So many different thoughts.

I seem to have so many things on my mind lately..about all SORTS of crazy things. Not all crazy..but all over the place. After being inspired by Rox...here we go.

1. http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/austin-stone-live/id482639306
Get this. I think you would really like it.

2. We had a worship service tonight. It was absolutely amazing.
3. Life seems to get harder the older I get. Not even necessarily for us. But for our friends and family. Watching this truth play out in life has only proven to me how not in control of this life on earth that I am.
4. Christmas is in 19 days. OH MY GOODNESS! I'm so so so excited to celebrate Christmas with our little man!
5. We get to see both our families at Christmas. YAY!
6. I turn 27 in 13 days. 27. When I still feel 18. Well- 18 but married and with a baby boy, and a nursing degree. All things I didn't have at 18. But I have an extremely hard time believing I'm going to be 27. Also..I remember when I was in college..and on Friends Rachel turns 30...and I remember thinking 30 was so far away...I'm fast approaching 30. But I'm cool with that..because each year brings something new and exciting and I like that.
7. Noah got his first tooth. Oh my goodness. He really did pretty well with it. Yesterday was a little tough as he REALLY wanted to be with mama all day, but then that little tooth broke through last night, and this morning we have a full bottom tooth through, and another corner of a little bottom tooth through.
8. We purchased a little piano for Noah (a toy obviously) and he LOVES it! And it cracks me up!
9. Christmas brings me so much joy. What an amazing time of year.
10. I can't wait to be home for Christmas. Sarah, Phil, and the girls will be home from Florida, and Luke will be home from Columbus, and I mean - Oh My Word. I'm PUMPED.
11. We decorated for Christmas this week. It makes the apartment a little more homey!
12. Speaking of the apartment...we haven't found a house yet. Which has been tough. I miss having our own home, and our own space. But I am trying (and it is a daily battle) to trust in the Lord's timing. He will provide a house when it is time. We have prayed all along that He would give very opened or very closed doors in this process. So far he has done EXACTLY that. He allowed our house to sell in 18 days- full asking price- OPEN door. We put an offer on a house and the owner countered 1000 off list price (we were QUITE a bit shy of that on our offer) - CLOSED door. We found another house- but it already had multiple offers being negotiated - CLOSED door. Then we found another..and we REALLY wanted that one to work -but after praying about it both of us came to the conclusion that this was not the house for us - CLOSED door. So here we are - and we're waiting and praying that an open door will be soon. But for now, we're extending our lease until May -and then we'll be looking to lease in Taylor if we are unable to find a house to buy.

That's it. Time to go to bed. Hope you have an awesome week!

Oh Indiana.

Back in October we were able to head back to Indiana for Purdue's homecoming. It was SUCH a great weekend...though SUPER busy..but we had a GREAT time!

We were able to spend time with Brad's grad school friends (who are AWESOME), a little time with some of Brad's family (looking forward to more at Christmas!), quite a bit of time with my family (also looking forward to more of this at Christmas!), met sweet baby Austin and had lunch with El, and played some cards/chatted with Rox & Jake and played with sweet Nora. Noah and I were able to go on our first trip to the Covered Bridge Festival with Mom, Aunt Vic, and Aunt Jo. It was so great! I know I'm forgetting some things...but let's be honest..it was over a month ago that we were there- can we say BEHIND?!

Here are some pictures..that's the best part anyways.

I stole these next few from Aunt Jo. We had a family dinner of Arni's - because it's the B-E-S-T. I LOVE my family. I love Arni's. AMAZING.

Noah bundled up and ready to shop til he drops!

Partying in Indiana is hard work!

With Nana.

Noah went right on over there to Rox so she would cuddle him with Nora.

SO adorable! Hard to believe these two are quickly approaching 1 year old. WHAT?! Love that Nora is such a sweet little lady!
More cuddles with Rox.

Meeting sweet little Austin. Noah was super interested. He can't wait until Austin can play with him! I can't wait to get Austin, Nora, and Noah all together. It kinda brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. I know I'm getting older...but so cool and weird all at the same time to all have had babies this year. (My other friend from home, Manders also had a little man this past year.)

Loving on that Uncle Luke. He seriously could play with Uncle Luke all day every day. Even when we face time Luke cracks him up. I love it.

Have a great week!!

Dear Blog.

Oh my dear blog.

I have not forgotten you.

I've been busy.

Making Christmas things. Going to Missouri for Thanksgiving. Enjoying this season. Loving on my sweet baby and sweet husband.

And so I have been weak in my blogging.

But there are blogs to come. With updates on that little dude, and our little life.

That is all.

9 Months Old. Wow.

9 months have passed. Almost as long as I was pregnant with this little guy. This week I've been especially emotional over how big he is getting. (P.S. Will these crazy emotions ever settle down?) Seriously...I just watch him with tears some days because I'm just fascinated by him.

