November 2007

Well, I have a little catching up to do. I truly do want to keep this as a record of the things going on in our lives but I have not been very good at that. So the next few posts will be my attempt to catch up from November 2007 to Feburary 2008.

November was a good month for us. I can't not remember the little details, which is the whole reason I started this blog, so I will mostly talk about Thanksgiving.

I enjoy Thanksgiving so much because God has blessed Brian and I by having families that get along. Every year for the last 5 or 6 years we have had Thanksgiving at our house. My mom and sis come and Brian's mom, dad, brother and sister and now her husband come. It is great!!! I get up early and cook all day long, which is something I love to do. It is a very normal day even with all family members present. This year was just as wonderful even though we missed Chris, he was with his fiance for her birthday. There was not much out of the ordinary this year except a little snow. Our Thanksgivings are usually not very ordinary they have included my mom's coworkers from Germany, another included her friends from Africa, and one year we had a reenactment of the first Thanksgiving. Half of our family are true Native Americans and they wore homemade headdresses thankfully no pilgrim apperal was worn. (I tried to find the picture but that was before our digital camera but if you come over the picture is still on the fridge.) But this year Thanksgiving was quite subdued. Noah enjoyed all the fixings but was not crazy about the snow.
(I apparently do not have any of the photos of us in the snow so if my mother-in-law or sis-in-law read this send them to me so I can add them to this post.) I will include some of the photos from the Friday after Thanksgiving (if I can get it to work). Noah, Brian, and his family went to the Gaylord Texan. I did not I was rocking out at the Kelly Clarkson concert with my sister.

Anyways, I am hoping to catch up on December tomorrow.

The First, Not So Good, Expensive Haircut

Before I get started with the haircut blog I need to apologize to my faithful blog readers. I am sorry that I have been HORRIBLE about blogging. I am not sure I really have an excuse as to why I have not blogged. I would like to pretend that I have some awesome story of how crazy things have been and that is why I have not blogged but, the truth of the matter is that I am lazy. Nothing interesting nothing fantastic I just have not made myself sit down and blog. This is also the reason I have only scrapbooked Noah's first month of life and he is soon to be 18 months.

First Haircut
Okay, so way back in November right before Thanksgiving I finally decided it was time to cut Noah's hair. His bangs were in his eyes and I did not want Thanksgiving pictures with his hair like that.

Here is the before picture:

I called Cool Cuts for Kids and made an appointment. I called them one because it is right by Brian's work and two I thought as the name of the store states it would be cool. It was pretty neat. They had lots of toys for kids to play with and the chair they sat Noah in was a taxi cab. He really did not mind the hair cut at all. He was very excited to be in a car but his did not have a steering wheel and the one next to him did. I was very impressed that there was no crying and only a little bit of moving.

Happy in my car =)

Holding real still for the scissors.

Being very still.

So happy especially since it is all over.

Not So Good Haircut

About an hour after we got home Brian said "Noah's hair looks funny". I didn't really pay any attention to that statement. The next day while Noah was playing I said "I think his bangs are uneven". Upon further inspection by the two of us (and why it took us especially me so long to notice I am not sure) his haircut was not so good. I know it must be hard to cut a one year old's hair but I got it cut to look good in pictures and now it was going to be even worse.

Expensive Haircut

WOW!! Never once did I ask what the haircut would cost because never once did I think it would be over $10.00 dollars. First, let me say that all they did was trim his bangs and trim the back of his hair. I do not even consider this a haircut really. It cost us $20.00 dollars. Yes, you read it correctly we paid $20.00 for Noah to get a trim. The cost of the haircut became even more painful once we realized that is was not so good. I did wait a while before telling Brian the cost of the haircut because, I knew he would not be happy and I was right. So, to appease him I said now I know why Amber cuts every one's hair herself. To which Brian replied, "Can she teach you how?"

MUD RUN!!

Mud Run 2007 has come and gone with another great experience. This is my third time running in the annual Marine Mud Run 10k. This is a 6.2mile "boot-camp" style race that involves 15+ obstacles that ALL involve either mud/water or both. This event continues to grow, and this year was over 2,000 runners. The event is to raise money for "Toys For Tots." Our team this year was "2 Fast 2 Furious". Funny, we were neither too fast or too furious, but we had fun. We were a co-ed team of five, 3 guys/2 girls...tuff girls. The picture below is of four of us at my house before the race...nice and clean!

