I'm lovin' the new look of the blog. Isn't it like a fresh breath of air? And no, sadly, I cannot take credit for it. There are a lot of things I can do on the blog, but when it comes to designing the layout, (sigh) Josh is the man. And, of course, props to Chriselda for the family picture we're using as our header.
This morning Noah and I got to go to the mall. We went to North East Mall, which has a really nice children's play area. So before we left I decided to let Noah play. With flu season approaching, I couldn't help but wonder if it was a good idea, but I am so glad we stayed because Noah had so much fun. He was exploring everything around him, and it was so much fun watching his reaction to all his new discoveries. There were several kids playing in the area, most of whom were older than Noah. It was so cute because it didn't matter that he was the little guy in the area, he wanted to be a part of everything the older kids were doing. We had the best time playing, and I actually managed to snap a few pictures of Noah in all of his excitement.
Noah driving in the big red car
Noah loved this flip the picture activity on the wall. He kept going back to it again and again.
Noah wasn't sure what to think of the mirror that distorted his image. He would crawl to the mirror, stare for just a few seconds, and then would crawl to me. It was soooo funny. I wanted to get some more pictures, but Noah wouldn't stay in front of it long enough for me to get anymore. But you get the idea. Ha!
He just couldn't say away though... so curious.
The slide was a big hit among the kids. They all loved it, and of course Noah was right there with them. He crawled right up the stairs, and with a little help from mommy he slid down. He loved it!
We had so much fun, and we'll have to go back and play soon!
Putting together Noah's 1st birthday party could not have been more fun. I can admit I had my moments of stress over it, but who doesn't when they are planning a party? One day Josh and I were talking about how in just three months our little guy would be turning one, so we decided we should start planning his party. We are usually huge procrastinators, so planning three months in advance was a big step for us. Ha. Then again, we ended up not getting the invitations out until a week before the party, so I guess I shouldn't be bragging too much. Hey, we tried!
We tossed around several ideas and themes for his party, but we finally decided on a monkey theme. I'm a sucker for monkeys, so I had to curb my spending for the party. There are just so many cute monkey party supplies, darn it!
So we started with the invites. I am oh so lucky to have a husband who is incredibly talented with computer design. I am not lying when I say he can create anything I ask him to make. If we find an idea that we like, he can usually make an exact copy of it or make a design that is even better than what we found. See for yourself:
Isn't it so cute! I was so happy with the way they turned out. After he finished designing the invites we printed them off at a local print shop, and then realized finding a custom made 61/2 X 61/2 inch envelope was almost impossible. In fact, it was a nightmare trying to find an envelope big enough for our invitations. But I won't go into detail about that, because who cares? It was just one of those *little* party planning stresses.
Josh also created the design for Noah's birthday t-shirt, and we made it together (another one of our projects to save money). We were really happy with the way it turned out.
Anyway, after Josh finished the invites and the design for the t-shirt, I started looking for a cake idea for Noah. I looked around for ideas online, and came across these pictures and knew I had to have it!
I sent out a few emails to local bakeries here as well as an email to the Cake Company in Canyon. We ended up choosing the Cake Company because they designed my wedding cake, and we knew from experience it would be quite tasty! I emailed them a few pictures of the design, and they got it right on! It was perfect! It turned out exactly how I hoped it would.
Of course while I was looking for ideas, I came across an item on Etsy that was absolutely, positively the cutest thing ever. And I couldn't pass it up. But I also couldn't justify spending almost $50 for it. This is what I found.
I fell in love with it when I saw it, but spending that much money for a bib is absolutely insane, no matter how cute it is. Luckily, my mother is so very talented, and I knew she could make this cute little bib in no time. The bib she made looked exactly like the picture above, except she added her own special touch to it. Thank you so much mom for taking on another one of my ideas! Here is the bib my mom made for Noah to wear at his party.
We had the party at Paramount Baptist Church in Amarillo, and we could not have imagined a better place to have Noah's 1st birthday. It's such a neat place to have a party because it has toys for the little ones to play with...
...but it also has an upstairs area with pool tables, ping pong tables, Wii's, Guitar Hero, etc. for the big kids!
Isn't this collage Chriselda made adorable? What a wonderful way to look back and remember Noah's party.
