christmas 2011

christmas time has come and gone already, but we will certainly be taking some sweet memories with us into the new year. noah seemed to thoroughly enjoy his first holiday season and all that came with it. as mentioned in his 10 month post, the boy couldn't get enough of taking the bows off his presents -- or anyone else's, for that matter -- and enjoyed seeing all the different christmas trees and watching christmas cartoons at home.

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on christmas eve we spent the day at my parent's house where we met up with my siblings and their families and we enjoyed dinner before heading to church. after the service we took some family photos at home, then let the three youngest quickly unwrap their gifts before bedtime. noah and brie were both celebrating their first christmases this year, but because of the late hour (it was already past bedtime by the time we were opening gifts), they probably didn't enjoy it as much as they will in the years to come. noah was a trooper though and took all the bows off his gifts before allowing me to unwrap them for him.

the next day we loaded up in the armada with uncle jared and my parents for a trip to waco to visit the extended family including the great-grandparents. we enjoyed *lots* of tasty food and noah spent the better part of his day chasing around several of the small dogs -- something he's not used to since lexi is practically his own personal pony. our trooper slept on the way down and on the way home and was so sacked out by the time we got back that he went to bed in his "regular" clothes and slept all night. he obviously didn't care about being in pajamas ;)

the next morning we celebrated christmas again, this time opening the presents from the grandparents in ohio and the few gifts that matt and i had purchased for him. the plan had initially been to open these gifts on christmas morning before leaving for waco, but thanks to the late-night festivities on christmas eve, noah slept until 9am! that didn't leave much time for opening presents christmas morning, so instead we enjoyed spending the leisurely monday morning opening gifts and then assembling and playing with them until it was noah's naptime.

noah's 1st christmas

noah wanted to make sure i said a big "thank you" to all the grandparents for his wonderful gifts! we have already enjoyed playing with most of them and the clothes have been washed and are ready for wear! thank you for helping to make our christmas special, not just with gifts but with your presence! we love you and merry christmas!!!

10 months

christmas time!!!

another month come and gone, and with it the holiday season has passed us by in a rush! noah's first christmas seemed to come and go all too quickly, but we did get to enjoy some time off work and spend the holiday with family. christmas eve also marked noah's 10th month in this world, and looking back it's hard to believe that it's been that long ago that he made his debut in our family. he has grown so much since then, of course, but i still look at him and see a sweet little boy who does things in very much his own way.

before christmas, we celebrated the november birthdays -- a 4 of them -- with the traditional dinner and several desserts at my parents house. a few weeks later, noah spent the holiday enjoying extra time with both myself and his daddy, since we somehow (?!) managed to have several days off together during the week of christmas. we spent christmas eve with my parents and christmas day in waco with the extended family. noah did fabulously both days, despite being away from things familiar and staying up (too) late on christmas eve, you can see more in the christmas post.

happy, happy boy!

in developmental news, noah spent the majority of the month attempting to remove *all* the bows from his christmas presents under the tree, and enjoying seeing the christmas tree lights twinkling at him throughout the day. we did not attempt to take him to see santa (partly because this was never a tradition in our family and partly because matt and i hate fighting crowds), but we did enjoy other christmas activities including baking cookies, watching christmas movies (hello, grinch, garfield, and charlie brown!), and decorating the tree. noah even helped me wrap a few gifts, which was an interesting experience for all -- including some gift recipients! noah continues to chatter on throughout the day, entice us to "get him" during playtime and snuggle before nap time. his favorite songs of late are 5 pumpkin pies, the ABC's, 5 little monkeys (swingin' from a tree), and thanks to his father, the 12 days of christmas. other favorite things include cell phones and remote controls, eating blueberries and standing in his highchair. that last one won him the honor of being buckled in with the 5-point harness system in the highchair to prevent tumbles. he still isn't a fan of getting strapped in, but he no longer attempts to crawl out of his dinner seat and once the straps are on, he doesn't seem to notice them at all. he also looks like a little astronaut, which is darn near hilarious to us as parents. oh, the little things :)

