Christmas Memories

We had a wonderful Christmas. Having a child in our house last year made Christmas a little bit more fun, but Noah was still so young that he didn't really get into it much. I had ten times more fun this year with him being older. It was a blast! Almost like being a kid all over again. I mean, don't get me wrong, we were very busy leading up to the holidays, but I'm so thankful I had some extra time off and that somehow by God's grace I was able to stop and relish in the joy of doing things with Noah for the first time this year. So, in an effort to treasure these awesome memories, I'm going to write some of the highlights down here. This is by no means everything and in no particular order but some of the stuff that really stuck with me.



1. Making cupcakes and chocolate covered pretzels with Noah. I bought a new step ladder for him to stand on and he LOVED helping me cook. He put the cup cake liners in the pan and helped me dump ingredients into the bowl. Messier than usual, but I don't think I've ever had so much fun baking! After they were baked and frosted he helped put on sprinkles. He didn't yet get the concept of not touching the jar of sprinkles to the top of the cupcake, but we're working on that. Then he helped drop the pretzels into the chocolate for me and again helped sprinkle when I got them out. I love getting to do these new things with my big boy! It's so fun to see him get excited over helping me and it's just such a wonderful opportunity to do things together and teach him things in the process. Anytime we're in the kitchen working now he asks me if I'm "cookin' "!


2. Christmas Eve service. Noah was with us for the first part of worship, then went to the nursery, and then we got him for the last songs. During the last part of worship, Point of Grace has a tradition of giving out Christmas ornaments for each family. The lights are dimmed and we sing Silent Night (no candles though this year). All of Mike's family worshipped with us again this year. When they turned down the lights Noah was very insistent on making sure every family member knew it had gotten dark, especially Aunt Vanessa and cousin Lydia. I told him we needed to be quiet, so he was trying to say "Dark!" quietly but kept getting louder since no one would really aknowledge him. Later, after we'd gotten our ornament and had gone back to our seats I moved to the back row with him so he could be closer to the other cousins and didn't have to try to talk so loudly to get their attention. He then proceeded to make sure Lydia (who wasn't talking at the time) knew we were supposed to be quiet. He kept saying "Lydia, Shhh! Dark!" over and over, getting louder each time until she aknowledged him. Of course by this time he wasn't really being quiet about it. Thankfully it was toward the end of worship, was mostly drowned out by music and we were pretty much surrounded by family so I don't think we disturbed anyone. I just loved so much having him be a part of all that with us and even though he was a little disruptive, it was just the best part of the whole night!


3. Family. Noah knows his family and really got excited about being around his cousins this year. He pretty much doesn't talk about one without mentioning the others. Basically all three names run together--Isaaclydiajared is how he says it. He asks about them all the time. He also knows all the family dogs, which dogs belong to which family members and wants to know if we'll be seeing them too. I love that he love his family so much and really loves being around them. That is probably one of the most imporant things that I want to teach him to value in his life and I'm so glad that he's already laying that foundation now.

4. Santa. Noah can identify Santa. He doens't know anything about who he is or what his supposed signifigance is but he can pick him out. He was excited when we told him that we were going to see him at the mall. But not so excited when we actually went face to face with Santa. I was realistic and knew this would likely happen but I thought I could at least sit near Santa and hold Noah but he quickly went limp and wriggled away from me wanting nothing to do with Santa. One iced chocolate chip cookie later, leaving the mall as we passed Santa he was yelling "Bye Santa" and was all smiles.


5. Decorating our tree. We got to decorate our first "big" tree as a family this year (our other one was 4.5 ft, this one is 7 ft) and I loved decorating in our new home. Noah helped try to hang ornaments but mostly tried to play with them and thought they were balls. Luckily some of the new ones I got were plastic so we didn't break any (yet). He loves the tree and will randomly go over to it and point at the ornaments to show me.


