The Adventures Of Our Family!: August 2008

Labor Day Weekend!...part one

Allen, Noah, and I were so blessed to be able to get away for a few days and spend some family time in a cabin near Ellijay, GA. The cabin belongs to some friends of ours and they let us come up a few days early by ourselves.

We drove up on Wednesday and took advantage of the nice weather and beautiful outdoors.

Noah liked cuddling with Allen but couldn't sit still for very long.

Noah decided to play some soccer...

So I played with him so the ball wouldn't roll down the hill...

Noah is very good. I guess the soccer lessons are paying off...

hehe, this is what happens when I leave the camera with Allen...

Noah built a mini city with his cars and tracks in the living room before dinner.

Thursday we took the Wave Runner out and we all rode it around Carter's lake. Noah LOVED it and wanted to go "super fast" the whole time. Allen accidently tipped us over once and Noah thought that was the best part. I am so thankful that Noah loves an adventure and we don't have to encourage (or push) him to try new things...in fact I am usually tlling him to be more careful.

Allen did a great job backing it into the lake too!

On Friday we went back out the wave runner for a few hours and then came back to the cabin to wait for Paul to get there and take us out on his boat.

Noah was very excited for Paul to get there...

As you can see by his face, Noah LOVED the boat!

Allen and Noah drove the boat while Paul was on the wake board. It was so much fun watching Noah. He really was having a blast with everything we did.

Noah and I on the back of the boat watching Allen wake board...

Here's Allen getting ready to wake board. He was new to it and did a great job!

He got up after a few bumpy starts....

And then was down again! Great Job Allen!

Noah liked jumping off the boat into the lake and swimming around. Paul played catch with Noah in the lake.

This is what happened to Noah's hair when we stopped the boat. We were nt moving at all in this picture. Personally i think he looks like Wolverine!

Check that out...again, we were totally stopped in this picture...

Allen and Paul braved the rope swing. I have a video that I will try to load later.

Noah and I went tubing and I have never seen Noah have so much fun. We were going so fast I almost fell out twice. Noah loved the bumps and Paul was making HUGE waves for us to go over. It really was so much fun!

Noah talked about it all weekend. While we were tubing, he kept looking up at me saying "Mom, this is so very cool".

Then Paul let Noah drive the boat and Noah was in Heaven!

Allen and Noah enjoying the day on the boat!

Later Friday night the rest of the crew came up...Betsy (Paul's wife), Sarah and Michael (Paul and Betsy's kids), Luisa (Michaels's girlriend), Brad (Sarah's friend),and Josh and Allison. Oh yeah, and the dogs! Noah really liked Dixie (pictured below) because Dixie would chase Noah around the house and lick him.

Allen helped make the salad for dinner one night...

And a big thanks to Josh to let Noah eat dinner while sitting on him. Josh helped Noah finish dinner by pretending the mac n cheese was filled with animals (or something like that) but it worked cause Noah ate the whole thing. I didn't get a lot of pictures of this day but it was packed with water activities...we were all exhausted...and SORE!!

Luisa and Allen making some goodies...

Noah and Sarah before Church.

It was so much fun and Allen, Noah, and I are truly blessed for such great friends.

Mom's cookbook

Ingredients to a happy child with a full belly:

Give him a piece of bread buttered with honey and allow him to put his chicken nuggets and yogurt on top. It makes for a fun meal and a full child!

(For extra vitamins add Kiwi on the side: as pictured below)

My Rain Boots

Since we are in the middle of a drought, Noah doesn't get to wear his rain boots very often. However, today it rained very hard so Noah got to wear them all over town. He was very proud of them, especially when we went to Target and all the ladies commented on them to him. Fun Times!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

My dad celebrated his birthday last week and we were able to celebrate with him.

Grandpa opened his presents with Noah's help...

Barrett and Aimee got him some books...

awe, such a cute couple!!

Diane and I. Diane cooked such a great meal!!

And of course Noah got a present too...a McDonalds play food set with a working cash register...so much fun!

Happy Birthday Grampa!!

"here, let me help you with that cake" - Noah

Another Wonderful Sunday

Another Sunday rolled around and as always I was able to play with my favorite Ferguson boys and their mommy, Keri. Little Nathan is way too busy to pause and look at the camera but I did get the other 2 cuties!

Leigh Anne loves the Fergusons too and loves to make Nathan laugh (not that it is hard since he is the happiest little guy i know!)

I caught Jacob playing with some blocks! hehe

Awe, my little buddies!

See, isn't Nathan just so joyful? I love that toothless smile!

haha.

Keri is playing at my desk...maybe she can run the program while I play with her kids...sounds good to me!

Good work Keri!!

Elmo in the house!

we found some fun costumes and decided to see if they still fit. Elmo looks good!!

Goodbye Olympics!

Although the olympics are coming to a close tonight, we are keeping them alive in the Austin House. We really will be sad when we wake up tomorrow morning and won't be able to turn on one or more sports. I was really surprised and excited in the mornings when Noah would wake up and crawl in bed with Allen and I and pass on cartoons so he could watch gymnastics or volleyball (thank goodness for Tivo). The only sport that was our least favorite to watch was the marathon but other than that we enjoyed them all!! We created our own olympics in our backyard.

Noah, our little hurdle jumper!