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 :)