i'm a little surprised we don't have a walker on our hands yet, with as anxious as he seems to move around on his own, but i know that when he's ready there will be no turning back. and, according to every parent i've ever known, i should be in no rush to have him walking. but, like every new mom, i want to see him reach and succeed at this developmental milestone...the struggles of knowing too much with no personal experience! despite his unsteadiness in the walking department, noah has begun to tentatively wave to us and occasionally he will clap if he gets excited, too. he doesn't always associate these actions with the correct times, and it's hit-or-miss as to whether he will do them on request, but we're still making strides in non-verbal communication. i forgot to mention it in the last post, but noah has also gotten pretty good at shaking his head "no" when he doesn't want something. hopefully the signs we have been teaching him will start to sink in, too and our big boy will finally be able to ask for "more" blueberries, "please" :)

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a family pic

other exciting news this month? noah got to stay home with grandma sharon while matt and i went out to celebrate our 4th anniversary. we both worked on the actual day, so we celebrated on a sunday instead and enjoyed a leisurely dinner out followed by drinks at a bar. it might not sound that interesting, but it was a nice change of pace and we enjoyed spending the time together as "grown ups." :)

as this year rapidly draws to a close, i find myself looking forward to milestones, struggles and triumphs next year and (or including?) planning a first birthday party, as well as bringing in the new year with my two favorite guys.

we hope you enjoyed a fabulous holiday season, see you in the new year!

even more pics are included below:

10 months

cookie fest 2011

time for the annual miller cookie fest! and by "miller" i mean miller-childers-proctor-king, of course ;)

just for starters...

uncle jared and noah talking with aunt shari and cousin gabriella

as we have done for the last several years, we got together at my parent's house to bake some tasty christmas-time treats. on the menu this year? m&m cookies, snickerdoodles, sugar cookies, haystacks, puppy chow, sugared pecans and banana bread. despite the increasing number of grandchildren and all those tasty treats, we actually did a better job of starting on time and finishing up our baking before it got too late, which is especially nice with little people who have early bedtimes and several kiddos who had school early the next morning! we were actually able to finish everything before dinner! it was a great chance to get together, spend some time in the kitchen with my sisters and mom (which is what always makes it feel the most like the holidays) and let all the cousins and "brothers" get together (jared, ray and matt always enjoy some guy time while we're in the kitchen).

noah keeping lookout in the kitchen

part of the kitchen crew

noah gets some love from liv

lunch with alia

practicing walking with liv

we ended up with a ton of sweets and some really sweet memories, too. happy holidays, everyone!

9 month pictures

...as captured and edited by the fabulous Leah Luquette! enjoy!

see more of them here:

9 month pics

first thanksgiving

part of the food

it's holiday time and that means noah is enjoying another round of firsts, including his first thanksgiving. we celebrated with the extended family at ray & sarah's house and enjoyed a day of food, fun and the opportunity to count our many blessings. noah had a great time seeing great aunts and uncles and playing with cousins. matt and i enjoyed ourselves too, even though this year wasn't nearly as much fun for me since i couldn't attribute all the eating to being pregnant, or enjoy the comfort of maternity pants ;) i did, unfortunately, have to work at 7pm, but since i don't have to drive downtown anymore i didn't have to leave the celebration *too* early.

we hope you enjoyed your thanksgiving with family and friends and had the opportunity to thank God for all your blessings, too. happy turkey day!

the guys...

busy in the kitchen

girls!

my mom and sister

noah enjoys playtime with daddy in a borrowed hat

football!

