HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO NOEL!

Noel turned 1 year old on the 4th of November. We celebrated her birthday on the evening of the 6th at Morgan's parents home. We had a wonderful dinner, visited, opened gifts and then ate cake.

Here's some pictures of the cake making process. We made a Caterpillar cake because the stuffed animal she sleeps with is actually a bug. It's a caterpillar. We call it her "lovebug", "bedbug", etc. So I found the idea on the Betty Crocker website to make an inchworm out of a bundt cake. It was so fun to make and it ended up looking pretty much like her caterpillar. My sister Leslie was in town and helped me with it and helped to get us out of the door on time for Noel's party. Thanks Les! Her kids were helpful too in making sure I put the colors on in the right order. I got a little mixed up with the order of the colors a couple times and my 5 year old niece Brianna said, "Terie, you're all mixed up like [my teacher] Mrs. Skinner!" Then Mya piped in and said, "You need to go back to high school." It was hilarious. Leslie and I just laughed.

Before...
During...

And after...

THE PARTY

THE GIFT OPENING

Noel was more interested in the cards. It was so cute. She got a lot of clothes and toys in which we are very grateful for! Thank you! She looks dashing in her clothes and loves her toys!


THE CAKE EATING



HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART! THANKS FOR JOINING OUR FAMILY AND BEING OUR LIL' LOVEBUG! WE LOVE YOU!

Here are a few pictures as of late. Noel saying "hi".

After her sunday morning bath. Look at the big perty blues!
Of course, the Noel grin.
A few days after Halloween we found this cute giraffe costume at Babies R us for $2 and I couldn't resist.
We couldn't stop laughing when we put it on her. She was too adorable!

Oh, we love the Fall!

A couple weekends ago my mom, Noel and I went to go watch one of our really good friend's daughter in a horse riding competition. It was cold, wet and rainy but we had a good time. Noel did so well there. Here are a few pictures of her.



Her first experience with beaters and cookie dough.
Last week we went up to Apple Hill to spend some time together and we had a blast. We window shopped and walked around and enjoyed the scenery. Check out the pumpkin we are sitting on.





This picture is a little blurry but I love the look on Noel's face.
Um...Enough said.

There was a mini petting zoo minus the petting.




Lastnight we went to the Reynold's home and their place was decked out for halloween. This werewolf in the cage would start yelling and making noise whenever someone would make a loud noise. Poor Noel was a little scared when she got too close.

she's got moves

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

What We've Been Up to Lately

It's been a long time since I updated the blog. There hasn't been too much going on but there sure hasn't been a whole lot of nothing going on. We've been busy. I've been busy with Noel, trying to keep things as clean as possible since we are at my parents house, preparing primary lessons each week, and running errands. And Morgan has been busy with work, school, homework, preparing lessons for his church callings and helping with my parents outdoor projects.

He loves working outside! He's quite the handyman. Here's a picture of Morgan and my dad working on the house a couple weekends ago.

Noel has been working on her grin.

I say, "Smile Noel" and this is what I get. I love it. This picture was taken lastnight. She and my dad just got finished dancing. She absolutely loved dancing. I may add a video or two to the blog after this post.




Hanging out with dad.

Helping mom do the dishes.


Things Noel is doing right now
Noel says:
-Shasta - "Shasta"/"Sha-sha" (the name of my parents dog)
-More = "Mo" (She also signs it a lot as well and associates it with wanting more of a certain food. Usually cheese.)
-All done = "Aww-dun" (She used to sign this more but says it more than signs it now).
-Please = "Pwee" (She usually says it in a whisper and sometimes will sign it but doesn't understand what it means. She just knows it is associated with the word "more" which gets her more food:)
-Pretty = "Pritty" (She'll sometimes say this and it's usually as we are giving her a dress up necklace to play with.)
-Dance = "Dah-dah-dance" (she'll say this while dancing when there is music playing)
-Sock/s = "Saw" (When she see's socks on feet or off of feet and even her own, she'll say this)
-Light ="Yigh" (All time time, Noel will point to lights and now has learned to say it.)

Noel is crawling a lot to get around from place to place or she'll walk holding on to furniture or the wall. Recently, she has attempted to stand up on her own without pulling herself up a couple of times. She is growing so fast. She is really learning so much and loves to dance and be outside and look at animals. She is going to be 1 in a couple of weeks folks! I don't want her to grow up even though it's so fun watching her learn and grow. That's one of my favorite parts of being a mom but my ultimate favorite thing about being a mom is when Noel is happy. My philosophy (from my short experience of motherhood) is that there is no greater joy than knowing that your children are happy.

Going Private

Everyone is doing it!! Plus, I hear that it is just the safe thing to do, especially when you have little ones. So email me or leave a comment if you'd like to keep up with our little family.

A few cute stories

Story #1
A few days ago, Noel was crawling around on the kitchen floor. I picked her up at one point and saw that she was chewing on something and I said, “What do you have in your mouth?!” Noel instantly put both of her hands over her mouth so I couldn’t get it. My mom and I just laughed! She is getting quite the personality.

Story #2
A couple mornings ago, I was sitting with Noel in the family room and my mom and Morgan were about ready to go to work and Noel let out a really big toot. It was loud and long. We laughed and my mom asked Noel, “Do you feel better?” And, no joke, Noel said, “Yeh.”

Story #3
Yesterday Noel was getting into things that she shouldn’t be getting into so I tried to distract her by asking her, “Noel, where is your doggie?” Noel looks around, crawls into the other room and is out of sight for a minute or so. She rounds the corner dragging her little stuffed doggie. She is so smart! I love it!

Story #4
Lastnight after family prayer Morgan turned to Noel and said, "Noel, is it bedtime?" And Noel gave him a blow kiss.

She's 10 1/2 months old and we are just amazed how fast she is learning and growing. We just love our little Noel.

"Honey[s] we're home!"

Well, things have happened fast on our end of things and this last weekend we moved into my parents house. After a couple of setbacks with the car and Noel, my parents asked us if we wanted to move in with them so we can pay off the bills that will be coming our way from Noel's emergency room/hospital visit and save some money for school. After a lot of thought and prayer we decided to do so. We moved all of our stuff into a storage unit this last saturday and got fully moved into my parents house that evening. We feel really good about our decision and we're having a good time here with my parents.

Here are some pictures from the last week or so.

This is one of our furry friends that came to say goodbye before we moved. There was another buck that would visit often and he only had one side with antlers, we don't know what happened to the other side. We named him "Elliot" for all of those familiar with the 1st movie "Open Season". In my family growing up, on family vacations, we'd get a buck if we saw a buck. Where's my money dad?;)

Noel and I hanging out as usual.
Last friday night, we took a load to my parents. The car was absolutely stuffed with stuff... Noel and all.
This is our storage unit. There still is a section of space which is better than not having enough (which we thought was going to be the case because we have so much stuff! Even after only 2.5 years of being married!) Morgan was so tired and his back was so sore by the end of the day.
Noel playing with Grandpa's puppet.
Noel has this little grin now that she'll give you the majority of the time you look at her. I took some more with my parents camera and may post some more later. She is just too funny.