Amarillo by Morning

Literally.

We pulled out of the parking lot of our apartment at 1:3o am. I honestly think we were crazy for driving that late early. Noah used to love being in his car seat and travel in the car, but ever since he became mobile we are lucky if he is happy in his carseat for over an hour. So we no longer travel during the day, or at least we won't until Noah gets a little older and can entertain himself.

Josh got off work at midnight, he drove home, and we put everything in the car. The drive to Amarillo was not too bad; in fact, it actually went by really quick. At least the first four hours went by quick. The last two we were both really tired, but we kept each other awake.

We pulled in Papa and Grammy's driveway around 7:15 am, and we were so glad to be there. Thankfully, Papa and Grammy offered to watch Noah for us so we could sleep for while. Later that evening we all went to Kabuki (one of our favorite restaurants in Amarillo) to celebrate Noah's big day. It was so so so so so good. Before we went home we had to stop by Albertson's to get a few things for Noah's cake, and while we were there Papa bought Noah a football balloon. Noah loved it--he had a death grip on that thing, and it was hilarious.

You may cringe when you hear what kind of cake Noah ate for his birthday, but I'm not lying when I tell you it is the best cake ever. Grammy made Noah a mayonnaise cake, and he LOVED it! The mayonnaise cake is a Bonjour family tradition. Darrell's mother made it for him growing up, and then Gay Lynn made it for Josh, Joseph, and Quentin, so there would be no other cake worthy enough to put in front of Noah for his first birthday. And Josh informed me, I WILL be making it for our children too. Well of course!

And that night Noah drank whole milk for the very first time! The transition from Similac to whole milk has been easy. Noah loves his milk just like his daddy!



We all had such a wonderful time celebrating Noah's birthday! Later that evening Uncle Quentin and Uncle Joseph arrived after we had all gone to bed. We didn't think Quentin would be able to come for the weekend because he lives in Stamford, but Joseph went to pick him up and brought him to Amarillo. One of the last things Quentin said to me before we left was, "Don't forget to put me on the blog!" Haha. Here is a sweet picture of Noah and Quentin playing together.

The next morning we had an appointment to see Dr. Fletcher for Noah's one-year check up. At that visit Noah would be getting four shots, so I decided to call to see if we could change the visit to Thursday instead of Friday since Noah's birthday party was on Saturday. It wasn't possible to change it, so we went in crossing our fingers the shots wouldn't affect Noah's mood the rest of the weekend.

It was great seeing Dr. Fletcher again, and we were sad knowing it would be the last time Noah came to see him. He has been a great pediatrician, and we are so thankful for all the care he gave to Noah throughout his first year. Dr. Fletcher said he looked wonderful and was a good lookin' guy (I couldn't agree more)! Noah weighed 24 lbs and measured 29 inches long! What a big boy!

Before we left the office Noah had to get four shots, and I think these were the worst yet. After we got back to the house, Noah was ok for a few minutes, but then started bawling wanting Mama to hold him. It went on like that all day. Poor baby. We gave him Tylenol and Motrin throughout the day to help with the pain, and later in the evening he seemed like he was feeling better.

Granddad, Mimi, Megan, Nana, and Roger arrived in Amarillo around dinner time, so we met them at Abuelo's. It was so much fun being together, and it was so sweet of them to come all the way from Oklahoma City for Noah's birthday party. We ate some good ol' Mexican food, and then decided to go over to Nana and Roger's hotel room to hang out some more and open a few of Noah's birthday presents. The time we had together that evening was so special. It was like our own little party for Noah. It was so funny because Noah was so uninterested in opening any of his presents. He just wanted to crawl around the hotel room and occasionally would come over to see what he got. He really loved his sports toy Nana and Roger got for him, but I won't go into detail about that because Josh "reserved" it to blog about. Ha.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of our evening together. Again, thank you all for coming to Amarillo to see us and for Noah. We were so thankful for the time we got to spend with you!



