Noah's many faces

Noah has been in our lives for a month now. Can you believe it? This little guy has been a great addition to our family. He is a pretty good sleeper, eater, and pooper. He is a pretty content baby, if he has been changed and fed. So many people ask me if I am exhausted from having a newborn again. My reply is usually "Not Really, it's having 4 kids 5 and under". It's the other kids that are wearing me out. It doesn't help that Nicholas has been on track break since Noah was born.

I took Noah in for his one month check up and this kid is getting chubby! Three weeks ago he was 8 lbs 8 oz(he had lost a little bit from birth) and today he was 10lbs 11oz and 22.5 inches. I have a feeling this kid will be my biggest and tallest kid. His arms are so long that he has pretty much outgrown 3 month shirts. We love having him around. He is still a serious baby and has many faces. I think he just likes to show off his big lips. Don't you just want to kiss them?
Here's his cute face:

His flaring nostrils face(this is a Zockoll thing):

His drunk face he gets after he eats:

And his big lip face-seriously look at that bottom lip!

Christmas Day

Christmas at our house was perfect! The kids even slept in until 7(yes that's sleeping in for my kids). It's tradition to make them line up youngest to oldest and then they all walk into the room where Santa left his gifts. We always do stockings first:
Parker loved his big Spider man that Santa left him
Nicholas got the bow and arrow he asked for
Sammy got a dollhouse that Santa found a great deal on at a garage sale
All Parker really wanted to do was eat his candy, he really didn't care about the presents
Each kid got a dress up costume that I got at Targets Halloween clearance. This will definitely be something I will do every year. They loved them and they were $3! Sammy the bride
Parker was completely obsessed with his
Nicholas loved his too


and Noah did this the whole time in our room. He slept 8 hours straight that night and still was out like this
Then I made Ebelskivers. Luke grew up having them every Christmas morning and so we have carried on that tradition. We love it and they are so yummy!
Then Noah woke up and opened up his presents
after all was said and done everyone was happy!

Merry Christmas

We just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We wish we could have sent out a bunch of these, hopefully next year! We also decided to combine this as Noah's birth announcement. Enjoy!

FINALLY!!!

The kids have been waiting for our leaves to fall for a very long time. Vegas is a little behind when it comes to the Fall. Finally the day came and the kids had a blast. It's amazing how the simplest things makes kids happy. We didn't even have that many leaves fall.

In action

Sorry Sammy!

December fun

I grew up in a neighborhood where every year they do a Christmas party. 5 houses host some kind of activity or food. It's so much fun and you can either walk it or let the horse carriage take you. My kids love it and get excited for it ever year. This year the 5 houses did: a craft, popcorn and hot dogs, sub sandwiches, hot chocolate, and cookie decorating. Santa was also there. This was the best Santa I have ever seen. Click on my picture to enlarge it and see for yourself. To me most Santa's are creepy, but this one was awesome! Sammy was still a little hesitant and would only get on the very end of the picture.

The boys riding the horse carriage
Sammy enjoying her popcorn
Parker LOVING his Hot dog!
Uncle Andrew and Nicholas with a mouthful of food.

Our girl is 4

Today our girl Samantha turns 4. We are so glad she is in our family. I asked her what kind of party she wanted she of course said a Princess Party. She basically wanted the same exact party she had last year. That made it so much easier for me. All the girls dressed up as Princesses, then we painted their nails, played pin the tiara on the princess, and last they played musical princess chairs. She had so much fun, she had the biggest smile the entire party. Here are a few things we love about Samantha:

-she is great 2nd mom to Noah. She can put him to sleep better than me
-she loves to sing and actually has a pretty good voice
-it takes her a while to warm up to people but once she does she is quite the silly girl
-she loves to go clothes shopping with grandma Z
-she is definitely a daddy's girl
-but she wants her mom when she gets hurt :)

all the princesses together
Her wonderful cake that mom made
Sammy getting very to open her presents
playing musical chairs, they LOVED this game!

Winter Recital

Sammy had her winter dance recital last night. It was so cute and very low key. They had 2 dance numbers. The first one was to The Doodlebops and the second one was to Santa Clause is Coming to Town. She did great in both of them. Dance has been great for Sammy. She can be a bit on the shy side and I feel like it has really helped her to be more confident. I didn't get too many good pictures of her dancing because the lighting was awful there and really made my pictures dark.

Thirty

I turned 30 on Thursday. How in the world did I become 30? My day was just like any normal day. What was I supposed to do with a 2 week old and no money? It kind of limits things a little. I don't think Noah got the memo that it was my birthday because he had a pretty rough night. Although I do have greats friends. One brought me a plate of her famous cookies and a 12 pack of Diet Coke and the other took me to Cafe Rio. Luke and I will be celebrating next week when we have our babysitting swap. When Luke asked what I wanted I said all I wanted was to go and do errands without any kids. It was so nice and I got a lot done. So just for documentation I had to prove that really all I did was sit in my sweats:

and cuddle with this cutie:

and have a little bubbly toast with this handsome guy:

after the toast I went to bed, it was 9:30. The 30's rock! :)

Noah's 1st week

Noah's first week has been pretty good. Overall he is a great baby. Yeah, I realize it's only been week and a lot can change but I am taking it week by week. I think it's the only way I won't go insane. He pretty much eats, sleeps, and occasionally opens up one eye. He loves to be swaddled very very tight, and poops ALL the time. I swear I don't remember my other kids pooping this much. So this is pretty much how he spends his days and nights:

Swaddled
He also loves to give me silly faces every time I take a picture. I love this one because it shows his big lips, flaring nostrils and his eyes are pretty much closed. We rarely see his eyes.

Also you can find Sammy by his side all day long. She loves helping me and is very protective of him and me. She tells me to cover up when I am nursing so no one sees me.

I saw this the other night and had to take a picture. They love to watch him sleep.

We love having Noah in our family. Our family finally feels complete.