howdy

howdy everyone from the great state of TEXAS!  we are really liking our time that we have spent here and it is so hard to believe that we have been here for over four months.  time really does go by fast when you are having fun.  

my folks drove out with us to texas and noah had a blast riding in the cowboy truck the whole time!

we moved to texas so that zach can get his degree in sports management.  texas a & m has a great program for it and we didn't want to live through any more utah winters.  you can call me a baby, i don't care!  currently zach is attending blinn college which is a feeder college to a & m.  he had some generals to finish up and retake (unfortunate for him, most of his credits didn't transfer...FRUSTRATING!)  but all is well.  zach just finished his first semester here with an outstanding 4.0!  that is a first for zach and i am super proud of him.  to celebrate we went to cold stone and got some ice cream.  zach noted that we are no longer in utah because we were the only ones in the place and no one eats ice cream like mormons do!

noah is also attending school, though his school sounds slightly more fun!  he goes to preschool two days a week at powersports gym.  they have a great preschool program which incorporates a lot of physical activity.  for any of you that know noah, the more physical activity the better.  he loves being able to play in the foam pit, jump on the trampoline, and do the balance beam at school.  he is learning as well, but he won't tell you what he learns unless you pry it out of him.  such a funny kid he is!  his teachers say that he is so well behaved and the director said that his teacher calls noah her favorite!  if only he acted like that at home!

this is noah's first day of preschool.  i would of put him a cute outfit like most moms do, but he has to wear exercise clothes!

the other days of the week, noah and i are kept busy by story time at the library, music makers class at the church, and walking to the park.  we have made great friends here in texas and we enjoy doing these activities with them.  noah made two really good friends that he asks to play with ALL the time.  they are grant and claire.  he has so much fun playing (or destroying his room) with them.  claire, noah has decided, is his wife and he wants to go on movie dates with her.  she is not as committed to the relationship and only calls noah her boyfriend.  oh the drama, it starts young!  yeah, i think i am going to have my hands full with him during those teenage years! 

 noah is my little cowboy.  he loves animals.  he is attached to his boots and would sleep in them if we let him.  he will wake up in the middle of the night just to put them on and go back to sleep!

as for the baby, he is still cooking!  i think that he is getting over done and i am so ready to pop this guy out.  i know it sounds silly but i want him to fit in the cute newborn size jammies we got him for christmas.  officially, his due date is 1 jan 2012, but anytime would be good, as long as it isn't on christmas!  what a bummer to spend christmas in the hospital!  i guess he is just waiting for grandma nevi to come out to texas.  my folks are coming out on 5 jan and we can't wait to see them.  i guess baby wants to wait!  i think noah is more excited to see cowboy john and grandma nevi than have santa come!  he misses utah and all of our family there.

halloween was a blast!  noah, of course, was a cowboy.  no surprise there!  he was all decked out in all his cowboy gear and loved strutting around.  everyone loved his spurs.  my favorite part of the night was when noah told us that we had to stay by the mailboxes while he went to the doors.  i thought i had at least ten years before he got embarrassed by us!

noah's pumpkin that he got at the pumpkin patch.  he designed the face to look spooky!  of course, these are the clothes that noah wears everyday anyway (it was an easy halloween costume)!  yes, he does still wear the spurs!

here are some examples of when noah picks what he gets to wear!  he hardly will go anywhere without a cowboy hat and boots.  plus, aren't we lucky to have a guardian for our house?

drum roll please...

BOY!  

noah was right!  he was pretty set on having a little brother and it turned out that he was right on the money!  i should take him to the race track!

this lovely bundle of joy is due on new years, so this will be a great christmas in texas!

