How Noah Eats a Donut

Before:

After:

~Kevin

Thankful

Yesterday was filled with good times, good food, good memories, good friends... And my favorite things in the whole world. Here's a sneak peak:


We invited some friends over to celebrate Thanksgiving with us and we had a nice, relaxing dinner around 2:30. We ate pie a few hours later and played games until 10:00. It was just the kind of Thanksgiving that I needed this year! This year was the first year that I felt like I could trust Noah to use my wedding china, and he did great! He helped me set the table and was such a good boy all day. He made it a beautiful day for Mommy while I hung out in the kitchen, ironed table clothes and napkins, and listened to Christmas music on Pandora. Ahhhhhhhh.....


When Noah was helping me shop for a new table cloth, he picked out a little votive candle and wanted to use it on the table. How could I resist???


Hope you all had a wonderful day and are enjoying each others' company... and the left overs today!

Love,
Someone who JUST finished washing the china....
@>->--

Down On The Farm

While my mom and dad were here in October, we made our annual visit to Roca Berry Farm. It was a WARM and WINDY day. Dust kicked up over the pumpkin patch, sent grit into our eyes, and we were covered with a general layer by the time we returned to the car. But we still had a GREAT time. Noah, of course, picked out the perfect pumpkins (with Gram and Grandpa's help!).

Behold.... The highlights!!!!!

Silly boy during family picture moment:



Grandpa and Gram


Two words... Bouncy Houses! Be sure to check out the video below.


Noah looked forward to the pony rides this year. And this time his pony's name was Stinky Pete!!! Course, Pete lived up to his name when right in the middle of Noah's beloved ride he completely emptied himself and the other ponies had to watch themselves! Noah thought it was quite hilarious.


Grandpa and his Noah on the wagon ride to the pumpkin patch. I LOVE this picture.

Picking pumpkins...
The whole gang!


Cute little boy.

There was this great system of ramps set up where all the little (and BIG) goats could make their way to the top and wait for kids to send them food using a pulley system and a tin can. It was really fun! Noah sure figured it out quickly. Check him out in this video:






The Big Jump on the Bouncy House... Enjoy!




Happy Turkey Week!

Love,
Nicole
@>->--

Buckets

This is for all you Medfordites out there! Kyle Singler, All-American basketball star playing for Duke, is one of Medford's own sons. Kevin and I had just moved back home after finishing graduate school and we LOVED going with my dad to watch Kyle play at our old high school, South Medford (Go Panthers!!!). I remember the press conference when he announced he was going to Duke and South went on to take the State Championship that year. Good times, good times... It's kind of funny, but I also associate Kyle Singler with our Noah because it was during that basketball season that we were emailing back and forth with Jillian and hoping that we might adopt VERY soon! In fact, I remember sitting and watching the basketball game at South and keeping my cell phone in my hand the whole time the night before Noah was born. If it was going to ring, I didn't want to miss it. My phone was my lifeline to Jillian and to Noah. I could barely breath during those few days and watching Kyle Singler and the panthers play was a very welcome distraction. :)

Plus, he's just super AWESOME... Enjoy! Dad, this is for you if you haven't seen it yet. Thanks for all the basketball tickets and for making memories with us. :)

Celebrate and Share

So it's already November 12th today and I haven't yet blogged about this.... BUT.....

Happy National Adoption Month!

I wasn't brave enough to take the challenge that you see on so many other blogs by other adoptive families and birthparents to blog something everyday this month. But no matter how frustrated and exhausted I am, this month always warms my heart and gives me what I need to keep going. A beautiful birthmother named Stefanie spotlighted our family on her blog as part of this month and we are so grateful! You can find it HERE. Thanks for your help, Stefanie. Every little bit could make a difference. :)


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I read a post by an amazing birthmother yesterday. It was one of those that just makes you shake your head... and then smile the whole day long. Tamra's blog is HERE, but I'm just going to post it below and save you the effort of one mouse click! It's that good...


So a birthmom, an adoptive mom, an adoptee, and an unbelievably insensitive woman are tyin' a quilt...

By Tamra Hyde

So I'm at church tyin' a quilt to donate, and I meet an adoptive mom. We're gabbin' about how blessed we are to have adoption be part of our lives, goin' on and on as B-Moms and A-Moms do when we happen to meet.

Enter insensitive lady - "Well, it's best to have 'your own,' that way they have your genes and adopted kids usually don't turn out well." (all of this said in front of my new friend's listening daughter, by the way) She then goes on to give the evidence of a couple of adopted children who have grown up to have problems that are exclusive to those who have been adopted, y'know, like divorce and quitting church.

