Grateful Sunday 9-7-08

This week I am grateful for so many thing:

Weekend:  We had such a fun weekend.  It started on thursday where we went to the Utah State Fair.  On Friday we were going to go camping,  traffic was at a standstill so we went up Sat morn and spend the day on The Land, which was gorgeous.  I love being up there .  ( i will post later about the specifics of these events)

Noah: Or as he corrects you every time, his name is Anakin. He is working so hard right now on his words. Really, he is doing well. He is so snuggling and joyful most of the time. He wants to be good. And if you remind him of the reasons to calm down and be good. He works hard to do that. It is nice to see a bit of a silver lining with him.  

School:  I went to Noah's preschool orientation on thursday.  His new teacher Miss Amber is so enthusiastic and young.  She sounds very creative and organized.  Which will be fabulous.  I also started searching out all the options this week for Noah's education in the elementary years.  I feel like the Lord is opening doors and showing me where to go and look.  I want him to have what he needs to succeed even if he can't talk perfectly until high school (it could happen).  I am really excited and hopeful.

My Sweet Family:  Right now, I have been concentrating on just enjoying my children and my husband.  They kids are at such fun ages.  With Noah going back to school this week, there will not be as frequent quiet moments with all of us.  

Kersten's New Calling:  he grew himself into his calling as the bishop said.  He grew his beard, hoping to inspire no callings.  He is a ward missionary.  Which he is excited about and just right for him right now, with his work and school.  It is fun to see him excited about it.

In the Rain

It has been raining a lot this weekend.  On Sunday when it started to rain,  I was sitting on the floor at my in-laws.  When my son comes and grabs my hand and says "Mom, come"  waving his hand in a come this way motion.  

He had to show me the rain.  

 It was dumping water on everything.  The sound of the rain pattering on the roof was intense. Grandma Monika and Noah were standing on the porch catching the rain in their hands.  I took off my socks and Noah followed me.  We would run out into the rain and come back to make footprints on the pavement.  Over and over again.  As Grandma watched us in our silliness. 

Noah started seeing Count Dooku in the sky and started fighting all the bad guys in the rain.  He even tried to explain what battle he was fighting as Anakin Skywalker.  I really am lucky that I have someone talented enough to save me from all these bad guys that surround our house.  

I grabbed him up off the driveway in one big swoop.  And I started singing and dancing.  Of course, the song was "Singing In the Rain"  one of my all time favorite shows and songs.  Noah laughed as he lifted his face to the sky and water dripped down his face.  My heart knew that this was something I will always remember.  We finished off the dance with a big dip.  For that is how most great dances end.  My pant legs were soaked and my hair was all wet.  But,  all was right and good with the sound of laughter from my boy.

Thank you, my son for showing me the rain.  And for knowing that I did really want to see it.

Sofia-8 months old

• She is full fledge crawling everywhere. Started crawling on Aug 2, 2008
• Started pulling herself up on the furniture on August 26,2008
• First tooth on August 19, 2008,  bottom left in the front,
• Second tooth the next day On August 20,  right next to the first one
• She is babbling all the time,  right now it is mostly Dadadada,  she also says something that sounds like goo.  So Daddy will calls her "Goo".  
• She can now drink from sippy cup and a regular cup and she loves it.  She has not mastered a straw yet but loves to play with them. 
• She loves eating big people food.  She kind of gets upset when you feed her baby food and we are eating something that looks much more interesting.  She loves graham crackers, bread and stick of carrot or apple. Because she can hold and feed those to herself.  She loves fruit and gets mad and won't eat much when I try to feed her vegetables.  
• Her favorite thing to play with is paper. She rips it, eats it, waves it in the air and crawls all over it. 
• She loves books,  and loves pulling herself up on the basket and throwing them out.  Her favorites are whatever Noah is reading at the time.  She loves  My Pal Al, Board book Princess,  My first Alphabet,  Look and Feel Colors,  That's Not My Monster and Mommy Loves Me
• Her favorite toys right now are her Star Wars sqeaky toys that they bought for her at disneyland, (I think it is because she sees Noah playing with the same guys), V-tech playing table,  Baby Einstein Music cube,  Baby Radio, Barbie Princess Pegasus Polar Bear that shakes with cold (funniest thing ever),  Noah's measuring Caliper from his tool set and Noah's blue crocs.  (For some reason she is completely fasinated with Noah's shoes,  if she sees them she races to get them and eats them,  Maybe his toe cheese is really yummy,  Noah  has started hiding his shoes from her)
• loves Pat a Cake the most , then itsy bitsy spider and then "This is the way the Lady rides"
• Noah can make her laugh the most.  She is so much easier to get to smile and laugh now.  If he says Dadada it cracks her up for a good 5 minutes.  She follows him with her eyes and crawls after him trying to engage him.  He still smothers her with love but she laughs and likes it a bit more now.  Not quite as frightening as in the past.
• Brightens up when Dad comes home and now follows mommy around the house and cries if I go up the stairs without her in my arms.  
• She is just a joy and into everything.  She puts everything in her mouth so we have to be careful and watch what she is doing.  Noah is good to let me know.  We just love her and can't get enough of her cuteness.

Sofia Through Mara's Lens

Oh, my beautiful baby.  Can you get over that smile.

I love her cute sun dress.  She is looking at me.  Love that face

I love the above view.  And she is eating a stick

Her crooked smile

Priceless, our sweet tweet-ums

Noah through Mara's Lens

My big boy.  These pics made me miss his long hair with his curl. 

Sweetness.  I love this boy

Those lips and his curl in his hair are killing me.  

Can you see how honed his Jedi skills have become.  I love this action shot

Genius

My friend Mara took these pictures back in July.  I finally have the disks and can I just say she is a genius.  I can't express in words how much I adore these pictures of my kids.  I am so overwhelmed with gratitude I don't know how to thank her enough.  She has brilliant talent and it was so lovely just spending time with her.  I keep browsing through them to find my favorites and I did not want to post billion of pictures on my blog but I could have.  Thanks again Mara.  We love ya

Dragons

"Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses

 who are only waiting to see us act,

 just once, with beauty and courage. 

Perhaps everything that frightens us is,

 in its deepest essence, 

something helpless that wants our love." 

— Rainer Maria Rilke