Update

yes, i officially suck at keeping my blog updated.  we have had so much going on so i will just highlight some of the great things.  

noah turned 3 in april.  we had a fun little birthday party for him.  he is growing up so fast and has one of the most active imaginations that i have ever seen.  he is even more imaginative than most adults i know.  it is a blast to see him act out what ever is going on in his mind.  what a character!

i attended my graduation ceramony for WSU in april.  i officially don't graduate until the end of the summer but i wanted to walk in april because it was on my mom's birthday.  there is NO way that i ever could of finished college with out her help.  she is truly the most awesome mom in the world.  i am so lucky to have her and hopefully i can become a great mom like her!

we moved out of our place and we are now living with zach's parents.  on august 24 we head out to texas and are super excited about.  zach wants to go to school down there and we thought it was a great time to go.  noah is stoked about it because he can officially become a real cowboy.  he is hardly seen with out his boots and cowboy hat, so he is ready to go.  hot dang! 

i have entered the world of essential oils and have found them very useful.  the other day noah had a fever and i plopped some peppermint on him and it cooled him down and by night fall he was back to his normal self!  plus, i sleep so much better now!

the most exciting news is that zach and i are expecting!  we are really excited, even if the baby is due on january 1!  hopefully it will wait until after christmas.  we haven't told a lot of people because of the miscarriage we had on halloween.  but, we are praying that all goes well with this pregnancy.  we should be able to find out if it is a boy or a girl next week.  i will post the results.  if you ask noah, it is a boy.  he gets really defensive if you say it is a girl.  silly noah!

so that is about all that is going on in our life.  once i am done with summer semester and we get settled in texas i will have much more time to devote to blogging. 

Captain

The last couple of months have been, well let's just say interesting! Poor Zach has had to put up with many things that he shouldn't have to and yet is still smiling. With out him I know that I never would of made it through. If I had a cookie, I would give it to him.

Noah is growing up so quickly. He is learning what is right and what is wrong. He is also learning the concept of consequences. The other day Noah was upset at his cousin and wanted to hit him. He told me that he wanted to and had his hand in midair ready to fire. I told him that if he did, he would have to go to time out but he can make the choice. He thought about it and put his arm down. (If only this would happen all the time!)

I often tell Noah that he is the master of his fate and captain of his soul. It hit me the other day, that I too, am the captain of my own soul. I always knew this, yet would forget it. That put a whole different spin on my outlook on life.

I have this poem taped to my wall by my computer and I often catch myself reading it, rather than studying. So I thought that I would share it with you. (Hollywood made it famous, but I had a copy from my wonderful Grandpa Horne way back in the day.)

Invictus

by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Trick or Treat

There was no debating what Noah wanted to be for Halloween, though at one point he did want to be a seatbelt... Since he is a cowboy the other 364 days of the year, why not slap on some chaps and call it good! I must say, he was one handsome little man. We went to a couple of Halloween parties and he thought the face painting was the best. He still talks about his horse that was on his cheek. He is so darn cute! YEE HAA! My favorite was trick or treating at the zoo. What could be better, free candy and the smell of elephant poo? It was awesome!

You can't have Halloween with out carving pumpkins and this year was no exception. We had a blast cleaning out the guts, though Noah did think it was gross. But he loved his pumpkin. He was pretty proud of it (though I did all the cleaning and carving). He especially enjoyed the candle we lit inside. I think that he is getting a fascination with fire, he is his mother's son after all...

Fall

This has been a wonderful summer filled with many adventures. We are sorry to see summer go but are looking forward to fall.

The other day we went on a river boat ride on the Provo river. It was an unique experience that I think everyone should experience at least once in their life. The boat was motored by a boy standing at the helm pulling on a rope that was strung up. The mere fact that he could move such a boat with the sheer power of his arms greatly made up for the fact that he was an awful story teller. It was a Halloween boat ride and the ad said he would tell ghost stories. He didn't, but the pirate that commandeered our ship was quite funny. What is a pirate's favorite letter? P, because it looks like R but with only one leg! Ha, ha! Ah, you have to love Utah County.

A new tradition that has been started in our family is to take a hike up in Ogden Valley and then go to a pumpkin patch. It is really fun. Noah loves adventure and loves to hike. Though Zach ends up carrying him half of the way. I hand it Noah for keeping up with us and I hand it to Zach for being such a good sport. He is by far a blessing in our lives.

The pumpkin patch is always a success. I mean, the boys get to run around in a maze, what could be better?

Baseball

I really do not have much to write about. But I was just playing on the computer and made this cute little thing of Noah. I know that it is nothing special and I usually think people over do it with this kind of stuff, but there you go. I gave in. Maybe one day people will pay money to see him play baseball and you got it here for free!