Sarah Joy is 11 months!!

I just can't believe that it was 11 months ago today that my baby girl was born! Where does the time go and why does it have to go so fast? She definately has turned into her own little person and a good girl she is, thankfully! She is a very content child, easily teachable (so far) and has meshed well with the rest of the family. It is hard to imagine our lives without her!

Let's see.....she started walking at 9 months, but not officially a walker (falls and gets back up on her own) until about 10 1/2 months.

Not only is she walking, but she is also climbing! Her favorite thing to do right now is take the top off of her activity table and climb inside!

She isn't satisfied with just climbing in now either......she has to stand up in it! *rolls eyes*

If you look closely you can see her "war wounds". She has fallen numerous times now that she is Miss Independent!

These next pictures were taken today, on her 11 month birthday. She was playing "princess" in the girl's room.

Here she is calling Nonnie on the phone. See, she is dialing!

Nonnie, is that you?

Nope, wrong number. She has to dial again!

Now she got it right! Hi Nonnie!!!

From princess to dirt queen! Having fun in the dirt.

"God made dirt; dirt can't hurt"??? I'm hoping that's true! *sigh*

1 Samuel 1:27
For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him:

Caleb sang in church...

...with the middle/high school choir and now that I know what I can do with these video clips on my camera, we taped the whole thing! Yay! Now, grandparents can enjoy the kids singing!

Psalms 95:1

O come, let us sing unto the LORD:
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

I missed a blogging moment!

Ok, so I am so bummed out! I missed a blogging moment, but I still must write about it! First, I have to give you some background. Noah was given one of those little blankets with an animal head on it before his first birthday. Maybe he got it for his first CHristmas when he was 6 weeks old? I really can't remember when he got it. Anyways, he never cared for it until his paci got taken away at around 12 months. I went in to check on him before I went to bed, and there he lay, on his back on his bed with the tag from this little blanket in his mouth. It is like he was saying, you can take away my paci, but I will still find something to put in my mouth. Ski and I laughed thinking it was so cute and funny. Well, to continue with the story, this blanket was blue with an elephant head on it. We called it Elmer the Elephant. Noah really started getting attached to this blanket. Then we noticed that he was not carrying this blanket in a normal fashion. He would hold the tag on the blanket between his pointer finger and his middle finger and that is how he would carry it around. (see picture below)This is about the time we realized that Noah was a bird of his own feather (Is that a real saying?). Noah gets a little older and is starting to talk. By this point he calls his blanket "ELMER". Remember, Elmer the Elephant? So, we were all sitting in the van, waiting for Ski to grab a couple of groceries no doubt, and the kids and I were talking to Noah about his blanket along with other things trying to get him to say words. So, I held up his elephant head and said "What's this?" He said "elephant" (in his own language that I don't know how to spell). I held up the blanket part and said "whats this?" He said blanket (again in his own language). By this point I am confused! He had been calling it ELMER!! So, I held up the tag (you know, the thing he holds between his pointer and his middle finger?) and said "what's this?" He said "ELMER!" EUREKA! We had figured it out! The elephant wasn't "Elmer" as WE had named him......the tag was "Elmer"!!! Well, somewhere along the line, we lost this blue elmer! I thought what are we going to do?? He LOVES elmer! So, I went on ebay and found the exact one and bought him another! Then at a yard sale, I found him a purple one!

As time went on, I realized that Noah didn't care where the elmer was located, he just like elmers! He began sucking his thumb at around age 2 1/2 years. So, here we have a 2 1/2 year old sucking his thumb while holding any elmer in the other hand. He isnt just holding this elmer either. He would rub his nose, ear, belly, leg or foot with this elmer, any elmer!

Last Christmas, Noah had just turned 3, and Austin bought a Curious George at Target's $1 section and it had an elmer on it. When Austin got home, he decided he didn't want that tag on him and was going to cut it off. Noah was watching from the beginning and when he realized that Austin was going to cut off Elmer he got frantic! He screamed "NOOOOOO! You can't cut off Elmer!" Austin just thought it was funny and cut it off and gave the Elmer to Noah.

Well, last week, Noah decided to cut off an Elmer off of his beloved Curious George that he found at a yard sale that was just like another one that he had received from his Nonnie and Papa

(see below picture). Alana came running to me and said "Noah cut elmer off of his George". Noah came walking in the room with thumb in mouth and elmer rubbing his ear.

So, as for my blogging moment that I missed today (you probably thought I would never get there). After lunch, Noah was sitting on the couch digging in his nose! Gross, I know. I looked at him strange and his eyes were huge and watering and he said "Elmer is up there!" I was like "Oh great!" Ski, who was still here for lunch, thankfully, leaned him back and looked up his nose with a flashlight while I went to get the tweasers. When I came back I asked Ski if he saw it but he didn't and he didn't think it was up there, but I saw the look on Noahs face when he told me and his eyes were watering, etc. So, I looked up his nose and sure enough, elmer was up there! It was WAY up there. I told Ski we were going to have to take him in, but he refused to take him to the doctor for having an elmer stuck up his nose! We sat him up and told him to blow, who was at this point hysterical because he had an elmer stuck up his nose. We finally got him to blow really hard and I heard it come down his nostril some. So we leaned him back again and I was able to pull it out to which Noah giggled with glee. *Side note....elmer was washed and put away in Noah's treasure box*

Noah might have cured himself from Elmer. No elmer, no thumb? Seeing that he is almost 4 years old, that is probably a good thing. We shall see! Nope! I just went and checked on him and he is sitting with his George (the one with the elmer still attached) and another elmer in his lap and his thumb in his mouth! *sigh*

This is our prayer for Noah!!!
Genesis 6:8
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
Genesis 6:9
Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.