6. Jingle bells. Noah only picked up on part of one Christmas song this year. He loves Jingle Bells. He asks us to sing it. He loves the "ha ha" part (in the begining if you start with "Dashing through the snow"...you get to the "Laughing all the way...Ha, Ha, Ha!") and likes to shout "Hey" and the appropriate times. Of course he didn't really pick up on this till the holidays were almost over so we sing it a little out of season, but hey-it's cute and it makes him happy.

7. Tools and big boy table. He got a tool bench and tool set from Grandma and Granddad and his own Noah sized table and chairs from G.G. Without prompting, the first day I got everything out and put it all together for him, he got out his tools and crawled under the table and started "fixing" it...laid down on his back on the floor and everything. It was the cutest thing and such a great use of his imagination. I'm not sure where he got the idea because I don't know that he's seen us do it but he really looked like such a little fix it man. The great thing is that I used to do the same thing at my Grandmother's house (G.G. to Noah) to her dining table when I was a little kid. I can't believe he's getting to be such a big boy and is getting into pretend play like this already!

8. His persistence. As I mentioned above when talking about Christmas Eve service, Noah often will not stop trying to get your attention until you aknowledge him. He'll keep saying the name of whoever he's trying to talk to and will say it louder and with more inflection until that person stops what they are doing and pay attention to him. He did it with just about every family member over the holidays. It's kind of funny, is very telling of his personality, and is also something we'll have to start working on...maybe at least getting him to say excuse me rather than just interrupting without end will be a good start!

9. Open Presents! We spent Christmas Eve night at our house, just the three of us. Noah woke up early Christmas morning...7ish and we did the usual watching of Sesame Street in our bed until Mike and I were awake enough to get up. Noah was totally into Sesame Street and there was no mention of presents or anything. Part of him still not being old enought to completely get it. He knew there were presents there but didn't click that today was the day we'd open them. After a little while I asked him if he was ready to get out of bed and go open his presents. One minute he was sitting there expressionless and into the TV, the next minute he was bouncing up and down on the bed yelling "Open presents, open presents!!". He definitely understood what that meant!


10. Looking for toys. After 3 separate family Christmases (Tiltons, our family, Whites) Noah had pretty much figured out that opening a present usually meant he would be getting a toy. We had dinner with my Aunt and Uncle a couple days after Christmas and (by my request) they didn't get him more toys but instead got him crayons, stickers, a coloring book, and some bath crayons. When Noah got to open the present he kept digging in the bag and asking for toys. I'm not sure that I like this, but it's interesting that he figured it out already. On a side note, once he got in the bathtub he LOVED the bath colors (that are just a gel in a plastic crayon) and insisted that we all come look at what he was squirting on the side of the bathtub.


11. Merry Christmas! He learned how to say Merry Christmas, but typically only said "Merry!" with lots of enthusiasm and forgot to say the Christmas part.


(I realize this is a late post...I've been trying to get pictures ready to post as well but am having issues. I'll get this posted for now and will add the way late pictures later).

New House!

Admittedly long overdue, here are the pics of our new house. Still lots of decorating to be done but at least you can get a feel for the overall layout.

Walking in from the front door. Immediately to the left is a short hallway with the guest room on the left, bath straight ahead and Noah's room to the right.

Guest room. Basically empty for now. Getting ready to add more furniture in the master so current furniture will be moved in here.

Noah's/Guest Bath.

Noah's room

Living room. Got all new furniture for the living room that we love-especially the slate tile coffee tables.

Still in the living room. The french doors on the left go into the office/playroom. I didn't take any pictures of this since it's still such a mess. Basically this room has desk and computer, bookshelves, futon, and serves as another play area for Noah (will have his new table and chairs, tool bench, etc that he's getting for Christmas). The arched doorway to the right goes into our master bedroom.

Dining/Kitchen/Living areas are all very open and connected to each other. Space is large but very functional for us and exactly what we were looking for. Still looking to replace the dining table. The door straight back leads to the back yard.

Kitchen. Has large wrap around bar.

