Fun n Games

Autumn is finally at the age where Noah likes to play some games with her.

Hmm, whats in the cupboard?

I'll give you a hint.

Noah pretends to go to "sleep" or go to the "office with the black compuder" and Autumn must open the door to let him out.

Which she does quite willingly. Its a fun game of "peek-abo" for her!

Mischievous grin.

They "drive" together at the grocery store. This is how I get my grocery shopping done with two little munchkins. They both love it (and the car cart is free, which I love too!)

He played a game with her in the pool where he'd swim around and then say "BIG KISS!" and land one one her. :)

Autumn's favorite game is when Noah climbs up the windows in her room and then pretends to "fall" on the ground. It sends her in hysterical laughter. :)

New words

Three new words for this week: "Juice" "Meow!" and "Ta" (the SA word for "take" or "give") It's coming as such a shock for me when she uses new words because Noah spoke so late, maybe its because she's a girl :)

Now she frequently asks for "juice" whenever she sees Noah's sippy cup.

Singing in the rain

11 Months

Autumn is 11 months today, just one more month till she's one! I'm treasuring these last few months of babyhood, they are just getting better. Here's her 11 month photo shoot, I had alot of fun with this one on our front stoop.

At 11 months Autumn's "girlyness" is coming through. She loves shoes, smiling and kissing her dolls, she plays with my skirts, and says "hi" to anyone who passes by. She loves her peek-aboo book and animal touch books. I thank the Lord for her little life in mine, she is the cause of much joy and sanctification in my life!

Daddy's Home!

After 12 days of Clint studying his doctorate in LA, the kids were WAY excited to have daddy home. Noah counted down the sleeps and remembered really well that daddy was gone and didn't ask for him. He'd just say "12 more BIG sleeps." We are so glad to have him back and are so thankful for all the people at Grace who hosted him and looked after him. Thanks for your hospitality and encouragement to him while he was there!

Dancing with Daddy in our PJ's the morning he came home :)

And just a freebee of my littlest munchkin

Busy week

So on one of my last posts I said I was going to post a photo for Clint every day that he was gone, and well, as you can see, that didn't happen! To all those moms out there whose husbands come home after the kids are in bed, or are raising them by themselves, I raise my hat to you. It's been a busy week. I'm used to Clint playing with the kids outside while I make dinner, and this week I had two hungry crying children alot at around 6pm, so I had to learn to make dinner at like 4 to avoid this at all costs. I got through the week with much prayer for me to be patient and gracious when the 6o'clock crazies hit!

The church has been so great and I've been out every day this week that Clint has been gone with different people. I've learned alot too that I CAN take both kids to the mall by myself, to the beach by myself etc. It's alot of work, but way worth it, cause the smiles on their faces are just priceless. So here's a few photos from this week:

Liz came by for one final hangout before she went to Australia with little Emma and Lyle. Noah has been asking all week wheres "Liz and Lygle and Emma?" cause they made regular appearances at our house while they were here. It was sad to have Autumn's "twin" go!

My husband organized flowers to be delivered to me on my birthday, they are so pretty! I love how he never gets plain roses, its always unique.

Kerry organized a birthday tea for me since Clint was gone and a bunch of ladies from our church came, it was alot of fun. I love this place because you can sit and have your tea while your kids feed the ducks.

Noah ate tons and tons of cake. Mommy's birthday was the best, cause there was cake!

Amber, Frances and me

Raqel is from HBC but now goes to Master's College. It was fun to hear her talk about my old "home" and now her's too.

Cornerstone girls!

When Noah heard it was my birthday he said "but Christmas tree is DOWN momma!" Then he realized when I started opening presents and we were eating cake that it really was my birthday.

Sue with her twins Nathan and Luke. Autumn and the twins are just 4 months apart.

Some of Noah's friends got to come too. Here's Gemma

And Luka. Noah plays SO nicely with Luka

Ohleng and Louisa

Paula with her baby "Marco." Recently Noah said "please make a baby Marco!" So funny. He loves Marco.

