Family Weekend

This was a big weekend of family events! First, we celebrated Mike's birthday here in Austin with his family. His Dad was finally able to come into town to meet Noah so we went out to dinner with Grandpa White and Brian, Dayna, and their three kids. And then we at lots of cake. It was a good time.



Then Friday, we headed down to Angleton for a family reunion on my side of the family. This was Noah's first trip to Angleton. He got a chance to be introduced to some family friends and LOTS of extended family. The reunion was the Holt side of the family which is my Grandmother's family. She was one of 8 children. Three of the sisters are still living. This was the first get together of this side of the extended family in over 20 years. There were family members there from 5 of the 8 siblings. It was pretty neat. Unfortunately my Grandmother wasn't feeling well that day so she didn't make it to the actual reunion, but we did get to spend some time with her at home. She is the oldest living member of the family and Noah is the youngest member of the family...the both got trophies from the reunion!

Enjoying his chair at Grandma's house

Dad multi-tasking-eating breakfast, reading the paper, and watching NoahAunt Kristi
Great Grandmother and Noah showing off their trophies
The Tilton Family sans Thomas (he was in San Marcos)

After the trip to Angleton, we had our nephew Isaac's first Communion down in Kyle with Mike's brother's family. Noah got to hang out some more with his Aunt and Uncle and Grandpa White and cousins.

Meeting Grandpa White

Hanging out with Grandpa and Uncle Brian

Aunt Dayna and cousins Lydia and Jared

The latest weigh-in

So Noah and I went to the clinic where I work for lunch yesterday. While there I got his latest measurements. I was expecting him to be big...but he was even bigger than I thought!

He weighed in at 13 lbs 2 oz and measured 24 inches long! That's basically 95th percentile for both for his age! Sheesh! Those measurements are both right about 50th percentile for a 3 month old baby (reminder, he's now only 6 weeks old!). No wonder so many of his clothes don't fit any more!

And for those of you that are wondering, No- to my knowledge Mike is not sneaking him protein powder when I'm not looking!

Meeting Great Grandma

Noah finally got to meet his other Great Grandma (on Liz's side) today. We went to visit Grandma Petersen and also got to have a short visit with my Aunt and Uncle.

Great Grandma Petersen

Great Aunt Karin

Smiles

Well, it's been a while since I've been able to get on and post some updates. Much has been happening. Noah is now 6 weeks old. After too much stressing over forcing him into a routine, I gave up...mostly just because I didn't have the energy to continue but now it seems we're sort of falling into somewhat of a predictable pattern with him. No day is ever really the same, but we're getting there.

He's growing and changing so much. We haven't had him weighed or measured since he was 2 weeks old, but we know he's grown as he's outgrown many clothes already. Noah and I will be heading out to the clinic where I work on Tuesday where I'll be able to check his weight...my guess is he's close to 12lbs now...we'll see how close I am. While he still sleeps a lot, he's much more alert these days...looking around just trying to take in the world...it's really fun to watch him. Last week we were very excited to see his first real smiles for us. A cute smile after a long night of not much sleep makes it all seem so much better! We have yet to really be able to capture it on camera...we've come close as you'll see below.

When he's awake, Noah likes hanging out on his activity mat (a colorful mat that has different toys hanging on it), he turns to noises and really seems to like things that play music. He also really seems to love bathtime now...last week sometime there was one night he was extremely fussy...we put him in the bath and he immediately calmed down (until we took him out!). He also really seems to like riding in the car and in his stroller, and by "like" with these things, I mean he almost always falls asleep with any amount of riding around!

We've enjoyed a lot more outings over the last few weeks. There have been shopping trips, lunch and dinner outings, and we even went up and had a picnic on Mt. Bonnell. We've also been to church the last two Sundays (we hadn't been as a family since Easter). Noah slept through most of the service...even through all the loud music. And I just enjoyed being back since it had been almost 2 months since I'd been to church because of my bedrest the last few weeks before Noah was born and then wanting to keep him away from crowds for the first month or so. It's definitely been nice for me these last few weeks to get out and about a bit more.

Mom and Dad have had some interesting things going on too (in addition to life with Noah!). I celebrated my birthday on April 1st...we went out to Chuy's for dinner...yum! Mike has been super busy juggling work, school, youth, and family. But things are finally getting ready to slow down a bit. He had his last official class at Concordia last week and just has one final this week then school is done for the spring semester. His last day at Active Power is April 28th and then he is scheduled to start full-time at Point of Grace May 15th. Needless to say he is very excited about this transition finally happening. He will still have one on-line class to finish up in June for his DCE certification and will complete his internship during his first 3 months of employment at the church and then will be completely done with everything for school. We both look forward to him being able to focus more time on youth and with fewer things to split up his time, hopefully we can enjoy more family time together too!

We've got some family travels planned these next couple weeks...this next weekend we're taking Noah for his first trip to Angleton (my hometown) to see Granddad and Grandma Tilton and also for a family reunion. Then during Mike's time off between jobs (I'm still on maternity leave) we're going to head up to Chicago to introduce Noah to his grandparents and aunt and uncle. We're also hoping to visit friends in Milwaukee while we're up there.

Here are some recent pictures from the last few weeks...

Aunt Kristi came to visit and took some fun pictures...

Noah passed out on Kristi's lap Hey...who took my clothes??
Sleeping again

Celebrating Liz's birthday

Mt. Bonnell
First real bath in the tub...Noah's not sure if he likes it
Maybe this isn't so bad

Oh, that's better

Play time...enjoying his activity mat

Now we're getting the hang of bath time

Trying to capture that elusive smile...