turkey comas and football

9 months

thanks to his eagerness to join us on this side of the womb, our sweet son noah has already been living in this world longer than he was in utero! while this is a milestone in itself, noah has been making strides in developmental ways, also. the biggest news? this month noah learned to feed himself! per the pediatrician's recommendations, we started noah on cheerios and even though it took him a while to come around to the new texture and taste, in no time at all noah was learning to shovel the little o's into his mouth by the handful. much to lexi's liking, a few always tend to fall to the floor for her taking, also. consequently, as we've added more foods to noah's meals, lexi has had to cut back on her kibble intake. we've added a number of fruits and vegetables to his menu, but we rapidly discovered that our sweet son has one favorite food: blueberries. the child would eat an entire crate of them if we let him! i promise i'm not exaggerating, as anyone who has witnessed him eating can verify this fact. other favorites include grapes, peas, and bananas, but he also eats bread, turkey, green beans and sweet potatoes.

mobility-wise noah has continued to improve his crawling speed and has grown more confident in his standing and cruising abilities. he's not quite ready to let go of whatever is steadying him, but he will use just one hand or simply lean against something so he can use both hands for a toy. this is strides away from his white-knuckle grasp that was previously employed when standing. i'm sure we will have a walker on our hands in no time.

noah on the move, with his own signature crawl:

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noah has also become much more verbal, chatting constantly while playing and especially while eating. he strings together phrases of syllables and stops to smile every so often when he realizes you are in on his conversation. he continues to have a love for his rubber-tipped spoon as a teething aid, but also loves calculators and phones and is always a little jealous if we try to check something on the computer and don't give him a turn at the keyboard. noah has also developed a love of vacuuming, or maybe more appropriately, the vacuum itself. i can only assume this has to do with the fact that, thanks to lexi, we vacuum nearly every day. he now squeals with excitement when he sees me wheel the vacuum out of the closet and when it's sitting unused between rooms noah crawls up to it and acts like it's his favorite toy. so funny! he has also developed a fascination with the dishwasher and is eager to crawl up to (and onto) it whenever we are doing dishes. i can only hope that this attitude carries over into the coming years when it's time for him to do chores! :)

socially, noah was busy again this month, spending time with his cousins on halloween and for the pumpkin carving just before. we also celebrated his daddy's birthday at home and thanksgiving (exactly 9 months after his birth) with the extended family. these events are more and more fun for him as he gets better at interacting with people and playing with his cousins. i can't wait to see what the next few months have in store for us...before our sweet "little baby" turns ONE! this year has flown by and it's been quite a ride!

9 months

and to end on a happy note, some noah giggles from november 16th:

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just in time for thanksgiving...

...noah can feed himself! check out the video:

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our little pumpkin

our sweet little pumpkin spent his first halloween with his cousins, trick-or-treating from door to door in uncle ray & aunt sarah's neighborhood. fortunately, matt didn't have to work that evening and i didn't have to be at work until 11pm (instead of the usual 7pm) so we got to spend the first part of the night toting our little jack-o-lantern around the neighboorhood and doing the thing that parents do best: show him off! it's a good thing he's cute, too, because his cousins were practically stealing the show in their adorable wizard of oz themed outfits my sister coordinated for them (with 4 kids they had a dorothy, a tin man, a scarecrow and a little lion! so cute!). noah wasn't big into the actual trick-or-treat part of the night, but he seemed to enjoy being outside and spending time with all his cousins.

he also *really* enjoyed dumping out the candy after we got back to the house. since he's obviously not allowed to eat any of it, he just got to play with the candy that was heaped on the floor, which was probably his favorite part of the evening. the night was a lot of fun, only tainted by the fact that i had to head to work afterward. a big thanks to the proctors for letting us come to their neighborhood for trick-or-treating and for loaning us a noah-sized costume. next year we'll have to plan a 5-kid theme! ;)

halloween 2011

a trip to ohio

ohio 2011

noah took his first trip to ohio this october, which also included lots of other firsts like his first plane ride, first trip to an apple orchard and first time he had to be bundled up for cold weather! we all had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the time to visit with family and friends and spend some time away from work. i won't recount the step-by-step itinerary here, but you can look through the pictures (link above) and see that we kept busy and had a lot of fun!

thanks to all the grandparents and family for hosting us and getting out in the rainy weather to visit us while we were there!