Group shot minus Kerry who is taking the photo!

My friend Nina had her baby girl Stellah who we got to go see in the hospital. I told Noah that Nina was in the hospital because its sore to have a baby. He said "oh mommy, give Nina medicine, doctor make it better." He liked seeing baby Stellah alot.

Noah "picasso" Archer. He drew his real first drawing this week. Mostly they always look like scribbles, but this time he said "look mommy, Noah draw car" and it totally looked like one! Hurray!

I also went to spend the day down the south coast with Mindie at a caravan park where they had rock pools and waterslides and awesome stuff for kids, but I didn't take any photos cause we were having so much fun!

We went to the petting zoo with my friend Sally and her little boy Caleb. The horse ate the ENTIRE bag of feed, including the bag! This made Noah quite sad!

Noah playing with Caleb on the jungle gym

Autumn on the tire swing, she loved this!

So its been a busy week. Both of my kiddos are sleeping better than they ever have cause they are so tired. But I can't wait for my hubby to come home!

Soccer

Our church gets together to play soccer every Wed and today I took the kids to watch. I brought Noah's ball with and he played on the steps with some of the young adults. This was his face pretty much the whole time, he just loved it!

Autumn made friends with a girl named Praise (cool name huh?) They both played with keys for about an hour

A lady was there facepainting and she offered to paint Noah's face. She had a bunch of pictures and Noah chose the pirate.

Me and my pesky pirate, I love the beard!

Noah LOVES Taz, he played with her the whole afternoon, and at our house right until bedtime. He thanked God for Taz in his night prayer, so cute!

Autumn got a little heart

She was oblivious to its cuteness, but was all smiles anyway.

We didn't play much soccer, but we had a great time of fellowship!

12 BIG sleeps

So Clint left for LA last night and will be gone 12 days in LA to do his doctoral classes. This is pretty hard for me since its the first time we'll be apart with kids AND he's going to my home. (I actually don't know what to call home now, SA and LA are both home).

When Clint was packing Noah got his quilt and pillow off his bed and climbed in Clint's suitcase and said "noah's going nigh nigh in suitcase, goodnight!" And then he'd open the suitcase and pronounce..."noah wake up, yay!"
Noah totally knows that daddy is on a plane and didn't ask for him once today. He just said "Daddy's on a plane, 12 BIG sleeps daddy come home." Amazing how much kids take in. Anyways, in honor of Clint being gone 12 days I'm going to post 1 photo of the day per day he's gone. Today its Autumn's little girly curls. I just love them!

Silly Noah

About once a day Noah will do something that he thinks is funny, and then he'll end it with "silly Noah"

"Take a picture Noah's teeth, silly Noah"

(While making cookies) "Noah's cooking, sticky hands, silly Noah"

(While swimming) "Noah's a frog, ribbit! Silly Noah"

Pretoria

A few weeks ago we had an early Christmas for 2 days up in Pretoria with Granny and Grandpa. Autumn got some good "hang out" time with Grandpa and Pooh Bear :) I love this photo, its like their having a good chat

Granny soon became Noah's favorite person, because there was chocolate hiding in his stocking!

Noah & Autumn opened their presents with cousin Dyllan, it was a full house with three kiddos!

Autumn with Auntie Bronwyn

We only were in Pretoria for two days, and Noah always talks about "Granny and Crapa" and if he plays with something they gave him he'll say "Granny and Crapa made it mommy!"

We tried taking a photo of Santa with the three cousins, and well, Autumn screamed down the house, which made Noah and Dyllan and every kid in line cry. Noah calls Santa "the scary red man" now. So we were quite unsuccessful!

