September 30, 2009

Libby & Julia

Have you seen the movie Julie & Julia? Someday I will get around to seeing it. I reeeeaaallly wanna see it. The reason I bring the movie up is because in a way I kinda feel like the girl in the movie. Well, to some extent I do. The young girl, Julie, in the movie makes it her goal to cook her way through Julia Child's cook book. I have recently made it my goal to: 1. cook more and 2. to find and try out new recipes. The main reason I'm expanding my recipe collection and cooking more often is for the benefit of my family, but personally I have actually enjoyed being in the kitchen lately. I'm certainly no Betty Crocker, and the recipes I've cooked lately have been pretty simple, but with a one-year old crawling all over the place I don't have time to spend hours upon hours in the kitchen.

Last week when I was planning my menu for the week, I spotted a new recipe on kraftfoods.com that I wasn't quite sure of, but I thought I would venture out and try it. If you need something quick and very tasty you need to try this:

Cheesy Chicken Tostadas

Photobucket

You'll need:

6 tostada shells
1/2 cup Philadelphia Chive & Onion Cream Cheese Spread
3/4 lb. cooked chicken, shredded*
6 Kraft Singles
1 avocado, sliced
1-1/2 cups shredded lettuce
1 medium tomato, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spread tostada shells evenly with cream cheese spread;
place on baking sheet. Fill evenly with chicken and Singles.
Bake 5 to 7 minutes or until heated through.
Top with the avocados, lettuce, and tomatoes.

** I put the chicken in a slow cooker with chicken broth and let it cook
all day. It is so moist and easy to shred by dinnertime.

That is it!

Josh really liked them (I could tell he wasn't lying), and Noah, well, he didn't exactly eat them, but I think he really enjoyed the chicken and avocados.





Project Big Boy UPDATE: Noah has been doing so well. We had another really good day. For both his nap and bedtime he fell asleep within 15 minutes. It is getting easier by the day. The days of "Ba-ba" are gone. Kinda makes me sad.

If you have any yummy recipes to share send them my way!

Hope you are having a great night!



2:00 am update: Ok, I was about to go to bed, but I just had to add this to the blog before I went to sleep. As I always do before I go to bed, I went in Noah's room to check on him. This is what I found:


Most of the time when I check on him, Noah has his blankets flung every which way, but not tonight. Tonight I went in to find little Noah comfortably tucked in with a blanket. Turns out Josh had been to visit Noah a few minutes before I went in. How precious is that? What a wonderful daddy!

September 29, 2009

Project Big Boy: Day 3 & Walking Like a Senior Citizen

I think I would be safe to say Project Big Boy has been successful so far. I say so far because I don't think we are there yet. Noah has been doing so well with the weaning process. We didn't hear one peep from him last night; he slept straight through. It was difficult getting up with him at 7:30 am, but it's okay. I loved waking up with my little guy and spending some good quality time with him. We ate breakfast together, shot some hoops with his little basketball goal (thanks Nana & Roger!), read a couple of books, and watched a Baby Einstein. By that time, it was time for a nap and Noah went right to sleep without any problem--he was asleep within five minutes. Everything has gone so smoothly, well, until tonight. Noah cried for about 30 minutes before he went to sleep. It is so hard to listen to him cry and not be able to do anything to soothe him. But we have come a long way, and I honestly believe we are getting closer and closer to having him weaned. Thank you again for your prayers. We really appreciate them so much.

---------------------------

Noah got a walker for his birthday from his great-grandmother, Gigi, and boy does he love it. If only he had more room to walk around with it I think he would use it all the time. And when he uses it to walk around, it is the. cutest. thing. ever.

About a month before Noah's birthday, I was talking on the phone with Gigi, and before we got off, Gigi asked me what she could get Noah for his birthday. I immediately thought of a walker. She asked me to send her an email of one, so I did a little searching and sent her a link to a walker I found on the Babies R Us website. And it was so funny because before we got off the phone, Gigi said to me, "Now, don't you let anyone else get this for him." It was sweet because she was so excited to get the walker for him.

Anyway, I wanted to post a picture and video of Noah and his walker. I think I could watch this video hundreds of times and never get tired of it.




Ah! Love it. Off to catch up on Survivor with Josh. Goodnight!

September 28, 2009

Project Big Boy: Day 2 & the State Fair of Texas

I'm back with a Project Big Boy update, but first I want to say thanks for the prayers, support, and encouragement you have given us. Parenting is difficult at times, but it's a lot easier when family and friends are supporting us with prayer and encouragement. Philippians 4:6 says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." We have done that, and I thank God for his help as we have begun the process of weaning Noah from the bottle.

