On A Mission!!

We're on a mission in our house! We are potty training Hayden finally. We are on week two and he has only had about two accidents so far! (that's tee-tee, not poo!) Here's the new mission.....trying to convince him that boys stand up when they tee-tee!!! I don't know if he's more relaxed sitting down or what, but we're kind of wondering what we're going to do about that when he needs to go at school or out in public! He's watched Matt go, we had him watch my nephew (he even showed him it's ok to go in the backyard!), and we've explained what girls do and what boys do. He just can't make tee-tee come out when he stands up. Maybe it's stage fright? So, if anyone has any pointers for the standing up thing AND what you did when you ventured out of the house in the beginning, it would be much appreciated. Hooray forno more Size 3 AND Size 5 diapers in my house!!!!

Sweet Baby Carson Jones Noe

I wanted to do a post just about my Carson!! I've been blogging since 2005 when Hayden was born, so he has a lot more tributes to him than Carson does! Of course he makes it in all my recent posts, but his brother is always with him. So, this is for Carson. Carson is definitely completely different than Hayden. I just knew when I had my second child that I would do things just like I did the first time and all would just "flow." Not so much! Hayden slept through the night for the first time when he was 6 weeks old and pretty much has every night since. Carson woke up numerous times through the night for at least 4 months! I could lay Hayden in his crib at 10:00 am for a nap and then again at 2:00 for his second nap. I could definitely get two, two hour naps out of him each day!! Carson slept IN MY ARMS for probably 6 months. He would sleep about once a day and for maybe an hour and a half. You would also think that getting him to sleep with a two year old in the house wouldn't be that hard because he's heard the "noise" since we brought him home from the hospital. Wrong! Carson now goes to sleep about 8:30pm and sleeps all night long. Getting him to sleep, though, requires complete silence in the room he's falling asleep in. (ask the families who stayed in our condo at Galveston!) He also takes two naps a day but he has to be back in my bedroom, in his pack n play, with a loud fan on! How I figured that out, I'm not sure. I could do things one time with Hayden and he did it. It's taken us almost 9 months to figure this other little guy out. Maybe it's just the second child who has a wild and crazy big brother. I know that with Hayden, we woke up every morning and I showered and got dressed and put a cute outfit on him. These days, Dada comes home and I'm in a grungy tshirt, shorts, hair pulled back in a clip and the only "clean" thing I've done all day is put deodorant on, brushed my teeth, and washed my cereal bowl out. Hayden still has pj's on most days when Matt gets home and poor little second child just crawls around in a diaper all day. But, he is such a doll. He's lovable (completely happy sitting in someone's lap all day), has the cutest smile in the world, and is so curious! He also loves his big brother to death! With all his little quirks, I still think he's so yummy!!

Things I love about my boys.....

I'll start with Matt....
I love his smell, especially the smell of his underarms! (when I do laundry, I sniff his shirts)
I love how active he is. For example....today after church, the boys and I napped and he swam laps at the pool!
I love how hard he works. He puts in so much hard work all day then comes home and works even harder! (may be the reason why he sets his reminder on his phone to "take my B12")
I love that he is so involved in his boys lives. He's always said "they're half mine...why would I make you do everything." He loves them more than anything in this world.
I love that every night before we go to sleep I say "sleep good" and he says "you too sweetie." We've said that every night for the past nine years!!
I could keep going with Matt, but I'll move on to Hayden.....
I love that he tells me every night to have happy dreams.
I love that he calls Carson his little "stinker bug."
I love that he calls coyotes "karate's" and tilts his head back and howls like one.
I love that he is one of the most polite little kids around! ( he says please and thank you etc. way more than I do!)
And on to my Carson.....
I love that he is so curious that when you tell him "no-no" he just looks and grins b/c he's gonna keep doing it no matter what!
I love that when I say "give me kisses" he gives me the best little kiss and slips me the tongue!
I love that he has so many rolls in his leg that he gets "chapped."
I love that he's so chubby, he sweats like a fat man!
I don't know what spurred this post but since I had such a cute picture of my boys right before church this morning, I thought I'd send a little shout out to them! I've got the best guys around. My favorite thing Hayden tells me is "I'm a silly goose, Dadda's a silly goose, Carson's a silly goose...but you're a princess Momma." Here's to my boys....I love all three of you!!

