Our smiliest guy! Okay, so at this very moment he's giving his daddy a hard time, but most of the time he's our most easy going happy kid. One of my favorite blessings at this time is the mellowness of Noah's personality.

Eric's 1st orchestra concert. He started playing the violin in September...is it me or is that bow a little above the strings? :)

Eric playing Joseph in our ward's Christmas pageant. The drama that took place had nothing to do with the actual event. He was too worried about having to "play" someone who was married!

Eli with his buddy Joseph. We keep trying to tell him he should wear clothes when he's socializing. He really doesn't care.

"This tastes horrible!"

Mommy's note: This was the day Eli dumped out garlic bread crumbs all over his room and rubbed them into his sheets. This corn flour incident followed shortly resulting in a very unpleasant mess. Eli choked and gagged on the flour and, well, it was really gross. Later he found a can of bag balm and smeared it all over his room. This was one day. Kendall describes Eli as a monkey with 4 arms all going different ways at once. We can hardly keep up.

"Eh...eh...mess?"

"Look Ma! I found something wonderful to play with."

The wait is over...

We're moving to Spokane, WA! Oh, wait, first I should mention that Kendall has been accepted to nursing school. Yeah, it's in Spokane. Thus, the move. He starts January 3rd, so we pretty much have to high tail it up there ASAP. Now we have the trick of finding a new place to live, and, well, rearranging our entire lives once again. Really, it's no big deal. I'm not having anxiety attacks or anything. Seriously! Sheesh! HOLY COW! How on earth am I going to get through this?!? I HATE moving. Way bad. It's aweful. I like change. I like meeting new people, going to new wards, learning how to get around in new neighborhoods, making new friends. I also love organizing a new home. What do I HATE then? The packing, the getting stuff together, cuz we have too much stuff. What stinks is that we really like all our stuff. I think about trying to trim down and how on earth would I do that? Some is seasonal: yeah we just get it out once a year...justified. Some is age appropriate: toys too young for Eric and too advanced for Eli and baby clothes in every size imaginable (these will begin to be trimmed down once Noah grows out of them). Some things vary in size: Okay, so I'm a child-bearing mommy. I need wardrobes in about 4 different sizes: regular, regular plus a few lbs., early pregnancy, mid pregnancy, late pregnancy, post pregnancy phase 1 and phase 2 and back to regular...oops that's 7 different sizes of clothing. My husband can't believe how many clothes I have. Has he not seen any of my friends' closets?

Back to the stuff issue. There's the food storage...heh heh, well we don't have a year's worth, or probably not even 3 months worth, but it's enough random stuff here and there that really adds up to several boxes...stuff. There's also the entertaining stuff, mostly in the form of wedding gifts, the pretty things that I have to hide from my kids, but have to have accessible so I can impress all my friends and folk that I have over for engaging dinner parties and get-togethers. (Pride and Prejudice book club...got out the crystal pitcher, yes!). There's the sewing stuff, the scrapbooking/whateverelse project stuff, the books, the furniture...Oh no, there's Eric's stuff...oh man and there are the toys! Okay, I KNOW we don't have as many toys as most families I know, but really, do we even need this many? And isn't Christmas coming upDo we actually need more? wow. I totally forgot about all the memoribilia stuff, my mission stuff, kendall's mission stuff, photo albums, journals...................we have a STUFF PROBLEM. Can't i just blink like the genie and have it all appear in my new home? Oh yeah, can I blink and have a new home arranged for me? OH boy.

Kendall is starting Nursing school in January. I'm so glad and grateful. This is an answer to many prayers offered by not just us, I'm sure. Thank you.

oct 6th, 2007. What can I say? He's wearing my headband and lounging in little brother's buzzy/bouncy chair. He really does think he owns the place.

oct 4th, 2007. Noah weighed in at 11 pounds 8 oz. yesterday.

I really liked what he was wearing and I loved the denim background, but darned if I could get him to open his eyes!

E2 seems to think all this baby stuff is for him...Okay, so it was for him ORIGINALLY! He is in a serious copying phase and even wants to copy EVERYTHING little brother does. hee hee

This moment just had to be captured! E1 and E2 spending some quality time together.

sept 26th, 2007...starting to smile a bit

drunk from milk?

