Introducing Terry and Sara Iles

At the end of May we traveled to Louisiana to attend Clay's brother's wedding. We had a great time visiting our families and welcoming Sara as the newest Iles!

While traveling we stopped at a Walmart for me to get a few things. When I was inside Clay took this great picture of Jude sitting in Noah's lap. Hey, they have to be entertained somehow on the 6+ hour drive.
Jude enjoyed his first popsicle with Dee.

He likes it!

I think...

Yes, he does! And he wants more!

Terry graciously let Noah "help" him clean out his car.

I'm not sure what the paintbrush was for (?)

On Thursday I helped Mrs. DeDe and Mrs. Claudia decorate for the rehearsal dinner. On Friday we made these wonderful waffle bowls with chocolate moose, strawberries, and almonds for the rehearsal dinner dessert. Friday night we attended the rehearsal and ate a fried catfish supper. Yummy! On Saturday morning we attended the wedding of Terry and Sara Iles.

(photo courtesy of Amanda Iles)

We are so happy for the new couple!

After enjoying a lovely wedding reception with yummy cheesecake we went to visit the Mitchell family for the day.

In May we celebrate Carson's birthday, Landon's birthday, my birthday, and Mother's Day. This year the guys cooked us fried fish, fried shrimp, fries, and hush puppies. We had cookie cake for dessert!

We spent a lot of time outside. Noah had so much fun pushing Jude around in this car that my mom decided to get a car like this for Jude for his birthday. It's really fun because since Jude can't walk yet, he has a place to sit and play when we're all outside.

Landon and I have birthdays 2 days apart. On this particular Saturday it was his 13th birthday! We were so glad to get to spend his actual birthday with him and have such a big and fun celebration.

My daddy with his girls

Pops and Jude

Uncle Jake with sweet baby Jude

Jake's getting ready to have a newborn again. Yes, that's right. My sister KK is expecting their 2nd baby in December! We can't wait to find out if this 4th Mitchell grandbaby will make boy #4 or girl #1!

Mine and Landon's birthday cookie cake- my favorite kind of birthday cake!

the birthday boy

the fam

4-wheeler riding with Pops

We used this picture for his birthday invitations. Doesn't he look so cute and happy?

4-wheeler riding with daddy

Even Clay and I got to enjoy a leisurely 4-wheeler ride. I always consider it a date when it's kid-free!

Nana and her great-grandson Noah

Grammie playing pat-a-cake with Jude

We left my parent's house Saturday night and drove to Alexandria to spend the night with our sweet friends Jason and Melissa. We enjoyed visiting until late and then going to church with them Sunday morning. Noah loved seeing MeMe and JJ and of course, Moses, their black lab. We miss our friends in Fort Worth, but are thankful that they don't live too far away so that we can still visit each other.

It was a crazy busy and fun weekend. We went home to enjoy a few days together before Clay flew out to Africa for a 2 week mission trip. More posts to come...

Playing in the Mud

After some rather wet weather our yard turned into a mud hole. The boys of course loved it! They had their own mud slide to play in! Oh, those spring storms in Texas...

I'm glad he had fun because that shirt is now permanently stained. I've tried bleaching it several times to no avail. Any ideas on how to get that mud stain out?
stomping in the mud

All boys are alike apparently because Jude enjoyed his first experience with mud too.

Raising boys is so much fun!

Fort Worth Zoo

At the beginning of May we celebrated Clay's independence from the Spring semester at Southwestern Seminary by going to the zoo. Wednesdays are half-price days at our zoo, so it makes it pretty affordable for our family of four to pack a lunch and see the sights.

Noah enjoyed seeing the monkeys, feeding the birds, visiting the African animals, and looking at the aquatic and reptile life. He also enjoyed brushing the farm animals at the petting park.

Jude enjoyed riding in the wagon, smiling, eating lunch, and crawling in the baby play area.

Clay and I enjoyed being together as a family on a weekday and seeing our boys have so much fun!

Noah and Jude sporting their favorite form of transportation
Clay was able to pull the boys sometimes in the wagon and other times...

... Noah insisted on pulling the wagon himself. Onlookers found this quite entertaining :)

Noah brushing the farm animals

Noah sitting in the stage coach

Jude hanging out the window of the stage coach

Both of our sweet boys

where do i start?

So since it's been over a month since I've posted anything, I have a ton to post! Jude is taking his morning nap and Clay is playing with Noah outside to afford me the chance to update you guys on the Iles family life. There are many posts to come, so stay tuned!

a jude update

Jude will be 11 months on the 18th of May- just a couple of weeks away! Plans are underway for his first birthday. The theme is going to be dump trucks. It's so fun to plan his first party and we look forward to seeing him eat his first piece of cake.

