Shauna??

You stalking people today?

Happy and Sad

We have great news! Our house sold in 3 days! We were so excited. It was like a ton of bricks was lifted off us. I couldn't fully get excited about the move and figure out the logistics of the move, knowing we had a house that could be still sitting on the market. On a sad note, we found a new home for our dogs Duke and Bailey. For those of you who have known us for a while, you know we've had Duke since Matt was a Junior at ACU and we got Bailey a month before we got married. They were our babies before we had Hayden, but with the move, having to live in a duplex until we find a house etc., we had to find them a new home. We posted them on Craigs List (how sad is that?) and requested that they stay together. A lady came and got them on Sunday and it was so sad. She has a son and his wife and their two kids who live with her, and a teenaged daughter, so they will get lots of attention. She emailed us this morning and said both of the dogs have been sleeping with her daughter, they've been going for walks every day, and seem to be adjusting quite well. I cried on Sunday when they drove away and Matt had to fight back the tears too. Then we went to church on Sunday night and asked one of the elders to read a letter to the congregation. I wasn't expecting him to get "choked up" when he read it, but he did. My eyes filled up with tears and I really understood how hard this move is going to be. Matt and I have said when we moved to NC, it was a new adventure, he had a new job, we were buying our first house etc. We also knew we'd be going back to Texas and Oklahoma often to see family. With this move, we are leaving a great state and have grown so much in the 2 and a half years that we've been here. We had our first child here, we bought our first home, and we really learned the importance of a good church family. Everyone here has opened their hearts and homes to us on so many occasions and we leave here with nothing but happy memories. I just pray now that we stay in touch with everyone. I know people say "we'll come see you" and "we'll stay in touch" but once everyone goes on with their lives, you kind of forget to maintain old friendships and memories. Hopefully this won't happen. North Carolina will always be special to the Noe's for so many reasons, but one huge one is that Hayden will always be able to say he was born here. We are trying to find some keepsakes for him to take with us. Hayden and I only have 9 more days here, but Matt will be back and here until the 3rd of January. So our lives right now consists of packing, packing, and "reliving" great moments. We will get to spend one more evening with our friends here this coming Saturday. We are having a Chili supper and Cowboy's watching party. I'm not sure if I'll have anything to post before we leave, but I'll be back once we're settled in Texas. Until then......

Texas, Here we come!

Most of you already know, but for those who don't, we are moving back to Texas! Matt received a job offer with a fantastic advertising agency in Dallas. He has wanted to work for this company for a long time and they called him with a great opportunity.
We met with our realtor today, Saturday, and will have the "For Sale" sign in our yard tomorrow. We are praying really hard that our house sells fast because Matt starts on January 8th and we are leaving with it sold or not! It will make things A LOT easier if our house is sold by that date. So many things have really fallen into place and I really hope this is another thing that will.
We love being here in North Carolina and have really come to love our friends and church home here. It will be a bitter sweet good-bye for sure. But, on the bright side, we are going to be near our "old" friends and families! The first thing my mom said when I told her was "Hayden's gonna know his Mimi and PawPaw now!" I can't wait for Hayden to get to know his grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins.
I got some iron on letters at Halloween for our costume and didn't use them, so Thursday morning I made Hayden a "Texas t-shirt." Even though he was born in North Carolina, Matt's sister made a great point...he was born over Texas soil. Let me explain that....When I was pregnant with Hayden, we got a package at our door one day. It was a Mason Jar filled with dirt. There was a note attached that read "Certified Texas Soil. Place under your hospital bed and Hayden will be born over Texas soil!" There was no name attached and we were a bit confused, but we found out later that Matt's sister, Melissa, sent it. I thought that was really cute! Here's a few pictures of Hayden with his shirt on. Wish us luck and pray that our transition and move goes smoothly.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving this year! We stayed here in North Carolina and had Thanksgiving with about 8 other people...who were also family-less! We had quite a feast though and had a great time just hangin out with friends. Tonight our Thanksgiving is being extended b/c we are going to some friends house and eating pie. Yum, yum. I think there will be about 12 of us. When we got home last night, we decided to go ahead and pull the Christmas decorations out. Since we go to Texas and Oklahoma for over a week, I've got to get those decorations out as early as I can so we can enjoy them. Hayden had a ball playing in the Christmas tree box! He's actually doing really well with the decorations too. Every once in a while, I take him over to the tree and let him carefully touch one of the ornaments. For now that's making him happy. Here's a few pictures of our Thanksgiving dinner (they look like the same picture, but I'm in one, but not the other!) and of Hayden in the box. Now that we've given thanks, I can say "Merry Christmas" to everyone. I love this time of year!!

