Whatever Works

Here are some of my favorite outtakes of Noah modeling

the hats Mary sent him for the giveaway post.

{This would not have happened without a bag of candy!}

Whatever works, right?

-----

I'm serious woman. If you don't give me the

candy you promised, this hat is coming off!

Candy... now!!

Okay. Now go ahead... snap away.

Yummmmy candy!

A ring pop and Andes mints! She hooked me up!

What? You want me to smile?

Sorry Mom. That was not part of the deal.

A Few Things...

I have some exciting news to share!

It is kind of small, but look whose sweet little face

made Momtog's new header! Soooo exciting!

Thank you, thank you, thank you

for taking the time to vote for Noah's picture.

I really appreciate your support!

You can check it out here if you'd like. :)

And, I'm sure some of you are ready to know

who won the 1st giveaway, right?

Hooray Laterah you won! Email me!

For those of you who didn't win, Mary is offering

15% off your purchase until Saturday, February 26th.

Click here to do a little shopping!

At check out, use this code to receive your discount:

BONJOUR15

Thank you, Mary, for such a great giveaway!

Also...

Good Gravy Designs giveaway is still open, but it

will close this Sunday, February 20th at 10 pm CST.

So, get your entries in before it's too late!

Next week we will have giveaway #3! Yay!

Well, I think that's all I got tonight.

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend!

Stinkin' Cute

Can't get enough of this sweet little face.

He's just so stinkin' cute!

Two Years

Yes. It's true! The first of February {I'm a little late!}

was our blog-birthday, so I thought we'd do a little

celebrating with some giveaways! What do ya say?

I'm really excited about todays giveaway from one of my sweet

bloggy friends, Mary. She recently opened up an etsy shop and

it's full of the most precious children's hats. I was so excited

when she sent Noah a few hats to model. Isn't he just precious!?

I am so impressed with Mary's work.

The hats are very well made and just as cute as can be!

And the prices of her products-- very reasonable!

Mary is giving away a custom beanie hat

{with or without a flower} and you

can choose two different colors.

Update: Giveaway closed.

To enter the giveaway:

Leave a comment telling me which

colors you would pick if you won.

For extra entries:

Follow my blog

{tell me if you already do}

Follow Mary's blog

You have three chances to win!

Oh, and please leave a separate

comments for each entry.

Thank you!

Pretty Please?

Soooo, guess what?! Remember the Valentine's photo challenge I entered a few days ago? Well, Mr. Noah's picture made it into the Top 30! Yay!

Now it's time to vote! Would you mind taking a second to vote for us? I mean, really, how could you say no to this sad little face? :)

Voting will be open until February 8th and the winners will be posted the following day. Click here to vote! Noah is #7.

Thank you! What would we do without you?

p.s. Thank you to many of you who have already taken the time to vote for us! You're the best!

Valentine's Photo Challenge

The Paper Mama is hosting a Valentine's link up

photo challenge, so I thought it would be fun to play along.

What a sad little face!

Click here to join the fun!

29 months

Mr. Noah, you are just growing up way too fast. Each month you get a little big bigger and a little big older. *Sigh* Will you stop it already?

Some of your favorite phrases/words lately are: "That's okay." "Get out of the way!" {a line from Toy Story}, "See ya!" "Let's go." "Let's go, Daddy!" "Woody" and "Buh" for Buzz. It's such a joy to hear that sweet little voice of yours! Some new signs you've learned lately are: "monkey" "blanket" "donut" "open" "boy" "girl" "flag" and many others I'm not thinking of right now.

Your favorite movies right now are Toy Story {all three of them!} and Despicable Me.

You love to sleep in bed with Mommy and Daddy. We were adamant from the beginning you would sleep in your own bed, but somehow you managed to wiggle your way in. But I have to admit, I sure do love having you to snuggle with when your Daddy is working the night shift.

You love the Woody and Buzz Lightyear action figures your grandparents got you for Christmas. They sleep with you every night and go almost everywhere you go. Tonight, you insisted they sit with you in your highchair while you ate dinner. Funny guy!

You have used your little potty twice! Yay Noah! We are so proud of you. Maybe, just maybe, you will be potty trained by the time you turn three?? If not, that's okay. We will just keep on practicing until you get it.

You love to point to your {and everyone else's, including Einstein's} nose, eyes, ears, belly button, and toes {a.k.a your piggies} and practice saying each of them.

I have to say, you are quite a challenge these days. Hellooo Terrible Two's. I thought caring for you when you were a baby was a challenge. Ha. That was nothin'! Learning to be consistent with you and follow through with discipline has been one of the hardest things I've had to learn to do as a parent. I am definitely learning patience!