10 Months!

These were taken a few weeks ago when Autumn turned 10 months but I haven't had a chance to post them! At 10 months Autumn can say "hi, dadda, momma, and a form of "all done" She also signs for "more" and claps her hands and waves goodbye. She's cruising and crawling fast, she loves to swim and bath, and her nickname for this month has been "sweetie pea bea." Here are some photos from her 10 month photo shoot:

She loves her teddy bear

Her hair barely fits into a neat little ponytail now.

Mostly for my mom

A video of Autumn opening up her baby doll from my mom on her first Christmas, her smiles were quite sweet :)

Christmas

It was Autumn's first Christmas, and I loved seeing Noah and our baby open presents together.

Noah for the first time understood what Christmas meant. He actually thought Jesus was coming on Christmas. The whole day he kept asking where Jesus was. After he opened his presents he said "Baby Jesus coming after nap mommy?" He was SO expecting Jesus to come. He also said "Jesus come in a car mommy."

Autumn had no idea what it was all about, but she smiled and cooed at her baby doll

Noah's favorite gift was a $1 kiddy spade I got at a cheap Chinatown kinda store. He loves to help Clint pick up Spurgeon's icky stuff on the grass (I have no idea why) so I got him his own spade. We had to stop opening presents so that Noah could pick up all Spurgeon's mess outside. (Training them young!)

Autumn loved her glowing ball

We invited Charl & Nina and Liz and Lyle over for Christmas dinner. Autumn and Emma were playing with all the toys

Autumn and Emma were born 20 minutes apart! Its so fun to see them interact and how similar they are

I love these little nametag holders for our Christmas dinner, you just print them off marthastewart.com!

Cheesy Christmas cracker crowns :)

And all of us by the tree, we chatted till about midnight, it was a fun night!

Christmas Eve

I dressed Autumn up cause we went to our neighbors house to give them a little gift from the kids, her first Christmas will be tomorrow!

We hung up our last ornament on the Jesse Tree (a tree that has the story of Jesus from the Old Testament to the New, we hung a new ornament on the tree every night of Advent and did a little Bible Study with Noah each night. Christmas Eve was Mary and Joseph on their long journey to Bethlehem).

Sweet girl

And I was SO excited cause it was cold enough for Noah to wear his Christmas PJ's. Its summer here techniqually, but Christmas eve there was a HUGE cold thunderstorm (with lots of lightning) and it was cold enough for him to wear! (Sent from my dad in the States :)

Lightning McQueen skidding in the snow :)

Catching up...

So just finishing off pictures from our trip to the Berg. Our kiddos got free horsie rides. Noah was "scared" at first, but by the second time around the field he was loving it.

And smiling the whole way back

Autumn's first time on a horse, she LOVED this, lots of smiles

She looks like she'll be a natural someday, I wonder if she'll love horsies

A pretty cool African grasshopper

Autumn's first swim, she liked it so much she wouldn't even look at me, she kept looking down at what she was doing

Noah loved hanging out at the pool with daddy, he's very enamored with his dad.

Showing off the "big muscles mommy"

Life sized chess, Autumn liked to ride the horsie that Clint got of mine

Noah was a pawn

Autumn tried to replace the horse Clint stole from me

I checkmated Clint, but after several.... "hey if you do that I'm going to steal your queen"

Me and my little girl

Family shot

We said goodbye to the mountains and headed home for a 3 hour drive, the kids did great!

We passed alot of houses like this on the way home

And this was pretty much the view the whole way home, so pretty.

Video of the day

So my blog has been very lacking in videos since my little camera that took videos died. Liz and Lyle lent me theirs for a couple of days so I could take videos...here's my favorite of today. I was changing Autumn after her bath and she started playing Peek-a-boo with me under the curtains :)

Drakensburg Part 2

The best part about the Drakensburg mountains is that the view changes so much throughout the day. It really displays God's glory in full effect. We had such a fun time hanging out with just our family in the mountains. I think it helped Noah and Autumn bond a bit too!

