Christmas in Texas

I know Katie normally writes the blogs but since I'm home for the holiday break, I thought I'd give it a try.

We spent Christmas in Texas with Katie's family and had a great time. It's alway nice to get together and spend time with family. Any time we're in Texas we try to get brisket and Pappasito's and fortunately we had some of both. We played quite a bit of Wii, and I've developed a case of "Wii shoulder" from all the bowling!

Noah especially enjoyed a toy Nativity set - you can see it in the pictures below, and he also helped Grandpa barbecue shrimp kebobs! Although he didn't seem to enjoy opening presents much, I'm sure in the next year or so he will.

My parents are coming to town the first weekend in January, and we're looking forward to seeing them. Have a great New Year's!

David

Noah and the Nativity Set

Grilling with Grandpa

Breaking the Peppermint Pig

Christmas Morning!

Caught Red Handed

We've had a great couple of weeks here in Nashville and it's finally getting cold around here, so we've had to bundle Noah up more and it's so cute! Here's his warm, fun hat that he doesn't seem to mind. (And we like it because he can't get it off by himself.)


As he is walking more and more, he loves this truck to help him balance and get places!


We were afraid that we have to constantly redirect Noah from the Christmas tree to something else, but so far, he isn't terribly intrigued by it. About once a week, an ornament catches his eye and he will really work to get it, but we've placed most of the lights and ornaments out of his reach.


I'm not sure how he got into the laundry basket, but I found him playing in it one day last week. He loves to find new places to play!

We had a great time with family over Thanksgiving. Noah really enjoyed a new house to explore and spending time with cousins, aunts and grand dad and nana!

Here he is with cousin Tre.

Enjoying the rocking chair.

He walked up all the steps!

Fun with Aunt Sarah.

Fun with Nana.

It's hard to believe we are already at one year. Here are some shots of our recent birthday celebration.


He apparently didn't like the party hat I made for him.


He did however, really like his cake.


We take no credit for this amazing cake. A friend of ours from church made this impressive, detailed, train cake. (Thank you Laurie!) The pictures really don't do it justice. We actually took a video so you could see all the way around it and as soon as we can, we'll post that. We wish you were all here to share this amazing day and truly remarkable cake with us!

We've had a great weekend and hope you have too! Noah didn't seem to mind being in his Halloween costume for the Fall Festival at Church on Saturday. What a cutie!








Noah also thinks is VERY funny when his socks are taken off. I don't know why that is, but it's great to hear him laugh! Click on the image below to play the 2 videos.



And here he is saying "Bye Bye"

Sorry it's been so long with no new pictures! Here are some random shots from around the house during the last week or so.

We've been spending more time outside since the weather has been very nice. Here we are on a walk on a local greenway. It's right next to a golf course and there was a warning sign that we thought was funny about watching out for golf balls.



We went for a hike today with some new friends at another local park and had a great time. Here we are at the end of it.

Noah's newest favorite activity! He loves to pull things down from shelves - cd's are a favorite, but books will suffice.




Here are just some random pictures we snapped yesterday.

Noah is getting much more mobile. We started to baby-proof the house this weekend and I'm finding that once things are baby-proofed, they are also Katie-proofed!

One of Noah's favorite toys these days is a train with animals in each compartment. He is mesmerized when it moves on it's own and knows exactly what to press to make the songs play.



Bath times are much more enjoyable now that he likes them. He was hamming it up on this night.





And of course this was bound to happen. I was trying to get some work done in the kitchen and needed some toys for Noah and he found the rubbermaid!

Noah has given up on crawling and is really trying to walk! He insists on standing up and whenever possible, standing on his own (although you can see he uses strategically placed furniture and people to help stabilize him).




He loves his daddy!

It's hard to believe that summer is almost over! It's been so hot here, we haven't been doing much outside. But here are some pictures of some adventures indoors over the past few days.


He really enjoys dinner time!


His rolling has gotten so proficient, he has started to play under this chair every once in a while (until he gets stuck).



He is REALLY trying to crawl here...



Just some random shots...