A Beautiful Mind

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.

~Pablo Picasso

While a little dose of Hand-Foot-And-Mouth disease kept us from the turkey, stuffing, and visiting with most of our family this Thanksgiving, we were thankful to have some extra time at home with our little monkey. It was in those turkey-less moments that we got to see Noah's imagination come to life. We had seen glimpses of this before--he often walks around the house talking on his imaginary phone. He holds his little bitty hand or any other object he can find up to his ear and says, "Hello.......(pause)......yes". But over the past several days we watched the phone conversations get longer and more animated. We were amazed when what remained of his nutri-grain bar snack became a car that he started driving around on his high-chair tray as he made fire truck noises (he thinks all 4-wheeled objects sound like fire trucks). By the end of the weekend, his Little People Construction set had taken on a couple of different identities. It consists of a bulldozer, a few ramps, a wrecking ball, and this rock/mountain formation that has a handle and becomes a carrying case for all the parts and pieces. The rock/mountain formation first became his school bag. He'd put it on his arm and start waving and saying "bye-bye" and walk to the front door saying, "school, school, school". When he grew tired of his unimaginative parents not allowing him to walk out the door and go to school, the mountain formation became a rocking horse. He'd attempt to sit on it like a horse (which was hysterical b/c it's way too small to sit on and led to a few hilarious wipeouts), hold on to the handle and start rocking and saying "rock, rock, rock". We would trade turkey and stuffing for these moments any day. We are so thankful that God specifically picked us to be the parents of this little boy and is allowing us the joy of watching as his beautiful little mind runs wild with creativity. It is our hope and prayer that Noah's imagination will remain uninhibited and that he will grow into an adult that is unafraid to have great faith and dream big!

To Faux Hawk or not to Faux Hawk

Last Sunday was a big day for our little bit. He turned 14 months old and got his first haircut. 14 months wasn't the magic number rather mom and dad finally agreed that it was time. Surprisingly, mom was ready long before dad but dad got on board once it started shaping into a baby mullet. So, how did it go? Noah did great! We were a little nervous b/c he's not too keen about the hair dryer and we knew those would be present. He's been known to hit the ground and assume the duck-and-cover position when one is turned on. We wouldn't say that he loved getting his hair cut but there were no tears and he stayed mostly still. He was still enough to avoid any tragic mishaps with the scissors. It helped that the sweet lady cutting his hair was incredibly patient and didn't mind running in circles around him.

Here are some pics of Noah's first haircut. And yep, we even have the certificate to prove that it happened. Not being a very nostalgic person it cracks me up to think that this might secretly be why I chose this particular haircut place over some of the others. Our little one has the power to make me foolishly sentimental.

Now the question (bordering debate) in our house is, To Faux Hawk or Not to Faux Hawk? Mom likes the Faux Hawk and Dad's not too crazy about it. He thinks it's a bit too trendy and thinks it's silly to put product in a 14 month-old's hair. While I agree that part does feel a bit silly, it really is so stinkin' cute. So we ask you, to faux hawk or not to faux hawk?

Less for More--Immeasurably More

As Thanksgiving fast approaches and we reflect on the things for which we are thankful, at the top of our list is that we are blessed to attend a church that we love. Each week we walk away encouraged and challenged to be more, give more, serve more, do more. Most recently we have been challenged to give more and to become more generous. This is our heart's desire. We want to be able to help our neighbors fix their car if it's broken and they don't have the money to fix it. We want to fill shoe box after shoe box after shoe box for Operation Christmas Child. We want to support not just one but several children through World Vision. We want to feed a local family who is hungry--for a YEAR! We want to teach our two boys to have a heart for others and a compassion to help those in need. We want to live the rest of our lives Giving, Saving, and then Spending. But right now, we can't. Yes we are doing what we can (most of the time) and yes, we have learned a lot and are getting closer (I encourage you to check out Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover). We have paid off our cars, we have paid off and given up credit cards, but standing in the way of our generosity makeover is our student loan debt and we DESPISE IT! So we are doing what was once unthinkable to us...something we pretty much said we would never do. We are selling our property in North Carolina and our little mountain shack. It's going on the market next week. If you know us, you know we love this place. We are a family that loves the outdoors and this is our little escape. We could go on and on about why this is going to be hard and why we are sad. But, we learned something at church on Sunday. We learned that while we will be walking away with less, God can turn our less into immeasurably more. (Eph. 3:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us). We can't wait to share this journey with you and we look forward to telling you all about the More that God is doing with our Less.

We will definitely miss this view.

Our little shack.

Noah's going to miss it too!

A Halloween to Remember

While this was not Noah's first Halloween, it will always be the first one we remember. Last year Noah was about 6 weeks old and I'm pretty positive we were still figuring out how to change a diaper in less than 10 minutes (while I'm sure getting either peed on or projectile pooped on). Ben had just lost his job and I was still very much a train wreck. Hormones + sleep deprivation = ONE HOT MESS! I just looked back through old pictures to make sure there wasn't a costume that I forgot about...Nope! This picture taken a few days before Halloween was our best effort.

This year Halloween turned out to be much more FUN and memorable. Noah, at 13 months, really had no clue what was going on which made it hard for me to get motivated and figure out a costume. As of Sunday afternoon all we had was a plain yellow cape. Bed time came and Ben and I got to work determined to create a cute costume without spending a dime. And overnight, this:

Turned into this:

We had a blast taking our little Super Hero trick-or-treating. Super Noah went house-to-house rescuing every pumpkin top he could get his hands on. But perhaps our most proud moment was when he displayed his Super Manners and said, "thank you" unprompted after receiving candy at the first house we visited.