The race began around 9:15 for the co-ed division, and prior to earlier thought, the weather was perfect. No frost bite this year! My plan was simple at the beginning. The "Fox 4" news crew was participating and would be followed by cameras. My school of thought was to take out Steve Eager (nightly news anchor); this would surely land us on the 9:00 news. Well, my teammates found that to be in poor sport. You win this time Eager!

Roughly 3/4 mile into the race, Ashley (my soon to be sister-in-law) developed blisters on both heels. She was a trooper and fought through it. Here she is faking a smile with my brother:

We ventured through tunnels, climbed over nets, bear-crawled in 20yd mud/water pits, etc. We started the race together, and we crossed the finish line together. Chantelle and Noah were cheering us on at the finish line. Noah, even though we were covered in mud, was eager to hand-out kisses to the team.

People ask (including my lovely wife), "And you paid for this?" Yes. We had a blast, and except for Ashley, our one wounded runner, will all return next year. Actually, there is going to be a Spring edition, so I reckon' will run then.

Overall, 2 Fast 2 Furious had a great time! Newcomers: Ashley, Stephanie, and Jared all did great, and I was proud to have them on our team!

Until Mud Run 2008...the end.

Why I am smart and the pics you wont see

I am sure in the not to distant future Brian will post pictures of The Marine Mud Run and I will not be in a single picture. Why you ask? Because I am smart, smart enough to say no to Brian when he asks people to join him in the mud run. When Brian posts the pictures most people will look at them and think "Wow, that looks like it could be a lot of fun." Well, let me tell you a little secret the pictures make it look fun but the aftermath, the part with no pictures, is not fun. My poor soon-to-be sister-in-law is laying on the floor crying while Brian and Chris put new skin on her quarter sized blisters. These are the pics you won't see and trust me if you have a queezy stomach you don't want to see.

Does anybody want to run on Brian's team next year because I think my sister-in-law is officially out?

Teressa did I write better =)

Ouch!!

Nose....meet concrete........concrete.....meet Noah's nose. Now you've been aquainted

.

Mom away? The boys will play!

So this is my first time to ever blog. What is "blog" anyway? Why can't it just be "journal" or "diary"? Anyhow, who knows how often you'll come across my posts. Perhaps after some heroic feat with my Tennessee Vols or with a sweet father/son outing will I be inspired to sit in front of the computer and "blog." Catchy word.

Tonight was a night when mom left the boys before dinner to attend a friend's baby shower. On any given night, we'll have some meat/fish, vegetables, salad, etc. But, when mom isn't involved with "clean-up" afterwards, what do we have? Oh yes, sloppy joes! My strange son has the habit of combing his hair with his hands while at the dinner table. After a good 15 minutes of chowing down some sloppy joes, Noah's blonde hair now turned orange! Was he simply supporting daddy's college team or showing early signs of teenage rebellion with changing his hair color?

Notice the hint of black olive hiding buried on the scalp. We've also learned that food products he does not enjoy (see above the broccoli), are simply discarded into the cupholder. Sneaky guy.

At last, we arrive at what happens when dad is not fast enough to provide more sloppy joe. This sweet, cute little guy turns into a vicious monster that'll scare pants off a grown man.

After dinner, we get cleaned up. But before getting ready for bed, it's important to rock the "Chuck Ts" around the house for cool points.

So this is it, my first "blog." Success? Probably not, but I'm learning. Look for a new post after this weekend. Saturday is the Marine Mud Run. Six plus miles of a "boot-camp" style race with 4 other teammates in chilly temperatures sounds like a blast. If my fingers aren't amputated due to severe frost bite, I plan on giving a shout-out. Later, B

Pumpkin Carving

I am a little behind but on Tuesday the 30th of October we had an eventful evening carving a pumpkin. We were super excited to carve a pumpkin. We made a special day of it, we went and bought the pumpkin, I talked about it all day, and we even had dinner early so there would be plenty of daylight (but there wasn't). I am not sure what Noah thinks, he is probably wondering what all the fuss is about. Unfortunately, I think we are a little more into Halloween and all the stuff to do than he is.



All he cared about was the spoon.









We kept trying to stick his hands in the gooey seed mixture but he did not like that. Brian called this the mission impossible move. Notice how stiff Noah is being so as to not get anywhere near the gooey stuff.

Noah finally showed a liking to the pumpkin after we were finished and lit it.



At last, we got a couple of good family photos. Umm, minus the sticker in the middle of Noah's forehead.