View from our room

Clint got tea and scones for us while Noah slept. Butler Archer :)

View while we had our tea on the patio

They made the BEST scones

Watching the sun starting to set

They had an awesome jungle gym that Noah climbed "by myself mommy!"

While watching Noah climb we'd turn around the other way and see this....just amazing

Noah loved the slide

Sunset view from the slide, it was so breathtaking!

Drakensburg pt 1

South Africa is REALLY beautiful. I often drive around and just thank the Lord that he placed me in such a pretty part of the world. This week we drove to the Drakensburg mountains about 3 hours away from us. We were celebrating 4 years of being in SA (I can't believe its been 4 years!) with a little holiday away. How gorgeous are these mountains?

Clint planned everything apart from my knowledge, and booked a place in the Drakensburg mountains that accommodated kids SO amazingly. They even had a little petting zoo right there on the hotel grounds. Here is our friendly goat saying hi!

The friendly goat got extra friendly and jumped up to say hi to Clint and Auty, but then turned out to be super unfriendly and gave Noah a little "head butt" yikes!

Autumn liked looking at the bunnies and birds

I tried to catch a bunny for Noah to hold, but man those things are fast, so then we just played "chase the bunny"

Walking back to our room Noah LOVED seeing a real manger since we sing Away in a Manger almost every night.

The hotel had thatch roofs, which were so beautiful against the mountains.

Puttin up the tree

I LOVE having children in the house around Christmas. They just take in all the wonder of it all.

My favorite Noah phrases while putting up everything....."Ohh mommy whats that?" (for about every object in our Christmas box) "Baby Jesus Birthday YAY!" "Look Daddy Christmas Tree" "Shepherds and da sheep" "Da tree Kings Momma!" "Oh momma special star, look!" "Oh pretty balls, red ones." I can't believe how much he understands when he's so little.

Noah preaching

This morning Noah got a Bible off our bookshelf, and got his little giraffe (his favorite stuffed animal) and put it on the table....

Then he said.... "Noah's preaching (to the) giraffe momma, 'repent, God is love.'" Is The Master's Seminary accepting applications early? :) I think the giraffe is now a believer.

9 months!

My baby girl is NOT turning one in three months, I'm in denial. She was so active during her 9 month photo shoot that it was hard to get photos of her!

Crawling around her room

Lookin out the window

Playing with her block

Noah woke up and came into her room...she lights up whenever he's near. She's pulling up on all the windowsills now to get a better view outside.

At 9 months Autumn can say "Dadda, Momma" and sign for "more." She laughs mainly at Noah, and our dog Spurgeon. She loves books with babies in them, finger foods especially cooked broccoli (go figure). Her nicknames are "Nuh-nuh" (what Noah calls her) so thats turned into "Nuh-ni-sima" "Auty" and "happy bappy girl." She won't drink from a bottle or sippy cup at all, but she loves the straw. She can understand "don't touch" and usually obeys quite happily (unlike Noah at this age). She's our happy bappy girl and we love her to bits!

It's finally coming...

It feels like Christmas should already be here. For one, Clint has spent the last month preaching through Luke 2. I've actually loved hearing the story of Christ's birth removed from all the hype and materialism that clouds it all every year. I've been really struck with the fact that Christ entered a world that wouldn't make room for Him (ie there was no room in the inn). And now that I have children of my own, the prophecy that Simeon makes about baby Jesus hit me as well...(Simeon to Mary)... "Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." Just think as the mother of Jesus what pain she must have gone through to see her son ridiculed, beaten and mocked and killed.

And for two, Noah has been asking to hear "Away in a Manger" every night, and asking to read the story about Jesus' birth. It's so sweet. He'll often talk about the "special star" that was over the place where he was born and He knows all the words to the song (I love the way South Africans sing it, its a different tune to the American one).

And Clint quoted the words to my absolute favorite Christmas hymn in a recent sermon...I've only heard it on one CD I have....but the words are just amazing. I've included it here if you wanna read :) Once again, having children of my own now, this song often makes me cry.