Jude is the happiest baby I've ever been around. He constantly has a huge smile on his face. He even smiles with his eyes, which melt my heart. He loves to watch Noah play and laughs at everything he does.

Jude enjoys playing "shy" now. He buries his head under my arm when we see a friend or a stranger. This is his sweet way of getting attention.

He loves to snuggle and cuddle. He will reach for anyone who is willing to hold him. He's been quite attached to me for several months, but lately he will lunge for his daddy and does not want me to take him back.

Jude is crawling very fast now. He pulls up to a standing position on anything that will hold his weight. Even a large toy will serve this purpose on occasion. He's been cruising a little. He stood by himself for a few seconds one day, but then realized he was standing and dropped down on his bottom.

Jude likes to pull all the books off the shelves, flush the toilet and play in the toilet water, and drag out everything from the lower kitchen cabinets. Toddlerhood, here we come!

His favorite thing to do is EAT. People are so surprised at how much food he can consume. He eats whatever we have for dinner with a few exceptions. He's not picky at all! He's nursing much less now. Five minutes at best, four times a day and then he's down to play in the floor, especially if big brother is in the room.

Jude takes a morning and afternoon nap and sleeps great at night.

All around Jude is a laid-back happy kind of guy who brings great joy to our family!

Jude's first official swim and he LOVED it! The water was bit cold, but he never fussed once. As soon as I put him in he started splashing. His lips began to quiver once and I realized maybe it was time for a swimming break!

All dressed for the pool

Look at my cute knee crawler! No more soldier crawling for this guy!

a noah update

Noah is at the age (2 years, 9 months) where he is learning new things, singing new songs, saying new words, and surprising us with new thoughts each day. He has an incredible amount of energy which I attempt to channel in a good way. He's becoming more and more obedient, throwing less fits, and is a joy to be around. Someone described him the other day as "obedient, but fun". I think that sums our Noah up pretty well.

Noah's favorite songs as of lately: "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and "The Gospel Song" (You can click here to listen to this song by Sovereign Grace Ministries.)

Noah enjoys reading books, lots of books. He enjoys learning about sharks and other marine life and trucks and other forms of transportation. He also enjoys hearing bible stories. His favorite bible story is Jonah right now.

Noah identifies all shapes and colors with the exception of sometimes calling rectangles, triangles. His favorite shape is of course the circle. But he is also fond of the oval and star.

Noah is aware that words are comprised of letters, but is not identifying letters yet. Our plan is to work more on identifying letters and their sounds in the coming months.

No news on the potty training front. This is more my fault because I haven't invested the time or energy. I hope to work on this in the coming months as well!

Enjoy some pictures of Noah's busy life!

Noah did not suddenly get diagnosed with a vision problem. He just really enjoys wearing our glasses. Though I hope he doesn't inherit his mom and dad's near-sightedness, he does look awfully cute!
Here's Noah reading a bedtime bible story to his Elmos.

This is a world map puzzle I bought for the boys. It's quite advanced for their age, but I thought Noah could learn about the animals in different continents and where daddy is going when he goes to Africa in a few weeks.

We've had quite a few rainy days lately, so lots of indoor play. One day Noah spent quite a large chunk of time transferring beans to different sized bowls. This proved to be a big hit!

One of his favorite activities- reading books by the bookshelf. He'll do this activity for 30 minutes or more!

I spread out a blanket the other night for us to watch Finding Nemo for our Friday Family Night. Noah ran in circles before the video began.

One day for snack time I made Noah and I some Raspberry Lemonade using some Crystal Light individual packs. Noah thought it was such a treat!

Here's Noah playing underneath his slide. His friend, Grant, calls it a "jail". I think that's because his dad is a security officer.

My sweet boys are ready for a wagon ride. There's this area by our house that has a bunch of hills. The boys yell like crazy and beg me to take them down again and again. Going down is fun but try lugging this wagon with these big boys up all the hills. Talk about exhausting!

Last Saturday we took the boys on their first swim of the year. Noah wore floaties for the first time.

He was a little afraid at first and just wanted to stay in the kiddie pool. Towards the end I pulled him in to the big pool and showed him how he could touch in the shallow end. Then he had a blast!

Noah and his daddy are laying on the floor watching Finding Nemo. This was Noah's first full-length movie ever. He didn't really sit still, which is totally fine. He basically watched the movie while running around the room and sitting on different pieces of furniture. I guess that's how active little boys watch videos :)