Pantry/Laundry room (aka Mommy's dream space--it's huge!)

Master Bedroom. We've gotten a new bed. Have a new dresser we still need to put together. Looking for new nightstands and a few extras. It's getting there but still need work here.

Master, looking into master bath.

Master Bath. Has double vanity sink (does wonders for the marriage!), separate shower and garden tub, walk in closet and separate room for the toilet.

Overall, we're settled for day to day stuff and still looking to do some painting (in living/dining and our master bed/bath) and decorating. Once the painting is done I'll put stuff on the walls but I wanted to avoid hanging things only having to rehang them again a few months later after painting so I haven't done anything yet. We love the place and love all the extra space, especially in the living area. It's given Noah a lot more freedom to run around and saves me a lot of stress since I no longer have to constantly watch him around stairs. Come by and see it all for yourself next time you're in our area!!

Decorating and "Snow"

We had fun decorating our Christmas tree with Noah's help this year. He did try to put some stuff on the tree but I think just had more fun playing with all the different ornaments. He sure did look cute posing in front of the tree once we were all done.

We also had a potential snow day. On Friday there was a significant chance of snow and of course as is usual in Texas when there's a chance of snow the weather guys made a big deal of it. We were both off on that day and were looking forward to a snow day at home. I think we ended up with maybe 10 minutes of super sparse snow flurries. Not even enough to show up in these pictures. But we did bundle up and head outside to snap some pictures. Noah thought his mittens were really funny and just got a kick out of playing with his hands and running around.

Thanksgiving

We went to Angleton for Thanksgiving to be with the Tilton family. Since Mike's brother's family headed to Chicago for Thanksgiving this year, his Dad and sister joined us there too since it would otherwise be just the two of them on the White side. All of the "Tilton" (I put quotations since it's now Whites and Zimmermans too since my sister and I are both married now) bunch were there and Thomas's girlfriend Brittany came down to watch the TX-A&M game with us later in the day. This was the first Thankgiving that we've had in Angleton in a long time. In my lifetime I think there's only been a few other years that we haven't gone to my great Aunt Georgie's (Grandmother's sister) for Thanksgiving--either in Rockport or San Antonio depending on where they lived at the time. My Grandmother is getting too delicate to travel (she'll be 96 in February) so this year we did it at my parents' house. Aunt Georgie actually ended up joining us along with some of her grandchildren too. It made for a full house but was lots of fun.

This was also the first time our whole family has been together for the TX-A&M game in years. Between us and my sister, who is an Aggie, one of us has had tickets to the game pretty much every year for the last 10 or 12 years. It was a good game and we all behaved ourselves pretty well.

Noah had a blast playing with everyone. He's still the only little one in my family so he of course gets lots of attention. Unfortunately a stomach bug was passed around by some of us so that part wasn't too fun but we were all able to at least enjoy our yummy Thanksgiving dinner. And we are so very thankful for all our blessings...wonderful family and friends, jobs, a great church home and a new house that we love. Thanks to God for ALL that He has given us!!

Noah helping me make green bean casserole-I'm not sure why I have that look on my face, I was actually really enjoying his "help".

This probably looks familar if you've seen our Christmas card.
The whole Tilton bunch

Noah playing dominoes with the big boys.

Playing with Granddad. The lion says "ROAR!"

Our Little Longhorn

Noah already loves the Longhorns. A while ago we started singing the Eyes of Texas to him and now he asks for us to sing "Bevo" or "Texas" (what he calls that song). He can point out Bevo and likes to play with his stuffed Bevo that plays the Eyes of Texas when you push its hand. Since football season started we've been watching the games at home and teaching him to tell the guys to run, etc. He'll stand at the TV and yell "go, go!" or "run!" and "touchdown" when we score. Recently I decided to teach him who some of the players are. We have a Texas magazine that has Colt McCoy, Jordan Shipley, and Sergio Kindle on the front cover. He can now identify them all in the picture (now, I'm not kidding myself here, I know it's just that he's memorized where each of them is in the photo because anytime we see another football player in orange he says "Colt too?" asking me if that one is also Colt. But it's still really cute!). We're also working on picking out Mack or "Coach". Check out our little Longhorn enthusiast below.

