute craft. This time she made potato stamps. So cute!


And then it was time to enjoy the delicious cake!

It really does look like we're letting Lincoln chow down on a pot of dirt, huh?

Anna & Linc.

Nate & Drew.

Ryan reading the Lorax (part of our gift to Drew) to some of the boys.

And last, but not least...Claire always has an over the top party favor. This time it was hooded bath towels (brown for the boys, purple for the girls) trimmed in garden vegetable fabric. Super cute. The hooded part is even pleated and fits the kids' heads perfectly - my boys love them!Thanks for inviting us to Drew's party...and I'm sorry that I ever doubted the awesomeness that a hose party could be with you throwing it, Claire!

More o' that Jazz

Mark's parents so generously gave us (and their other kids in Utah) tickets to two Utah Jazz games for Christmas! We purchased an extra ticket to one of the games to bring Noah along too. My parents watched Linc during that first game (when we took Noah) and both boys during the other game - thank you sooo much! We had such a fun time! The first picture (from right to left) is Janelle, Matt, David, Me, Mark, and Mont.

Mark and Noah in their jerseys.

Noah sitting on his grandma's lap (lovin' the binoculars).

It was a lot of fun to have Noah come to the game, and to smother him with lots of extra attention. Oh, and we found out at half time that is definitely not ok with Noah to have chocolate chips in his frozen yogurt (we picked every single one out), but that berries are acceptable. While silly things like that can feel like a bit of a pain at first, it's fun to see him develop more of his own taste and opinions. And if you've never tried Red Mango frozen yogurt I very highly recommend it - yummm.

Mark "helping" Noah do a little dance...and then a short little boogie of Noah's own at the end:

Thank you so much, Mont & Mary! We had such a great time at both games - they were such a treat!!

Anne Marie

Our friends the Rubachs recently added a beautiful new addition to their family. This is their daughter Anne Marie. Matt is a med-peds resident here and I know Jessica from PIM. They are devout members of the Catholic church and were so kind to invite us to attend the baptism of their baby back in the middle of January.



Matt (godfather) holding Anne Marie, Jess, and Matt holding Dominic and Lucy (their other kiddos).
Thanks, Rubachs for letting us share in such a special time for your family.