Sorry for the delay!

Apologies for not getting an update out sooner this week. Time seems to be disappearing quickly for us these days. There always seems to be something else to do - and with the heat here getting it done while it is still manageable to be outside makes for a challenge.

Last week was had some excitement with the weather around here. Hurricane Dolly hit south Texas on Wednesday. We didn't get much of it other than rain for 2 days. I managed to get a cool morning picture of one of the rain bands heading into town. It made for much cooler temperatures here last week. It was pretty nice.

This weekend we took the opportunity to do some house upgrades, more focused around Noah than anything. Uncle Scotty moved out recently and we did some bathroom upgrades for Noah. Noah now has a fish themed bathroom for him to take a bath in, complete with a fish nozzle on the bath spout, a bath mat to sit on in the tub, new shower curtain and bath mat to stand on out of the shower. He was pretty happy with the new digs for him.

We also noticed that some of his clothes were getting a bit small for him recently. His uniforms that he wears to his school/daycare are 3T/4T just because the 2Ts are way too small on him - so that wasn't the issue. But he normally wears 2T clothes. His pajamas and clothes that he would wear on the weekend were seeming to be a bit small. We decided to test out our theory that he needed 3T clothes. Well, we were right! We bought several sets of 3T clothes/pajamas for him. And wouldn't you know - they fit him and are actually a tad bigger on him, like kids clothes should be.

What a busy weekend...

I guess our weekend didn't start out that busy, it just seemed to pick up on Sunday. Actually, I was able to get together with one of my best friends and her mom and kids this week. Shanda and her two kids (Cody and Adri) came to Houston to visit her mom - they live about 2 miles away from us. I picked up Noah early from school/daycare on Wednesday and we all went to the Children's Museum since I can get up to 6 people in for free. It was quite fun. Noah played in the toddler area for about 45 minutes and then we walked around the rest of the museum. He loved the grocery and fishing area.

Travis got a raise at work. That was pretty awesome and unexpected. And his boss appparently mentioned something kind of cryptic about better things to come. We can't wait to hear more about that! Oh, and on a nerdy note - Travis bought a Roomba. Right now it's having it's go in the master bedroom/bathroom/closet area. He's been trying to talk me into getting one for at least a year now, I finally gave in today when we were out shopping. I know, I'm weak. I just hope it does what it says it's supposed to.


As I said above, Sunday was busy. We had someone come over and take the futon that has been sitting in Noah's room for almost 2 years. We didn't need it anymore and we really needed the room more for his stuff (toys, bib boy bed eventually, etc). After they came we went to Costco and spend a sizeable amount for food and such, but we should need anything for the next two months except for your breads and other type stuff. Since there was more room down in Noah's room we moved the majority of his stuff down to his room so we can reclaim most of the living room again. We have more cleaning to do tonight but it is nice to have the living room not look like Toys'r'us threw up all over it. :)

Happy Monday!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Grandma (Alison's mom) came over Saturday and spent the night until Sunday evening. Noah got a huge kick out of that. "Nanaw" or "Nana" as Noah has dubbed her brought him some new little toys - Wooden block letters and a little card game that introduces pictures with their sounds. Noah has been in the habit of repeating words that we say and ask him to, so this was perfect timing for these things. I know people say it all the time but it is just insane how fast they grow and adapt to new things. Noah now wants to help with everything going on, especially if it is in the kitchen. :-) Gives us some ideas for what Santa can bring in a few months to him. There is a children kitchen set at his school in his room and when they have down time or free play time, he is usually there playing with the plastic food or the plates or the fake sink. I think he is going to be a little chef like his daddy is. :)

On a technology note - Travis and I both got the new 3G iPhone on Friday. Wait time wasn't terrible, we had to activate them at home on our own, but all in all we are pretty happy with our purchases. I know my phone was aching to be put out of it's misery with it being 4 years old and all. I haven't fully explored every feature on the phone yet but I will get there eventually.

Let's try this again...

Some time back we attempted to have an online journal to update family and friends on how Noah and the family was doing. Well, that wasn't kept up as well as we would have liked. So, here we are attempting this one more time. There is so much going on right now and rather than send everyone an email constantly, we figured - let's try this journal thing again.

Updates:
Noah just celebrated his 16 month birthday on July 1st. He weighs about 26 lbs and is about 33 inches tall. This keeps him in the top percentiles of the charts. He's going to outgrow us in no time. :) He is doing incredible. He runs all over the place, he is especially curious about everything, he is repeating alot of what we say. He is great at following directions most of the time "Bring that here. Put that up." etc...He is enjoying his school (he goes to a Montessori school) very much. He goes every weekday and is quite the little student. Attached are a couple of pictures of Noah, one of him in his swim trunks on Splash day at school, another with mommy.

BIG Update:

For those of you who do not know, Noah will be a big brother come the end of September of this year. We were initially planning on waiting, at least another 6 months or so, but apparently that was not meant to be. This pregnancy has been much different than the last one. But, hey, aren't they ALL different! We have been able to see this baby multiple times - we have had 5 ultrasounds so far. And we have confirmed at least 3 times that it is a GIRL! Before you ask, we aren't giving away the name. Same rules apply as last time :-) Everyone finds out at the same time. Although we may play a little game towards the end to have people guess. We are trying to introduce Noah to the idea of having a little sister. When I read to Noah at night before bedtime (we alternate), Noah will sit on my lap and "read" to sister and then hug and kiss the belly and say "nite-nite".

So, those are the big highlights going on in our life right now. Work is fine for both of us, nothing special. We are just doing the usual day by day thing waiting for "little sister" to get here. I will do my best to have at least one update a week. Maybe Travis will even make a surprise update or two!

-Alison