reduce, reuse, recycle (a b-day party for my green boy)

Noah is definately doing his part to keep this world a little greener. After watching a Curious George episode on recycling he has checked the bottom of every item since, to see if there is a recycle sign. That coupled with his love of garbage/recycle trucks gave me the idea to do a recycle party. He loved it, I don't think the other kids got it at all and their mom's probably think I'm the new tree hugger neighbor, but that's okay, it was fun.
(Toss recyclables into the bin.)
(Pin the recycle can on the truck)
(Plant a flower in a recyled water bottle.)
(The party hats...I didn't get a picture but the favorite game was bowling using bottles I pulled from the recycling)
I stressed way to much over this one. Do I include just new neighbors, old friends, family, when do I have it? I winded up doing it on the Friday morning of his actual birthday and invited a bunch of little friends his age. Since only half of the expected guests came it made for a very low key but still enjoyable party.

Noah Bear

For Noah's birthday post this year I thought I'd give a glimpse into Noah's life right now.

favorite songs:
"We'll Bring the World the Truth" knows every word, sings throughout the day (all day, every day), even sang it in Primary by himself!
"Make A Man Out of You" from Mulan, dances, leaps, jumps, sings, and drums to it on repeat for as long as I can take it.
"Little Drummer Boy" this one has the greatest longevity it started during the Christmas season last year and has continued throughout the year. He is very particular about the arrangement it has to be Josh Groban singing it.

favorite toys:
garbage trucks, recycle trucks, street sweepers

favorite foods:
chocolate milk, mac and cheese(preferably not mom's kind...he asks for the unhealthy kind), he is still like Elf "every things better with a little syrup on it." Who is teaching him these healthy habits???

favorite activities:
swinging, riding bikes, going to the park, swimming, taking baths, helping dad (chasing daddy, wrestling daddy, rocking out with daddy), going to the library, playing with friends, reading books, watching garbage trucks etc. on youtube, making clara laugh, making everyone play pretend (being firefighters, grandmas/pas, neighbors etc.)

favorites shows:
curious george, wonder pets, and little bear

my favorite noah times:
every night dad reads noah stories and then calls me in for prayers and then I stay with noah to sing songs and talk. We usually sing a few made up songs and then a few primary songs together. It's my precious snuggle time that I pray lasts for a long, long time.

favorite noah"isms" of late:

noah: "Mom sing me a nice bad guy song"
me: "But bad guys aren't nice"
noah: "Some bad guys are bad but some bad guys are learning to be nice, right mom?"

noah calls the wrinkles that you get on your fingers and toes bathing "sprinkles" and so often holds up his hands in the bath and says, "uh oh, sprinkles" knowing he will soon need to get out.

last year in joyschool I taught a whole lesson on this concept which last night during our pillow talk he brought up again.
noah: "mom, you love me when i make a mistake?"
me: "yes"
noah: "but you don't love my mistake"
then he recalled back something I did a few months ago (which he thought was a mistake) and applied the same thing to me. Telling me he still loves me, but doesn't love my mistakes. Glad to know a few things are sinking in.

I love this boy so much, what a joy! Happy 4th my super Noah!

gophers, and horses, and deer, OH MY!

There are certain charms that come from living in a more country setting. The past 48 hours has proved a little less charming and more like the animal world is out to get us.
Encounter 1:
We are just now seeing fruits of our labours in the the garden. We got a bit of a late start and so seeing the first tomato turn red felt like a miracle. I wanted to pick it instantly but Josh said it could use a few more days (and he was right). However, the next morning, when I went out to check my precious firstling it was half eaten and there was an all too familiar pile of deer droppings right next to it. (They are also enjoying our dogwood that we planted).
Encounter 2:
Just a few days ago Josh notices a few mounds of dirt popping up near our property line. He thought it might be gophers. It was, and that is when we also learned gophers like pumpkins (and tomatoes).
Noah has given three suggestions to get rid of them: Call the police and have them come get those bad guys. Call the mean gopher guy from Curious George (reference to not so promising episode...a farm completely dug up and gophers freed by a monkey). Turn on the sprinklers and maybe they'll run away.
Encounter 3:
I let Scout out yesterday morning and saw him play around with this large bug. When he moves on I notice that it might actually be a large, dead spider. I called for backup. Josh swoops it up with his (bare) hand and an empty water bottle only to see it uncurl its huge black widow self and walk around inside the bottle. I still get the shivers typing it and my only peace of mind is knowing pest control has already come out to spray this morning.

Encounter 4:
This morning Josh rushes in "The gophers have taken over, look at the lawn!" From the window you just see little mounds ALL OVER the grass. On further inspection Josh comes back in, "Well its not gophers, a horse must have got out last night." Sure enough, you could see divots and horseshoe marks all over backyard, right up next to the house, everywhere. I have no idea what horse it was (the neighbors horses where all accounted for and no visual sign of a breakout by the fence).


As you can see we are 0 for 4 and hoping for any advice to help us better coexist with our creature friends.

little bit of this and a little bit of that

Noah's first day of preschool.

Oh my big boy, he is so brave. Newcastle has a pretty strict drop off/pick up procedure where you stay in the car and pull around while a helper takes them out and leads them to class (even on the first day). As a past kindergarten teacher I totally see the wisdom and safety of that, but as a mom, it was so hard driving away seeing his big eyes filled with uncertainty. The drive home I let the tears flow. He had a great first day and just loves the sandbox and basketball hoops during play time.

Pregnacy bump and bruises.
Yeah! I'm into my second trimester. I thought I'd document the tummy bruises from the twice daily shots. I hope it was not too much skin for you. So happy to be 15 weeks.

Noah at the Provo farmers market. Did I mention he likes to swing?


Clara loves being Noah's sidekick. They take daily rides up and down the driveway. We're trying to figure some sort of shovel hookup to have them plow in the winter:).

lemon cupcakes

I'm not a great cook. (When we were first married Josh proudly brought up at a gathering what wonderful tater tot casserole I make. I was mortified, yet on a cold night I still make that dish.) From then on, I think of myself more as a baker. This was one of those unplanned, "What do I have in the pantry?" desserts that worked out great. I made them for Lissy's birthday.
Cupcake:
1 box white cake
1 box lemon pudding
4 eggs
3/4 cup water
zest of small lemon
lemon juice of small lemon
1/3 cup oil
I used my kitchen aid on medium for 5 minutes. Baked at 350 for 18 minutes.

lemon cream cheese icing:
1 pkg cream cheese (softened)
1 cube butter (softened)
2-3 cups powdered sugar
zest of one lemon
1/2 a lemon (juice squeezed)
I went a little heavy on the lemon and added the sugar to taste. The lightness of the lemon makes the icing seem not as naughty as it really is. It was so yummy. I could (and maybe did) eat it alone by the spoonfuls.
(I did go to allrecipes.com to get ideas and tweak to what I had and needed to make.)

night at lagoon

noah on the swings, what a happy boy!
little buddies had so much fun together clara's first ride...it was a little traumatic, I felt so bad, but she happily went on the boat ride with noah (so I guess no serious damage done)

Friday night we joined the masses for a fun, hot time at Lagoon. We went with our good friends the Wests. Noah and Hailey had so much fun on the rides, and we had so much fun watching them. Clara even went on few. It was a great end of summer activity.

summer fun

the backyard "swimming pool" as the kids call it
Grandma Peggy came in town and we went to Aunt Lissy's Pool (the Scera in Orem)

(more to come...I can't find the cable to our camera so these were shots from Beck's phone)