Preparing for the "Big Day"!!

Dana came up last Wednesday to visit with us and to help prepare for Noel's 1st birthday party! We had a ton of fun in the process, and I think it all paid off. The house was looking absolutely Seuss-a-riffic. ;-)

The first night, we stayed up to make a "happy birthday" banner. Dana traced them out, and I cut them. So we thought we had them all done, and then we arranged our letters. Haha! This is what happens when you stay up too late trying to make crafts.

Dana working hard on the deviled eggs :)

Dana filling up our green deviled eggs

Cutting out our "wockets" :)

Noel opening her first birthday present!

Gooo Hokies!

Today we went over to Eric and Sandra's for some Hokie football, accompanied by some awesome ribs and all the fixins.

The game was pretty ho-hum/depressing up until the last 2 minutes. I'm sure all of you know how the game went, though...so no details on that. But when VT intercepted and ran it down the field for the winning touchdown, we all went nuts! It made me miss Virginia Tech/Blacksburg even more, if that's possible. I'd love to move back there someday!

We had a great time at their house - Noel included. It was a little difficult keeping tabs on the game when the only thing your child wants to do is eat the rocks from the driveway, pull the dogs ears, pull empty cans out of the garbage, and climb the stairs. She's such a busy little bee!

This is Hannah and Dale - Dale is Eric & Sandra's little boy

Decked out in her hokie gear!Playin' near the sand pit

Swinging on the hammock with Noel & Hannah

More kisses to Hannah!!

She loves her some Trix yogurt!!!

Home away from home

These were taken a few weeks ago, but I figured "better late than never" :) I did post a couple of videos, but here are the pictures.

Noel and I took a few days to visit our family in Roanoke! Mostly, we just enjoyed ourselves and stayed in. We did take a few trips out, for dinner on Friday night, to Babies R Us/Toys R Us, and to the mall for a VERY quick shopping trip. Noel does fine in a stroller for the first...15-20 minutes, but past that she becomes quite intolerant! It was nice though, to be able to go anywhere our hearts desired, and have it be within a 10 minute drive! Right now we plan our trips into town very meticulously.

Here are some pictures

Havin some fun with Grandpa

Making her rounds!

Frolicking in the grass

Do you want my leaf? I'll share it with you!

How cute is this??

Visiting with Isaac :)

Playgroup

Sorry for the delay, folks. Time just seems to be going by so fast lately, and we've got a lot going on!

We will be taking a trip into Richmond this week to visit Grandpa in the hospital. He is having bypass surgery - he thought it could be treated with medications alone, but the doctors are strongly recommending the surgery. Of course we're all concerned, because it's a major surgery, but I'm sure Grandpa will pull through this just fine.

Noel's birthday party is coming up in a couple of weekends, so we're gearing up for that. We need to take a trip into C'ville tomorrow actually, to get some party supplies. In a way I'm kind of dreading her birthday!! I don't want her to turn 1, because she won't be my baby anymore!! I know that sounds completely ridiculous, but I can't seem to think of it any other way. It really does seem like just yesterday that we met her for the first time. So many monumental things have happened in the past year, and in my mind they are all a BLUR. It's hard to think of the changes she'll make in the coming year, too!

In other news, I heard from the other job I interviewed for...and they are postponing the start date of the candidate, because of budgeting issues. At least I still have a chance to get it, though!

I have just one other job prospect at this point, and it's for an administrative assistant, but at this point I'll take what I can get.

Noel has been talking a lot lately! Most of the time it's just jibberish, but she says "Dada" "Daddy", "Mama" and "Hi" pretty well. She is also waving a lot!

She keeps bringing me her "Bee and Me" book to read to her OVER and OVER again. She's usually not big on books, but for some reason this week she is.

Anyway, here are some pictures from a playgroup we went to this past Tuesday...

The mater face

This past weekend Noel was ON FIRE about doing her mater impression. We think it was because my mom would laugh so hard at her everytime she'd do it - she'd do it over and over again.

I got it on video!

And this is one from last night - Noel was talking to the kitty, who was right outside the window.