The morning of the party I was getting ready and about to leave when Noah woke up. I gave him a bottle, he laid back down, and to my surprise went back to sleep. I had to leave early to get everything ready, so Grammy brought Noah to the party around 9:30.
Poor baby. When I saw him I could tell he wasn't feeling well; I could just see it in his eyes. He hung in there though, and he managed to eat a few bites of cake and to help mommy and daddy open some of his presents. It's just not fair being sick on your birthday!
We all had so much fun, and we are so thankful for all of our family and friends who came to celebrate Noah's big day.
Chriselda took sooo many good pictures, so I made another slide show so you could see the rest of them. What a blessing to be able to look back at all of these pictures and remember Noah's 1st Birthday.
The lion may be the king of the jungle, but we all know the monkeys are the ones who have all the fun!
And that's the truth. We had so much fun at Noah's monkey themed party! We had so many of our family and friends there to help us celebrate his big day, and we are so thankful for your presence there. Our friend Chriselda came to the party and, thankfully, since she knew I would be busy running around she graciously offered to bring her camera along to snap a few shots of Noah.
Of course you know by now she got some amazing pictures, and we are so so thankful for the memories she captured for us. If you weren't there to celebrate with us, we missed you and hope you enjoy the pictures from the party!
Thank you Chriselda for the slideshow you created for us. We love it! Even Noah wanted to see what we were watching and crawled up in my lap to see it.
I plan to go into more detail about the party and the fun we had in Amarillo over the next couple of days, but as for today I just wanted to post this sweet little slideshow. Hope you are having a great day!
I have to admit I had a really hard time coming back to Fort Worth. Well, we all did. We love our home, but being in Amarillo for a couple days for Noah's party really affected us more than we thought it would. It almost felt like we were home, and that we had only been on a 3 month vacation. But Sunday came along, and we had to get in the car and go back to Fort Worth. I think I told Josh a hundred times on Sunday, "I don't want to leave Amarillo; I miss living here." It was hard leaving, but now that we are settled back in we feel at home here in Fort Worth again. Both Josh and I know God has us here for a specific purpose, and we are excited to see His work in our lives here.
We had a great time in Amarillo! It was so so nice to be back, and to spend time with our family and friends. And Noah's party was so much fun! I will go into more detail later. Thank you everyone who came to help us celebrate Noah turning one!
The "Weekend in Amarillo" post will probably be a long one, so I am going to save that for another night because tonight Josh is home with me! Yay! So instead of sitting here on the computer, I would rather be snuggled up next to him on the couch.
What a sweet husband I have! Listen to this:
He went to Walmart to buy groceries, cooked dinner, and even got us a movie to watch together. And to make this evening even better all of us sat down together as a family and had a rare dinner at the table. Sometimes it feels like we don't ever get to sit down together at the dinner table because our schedules are completely opposite. And most of the time, if we do actually have a night to eat together, Noah has already eaten or gone to bed. It sure helps that Noah can eat table foods and is now beginning to feed himself. It was wonderful to sit down and share that intimate family time.
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So guess who's on the wagon? Or is it off the wagon? Either way, tonight we began the bottle weaning process with Noah. Fun. We have been putting it off for a while now but decided it was time to start. Noah loves the bottle. He took to the bottle like a champ when I stopped nursing him at about five months. Tonight Noah did not have his bottle to go night-night with, and well, you could say he was not very happy about it. I had to listen to my poor little baby cry himself to sleep. Breaking a routine we have been doing for seven months is not going to be an easy task, I'm afraid.
Here is a picture of Noah drinking his milk from a sippy cup before we put him in bed. He kept pulling the cup out of his mouth like, "This is not my bottle." We have been dreading this night, and poor Noah had no idea that he should have been dreading this night too. Look at that sweet smile behind the sippy cup. {Insert sad mommy face here}
I think the first night of weaning was successful. It was hard for me to listen to Noah cry in his room, but he really did fall asleep within 15 minutes of laying him down. Hopefully we will have him weaned from the bottle in no time!
Well I better go! It's movie time!
Goodnight!
P.S. Here's a sneak peak of the next post. I'm sooo excited about it!
What a lovely Saturday morning it is! It just can't get any better than spending the day with Noah and eating some cinnamon sugar toast for breakfast. I'm not sure if I've told you lately that cinnamon sugar toast has become an obsession of mine. Oh it's so good!
