Christmas 2009

Wow. These pictures are out of order and they don't want to move around for me today. So, I guess I'll be putting captions on all the pictures this time!

Well, this first picture is some of the goods I got on December 26th- AFTER CHRISTMAS SALES! $$$$ cha-ching!

I had so much fun waking up at 6:30 and going around to all the stores looking for Christmas discounts. I'm especially stoked for how my Christmas tree is going to look next year because I finally was able to buy all the ornaments/decor that I wanted. Everything was a minimum of 50% off. Noah was pretty happy about my purchases- now if only Jared felt the same! (*nervous laughter*)

This picture shows Noah pretty soon after we finished unwrapping presents at our house. Took the energy right out of him! Opening presents is hard work.

Here is the present aftermath at our house. One of my favorite presents this year is the print sitting on the couch that we now have framed and hanging up. It's a picture of Jesus with a little boy walking beside him. Noah loves the picture and always points to and says, "Jesus." Then we ask him, "Where's Noah?" and Noah points to the little boy walking beside Jesus. It's precious. Great gift Mom and Dad- thank you!

This next picture was taken at my inlaws. We went over there in the afternoon and stayed until about 10 pm with all of Jared's family. We got some good presents over there! I got a workout outfit, earrings, and an awesome wallet. Noah got shoes, a book, a stick horsey, and a cute elephant outfit with matching hoodie. Jared got the Andrea Boccelli (sp?) christmas CD and electric clippers for what hair he does have! lol. Thanks Ron and Susie!!!

Here's Noah, taking everything in.

This pic is from our house, Christmas morning. Most of those presents under the tree are toys for Noah that Jared scored from work. The huge red one is the present Jared and I bought ourselves on Black Friday. It's the HP desktop that I am typing from as we speak. We LOVE it. We also discovered that we can now watch movies online from Netflix b/c we finally have a fast enough connection/good enough computer. So, we've been moving one of our couches into the office and watching tons of movies. Yes, the quality of our life has definietely gone up, yet again.

Here are two more after Christmas purchases that I made from Kohls. The Cookies for Santa plate only cost $3.80. The cute WISH decoration: $7.50. Both were 75% off! Love it!

I have to forewarn you that Noah is going to look like a zombie in these next few pictures. Anyways, here he is looking at one of his Santa presents. Nice, a talking vacuum!

Presents! Thank you Santa!

This one just makes me laugh.

Noah experienced his first snow on Christmas morning. Don't laugh friends from Montana and Utah. I realize you can still see blades of grass coming up from underneath the snow.

Noah's enjoying a little Christmas breakfast.

Sorry again that all the pictures are out of order. I do not think that blogger is very user friendly, but then again, maybe that is just me.

Enjoy your New Year's Eve and Day! I'll post again soon- I want to recap the year 2009. And let's be honest, I just love using my new computer.

Love,

Court

Merry Christmas!!!

Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season.

Love,
Jared, Courtney, and Noah

A Southern Thanksgiving

Jared and I drove to Memphis for Thanksgiving weekend, as I mentioned earlier. Thanksgiving Day actually took place in a small town called Booneville, Mississippi. We ate with all of Jared's relatives on his mom's side.

This was the first year I discovered a TRUE Southern Thanksgiving. Last year was pretty close, but this year was ALL OUT Southern!!! Keep in mind, that like most of you, I am used to a traditional turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie type meal.

Behold, a southern Thanksgiving feast: ( I better put labels on some of these things)

Of course, there was a turkey.

& Collard Greens

& Sweet Potato Casserole

& Black Eyed Peas

& Cornbread Stuffing

& Macaroni and Cheese

& Green Beans, southern style (add grease)

& Pecan Pie

Absent: Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Pumpkin Pie, Green Bean Casserole, Jello Salads

It wasn't what I'm used to, but it really was a great experience that I'm thankful I had!!!

Have any of you experienced a Thanksgiving like this?

So Festive!

My friend, Melissa, had the BEST idea to start a blog, SO FESTIVE! to give ideas on how to make the holidays more festive, more memorable, and more fun. She has some great ideas on there and encourages readers to submit ideas. She spotlighted one of my ideas today and will again tomorrow. Check out the website---hopefully you can glean some new ideas/traditions for your families!

Love, Court

Let's hear it for the 100th post!!!

Friends, family, acquaintances...

This post makes 100 for me.

I do have to say, I am pretty proud of myself for keeping up with this blog---When I started, I have to admit, I caved to peer pressure. Now I see it as a way of journaling for our family and providing easy updates for those we don't see very often. Plus, I'm not going to lie, your comments are a good self esteem boost for a words of affirmation person like me!

So, I do have some catching up to do, but this post is to say THANK YOU for reading the blog and caring enough about our lives to do so. Here are a few pictures of the star of the show,

The little mister Noah

A Taste of Memphis

Like last year for Thanksgiving, we found ourselves in Memphis, celebrating the holiday with Jared's side of the family. The Thanksgiving meal itself deserves its own separate blogpost and so does Graceland. However, due to lack of time, I've thrown in a few pictures from the weekend. We had a GREAT time!!!

Here's Jared and I at Graceland. This was Jared's 4th visit (someone loves Elvis!) It's actually pretty expensive (I thought) so this will probably be my first and only visit. It was neat though!


Here we are on Beale Street. Jared and I just walked around after visiting Graceland. It was a fun & free date...the best kind!

Here's a snapshot from the park where Noah met up with all of his cousins and his great grandma Gorden.