Another woman at our quilt enters the conversation. "I'm adopted and none of that is true of me, though my siblings who are not adopted HAVE had those struggles."

I say, "See, what YOU fail to understand is that this IS her own child! Eternally! Meaning - always was, always will be. They found each other by inspiration and miraculous divine intervention! We are ALL brothers and sisters! So tell me, what do GENES matter?!"

Sike... That's only a wish I woulda said, but I did say, "These babies go where they're meant to be."

Adopted mom responds to the height of rudeness with grace and charity.

Rude lady feels dumb.

We get up and move to a kinder quilt and carry on our rejoicing. Adoptive mom, Birthmom, and adoptee! GO TEAM!



My heart is happy today. I'm the mother of a beautiful, amazing little boy who has been in my arms since the day he was born. He doesn't have my genes or Kevin's, but he is our son just the same. He even has my dimple! Today we celebrate him. :)

Letting Go...

Is it wrong that I don't want Noah to grow up? Is it wrong that I just want him reject the world and wish to stay at home in my lap? I'm not ready to let him go. I'm just not. My little boy cried and cried and had to be pried from my arms for the first two weeks of preschool. Now I have to grab HIM for a kiss as he struts into his classroom to conquer the world. Sometimes I'm not quite fast enough. :) But I know that he will always let me hold him when he comes back home and he'll tell me about his day and all the new things he discovered.

He's just so tall now. He's so articulate. He's just so smart and witty. He's growing up. Too fast...

I knew he was ready for a big boy bed. I cried as I put away his crib. I knew he was ready to sit at the table with us. I sniffled as I packed away the booster chair. He's ready to ride in a big boy car seat. Okay, I was alright storing away the big clunky toddler seat in the attic! But then pride and sadness crept back in as he learned to buckle his own seat belt. So independent. I guess I'm just the driver now. :)

I know that my little boy needs me for so many things still. I know that I'm irreplaceable to him. I confided in a friend yesterday that I think I would be more okay with letting my little one grow up and fly away if I knew that the next one was coming and soon. The boxes of baby clothes and those soft soft little blue blankets make my heart ache every time I go up to the attic to put something else away. I'm grateful for all the hours of swaddling in the middle of the night that they brought to Kev and me. I reach out to touch them every time and then climb back down the ladder to reality. My smiley little boy greets me at the bottom and wants to help me with my task. :)

Noah will have the rest of his life to be gone from me everyday for school and work and whatever else life brings his way (I'm hoping for piano lessons!). So I hope he will forgive me for keeping him home today and reading just a few more stories before bed time. I hope he knows... really KNOWS... that he is my world and my everything.

Love,
Noah's Mommy
@>->--

Learning from the Master

Reason #8, 467 why it's AWESOME when Gram and Grandpa come to visit Nebraska....

Noah carved his first pumpkin!!!!!

His first two Halloweens he was just too little, too disinterested, or I was by myself with a 20 month-old and a puppy and we had just moved to Nebraska (Kevin was in Dallas for 8 weeks of training... Fun.). Needless to say, I didn't exactly feel like tackling pumpkins. But last year Noah picked out his very own pumpkin from the farm and he painted it. Still no carving experience.... Until last week! We all went to Roca Berry Farm and Gram and Grandpa helped Noah pick out a beauty. More to come on the pumpkin farm soon...

I just want to put it out there that my mom is a MASTER pumpkin-carving FIEND... For those of you who have seen her work, you know what I say is true. :) So I guess you could say that Noah has now learned from the best. I'll just have to put forth a good effort next year. The big pumpkin that we picked out had a large rotten area inside and toward the back. So we did our best with it. Still we had fun and you know, it's just not Halloween without a Jack-O-Lantern.

'Course now he's in love with the sharp little carving knives!


One happy carver. :)


MooooooaHaHaHaHaHa!!!!

Nicole
@>->--

May The Force be with you...

OK.... I've hinted that Noah just MAY be a Jedi under all that preciousness. Check out my hypothesis HERE.

Well, the jig is up. There's no hiding now. This is how he's been spending his days since we hit the Halloween clearance sales at our favorite stores...

It's true. I admit I was a little shocked when, after suiting up as Obi-Wan Kenobi, he pulled out a real light saber and went all Yoda on an imaginary Darth Vader! I knew it. :)

And YES. He is a little short for a storm trooper.