Josh is sleeping right now. Poor guy had to work last night and didn't get home until almost 4 am, so I'm letting him sleep in today. Not much planned for this Saturday around the Bonjour home. Just rest and relaxation. Ahhhh. I love those days.
Last night I made a slide show of Noah's one year session with Chriselda. Like I've said before, Chriselda is just a.m.a.z.i.n.g! I have a cd full of hundreds of images, so you can imagine how difficult it was picking out my favorites to fit in a song that is not even three minutes long.
What a sweetheart he is! I better go! I have a busy little boy around here.
I hope you are having a Saturday full of rest too!
Right now I'm sitting here drinking my Diet Dr. Pepper, searching the internet for ideas for Noah's party, and chatting on Gmail. I've had Blogger open for the past hour or so hoping I would suddenly have a spark of creativity, but I have nothing.
Actually, I do have something. Not many words, but I have a sneak peak of Noah's one-year photos. I had the hardest time picking out which pictures to show you tonight, because there are so so so many good ones. I don't know how Chriselda does it. Seriously, the day she came over to take Noah's pictures, he was not in the mood. As soon as she pulled out the big bulky black thing (also known as her camera) his head turned the other way, and it was like that pretty much all day. He was in a very serious mood that day, but the pictures she took of him are perfect in every way. She captured Noah. With that said, here are a few shots of our little man.
Chriselda is in town, and she is coming over tomorrow to hang out with us and take Noah's one year photos! Yay! We are really anxious to see her and catch up! With that being said, it's late, and I have a lot of picking up around here before she comes over tomorrow, so I need to get off the computer and get busy!
But I do have some pictures of Noah for you! You know by now I can't post anything without a few pictures or a video.
Noah has become quite good at ignoring my camera lately (hopefully he doesn't ignore Chriselda's camera tomorrow), but the other day he was in such a smiley mood and just being a silly little guy.
What a silly face Noah!
Look at those curls! I think it is about time for his first haircut! It's so cute because when Josh's hair gets long that is exactly what his hair does.
What a sweet baby! I just love him to pieces!
Also, we want to wish Gay Lynn (Grammy) a Happy Birthday tomorrow! We miss you and can't wait to see you!
This post will be short and sweet. Mainly because I have to get up early and need to get to bed.
I promised you our family pictures, so here they are! Well... minus Einstein. I'm sure you would appreciate it if I kept the details to myself, but basically Einstein was feeling pretty down and out that day.
Anyway, we were so pleased with how our family session turned out. As always we had a lot of fun with Chriselda!
I love to blog. I know, I know. You're saying, "duh Libby."
No seriously, it has become one of my favorite things to do. I LOVE sharing our story with you. How great is the concept of blogging, to be able to keep family and friends updated on what is going on in our lives. I hope when you sit down to your computer to read our blog, you enjoy yourself. I hope it brings a smile to your face or even makes you laugh sometimes.
So... I'm just curious; I often think to myself, "I wonder who my faithful blog readers actually are?" Yes, I'm talking to YOU. I want to know who you are. So here's the deal. If you are reading this right now, please leave me a comment. It doesn't have to be long, and you can say (almost) anything you want. Even just a hello would be fabulous! Just click the word "comments" below my name, and drop me a line.
Before I go, I thought I'd share with you a preview of our family session we had not to long ago with Chriselda. Coming soon...
Is it Wednesday already!? I am still trying to grasp the reality that we are moving this Sunday. And I also can't believe I actually scheduled myself to work this Thursday and Friday! What was I thinking? That just means the rest of the packing is in Josh's hands. Oh great! No, really everything is coming together and we are basically finished.
This week has been kind of sad because it is our last week in Amarillo. Amarillo has always been home. But it is also exciting because we are about to build a new life in Fort Worth. I believe our move to Fort Worth will be a good thing. We will only grow stronger. And I know God will be with us through it all. Lots of exciting times ahead!
So Monday was Memorial Day, and, like I said before, we didn't have much going on. It was really nice though because we were together as a family. Neither one of us had to work, which doesn't happen very often these days. We did however meet Chriselda later in the day and had our family pictures taken with her. We love hanging around with her. If you haven't met Chriselda, you need to. She is such a sweet, outgoing, loving individual, and what a great friend she has become to our family. She has been a part of our lives since Noah was two weeks old. We are so thankful for her, and she will be missed.
