Almost 14 months old...

Favorite shots of Noah from our family outing Oct.14th

Noah still does the tripod scoot to get around. He crosses every room, making his way around our entire house by scooting on his tushie! He sits upright with his right leg bent Indian style and his left leg making a pulling action scooting him along at a pretty decent clip. His hands rest in front of him in an almost crawling stance and yet he is sitting upright instead of on all-fours for traditional-style crawling. His hand position while scooting around definitely reminds us of a gorilla as it walks leaning on its hands.

Noah got his very first tooth (bottom left) at 11 months old, his second (bottom right) at 12 months, his third (top left) at 13 months and his fourth (top right) is going to be making its appearance by next week right at his 14 month mark.

Noah ADORES his siblings who do SO much for him. All the big kids love on him EVERYday. Tommy's latest obsession with him is about how "warm" Noah is. He'll state, "Me want to sleep with Noah. Him so warm! Him so cute!" I think Tommy is meaning Noah is snuggley. Not sure, really, but I'm guessing it is because he's been wearing the jammie sleepers and wakes up all squishy, snuggley. Tommy makes these comments, though, totally out of that context so I'm not convinced that's it. Tommy says it frequently! Daily, almost. Quite cute, though the exact reason is still unclear.

Fletcher has REALLY stepped up in his display of love for Noah. He is super close to him now. The year landmark for Noah marked a deep bond with Fletcher who carries him around daily, helping to feed him breakfast and other meals everyday. He takes him to and from the car for outings, buckles him up and sits beside him most every car ride. Fletcher is willingly choosing to sit beside Noah...it's not like we are short on spaces to sit in Chuckwagon! The fondness I see Fletcher has for him is really adorable. It is so fun for a Momma to observe! I saw it right from the beginning with Paris (and with Sarah too, but a slightly lesser degree than with Paris), but the strong affection for Noah has just recently blossomed in Fletch. One of Fletcher's favorite things to do is be the one permitted to get Noah out of the pack-n-play, yes, it IS in the master closet, and carry Noah over to watch the fish swim in the dining room fish tank.

Sarah has continued to show love and affection for Noah. Her favorite thing to do is play with Noah in the den with his one year old birthday gift that Poppa Sam and Fletcher put together for him. Paris loves to be in the bath tub with Noah to bathe him for us, washing his hair and everything. She often transports Noah to and from the car for outings, but as he has grown, it is more of a struggle for her and a bit easier for Fletch who never did it when Noah was little. Fletch seemed less comfortable with the newborn-ish stages which Paris was great with, but now Fletch seems totally at ease with the one year old phase.

Noah is 1% for height and 12% for weight, our teeniest guy yet! Noah is so laid-back and go-with-the-flow. Chill. Relaxed. Easy going. 5th baby! We LOVE him!

Family Day Adventure, Friday, Oct. 14th

I LOVE these boys!
AMAZING rock!
Rambo Parie!
Kung Fu Tommy!
Power Lifter TeeTom.
Sarah had a ball here! (Thank You, God, she still loves Your Creation!)
Pretty Parie, peek-a-boo Sarah!
Tommy loving life!
My red heads!

We discovered cool new rocks to play on and between. This spot is off the main road just before we get to our favorite river. Lots of fun to be had here...next time we will bring wood for the campfire and smores supplies! There are lots of campfire spots right near these amazing rocks.

Favorite shots from Leadville, CO family adventure day (August 2011)

The whole reason we ventured to Leadville was because Charlie has wanted to visit the town to see the highest airport in North America, the third highest in the world, ever since we lived in Dallas. He has been "flying" out of Leadville's airport on the flight simulator with students for about 10 years and was super excited to see it in person with his own kids. This is a picture of Paris in front of the only runway the airport has. You can clearly see the Rockies to the west of the runway strip. The town sits at 10, 200 feet elevation and look how big the Rockies still look behind Paris!

Paris is holding Colorado's state flower, a columbine.
Loving the color and texture of this doorway Sarah is standing in.
She is oh so grown-up now in many ways...her forever drawings of families of people, HUGE families of people, have varied slightly in the past few weeks to include more and more fashion statements in terms of the individual family member's attire. She still has drawings of huge families, but she also includes fashion designs that she has created for them to wear.
Sarah is dreaming of teaching art (and music and dance) to children in Africa. She says she wants to go to art college and maybe study fashion design, too.
Sarah would like to play on a more competitive soccer team.
Paris would like to play violin and is interested in taking music lessons this year. She would still love to take riding lessons if given the opportunity.
Paris is such a sweet girl who plays well with all her siblings.

She can fight well with them, too. :)

Chopping down our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

The Friday after Thanksgiving we ventured into the Coloradian woods to chop down a Christmas tree with another couple who has done it for many years. All that is required is a ten dollar permit and you can choose any tree, any size you want. The kids had fun venturing into the woods to find the family tree. Needless to say, we found a great Charlie Brown Christmas tree. The girls chopped it down with a little handsaw and Sarah carried it back to the Chuckwagon. Our tree and our friends' tree both fit in the back of the van!

No trees in here, Mom and Dad!

The girls chopped our tree and Fletcher worked on our friends' tree. Fun, fun!

The thing with CO is they actually like you to remove the "extra" trees that grow wild and just serve as more kindling if a forest fire breaks out. You just drive anywhere within the designated area and get any tree you want for each $10 permit you've purchased. There is not an actual tree "farm" like Charlie and I did our very first year of marriage. The trees were in relatively straight lines and were fairly plump. We did choose the only UGLY tree that farm had...Charlie had his heart set on the "Charlie Brown tree" and we did choose the scrawniest one they'd grown. The worker actually chopped it down, though. We just pointed to it. We did end up loving that tree once we got all the ornaments on it...not so this year!! Our tree is hilarious looking! Don't think "love" is the word for how we feel about this year's tree...more like, "nag." It is so REEEdiculous looking!

A Beautiful Day for a Family Hike

We were off to Roxborough Park for Charlie's half day off today. What a great time in God's Creation! Man, I love being outside with my family!

More Pictures from the South Platte River (3/6/10)

Photo Op at our favorite river

We just had to show "Pop-Pop" (as Tommy so cutely dubbed Grandpa three days ago!) the South Platte River. Tommy LOVED Chuck and would call out "POP-POP!!" over and over to get his attention on car rides, etc. That boy just loves attention! Grandpa was so patient with Tommy's antics and so wonderfully put up with Tommy's constant need to interact with him. Grandparents are so fun like that!

Fun with Grandpa at the South Platte River

Family Outing to the Butterfly Pavillion