So, here is the update: Today we laid Noah down for a nap when we got home from eating lunch. We changed his diaper, but his pj's on, kissed him, and put him in his bed without a bottle. Of course we expected him to cry, and he did, but it didn't even last for five minutes. I peeked my head in his room, and he was sound asleep. And he slept for almost 3 hours! Talk about answered prayers.

Getting Noah to go to sleep at night without a bottle has always been very difficult. But guess what? Tonight wasn't difficult at all. I rocked Noah a little bit, we said a prayer, and I put him in his bed (again without a bottle), and I tell you the truth, he was asleep within five minutes. I took Einstein out to go potty, and when I came back in the house, it was completely quiet. Sweet little Noah fell asleep without the bottle! So far so good! Thank the Lord. Please continue to keep praying for us.

-----------------------------

On Friday night, Josh got a page from Aric Randolph, our pastor at New Life Deaf Fellowship, and Aric asked if we wanted to join their family in going to the State Fair of Texas on Saturday. We were excited they asked us because we have been wanting to go, and thought it would be fun to go with friends. We had so much fun with the Randolphs, and let me tell you, if you haven't been to the State Fair, you are missing out. Of course, we grew up in Amarillo with the Tri-State Fair. The Tri-State Fair is okay until you go to a real Fair. The parking lot at the State Fair is bigger than the fair in Amarillo. It's crazy!

Noah was such a good little boy the whole time we were there. He got to taste the yummy goodness of a Fletcher's Corny Dog (the original corn dog) for the first time yesterday. Who doesn't love corn dogs from the fair? Noah also loved the animals. His favorite was a calf, named Beauregard, who was sitting next to Elsie the cow. Noah just laughed and laughed when Josh bent down with Noah to look at Beauregard, and Noah even started crying when we left because he wanted to stay and look longer. It was so much fun watching him get excited about the animals. We have some tickets left over, so we might go back sometime this week or next. There are so many animals we didn't get to see while we were there, and there were so many yummy foods we didn't get to try. You can only eat so much fried food before you start feeling sick to your stomach. At one point, we came across a big bundle of cotton, and Noah picked a small piece of it and tried to feed it to Daddy. It was so funny. We had such a great time! I wish I would have brought my camera to take more pictures, and I wish I would have thought to get a picture of our family and the Randolphs together, but I got some pretty cute ones on my phone.

Josh, Noah, and Big Tex. Noah was pretty scared of Big Tex,
so we didn't stick around too long.



Josh decided this could be Noah's first car. I don't think so.





Josh and Caleb sportin' their sunglasses.
Don't I have such a cool husband? Not.



But I DO have a cool son!





Noah looooved playing with the cotton.



I guess Noah thought it was cotton candy.



Mmmmmmmmm....Fair Food.



At the end of the day, Noah was all tuckered out.



September 27, 2009

Project Big Boy

Well, Noah is 13 months old today, and he's still hittin' the bottle. The baby bottle, that is.

I think the hardest part of parenting so far--harder than cleaning up atomic-explosion diapers and harder than keeping Noah out of Einstein's food bowl--has been trying to wean Noah from the bottle. You see, Libby and I made the grave error of letting Noah become dependent on the bottle to go to sleep.

Noah likes his sleep. But he has become accustomed to a bottle of milk any time he wants to go to sleep. For the past year, any time we've put Noah to bed, it's been with the comfort of a bottle; any time Noah has woken up in the middle of the night, it's been a race to soothe his midnight cries with a bottle. And it's always worked. I'm an "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" guy, and like I said, the bottle has always worked. It still works. But it's time to fix it.

We actually tried to wean Noah from the bottle a few weeks ago, and it lasted all of one hour. We put Noah down without a bottle, and predictably, he cried. We went in a little later to give Noah a sippy cup and to try to get him to sleep, but no go. After about 45 minutes, Noah got angry. He started really crying. And yelling. Basically in baby-speak Noah was telling us this.

We gave in to Noah, but we were wrong. So, we're starting the process again today. We're going to update you every day on our progress (or lack thereof), and we'll call it Project Big Boy. Updating you every day serves two purposes: first, it holds us accountable to follow through with the weaning, and second, it means you'll be suffering with us. Because we will be suffering.