Anyway, Chriselda was nice enough to send us a sneak peak of our family session. We love this picture, and it was actually an accident. Isn't it funny how that happens. We were all just playing around, and Chriselda caught it at the right moment.
We are anxious to see the rest, but until then we will just enjoy this one! Hope you are having a great day!
Noah is taking a nap right now, so I thought this would be a good time to sit down and tell you about our fun filled day we've had together.
Our day started out early this morning. Chriselda's son, Laken, had a birthday today. He is the big 4! When we arrived at the party, Laken was so cute. You could tell he was excited about his birthday. He was bouncing off the walls. But what kid doesn't bounce off the wall when it's their birthday? Anyways, it was so cute because Laken kept saying, "this is momma's baby" pointing to Noah. The party was so much fun; Noah and I had a great time. Thanks Chriselda for inviting us!
Chriselda and "her baby" at Laken's party.
Before we arrived home, Noah was sound asleep in his carseat. All the fun wore him out! He slept for about an hour, and then we had to run up to the hospital to make sure I didn't have a reaction to the TB shot I had the other day. Of course, we ended up staying up there probably about thirty minutes because all the girls couldn't get enough of little Noah. It is so funny because some of the girls in the nursery told me, "he looks SO much like you!" Then I go out to labor and delivery and hear, "he looks exactly like Josh!" I think he is a good mix of both of us. It's just so funny because it is always like that where ever we go.
Anyway, as we were driving home from the hospital we made a quick stop to buy me another pair of scrub pants. Noah was such a sweet boy. He was in the happiest mood, in fact, he kept screaming at the top of his lungs while I was trying on pants. He was so funny.
Once we got home I decided to take Noah and Eins to the park and take a walk. It was so beautiful outside today!
Here's my sweet boy relaxing before our walk.
Noah and Einstein in the car ready to go!
Boy are we tired from our long walk!
Well... actually I think Einstein is the only one worn out. He has been sleeping ever since we got home.
It has been such a fun day! I love Noah and Mommy time!
Hey guys, this is Josh. It's been a while since I've posted, so I'm going to steal the six month picture post from Libby. She'll probably be furious when she finds out that I've done this, because I was supposed to be proof reading her version of the six month picture post -- not deleting everything she wrote and writing my own stuff. However, I'm rationalizing my actions by saying that it's been too long since I've posted. That, and Libby is in bed right now, so by the time she finds out I've hijacked this post, it'll be too late for her to do anything about it.
Time flies when you're having fun. And, though I can think of several words to describe our first six months with Noah (sleep deprived, overwhelming, and evil-smelling all come to mind), I could definitely use fun as an accurate description.
It's fun watching Noah grow and learn right before my eyes. It's fun acting like a moron to make him laugh. It's fun taking walks on nice days with Einstein on the leash and Noah in the stroller. It's fun giving Noah a bath. It's not fun mopping up the floor and changing my soggy clothes afterward. It's funny when Noah pees on someone that's not me (hey, fun is the root word for funny, so i think it counts). I could go on and on.
My point is, in all the fun, time has flown by. I can't believe it's already been six months. Six months! It wasn't that long ago that we had his newborn and then three month pictures taken. He's changed so much since then. Take a look:
Oh how I long for the days when he was that light. I think carrying six month old babies in car seats could qualify as an Olympic event in the weight lifting competition. No, seriously. I'm not joking.
But I better get to the reason for this post. I did shamelessly steal it after all. We got Noah's six month pictures back the other day, and they're awesome. They better be awesome after the abusive candlestick incident, right? Let's just say I would have had a better handle on things if I'd have been there.
Seriously, Chriselda is amazing with her camera. She has been everything we could ask for in a photographer. Since the time Noah was in the womb, Chriselda and Libby have been emailing and GoogleTalk-ing each other, shooting ideas back and forth about the next session, or just talking about whatever. They've really developed a great relationship. We love how she captures Noah in his everyday moments and turns them in to awesome pictures that we'll always be able to keep.
Anyway, enough about all of that. You're really here for the pictures, so I won't make you wait any longer. (Even though I know half of you cheated and have already clicked on the slideshow.) Here are some of our favorites from Noah's six month session:
And of course, Chriselda had to get one of just Einstein, so his feelings wouldn't be hurt. Isn't he pitiful?