O-H-I-O

8 months

is it even possible that noah is already 8 months old?! with each month our littlest king becomes less and less an infant and more and more his own little self. it's amazing to watch this transformation and see him taking in the world around him and learning new things every day. it should probably make me more sad to see him flying through this first year, but i can't help but be excited when i see him accomplish something for the first time or perfect something he's been working on. his little smile and the look that says, "whoa, i just did that!" is so awesome!

during the past month noah has perfected his crawling skills. he now has no problems cruising through the living room, around in the kitchen or up and down the hall. albeit in his very own "noah way" which looks something like a modified bear crawl. the majority of the time he insists on using his right leg to propel himself forward with it straight in a bear-crawl manner while practically dragging his left leg behind him. at first i was seriously concerned that there was something wrong with one of his legs and did a -- or several-- full nursing assessments on him. finding nothing acutely wrong, i finally gave into the fact that just like everything else our little boy has done, he is going to do this his way and not be influenced by external factors. either way, he's crawling and loving it and we are loving watching him as he grasps his ability to further explore the world around him.

he has also recently developed a love of the "i'm gonna get you" game. he will start crawling away from you if you tell him you're "gonna get him" and then turn to make sure you are actually chasing him. so cute! he also has no problems transitioning from sitting to lying or crawling to sitting. in related news, noah also learned to pull up onto the furniture and stand on his own this month, this was *very* exciting for him, since he had an entirely new vantage point and had always loved to stand anyway. because of this, we also had to lower his crib mattress to the lowest setting. since then there have been several mornings and after-nap times i have walked into his room to see a cute little face looking at me over the top rail when i walk in. the first few times it actually was pretty alarming, since i definitely wasn't used to that!

because of his new-found ability to stand noah has also decided that, if possible, the majority of his day should be spent walking around the house holding onto someone's fingers. hopefully this stage won't last too long, because it tends to wear out your back, or your knees if you go that route instead. he's also been practicing cruising along the furniture, but doesn't care for that nearly as much. in fact, oftentimes i have to place some toy or other incentive on the other end of the couch to convince him to practice walking that way instead of using a personal assistant.

noah has also graduated into the first stage of finger foods, namely cheerios. we started trying them during the week of october 10th and eventually noah warmed up to the idea of non-pureed foods. he's a fan now, although we still have to feed them to him one-by-one, because he hasn't quite figured out the coordination of grasping, transporting, and transferring those little O's to his mouth. it's a work in progress.

in social news, noah had a *very* busy month. on september 25th we made our annual trip to the dallas arboretum with my parents and the proctor kiddos. we had a great time, despite it being unreasonably warm for a trip to the pumpkin patch, and enjoyed the opportunity to capture some pics against the gorgeous fall backgrounds. noah was a good little trooper and eventually took a nap on his daddy's shoulder when he just couldn't take any more fun. hopefully next year we will be able to get some pictures of him there in his halloween costume since that didn't work out this year.

other social events for out little one included a long-anticipated trip to ohio to visit and meet his paternal relatives during the 3rd week of october. despite some serious concern over the flight and how he would cope with such drastic changes to his schedule (a time change and the fact that we had plans pretty much every day!), the trip was a huge success and noah did splendidly. that doesn't mean there weren't tears, bedtime struggles and missed naps, but for the most part noah was a great little trooper and absolutely *loved* all the round-the-clock attention from grandparents, cousins and aunts and uncles. noah did better than expected on the flight, and hopefully that is a pattern that will continue, since i'm sure this was only the first of many flights to ohio (i don't see us choosing the car route for several years...). it also provided a much needed break for us weary parents, away from work and home cares and with some extra hands to help out during the day. it was also the first time in a while that we got to see each other for more than a few hours at a time since we weren't constantly switching "shifts" of work and child care. very nice!

noah also was able to celebrate his cousin jonah's 4th birthday at the fire station in parker. despite the late hours and lack of a nap, noah did a great job at the fire station while watching the older kids play with gear, practice using the fire hoses and crawl around in the fire engines. it was only after dinner and present opening that he really got fussy. understandable!

