Non-Stop Saturday Fun

Mom, Daddy-Man, BB, and Jess came down last night so that they could spend the weekend with us and be at church with us tomorrow for Ellie's dedication. We went to bed a little late last night and hit the ground running {almost literally} this morning! Every Saturday, Ben's LLS team gets together to run. This morning, since he wasn't feeling too great, he decided that instead of meeting them at the park, he would meet up with them at the Mayor's 5K, which was also having a free family fun run/walk. Since all of us are either in-training or exercising, we tagged along so that we could walk/run in the Fun Run.

Up and at 'em at the B.C.o.D.!

Even Ellie got to get up early!

While we were waiting for the Fun Run to start, we saw {and Mom and I met and talked to} Melissa from this season's Biggest Loser! She was the latest cast-off {and probably the least liked contestant} and was running in the 5K. She and her husband live in Aspermont {where my Great Aunt Dood lives}, so I've actually been wondering if I would ever see her around in Abilene! Despite the fact that she isn't well liked, I think she looks amazing!

We waited. And played. And waited some more for the Fun Run to start.

Finally, as the 5K was finishing up, we found out that Ben's Team in Training group had accidentally run in the 5K.... so, we decided to just go ahead and leave since it seemed like it was going to be a little longer before the Fun Run started {it was already 25 minutes late in starting!}. As we got to the car {we at least took the long way back around!}, we heard the horn signaling the start... go figure!

Once back home, we played, opened some Easter gifts {thanks Grami and Papa Snow!}, and played some more while we took turns getting ready for the Group Picnic.

We went to the Group Picnic at the base picnic grounds - many of the officers and chiefs in the Group are leaving this summer, so the Colonel coordinated the picnic as one last get together for all the families.

Noah was extremely happy about getting to have a cupcake.

And about getting to play on the playground with Nana, Aunt BB, and Aunt Jessie.

We tried to get him to bounce and play in the bouncy-house, but even Aunt Jessie getting inside it with him couldn't convince him that it was fun!

Nap time was a wash, but at least he got in a little "rest time" with Aunt BB by watching his {current} favorite: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!

Noah even convinced Aunt Jessie and PaPa to play Hungry Hungry Hippos.... and then some how managed to leave them playing the game all by themselves!

It was a non-stop Saturday, but it was non-stop fun!

Bath Time is also Learning Time

All throughout the day, I take advantage of those "teachable moments". Maybe it's the teacher in me, maybe it's the mommy in me, or maybe it's just the fact that I want to give my Little Ones the best start possible. So when possible, I take those little moments when Noah {and now, Ellie too} are very interested in something and talk with them about it. We talk about the usual things: colors, numbers, letters... all the "preschool" stuff and we talk about the unusual things too: how much God loves us and how we need to take care of others.

One of the easiest teachable moments for me though, is when we're in the bathtub. Noah loves his foam letters and simply amazes me with his knowledge! I can now say with certainty that the boy knows all of his letter names {I checked over the course of two days!}, most of the sounds they make, recognizes all of the numbers 1-10, can count to five on his own, and knows all the basic colors.

Getting him to do these things on demand? Well, that's another story.

Noah's First "Pet"

Most people know we're I'm not "pet" people. Don't get me wrong, I like animals. My sister's dog, Penny, despite my aversion to her getting so close to my kiddos, I like her - she's actually kind of funny {sorry though Jess, she's still not invited to Abilene}. Ben's aunt Marsha's puppy, Chloe, I'll even sometimes let sit in my lap. We even used to have a cat {outdoor cat, mind you: Todd}, two gerbils {Smokey and Cindy}, and I simply adored my {aquatic} frog, Kermit, that a friend got me after my car accident... I bawled when he died. And, for nearly a month during our first year of marriage while I was still teaching, Ben and I were "house parents" to a little duckling named Webber. I'm just not an indoor pet person... especially one that I would have to really clean up after. I already have three monkeys to take care of!

So imagine my surprise when Ben came home last night with this:

A red ear slider turtle. Ben found him in the parking lot as he was leaving work last night and brought him home to show Noah.

Noah. was. amazed.

"tut-le"

All day today he wanted to look at it. He wanted to talk about it. And he really, really wanted to get it out of his little make-shift pond.

But when Daddy-Ben got him out of the water to let him hold him, it was a no-go.

Good thing the little guy is going back tomorrow... I'm not sure how much more toddler-handling he could survive!

We {Love} Playdates!

{No pictures or post yesterday.... I figure 18 photos from Easter should get me a day off!}

Last time we had a play date with Lacey, Noah, and Zoe, I didn't get any pictures of the girls... and this time, I didn't get any of the boys! Despite the fact that it was Noah's birthday!

Zoe and Ellie are separated by only four days... Lacey had Zoe the day I was discharged from the hospital. And the day she and Zoe were discharged from the hospital was the same day that Ellie was discharged from the NICU. It's been a lot of fun to me to watch these two Little Ones grow! We think they weigh about the same now but that Ellie is just a tad longer... next time, Lacey, we need to lay them down next to each other! :)

Bumbo Beauties!

{Oh, and aren't the yellow geometric wall tiles simply divine??! Lacey, I might be stealing this decorating idea too for our next move!}

Easter

HE is Risen!!

