Noelle's first steps

I was chastised by my sister yesterday for not blogging enough. Fortunately, today was decently eventful. Noelle took her first steps. Sadly, James was unable to see her achieve this long awaited milestone. He was sleeping after another long night at work. Don't worry, I promptly woke him up to tell him. She unexpectedly stood up in the middle of the floor and took five steps to me....well, to the chocolate chip Rice Krispies treat that I was eating after lunch. She's so her father's daughter. Go figure she would be chasing some chocolate. You have to hand it to her, she knows what she wants. Unfortunately, we were quite unsuccessful trying to get her to do it again. Especially for the camera. She just wanted to eat it. (The camera, that is)

I guess that's it for the "eventful day". I struggled to get her to sleep tonight. So instead, we played around, like little girls at a slumber party. I was actually trying to get her to walk for the camera, but she just wanted to play.

This was me, showing Noelle how to take the obligatory self portrait for the Internet.

This was Noelle deciding that she didn't like the glasses on Mama.

This was Noelle trying to show Mama who she thinks should really be wearing the glasses.

This is Noelle, Master Diva. She knows who really looks the best with the glasses on. Oh well.

Her mama would like to apologize for the way we look. We WERE supposed to be sleeping at the time. Sometimes, I wonder who really is the parent in this relationship. It's obvious who is really in charge. No need to tell me how unflattering these pictures are, as I'm aware. I posted them against my better judgement. However, in my defense, it was really late. Sometimes, my judgement lapses during this late hour.

Well, hopefully we are able to record some of her first steps here soon. She walked several times during this late night, but by then, the camera battery had died. We'll keep trying. We're crossing our fingers for her to be walking, at least, semi-well for her first birthday on Sunday. Here's hoping...

Father's Day

Well Father's Day is officially over for us. I'm horrible with keeping gifts, so I gave James his last week sometime. I bought him a Jamie Oliver cookbook. He is his favorite. Did I mention James loves to cook? Yeah, I know...I'm pretty spoiled. I'm sure people wonder exactly what I do anyway. I am pretty good at heating up frozen dinners though. We went to James' parents on Sunday to celebrate Father's Day then. Pretty fun and pretty hot too. My nephews Malachi, Jeremiah and Bryson were running around being boys and being cute. The youngest, Elijah was just sitting on his Nanny's lap eating everything in sight. He's pretty cute. He always has the same look on his face. Good thing it's a cute one. Then tonight we celebrated with my family at the park. After my nieces played "Ring Around the Rosies" around Noelle and me for awhile, they went on a hunt for dinosaurs. Sydney tried to escape from her parents a few times, with no success. Bailee is apparently convinced there is a dinosaur growing in her tummy. I'll just have to take her word for it. Elyse was just being as cute and sweet as ever. Still too young to cause trouble. She's the prettiest baby and I just adore her.

It was James' first Father's Day. I'm so proud of him. I couldn't have asked for a better husband or father to my child. He makes having babies easy. He pulls way more than his share of the load. I know men like that are hard to come by. He absolutely takes pleasure in caring for his baby. He would do everything if I would let him. (It's actually pretty tempting.) I've never met anyone more selfless or pure-hearted. I'm lucky to even know him, let alone be married to him. I'm very grateful for him.

It's obvious that my Father-in-law, Steve, did an awesome job of raising him. He raised two of the most amiable, kindhearted, upstanding men I've ever met. He also raised 4 beautiful and incredible women. Steve is sweet, chivalrous and honorable. He loves his grand kids. I'm fortunate to have him as a Father-in-law.

I have an awesome Father, who was an example of the kind of man I should marry. He's generous, noble, loving and sweet. He's charismatic and people are just drawn to him. He can make friends with any random stranger. I'm truly blessed to call him my Dad. I wouldn't trade him for the world.

I love all the fathers in my life. I wouldn't be here without any of them. Noelle has yet to understand how lucky she is the have these men in her life. Especially in this day and age.

First Blog.....

Apparently we're behind on the times and need to add a family blog. So this is a start. Let me catch you all up on us currently. James and I were married a little over two years ago. We had Noelle last July. So she's coming up on her first birthday here in a few weeks. It's sort of bittersweet for us. My baby will be a toddler. Even though I have a hard time remembering what it was like before she was here, it still seems like she just arrived. I am excited for her to be at the age where we can do more than feed and change her. She cracks me up. She has us laughing all day long. She really has turned out to be quite the easy baby. Even though she had a rough start. Well....I had a rough start. James is a natural though. Noelle is his princess and he can hardly put her down. He prefers to be the primary caretaker when he is home. Which is OK by me. She prefers him too, when he is home. I love my time alone with her though. As long as all of the cards are played right, we go to the park everyday. I push her in the swings, take her for a walk and then we follow it all up by setting out the blanket and just watching the other kids play while she snacks.

James is working at Albertson's as a Lift Driver. It's not the most ideal job, but it pays fairly well and allows me to stay at home. I am enrolled for Salt Lake Community College for this fall semester. Although, I haven't officially registered. I guess I better get on that so I don't have rewrite this blog. We finally bought a second car. In fact, we picked it up just today. It's all thanks to my brother-in-law Brett. We think we got a killer deal and it's nice to have more than one car finally. We think it's pretty luxurious, especially compared to my Grandma's old car, which is currently falling apart. It's a 2005 Buick LaCrosse and is the newest car James or I have ever owned. I'm sure we'll be showing it off to you all here quickly.

So I think that's it. I don't want to overload you all in one hit. I hope everyone is a little caught up. I'll keep posting.