Noah's First Birthday!

My boy turned the big O-N-E this past Friday. I don't know how that happened. He was just born. How can he be one? How can he be smiling and laughing and waving and walking and crawling and saying "hi" when he was just born? It's ridiculous how quickly time has gone by.

2 hours old

1 year old

This past year has been absolutely amazing. I've loved it. I love that little boy so much. I first got baby fever in May of 2008, and waiting until September of 2010 felt so long, but Noah is so worth the wait. He's such a sweet boy. I can't believe how blessed I am.

We had a small party for him this past Saturday. There wasn't much to his party, since he doesn't care right now. In the future, I'll make a bigger deal of it, but it turned out fine, and he enjoyed himself, and that's what's important. I made cupcakes, he opened presents (with help), and then got to play with his new toys, so I'd say it was a success. =)

Birthday cupcake

He liked the strawberry more than the cupcake.

Presents!

In different news, I mentioned a craft I was making a while back. It was this container that I was making pretty. Well, I made it. Was in the process of taking pictures. And then accidentally broke it. So. There goes that craft. But, for the two of you actually reading this, I just did another craft. I didn't take pictures of it in process, just the end result. But it was super easy. And it looks pretty cute. I may even get pictures of it up at some point.

Noah-specific news: he's walking. Not full-time, I think he's somewhere in the 70/30 crawling/walking range. But he's definitely roaming all over. And it's adorable. He waves, says hi, signs milk, claps whenever you say yay. Clapping is his favorite. =) He loves playing "Cat Hunting Airplane," where we zoom him around the room after the cat. Mali is not as excited about this game. And that's all that I can really think of. It's crazy to think of how much he's changed. A year ago, all he did was eat, poop, and sleep. And now he's all over the place, and communicating a little. =)

Crafting

I went to Hobby Lobby today. Pinterest has got me all up in a tizzy and wanting to craft. The problem is I don't have a crafty bone in my body, but I thought the combination of my Pinterest addiction and browsing through Hobby Lobby might inspire me. So I roamed the aisles for a while, while Noah patiently sat in the cart and tried to grab all the bows and springy decoration things he could almost reach.

I have this container that I use to store some stuff (nursing pads and stuff), and it's just a very boring clear plastic container. So I thought I'd (erm, try to) spruce it up. So I bought stuff for that, and then I got sucked into the wood frame and miscellaneous wood things aisle. I ended up buying a big frame and a lion puzzle thing that you can paint and stage around stuff. I'm hoping to make the lion sort of peek over the wood frame... and the frame will be decorated and inside will be a collage of pictures of Noah. I'm hoping to have it done for his first birthday (which is next month!). And I'm hoping, hoping, hoping it doesn't turn out like crap. Because I am not very crafty or talented, so this is all kind of a long shot.... but dangit, I wanted to try.

Tonight I pieced together the scrapbook paper to cover my storage thing in. It's all covered and looking much cuter, but man, I'm terrible at making it look seamless. I have pictures of what I've done so far, but it's not done yet, so I won't post anything. I'm hoping to finish it tomorrow and then try and get a post up, so you can all laugh at my feeble attempt at being crafty. I told Zach that if we had money, I'd totally go crazy and buy a ton of stuff at Hobby Lobby. Then I'd get home and look at everything and have no idea what to do with it. It would probably sit in a corner and be purposefully ignored for a while.

So... that's all, really. I still have Mod Podge on my fingers. Must go wash them more.

Oh, and my baby turned 11 months this past Tuesday. What? I've been totally failing on getting a good picture of him for "x-months old." Mom fails. But here you go.

Spelunking!

We went spelunking today. It was a lot of fun! Mostly because the word "spelunking" is fun to say. Spelunking. Spelunking. I'm a spelunker. Also, saying it several times and in different fonts makes it cooler. Right? Right??

Anyway... There's this state park nearby that has this cave system and there are two ways you can go once you go through the low part in the entrance. To the right is this 8 mile or so passageway with lots of water and mud, and it's a (paid) guided tour. To the left is a small passageway that just ends in this cavern with a big pool of water. We went left. It wasn't very far, only a couple hundred yards or so. I think. It's hard to tell how far you've gone when you're concentrating on finding a steady rock to step on and not hit your head (or the baby who is strapped on your back) against the rock wall.

