Happy birthday, Noah!

Noah's new rocking/bouncing horse (for some reason the blog wouldn't let me drag this picture to the bottom with the rest!)

I truly cannot believe it has been a year since we were blessed with the arrival of our 2nd sweet baby, Noah! It has been a crazy, amazing year :) We had a blast celebrating his birthday today. First thing this morning we went to this place in Lexington called Monkey Joes. Monkey Joes is a place for kids that is full of inflatable play areas - big slides, bouncy houses, and pretty much anything inflatable you could possibly imagine! We met one of my friends, Caroline, and her little boy, Christian who is Kaden's age. Noah isn't quite big enough to go on the big slides, but they do have an area designed for kids 0-3, and he did play in there a good bit! Kaden took to the big bouncy structures like a fish to water! I thought he might be a little reserved, but I was wrong! We had to drag him out of there, and all he has talked about for the rest of the day is going back to Monkey Joes!

After 2.5 hours at Monkey Joes, we all came home and crashed! When naps were done and Noah was refreshed, we ate cake and Noah opened his present from us. He wasn't too sure about the cake. Unlike Kaden and me, Noah just doesn't seem to have a big sweet tooth... he must take after his daddy in that aspect :) We gave him a really cute rocking horse that Patrick so kindly assembled (with a lot of pint-sized help), and both boys enjoyed rocking and bouncing on it. We had a wonderful day celebrating Noah's life so far and are really looking forward to Kaden's birthday next week and the joint party on the 28th. Take care, and enjoy the pictures!

I took this picture at 7:16 a.m. because this was the minute Noah was born last year. He was exactly one year old when I took this one!

Kaden playing at Monkey Joes

Noah at Monkey Joes - check out that precious birthday shirt!

Not sure about this cake!

Opening his first ever birthday gift

Snow day!

Well, I didn't believe it would happen, but we actually got close to 7 INCHES of snow here in Chapin!!! It was absolutely gorgeous to watch it fall all night, and it was a blast to go out and play in. Kaden loved it so much, and every morning when he wakes up, he goes and looks out the window to see if it has snowed again! Noah isn't really old enough to appreciate it yet, and since he's not walking it was hard for him to enjoy it all. Maybe next year :) I'll include some pictures of our snow day!

Also... we are gearing up for two birthdays this month! Noah's first birthday is coming up in only two days, and Kaden will turn three on the 27th! We are having a joint birthday party at the end of the month for both of them, and we're really looking forward to getting to celebrate with family and friends. Hopefully I'll have time to post again soon! Noah and Daddy on Friday while the snow was falling

Kaden enjoying the first layer of snow

Me and the boys

Kaden and our neighbor Ashton riding on their sled!

Eating his first icicle!

Noah eating a snack while we build a snowman

The snowman we made with our neighbors!

The HUGE snowman our neighbors across the street built!

Happy New Year!

Just wanted to pop in to wish everyone a Happy New Year! We also hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We had a great time over the holidays and have lots of pictures to share. Enjoy!

Family Christmas at the Cowles

Feeding Santa's reindeer on Christmas Eve

Santa was good to the boys!

Christmas at Mimi-mama's house

Kaden dancing to music on a Christmas movie

Noah trying eggnog (non-alcoholic, of course)

The boys playing with their kitchen back at home on Christmas night

Christmas is here!

I want to start off by saying that I'm sincerely sorry for being so slack in updating this thing! It's just that usually when I have time to sit down at the computer, I don't want to have to do anything that requires a lot of thought, and I like for these blog posts to be meaningful yet concise. Anyhow, we have been very busy since my last post in October and there is some catching up to do!

I'll start with Noah. He is 10 months old and now a crawler! He has really started picking up speed over the last two weeks and is even pulling up and cruising around the furniture. It is adorable but definitely making more work for me! He has three teeth now and another one coming through on top. He refuses to eat baby food anymore, so we are having to be creative with his meals. He loves yogurt, toast, and Easy Mac so I try to incorporate those as much as I can. When I took him for his 9 month checkup his weight was only in the 5th percentile, so his pediatrician has really stressed the importance of fattening him up. Otherwise, he is a happy healthy boy who is just a joy to be around :)

Kaden is doing well too! He is such a talker now and constantly walks around the house singing and talking. He is currently on Christmas break from preschool, so we have been keeping busy by getting things ready for Christmas! We went to a gingerbread house party over the weekend at my aunt's house, and Kaden did a fabulous job decorating his house! We also had his preschool Christmas program last week, and I was so proud of him for getting up in front of all the parents and family members to sing songs with his class. Yesterday, we took him and Noah to get some Christmas pictures taken at the Picture People in the mall, and Kaden was such a good listener. (We got some great shots of both boys, and I will post some as soon as I get them on my email.) He definitely has his "terrible two" moments, but I know it's just part of him growing up and exerting his independence, so we are taking it in stride and just trying hard to be patient with him.

We have a busy few days ahead of us with our family Christmas get-together, my mom's Christmas Eve drop-in, and Christmas day. From our family to yours, we hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! If I don't get around to posting before New Years, we hope you have a Happy New Year too!

Kaden and Bobo on Thanksgiving

Kaden helping put up the tree

At the gingerbread house party

Opening presents from Patrick's parents

My crawling boy!

Kaden and mommy after the preschool program

We love October!

I can't believe we are already halfway through October! We have been doing lots of fun stuff to celebrate Fall. This past Friday, we went to Boo at the Zoo; basically, this is an event held at the zoo for kids where they can come trick-or-treat at the zoo. It gave them a chance to wear their costumes, get candy, and see some of the animals.! We had such a blast :) Kaden is being a fireman and Noah is being a little lion. Both of the boys' costumes are adorable, and Noah was the star of the zoo on Friday. Everybody commented on how adorable his costume is, and one woman even took a picture of her little girl with Noah. We are so proud of our adorable babies and had a great time at the zoo.

Saturday, my parents watched the boys so Patrick and I could go out and celebrate our anniversary! Our third anniversary was on October 14, but Patrick had to work so we celebrated over the weekend. We have been through SO much (good and bad - mostly good) over these last three years but we are so thankful for all the blessing we have been given and look forward to all the anniversaries ahead of us :)

Sunday night we braved the cold to go to the fair. Both boys loved the lights, sounds, and animals. Kaden was still a little too young to ride the rides, but he sure loved munching on corndogs, french fries, and elephant ears! He also won his first ever prize playing a fair game! We had a good time even though we almost froze to death!

Just a few other updates.... Kaden is now in the swing of things at preschool! We no longer have tears at drop-off. He really doesn't even notice when I leave, and he actually cries sometimes when I pick him up. It is so awesome to hear him come home talking about all his friends and the fun things they do at preschool. I feel so much better about our choice to enroll him :) As for Noah, he is 8 months old now! He is sitting up and talking up a storm! He is such a curious boy and is fascinated with pretty much anything Kaden does (which sometimes drives Kaden crazy!). He is starting to scoot around the floor, so I have a feeling he'll be crawling in the next few weeks. Both boys are such a joy and we love being able to do so much fun stuff with them!