Other than Thanksgiving, Graceland, Beale Street, and the park, we had fun relaxing, watching movies & spending time with family (all of Jared's brothers and sisters drove up with us---and we all stayed in the same house. It was something like 21 people in one house. Yes, it was crazy!) We also went out to dinner at my favorite BBQ place, Corkys, went shopping, and out to eat some more. Jared and I participated in the madness known as BLACK FRIDAY and scored a computer at a GREAT bargain! It was so fun- we loved it (this was the first time I've ever woken up early for it). You can't beat saving 400 dollars on something you were going to buy anyways!

More pictures and stories to come- check back soon! :)

Project Grow!

Just an update:
I went to the pediatric dietician today and Noah is getting started on some fancy schmancy stuff to help him grow.
3 different prescriptions that I can't spell.
1 is a vitamin drop
1 is liquid that will make him more hungry
1 is a case of formula/carbs to be added to his milk everytime he has a bottle

For now, Noah will get all his calories from his bottles and all the food he eats is bonus.

I learned that when you weigh 17 lbs, you need 800 calories to maintain your weight. I also learned that Noah lost 4 ounces since his last visit.

I asked myself today why I even want my little buddy to gain weight so urgently. He's easy to carry around and captures everyone's attention being so petite and small. But Jared reminded me that he did not love being called "shrimp" and "little fry" when he was in elementary school. I do not want adorable sweet Noah to be picked on in school.
There's lots of reasons why he should gain weight, but that is my motivator.

I'll keep you updated on how the new diet goes.

Mini Man

We went to the doctor this morning for Noah's 15 month check up. We ended up being there for 2 1/2 hours. He had to catch up on some shots and get some blood work done, but mostly we just talked about his weight.
At almost 16 months, he weighs in at 17.4 lbs. He's not really even close to being on the growth chart.
He is 29 inches long. 3rd percentile.
On the bright side, his head is 17th percentile! So at least the man has some good brains!
We met with a pediatric dietican today and are going back next week. I have to do a food diary for 4 days. Hopefully I will get some new tips that I haven't already tried to get him to eat.
"Mini Man" is the nickname the doctor's office gave Noah today.



Here is a picture of Noah, with his friend Bennett. They are only a week apart.


Here's Noah with Bennett and Ian.

I know this picture is a bit sad, but I had to post it so you could see how little he really is.

Small, but Happy!

On a positive note, Noah is exceeding milestones when it comes to motor skills. Must be that big brain! :)

Halloween Fun

Before I get started blogging, I first have to ask if any of you have problems uploading pictures to your blog? It has taken me about 5 tries to get these few pictures uploaded. Pretty much everytime I try to upload pictures, it never works the first time- it says the internet connection doesn't work or something untrue. I am NOT tech savy so any technical advice will be very welcome.

Ok, now on to a preview of our Halloween this year. We had a ton of fun! The first 2 pictures are from a party that Jared and I went to. He was a shepherd and I was his little sheep. The costume came together in about 15 minutes with me pulling a coat that I have inside out and then sewing on some black felt ears. I wore socks on my hands, black pants and black slippers and painted black on my nose. WALA- a cheap sheep! :)
Jared refused to wear the awesome wig I borrowed for him. He only wore it for the 5 seconds that it took to take the second picture. He is such a Halloween scrooge. He does not understand why I LOVE Halloween! Maybe you should leave some good comments for him telling him how GREAT the holiday is!!!

On Halloween day, we got all the nieces and nephews together for trick or treating. Noah made it to about 15 houses before he got tired. We LOVE having family close and can't wait for Caleb and Becca to move here with their little guy, Jack next month!

After trick or treating, we all came back to our house and had chili, chips and bean dip, cinnamon rolls, mulled cider, and homemade pumpkin pie. It was AWESOME!

Noah was (obviously) a turtle this year. He pulled it off great. People couldn't believe such a little turtle boy was walking around. People just love Noah. He's so awesome!

We also went to our ward Halloween Party, which was super fun. It was a chili cookoff with homemade pies. Then, we had trunk or treat and pictures and games and a fun maze. I had some pictures of it, however evil BLOGGER will not cooperate with me on putting them up. This is the only one that came up. Ahhh, Noah!

Hope you guys had a great holiday too. Can't wait for THANKSGIVING!

Birthday!!!

I blogged about Chicago, which came the weekend following my birthday, but I didn't get to blog yet about my actual big day! The day turned out perfect, thanks to some great friends.

Here's what I woke up to:

What a fun birthday surprise! Warm muffins and hearts on your doorstep. Noah and I enjoyed them very much! (Thank You Julie)

Then, Jared took me to lunch at Olive Garden, where we had my favorite soup and salad.

Next, I had a little break until dinner at Las Palmas. Two of my favorite people took me here:

Julie & Andrea

We had a lot of fun. Noah got a little scared during the birthday singing.

Anyone who really knows me knows what a classic birthday shot this of me. Courtney in a sombrero eating Mexican food. Of course!

Later, at my house, Julie went to town decorating everything in my two favorite colors, green and purple. We had some people come over for cake and ice cream and just talked.

Julie made me my favorite cake: funfetti! And it was delicious. She even filled it with buttercream. Fancy smancy!

Wow, that's a lot of smoke!

I LOVE birthdays! Thank You to everyone who called and texted and emailed and mailed cards and gave presents and came over and made me feel so wonderful on October 13th!!!