Noah's baptism . . .also way overdue

Noah was baptized on February 14th with his best friend, Andrew Anderson. We did the same set up as with Annie's baptism, where we did the program after church, then provided dinner for everyone. We were so lucky to have both sets of grandparents, plus Chris' brother's family, come and be with Noah for this great event.

Summer (Andrew's mom) and I decided to do soups and rolls for dinner, and then Summer, being the amazingly creative person that she is, made these darling cookies for one of the desserts.

We were able to do some fun things with our family while they were here. One of the things we did was see The Christmas Story house. This was the actual house where the movie was filmed, and across the street was a museum. If you like the movie, it's totally worth it - it was so fun!!

We also went to Amish country in Middlefield, where Grandpa Weight bought this marble track, and the kids had a great time with it.

My parents left the Wednesday after Noah was baptized, and I think they were the lucky ones because right around the time they left, the stomach flu swept over those remaining. By the end, 11 out of the 14 in our little house had some form of the flu. Thursday was the day it hit my three boys, as well as Trey, their cousin. I have never in my life experienced something like that - running from one boy to the next to rub a back, wipe a mouth, get a drink, or dump out the barf bowl. I was sure grateful for extra adults, since Chris was working that day. Even so, it was exhausting! I have never washed so many blankets, sheets, pillowcases, and clothes. I don't think the washer and dryer had a break for 5 days.

Look at all those boys!! Poor Annie :) Despite the flu fiasco, we made some great memories and the cousins had fun together!

Noah's birthday . . . way overdue

Noah turned 8 last February (yes, I am aware that it's almost May), and it was his turn to have a friend party this year. Since we were in the middle of all of our house projects, I didn't want to try and plan a party at home (I usually end up way too stressed out about them, and I didn't think we could handle more stress at the time). Noah decided that he wanted to go to the dollar movie (We watched Fantastic Mr. Fox. Has anyone seen that? The whole time I was thinking, "This truly is the oddest movie I have ever seen." Oh well, the kids loved it), then we got some outside toys for the kids to play with in the snow, and then we ordered pizza for dinner. It was the easiest birthday party I have ever put together, and the kids had a great time!

Chris took the kids to Lomond while I picked up the pizza. Here they're trying out the foam airplane that Noah got for his birthday. Poor airplane lasted about 15 minutes - what do you expect with 8 year old boys?

It was pretty cold, so they didn't last very long befor they were ready for pizza.

Noah was able to invite four friends - Kimball, Brian, Andrew, and Colin - that's all we had room for to take to the movie.

THE CAKE . . .

. . . isn't it fabulous?? Noah wanted a building for his cake, so Chris and I just started cutting up squares and stacking them. We had to use a shish kabob skewer to keep the pieces from toppling. We just kept smearing on frosting and laughing at how awful it looked. But here are the comments we got from the boys:

Noah (in an excited voice) "Look at my cake guys!"

"Cooool"

"That looks so good"

"That is really cool . . . what is it?"

I guess, at least with 8 year old boys, it's all about how tall the cake is, and the amount of frosting that's applied.

Once again I realized that I don't have to go over the top for my kids to have fun on their birthdays. Why do I keep forgetting this?

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Oh, and since we decided that we don't have enough going on in our lives, I'm pregnant . . . due November 15th. Yes, this was planned (are we crazy?? Maybe) and we are very excited - I just hope that soon (very very soon) I'll be able to actually sit and think for a minute about the fact that we will have FIVE kids. Wow.