In Between the Destruction

Oh the joys of parenting...

I wonder how many times this has been said? 

Noah is 19 months and changing every day. I love love love all of his new words! One thing I don't so much love is Destructoman (yes, I turned it into a name). I don't know if it's a boy thing, or if it's a Noah thing, but what I do know is that all children are different and we are rolling right along with it and we will power through :) This may sound silly, but one thing I have learned is that everything is a phase, therefore we are just going to power through and do our best as parents. It's tough though.  I think it's difficult to find the balance between disciplining too much and letting things slide. With certain things it seems the more we say something to the effect of "no," the more he wants to push the envelope. We try to stick with positive statements of what he can do, but once again, easier said than done. Lately he likes to be destructive, but the good news is that it's usually when he is getting tired of doing something, almost as if he doesn't quite know how to transition.  The magna doodle, now gets flung back and forth, and almost everything would be thrown if we let it. I feel really passionate about teaching him the right way to use things and I really really really don't want him to grow up with a destructiveness to him. Yet, once again, the balance between it all is hard. 

But...

Tonight I treasured a precious moment in between the destruction as I was putting Noah to bed. I was standing up snuggling him and singing 'Jesus Loves Me" and he was just looking around his dark room (he usually does this before he lays his head down). Then he took his soft hand and slowly put it on my face, followed by a kiss on the lips. It was such a sweet moment, and in that second I felt so thankful for all the moments like these that can be clouded by the destruction. 

Well, I will leave you with the good stuff. I'm quite sure you didn't come here to listen to me rant about parenting ;) but rather for some random iPhone photos!!

snuggling the kitty (for real). Shocking...but 9 times out of 10 he is very sweet with her.

Rainy Fall day :)

Christmas Fort (up a few days early because Daddy was just too excited to add the lights).

I'll just apologize in advance (to Noah)

I'm so bad. Really mean. But it's so funny though...just take a peak....

Bwahahahaha!

Gotta love the smudged hand prints all over the door :) He did this for 10 minutes and was cracking up! As was I...sorry Noah, but when you're 21 and you look back at this, just know that your Momma got a really good laugh out of it all and so did you ;)

"Duh Moon"

I could write for days about how obsessed Noah is with the moon. He asks us to draw it and chooses books just to find the moon over and over again. His face lights up when he sees the real moon. Did you know the moon is in A LOT of children's books? The other day we received a fun package from Oma. She sent us the moon! A really good looking prototype at least. Noah loves turning it on and off, and it even has its own remote-bonus. I tried to get pictures of it, but I don't know how to take a picture in the dark and highlight the subject-help Melissa ;).  The few I took are not great, but they at least give you the idea. Thanks Oma-it's a big hit!

It even has different phases :)

Here it is all hung up. He uses the remote to change from phase to phase.

Snuggles

A few weeks ago my parents came over for dinner. I made Pioneer Woman's salsa-amazing. I posted about it here! Noah was really into the salsa and even more into snuggling with Nonni. It was 

a-dor-a-ble. And Nonni...she was in heaven and soaking it up. 

Silly boy :)

Ha!

Some of the pictures have a little different lighting...sorry about that...I was playing in iPhoto. 

Fall Leaves

We've been having a lot of fun in our falling leaves. These leaves create a weekly clean up session, completed by the fabulous Daddy and his sidekick Noah. I don't have great pictures of it because Noah never wants to look at the camera these days (unless I do a song and dance :), but these still show how much fun he's having.

Goofy kid!

Noah would not look at the camera so I was asking him questions like, "Where are Momma's eyes?"

He was not so much buying it...but at some point I did my cheeks and that's when he pointed.

Helping Daddy

Noah loves loves loves helping Justin tinker and work in the garage. Let's be honest, it's not always work...sometimes it's just tinkering around. I love that my husband is a handy man with many fix-it type skills and it's so neat to watch him teach Noah these skills already. The other week Justin was fixing up a frame for a Halloween game for our church and Noah dug right in and helped. He was so focused and seemed amazed by the screws and close pins. 

Look at this face?!?! Ha!

You may see a few more random posts because I've neglected the blog a bit lately, but have a few fun things to share :) As Noah would say, "Ooops!"

Destination: Main Street, USA

Last Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we took my Auntie Chris to one of her favorite places...

