Happy Early Thanksgiving!

We are so excited about Thanksgiving this year! We are hosting for the first time ever.... although I can't take credit for doing it all... everyone is bringing a side and/or dessert and my parents will be here to help get things ready that morning, so I'm not really doing a whole lot. It will be fun to be at our own house though! Waylon's parents, my parents, and Andrea, Sean and Savannah will all be here to celebrate.

Now for this past weekend's update. We were actually home again which was nice. We got some errands run and did some catching up around here which is always nice.

I worked Thursday since I was off last Monday so it was still a 'full' week for me - all 3 days full! :-) On Friday morning, Noah and I went to the mall and called Nana last minute to see if she wanted to come meet us for lunch. That was a fun last minute decision! Noah was excited to see her and waved until she was out of sight when we left! :-)

Hanging with Nana in the food court

Waylon got home early on Friday so we ran a few errands, one of which was to change our phone plans... I got a new phone which was very exciting for me! :-) We were planning to get me a new MP3 player for Christmas but this new phone has a memory card and MP3 capabilities. It's been so fun to have a new toy! :-)

On Saturday, another fun last minute decision - the plan was to go to the grocery store as a family but when Amy called and said that the library was having a story time at 11, Noah and I decided that Daddy could handle the grocery store alone and we'd go to storytime! :-)

Storytime with Stella Dot

At noon, Waylon went to watch the state game at our friends' house and I stayed home while Noah napped. When Noah woke up, we joined Waylon over there and got to hang out with everyone for a while. Around 5:30, we headed home to meet Waylon's childhood friend, Steven, who was passing through town on his way home to Greensboro. He stayed the night and to give them time to 'bond', I decided to head back to our friends Josh and Anise's house - they were all still hanging out from the game!

Don't they look like brothers?!

On Sunday, a few more errands and I did my 2.75 mile run! Tomorrow, I'll do 3 miles which pretty much makes me ready for the 5K on Dec 6th. By the way, if anyone would like to make a donation to the Arthritis Foundation, feel free to visit my website and support my run, too!

Anyway, Sunday afternoon we had a party for Waylon's dad's 60th birthday! They came over along with Andrea, Sean and Savannah. We were originally going to go to their house but since we have the NFL Season Ticket package, Waylon wanted them to come here, so he could watch the Redskins game! :-) So they were nice enough to pack up everything and bring it to our house. It was so fun to see Savannah again... she's changing so much these days. And Noah had the best time playing with everyone - especially the birthday boy! Dick (Waylon's dad) made a train out of crates and toys and all sorts of things and pulled Noah around for so long. What a fun night!

Riding Grandaddy's train

Loving Aunt Andrea and Cousin Savannah

Playing hide and seek with Grandad

Savannah is finally old enough to use Noah's jumperoo!
Happy Birthday Grandad!After everyone left, we were getting ready to put Noah to bed and were finishing cleaning up the kitchen when we realized that he was eerily quiet... this is how we found him! :-)

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! We sure have a lot to be thankful for... here's one example (you know me and the messy face pics!). :-)

Another Weekend in MD

Last Wednesday night, Noah and I jetted off to MD! I was pretty nervous about the flight but it went great! I always worry so much about how he's going to adapt to new situations and he always does great... I need to just accept the fact that he's perfect! Haha. :-) Anyway, while at the airport waiting for the flight to leave, we happened to run into a friend from middle school who also lives in the Raleigh area (who I hadn't seen in forever!). She was also flying home for the weekend, so it worked perfectly and she really helped out with keeping up with him/carrying stuff/etc. We were flying Southwest, so we were also able to sit together. The flight wasn't full, so we actually had an extra seat between the two of us to spread out and let Noah sit when he wanted. Like I said, he did great... I gave him his pacifier to help with the pressure in his ears and he was totally silent the whole time. He almost started to fall asleep but then the plane touched down and he started clapping! Everyone on the flight was very complimentary about how good he was!

Laura and Noah on the plane

On Thursday, my sister, Leah (Aunt Ditter) came out to hang out with us and we went to the mall in the morning and then Leah and I went and got manicures while Noah was napping.

Watching a children's event at the Columbia Mall

Playing with the pots and pans back at home

Thursday evening, my friend Julie and our family friends Roz and Duane (pretty much my aunt and uncle) came over for dinner and to visit Noah.

Roz and Duane playing with Noah

Reading with Aunt Julie

Friday was a low key day... we went back to another mall just to get out of the house and just relaxed in the afternoon (stipulation - we didn't have many afternoons as Noah napped from 1-4 almost every day!!).


While we were at the mall, my mom and I got Noah some new clothes and one of them was a shirt that is very similar to my Dad's - let me tell you, these two are buddies - each morning when Noah came out of his room, he immediately started yelling, "PAPA!?!"

