Noah Turns Eight

Boys are so much fun.

Today is Noah's 8th birthday! Things I want to remember about Noah at 8:

1. He loves his Nintendo DS. Just got it for Christmas, and it has been his constant companion ever since.

2. Going along with #1 - Noah loves to play computer games. His top games currently are Bloons, Fish Tycoon, and Webkinz (his newest pet is a raccoon he named "Coon").

3. Noah builds the coolest Lego creations. He is very good at figuring out how to build stuff.

4. For my birthday this year, Noah gave me the best present I have ever received. He promised to give me a hug and a kiss every day. He has done pretty well keeping up with it. If he misses a day, he always makes it up the next day. :)

5. When Noah goes to bed at night, he takes inventory of his physical ailments. About ten minutes after we have turned out the light, he will come to tell us the ailment of the night. This ranges from stomach ache to long toenails to dizzy head. Usually our prescription is "go to sleep!"

6. Even though his sister Chloe is 3 years old, Noah loves to talk baby-talk to her. I think it fulfills his love of baby-talk in general. Chloe doesn't understand him any better because he does this, but it's very sweet listening to him talk to her this way. He is very gentle when speaking baby-talk.

7. Noah loves to stay at home. He does not offer to come with me when I run errands. He doesn't offer to go with his father when he runs errands either. He is content to stay home, building Legos or playing on the computer.

8. Noah loves to play soccer. He is not a big fan of basketball. He would like to play football when he gets older. He will need to grow alot before then!

9. Noah drinks milk with almost every meal. This is his preference. He constantly asks if what he is eating is healthy. He loves fruits and vegetables. When we are eating out, he will usually amaze the waiter by ordering broccoli or apples instead of fries. When we are home, he loves apples or oranges for snacks.

10. When talking on the phone, Noah paces around the house just like his father. He cannot sit still and talk on the phone.

11. Noah is smart. He does very well in school. He doesn't love handwriting, but he is doing pretty well in it anyway. His favorite and best subject is math, which isn't surprising since it runs in the family on his father's side. He memorizes verses pretty quickly too.

12. Noah hates untying his shoes to get them on. He would much rather sit on the floor and try to shove his foot into the shoe for ten minutes than take the time to untie the laces and put them on properly.

13. Noah loves to dig around in the dirt in the summer and find bugs, worms, etc. He then ransacks my stash of plastic containers and steals them for his bug collections. I don't get too upset because, after all, this is what boys are supposed to do in summer, right?

14. When putting Noah to bed, if you linger too long giving him kisses, he will kick up his legs and give you a "leg hug" - a very tight hug using his legs. I love the leg hug, but it's getting harder to extricate myself from it! Soon I won't be able to escape...but, sadly, soon he will probably stop doing the leg hug....so I will laugh and enjoy the leg hug for as long as possible.

I love you Noah! May God bless you richly as you become a man for His glory.

Noah's First Soccer Game

I am now an official "soccer mom", and I am wearing that title proudly! :) After two weeks of practice and one rained-out game, Noah finally had his first soccer game. They play 4-on-4 without a goalie. Still, Noah's team only managed to score one goal, while the other team scored lots (of course we weren't counting...but we would've been if we had been winning!)

Noah shows off his new jersey

Noah (on the right) in the action

Paul is one of the coaches, which makes it especially fun for Noah
Noah with one of his best buds, Evan

It was a fun first game! Maybe we'll score more next time!

Noah's New Grin

Noah lost his first tooth on Friday! He was biting into an apple and his tooth came right out. We didn't even know it was loose! Olivia immediately grabbed an apple and tried to get a tooth to come out, but didn't have any luck. :)

The tooth fairy was kind and gave Noah eight quarters, since Noah LOVES quarters. He was soooo excited and has had quite the day at church showing off his new grin. :)

First Day of School

When your kids are dressing up like this, you know it's time for school. :)

The first day of school was yesterday. They were both soooo excited to start. Noah is in first grade, and Olivia is in kindergarten.
Olivia and her special friend Bethany.

We celebrated with a special lunch at "the peanut place" - Logan's.

Noah Graduated!

We have a kindergarten graduate! Noah graduated on Thursday night. It was such a special evening for many reasons. Olivia was also in the program because the Pre-Kers had a part in the program. Both sets of grandparents were so sweet to travel long distances for the occasion.

The program was a mock day of kindergarten. One of the little girls in Noah's class was the teacher. They did a demonstration of the pledges, reading, math, etc.