I think if we let you, you'd run around naked all the time. You throw a fit when you have to put clothes on, and it hasn't taken you long to figure out how to take them off again {especially your shirt and socks!}. Most nights, you go to bed with just a diaper on. That is a battle I just don't want to fight at the end of the day.

You have become quite the picky eater lately. But one thing you will never turn down is a hamburger. Definitely one of your favorite foods! Some other foods you like right now are mandarin oranges, bagels, chips and queso, Special K cereal, cubes of cheese, ham, spaghetti and meatballs, bananas, and powdered donuts.

One thing I just love is how you sign "cow" for every four legged animal you see. I don't know how many times I've told you Einstein is not a cow. Cracks me up every time.

I love you to infinity and beyond!

A January Valentine

Last night while I was grocery shopping at Walmart, I came across another Toy Story toy Noah just had to have. Seriously people, I've got a problem. Every time I spot something Toy Story my body naturally gravitates towards it, and I end up buying it. This time around though I was a good girl and decided I better ask my hubby if I could buy it... especially since I just had the "don't go overboard" lecture before I left. Me? Never! Ha.

Anyway, I spotted this race track toy and knew Noah would just love it. So, I had to think up a good excuse. Hmmm. Oh! Valentine's Day! I knew it would work, so I sent Josh a text with a picture of the toy and told him this toy would be the perfect Valentine's gift for Noah. I got a text a minute later saying, "yeah that's fine." Told you it would work! ;)

When I got home I put it in our laundry area and closed the door. I meant to eventually move it to our closet or somewhere else but forgot. Whoops. Well, guess who found his new toy today?

I just couldn't say no to the little guy once he saw it; he was so excited. So, he got his Valentine's gift a month early. Ha. It's safe to say, he loves it! He even took it to bed with him tonight. :)

Ice Cream + a Snowy Night

On our recent trip to visit my parents in Oklahoma, we decided to be adventurous and go out for

some ice cream. The snow was falling, and it was a whopping 15 degrees outside. We're crazy like

that, but it was totally worth it. Can ya tell? :)

Who else is ready for some warm weather?

Happy Friday!

hello.

Are you ready for a very random post? Here goes..

Despicable Me is definitely one of my new favorite movies. I love it. No lie, Noah and I watch it {or at least have it playing in the background while we play or clean} every day. Have you seen it? If you love animated movies, then you've got to see it. "It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!!!"

Did you know cornstarch helps heal diaper rash? I've never tried it, but apparently it works wonders! I will definitely have to keep that in mind next time Noah has a sore bottom. Thanks Amanda for the tip!

Okay, so maybe, just maybe, potty training won't be as hard as I thought it would be. Noah tinkled in his potty again tonight! Before he got in the bath, he sat down on the potty and I asked him, "Can you go tinkle?" About a minute later the little potty was singing again! Then Noah did the cutest thing. He raised his arms in the air and yelled, "Yayyy!" and then he pointed to his pee and said, "Look!" So, it seems we are doing something right. I really appreciate all the wonderful advice all you experienced mommies gave to me today. Thank you!!

I bought some really, really cute fabric the other day! Yay! I decided it is time to pull out the sewing machine again and start sewing! Oh, how I've missed it. Can't wait to share with you what I'm making! It's a secret for now though. :)

Speaking of sewing, I only have a little over seven months left to finish up all of my Home Ec projects {oops!}. You may be seeing a lot of sewing projects in the upcoming months! Ha. I hope I can get them all finished by August...

Oh! Guess what came in the mail for me a few weeks ago? My new lens! It makes me so happy! *Sigh*

Well... I guess that's it.

I'll leave you with a picture of the fur baby:

My husband is pretty funny.

Success!

You know what that means.

Mr. Noah tinkled in his little potty for

the very first time tonight! Yay!

Noah sat down on it so naturally,

like a king on his little throne.

I had no expectations, so after about five

minutes of sitting on the potty, I said,

"Okay, let's get in the bath!"

Um. Negative.

Noah wanted to sit on his potty.

So, I let him.

Then, all of a sudden we heard a little tune.

Noah looked up at me with the funniest expression

on his face like, "Is my potty playing music??"

I couldn't believe my ears.

Did Noah really just use his little potty?

He sure did!

And I was so proud of him!

But I have to be honest here...

When it comes to potty training,

I have no idea what I'm doing.

And especially with a boy. Oh my!

Advice? I'm all ears.

My Stubborn Child

Noah and I had a hard night tonight.