Everything we've read and heard from people with experience says that cold turkey is the way to go when weaning from the bottle. So that's how we're going to do it. Your prayers are appreciated. No, seriously, pray for us this week. It will be rough, but God will help us through it.

Since Libby says that posts without pictures are boring, I'll leave you with this one. Noah loves to play peek-a-boo, and he just laughs and laughs when we play it with him. I'm going to take a minute to just stare at the picture, because it may be the last smile I see from Noah for a while. Feel free to join me in staring.



Ok, I guess that's all for now. Have a great Sunday! We'll be back with an update tomorrow.

September 25, 2009

A new recipe and Noah's new...




Doesn't this look divine?
It's a chocolate chip cookie pie. Yummo!

I haven't exactly made it myself, but I'm
gonna try it out pretty soon.
I love to look around on Bakerella.com.
The site has so many amazing dessert creations!
You want the recipe?
Thought you might.

Ok. So you need:
1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell*
2 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup (6 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 cup chopped pecans (yuck... won't be in mine!)
Serve with ice cream (optional)
  • Preheat oven 325 degrees F.
  • Beat eggs in large mixer bowl on high until foamy.
  • Beat in flour, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Beat in butter.
  • Stir in morsels and nuts and spoon into pie shell.
  • Bake for 55-60 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Serve warm.
* If using frozen pie shell, use deep dish style and thaw completely. Bake on baking sheet and increase baking time slightly.

Pretty easy, huh.

-----------------------------------------

Ok guess what Noah got?! A brand new...



...car seat!

We finally decided it was time for a new one. Noah has completely grown out of the one we have been using for the past year--the one we used to bring him home from the hospital. So Josh, Noah, and I made a little trip to Babies-R-Us and began our search for a new car seat. As we walked down the car seat aisle looking at the different ones we came across this one from Graco. We thought it looked really nice, so we decided to let Noah be the judge. Josh placed Noah in the carseat, and as soon as he did Noah got this big smile on his face and started laughing. It was hilarious! He checked everything out, and while doing so, he decided he liked the cup holder quite a bit.

Of course we forgot the 15% off coupon at home, but we wanted to read reviews on it anyway, so it all worked out in the end.

Anyway, Noah loves his new car seat. We haven't actually put it in the car yet, but I'm thinking from the looks of it we might have to buy one for the house and one for the car. Apparently, it's a pretty nice recliner to relax and watch Baby Einstein!



Have a great evening! Thank goodness it's the weekend, right?

September 24, 2009

A Heart of Praise

Psalm 100:4 says, "Enter His gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name."

I could not think of a better scripture to express the praise and gratitude I have for our Lord. This past week and especially this evening my heart has been filled with thanksgiving for the blessings and answered prayers God has poured out on us. I wanted to share my thankful heart with you tonight.

Fall has arrived in Fort Worth! Yay! I have never appreciated the coolness of the Fall weather until we moved here. The past couple of weeks it has rained and rained and rained, and oh how wonderful it is! I am praising God for the rain he has provided. Over the past two days we have even been able to turn our air conditioner off, open up all the windows, and enjoy the cool air. I thought we'd never be able to do that here. Ha. But I praise God and thank Him for the cool refreshing weather. It has been wonderful!

About a month ago, just after we celebrated Noah's birthday in Amarillo, Noah starting having issues with constipation. To make matters worse, the constipation led to Noah having a sore little bottom. Well, sore would not be the correct term to explain how much pain he was in. He was completely miserable. We decided to add more fiber, fruits, and vegetables to his diet hoping it would resolve the problem. It definitely helped; we noticed a big difference. But the constipation would get better over a couple days, and then would come back. It seems like it got worse and worse every time. We decreased his milk intake, but that didn't help. So we decided to switch to soy milk, hoping it would be easier for him to digest. Nothing worked; Noah was still constipated and miserable. The skin on his bottom began to break down even to the point of bleeding. How frustrated and heart broken we were for Noah. Honestly, I started to worry thinking there might be a underlying problem. I started looking on the Internet to see what else we could do to help Noah. We were getting to the point where we felt Noah should go see a doctor. It was that serious. But during all of this, God our Healer was right there.

One evening while I was cooking dinner Josh came in the kitchen and said he felt like we should lay hands on Noah and pray over him for healing. He said that we had done everything but spend serious time in prayer asking God for healing, and that was the first thing we should have done.

So later in the evening while Noah was sleeping, we quietly went into his room and laid our hands on him pouring our hearts out to God asking Him for healing for our child.

Psalm 30:2 says, "O Lord my God, I cried to You and You have healed me."