This is from 3 years ago, but this is in the entrance. I think I'm under the low part, you can see the cave ceiling above my head. It's like a 4 foot gap to crawl through.

Also from 3 years ago, still the entrance, but past the low part. 

So we got to the end of the passage in Conner's Cave (the whole system was called Devil's Ice Box, but Conner's Cave is the short one), and we were just kind of shining our flashlights around and looking at stuff and then I think it was Richard who mentioned the secret staircase. It was just this steep set of stairs made of clay from people climbing up them, I guess. Anyway, Zach, Richard, and Karen all went up. I didn't, because my shoes had very little traction and I didn't feel like risking falling down the super slick clay stairs and hitting my head on the rocks and dying in the middle of a very dark cave. Because that just sounds like something I'd do.

There was one point where we all turned off our lights just to see how dark it was. And... it was dark. Very, very dark. Like if you didn't have lights, you'd totally hit your head on a rock and never find your way back and die because it's so dark. Suffocating darkness. Did I mention it was dark?

So Noah is now a tiny spelunker. I think he enjoyed it (except for the couple times I accidentally brushed his head against the rock entrance). It felt really good down there, it was like 55-60 degrees or so.

I think we were probably spelunking (haha!) for 20-30 minutes. Then we found our way back and hiked back out through the park and went to eat. It was a good day.

After our spelunking. Noah's chewing on the ergo. That's what he did the whole time. It was a very educational trip for him.

I enjoyed it, and would like to go spelunking again. Maybe when Noah's a bit older and can walk and actually appreciate how cool it is. =)

Pinterest

http://realmomkitchen.com/1505/baked-cheesy-chicken-penne/Have you heard of Pinterest yet? It's kind of amazing. And by amazing, I mean highly, highly addictive. There's just so much to look at. It's this virtual pinboard where you can pin all of these pictures and keep things organized. There are so many different categories- food, crafts, clothes, dream houses/setups, kids stuff. It's just this way to keep things organized, or to waste soooo much time.

One of my favorite categories on Pinterest is the food. There are so many tasty food ideas. For example, there's this recipe for ready to eat cookie dough. YUM. I love cookie dough. More than once I've made a batch of cookies, baked some, and slowly eaten the cookie dough over the course of the week, hoping the raw eggs won't get me.

Pinterest is also how I found this recipe for Baked Cheesy Chicken Penne. Karen and I made a slightly modified version of it a couple weeks ago (when our AC went out in the middle of a heat advisory), and it was pretty good! I just love that I can find so many new food ideas for dinner. It make me so hungry. Which is awful, since I'm attempting to diet (attempting being a very important word in that sentence).

Speaking of dieting, I've been working out (almost) daily doing the 30 Day Shred. I kind of like it, I have this love/hate relationship with working out. I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment after I'm done, because being soaked in sweat is oddly satisfying. But I hate getting up and actually doing it.

My whole attempt at dieting would be so much better if I weren't SO addicted to sweets. I'm able to maintain my weight, which in theory means that if I didn't have ice cream all the time, I'd be able to lose it. But I have the hardest time not eating ice cream or cookies or chocolate. But I'll get there.

Noah's up now, which means my short time to blog is done.So I'll leave you with a picture of Zach, Noah, and Boba Fett.

A new goal

I have a new goal for this blog, inspired by Erika over at Wannabe, and that goal is to not be boring. I've kind of been on this monotonous "here are the details of everything Noah and nothing else" wheel. So. The blog is going to be turning a little more family-centered and not Noah-centered, although you can be sure that there will be tons of stuff about Noah on here. Because all I do is chase the little boy around the house. So for now I'm off to look for a new theme for the blog. =)

A California Recap

We got back yesterday- ...I think? - from our California vacation. It was a lot of fun, I'm so happy we got to go! I don't think I would recommend driving 1800 miles across the country with an infant, though. Just for future reference. Noah did fine for the most part, he slept a lot, but... it was a lot of work. We tried to do as much driving as we could at night, so we were both exhausted, even when we were trying to take shifts. On our way back home, Zach drove as long as he could while I slept, and then he needed me to take over. I was able to drive for a whole 45 minutes before I could hardly keep my eyes open and was praying for a rest stop to appear, like, now. We were both pretty exhausted. So... road tripping with a baby = tiring.