The little guy was bound & determined not to go to sleep when I

laid him down this evening. Actually, over the past couple of days it's been

a constant struggle getting Noah to lay down and stay in bed until he falls asleep.

Oh, the joys of stubborn toddlers.

Let's just say Noah's little hiney got a few spankings

tonight {as much as I hate giving them!},

and he finally gave up and fell asleep.

Or so I thought.

Not long ago, I walked into our room and guess who I

found so sweetly snuggled up in our bed?

Why do they have to be so stinkin'

cute when they're sleeping?!

Melt my heart.

Christmas with our Families

I had quite the scare today!

Someone {ahem, Noah!} dropped one of my memory

cards in a cup of Dr. Pepper sitting on our computer desk.

Josh told me to put it in some rice, so I ran to the kitchen,

threw open the pantry door and grabbed myself a bag of rice.

My little memory card is currently buried in a cup of rice, so I

am hoping and praying it's not ruined. That would be so sad.

Apparently the rice pulls all the fluid out of the card??

We shall see.

Anyway, I learned my lesson!

I'll never leave my memory card in reach of little hands ever again.

I was worried at first because I thought all of our Christmas pictures

were on that card, but thankfully they were on another one.

After we had our little Christmas, we drove to Oklahoma to

celebrate with my side of the family. We were only there a little

over 24 hours, so it was a very short trip, but the time we spent

together was so wonderful! I loved every minute of it.

Here are some of my favorite pictures of our

time together. You should have seen my parents' living

room. It was covered in wrapping paper! Ha.

I love this picture of my dad. Definitely the parent

my brother gets his funny expressions from.

The cutest twins I know.

Noah opening a present! Let me guess... something Toy Story?

Seriously, you should see our apartment.

Toy Story all over! :)

Noah got the coolest Buzz Light year from Granddad and Mimi.

Buzz says like sixty different phrases, has lasers, pop-up wings,

a moving head... you name it, he does it. All the guys

kept saying, "Why didn't we have cool toys

like that when we were growing up?!"

Noah waiting patiently as Daddy tries to get Buzz out of the box.

Noah showing Megan and Delilah how Buzz works.

My Mom surprised my Dad and got him some cowboy boots.

He was really excited about them.

And my Dad got my Mom a new flat screen T.V. for

her sewing room! Now she is set, and there is no reason

she can't get going with a sewing business {right Mom?}.

Guess what else Noah got? A potty!

I love the picture of him eating his cookie on the pot. Haha.

Bibi and Abby-- happy little newlyweds.

Oh goodness, here we go.

To make a long story short, my Mom and Josh have

an ongoing war each Christmas where they buy each

other something ugly. For the first year or two, they

bought each other the ugliest ornaments they could find.

But this year, they changed it up a little and Josh bought my

Mom this ugly "make your nose hairs curl" type of candle.

And my Mom found this beauty for Josh:

Can you guess where the shirt ended up?

Before we left for Amarillo, Josh had me distract my Mom

while he laid it down in Samson & Delilah's cage.

I love seeing what those two come up with every year. :)

Such a sleepy little guy.

It was a quick trip, but a wonderful one!

After we spent some time in Oklahoma with my

family, we drove to Amarillo to see Josh's side of the family.

We had an easy four hour trip to Amarillo and arrived late Sunday

evening. Papa and Grammy met us at the door and we all stayed

up a few hours talking and catching up. It was so good to see them!

The next morning we had breakfast and opened up gifts.

One of my favorite gifts that Grammy got Noah was a Toy Story

book recorded with her voice. Noah loved it! And he still

smiles each time we open it up and read it. What a special gift!

I loved how Noah tore off the wrapping

paper-- he knew what he was doing!

What is it??

Woody!!!

And boy does he love Woody.

He also says a bunch of different phrases from the movie

when you pull the string on his back. But Noah's favorite

thing about Woody is putting the hat on his head.

Thank you Grammy and Papa!

I guess Papa was surprised! Love this picture!

Noah playing the tickle game with Daddy.

He looooves to be tickled.

We were so glad Nanny and Pa {Josh's grandparents}, Joseph and

his girlfriend, Ashley, and Quentin were able to come over to see us.

Grammy cooked out steaks, and we all had lunch; it was so nice

to catch up with everyone and spend the afternoon together.

Family picture!

We also went to visit my grandmother Gigi

while we were in town. We sure miss her!

And we had the chance to see Josh's Aunt Kim for

a little bit one afternoon. It was great seeing her too!

I'm kicking myself because I didn't have my camera with me!

Sweet, sweet picture of Noah and his Grammy.

They sure have fun together.

What a blessing to be able to spend Christmas

with both of our families! We love you all!