Reading his Texas magazine. Earlier that morning he went into our room and came out with the magazine and laid down on the kitchen floor and started reading it. That's when I taught him who the players are. I can't get the video to load right now, but basically it's Noah pointing at the cover of a magazine that has Colt, Jordan Shipley, and Sergio Kindle. He can point to each one and say their names. Pretty cute.

Halloween

We had a great Halloween! Noah painted a pumpkin at day care earlier in the week and loved hugging it and posing with it. On Halloween night, we dressed Noah up as a spider (an easy homemade costume I adapted from a costume I wore several years ago) and went trick or treating. We only made it to a few houses before Noah started getting freaked out by all the strangers but it was a good way to meet some neighbors.

It took a while to get this video...I was trying to get Noah to say trick or treat but he was so hyped up on all the sugar I couldn't get him to pay attention to me. He eventually says it at the end.

Fall Updates

It's been waaay too long since I posted anything. Seems to be a theme lately. Oh well, this time I probably have the best excuse I've had in a while....we've moved! We sold our condo and bought a house in Pflugerville. It's been quite a ride the last few months but has been well worth it!

Early September we finally got an offer on the condo. The first one was horrible, but less than a week later we found ourselves with two offers (a second from the first people that made the horrible offer) and another more reasonable one. After the typical negotiations we reached an agreement on the condo and had a contract meaning it was time to start looking for a place to buy! I think we went under contract on the condo on a Thursday, were out looking for homes on Friday and Saturday and reached a final contract on our new home the next Wed or Thurs (so a week after getting the contract on the condo). We had some time before closing (thankfully!) and closed on both the condo/house on Oct 15/16 (that was a MAJOR fiasco not worth writing out but it was NOT a fun experience and we are really thankful to be done with it!) and moved Oct 17.

Our new home is in the Blackhawk neighborhood in Pflugerville and is 2 miles and a 5 minute drive to Point of Grace. We have great access to the toll roads which makes it easy for me to get to and from work the two days I head out to Del Valle. Shopping continues to pop up nearby too. And we LOVE the neighborhood. There are several pools, playgrounds and amenity centers. The closest pool and playground is less than a 5 minute walk from our house. And when it comes time for Noah to head to school (which will probably be quicker than I realize) the elementary school is about 1 mile away! We're slowly meeting neighbors and are finding out there are LOTS of other little kids nearby which will be great for Noah.

We love having more room in the house. It's a huge open floor plan with the living/kitchen/dining areas all open and connected to each other. Noah just runs circles around the living room. When we get home from being out he says, "Mommy, run?!?" and then takes off. I had no idea how limited he was in the condo. The house is one story so I don't have to worry about him falling down stairs which is nice too. It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom plus an extra "flex" room that we're using as an office (it has a closet so could technically be a bedroom but is only separated from the living room from a set of french doors so we'll not use it as a bedroom unless that's needed sometime down the road). We still have lots of settling in and decorating to do but are making good progress so far. We really are so blessed to be in this home and really feel like this is the place that God wanted us at this time in our lives.

Noah's doing great...talking more and more all the time. He's putting 2 and 3 words together often. We understand a lot of what he says and he easily repeats new words as we teach him new things. It really seems like each new phase with him gets more and more fun. He's exerting some independence of course too which can be challenging. We have a time out rug that we use at home when needed which thankfully isn't very often. Apparetnly at day care they use a corner and he's put himself in the corner a few times (for no reason, I think just to show me the time out corner) which has been pretty funny...he just walks over to the corner, stands there with his nose in it and says "time out". He loves cars, trucks, dinosaurs, Elmo, Mickey Mouse, blocks, books, and tools.

