Noelle at 15 weeks

Rob got me the SLR camera that I had been wanting for my birthday so I pretty much take pictures all day long now. Poor kids have the camera flashing at them non-stop. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at capturing the moments but at least the quality of the pictures is there so some of them turn out okay. I'm also lacking the skills to reduce the size of the images so they take a year and a day to upload which makes posting pictures here or to any photo sharing website a really long time. Kyle will be home for Thanksgiving so maybe he can bestow some of his skills onto me and teach me a few shortcuts!

These were two of my favorite shots of Noelle from today...

She is starting to love all of the toys on her ExerSaucer (this was Noah's and he loved it so I'm glad she seems to share those sentiments!). Today was the first day that she intentionally went around from toy to toy to see what each one did. It was so precious to watch her try to figure out how to "work" each of the toys. Big brother came to the rescue whenever she looked like she didn't understand what to do ;)

The face says it all (and the drool is an added bonus)! She was like "What the hell are you doing, Mom?!". We went to the playground this afternoon so Noah could burn off some of his energy in a positive way. I like to "wear" her in the Baby Bjorn so both hands are free but that's no fun for taking pictures. I probably took a dozen before I got one that didn't have part of her head chopped off and/or any of my face showing!

"Test Car"

It's official! Noah has hit the 40" mark and can now ride the "real" rides at Disney! On Thursday night, we headed over to EPCOT in order for him to ride Test Track, which we had been hyping to him. Somehow, it become Test Car so that's what we now call it...

Here he is getting measured (note the completely fake smile!):


Here are my boys before they rode:

I was petrified waiting at the exit with Noelle because I wasn't sure how he'd react. He's a pretty tough cookie but he wasn't a fan of the Cat in the Hat ride at Universal because he didn't like the spinning. That had me scratching my head because the kid loves to be spun around. He hasn't been on too many other rides so this was a test.

Test track is a much different kind of ride though so I was hoping he'd really enjoy it. This is what Disney's website has to say about it:

Enter the hair-raising world of auto testing on one of the longest, fastest rides in Disney history! Strap yourself in to race up bumpy terrain, roar through hair-pin turns, speed into freezing cold chambers, and rush on to 50-degree banked curves at 60 miles an hour.

We've been on it many times so I knew it wasn't too harsh and thought he'd get a kick out of it because it's sort of like some of his video games. I am neurotic by nature so it was only fitting that I was shaking waiting for him to come off the ride! I was so relieved when I saw him walking toward me smiling. They had given us a pass to return so we could swap out kids and I could go with him if he liked it. The verdict? Noah and I got to ride it together because he wanted to go again!

Next up is Maelstrom! This is the Norwegian ride at EPCOT that is very sentimental to me. Noah affectionately calls it Mommy's Troll Ride. Hopefully, we'll get to do that before the weekend is over but it may have to wait until some time next week. I can't wait to take him on it!

Out of the mouth of Noah

In the last five minutes, Noah has made me laugh hysterically several times. I thought I'd share a few of his one-liners.

First, he came to me carrying a stack of construction paper and asked me to get him a piece of red paper. Red is his favorite color so there isn't much red paper left in the ream. I asked him if it would be okay if he used blue paper this time. His reply? "No silly mama, I don't like azul." "Star School" is doing wonders for his Spanish speaking skills!

Then, he grabbed my glass of juice off the counter. I went running to get it from him as it was filled to the top and I spent my precious time washing the floors earlier so the last thing I wanted was a huge mess on the floor (as if there is ever a good time for that but it's so much worse when it has JUST been cleaned!). Thankfully, I got to him in time and told him "thank you for getting me my drink". His reply? "It was no problem, mama."

Boy does he crack me up :)

Grandpa's Legacy...

I had to share these pictures with everyone. Noah looks more and more like my Daddy every single day, especially when he gets a haircut! On one hand, I am so sad that he won't grow up with his Grandpa but on the other hand I am so comforted by how much he looks like him! It's those strong Norwegian genes ;)

Happy Birthday, Grams!

Happy Birthday, Grams!

Today was Grams' special day and we celebrated in usual Johnsen fashion with dinner at Benihana and a Publix cake...doesn't get much better in our opinion!

Here is Grams' cake that Noah designed. I was too cheap to spring for the real Princess cake (with the overpriced toy) so the bakery girl and Noah came up with this:


I think it turned out really cute!

We had some relatives visiting who joined us for dinner. This is a picture of Kristen (my cousin -Grams' sister's daughter), Ben (Kristen's husband) and their daughter, Dayna. Their son, Devin, was also there but he was busy entertaining Noah :)


Noah was thrilled to see a new maze on the kids' menu and spent some quality time with Daddy:


The obligatory fried-rice-in-the-shape-of-Mickey's-head shot:

Grams, Aunt Jen, and Kristen toasting Grams' birthday (right before Dayna knocked over the glasses of wine!!):

Truc (Our favorite!! Boy do we wish we could take him home!!) cleaning up the big mess that the spilled wine caused:

After dinner, we headed home for cake but Noah couldn't stay awake for the ride. We're only about fifteen minutes from the restaurant but the poor kid was so exhausted. He was so proud of the cake he got for Grams that I had to wake him up and break the cardinal rule (never wake a sleeping child!). He barely opened his eyes to help Grams blow out her candles and I doubt he'll even remember it in the morning. We'll have to have a do over tomorrow!

Grams' showing off her perfume/lotion...Aunt Jen and I agree that Grams has way too expensive taste ;):

Noelle is noticeably absent from all of the festivities. Thanks to Nana, we were able to sneak out to Benihana without her and she was sleeping when we came home. Nana said she was well behaved so that was a relief to Mommy and Daddy. It was almost as if it were my special day today - I had Grams to babysit so I could run errands while Noah was in preschool this morning and Nana to babysit tonight so we could enjoy dinner - lucky me!

Happy Birthday, Grams! We love you and thank you for everything you do for all of us...especially all of the gratis babysitting!

Noah's Sliding Adventure

I dug into the "archives" to look for a picture of Noah when he was younger and came across this little video. It was shot by the camera so it's not the same quality as our camcorder but it made me laugh so hard that I thought I'd share it with everyone who reads this!

Noah was just about two when this was shot and he was going through a phase where he only liked to go down the slide on his stomach. This was his compromise of sliding on his bum:

Three Months Old!

It's hard to believe but Noelle turned three months old yesterday! She is growing so quickly and it is so much fun to watch her develop. I think she's going to hit all of her milestones sooner than Noah because she has him coaching her along. He has been pretty good with her so far in terms of not trying to hurt her but we learned this morning that we have to watch his EVERY single move around her.

Here is her reaction to the Sour Patch candy that he put to her lips (where is my brother when I need him? I tried so many times to get this picture rotated...when I view it in another application it is fine...so frustrating!!!):

And here are a few shots of her using a teether for the first time today (I swear she's already teething...)