That is exactly what God did for Noah. He healed him completely. I cannot even tell you the relief and joy it brings to see my child free of pain. And I cannot thank and praise God enough for hearing our prayers and answering them. Since the night we laid our hands on Noah and prayed for him, Noah has not had one day of constipation, and his sweet little bottom is completely back to normal! I know some of you were praying for Noah as well, and I thank you.

Lastly, I am so thankful for God's provision. He has taken care of our every need, and continues to do so daily. We have been through a few rough patches since we moved here, but God has taken care of us. Josh told me the other day his work is having to cut back everyone's hours, so when he signed up for hours he was not sure exactly what he would get. But despite the company's cut in hours, God has provided more than enough for us. I am so thankful and my heart is full of praise for God's care and provision for us.

"Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts" -- 1 Chronicles 16:9

Hope you are having a great evening, and I hope you are reading this post meaning our blog issues are resolved!

September 23, 2009

Breakfast & Blog Issues

We have had some technical issues with the blog lately. And, quite frankly, it is very irritating. Apparently, many of my blog readers are having trouble viewing our blog, and occasionally I will have a picture or two disappear for no reason at all. I have not had any problems opening up our blog site from our computer, but these are some of the comments I've received:

- Your blog issssssssss NOT working.
- I could see it this morning using Firefox--still wouldn't work with Internet Explorer.
- All I see is a light blue background and three videos that are spaced quite a bit apart.
- I can't see the slideshows.
- I can see "Amarillo by Morning" but not the birthday blog at all!
- I can read everything, but only see some pictures. I saw the invitation, the cake, and the collage, but not the slideshow.

I'm as frustrated as you are. Honestly, I have no idea what is going on. It is so weird that some people can see the blog, while others cannot. Thank you to those of you who have made me aware of this problem. The only solution I have (well actually I don't have a solution at all) is to please check back if you are having problems viewing our blog. In the mean time we will try to figure out what is going on. I just wanted to make you aware of the issues we are having.

UPDATE: I think we figured it out. If you're still having problems seeing things on the blog please let me know. Then again, if you're having problems seeing the blog, you probably can't even read this. :)
........................................

Ok so now that is behind us, I want to show you a few pictures of Noah.

The past couple of nights I've worked at the hospital, so Josh has been home with Noah. That has also meant that Josh has been getting up with Noah in the morning and cooking him breakfast. Now don't get me wrong, Josh is a wonderful daddy for taking the time to cook breakfast for Noah, but I'm guessing he didn't get his menu from any parenting magazines. I guess Mommies think about what's good for their babies while Daddies think about what tastes good for their babies.

The first day, Josh cooked cinnamon french toast and covered it in powdered sugar. The second day he cooked biscuits with chocolate gravy. Needless to say, Noah is a fan of Daddy's breakfasts. Let's hope Noah doesn't turn his nose up when we go back to boring old cheerios and oatmeal tomorrow morning.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Noah is also pretty excited about his new....Well, you'll have to wait until the next post to find out what it is! Have a great day!

September 21, 2009

Fun at the Mall

Ahhhh!

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!

September 20, 2009

Mommy's Little Helper

I am so lucky to have such a good little helper around here. I mean what would I do without him? As you know, Noah's favorite area in the house is the kitchen. So when it comes time to clean the kitchen, Noah gets busy helping momma clean it.



As you can see, Mr. Noah got into the paper towels while I was vacuuming the living room. I turned off the vacuum thinking I better check on him, and I walked into the kitchen to find Noah rolling around in rolls of paper towels. And he was having the time of his life! Ha!






Of course how could he get in trouble when it is so darn cute!

So another lesson learned: paper towels don't go on the floor of the pantry anymore.


September 18, 2009

Double Trouble

This could be trouble.



Then again, this could be even more trouble!



September 17, 2009

Noah is...

Oh how I've neglected our blog this week, and I seriously haven't meant to. This week has zipped right on by, and it's hard to believe I haven't sat down any this week to write. I told Josh tonight while we were eating dinner that if I didn't sit down and get busy we'd have two grandmas on the war path. So I'm back!

My goodness. Where do I start? There has been so much going on around here lately, and I have so many new updates on Noah. This post is going to be pretty random, so in no particular order, here we go:

Noah is...