Poor Noah had the flu...twice already this fall!! He and Mike both got H1N1 back in late September and then he started getting sick again right before we moved. I figured it was just a bad cold but took him to be checked out just in case (since we would be busy moving over the weekend) and he ended up testing postive for the flu again! Best we can determine he probably had an early case of seasonal flu that time. Poor little guy. He was a great trooper through both cases and thankfully had no additional complications or secondary infections either time. Mike survived his case too...he was pretty miserable for about 24 hours and then wasn't too bad after that. Amazingly I've remained flu free both times (thank goodness!).

Mike is doing well at Point of Grace. I can't think of anything super crazy with his job there lately. Still meeting with the highschool group on Wed nights and college group on Monday nights. It's amazing to think that when we started volunteering with the HS group 6 years ago I think there were 6 or 8 kids that first Wed night. Now he regularly has 40 or so kids on a Wed night. Wow! He's gearing up for the holiday season which is traditionally busy around the church and is planning some big events for the spring.

I've been busy with the house stuff and started another 1/2 semester teaching the pediatric clinical group at UT in the school of nursing the Monday after we moved. So I have my clinical group on Mondays, and work at the clinic Tue/Thur. I've spent a decent amount of time grading this semseter which has taken a chunk of time on the weekends. Mike and I have also led an Alpha group together at church this fall on Sunday evenings. It's been a good way to be connected again (for me) and has been wonderful to share the faith journey with some new people. I've also been blessed to be able to start meeting regularly with a group of women to talk and pray together which has been awesome for me. Oh and we have UT Football season tickets again and have been to most of the games this season which has been fun (none yet for Noah though he does like to watch them at home, knows Bevo and likes to sing the Eyes of Texas). It's been a busy time but a good time.

I'll post pictures of the house and more updates when I have time...likely not till my semester is over in December.

Noah, are you cute?

One of Noah's current favorite words is "No" (really, what toddler doesn't have this at the top of his vocabulary?). Often, regardless of what you ask him he automatically says "no" in response just out of habit I think. But in the last week, he's added "Yeah" also and now sometimes it seems like he gives at least a split second thought before he gives his automatic "no" response.

So Mike and Noah were in the car together yesterday morning and this was the conversation that transpired:

Mike: Noah, are you tired?
Noah: No!
Mike: Noah, are you cute?
Noah: (pause, no response)
Mike: Noah, are you cute?
Noah: (smiles) Yeah!

Hilarious. And yes-this is the same child that ignores me 90% of the time even when I'm tring to get him to do things I know he wants to do. At least he got it right this time...he is really cute!!

Where has the time gone?

It's been a while since I've been able to post anything significant. It seems like I blinked and the summer is almost over! I haven't had a chance to load some of our recent pictures onto the computer yet, but wanted to capture some of what's been going on (before I forget it all) so I'll come back and post some pictures soon.

I feel like I say this all the time now, but we are having more and more fun with Noah these days. Actually, we are having some pretty challenging times too...but the fun ones far out number the challenges (thank goodness!). He's doing lots of new things lately...he really has grown so much and is now "Mommy's big boy" as I call him all the time. He wants to copy what I'm doing...will try to help clean up messes (he can identify things that are cleaners and points to them and says "mess"-so cute!), likes to throw away trash, will put his dirty clothes in the basket, and sometimes will even help pick up his toys! He is constantly learning new words and has recently started combining words (like "bye/hi Daddy"; "more juice"; "all done"; "what's that?"). I love that when we are driving down the road he constantly points out things that he sees. Sometimes he'll say something and I'll think he's making it up, then I'll look over and sure enough there is a bike/bulldozer/bus/whatever it happens to be. I've really lost count of how many words he uses and have been quite proud of his speech development, especially for a boy (I know, I'm biased!). He's still a picky eater but will always eat fruit of some sort which is good and has recently gotten really good at using a fork/spoon to eat. And man is he active! I think he's got two speeds-fast and faster. He's recently taken to climbing just about anything so we have to really be on the look out. He's such a silly boy too--he laughs at us all the time and does stuff to make us laugh. We're all constantly cracking up around here.