9 Month Stats:
Weight: 21lb 6.5oz slowing down now that big boy is on the move.
Height: 29"

It's been another big month of growing and learning for our little man - here we go:
Pulls up to standing
Cruises between pieces of furniture
Takes steps using a little push dinosaur (The other day I was helping him when my friend Cara was here-boy was watching Cara the WHOLE time with this big smile on his face just showing off for her - he walked the most he has done yet just to show off for her)
Continues with "dada" Sometimes I hear "mama" when he's finished with his nap...but never other than those times despite my best efforts.
I've also noticed that he has started to mimic what I say sometimes. He'll only do it once, and then I'll try to get him to do it again and he just smiles. So it's not purposeful-but it's funny. I do think he's trying, but I realize he has no clue what he's saying.
Mama finally made his baby food this month and he has done really well with it-except the chicken...and who can blame him for that. I've mixed it with other things..and he tries..but he's not a big fan. See the video below for his first day trying. I was working that day, he had just been diagnosed with his first ear infection (boo) and yet he was still so stinking happy.
Figured out how to eat his puffs without choking. :)
Spent time with a ton of family. We went home to Lafayette and were able to see almost all of my family, even Uncle Lukie came, and some of Brad's too...we can't wait until Christmas when we get to see the newest member of the family from Brad's side of the family. We were so sad we weren't able to go meet him while we were there.
I forgot to mention last month that he was able to spend time with Aunt Sarah, Uncle Phil, and the girls. How he loves his cousins!
First ear infection -yuck. They are rough on a little one. First fever. Also yuck. I think he's on the mend now but poor little guy has had a rough last week.
Likes to be read to now.
He is CRAZY busy.
SOOO hard to get a diaper on. Boy does not like to lay still. It literally takes two of us sometimes. (I thought that might be more due to weak sauce parenting-but I truly think the boy is just a crazy little wiggle worm)
Has finally gotten into a nice routine of two naps daily
But has started waking up again at 4 or 5am to eat. I can't seem to get him convinced he doesn't need to eat them...hopefully this is just a phase.
We wake up in the morning to him standing in his crib with a huge smile on his face (after he goes back down from his 5am wake up call)
Gets so excited when he sees Brad in the morning..and sometimes will crawl to follow him as Brad walks out the door in the morning. Love how he loves that daddy.
Had his first Halloween. Was a pretty cute Pooh.
Loves cardboard boxes
Loves dogs
Such a curious little dude. He watches everything that goes on around us, and wants to be in on the action.

That's it. Here are a few pictures. Hard to believe that in a few months a whole year would have passed. Have a great week!

With Mimi and Grandpa Pud when they came to visit

Yep...he likes to sit there and wait for us to come in. Just ever so quietly. This was actually at night time and he had been "asleep" for about 30 minutes. I went to check on him and turns out. Not asleep, but waiting there for us to come play.

Ornery. I love it.

I'd like to think he loves to read...but I think he might prefer just to make fun messes.

Playing in the laundry.

The chicken.

Family Pictures!

So I have been wanting to have professional pictures taken of Noah for awhile, but since we didn't do newborn pictures, we decided to wait until he was old enough to smile in them. Well then we had the opportunity to go back to Indiana for Purdue's homecoming...a post I WILL post soon...and we found a photographer to take our pictures in the gorgeous Indiana fall colors! Sweet Brad went along with them even though the weekend was already crazy busy. I was so happy she was available...and they turned out great! Here are just a few of our favorites!

ALSO...if you are in Lafayette and want pictures taken- look Joy up. JoyInspiration Photography. She was so sweet and we felt very affordable. Plus I just think she did a great job! (P.S. If you think you might be interested do this before January-she and her husband are moving to Alabama then.) Here they are!

Want to play a game?

Let's play guess where Noah's favorite place is...

Boy loves him some laundry! It's adorable. If I open the laundry closet door he leaves WHATEVER he is doing to come and observe. He's entertained for quite some time. (Bad mama confession: sometimes I do laundry when I'm making dinner so he will be entertained and I can cook)

Either way. I love it. Kinda in love with that sweet face.

Also- remember when I said I thought I had a trick for blogging (Rox) I was wrong. As evidenced by the lack of blogging. :) Soon there will be more updates. Have a great week!

Halloween.

So..I've never been much of a Halloween kind of girl. I think I only went out trick or treating like once. We actually have never passed out candy since we've been married either. (Not because we wouldn't-but because we seem to never be home on the night of) I LOVE to see little ones in their sweet costumes though...so I was super excited to dress our little man up in his first costume.

Confession: Years ago..like maybe after we had just gotten married- we found a Winnie the Pooh costume on sale for like $8 at a Disney outlet and bought it for our future child.

Fast forward to last night..and our sweet little man put that little costume to use. PRECIOUS.

We had such a great time! We went out to the Big T for some time with our community group. We ate delish potato soup outside while the kiddos played and passed out candy to the all the Taylor folk. It was fantastic! How we love these people we're doing life with. They rock. Here are some pictures!

The girls in our community group.
LOVE them.
Favorite picture of the evening.
Sweet boy was LOVING that fire truck!
Enjoying the beautiful weather!
Snuggles with Auntie Kat.
Love my little pooh.
My sweet boys.
Our little fam!
P.S. I think I may finally have a system for getting some blogging done. :) Hopefully more to come!

Have a great week!