Well I better stop for now. My new goal is to make it in bed by 11 pm every night. It has been so hard lately getting up early with Noah in the mornings, so I have decided I have to get myself in bed at a decent hour. Tomorrow I will post about Noah's Birthday Party! We had so much fun, and I am so anxious to tell you about it and to show you more pictures.

Have a wonderful night!

Feeling Like Poo

Poor poor little Noah. He has had a rough day. Actually it seems like he has had a rough week. Changing to whole milk and eating solids has been rough on his system. He has been in so much pain lately, and my heart breaks for him to see him this way. We have slowed down on the milk products and have focused on putting more fiber and fluids in his diet, so we are hoping that will do the trick! Tonight we let Noah stay up a little bit since he hasn't been feeling very well.

Please keep Noah in your prayers this week. Little babies aren't supposed to hurt. :(

Early Morning

I am certainly not a morning person, so when Noah wakes me up at 8:15 am it takes me a while to wake up.

I am having a reeaalllyyy hard time getting up and around this morning.

Apparently, so is Noah.

Our Eventful Night!

I'm kind of irritated. You want to know why? I hate it when I get my hopes up.

The weather forecast for today and all weekend show thunderstorms. Not one drop of rain fell today, AND it was hot to make matters worse. Can you tell I'm rather annoyed?

I honestly think the rain runs from us. When we lived in Amarillo it never rained, and now that we don't live there it rains all the time!

So I am a quite irritated because I love the rain and kind of got my hopes up. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow.

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30 minutes later...

As I was sitting writing my sob story (above) the craziest thing happened to me, Noah, and Einstein. A very loud, blood curdling siren started blaring in our apartment. I thought, "What in the world is going on? Couldn't be a tornado warning...or maybe it is, and I'm being punished for my complaining about no rain." As soon as those thoughts passed through my mind I immediately ran into Noah's room because I knew he would be terrified.

As soon as I opened his door he was sitting there in his crib with tears streaming down his face. Pooooor baby! I can't imagine waking up to that horrible noise and not having the slightest idea of what is going on. I swept him up in my arms and covered his ears as I tried to figure out what is going on. "Is it a fire? Oh. my. gosh. What if it is a tornado, and I just didn't hear it raining outside?" So I run out on the back porch to see if it is raining. No rain. "Whew! Ok good no tornado."

I open the front door and water is pouring and starting to get into the house. I close the door. Ok that is strange; I am rather confused now. At first I thought it was raining right outside our door, but figured out it was the fire sprinkler system going off. I decided we had to get out of the apartment because chances are it is probably a fire somewhere in our building. Plus the alarm is almost deafening and Noah is scared and crying, so I grab Einstein's leash and open the front door as water pours down in the breezeway.

But guess who decides he is not going to come out for anything... Einstein. Einstein would not move. I call to him, "Einstein come on! Hurry! I'm about to leave you in the apartment and if there is a fire you will be a pug roast! Come on!" I am trying to carry my keys, the leash, my phone, and Noah as the water is pouring down, and our stubborn pug would not budge.

"Einstein, COME on!" Finally he builds up enough courageous and tippy toes over the water in front of our door.

Pretty soon after I got Einstein out of the house he disappears. Oh great.

"Einstein! Where are you? Einstein!"

I walk down the stairs to see if maybe he ran down to go to the bathroom or something. As soon as I walked to the grassy area I look up and you know what I see? My neighbor, who weighs probably a little over a hundred pounds, is carrying 40 lb Einstein down the stairs. Oh my gosh.

"Here is Einstein. He ran into our house and I didn't realize," she said.

"I am soooo sorry." I could barely say it without laughing. Seeing her carry Einstein down the stairs was quite comical.

"Oh it's fine. It's no problem at all. He's just scared."

By that time the fire truck arrives and a bunch of firemen run up the stairs to check everything out. And, well, to make a long story short everything was fine. I still do not know what happened, but I am just thankful everything was okay.

What an eventful night we have had! I planned to write about our trip to Amarillo tonight, but it looks like I will have to save it for another night.

Hope you are having a wonderful evening! Goodnight!

Our Little Monkey'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!

On the Wagon

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!