mother's day

By now, it shouldn't surprise me that my husband is full of surprises.... however, once again, he "got me"! my sneaky husband had our babysitter take these photos while I was out running errands. when we returned from florida, the photos had been placed in a picture frame, ready for hanging! ... the perfect gift!

florida...

We were blessed to spend a few days down at Uncle Joe's condo in Naples, FL. Noah had so much fun playing in the sand... watching the boats pass by... finding seashells... and playing in the pool. Needless to say, when he woke up this morning, one of the first things he did was find his "jacket" (lifejacket, that is) and repetitively say "pool... pool... pool". I have a feeling we'll be spending quite a bit of our summer playing in the pool :) Here are photos from our weekend.

Playing at the beach...

Playing at the pool...

Dinner on Mother's Day.... we went to Tommy Bahama's in downtown Naples. There was live music which Noah loved! He was absolutely adorable to watch as he danced and clapped to the music. It was a fabulous ending to Mother's Day... I feel so loved by my 2 boys!

easter egg hunt

Our church held an Easter Egg Hunt down at Zilker Park this morning. Noah had so much fun filling his basket with eggs, and once his basket was full, he kept picking up eggs and putting them in other children's baskets! Zilker Park has a great playground where we played before and after the hunt. Noah enjoyed "driving" the old fire engine, playing with the gravel and plummeting down the slides :)

Pre-Egg Hunt Photos:

Let the hunt begin...

Our happy egg-hunter!

our little soccer player

Last weekend, John and I took Noah to the park to kick the soccer ball around. Even though Noah's first interest were the stairs at the far end of the field, as you'll see toward the end of the video, we're training up another Pele :) ...

Hot tubbin' it...

fieldtrips and more fieldtrips...

the beautiful weather as of late has allowed jamie and noah to visit many parks around austin!

my new favorite stage

I know that many moms will agree with me when I say that our kids just keep becoming more and more fun. Now, I know that this might change as we enter the preteen and teen years; however, for now, my little 15 month old boy continues to simply fascinate me! Noah is learning and speaking more and more words every day and actually uses his "signing" without being prompted. Some of his favorites to sign are "thank you", "please" and most importantly, "MORE!" (that is, when it comes to food!!!) Yes, Noah is an eater... hence, his "thickness!" :) Noah is also very enthusiastic about exploring new things, especially when it entails climbing up and onto things. He is also fearless in going down the slide at the park all by himself!

One of my favorite moments with Noah happened last night. Every night when we put him to bed, we say our prayers. Well, Noah will now actually clasp his hands... so cute! Then, we place him in his crib and he'll say "bye-bye" while waving us out the door. Last night, in particular, was a rough one for our typically "plus12 or plus 13-hour" little guy. He woke up a couple of times crying... at just a little after midnight, I went upstairs to check on him. I took him out of his crib and we sat in his rocking chair. Once he calmed down, my sweet little boy, leaned over and gave me a wet, slimy kiss on the cheek and then placed his head on my shoulder. Yes, that definitely melted my heart... at that moment I sure wasn't thinking about the fact that I had to roll out of bed 4 1/2 hours later!

Hope you all have a moment like this with your kids sometime soon! ... Thanks for letting me share mine.

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let's just say that when mommy and daddy leave town... there's a lot of playing to do!

here are some photos from noah's 4 days with grandma :)

Noah really enjoys standing ON all of his toys...

on a side note, john and i had a fabulous trip down to Mexico... just long enough to relax and enjoy sleeping in... and just short enough to not go crazy from missing noah. we would go back in a heartbeat!