Like I said, we've had some challenges too. He still continues to be a strong willed little boy and that's coming out more and more. He wants it his way or he really lets you know he's unhappy about it. I wouldn't say we've had any major tantrums yet but we've had plenty of small ones. Thankfully he's still pretty easily distractible so moving him on to something else usually takes care of it. He did get his first mini time out the other night. He was REALLY angry with me because I wouldn't give him more juice and I ignored him for a while, then he started pulling on my legs and crying. So I walked him around the corner out of the kitchen by our front door and put him on the rug and told him he needed to stay there till he calmed down and then walked away. He stopped crying almost as soon as I walked away and then followed me in the kitchen and started whining again. He was still upset but at least more calm than before. I know it won't always be that easy but hey-it's a start. Honestly, we hadn't really decided to officially start the whole time out thing yet, but impulsively it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Unfortunately I know this is just the beginning of what will likely be a long road ahead.

Our favorite thing with Noah lately is that all of a sudden he's become so much more affectionate with us. Not that he wasn't before, but recently he's just started giving us both these unprompted affections. He'll walk up and just lay his head on our shoulder or lap, will try to grab my arm and hug on it while he's on the changing table. He's also walked up behind me while I'm sitting on the floor and laid his head on my back and rubbed and patted my back and head--so sweet!! Our favorites are the unprompted kisses. The other night we were out at dinner and he just leaned over to Mike and gave him a kiss and then leaned over and gave me one too. I love it!

Here some little stories of things that have happened lately.
--Noah loves to stand at our kitchen window and look out into the parking lot. He loves watching cars and truck drive by but most of all loves watching for Daddy to come home. He gets so excited when he sees Mike pull up. I just love it!
--Our condo complex is finally all getting new roofs so their have been contractors out here working for the last week or so. Noah is fascinated with "the guys" (as he calls them). He'll stand at the kitchen window and watch them go back and forth or just ask to go outside so we can watch them. We'll just walk around the complex and sit and watch them work on the roof. The other night we were praying at bed time and I was saying thankyou for people (Mommy, Daddy, Miss Ruth, etc.) and he started saying "guys, guys". Was he trying to say thank you for the guys? Too cute.
--He says "amen" when we finish praying.
--He tries to tickle you. To do this, he puts his hand on you and then makes this fake laughing noise. He thinks it's hilarious and actually it is pretty cute.
--Last night I was giving Noah a bath and was trying to feel his teeth in his mouth. He's getting molars in on the bottom-one has broken the surface and I wanted to see if it had on the other side. Usually he's pretty good about letting me do this for at least a few seconds. All of a sudden he bit down really hard and really got my finger good with his front teeth. I instintively screamed "ouch!" really loudly. And then scolded him for biting (I know it was really my fault for putting my finger in his mouth but I still think he should learn not to bite down on anyone else). After he got out of the bath, Mike was drying him and dressing him on his changing table and while he was laying there he started putting his toes in his mouth and biting on them and then yelling "ouch" really loudly--just like I did. It was hilarious!! He's such a little copy cat-we really have to be careful now!
--Football season is starting soon so I deciced we needed to practice yelling for Texas. I was trying to remind Noah how to raise his hands for touchdown (he learned this last year but I'm sure he's forgotten). I told him we need to yell "Yeah Texas, Touchdown Texas!" He didn't do it, but instead walked over to the bookshelf where there was probably about 10 books and picked out the one book about UT and brought over to me to read. Gotta love my little Longhorn!!
-He loves dancing and has been trying to jump...but he can't get his feet off the ground!! It's so funny to watch him. He bends down and then lurches up with his body and will even yell "jump!" while he's doing it, but he just can't get his little feet off the ground yet. A couple weeks ago Point of Grace had VBS in the evenings so we went up there to eat dinner and would stay for the opening. He loved the songs and would run and dance and try to jump. The theme was "Crocodile Dock" so there were lots of inflatable crocodiles (like big pool floats) and he'd try to gather them up and jump on them and swing them around. He had such a good time!