1. Sing lullaby!
Lullaby baby, now reclining,
Sing lullaby!
Hush, do not wake the Infant King.
Angels are watching, stars are shining
Over the place where he is lying.
Sing lullaby!

2. Sing lullaby!
Lullaby baby, now a-sleeping,
Sing lullaby!
Hush, do not wake the Infant King.
Soon will come sorrow with the morning,
Soon will come bitter grief and weeping:
Sing lullaby!

3. Sing lullaby!
Lullaby baby, now a-dozing,
Sing lullaby!
Hush, do not wake the Infant King.
Soon comes the cross, the nails, the piercing,
Then in the grave at last reposing:
Sing lullaby!

4. Sing lullaby!
Lullaby! is the babe a-waking?
Sing lullaby!
Hush, do not stir the Infant King.
Dreaming of Easter, gladsome morning,
Conquering Death, its bondage breaking:
Sing lullaby!

Giving thanks

So this is the first year of my life I didn't eat turkey on Thanksgiving. Other years here in SA we'd go to other American missionaries for Thanksgiving, but this year Clint had a teaching opportunity that couldn't be passed up at a local school on Thanksgiving night, so we didn't celebrate it with a meal. Instead I did some crafts with the kids, and talked about thankfulness with Noah. We memorized "Give thanks to the Lord for He is good" Psalm 106:1 (well, he could repeat it after me anyway!)

We did a turkey craft where Noah put all the parts of the turkey together, and he'd say "gobble gobble!"

Showing of his little turkey

That morning we made an Indian headband, he loved this! Sorry I didn't get photos of him making it, but he loved putting the triangles on and the "fedders"

He made Autumn a little baby one too.

Little papoose

He'd run around going "woo wooo wooo"

This year I am very thankful for our little family and for all the Lord's goodness to us!

"Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men!"
Psalm 107:15

Noah and Kristy

Noah's friend Kristy moved away to Polokwane a couple of weeks ago, and before they left we had them over for one last playdate/dinner. Noah and Kristy are just 2 months apart and he LOVES Kristy, and he plays with her every week at church. Throughout the week he'll always tell me something Kristy did during their playtime at church "Kriky went down the slide" or "Kriky wearing a pink top" or whatever. So it was quite sad to have his little friend move away.

They played outside with Spurgeon and wrote on the ground with sidewalk chalk together. Noah kept looking at me like "isn't this the best mom?"

Before she came I asked Noah to get out some toys that she could play with and he brought out the BEST toys for her, and was so excited that she could play with them. I was quite shocked by his "giving" heart cause he normally would keep his favorites in his room. This showed his great love for Kristy :) At one point she road his rocking horse backwards, and he still refers to that now and he'll ride it backwards "like Kriky"

The evening included many hugs, and a few kisses.

We are going to miss the Geerdts' quite alot! Edwart and Janine looked after Noah almost every Sunday (Noah plays outside during church and I'm in the cryroom with Autumn). They have such a soft heart and are always seeking ways to apply what they learn in the Bible.

Kids Praise

During Noah's room time I usually pop my head in without him seeing just out of curiosity and to make sure he's ok. The other day this is what I found....I just thought it was so cute that he had his feet up reading a book :) This Jonah "one word" book is his favorite. It has one word per page. He asks me to read it to him every night before he goes to sleep. I love how 12 words can sum up the book of Jonah "God, Jonah, Go, No!, Ship, Storm, Splash, Gulp!, Dark, Burp, Go, Yes!"

During Noah's room time I put on some music, and these have fast become favorites in our house. When you step into my house you'll probably hear kiddies worship on. Every day Noah says "Sicka (music) on mommys special silber (silver) compuder, pees?"