I have a new goal to add posts at least once a week. That's really funny considering all the other goals I'm not achieving at this time. Let's see if I can do it.

Noah is almost 8 weeks old, I have no idea where the time went. I think I'm in a time warp actually, because at times it feels like I've always had him, yet I know our world has changed drastically since his arrival. Eli now likes to torment his daddy by waking up at odd hours in the night and sometimes at 4:45 am to start his day. Nightmares? Adjustment to new baby? NOt getting enought attention? Too hungry? Probably all of the above. As a result we have to zombies trying to act like parents and we I don't know if we're doing a very good job but we're sure trying.

Just a little update here...



This pic is just a couple days after we brought baby home, but it shows the love the Eli has for Noah. He's still jealous and we're still trying to teach him how to be gentile, but when he gets a chance he loves to give kisses.

September 14th, 2007. Noah is one month old today. This is also the 36th anniversary of my parents' wedding. Some pretty incredible things have happened in those 36 years.

Not sure what this face means, but I think it's as close as we get to a smile for the camera these days. Kendall and I were watching a movie the other night and Noah started laughing right at a really funny part. It made us giggle too.

Sunday, September 9th...I think.

Finally transitioning Noah into cloth after about 2 1/2 weeks...love the fat bum!

Eli still thinks he's the center of our universe.

Darrin and Alex flew into Spokane on August 13th. The were kind enough to drive all the way down to Pullman (about 1.5 hours one way) just to see me and have lunch. I had insisted on this because I didn't feel like I should leave town since it seemed like I might have a baby soon. I was still 3+ weeks before my EDD. They came of course and I felt really great that day (yes, I know I didn't look so hot!) and I felt a little foolish for insisting they come to me rather then me meeting them in Spokane.

Well...my water broke early the next morning. I guess we were close after all!

E1 & E2 tearing it up to Billy Jean!

Good morning world!

Okay, well good morning to the one or two people who might read this....
I've been pretty bad about keeping up with posts and pictures. I don't know why...maybe it could be the fact that I have a 19 month old, a 3 week old, a 9 year old and a 33 year old that need my attention more than this silly computer? Maybe? The truth is that the baby takes up most of my time and I divide the rest between my other boys.

Noah is growing like a weed. He's alreay 9 pounds and looks completely different than he did at birth. I should have remembered that this happens (Eli did the same, of course), but it still alarms me that my baby will grow too fast and not be my "little" guy for long. I'm even having to come to grips with the fact that Eli is no longer my baby baby. He's still a baby technically. He's adjusting in his own way. We help him hold Noah and I think that is helping him learn a little better how to be gentle and soft. Usually he just wants to grab Noah's hands and feet. HE is obsessed with toes....everyone's toes! I think he doesn't understand why mine have this funky deep pink color on them. HE gives me a very quizical look every time.

Eric and Kendall are in school....thank goodness. As much as I love having them around, I really love that routine and structure are once again part of our lives. It helps me in huge ways.

love, me

Today is Noah's 3 day in this big bad world and he's just living it up. He is sleeping most of the time and eating really well. He doesn't fit into any of his clothes yet, so he mostly wears little gowns that don't have to fit perfectly.

Noah arrived about 3 weeks early, but is doing perfectly well. We left the hospital at about 11am yesterday (Thursday) morning. I think the hospital staff thought I was nuts that I wouldn't max out my stay there. I knew the rest of the family needed us home and I missed Kendall and the other boys so much. It is so nice to have a healthy and strong baby and to bring him home so shortly after his birth. This is such a drasticly different experience than what we had with Eli. So peaceful, so easy, so perfect. We are profoundly grateful.

His big brothers have mixed feelings about his arrival. Eric is so proud and comes to check on Noah in regular intervals. Eli is insanely jealous and it takes all the big people in the room to protect Noah from Eli's attemts at attacks. Eli is also so curious and facinated by this baby and wants to love him in his own special way too.

Snug as a bug.

I'm thinking about opening my eyes!

Okay, I'm really here!

What is this silly outfit?

I must protest!

Nap time once again.

Dazed big brother

Proud big brother

Official weigh in: 6 lbs. 15 oz. and 19.4 inches.

Yes, I've had lovlier moments, but none so precious.