Jumping into the Pool

Remember that spontaneous trip I wrote about a few weeks ago? Well here are some of the pictures from that trip. I will post the lake pictures later, but for now, enjoy these adorable adventures in the pool...the cold pool might I add!

To kick off our summer we took our first road trip up to Redding to see dear friends of ours. Jaime's parents invited us to stay at their house and enjoy in their summer festivities. We hung out, played, went to the lake and JUMPED in the pool. I think my favorite pictures of Noah so far (excluding professional) are of him jumping into the pool. The sheer joy and enthusiastic expression just kills me-keep reading and you'll see. We were so thrilled to be able to get away last minute and enjoy tried and true summer activities with a beautiful family.

When we arrived we played for a bit, but then decided to get right into the pool. We just couldn't wait. At the time Noah's hat was just too far to get...I wanted to get him in the pool fast people...I was so excited, so we borrowed Jenna's pretty blue hat. Check out Noah and Daddy getting ready for the pool.

Then later, Noah's hat was nowhere to be found, so what did we do?? Borrow Jenna's pretty pink hat!

Here's just a sneak peek at the excitement Noah had about jumping into the pool...it gets better. 

We had fun jumping for a while...

And then we decided to try on the life vest we would use on the lake. Here's where he gets REALLY excited!! Check out the sequence below :)

I just want to eat him up...so stinkin' funny!

Could he get any more intense...?!?!

Now we're coming in!

Then the next day, a little more reserved because he remembered how cold the water was...he jumped in with Daddy!!

I love love love my boys!

Soon Noah was over the cold water and wanted to ride in the boat. He had fun being Skipper, tongue out and all-ha!

We had even more fun water play with a giant ball that squirted water. You can imagine Noah's excitement...his favoritestestestest toy-the BALL, squirted water-best day ever!

Okay, so now that you saw the most hysterically adorable face I was talking about, take a peek at the funniest girl I know, or the sweetest..I can't decide.  She's so adorable and I still can't believe she's 2.

Miss Jenna Jo and her love for the pool.

Here are the boys with the kiddos. Noah did not like the floatie thingamjigger...I sure tried real hard though. Justin is trying to keep him in it and Noah is trying to get out-poor kid.

Jenna loved hers :)

That girl knows how to have fun!

Take a peek real close here. She's counting as she's jumping into the pool. She's on 1. Jenna loves counting and gets very excited when you get to 5!

Jenna and Noah were having a blast in the boat, actually Jenna was having a blast and Noah was having fun, but mostly just chillin' in the back...practicing the skill of relaxing.

See, just chilling :)

Wow, was that a lot of pictures...

A huge thanks to Jolayne for taking these!!

I love being spontaneous, I love the pool and summer activities, but what I love most about this trip is getting to live life with friends (I stole that phrase from Jaime, but it's perfect).

Here's a little preview of lake day...it began with a looooong wait for the kiddos (get it together when you have a business folks...), but it was a top notch day!

The children ate to entertain themselves (there's only so much you can do on a narrow dock).  Noah is shoving veggie sticks in his mouth. It's true what you hear...we don't feed him ;) ;)

iPhone Photo Collages

Carousel at Train Town. He loved it!

Hanging with Auntie Chris

Me NO like the helmet (his look just kills me). Check out his sweet (borrowed) helmet-Haha!

Kindergym

Bath fun with the ball and hoop

Boatin' on Lake Shasta with the Ives

Carousel with Daddy

Pasta=messy=fun=bath

Park fun with our new walker

Outdoor fun (he found a huge rock and loved it)

Airplane chair

Kindergym

HealdsBurger and a Sleepover

I recently posted about how much I adore watching Nonni and Grandpa love on our little mister, but I didn't mention how much I truly appreciate when they take him overnight every so often. There are so many reasons why I love this tradition. We'll start with the most selfish...Justin and I get time just us-that married couple that exchanged vows 5 years ago, and did only who knows what before we had Noah?!?! Seriously...what did we do with all that time? 

The time that J and I have on these nights is so important to us, our marriage, and Noah. We get to just be a couple, relax or have fun-it doesn't matter. You see, Noah's at their house right now and I'm blogging and J's puttering around...ahhh...bliss. Please don't misunderstand me-we LOVE our son more than I could write in this sentence, but we've learned that our marriage is so very important. I doubt Noah even misses us ;)...he gets to eat yummy food, go to the park, go to the farmers market, get loved on by all their friends, and much much more. Together (without us) they are building memories that Noah will look forward to when he visits their house. 