Playing tent - REAL tent this time! :-)

Waylon left Raleigh after work on Friday and got to MD around 9 or so. Noah was so excited to see Waylon when he got up Saturday - and vice versa! Saturday was a huge day... we had our annual 'Christmas' with my dad's side of the family. It was so good to see everyone! We usually do it Thanksgiving weekend but since we were in town, we switched it to earlier. We have a huge seafood feast and it was so yummy and fun!

Holding hands with Hope.
This was right after Hope walked in - we thought they were going to be good buddies and then Hope saw food and said to Noah, 'I don't have TIME,' and pulled her hand away! :-)

Playing football with cousinsOh yeah, Christmas is going to be FUN!

Playing with Aunt Marie

On Sunday morning, we were just relaxing at the house when we started to try to think of a fun 'activity' for the morning. We decided on going down to DC just for a few hours. We went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and just looked around for a short time (we'll definitely have to go back soon) and had lunch there before heading home for another long nap for Noah.



While Noah was napping, my parents got ready for our tailgate! :-) My dad made us wings and my mom made us cookies and hot chocolate! Noah woke up in just enough time for us to say goodbye and then we headed out to pick up Tina and Tesh (Tina is a friend of mine from Middle/High School). We took all our goodies and grilled out sausages before the game. It was SOOO cold!! Unfortunately, the outcome of the game wasn't great but we still had a lot of fun.



We got home pretty late last night so we took our time getting out of town this morning. We didn't get back here unil 6:00 so it was a quick dinner and some play time and the Noah was off to bed. We are relaxing now and getting ready to get back into our week tomorrow.

Another exhausting but fun weekend......

Weekly Update

We had a great weekend yet again but before I go into that, I have to finish updating about last weekend! Last Sunday, we went over to Waylon's parents' house for most of the afternoon. We brought Noah and Savannah's Halloween costumes to get a picture of them together... they both were monkeys - we had no idea when we bought the costumes! They were so cute!!

2 Little Monkeys jumping on the... couch.

Aunt Andrea and Cousin Savannah

This week was a good week... pretty routine except that on Monday we brought Maddie home from school with us since Frank was out of town. They had a great time and Noah always loves riding in the car with his friends!


On Saturday, I went to Greensboro for my friend Jessica's baby shower. I left early and Jess and I went to get manicures and pedicures before the shower. It was so nice to spend some good quality time with her! The shower was so fun, too. Jessica's 3 friends went all out with great food, great decorations and great games. She is very lucky to have such a great network of friends so close by!

Don't think there is any need to explain how these two are related! :-)
Jessica's friends' babies - so cute!!

I got back into town around 6:00 - just in time to hang out with Noah for about an hour before bedtime. Waylon and Noah had a nice father/son day together...they don't get much alone time - without me anyway! :-) They went to walk around the mall in the morning and then went to Lake Johnson in the afternoon. I think they both really enjoyed it.

Yesterday morning Noah and I met Amy and Stella Dot at North Cary Park. It was lots of fun. They have a great slide - it's huge. Both kiddos were having the best time but Stella Dot was so into the slide and climbing all over the place... Noah could hardly keep up! See Stella Dot's blog for some good pics of the slide. We weren't able to get a good picture of Noah going down the slide because he went so fast!! I think the combination of his corduroy overalls and his overall size made him go a lot faster than Stella Dot! :-)

Too much fun!

Sunday afternoon was a quiet one - we just stayed home and played around the house... very nice!


This Wednesday, I'm taking Noah for his first airplane ride! We are going to MD this weekend for a get together with my dad's family on Saturday and another Redskins game on Sunday. Since I'm off Thursday and Friday, we decided that Noah and I would fly up on Wednesday night and then Waylon will drive up on Friday. I'm nervous about flying with a 16 month old but it's only an hour so hopefully it will be okay. :-)



Have a great week!

Happy Halloween!!

Last night, we took Noah trick-or-treating for the first time! We were a little unsure if we were going to make it or not because he had his 15 month shots on Thursday (despite being 16 months tomorrow!). They really affected him this time and he's been battling a pretty bad fever and soreness in his legs over the past few days. Luckily, the motrin schedule worked to our advantage and he was able to go out for Halloween!

We walked around the neighborhood with Maddie - Noah's friend from school. They had the best time and caught on really quick as to what to do!

Noah laughing at Maddie - after every house, Noah would take all the candy out of his basket and put it in Maddie's! :-)

Picking out the candy that Mommy - I mean Noah - wants! :-)

Us with Frank, Janet, and Maddie

Who knew puppy dogs and monkeys could love each other?
I think this is Noah's first REAL kiss!
Sorry, Stella Dot - the hard-to-get route didn't work I guess.

Showing Grammy his loot when we got home - Grammy was here to 'man' our house and give out candy while we went out.
Sooo tired at the end of the night - we were up late!

For anyone who is interested - stats from the doctor's appointment:

Height - 31 inches - 50th percentile
Weight - 27 lbs, 2 oz - 75-90th percentile
Head - 49 1/2 cm - >95th percentile (always above the curve on this one!!)