I could probably go on and on. Like I said, we're having lots of fun.

A quick catch up on Mike and I: Our condo is STILL for sale. Going on two months now. I'm tired of keeping it clean all the time and having to work our schedule around showings which is very challenging with a toddler. I'm trying to really trust that God has it all under control. Work for me has been crazy and has left me with little extra energy these days. I'll leave it at that but that's one of the main reasons I haven't posted anything in a while. Mike had a busy July--fundraiser, Habitat for Humanity, and he preached one Sunday while Pastor was gone and did an amazing job! There's a copy of the sermon from July 19 on our website www.pointofgracechurch.org if you're interested in checking it out. Then he was gone with the youth group to Colorado July 31-Aug 8. We've done this trip twice before--hiking and primitive camping in the mountains. They hiked Mt. Elbert and successfully summitted this year. Elbert is the highest elevation in Colorado. 14, 333 ft I think. The trip was amazing this year---lots of great spiritual stuff with the kids. Noah and I survived our first long week without Daddy. Not something I want to do all the time but we did ok. We broke up the time by spending one weekend with my sister and her husband in College Station, I worked three days that week, we had dinner with friends one evening and then my parents came in town the following weekend. It made it go by pretty quickly.

We also celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on Aug. 9. Mike had just gotten back from his trip and my parents were already in town (we all celebrated my brother's birthday together in downtown Austin that weekend) so they stayed the night with Noah. Mike and I spent a night together downtown and then drove to Shiner, TX to tour the Spoetzl Brewery. We had a great time. It was really good to have uninterrupted time together to catch up after being apart for a week and was really nice to sleep in for a change! Thanks to my Mom and Dad for hanging with Noah! They had a blast too.

Overall life is crazy, but good. We're having lots of fun with our boy and ready for the start of football season! Hopefully I'll get the pictures and videos I have posted soon.

Tricks to get a toddler to eat

Fifteen minutes ago we fixed Noah his plate for dinner. Some cheese (which he loves) and some meatballs. Once he eats all that he gets fruit. He'll always eat fruit. If I let him choose what he eats, that's all he would have. I suppose I could have it much worse...at least fruit it really good for him. But he needs protein and other things too, thus the meat and cheese. Tonight, as usual, he's refusing the meat (unless it's chicken, like chicken nuggets, then that he'll eat). After many attempts with the meatballs...trying to convince him they're not hot, taking bites to show him how good they taste, trying to ignore him and let him figure it out on his own...Nothing was working. I was about to just let it go as usual when Mike had the brillant idea of trying ketchup. Daddy is a genius!! Covered in ketchup Noah at most of the meatball and now is on to his fruit!! Oh the tricks of trying to get a picky toddler to eat!!

Kristi and Casey's Wedding!

My sister is a married woman! Kristi and Casey Zimmerman were married Saturday June 27th in College Station. The wedding was beautiful! Kristi was of course a gorgeous bride. I had the honor of being one of the matron's of honor and standing by her side during the ceremony. I loved being able to watch Casey's face as Kristi and my Dad walked down the aisle and as he said his vows to my sister. What a blessing to know my sister is loved by such a great guy!!