"51 Must Have Kids Worship Songs" is my favorite cause the songs are, well, just great. They aren't cheesy, and they are done well and the words are easy to understand for a toddler. Alot of them are pure Scripture, or great praise worship done by kids. Noah has alot of these memorized already. He'll tell you which one is coming next :)

This one "Bible Promises" is a book that comes with a CD. Noah loves this one cause it has the "B-I-B-L-E" on it, his favorite.

100 Bible Songs for Kids. This one is great too, but has a few songs that are taken WAY out of context. But Noah likes the classic ones like "He's got the whole world in His hands"

This one "Hide em in your heart" is well, I must admit, pretty cheesy. But the words are great! It's pure scripture. I don't like that it has talking at the beginning of every song, but Noah loves it and has memorized quite a few verses from it, so I usually play this one during room time if I'm taking a shower or something. His favorite is "Let the little children come."

I like listening to these during the day too cause its actually helped me memorize quite alot of verses I didn't know before, and their references. It really helps set the tone for my day, and helps me to worship in the million "little things" that moms do during the day for their kids!

Autumn's tree

I always wanted to paint a tree on my daughters nursery wall ever since I saw it done on Pottery Barn Kids on the picture below. It's just so beautiful, and how can you have a daughter named Autumn without a tree?

So I drew it free hand with chalk, and started to paint the branches. I debated brown or white for a while, but then thought white looked more appropriate for a nursery.

And then I cut leaves and birds from scrapbook paper, and pasted them on!

I think she loves her little tree :)

Rough n Tumble

Noah looks like he's about ready to pulverize his sister right?

But out of Autumn comes shrieks of laughter :)

Having a boy and a girl I've had to train Noah quite alot on how girls like to be treated. Noah is quite rough in his affection, and usually makes Autumn cry, but for some reason she loves "rough and tumble" with him after their bath. It has to be closely monitored, but its so cute! It's the time where they really bond cause Noah can use his way of "affection" in full force.

I've been closely reading through "Don't Let Me Count To Three" by Ginger Plowman for our church's moms and tots group, and I've really soaked up quite alot of great things from that book. One of the greatest things implemented in our home is the "sharing" rule that you can't just take a toy or even ask to take a toy that someone is playing with but you have to wait till they are obviously done playing. The conversation usually goes something like this:

Noah takes a toy from Autumn

Me: "Did you take that toy from Autumn?"

Noah: "Uh huh" (usually with a smile)

Me: "Do you think that makes her happy or sad?"

Noah: "Uh, sad?"

Me: "Can you give the toy back to her? You have to wait till she's done with it"

(he usually gives it back, but with a frown)

It's just been this last week or so that I'll overhear Noah say "Oh, Nuh nuh' (Autumn is) all done dat toy, Tank you Nuh nuh!" It's such a joyous thing to hear rather than "No, No toy, Noah's toy!" (Not that he always gets it perfect, but its a vast improvement!) I'm so grateful for moms that have gone before me and write this stuff down!

Reformation Day Party

We host the young adults group in our home every week, and this year was our 4th annual Reformation Day party. This year for the first time we did a "dress up" one, and we had 2 priests, 2 doors (where Luther nailed the 95 thesis) a nun, an angel and several "peasants." I love having this tradition every year because it makes me so grateful for the Bible that we can read in our own language, and for the grace of God in my own life!

Clint teaching about the Reformation

Eating all the yummy food! I made hot apple cider which is quite a novelty here.

Carving pumpkins

The Reformation quiz, of course

This year we did games as well, it was so fun!

Kerry the "door" Cait the "angel" and Noah as a bear. I was a dork and just wore my Luther shirt from an old Crossroads retreat.

My priest hubby :)

Trick or Treat?

So trick-or-treating isn't really done in South Africa. But we figured our kids are American too, so they should totally do American traditions as well. We have 6 neighbors in our complex, so we went to all of them first and gave them candy, and told them we'd be coming around 7pm trick or treating. They were all excited and were totally accommodating of our crazy American kids :) Noah was SO excited that he was a little bear, and that he got to go "knock knock" and say "trick-or-treat".