Olivia's PK class made up the class. This picture cracks me up because of how they are crossing their hands on their hearts for the pledge. The little girl second from left has both hands crossed just to make sure she's at least doing one right. :) Olivia is in the black dress.
Noah is so serious walking down the aisle to "Pomp and Circumstance".
This was taken right after Noah received his diploma and his teacher moved his tassle.
So happy!
Noah and CarmenNoah, Evan, Jadon
Noah and Rachel (the girl he's going to marry, so he says!)
Noah and the grands

We were so excited for him!

Celebrating with ice cream and cookies

Praise God!

We praise the Lord that Noah accepted Christ as his Savior today! At lunch we were all talking about what we had learned in Sunday school, and we were discussing what Easter means. The conversation led around to salvation and I said to Noah, "Maybe someday you'll want to be saved." I have said this to him in the past, and he usually says "Maybe someday Mom." We have never tried to push salvation with him. But today he said "I want to do it today!" So we said "How do you get saved?" And he replied "You pray to God." We said "What do you say?" And he proceeded to tell us exactly what you should say and what you need to believe. Paul and I looked at each other and said "He's ready!" So Daddy got to lead Noah in taking this important step - how special!

Noah was so excited about getting saved. We wrote the date in his Bible (which is what he's holding in the picture below), and he called both sets of grandparents to tell them the good news right away.

Olivia was so excited for Noah too. :) She leaned over to Paul during church tonight and whispered "I'm SO GLAD Noah got saved today!"

We feel so blessed that God answered our prayer today by saving Noah. Our prayer for the future is that our girls will also be saved and that our children will glorify God with their lives.

Noah is Six!

Noah turned six years old on Thursday! He was so excited to go to school and get all the special privileges that come with having a birthday. :)

On Friday we had his very first "friends" birthday party. He had nine friends (including his sister!) come to the bowling alley for a few hours of fun. Paul and I had so much fun watching the kids bowl. They got SO excited for each other and were chanting each other's names when it was their turn. It was a great group of kids and LOTS of excitement!

Fish and Giraffes Beware!

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Costumes and Candy

Last night we went to church for Family Fun Night. The AWANA directors offer this carnival every year on the Wednesday that is closest to Halloween, so this year it fell on Halloween. The kids get to play carnival-like games and win candy and prizes. They also have a contest for costumes, which have to be Bible-based.

Chloe was a frog - one of the Egyptian plagues.

A pretty good frog pose!
Olivia is into everything princess, so she was disappointed when she found out she was going to be a queen...Queen Esther. Then she started liking it and told everyone she was "Queen Esto".

Noah's costume was made about 30 minutes before we had to leave for the carnival. He is Paul in prison (see the ball and chain?), and he won third place for his outfit! (in his age bracket)

Noah was pretty good at this game.

Olivia just LOVED her butterfly hand.

Olivia and her friend Michael

Is she peeking?

By the end of the night my camera was sticky from all the little fingers touching it, so this picture is a little fuzzy. But I thought these costumes were pretty good - salt and light is on the left, Moses is in the middle and another Queen Esther on the right.

The View from a Cow Wagon

I joined Noah and Olivia today for a field trip to the pumpkin patch. We were able to see lots of animals (even feed some), walk through a corn maze, ride on a cow wagon, and pick a pumpkin from the patch.

This is what they call the "cow wagon", which is hooked up to a tractor. They give you a little ride around the patch. During our little ride, the heavens opened up and dumped buckets of rain on us.

Noah and Olivia getting ready to pet a few animals.
A bunny!
Livi had to get her feather in this picture, which is one she found after chasing a rooster around. Not the most sanitary of souvenirs, I know.

The Abominable Bubble-Kids

Nothing could be better than being up to your neck in bubbles!

This worked well the other night when we couldn't think of anything else to do until bedtime. :)

Noah

The other evening at dinner we were teaching the game 20 Questions to Noah and Olivia. We were asking Noah questions to figure out what he was thinking about.

Paul says "Is it in the house?"

Noah: "Yes".

Paul: "Can we see it right now?"

Noah: "Well, can you see the vacuum?"

Here's a video of some fun on the trampoline.

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And So It Begins

Today was the first day of school! I feel a little sentimental. We had such a great summer, and now it's at an end. But I am very grateful to God that we have a wonderful Christian school to send the kids to, and they have fantastic teachers this year.

Noah is entering kindergarten.

Olivia is in Pre-K.
Noah enjoyed the playground before school started.
Olivia knew where to hang her backpack.
We celebrated at Logan's afterwards.

Livi is content to eat only peanuts for lunch.

(But Mommy doesn't agree!)