Uncle Bryan

We were so excited when my brother Bryan decided to spend his spring break with us once again. This time, however, Mother Nature decided to play an extremely funny joke and dump a whole lot of snow on Maryland the day of his arrival. So long, sunny Florida, hello Arctic!

The storm hit really hard in the afternoon and was still going strong by the evening, resulting in dangerous road conditions and warnings to stay home. Great! Just what we all wanted to hear when we have to be at the airport to pick up Bryan! We made the decision to put him up at a hotel for the night and by Friday morning the sun was shining, the roads were great, and we were reunited with our favorite Uncle Bryan!!

While Bryan was here he got to watch both boys play in their basketball playoff games;

we saw the movie McFarland, USA, which was fabulous;

and he got to read some of the greatest literature to the boys! They were all "smiles". I still can't believe he read the whole book to them in one sitting...what a great uncle!

And of course there's always lots of goofing off when Uncle Bryan is around. He can always make us laugh!

The Frozen Tundra

Apparently some time in January I moved to the Arctic and didn't know it.  No joke, this winter has definitely been the coldest we've had since we've lived in Maryland the past 10 years. We bundled up for multiple days of negative temperatures; we even had church cancelled several Sundays in a row due to either snow, ice, or freezing cold temps! The kids had a bunch of snow days once again and we didn't venture out a whole lot due to dangerous road conditions. More than anything else it's the ice that makes me extremely nervous but even I can admit it sure is beautiful to look at.

I had to be extremely cautious as I walked across our front lawn to grab a few pictures because it sure was slippery. It was amazing to see the ice break beneath my feet!

One afternoon after an ice storm I opened up the back door to take some pictures of the back yard and when I turned around there on the floor behind me was my sweet cat Googie. He had seen a chance and took it, racing in and then reveling in the warmth of the house and the softness of the carpet.

He stretched and rolled back and forth for several minutes and then looked at me as if to say, "What?" Poor Googie, he's always trying to be an indoor cat and just can't figure out why I won't let him. When I went to pick him up and put him outside he became a dead weight, hoping he would be too heavy to lift. That cat!

Not only did we get several ice storms but we got plenty of snow once again!

One afternoon I decided to go out for a walk and take some pictures of the beautiful snowy landscape.  Someone else had decided to go for a walk as well!

I met up with Savannah after awhile who reluctantly became my "snowy afternoon" model.

She's so easy to work with...she even did snow angels for me.

Snow at night is always so beautiful...

and the kids loved to just sit and watch it fall.

By the end of March everyone was pretty much done with all the cold weather. Spring and warmer weather can't come soon enough!

That's Our No!

Like Xander, Noah was also very involved with basketball this winter. It was his first time playing and we saw bucket loads of improvement by the end of the season.

The Bullets!

His nonchalant run up the floor.

He was a great little defender, always trying to get that ball away from the other team.

This was right before he made his first basket...I was SOOOOO excited when it actually went in!!

He ended up making several shots this year!

Another first for Noah - playing the piano! Jonah has been such a great teacher for Noah!

Despite his initial enthusiasm, Noah's excitement about playing the piano has waned over the past few weeks and we're not sure if we'll have him continue in the fall. But for now he's working hard to play in his first recital at the end of May.

School continues to be a happy place for Noah and he works hard while he's there though not so much on the homework he brings home. If it's a project, though, he's all over it! He loves to be creative!

In his social studies class the students got to choose an American symbol and create a project about it. Noah came running home with the assignment instructions as well as a blueprint that he had already drawn up about what he wanted his bald eagle to look like. We had to tweak it a bit but the end result was awesome! And he did all of it himself!!

Being the king of dress up, Noah always gets super excited about Character Day at school. Once again he went as the black knight.

One of my favorite things to do with my kids is to read with them. Whether it's me reading to them or them reading to me, I always look forward to it. Noah has been steadily reading The Magic Treehouse series to me but decided to take a little break because, as he put it, he just wanted to read to himself. The librarian at the school had introduced him to The Dragonslayer series which had him enthralled! Once he finished reading all those it was back to the Treehouse series for us which made me quite happy because I had definitely missed our special reading time together.

Most days when Noah gets home from school he heads straight outside to play until dinner. He hangs out with Savannah and Xander and other kids in the neighborhood and they roam all over the place. They have forts that they've set up in the woods or there's the playground just up the street or there's the river down the hill that Noah is always falling into or there's plenty of places to just run around and play tag or war or whatever. One thing that Noah really liked doing this winter, however, was "snowboarding" with the other boys. Several of the neighborhood kids had actual little snowboards but Noah got creative and made his own. Yes, so ghetto but he loved it!

And when you have ghetto snowboards you end up getting hurt. This kid's legs are constantly covered with scratches, bumps, and bruises though he takes it all really well and just applies ice packs or bandaids as needed.

He continues to be a lovey little kid, with lots of cuddle time for both me and David.

And we've had a few Mommy/Noah dates that I treasure.

Quite a few Sunday evenings and Family Home Evenings have been spent discussing baptism and covenants because in just a few short weeks our little No will be getting baptized. He has such a sweet spirit and is so excited for this big event in his life. One morning we were talking about his best friend Ava and he told me that she was only going to be his best friend for a few more weeks. I asked him how come and he answered that he was getting a new best friend soon. I asked him who it was going to be and his reply was, "My new best friend is going to be the Holy Ghost." Awww, that absolutely melted my heart! I hope he always feels that way!

And then he shows up to scripture reading with no pants on...because that's just Noah! The kid loves to be funny! For Christmas I bought him some furry feet slippers, thinking they would be a huge hit with him. With his great love of all things Lord of the Rings he could now fit right in with his very own hobbit feet. But when he unwrapped them he had an absolute meltdown, crying and screaming that he didn't want them. His reaction totally took me aback and I just put them away, planning on returning them. Well, he eventually fished them out and stuck them on one night and has been in love with them ever since. (Moms know!!)

He especially loves them because he knows how funny he looks in them!

Yes, Noah loves to entertain and say outrageous things to make us all laugh. Whether it's wearing goofy things...

or dressing up as Santa (he made his own costume)...

or pretending he's Master Shifu from Kung Fu Panda...

or greeting me with a mustache one day when I picked him up from the bus stop...

he's always good for a laugh!

Pure outrageousness - that's our Noah!

The show never stops until he goes to bed. And then we all get a break until the next day!!