Nothin' New

My morning routine is to get up, get my first cup of coffee and check my email. Then I move on to "blog-land." I wish each blog I "stalk" would be new every day, but I know that's not gonna happen. Everyone still has their Halloween and pumpkin patch pictures up, including myself, so I thought, for the two people who read my blog, I'd add some new pictures. The sad thing is, I don't really have anything to report. Matt and I were just saying the other day that this is our favorite stage with Hayden so far. You'd think I'd have some funny stories, but I don't. We're getting ready to enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving with about 7 of our friends, then I get to come home and decorate for Christmas!! I love this time of year. The interesting part of Christmas this year is going to be how Hayden handles all the ornaments on our tree. I guess when you have a 15 month old, you put the unbreakable ones on the bottom. One of the pictures I included on this post is from our Young Married's party last weekend. We had a "favorite sports team" theme and played games and wore clothes that represented our favorite teams. Boomer Sooner!! I guess the other pictures are just some of Hayden at 14 and a half months old. Sorry for the boring blog this time. I'll try to be more creative next time. But hey, at least if you're sipping your coffee and checking blogs first thing in the morning, you'll get a new one from the Noe's!

How time flies!!

I honestly don't have anything to talk about, but I thought I'd put some of our Halloween pictures on here. I did include some from last year, just to show how much these sweet little babies grow in one year! The little lady bug is Jordan (flower last year), and Kendall is the chick (It's a girl! jack-o-lantern from last year.) And of course, our little monkey was a pea in the pod last year.

Pumpkin Patch

I know I just posted something new, but I forgot about my pictures from the pumpkin patch. Matt's company has a Fall party every year and we have it at a really neat farm. We eat BBQ (so they call it here, ha ha) and go on a hay ride, there's a petting zoo, and we get to pick our own pumpkins. So, here's the pictures from that.

Home Sweet Home

We are back from our trip to Oklahoma and Texas and it feels soooooo good to be in our own beds! We had a great trip but it always makes it so hard to come back to NC after being with friends and family. We spent about 4 days with Matt's parents in Oklahoma and even spent some good times with our friends who live there. Sunday night we ate dinner at Neil and Jeny's after church and our ACU friends the Bedichek's and their little baby Avery came too. Then Monday night Josh and Sarah hosted us and Neil and Jeny at their house. We had 5 boys running around that house....and they were 3 years old and under! It was pretty neat to see Matt and his high school buddies hang out and watch their children play together. (they were all in the youth group together too) Josh bought a big blazer on ebay, and of course the three guys had to go "mudding" in a field behind their house. We are all getting so old b/c they were only out there for about 5 minutes. I guess they just don't have much adventure left in them. Ha,Ha! We spent some good, quality time with his folks too. Valorie even let me rearrange her house. I'm talking big time rearranging! We moved the formal sitting room into the office, made the living room set up different, moved a desk into the office and set up the computer...and I even redecorated a little for her. Isn't she so lucky to have a daughter in law like me? After Oklahoma, we spent one day and one night with my brother and sister in law and neice and two nephews. It was fast, but good to see them. Then Friday and Saturday we stayed with Jennifer and Zac in their new house in Keller. We went to a soccer game, had a birthday party with my college girlfriends and their babies, cooked out at Jenn's house with my friend Nikki, then left early Sunday morning. Good thing we left when we did b/c Hayden started running a fever Saturday...come to find out he has an ear infection in both ears....and Jennifer and her two boys started vomiting Saturday night. She said "yall got out of our house just in time!" It's good to be home, but sometimes you need a week of vacation after your vacation. And today we had lunch with friends from Texas that came through NC, Matt and Hayden have dinner with friends tonight while I go to a party, tomorrow is church, Thursday I have Bunko, and Saturday is our Young Married costume party. Our costumes are a secret, but if they turn out like we hope, I'll post pictures Sunday or morning. So, we're not getting much rest this week. Maybe next week will be our recuperating week. Well, that's all the news from the Noe's. Here's some pictures of our trip.