We also had the honor of having Noah as the ring bearer for the wedding. We were super anxious about how he was going to do and up until the last second we didn't think he was going to pull it off...but he did! He was way overstimulated all weekend and not acting like himself at all...not sleeping well, whiny and clingy...you get the picture. Immediately before the ceremony we were all standing at the back of the church and he was fussy and upset. He was supposed to walk in with Kennedy, the flower girl, Casey's 3 year old neice. She kept trying to hold his hand but he wanted none of that. He also refused to hold his pillow. Every time we handed it to him he would just throw it down. But we did discover he liked the flower petals Kennedy had in her basket. So we thought maybe he'd just help with those. Well, amazingly enough he started down the aisle next to Kennedy (not holding her hand though) but as soon as the petals fell on the floor he said "Oh!!" and sat right down on the floor in the middle of the aisle and started picking up the petals. In a stroke of brilliance, Mike picked up his cell phone (Noah had been holding it but dropped it when he stopped to pick up the flowers) and gave it to Noah and told him "Go get Mommy" (I was the last bridesmaid in and so I was just a little ahead of him and he could see me at the front of the church). So my big boy actually took off down the long aisle all by himself, waving Daddy's cell phone, and made it all the way to the front of the church. When he got there he put the cell phone up to his ear and made his "ha-oo" sound. It was just about the cutest thing I've ever seen!! I was laughing and crying at the same time and was sooo proud of him!!

The whole weekend was great but went by in such a blur! A HUGE THANK YOU is owed to my wonderful husband who took care of Noah most of the weekend by himself so I could be there for my sister. I had a blast and am so so thankful that I got to be a part of things. It was wonderful to get to see so many friends and family members in the same place at the same time...my only complaint is that it went by so fast and I wish I could've had more time to really talk with everyone.

We are still waiting on the professional pictures from the photographer but I had to get some stuff up now because everyone just looked so great I couldn't wait!! More to come later.

The beautiful bride Getting ready

Bridesmaids putting finishing touches on each other

Bridesmaids

Kelly (Maid of Honor), Angela (Matron of Honor), me (Matron of Honor), Casi (Bridesmaid), Ashley (Bridesmaid)

Introducing Mr. & Mrs. Casey Zimmerman!!

My handsome boys after the ceremony

The happy couple

I gave a toast. Everyone said it went well. I think I said most of the things that I wanted to. Funny thing is that I've made fun of Kristi for the last 6 years because she almost spilled her champagne during her toast at our wedding. Well, in the first few seconds I must not have beenvery still and felt wine drip down onto my foot. I guess that's what I get for giving her a hard time all these years...it's harder than it looks!

Dad and Kristi danced to a slow version of "Brown Eyed Girl". She was laughing and crying the whole time. So fun to watch them together!

My handsome boys again

Mike and Noah with Bill, long time family friend

Grandmother, Aunt Mattie, and Aunt Georgie. What a blessing that they were all able to be there for the big day!

We were in serious discussion about something...who knows what.

Thomas (my brother) and Brittney-such a cute couple!

The Varners-long time family friends

Casey showin' off his moves. I was impressed!

I have such good looking siblings!

Our proud parents

Brother and Sister

Noah was sooo handsome in his little suit!

The Tilton (Zimmerman and White) Ladies

Sisters

Big hug at the end of the night- I LOVE YOU SISTER!!

Making their grand exit

In their limo getting ready to leave. Perfect ending to the perfect wedding day!

Congrats Kristi and Casey. We love you both and couldn't be happier for you!! We look forward to making so many wonderful family memories with you in the future. May God richly bless you as you start your new lives together!

These are a few pictures from the rehearsal. I love how the pictures of Noah demonstrate his true feelings on the situation. Notice how he's pulling away from Kennedy as she's trying to hold onto his arm. That's a classic Noah move-he usually doesn't like to have his hand held-Mr. Independent!!
Then there's the arching of the back with Mike. This is another classic Noah move that is usually followed by a stiffening of the body as he tries to slip out of your hold.

At the rehearsal dinner...we pretty much let him do whatever he wanted as long as he was happy and somewhat quiet. It was way past his bed time and he hadn't napped well so we were expecting major melt down. But he made it through the night. Unfortunately we left behind probably a 5 foot diameter of food debris around his high chair. He's usually pretty messy but this night he was putting food (mostly french fries and fruit loops) in this empty box and then shaking it. He thought it was hilarious and since we were in a room full of family and friends and he was happy, we just let him enjoy himself. Silly boy.