Santa Came to Visit!

Santa came to our house today for a special delivery!! 

Merry Christmas and I hope you are enjoying celebrating the birth of our Lord and family time!! :)

HO HO HO!

come and sit on my lap!

what do you want for Christmas?

such a great smile!

So jolly!

Merry Christmas!!

Josh left for work on Tuesday morning and I know Noah knows he is gone...so weird that at such a young age he knows things!!

Growing up it was known that when our papa left for a work trip that things would go wrong at home. Appliances would break or big projects would be due or kids would get sick. And don't you know that it would continue with us. Noah got pink eye the day after Josh left and he was miserable Wednesday. I felt so bad. He was quiet, didn't want to be held, didn't want to be left alone, didn't want to be put down, didn't want to play with his toys etc...yesterday was much better and I am so grateful because it was my annual trip downtown with my dad and Noah's first trip! We go downtown every year to watch the business men and women go throughout their day (I don't know why but I love it so much), go through the 8th floor of Macy's, go out to eat and pick up an ornament for my collection. It was so nice to bring Noah into our tradition and I can't wait until Noah knows and gets excited too!! I got a poinsettia ornament and purchased one for Josh and Noah (they have a collection I have started for them as well). I don't know if my dad will ever know how special this tradition is to me and how loved I feel because of it!! 

Last night Noah, my parents and I went to my CHRISTmas Eve service at my church and it was a blast. Great music and a lovely message. Here is how it ended!! 

Little Drummer Boy

Here is the song that was sung during offering!!

Grandma Marcia came over to craft today and my brother and parents plan on sleeping over on CHRISTmas Eve night. I am so excited!!

Here are some pictures of our Macy's walk. 

Papa and Noah ~ couldn't get flash to work :(

Me and my baby boy!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Some of our Christmas pictures!!

My little snowflake!

Christmas Time

We have been so busy here at the house since daddy came home! Noah is in love with his daddy and it is to fun to watch both of the play and interact together! Never taking a single moment for granted. We have been visiting friends and family and dealt with a leak in our sink drain. I didn't know that the washing machine pipe was connected to the drain so I have been washing the dishes with the washing machine and making things worse haha! A man came out last night to fix it and it was crazy here! Noah enjoyed the commotion.

On Friday Noah got to swim in a pool for the first time and then spent the evening with Josh's parents while we went to a friends Christmas party in Cold Spring. So nice to be able to get out with friends. The next day Noah and I spent time together while Josh went Christmas shopping and then on Sunday we went to church with my mom and had lunch with our friends Brent and Kayla and their little boy Reece. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends like them.

We made cookies the other night to send to someone special...

Daddy having fun!

Even Noah got into it!

Me unwrapping kisses...

Some of our "cookies"

Our little thumb sucker!

Happy 4 months today!

Noah loves his blue blanket, he doesn't use a pacifier but sucks on his fingers. He is almost sleeping through the night...9 hours last night!! He has been eating less often and less at a time but still is a big little boy! He is in #3 diapers already and wears 6-9 month clothes and can't get enough of daddy! He loves to say "ga" and will make an "o" with his lips and stick his tongue out the bottom. He is such  happy little 4 month old boy!

Here are some pictures of our tree!!

Today I am having a denim party at my house! I am so excited to get a new pair of jeans!!
Next Sunday we have Christmas with the Anderson's up at the in-laws and I can't wait till some of the family finally gets to meet Noah!!

Best Virginia Visit!!

I can't begin to tell you how amazing our trip to visit Elissa, Mike and the 3 boys!! So fun to have Elissa meet little Noah and watch the 4 boys interact. 

So from the beginning...our flight out was great! Delta moved the person next to me up to first class allowing me to bring the car seat on the plane and have extra space for us! Noah did well but didn't want to  sleep at all so once we got to VA he had a hard time getting a full night sleep that night. That didn't last long because once Noah woke up the boys made him real tired! So tired in fact, that every night that followed he only woke up once! So awesome! Going from up every 1.5 to 2.5 hrs a night to sleeping for 7 hours at a time. Josh and I appreciated every moment of his sleep.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were so fun. We went grocery shopping, walking along the beach, trips to target for diapers and formula etc., and all with 4 boys! Such an adventure!

(The week before we left I stopped by the doctors office to have Noah checked out for his reflux and we decided to start him on a little cereal (1 tbsp per 4 oz of liquid) and what a difference I have seen! )

Josh flew out on Thursday night and I was so excited for him to get here! And Noah loved seeing him. 

It was also so nice to spend time with Michael. It brought back such wonderful memories of high school. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family and influences in my life and Noah's. 

We all enjoyed looking on Pinterest for recipes and cooking together as well as some crafts. We also did many photo shoots of Noah (his 3 month pictures) and both families Christmas pictures.

Logan was so sweet and loving to Noah and so heart warming to see. So many kisses and hugs and tender touches. 

