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!

Christmas Morning

It's funny how things change when you have a child, isn't it?

Josh and I decided to just give each other something small this year,

but honestly I would have been okay not getting anything.

I was more excited about watching Noah open his stocking & gifts.

Josh had to work Christmas Eve, so when he got off work Christmas

morning around six, he came home and got busy in the kitchen

making us some breakfast sandwiches. These sandwiches {which

are amazing by the way!} are what Josh grew up eating on Christmas

morning, so we decided to keep that tradition in our own family.

Sooo yummy!

We all sat down together and stuffed our faces!

Noah loved the breakfast sandwiches! In fact, I think it was his

very first time to taste the famous Bonjour Christmas sandwiches.

Not long after we finished eating, Noah climbed up on one

of the kitchen barstools so he could turn on the faucet and play

in the water. That boy loves to play in the kitchen sink!

You can tell by the look on his face in the first

picture he knows he isn't supposed to be up there.

And he got caught by Daddy!

And yes, Noah is wearing mummy pj's. Ha

I looked and looked for some cute Christmas pajamas

and couldn't find any! Even Walmart, of all places, was out.

Oh well. Guess I didn't look early enough.

Anyway, before we opened up stockings and presents,

we all sat down together and Daddy read the Christmas story.

It was a wonderful, quiet moment we spent together

reflecting on the birth of Jesus Christ.

And then Noah opened up his stocking. When we first gave it to him,

it was funny because he really didn't know what it was all about.

But it didn't take him long to figure it out.

He loved all of his stocking stuffers! He got

lots and lots of Toy Story stuff, a few cars, some

candy, a paint brush set, and a squishy ball. :)

Santa did good!

Noah loved the pound-a-ball toy he got.

He had so much fun hitting the balls with the

hammer and watching them go through the holes

onto the ramps that took them to the bottom.

He loved it so much, he didn't even care about

any of the other presents he had. Ha.

And then he saw Woody, and Buzz, and Jessie,

and Bullseye and all the other Toy Story characters...

and couldn't wait for Daddy to open up the box!

We spent a lot of the morning watching

Noah play with all of his new toys. So much fun!

It was a wonderful Christmas morning!

Marshmallow Pops & an Award

I can't seem to get back into blog-mode since we got back from vacation. Sigh. Does anyone else feel that way?? I have many things to blog about, but just can't seem to get my act together. Not a good way to start out the new year..

I just love this sprinkled-covered-marshmallow-eating face:

We made the cutest little candy covered marshmallow pops for Noah's MDO Christmas party, and boy did he love them. We had a few extras left over, so I placed them on the kitchen counter in a cute Christmas-y jar. As soon as Noah spotted them, they were long gone. The pops were so cute and super easy to make. Found the recipe here.

The possibilities are endless with these marshmallow pops. Sprinkle some pink or red on them and, voila, you have Valentine's pops!

On another note, The Trendy Blog Award has been floating around lately, and two very sweet ladies, Mandy and Khara, passed it along to me. I feel so honored! Thanks for thinking of me. I don't normally post/pass on awards {certainly not because I don't appreciate them}, but I just thought I'd go ahead and pass this one on because I'd like to recognize some people who I think have pretty trendy blogs too. :)

It is almost impossible for me to pick, so I'm breaking the rules {sorry!} and picking 15 people to give the award to {in no particular order}:

Danielle-- Take Heart

Melissa-- Two Little Tots

Lelan-- Hello, Good Gravy!

Brittney-- Brit and the Boys

Jami-- Hello! From the Natos

Meg-- A Boy, a Girl, and a Pug

Ashley-- Lemon and Lavender

Jacky-- The Sweetest Petunia

Tiffany-- Simply Mad for Maddox

Amanda-- i am mommy & i am baker

Stacia-- Little Yellow Treehouse

Chrissy-- Chrissy in America

Jill-- Mama Jill's Family Blog

Sarah-- Life{Sweet}Life

Kate-- See Kate Sew

I could have named so many other blog I love to read and visit everyday, but I think I was pushing it with fifteen. Oops. :)

Now... all you have to do to receive this award:

1. Post about your award

2. Pass it along to 10 other trendy bloggers.

3. Leave a link to the Trendy Blog Button so they can grab it. {here is the link}

Have a lovely day friends!