...talking. He has definitely become more vocal lately. I love to hear Noah talk, and often we have some very interesting conversations throughout the day. Some of Noah's favorite words to say right now are "Mama," "Dada," "Uh-oh," and "Oh." He is starting to identify me as "Mama" and Josh as "Dada." The other day, Josh was about to leave the house to run an errand, and as he was walking to the door Noah crawled after him saying, "Dada." It was the sweetest thing ever! When we are driving in the car together I always have Christian music playing, and lately the sweetest voice I've ever heard has been singing along to the music. What a blessing, even at such a young age, to hear your child singing praises to God with his sweet little voice!

...singing the ABCs. Well, he's not really singing the ABCs, but he smiles and laughs every time the song comes on. It's his favorite song these days; he loves it! The other day he lifted his hands in the air when he heard it. We are going to have to work on that because we're a Baptist family, you know.

...a Momma's Boy. But occasionally he will let Daddy hold him without crying.

...starting to stand on his own. He is starting to gain confidence in standing without support, and a couple of times has taken a few steps towards me. It was so funny today because he was trying to balance himself, but he looked like a sumo wrestler in the way he was standing. I'm thinking it might not be too long before he is walking all over the place.

...growing curly q's. I can't believe how much Noah's hair has grown. It is so funny to look back at old pictures of him when he was a baldy. Now we have so much hair we don't know what to do with it! No really, his little curly q's are so cute! We have been going back and forth on whether we should get his hair cut or not. We have decided to wait on the hair cut, and when it gets to a certain point where it becomes unmanageable (like Josh's hair) we will go get his first hair cut.



...locked out. Of the cabinets, that is. Josh graciously took 5 hours out of his day to baby-proof 3 of Noah's favorite cabinets. Those cabinets just so happen to contain all of our cleaning supplies and Einstein's food and treats. So now that Noah's favorites are no longer accessible, he figured out something even better. Watch.



...eating like a grown man. I am not kidding. Noah can eat and eat and eat. So far he has done really well eating what we place in front of him, but I hear everything changes around 18 months. Noah's faaaaaaavorite food is graham crackers. Papa (Darrell) is quite a fan of graham crackers himself, and he has apparently passed that gene to Noah. Noah loves loves loves graham crackers. One weekend when Papa was here, he was eating some graham crackers, and Noah crawled over to him and stood there in front of him wanting to taste what he had. So Papa broke off a piece and gave it to him. (Of course, it wasn't long before both Noah and Einstein were sitting in front of Papa, staring him down for pieces of graham crackers) That day Noah discovered his favorite food. I'm not kidding when I say Noah could eat graham crackers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Oh, and of course at snack time too.

...is not a fan of juice. To our surprise, Noah prefers water over juice. We have tried both apple juice and orange juice, but Noah just takes one or two sips, and then he's done. He pushes it away making it very obvious he does not want any more. I guess that's a good thing that he likes water, right?

...back on the wagon. We have not been successful with weaning Noah from the bottle. I just don't know how we are going to do it. Noah never took a pacifier (thank the Lord), but I realized the other night the bottle is kind of like his pacifier. It is the only thing that will settle him down when he is crying. So we are back to square one.

...wearing a size 5. In diapers. More food means more, well, you know. I can't believe he is already in size 5 diapers! (I change a lot of diapers at work, as you can imagine, and it's hard to believe Noah's little hiney use to be in those newborn diapers!)

...getting to be a big boy. Is it really true my little baby is laying on the couch all by himself?



...going to Wee Care. Recently, I have started a Women's Bible study on Thursday mornings at Christ Chapel Bible Church. The Bible study I've joined is called, "Shout to the Lord." We are studying and focusing on specific Psalms throughout the week, and then meeting together in small groups and corporately to study God's word. What a blessing it has been; I've grown so much already. God knew exactly what I needed. And God knows exactly what Noah needs too. I was so excited to find out there was a program for Noah on Thursday mornings too. Noah has been going to "Wee Care" which is Christ Chapel's nursery. They provide a fun place for the children to stay while the mother's are in Bible study, but the most exciting part of it is their mission which is to "come along side the family in reaching kids with the gospel of Christ and growing them up as Christ followers." The first week was kinda scary for Noah because of the unfamiliarity of it, but he is starting to adjust to the new environment and people around him. I'm sure the more we go, the more he will feel comfortable there. I'm so thankful to God and I praise Him for what He has done for us.

Before I go, have you ever heard of Playgrounder.com? Josh found this website not long ago, and it has the coolest stuff for kids. If you haven't seen it, check it out!

Have a wonderful evening!

September 11, 2009

Noah's 1st Birthday!

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:

Photobucket

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!

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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.

Photobucket

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.