can you tell the difference?

Noah or Jude??

jude at 7 months

noah at 7 months

Of course you can tell the difference, because I posted this picture of Jude on a previous post. But am I the only one who thinks they look a lot alike? Especially when they give that huge slobbery smile!

ice storm

The weather this week has been awful. We haven't been able to go outside at all. It's been so cold, wet, and rainy. Last night we got a significant amount of ice and today it's melting. So even though it's not raining today, it's still incredibly wet because of the melting ice! Maybe there's better weather tomorrow, because we're going stir-crazy!

Clay's class was canceled this morning, so he and Noah took a little trip outside to see the ice. Don't you love that he has his pj's, rubber boots, and jacket, hat and gloves on??
This is what out backyard looked like this morning. No, it's not snow. Just yucky ice.
So then Clay left for work and I said what am I going to do with these boys all day, stuck inside for the 3rd day in a row?
Clay said, have a snack of peanut butter crackers under a tent in the living room and read books. Wow! What a great idea!

I made our snack of peanut butter crackers and...

... and we made a tent in the living room. Noah had a super time- mainly just jumping from chair to chair- but he enjoyed our reading time as well.

After lunch today Noah said, "I'm ready for my nap" and he went and climbed in the bed. He always requests that he listen to "PaPa" which is a CD that Bro. Curt made for him. Lately he's also asked to sleep with Papa's pillow. The Papa pillow is made out of one of my Papa's shirts. It's hard to explain to Noah that he has a Papa and that I had a Papa too. We watched a DVD of my Papa's life yesterday, so he's been very interested in him. I want Noah to grow up knowing about his great-grandparents because they are a rich part of our family history. Hopefully through pictures, stories, and possessions we can keep these memories alive for our kids.

noah is 2.5

This month Noah turned 2.5. Although he's a rambunctious kid (see pics below), he's also learned a lot in his little life.

At 2.5 Noah can:

name all the basic colors (blue, green, red, pink, purple, orange, yellow, brown, gray, etc.)

count to 10 without help

count to 20 with help

do some letter-sound recognition (A says ahhh like apple)

wash and dry hands with little assistance

build a tower of 11 blocks, before they come crashing down!

sing many songs from memory, including ABCs, twinkle, twinkle little star, and Jesus loves me

recite much of Psalm 1!!

recite several other sentence verses

he got in the gumbo pot this week. he said, "mama help me out." i said, "wait. let me get the camera!"
It's very hard to get Noah to smile these days. "Say cheese" doesn't even work. So I usually settle for an action shot or one where he's being silly. Like this one, with his tongue hanging out. But you know what, personality pictures sure do say a lot. Especially when that personality is Noah's!

Here he is with one of his precious Elmos. I love that he pretends with them.

Apparently Noah and Elmo are sharing a pretend snack together.

Noah and his grocery shopping buddies.

jude is 7 months (a little late)

Jude turned 7 months on January 18. I was waiting for the "perfect picture" before posting and I've found it...

is this not the cutest smile?! and look at those beautiful bottom teeth!

At 7 months Jude is:

sitting up

scooting (using his arms to drag his body)

getting on all 4 and rocking back and forth

wearing size 4 diapers

taking 2 long naps and day and 1 smaller nap

eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner (baby food)

nursing 4-5 times a day

enjoying his big brother very much!

Jude continues to be so happy. He's only upset if he's overly tired or hungry or if he's teething.

Several times a day he sits and plays with the Singing Stage that my parents got him for Christmas.

Oh, that smile gets me.

I think he looks a lot like Noah in this picture.

One of the sweetest things a baby does is put his feet in his mouth!

The Life of the New Elmo

Noah LOVES his Elmo Live. He's become the replacement, I'm afraid, for the old Elmo (as seen here and here.)

Elmo was seen sitting at Jude's Singing Stage yesterday. Notice how Noah even thought to put Elmo's little chair underneath him so he'd be more comfortable :)
Noah had Elmo sitting laying on the couch with the "bapoo" and Noah requested that Elmo watch Elmo- how cute!

Jude, ahem Elmo, having a little tummy time.

jude's news

Here's Jude playing with his Singing Stage he got for Christmas. He's getting better at sitting up unsupported, but gets tired easily. The bumbo seat provides great support and he can play longer. He loves to hear the sounds and see the lights on his toys. He's very into grabbing things, so anything he can touch and hit is a plus.
Jude got mail from the White House! Okay, don't get too excited. My friend Kim's son, Josiah, got the same cute letter signed by the Bushes, so I signed Jude up to get one as well. It's a good keep sake!

Apparently we got ours just in time, because they are no longer accepting greetings requests. Bummer! Well, maybe there's hope that Obama will do something similiar?

noah's news

Noah got these skates for Christmas and has become quite good at moving around in them- in the house of course. We haven't ventured onto the concrete yet!

Again, the little problem-solver has got to figure out how these things work...

Here's Noah laying with his favorite things in life- yellow lamb a.k.a "bapoo" and his new Elmo Live.

(Disclaimer: It may seem in several photos that Noah is watching a video, but please know that it is rare that he is watching TV. He does occasionally watch Sesame Street or his Elmo video, but he does not watch videos all day!)

noah and jude

Noah and Jude are quickly becoming best buds. When Jude wakes up from his nap and cries, Noah says he wants to go and check on him. Last week they played together in their room. I went to check on them and they were both playing with toys, content to be together. It pleases my heart to see how good Noah is with his brother and how Jude just adores Noah!

This morning I put Jude on the couch to sit by his brother. Noah began reading one of his favorite books, Trucks by Byron Barton, to Jude.
Notice how their holding hands in this one :)

One morning this week Jude joined Noah on the couch for an Elmo video.

Notice the batteries in Noah's hand. He has quite an obsession with these. I got him a flash light this week and when we found out there were no batteries I told him I'd get to it later because I had to start dinner. He started searching through the drawer trying different batteries to see which ones would work. He's such a little problem-solver!

My sweet boys with their momma after bathtime. Ohhhhhh how they smell so good!

life with a toddler...

... or at least the toddler that lives here

trying to zip his new carhart jacket

(this jacket was given by my cousin marsha. we are soooooo thankful for such a nice, warm jacket this winter!)

This is how Noah looked all bundled up for church yesterday. It was 80 degrees on Saturday and then the high was 36 degrees yesterday. Crazy Texas weather!

playing alone in his room

Just recently Noah has begun playing in his room by himself. It helps out so much when I need to get a few things done. He requests one of his CDs (color songs or bible songs) and then wants to play with his train or paint set.

My nana gave Noah the cute slippers that adorn his feet. He calls them his "Elmo shoes" and they've been inseparable since he discovered them.

riding his new fire truck from grammie and pops

Noah loves playing with his new fire truck. He's currently obsessed with all things fire truck or police car. Basically anything that moves and makes noise. He had such a good time playing outside Saturday in the warm weather. We also went and fed the ducks and played at the park in that same fall-like temperature.

This is where we found "bapoo" the other day. We're not sure why Noah was storing him here. It's a good thing we didn't preheat the oven without looking inside! Lamb, anyone?

my boys watching football

Noah has also been loving football lately, which warms Clay's heart. They get in the floor and Noah says "ready, set, go" and then hikes the football. Watching them play football together is one of the funnest things about being a mom of 2 wonderful sons.

Jude's Attempts at Crawling

Jude has been working real hard at trying to crawl. He can get on all fours and rock back and forth, but can't seem to get all the moves together in order. He does manage to scoot all over the living room, though. Watch out Iles house! Another moving baby on the the loose!

(Please excuse me talking in the background of the video. I didn't know Clay was "shooting" at the time :)