Momma said there'd be days like this......

Let me just start this off with saying I'm about to pull my hair out!! You know, you get your baby and yourself through the sleepless nights stage and you think "it's all good now!" WRONG!! Even though my children are only 26 months apart, I have forgotten about all the stages they go through. And the two stages we're in right now....teething and crawling! On Monday morning, I hear Hayden wake up (his usual time which is about 6:45) and does he come to my room? Nope, he goes in to his brothers room and I hear "wake up you little stinker bug." What? Please tell me he didn't just do what I think he did. Oh yes, both boys awake before the 7 o'clock hour. About 9:00 I got Carson down for his nap. A 30 minute nap. Wow Carson, you must feel so rested! So, we make it to the afternoon nap and Hayden's down and it's Carson's turn to go down for a long nap. Well, he fights me for about an hour and finally gives up. I lay him down and go to the couch for my afternoon nap (that just kills me if I don't have) and right about the time I dose off, I hear Hayden say "wake up Momma, I need a snack." As I stumble to the kitchen, I hear Hayden go to Carson's room. I felt like I was running in slow motion (which is really the way I look anyways). I get to Carson's door and he's screaming. So, I pick him up and start rocking him and tell Hayden to go to the living room to play. I almost have Carson asleep again when I hear Hayden go out the front door!! I lay Carson down in his crib (screaming now) and run out to get him. I give him the talk about someone stealing him from us etc and give him goldfish, turn Dora on and tell him to stay on the couch. Start rocking Carson again.....and out the front door Hayden goes again!! He had two popsicles and was going outside to eat them. Now the wooden spoon comes out and I go back to rocking Carson again. I get him to sleep and right as I'm laying him down I hear "Andrea...Andrea??" My neighbor Sarah found Hayden in the front yard again!! When she yelled my name, guess who woke up? I give up at this point and Hayden goes to time out, with a spanking, for what felt like 30 minutes. I was so mad!! Day two...today! Hayden goes down for his nap and who decides to fight me from 1:15 until 3:45?? Carson Jones Noe!! He gets to sleep and my MS chronic fatigue feeling is in full effect at this point. I lay on the couch and hear "Momma, I need a snack." Oh my gosh!!!!! Luckily Carson slept for two hours and I needed that break from him. He's into everything and I have just completely forgotten what this "stage" feels like. Is it worse to have a baby who just lays there but wakes up through the night or one that sleeps all night but during the day cries b/c his gums hurt and you have to pull them out from under the table every 2.5 seconds? I always think back to Angie's blog when she wrote about that song "You're Gonna Miss This" and I try to tell myself that very thing and then I start thinking....really? I'm gonna miss this?? Ha,ha!! Hope you all are having a better start to your week than we are in the Noe house!

4th of July

My sweet little boys
Hayden and Grant
Jordan, Chance, Trenton
Wish I had a better pic of the boys....they matched!
Hayden and MiMi
Carson was tired of the fireworks
Kurt, Carrie, Mady, and Grant
Mimi and PawPaw
David and Larissa
The cutest couple in the family
Hayden taking care of his brother
I guess I should post my 4th of July pictures before it's the 4th of August huh? My whole family came to stay with us this year. My parents came, my brother Kurt and his wife Carrie Beth and their kids Mady and Grant and my brother David and his family drove down from Corinth. Kurt lives in Burnet and his little boy is just two months younger than Hayden. They have so much fun together. As soon as everyone got here, we sent the men to the grocery store and the girls took the kids to our pool. 4th of July morning, mom cooked a huge breakfast for everyone and then we all went to NRH2O water park. Mom and dad stayed home with Carson. It was nice to just have Hayden to watch after. We cooked out that evening and then went to Trophy Club to see fireworks. It wasn't crowded at all and it was a really good fireworks show. I love being with my family because we have so much fun hanging out together and just talking. It's definitely a zoo with 8 adults and 7 kids but it's a blast!! Here's some pictures from the weekend.