The tomb {and our cookies} was found empty!

Noah was extremely happy to find that he had been visited by the Easter Bunny.

Ellie was too - she was most excited about her very first Bible {another tradition - we give our kiddos their first Bible on their first Easter}.


Noah was excited to find that the Easter Bunny had put three quarters into three different eggs. He was even more excited to put those "tack-its" {tickets... he seems to think they are for Chuck E Cheese! ha!} into his bank {give, save, spend} since we forgot to make sure he took the one to "give" to church this morning.

He was also very pleased {and surprised} to find out that he could have one of his Easter Story cookies with his banana for breakfast.

After we got back from church, we attempted to take some pictures.

{Ellie didn't want to keep her shoes on.}

About the only way we could get them to both look in the same direction was for Ben to blow some bubbles. I love how Ellie's hand is reaching out to Noah like: "Hey, are you seeing this too? Bubbles? In the house??"

While we waited for Noah's chicken nuggets and the roast to finish cooking, we watched VeggieTales: An Easter Carol. Clearly all of us were interested.

After Noah woke up from his nap, he and Ben went outside to play. I went out and "hid" a few eggs for Noah to find. He loved going and getting them, but didn't want to carry around his basket - he just left it sitting on the ground and would bring his eggs back to it!

Once Ellie was awake, she and I played inside {and even went out a little too}.

And, Ellie wants to tell you a secret:

"Happy Easter, from our bunnies to yours!"

Easter Traditions

This is the first Easter weekend in Noah's life that we've actually been home. And it's the first time that Ben and I, in our six years of marriage, have actually dyed Easter Eggs! After we got home from dinner tonight, Ben and Noah {with little help from me, between feeding Ellie her bananas and taking pictures} dyed our Easter Eggs.

Noah was so excited he could barely contain himself. He continually tried to grab the eggs and throw them into the cups. He did, actually, manage to crack one and was nimble enough to get one past Ben and splash vinegar-dye water onto the two of them. I, on the other hand, was safely sitting at the table, camera in one hand, spoon for Ellie in the other, trying really hard to not laugh {sorry, Ben! Just being honest!}.

In the end, we had eleven beautifully dyed Easter Eggs, one {still} excited little boy, and one {slightly} blue and {very} tired Daddy.


And, totally random, but look who just might be taking over the bathtub foam letter "T":

I'm pretty sure Noah didn't see her with it because I'm confident that he would have tried to snatch it back.

After I put Ellie down for bed, we set to work on a new Easter tradition: Easter Story Cookies. There is several versions of these cookies floating around {including Easter/Resurrection Bread} - the important part is that the baking of the item revolves around telling the Easter Story. I had come across this blog post about making Easter Story Cookies and knew that it was the one tradition that I wanted to add above all the others. It's our responsibility to ensure that these two Little Dear Ones {and however many more come along} are raised knowing Christ and why we celebrate the things {Easter, Christmas, etc} that we do. And, FYI to my friends who have said that they plan to do these as well: Oreos do work just as well as pecans... and add a little vanilla {.5 or 1 tsp} during the sugar part.

Noah didn't quite understand the significance of it all, but he sure did enjoy getting to eat an Oreo cookie while he smashed up some more Oreos in a plastic baggie with a wooden spoon {this is meant to symbolize Christ being beat by the Roman Soldiers}.

We even pulled out Noah's Bible to help us through the telling of the story and in hopes of helping him make the connection. I wish I would have had my camera ready to capture the look on his face when he smelled the vinegar!

The cookies are now in the oven, waiting to be found "empty" tomorrow morning.

Happy Easter Eve, Friends! And rejoice, for tomorrow, Our Savior is Risen!

Good Friday

I've been looking to add a few extra traditions to our Easter celebrations. Traditions that really point us back to the reason we celebrate Easter. Traditions that the kids will remember when they are older and hopefully will even want to continue with their own children. So when I saw that Pioneer Woman had posted a recipe for Hot Cross Buns yesterday, I jumped on it. I already had nearly all the ingredients on hand - we just needed were some raisins! I made them last night {and lost nearly half of them to the crazy thing that is my oven... 400 for 20 minutes somehow turned into cooking perfectly at 350 for 8 - go figure} and iced a few of them this morning. Noah and I had them for breakfast...

SO yummy.

Since we're pretty sure the little guy is allergic to cinnamon, I made a small one for him before I made the rest of them. He took a few bites, but I think it was mostly because he was trying to make sure he got as much icing as he could.

And, while we were at Walmart this afternoon picking up the last few items we needed to make some freezer meals with my Life Group girl friends {yay for Maidens Month of March which has carried into April!!}, I also picked up a few outside toys for our house - a ball and bat {which Noah has been talking about non-stop lately} and a set of golf clubs. He was pretty excited about them at first when we got them outside, but within a few minutes, he had found one of his most favorite outside toys:

"caulk".

Mommy's Little Helpers

Noah has been extremely helpful lately. Any time he sees me doing some cleaning, he wants to help. "Helpert Momma, hemmee!" {Helping Momma, help me/you!}

Sometimes it requires the utmost concentration.

{As you can tell by the expression on his face.}


Even Ellie likes to get in on the "helpert" fun when cooking is involved.

So does Doc.