A place she has taken many children near and dear to her heart...

Disneyland!

You see, she just had a very special birthday (I believe it was 21 :) ).

It was a quick trip, jam packed with fun memories, short lines, and good unhealthy food. We left early Sunday morning and by 8:30 while we were waiting to board our plane I knew it was going to be a hoot of a trip (lots of joking in this family...). We were in the park by late morning and began our adventures on the Matterhorn.  We spent two days in Disneyland and almost a full day in California Adventure. Just my opinion...but the Cars ride is not worth the wait. Cars Land is super cute though. We had a Fastpass so it wasn't a big deal, but people have literally waited in line anywhere from 2-7 hours. It's cute and all, but SO not worth that much time.  

We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel in a magical (or so they say) suite, and even enjoyed breakfast room service style one morning! Justin and I attempted to use the Monorail Slide into the pool but it was closed :( Why it was closed is a super funny story... I asked one of the employees if it was open, mind you, he was a young buck and there were no children in sight. He replied in a very serious tone and with a most straight face, "The slide's not working because we are out Pixie Dust and won't get another shipment in for 2 weeks." I smiled and said sweetly, "Oh, you must tell that to all the little ones." He was NOT amused and just stayed serious with a nod. Justin then chimes in and says, "Oh bud, you need a drink." He was again, NOT so amused. We left and were laughing at the whole thing as we made our way to the hot tub. This left me wondering if they all had to say the same script. I asked another pair of young employees if the slide was open and they replied with, "It's down for maintenance." Now we were really laughing because it made the previous guys story even funnier.  I am very glad he takes his job so seriously, but oh boy...that was just too much!

There are many more stories to tell, but I'll move on to pictures with captions as I wouldn't want to go on and on...(cause that never happens right?)

First picture in front of an iconic train station. Next stop: Main Street, USA.

The hubby and I waiting in our first line for the Matterhorn. Then all of us having fun on Splash Mountain (Grandpa's favorite ride).

A Christmas bear you ask? This was too much as well (much like the Pixie Dust story)! We visited Disneyland at a perfect time! No lines and really small crowds. They seemed to be in an in between sate of after Halloween and setting up for Christmas. Because of this there were spots of Christmas here and there. It was quite comical as it was 90 degrees outside and my mind was so far from Christmas. We would be walking along and BAM, a Christmas wreath. Super funny. They were also taping a few Christmas specials with the crowds. 

Take note of the frame: Behind the scenes. When we were on Pirates of the Caribbean it broke down, and after about 20 minutes of waiting in the boats they turned on the lights (see above) and we had to evacuate the ride. This meant a back stage view of the world of Disneyland. So worth it! It was fun to see some of the backstage happenings. As you can tell Justin was really scared by all of it-ha! Obviously I was not able to snap anymore photos once we were being escorted. 

BAM-a Christams tree! Hahahaha :)

Taking some time out to shoot-not so much my cup of tea, but they had fun. I also stunk it up on the Buzz Light Year ride of shooting. Shocking...

California Adventure has a Starbucks-suweet!!

I had to take a picture of Murph and I under this sign because when we went to North Dakota to scout out the college, we stayed at a real classy dumpy hotel named, The Westward Ho. It was a classical old western motel.  Let's just say it closed down shortly after we stayed there.

Funny thing here is that Justin is usually the one goofing off for pictures. I think he's rubbing off on Murray-oh no! Run Murray run...

Aren't mini things so cute (room service)?

Where was Noah during all of this you ask? 

We did leave the cat stranded at our house, but figured we better give Noah some better care :) 

Since Nonni and Grandpa were with us we turned to our dear friends the Ives to watch Noah. He spent three full days with this beautiful family and had the best time! They sent us videos and photos every day and he seemed happy as can be! 

Friends who will watch your toddler with a favorite word of NO: keepers!!!

He came home with new words, and even a few sentences-it's amazing how much they can change in just 3 days. We missed Noah every time we saw a little one enjoying the sights, and then when we saw little ones melting down, we were thankful to have the time as adults one last time! I would imagine our next visit will be with little ones.

Beans in the sandbox-genius Mrs. Ives.

Silly Jared

Fun at Daycare

Swinging with Auntie Jaime

They "wub" each other (most days-heheee)!

What a trip! Thanks for turing 21 Auntie Chris ;)