Lately

Lately, the weather has been gorgeous. Warm, breezy, and perfect for keeping a 3 yr old plenty busy. It was even warm enough to start playing in the water again.
Noah doesn't really like the feel of swim diapers. In fact, I think he hates them. He never wants to play in the water when he has them on. So finally last week, I decided to let him do what every toddler loves to do when it's warm... play with no pants.

 

 

Lately, I'm thankful for Spring (kind of related to the above, but just go with it). I've decided that it's impossible for me to have a favorite season. They're all my favorite. But if I had to choose, I'd say Spring... simply for the colors and general happy moods of everyone around.

The only ones who aren't as happy are the carpenter bees buzzing our heads. Thankfully, they never really seem too bothered by us. However, they were not pleased I was closing in on their flowers. Apparently, those are off limits. I'm sure my neighbors got a good laugh at seeing me try to grab some pretty flower shots while dodging dive-bombing bees.

 



Lately, I'm thankful for friends, bonfires, and smores. Some friends of ours have the best back yard for get-togethers, so I always get excited to get one of their invites. The whole thing is usually super relaxed... we all bring a snack, sit by the fire, check on the babies. With Noah, parties are a hit or miss thing. Sometimes he gets overwhelmed and hides in the corner.
But I discovered what makes the difference for him last weekend. If we're the first ones to arrive, he has time to adjust to the surroundings and the extra people trickling in, instead of walking in to lots of commotion. When he needs a break, he finds himself a spot to be alone (this time it was a spot of dirt next to the bunny run). In any case, it was so nice for me to just relax and watch him have so much fun.

 

This is what is known as a "Kemper face". They all have it. It's this natural look they get that says, "Dude, what the heck is wrong with you?" when they think someone is being stupid. They can't help it.

 

 

Lately, I'm thankful for family. I know a lot of people dread family reunions, but I love mine. My (great) aunts are hysterical, along with my grandmother. They crack me up. I'm also a little partial to this particular one, because it's called the "Hailey Reunion". :) And this time, my brother's little boy, Bentley, got to come. He loves Noah so much and follows him everywhere.

 

I love this one. Noah's all, "Dude, calm down..."

 



(my MamMaw is the one on the far left... and yes, that's my sister photo bombing it)

 

Happy Monday!!

Easter



Our Easter was a bit of a dud this year.
Okay, well not really. In fact, Brad keeps saying how, other than being sick, this was his favorite Easter ever.

Friday night, we went to my dad's to dye Easter eggs with Noah. Oh my gosh, Noah looooved it this year! He totally understood what we were doing, and he wanted to be the one to put them in, scoop them out... and frankly, make a big mess.

That night, Brad came down with a bad tummy bug. This was absolutely AWFUL timing, because we were supposed to be doing a photo swap the next day with Jess.
I was also doing a photoshoot with my little sister and niece for my sister's 16th birthday present. So basically, we weren't going to be getting our pictures done, and Noah was going to have to come with us. The girls got their makeup done by my stepsister Sarah (who is amazing, btw), and we headed to the park I chose for both shoots.

It all ended up working out. Jess will be back in June for our shoot, and the girls kept an eye on Noah while I worked with her family. It was a team effort once I got to their shoot, though. The park is more like a massive field. No playground... just trails, a couple of barns, and lots of dirt for Noah to play in. It was awesome.

To see some of Jess's pictures, go here.

To see some of my little sister and niece's pictures, go here.

The next day, Brad still wasn't feeling very well. I wasn't about to just leave him alone on a holiday, so we decided to hang at home all day.

We did give Noah an Easter basket, which was fun to watch. The boy now loooooves bubbles and asks for "bu-bu-sss" multiple times, every day.

We also gave him some chalk, which he proceeded to pick at instead of actually draw with. Whatever makes him happy, I guess.

And that was our Easter. :)
Now I need to go catch up on everyone else's posts!

fiddlyfart

- Spring is being stupid. I was bragging last weekend about how it was all sunshine and 80 degrees and "yay spring is here!!". Well HAHA on me. It's all cold again. Well, cold being 55, but I'm a pansy when it comes to cold weather. Unless it's going to snow, cold is totally useless.

