Noah is 8 months!

This boy is a little hoss. An eatin' machine. Although baby food is involved in this sequence of photos, it is a rare thing. He skipped right over baby food. He can't be bothered. It takes too long to wait for the next spoonful. Naiya was the exact same way. Although she never did this:

"Mom, what's so amusing? A boy's gotta eat, right?"

To the very last drop.

Atta boy.

All the laughing and commotion of the baby food drinking made it a family affair. Those sisters love their brother. Recently, we've had to instruct the girls (mainly Naiya, our nickname provider) what nicknames we accept. Those included are: Doodie, Boobie, Nonie (I like that one, but Ryan does not), DooDoo. My explanation to their "But why?" is that we don't want to call him a name that means poop or a name that is a body part. Enough said. Right? And I've also thrown in there a few times, "Because we named him Noah, so his name is Noah." Because I said so. And because I'm the Mommy.

Pumpkin Patch Weekend 2012

I have to say that of all the things I was most excited about for fall, going to the pumpkin patch and apple picking were my top two! The girls have been talking about last year's experience all year long, and so it was fun to anticipate with them going again this year.

On Saturday we planned to go to a place an hour away with my brother-in-law and new sis-in-law, to carry on the tradition from last year. (Here's the cute couple from last year):

And this year:

The place we went to was much bigger than where we went last year. Unfortunately, we weren't the only ones with that idea that day, so the bigger crowd made it feel somewhat of a tourist trap, and everything cost a pretty penny. But I loved it for the fact that we made memories. We took advantage of the hay ride, which was interesting...instead of seats, they had straw laid out on the wagon floor for us to sit directly on. Which was fine, but I definitely had to perform the pull-your-jeans-up-before-you-sit-down shimmy to gear up for sitting on the floor.

Noah seemed to like the hay pit though:

We finished our time there by taking fun pics:

Enjoying some treats, freshly fried apple fritters and hot apple cider:

This picture cracks me up, such a grown up sitting position:

After taking this photo of the girls on the pumpkins, I was given a tutorial by my loving husband about lighting and our camera. He's funny like that. I've been given many of those throughout my SLR career, I just really have no clue. I could probably help myself by making a rule of: Don't shoot the picture when you're looking directly into the blazing sun. 

My favorite part of our day was definitely apple picking. They had endless rows of many different varieties of apples. And we allowed ourselves to taste test the ones that had fallen on the ground. 

And the kicker? Our sis-in-law had spent her whole morning to making a homemade potato soup and homemade brownies! She is also a fall fanatic and memory makin' machine! It was delicious and the perfect ending to our fall festivity.

The Nerve...

Can you believe I have the nerve to come back?

After all this time?

I will spare you all of the details that caused me to waver back and forth between continuing to blog or not. I will share, however, that I did recently attempt to turn our 2012 annual family photo album into somewhat of a blog/photo album. Ask me how many times I made an "entry" for that. One. There's something motivating for me when I "think" I'm speaking to an audience. (That goes out to you, my TWO followers.)

So here we are. Almost eight months later. It could be my love for fall that has inspired me to blog once again. How can I deny you of all my thoughts, inspirations, and photos that just ooze fall? Yes, I said ooze.

I have a lot of blog post ideas running through my head. Some I will have to backpost. For now, I will share what fall has me singing and dancing about:

And laughing, too. I found this at a consignment shop and it made me laugh just thinking about it. Unfortunately, it was way too small. Ryan did not share the same affinity for the costume. I will admit the hat looked a bit like a french artist's beret. Oh well.

Here's our house fall-ified. It was so fun to get into the fall spirit this year, since last year I was baking a pumpkin of my own in my belly, and survival mode did not leave room for decorating my home to get into the fall spirit.

Welcome to our home...

Funny thing about that scarecrow. Naiya picked it out when we were on a date. It's the cutest little thing, pigtails and everything. But she is the same height as the girls, and has become somewhat of a playmate to them. They would dress her, make her play house, and I am baffled at how she made it out alive. I was sure she would be missing a limb (or head) by the time she was needed to be put out on our porch. (I was waiting for our pumpkins to accompany her out on the porch.) 

Moving on....

Entryway:

I found this fall subway printable on pinterest and put it in a black 8x10 frame I had laying around.

Formal Dining Room:

Living Room:

Some new fall things added this year, our fall bucket list that I intend tackling with the girls in order to make fall memories for and with them. This really helps me to be intentional with just being with them. My natural bent is doing for them. And I LOVE lists! I'm a cross-it-off kind of freak!

A tent you might ask? Yes, this was set up in our backyard for about a week. The first two nights the girls were all giddy to sleep in it, not even caring if we were out there with them or not. Naiya ditched Alexia the first night, and Alexia was completely fine being by herself out there in the cold and dark. Then Alexia ditched Naiya the next night and the same result. Although Ryan didn't feel right about them being alone out there, so he slept out there both nights, but both nights each girl was fast asleep by the time he got out there. The girls also begged me to take their naps out there as well, having no problem falling asleep. Good memories. 

Sunroom fall decor:

Naiya, who has the best sniffer around (as well as other observational skills that lead me to believe she is on the road to working for the CIA), ran by the cinnamon-scented pinecones the day I put them out and shouted, "something smells cimmanony!" Love her.

My Trader Joe's lovelies that have lasted SO long and make me happy every time I look at them. They just speak fall to me so perfectly. 

Fall treats include caramel candy corn (yum) and I ventured out to try caramel apple candy corn (no thanks). And Ryan made a batch of caramel popcorn. Man, there is nothing like warm, gooey caramel popcorn right out of the oven.

Taste testing his goods:

Hope you enjoyed our Fall Home Tour! Happy Fall!

Dream Baby.

Our little man continues to be a dream baby. Hardly ever cries, falls asleep by the time I sling him over my shoulder to burp him, and just the cuddliest, most snuggly little guy. His little arms are usually crossed with his chin resting on top. Can't get enough of him. I have to make an effort to not hog him from Ryan.

We officially moved Noah out of our bedroom and into his own room/guest room/Naiya's old room. (I'll post about the girls sharing a room soon.) I think Alexia was in our master bedroom for five weeks, Naiya for three weeks, and now Noah got the boot at 11 days. I love having a special designated space for our babies though, so I can go about my business without feeling bad for waking Ryan up. And I love having a rocking chair in the room so I can sit and rock and stare at him for as long as I want. Even though I know I should get back to sleep. But when he's so content and asleep, it's easy to choose him over sleep (unlike Naiya who endlessly cried after nighttime feedings and was inconsolable....her newborn days were a blur to me).

And just to take it even more over the top, last night he only woke up to eat ONCE. Yes, once. At 2 am. And then not again until 6am. His last feed was at 9pm last night. What?! I'm trying to prepare myself for a turn for the worst. So as not to be so naive and expect this to be the norm. But I can't help but want to document this for the memory of how good we have it so far.

Makes me re-think that I could possibly do this again. Or at least it makes the past nine months seem rather short when I think about being able to (hopefully) enjoy this little guy for a lifetime.

Can you guess who is who from these six newborn photos of our three babies? (There are two of each child.)

Photo A

Photo B

Photo C

Photo D

Photo E

Photo F

Answers:

Photo A - Naiya
Photo B - Alexia
Photo C - Noah
Photo D - Naiya
Photo E - Noah
Photo F - Alexia