and, of course, you'll have to check back for pics from noah's first halloween in a few days!

more pics when you click on the image below:

8 months

7 months

so happy :)

our little man turns 7 months old on the 24th and he's been busy! in the past month he has perfected sitting up on his own and rolling front to back, back to front and any other way he pleases. he's been able to roll around for a little while, but he now insists on trying to roll during diaper changes, which makes for an interesting experience. he's also scooting all over the floor. i wouldn't actually call it crawling, yet, but he can get himself over to toys or other items of interest (a new favorite: cell phones....so it begins!) by alternating between getting up on all fours and squirming on his tummy. he figured out how to get up onto his hands and knees one morning while matt was getting ready for work. he was playing on the bed and suddenly pushed up onto all fours. luckily, the camera was nearby and matt and i were both able to witness this milestone. you'd never think that such a little thing would bring about so much excitement. it seriously made our day :)

all fours!

a video from the 16th showing early crawling efforts:

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in the past few days he's also figured out how to go from lying on his stomach to a sitting position all on his own! that one caught me a bit off guard -- we were playing on the floor on our tummies and i looked away for a second and when i looked back he was sitting up. i praised him quite a bit and he gave me a look that said, "what? what's the big deal?" like he'd been able to do that since day 1.

look, ma! no hands!

noah also loves to eat. his feedings are divided between breastmilk and solids and while there are some foods he prefers more than others, there really aren't any that he doesn't like. he's recently taken a more active interest in meal-times though, wanting to touch and play with his food, cup, spoon, etc. and it can get quite messy if we aren't careful! another love? going on walks in his new stroller. he loves to be outside, and now that the weather isn't sweltering every day (it's no longer 95 degrees at 10pm) we are able to go on walks more frequently. a couple times i've even had to put him in long sleeves! speaking of weather, since the last update our status as "hottest texas summer" has been granted! earlier this month we hit the record for most days over 100 degrees (though we missed the mark for consecutive 100 degree days), a whopping 70 days during the summer, beating out the previous record from 1980 (69 days). fortunately, the cooler weather we have been experiencing came right on the tail of that last day, dropping temps into the 80's and low 90's and eventually even bringing some rain. while noah still doesn't seem to care about any of this, he can always say that he lived through the hottest summer in texas.

my two drooling quadripeds...

helping with laundry

other than the record-breaking heat, it's been pretty uneventful around here. matt and i are still working on balancing demanding work schedules and the full-time care of our sweet little man. sometimes it's tough, but noah is so much fun that it's hard to get frustrated at any part of it. even after i've worked all night i can't help but smile when i come home and see that big gummy grin when i walk in the door. so priceless!

yes, there are more pictures. click the image below!

7 months

august/september birthdays

while the summer is drawing to an end, "birthday season" is revving up around here. within 2 weeks we have 3 birthdays here in texas: alex on august 31st, shari on september 7th and my mom on september 9th (after that come october and november birthdays, totaling 5 on my side of the family alone!). our niece madeline sue also celebrated her 3rd birthday on september 7th and enjoyed it with a party in ohio.

for alex, shari and mom's birthdays (their 12th, 35th and 54th, respectively) we celebrated with a meal of croissant sandwiches and fixin's and each birthday honoree's dessert of choice. for the first time in a while, we actually celebrated with a birthday lunch instead of dinner and enjoyed the evening watching the cowboys game (not so enjoyable), talking and relaxing before the older kids all had to head home for early bedtimes before school. just another sign that our family is growing up all the time!

happy birthday to all the special august and september birthdays!

6 month pics

on one of the few days not over 100 degrees, we had our wonderful friend leah luquette come and take some more pictures of noah for his 6 month set. we were actually able to get some pretty good images outside despite noah being a little sleepy (his nap schedule was all off that day, of course) and it still being pretty warm. all in all, i think they turned out pretty great, and you can see noah's curious personality shining through in all of them :)

mirror, mirror...

i didn't post all of them, only most of them...

click the pic below to see more:

noah's 6 month pics