Tonight we brought Noah up to Healdsburg for this very occasion, but first, we had a yummy dinner at HealdsBurger. I've wanted to try this place ever since I read about it on the Press Democrat's Blog: Bite Club Eats. It impressed us and we will be back. After dinner my parents hopped in one car with Noah and we loaded up the Mom Mobile, minus the kiddo, and headed home. Right away we miss him and talk about that, but then we talk about what we get to do and the whole SLEEP in factor. Oh my is this a huge plus!!! I can't even tell you how nice it is to just lay in bed until whenever we want. Most times we are up by 7:30-sad I know...our bodies are so trained :)

Anyways, I am rambling, and I should probably go enjoy some time away from the computer in a parenting book I am reading. Wild a crazy...that's me! I can't wait to see my little man tomorrow, but for now I am going to soak up the alone time (and probably look at pictures of Noah on my phone :)

Thank you Nonni and Grandpa for taking such good care of our little one while we refuel. 

A few more...

The time has come!

You heard me, the time has come...our lives are changed forever...

Did that sound dramatic enough?!?!

Noah is 100 % walking. For about a week he has been waking full time. It was a gradual process, one that I thought would have happened months ago. It just goes to show how in control those little sweetie's can be. Last night we went to music in the plaza in Sonoma with Lisa and Scott, and Justin and I had our first experience with our new walker out in public. We were taking turns following him, and although it was tiring, it was also such a joy to watch him take in the world in a whole new way.  He was having fun with other children, following balloons, chasing after balls, and going up to complete strangers to play with their toys, wagons, etc. Most people are so gracious and just love saying Hello.  I look forward to this next season in our life. He already bats our hand away most times and wants to walk all on his own. When he's outside in our front yard he just loves to walk up and down the sidewalk collecting rocks.

Here are two videos of Noah the walker. The first one is from last night in Sonoma and the other one is from a few days ago in our front yard.

Lots of love to you all on this great day!

Five Years!

This was us 5 years ago at the Madrona Manor celebrating our marriage in front of family and friends. It was a day we will remember forever. 

Our first kiss as a married couple! We had a very long engagement on top of a long distance relationship and were ready to live our life together to say the least :)

Then we up and moved to Boston for a short time before returning to California. It was a great adventure to have as newlyweds! 

Now here we are five years later! Gosh, don't even get me started on how different we look :) Where did those young kids go?  I wouldn't change a thing though, because now...

We have this little cutie and we are so in love, a whole new kind of love! 

We have been together for 9, married for 5, and I look forward to many more! It's crazy to think of what the next 5 years has in store!

Nonni and Grandpa

It has been such a blessing to watch Noah bond with my Mom and Murph, better known as Nonni and Grandpa. They have their own little giggle games and special traditions/memories that Noah looks forward to. He loves going to their house and playing with the pinwheels, climbing the stairs, EATING, and much more! Being Italian and all, my mom truly enjoys feeding Noah. The boy just soaks it up! She feeds him very healthy...Bonus!!  A few weeks ago I tried to take a few pictures of Noah with them and even though they didn't turn out perfect there are some great action shots.

I was just talking with my mom yesterday about how most times I don't get pictures of Noah with them or all of us together because most times my parents are watching Noah for us or enjoying a little quality time by themselves with Noah. I know that time is so precious :)

When I think about their relationship and the love Noah has for them (and vice versa of course :) I think of the relationship with my Grandma Emma. I looked forward to our trips down to the Bay Area so much growing up and I cherished every moment spent with her.  I too LOVED her food! The first thing I would do, after saying hello of course, is go check out her kitchen. She always had something yummy just made for our visit. 

As Noah gets older I want him to look forward to going to my parents house and even ask for it :) I think if he would, he would already do so!! A Grandparents love and relationship is so special and watching it grow day after day can't even be put into words. 

Spontaneous

Sorry folks, but this post will be without pictures as I don't have much time and I need to unpack from our spontaneous Road Trip to visit the Ives. I will however give you two links of recent pictures posted by my dear friend Melissa that have pictures of Noah. Will that do? Good.

Just the other day we decided to take our first road trip together as a family! It was up to Cottonwood to visit our great friends (the Ives). Jaime's parents live up in Cottonwood and offered for us to stay with them and have some fun on the lake. I will post more about this once I have the pictures. It was a very last minute trip and I was SO excited to be spontaneous. Sounds funny I know. There's just something about those last minute plans that make me love them even more. Don't get me wrong...if I had a sweet vacation on the calendar, I would love that too (which I don't by the way...)!! I want to be more spontaneous because it was that much fun.  It's not easy being l with a little one, but totally worth it. The car rides weren't lovely, but very manageable. I hope to take a few small trips this summer and the more spontaneous, the better! Okay, so as I mentioned, you can find pictures of Noah if you click on the following links. You can find a fun library story time post here and some of the fabulous photography of our family here.