I love Grover Beach. The weather is perfect. And there's the ocean. Ah. And fro-yo. I don't really know what to say right now, mostly because I just read Susie's post about it and now I feel like I'm repeating everything. So...

I had so much fun. I loved getting to spend time with Zach's family. We hadn't seen his parents since Noah was itty bitty (not that he was ever particularly itty bitty).

We were in Grover Beach until the Friday after the 4th... whatever day that was. I lost all track of time during the trip. Friday night (I'm pretty sure it was Friday...), we headed down to Chino. Saturday we drove around town because it had been 2 1/2 years since Zach was last in Chino and lots of things had changed. Sunday morning, we went to church, Zach's parents were very happy to show Noah off to all their friends, and then Noah caught a cold. And then he gave it to me. And then I was all gross and mucusy for the next few days. And that was a week ago and I'm still a bit icky. I'm sure you're pleased to hear all about my mucus. *cough*

Tuesday or Wednesday we went to see Zach's Grandma. Now Noah's met all of his great grandparents except one (Great Grandpa C. in Washington).

At some point Wynette (Zach's mom) gave me the book Handle with Care (by Jodi Picoult) to read. And I was absorbed in that. I finished it yesterday. It was very good. Next time I go to the library, I want to check out My Sister's Keeper (also by Jodi Picoult).

Zach and I played on the Wii... We were both pretty obsessed with the swordfighting game. I hurt my arm with my enthusiasm at killing the little mii people.

Oh, before we went to Grover Beach and on our way back home, we stopped in Henderson (where we'll be moving in a few months!) and spent some time with Zach's brother Justin, his wife Krista, and their son Jake.

Thursday night, we went to a concert in the Chino community center or park or something. It was pretty fun, they had an 80's band playing. And there was this awesome old guy dancing like crazy off on the corner of the stage and that was pretty hilarious. He was having a lot of fun!

And of course Zach and I went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter. And that was epic. I was sad that it's over. But I'm excited for it to come out on DVD so I can finally -finally- buy the movies. I've been waiting because I just know there's going to be some sort of collector's set of them with special features and I want to wait to get that.

We left on Saturday, made it back to Vegas. Left there Sunday night and made it home at 5 AM on Tuesday morning.

 This is what Noah thought of the drive. I'm sure this is through Kansas or Eastern Colorado. Boring, boring, boring. 

Taking a break at the No Name rest stop in the mountains.

 I'm bored... So I eat my foot.

Noah and Jake! They're 2-3 months apart.

He looks like he was on some sort of self discovery quest. "my hand.... whoah."

Noah's taken to sleeping on his tummy now. I put him down on his back, he rolls onto his side, and a while later ends up like this.

The view from the house... 

 The view from my waist...

Shell beach

 Mason and Noah

On the Pismo Beach Pier

 We went to Windmill Farms. The goat liked us.

 4 Generations of Hammer menfolk

Noah, Mason, and Great Grandpa Hammer

 I discovered Instagram. I love this picture.

 Noah and Great Grandma Cooper

 Noah and Jake again. Noah pushed Jake around in that thing. They seemed to enjoy it.

What. A. Trip.

We're going to California!

In about an hour or so, we're going to be headed to California! I'm so excited I can't hardly stand it. First we'll be in Pismo beach, then we'll head to chino. It'll be Noah's first time out there. And the first time he's seen grandma and grandpa hammer since he was brand new.

I'm so excited. I miss the beach (and I guess I miss Zach's family too. ;))

The only thing that worries me is accidentally dropping Noah into the ocean off the pier. I keep having nightmares about it. So.... No dropping Noah off the pier. That would be bad.

Pictures of our trip to come!