- I remember odd tidbits about people. I think it's just part of being that wallflower/introvert type person. I sit back and listen to everyone's stories and file them away in my brain. Like one of my friends in elementary school had a weird obsession with the Calvin and Hobbes comics as a kid. Or the random gossipy details of certain couples in high school. Or the time a coworker got sick at work and said it was because she ate a funny tasting pickle. Or the time my friend thought she was drunk on root beer in the 6th grade.

- These are the kinds of things I pin on Pinterest. I can promise you I won't ever get around to painting my nails to look like little Easter eggs. But jousting peeps? That I can do.

(couldn't find original source)

- Has anyone else seen the Bible series on the History channel yet? I've only seen a few minutes of the first one, and it looks pretty good. I don't mind a good Bible story, but here's my issue... I don't really like watching real-life Bible depictions, because everyone is always dirty. And not the kind of dirty where they're a little sweaty or hadn't bathed in a couple of days. It's like people rolled around in dirt and nobody told them they had a little bit of somethin' on their face. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that people walked around with dirt all over them at all times. I guess it's possible, but I just have a hard time believing it was that big of a problem.

- Remember how I mentioned I don't have a fancy phone? Well not having a fancy phone, yet being addicted to instagramming kind of creates a problem for me. If Brad's around, I'll sometimes grab his phone. But most of the time, the iPad is closer. So when Noah does something cute, I grab it. I'm aware of how ridiculous I look.

- Noah has decided that he loves to brush his teeth. Like he looks forward to that part of his bedtime routine now. I started singing this little song from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood recently, just for fun. He thought I was the most clever person on earth. I love that I amaze him so easily. So the other day, Noah starts doing this when I sing:

ps. please pretend you didn't notice I was in one of Brad's old tshirts and some pj pants from the 9th grade. I wasn't planning on being recorded (I almost typed "filmed". I'm so cool).

Woo Girls

I am not a "woo girl".

There. I said it.

Not familiar?

This is a term, created by the very clever How I Met Your Mother writers, to describe the girls that... given any chance... will suddenly holler out a big "Woooooo!!!" at every little, slightly exciting thing.


(I don't know what's wrong with his face here... just ignore that part)
via

It used to bug me. Not the actual woo-ing, but the fact that I just don't woo. I've tried, and every time I do, it feels weird coming out of my mouth. Sure, I'll woo at a concert or football game or on a rollercoaster. But in general? I'm so not a woo girl.

I'm the girl people go to when they want to talk about life or kids or marriage issues or God. The deep stuff. I don't mean for it to be that way; it just happens. I'm not the girl that my friends call when they want to go partying or dancing (which is probably more of a favor to me so I don't fall flat on my face).

And while I used to hate that part about myself, I've learned to just embrace it. Embrace the fact that people know I won't tell all their dirty secrets to the next person I talk to. Or that I'd rather hang out in my pj's and have middle-school-style makeovers than spend all night being somebody's DD. I've learned to embrace the fact that some of my friends are woo girls, and that's okay. As long as they love me and my dorky self anyway? I'm cool if they need to woo every once in a while without me.



(video contains a curse word, just fyi if you're sensitive to that)

 

 

Christmas Catch-up

This is going to be a really fast Christmas catch-up post, for documenting purposes. I have a pie in the oven, a few more gifts to wrap, and our first Christmas stop in an hour. So yeah. Very fast post.

We were invited to tag along with a coop homeschool group to make salt dough ornaments. It was just Noah, Alice, and Jack that day... but I think that was plenty. lol. Noah actually loved participating. He played in the flour (his favorite), got to touch the dough, and even enjoyed making handprints. Jessica was the teacher for the day, and she did a great job.

We also took Noah to see Santa, but I can't find the actual picture WITH Santa at the moment. Which is okay, because it sucked. Not the moment with Santa... but the picture quality. I'll never pay that much for a crappy photo ever again. Next year, I'll take my own pictures, thankyouverymuch.

But the mall has this cool exhibit with fake snow falling, and Noah loves it.

 

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!!