We have hair!!

Here's a few pictures of Hayden...with hair! It's been 13 months of waiting, but he has really started sprouting hair the past couple of weeks. Last night for church we decided to spike it up like a mohawk. Matt said " I feel like this is wrong, tricking him up like this for church!" He was a big hit though. His Bible class teachers thought he was cute and he had a lot of compliments. It really fits his personality, so I think I'll keep it spiked up. The other pictures are of us playing with it during bath time. In other news, we are going to Oklahoma in a week to see Matt's parents. After that, we're staying with our friends Jenn and Zac and their boys for the weekend. We are really excited. Of course I've already been having nightmares of what could go wrong on the flight. He's flown (is that how you spell that?) about 5 or 6 times, but I could nurse him and he'd go to sleep. Now that he's a wild toddler, I don't know what's gonna happen. I can't decide between Baby Einstein or Benadryl. Ha!Ha! My dreams lately have also involved terrorists on our plane. The dream had alternate endings one night. One ending was that one blew up the plane and I was soaring through the air and realized Hayden wasn't in my arms. The other ending was that Matt and the other men tackled the terrorists and took them down so we could land. Sound familiar? That could be a 9/11 story if Matt had said "Let's Roll!" Maybe if I decide on Benadryl over Baby Einstein my dreams will start being of me watching Pretty Woman on the DVD player, sipping a Diet Coke with Hayden sound asleep. That sounds more pleasant!!

Favorite Things

Two of Hayden's favorite things are "building" things with his daddy and being naked. This past weekend, Matt taught a class at our youth rally and he built a cross so the kid's could "nail" a sin they wrote on a piece of paper to the cross. Well, Hayden "helped" him build the cross! I would be holding two of the pieces together for Matt to nail them in and Hayden would come sit on the boards and they'd fall. Then he'd hit us over the head with the empty apple juice bottle he was playing with. Then he almost snapped his fingers in the tape measurer. So, we decided that it was time for a little nap:) He loves the tools and I really think he believes he's helping. I told Matt when Hayden gets older, they'll have to go up to Home Depot on Saturdays and build stuff together. As far as these naked pictures go, Hayden loves to have naked time every night. When he gets out of the bathtub, just before he goes to bed he gets to play naked. Matt and I just sit and laugh at him. I just want to bite that cute little hiney! (ok, sometimes we do bite it!) Yesterday he got to play naked downstairs. Sometimes the "toy" he decides to play with while naked isn't really a toy! (ya know what I mean??) So, here's some pictures of Hayden's favorite things.

This is for you Jenn!!

Ok Jennifer. You wanted me to update my blog. I don't have anything new to talk about right now, so this blog entry is for my favorite person in the world...I mean, besides Buster and Hayden:)

Big Boy!

Matt and I took Hayden to get his first birthday pictures made. Here's a few of my favorites!! He looks so big in all of them. He's started acting like a toddler and not so much like a baby lately. He's really been trying to talk a lot! He can say Mama, Dada, Bye, dog, duck, ball, light, bath, and "Da-Da-Den" for Hayden. He's been so much fun the past month and we are excited to see what this year brings us!