It's fun being a BOY!

Ha! I made this picture extra big just for effect :)

These days Noah is filthy by the end of the day. Dirt is his best friend. And I...don't even care. You never quite know how you'll be as a mother until you're faced with it, and as it turns out I'm totally okay with dirt if it makes my little man happy. The funny thing is...he's never really truly in dirt. It's just from the general happenings of playing outside. He even had chicken poop on his shoes this morning (don't freak out-it was just a little bit).  Am I grossing you out yet? Hahaa! 

Did I really just write a blog post about dirt and poop-sorry. This is our life though...and a happy one at that! See ya soon for some not-so-gross happenings. Promise.

Our Stroller

This may seem like a silly thing to see on the blog, but I just gotta say, I Adore my stroller.  It's an UPPAbaby Vista that's quite spendy, but oh so worth it. As Noah gets older I am finding even more reasons why I love it.  The snack tray makes eating on the go super easy, and I find myself doing it more than I thought I would. I can literally get a weeks worth of groceries in the bottom when we walk to Safeway.  I look forward to the way it's able to hold 2 children (if I can convince my husband that is...hehee).  Anyways, no need to go on and on, but I just have to say that Noah and I love the stroller. If he could, I'm sure he would tell you how much he likes it as well ;)

Ours does not look this clean :(

Random and Not So Random

Noah is 14 months and lovin' life. I can't even keep track of how many times a day we go outside. It's so fun and I love seeing how his little mind works as he stumbles upon things like the BBQ, the hose, etc. This morning we were outside shortly after breakfast and he had fun "petting" the chickens inside their coop. Noah "talks" most of the day, which I must say, is a-dor-a-ble!! Most times he is just talking to himself as he plays, but we get the biggest kick when he is trying to tell us something and we have no idea what it is. He has a few favorite words right now. He loves to say "all done," which comes out more like, "all duh." Some other favorites are: shoes, choo choo, this (dees), and bye (he will only say one). It's so fun because he's always trying to repeat us. That's the "not so random" of this post because, well, it's about Noah (duh :)

The random is the assortment of pictures I have for you. 

We will start with the strangest and work our way towards normal...

You guessed it...a Peacock was in our backyard. Random right? Don't ask me how or why, but it was neat to see-too bad Noah daddy were not available.

Random, but oh how I love me a little mister in his Giants hat!

Dolores is making her "free range" debut! Norma Jean and Agnus didn't make the cut.

Back to not so random. Here's our soon-to-be grill master trying to be like his fantabulous daddy! Yes, I said fantabulous, and the computer didn't even try to auto correct it :)

Have a Random, or Not So Random day-both are equally as fun!

Collages

Today while home sick (which by the way should be illegal when it's the second to last day of school) I played around with new collages for iPhone photos. Justin and I are both totally sick. Sick as in my throat is on fire here people, and the husband is hacking up a lung. Nonni saved the day and came and got Noah approximately 2 seconds after she heard my voice on the phone this morning. I am so bummed that we are sick. I miss Noah and I wanted to be at school today. Today and tomorrow are the last two days of school, and even though today is not one of my days to work, I wanted to be there for Field Day. It's a super duper fun day! Anyways, back to the real reason for this post...

Remember way back in the day when I blogged about needing to find a new way to do collages?? Today I experimented with a few different ways to display the endless amount of iPhone photos I take. It was fun and it took my mind off of being sick.  This one is related to Instagram, so I tried it first.  I will probably try a few more just to compare. What do you think?

Game Night

Sleeping soundly

Sprinkler fun

Chicken coop remodel

Our first crop of strawberries

Working with Daddy

Cheeser

Park fun

Bike ride with Jenna and Jared

Playing around and found a pacifier

Going for a walk

Our New "Getting Ready"

Some days I would rather be productive at Noah's first nap (9:00), which means no showering. And let's be honest, I am NOT getting up before him to shower since he is an early bird. So, where does that leave us? Getting ready together. It's actually a lot more enjoyable than it sounds ;) Noah loves all things water, so it should be no surprise that he likes to shower with me. He is totally content playing around in the shower and watching the water fall into his hands. Then after the shower he loves sitting on the counter and going through all of our bathroom items while I get myself ready. I promise, all the bathroom items are safe and I know the counter isn't the best idea in the world, but I'm standing right in front of him. He loves it! I even have enough time for makeup folks :) It's not the night on the town type of makeup, but it gets me through the day. Here are some pictures of our getting ready session.

Little cheeser...

I think I mentioned it in a previous post, but in case I didn't, Noah's smiles these days can be sooo cheesy.  It's adorable and oh so funny. 

I will miss the days of two naps here pretty soon :)