I was able to go to MOPS with Elissa (now I want to join one), we went to church, out to eat a bunch created so many new memories! I cant begin to explain how amazing my sister is! I am so excited for our next visit.

Our flight home was perfect...even though we woke up at 4am. Noah slept over half of the flight and was so happy to be home! But we weren't ready for the 27 degree weather - it was 80 degrees the day before we left. 

Here are some pictures of our time out there!

Family!

The little men hanging out!

Sleeping in Auntie's arms

He loved Everett splashing him

Bath time with the boys!

My stud!

Our little family!

Now we are home and cleaning our house like crazy because Joshua's family is coming over for Thanksgiving meal on Saturday. 

Happy Halloween!!

This was a very special Halloween for the Anderson family!

First Halloween in our new home...

First Halloween with our little boy...

First Halloween handing out candy...

Last Halloween together! (with Josh's job he won't be home for Halloween again)

We had no idea how many kids would come out. There are MANY kids in our neighborhood but because it was a school night we couldn't be sure, but we ended up with some candy left over!

Noah has been growing so fast lately and eating so much that we have been calling him our little monster so his costume was very fitting!!

I enjoyed watching Josh's eyes light up every time kids came to the door...

"Look Jillian" "Great costume!" "Check this one out" and on and on and on.

I know he was dreaming of our little guy dressing up and going 'trick or treating' one day.

Here are some pictures!!

Love his snarl!!

RAWR!!

What's up?

i love his little bum in his daddy's big hands!!

Morning smile!!

He was still so tired!!

3 days until Virginia!!!

So glad Daddy is home!

Seriously it is like day and night with Noah when Josh is home! He will sleep longer, eat more, cry less, etc. It is always so nice to have him home!! We have been enjoying our family time together and hanging with friends, eating good food (yes I am actually cooking), cleaning, football games, appointments, etc. 

And to make our time even more special...Josh got a promotion!! He is now a "Safety Hand" and will be in charge of 5 different rigs teaching safety and doing paperwork when people get hurt! Now he won't be in the -40/100 degree weather! He and I are very excited about this change!! So proud of my man!!

I will tell you about our experience last night...so while Josh was gone I noticed a bunch of insulation chunks and poop in the basement. I hadn't heard or seen a mouse so I wasn't very concerned. So two days ago I went out and bought 2 mouse traps (the kind of disposable traps so you don't have to see the caught mouse) I put some peanut butter in it and set it up. Josh went down stairs last night and saw the trap had caught a mouse, while carrying it up the stairs I asked how he knew there was actually a mouse in it and he showed me the tail sticking out of it. I couldn't believe it. We will now see if the second trap will catch a mouse!

I will say that I am more frightened of the spiders...a week ago I went out and bought 10 hedge balls to put around our hose after seeing 6 spiders in one day once the temperature dropped. And now I haven't seen one!! :) I am a happy momma!!

Well...I will post some halloween pictures this week!!

Happy Halloween!!

(ONE WEEK UNTIL NOAH AND I HEAD TO VIRGINIA TO SEE MY SISTER AND HER 4 BOYS!! (and josh will meet us out there))

Sleeping baby...happy mom!

Some of you may know that I have had a hard time getting Noah to sleep.

He will wake up during the night every 30 min - 1.5 hrs and it was getting harder for him to fall asleep after his nightly feedings. I wasn't getting enough sleep and I could tell Noah wasn't either. He was overly tired!

He was only taking 10 - 20 min naps during the day unless we were driving, in the stroller, on my chest (didn't always work) or in the front carrier where he would sleep 1-2 hrs. The other day he only slept 3 hours during that whole day. He was becoming more fussy...well really fussy. I couldn't get him to calm down and he wasn't eating as well (only 2oz instead of 4-5oz).

It was this vicious cycle and I felt like I was going crazy.

I called up my sister more times than I can count (so thankful for her) and would just cry and tell her how nothing was working. She would give me tons of ideas but nothing was working. She then told me about this book "Healthy Sleeping Habits, Happy Baby" and so I took a look. After talking with her more and reading the chapters that pertained to Noah's age and issues, I had a plan in mind but was very nervous to try it. My father-in-law David came down today to hang out so I could clean and get some stuff done but when he got here today I just wanted to sleep. He let me take 2.5 hr nap (I knew I would need it for tonight when I was going to try the new hints on getting him to sleep and keeping him asleep). After I woke up David and I discussed what he has done with his kids and with Noah. And I was amazed! He is a baby whisperer! I tried his hints once he left and IT WORKED! I feel like a million bucks! I was able to take a shower, do dishes, blow dry my hair, and write this blog! 

I feel so good about this and can't wait to see how tonight and the rest of the week goes until daddy comes home! 

I can't thank my family and friends enough for your support and ideas/tricks/hints, prayers etc. We are so blessed to have you all! 

I recommend this book to anyone who is pregnant right now and read it before you have your little babe because you won't always have time to read it after! Good luck ladies!!