NoAh is OnE!!!!

We can hardly believe an entire year has passed since Noah came into our lives, all smiles. He, like Elijah, has been such a blessing to this family and we are so grateful God chose Noah for us. Noah is probably close to 23lbs, long as the day and just about the happiest baby around. Although I was working for his actual birth date, we still had a special day that ended with a wonderful treat from Sweet.

Although not on Noah's birthday, this rare photo op of Matt with his boys is priceless. They absolutely adore him. So sweet. 

Another rare photo op of Matt and his silly side. Makes my heart feel very happy. 

My Pirate husband and that's Elijah holding his doctor syringe. 

Happy 1st Birthday Noah!!!!!! All smiles and love!

Elijah showing Noah the ropes on how to rip that paper off the present! Noah's first present of the day. A book called "How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Birthday"

I can't help but think how difficult it must be to see what you're opening around those CHEEKS of his! 

Elijah did pretty well today, despite several difficult moments of jealousy. What can you expect at this age. He was a big helper and a good big brother. 

"I'm 1"

Noah opening his presents from Pappa and Grandma. He loves his flatbed truck and Elijah was elated with the flying airplanes. Thank you guys for the wonderful gift and especially the bag of treats!

Elijah slaving away at opening the box. It's hard work. Takes big muscles. 

???What is this??? A kitchen mixer??? IT'S TOYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Cheeeeps"
Thank you for the great truck toy! Elijah spent awhile showing Noah how it works and sort of sharing. Thank goodness he had the airplane toys to distract him so Noah could have a turn!!!

Nana and Poppy Feathers sent a great gift box as well. Thank you for the sweet sock monkey and awesome to-go train set!

Oh man, well this is by far a favorite gift of the year. Thank you Juju and Aunt Trink for the WONDERFUL, AMAZING, JET Airplane with spinning prop! I can hardly get Elijah off of it for Noah to have a turn. It's been a wonderful addition to the playroom and BOTH boys are thoroughly enjoying it!

This is the next favorite! Thank you Lala and Papa for the wonderful, noisy, ball popping fun toy! Elijah, again, is enamored with the noise and the fact that the balls FLYYYYY out of the tube. Noah is also fascinated, but a little focused on how to get that ball into his mouth!

Our BIG little boy.  

Happy Birthday with an awesome treat from Sweet, our favorite little cupcake bakery. 

Elijah was never a fan of sweets, until recently. Now, he really enjoys a special treat from time to time. Elijah had a lemon blueberry cupcake with lemon frosting and yellow sprinkles. 

Noah destroyed his vanilla cupcake with buttercream frosting. 

Well, maybe not the cupcake, but Elijah certainly enjoyed licking most of the frosting off the top!

My 3 year and 11.5 month old make me smile!

These boys are awesome and with school being out for the summer, I'm getting a huge dose of fun with them. I continue to work part-time, which allows me some time away to keep my mind sharp with nursing, but also a 4-day weekend almost every weekend to really enjoy our family. The boys are getting so big, so fast and I'm so very grateful for this time (even though it can be exhausting). I'm also loving that their ages are so close (2yrs and 3weeks), because they really enjoy one another.

Noah is really starting to show his little, or big rather, personality. He's just a ton of fun and yet very lovey still. I love how this little boy giggles and smiles non-stop and even takes time to look adorable for a picture. 

Lala and Papa sent Elijah a Doctor costume with doctor tools. We are loving dress-up, role play and pretend right now. Elijah, with a little encouragement, put on his doctor coat, loaded down with his stethoscope and other tools and got to work trying to figure out what was the matter with Daddy. Elijah found potatoes in Daddy's ears and some other potential causes for Daddy being so sleepy all the time. 

Turns out, Elijah found that a good 'ole SHOT would potentially help, so up went Daddy's sleeve and Elijah said, "ready, ouch". So true too, because the little syringe actually has kind of a sharp point. OUCH.  

"Yes, I'm your Doctor today. Is this going to be a problem?!"

"Oh, it is a problem. Well I actually think that shot in your arm was given in the incorrect location. Let's go ahead and do it again....in your mouth!"

The next day, Elijah received his birthday gift from the Jackson Family!!!! Without hesitation, he pulled out the pirate sword and hat and ran off swinging his sword at everything! Baylee wrote that she hoped he would be a good pirate, but that's still undecided. 

Noah has also enjoyed being a pirate with Elijah and although he doesn't  usually leave hats on his head, I think he's kind of fond of this one. 

Arrrrr he's a cutie ;) 

And you see Noah's surprise as Elijah, the not so friendly at times Pirate attacks without warning!

Once again, with school off for the summer, we've decided to continue with Elijah's education on our own. I found a great activity book for K-K+ and Elijah is really excelling with shapes, numbers and pen/pencil control. The activities are fairly short, although they can take awhile depending on his focus, and he gets a sticker at the end of each day! We're really enjoying it and even practicing with flash cards as well. I also decided we needed some chalkboards to do some other activities and the kitchen seemed like a great place! I needed to repaint these panels anyhow, so I just did it with chalk paint. We've been singing the days of the week song and doing a letter of the day. Elijah is very smart and getting smarter by the day. 

This was taken this morning, just before we left the house. The plan had been to go to church, but with the later summer service, it falls right at the time Noah should be taking his first nap. Matt, after working his 2nd night shift, pulled himself out of bed to take Elijah and himself to church to represent our family. 

Our handsome, smart boys in their nice Sunday clothes.