Noah's 1st Birthday

I guess I should title this post, "Noah's sort-of 1st birthday". Those of you that know me, know that I like birthdays and like to make a big-to-do for my kid's birthdays. Noah's birthday was July 1st and we left for Ohio on July 2nd at 6 am. So, due to the fact that I was doing laundry and packing the week of his birthday, I didn't have time to plan a party or come up with a cute theme or make a cake or even shop for any presents. Poor Noah, I know. Luckily, a month or two months before, we had bought Noah a toy at Costco and were saving to give it to him when he got a little older. So, we pulled that out and gave it to him on his birthday. It wasn't even gift-wrapped or anything. I know, I'm such a slacker.

Garrett's mom Georgia, offered to make Noah a cake so that we could celebrate when we got to Ohio, which was really nice of her. So, the day after we arrived, we had his birthday cake and sang to him, but unfortuneatly, he didn't like it. AT ALL. All he did was pick it up and flick it off his fingers. Crazy boy.

Starting off pretty excited!!

Looks pretty good...

Ummm...not so sure about this...

Yuck!

We'll just throw it on the ground instead!

It was pretty funny. And just to clarify, the cake wasn't disgusting...it was really yummy!

A couple of days later, Georgia made a chocolate cake and he really liked this one. For some reason, we didn't give him a whole piece of cake and let him dig in. So, I don't have the "really messy cake face" picture.

He sure liked it though!

Giving Grandma Georgia a "high-five"!

When we got home, we opened the present that my mom had sent for him. He liked it at first until he punched it and it came back for him. It took him awhile to get used to it. Garrett's parents gave him a cute outfit, too. So, he did get a few things for his birthday.

And yes I DO know that he doesn't care one way or the other about his birthday, I just feel bad because I didn't really do anything for it. I'm sure he'll ask one day when he's older why he didn't get a big party with lots of balloons and presents. And then again, maybe he won't.

June

Well, it's been a while since I've last blogged, so I am going to attempt to put all of June's adventures in one post. Brace yourselves.

Our school gets out in mid-June, so at their school assembly for the last month, they like to give out awards to the kids who have displayed all of the character traits that they talk about throughout the whole year. For example, those traits are integrity, courage, patriotism, honesty, compassion, etc. They call this the "Exemplary Star Student" Award and Maggie won it again this year for her class. Way to go Maggie!!

For the Relief Society Activity for June, we wanted to have a Mother/Son activity since we did a mother/daughter activity earlier in the year. One of our committee members came up with the idea of having a "Survivor" night (you know like the tv show) and have some friendly competitions. So, we had 6 teams. Each team had their own color buff they got to wear and they came up with team names. We started off with a hot dog dinner with salads and chips, etc. After the dinner, we started with the competions/races. We had tie tying, baby doll diapering, knocking paper cup pyramids down with marshmallow guns (by far the most popular one), putting together puzzles and keeping a ping pong on the table with no hands. It was a really fun night and I think the sons (young and old) along with the moms had a good time.

diapering babies

tying ties
shooting marshmallow guns

putting together puzzles
ping pong with no hands

Before school let out, they had their annual Talent Show. Maggie and two of her friends, Ashlee and Linden, tried out singing Taylor Swift's "Enchanted". They didn't make it at first, just because their song was too long. But Garrett played around with some software and was able to cut enough of it to make it the right length. They sang great. Unfortuneatly, the microphones weren't working properly, so it was hard to hear them. But, I know they sounded great because of all the practicing that I heard at our house. I could probably sing that song by heart thanks to the hundreds of times I heard them practice it! :)

Ashlee and Maggie waiting for their turn to perform.
Planning their outfits the day before. :)

The next night, Noah had this awful cough after he had gone to bed. Thanks to two other kids having had it before, we knew right off that it was croup. Garrett took him to the hospital right away when he was having trouble breathing and then he vomited up some of the phlegm. It was a long night for everyone!

Getting the cool mist in his face.

Finally trying to sleep.

You can see the little drops of water on his face from the cool mist blowing on him.

The next night, trying to give him some fresh air before putting him in bed. It wasn't quite cool enough to help though.

In November 2010, Maggie got braces on her top 4 teeth. She was supposed to wear them for a year.

But after only 7 months, her teeth moved enough that the orthodontist was happy with the progress and he took them off early! Yea! Just look at her beautiful smile!

On June 18th, the girls had their dance recitals. Lydia has been in a hip hop jazz class and danced to "Uptown Girls" from Billy Joel. I guess the theme of this recital was Broadway hits. Uptown Girl was from the Musical "Movin' Out". She did great. She remembers dance steps really well.

Paige is in pre-tap and danced to a song called "Baby Face" from something called "Thoroughly Modern Millie", which I've never heard of before. She is very animated in her dancing--it was very cute.

Maggie is in hip hop and danced to "Get you head in the Game" from High School Musical. Maggie is a great dancer too and is starting to get more into her dance moves. I think they had fun, but they were definitely ready to have a break for the summer.

June 19th was Father's Day, so here are a few pictures of Garrett on his special day. We cooked steak for him since he doesn't get it very often. Well, let's be honest here; he actually cooked the steak and I cooked the rest. :)

Noah loved it so much that he's trying to get off every last morsel of the bone.

(We didn't really give him steak to eat, Garrett just let him hold the bone and suck off the seasonings.)

Sharing with dad...

and very sad that dad took it away.

He settled for potatos instead. For dessert we had a yummy peach crisp.

Since it was coming up on the 4th of July, I found some cheap wooden stars for the girls to paint for a fun activity.

This was keeping Noah entertained while they painted.

Poor Paige suffers from allergies one month out of the year and it's usually June. It's not really sneezing that she has to deal with, it's itchy, watery eyes. We have tried various allergy medicines with no success. This is what she looked like one day after playing outside for only a little while and then rubbing her eyes from all the itchiness. It was so sad, I felt awful for her.

This was her the next morning. Feeling a little better, but still puffy and red. We have actually found some eyedrops that have been helping a lot. So, next year we will be ready!
The following pictures are just random ones I thought I'd throw in.

We got out a toy of Bella's that hasn't had batteries in it for awhile. We finally got batteries for it (it's the toy that blows plastic balls through tunnels and then straight up into the air); it freaked Noah out and he cried and cried until we turned it off. Bella got it for her first birthday and loved it. Oh well, to each his own I guess.
One day the girls were playing upstairs and Bella came down looking like this. I guess she got into my make-up and make-up that I use for dance recitals and had a good time. I couldn't get mad at that beautiful face, though.

Garrett had Noah on the table one morning while he was eating breakfast. He loved it, he was spinning around on his bum, banging the spoon on the table and shoving pancakes in his mouth. He was a mess after.

Garrett and Noah playing "catch".

Maggie and Lydia doing the Tango one day...

Bella after church one day...too cute to pass up taking a picture.

Lydia helping Noah ride on Bella's new bike.