Noah going to his first door. We discovered his little bag was too little for all the candy!

We loved it too cause we got to talk to our neighbors who usually otherwise keep pretty much to themselves.

Dalene our next door neighbor is Scottish, and she said on Halloween they used to hang muffins and cakes from strings and the kids had to eat them :)

We had SO much fun with the kids. It was really special for us cause we knew our neighbors were so kind to play along!

They all wanted to hold our little pumpkin

One of our neighbors dressed up and Noah thought she was a "king" cause she was wearing a "crown." He thanked God in his prayer that night for the king. So funny.

We came back with lots of candy!

Back home with our carved pumpkins

These are for the grandparents. I dressed em up and took a few photos in our yard.

Our little crawling ladybug

Carving pumpkins

This year I went on an orange pumpkin hunt for Noah's first pumpkin carving but to no avail! After 4 fruit and veg shops, I came home with squatty green ones, but they still totally work! I fought being disappointed like I do every year at not finding these things, and this year I wasn't for the first time.

This was Autumn's first look at a pumpkin, and SHE was my orange pumpkin :)

Noah and I carved one of them this morning. This is him drawing the face. "Tri-ANGLE eyes momma" (he puts the emphasis on the wrong syllable on tri-ANGLE I love it!)

Scooping out the goo, what little kid doesn't love goo?

Carving the face

He wanted to hold the knife for a little :)

And our cute jack-o-lantern all done!

He liked putting in the candle sooo much. He'd say "can-le hot momma, oh its so hot!"

Got Milk?

8 months!

For Autumn's 8 month photo shoot I brought out my big flash, but my goal was to use it just as a "fill flash" so that it looked like natural light. I loved the result cause it brings an extra "pop" to the eyes, but still left a natural light look. It's the first time I figured out how to do this in daylight, cause I'm normally quite scared of the flash look. I love shooting my favorite subjects, my kiddos!

At 8 months Auty is crawling all over the place. She loves her stuffed lamb, and toys that make music. She can say "dadda" to her daddy, and smiles mostly for her brother. If mom's not in the room she'll look all over for me until I come in :) And she loves finger foods. Her smile is more captivating every day, and we love her to bits!

Man's best friend

Or boy's best friend in this case. Noah loves Spurgeon our dog, and Spurgeon loves Noah but for only one reason......he's got the ball, and he just might throw it!

We came back from the library today and Noah had a fun time just throwing the ball around our front yard with Spurg.

A big Spurg hug

Spurgeon's favorite thing in whole world, Noah throwing the ball.

Autumn sat on our front stoop and eyed the object of her affection, rocks on our walkway that she wanted to chew on, (yep, she's getting her top teeth now) and Noah kindly said "no rocks Nuh nuh, they are hhaa haa (dirty)"

Tobi came out to join the fun

This is Noah's affectionate "I just want to hug you tight" face, and Tobi's face is classic....slight annoyance with "I couldn't be bothered with this"

Only for the shoes

Autumn started crawling this week, but the ONLY thing she'll crawl for is shoes. She's fascinated by them.

She spots the object of her affection....

And makes her move

And later crawled for my shoes as well :) I wonder if she'll love shoes when shes a little girl

Moses

Every day I try and do something creative with Noah during Autumn's morning nap. This week it's been the life of Moses. I found several great websites to teach toddlers through the Bible and crafts to go with each one. These are from www.toddler-activities-at-home.com I couldn't believe how much he loved it and kept talking about Moses throughout the day.

This craft went with telling the story of baby Moses. I read with him from my Bible (he thought this was very cool) and colored the baby and made him a basket. Then we played hide and seek with baby Moses (cause remember Moses's mom hid him from Pharaoh?) and this he LOVED. He'd say "Hmmm, where did baby Moses go?"

He asked for a pillow and blanket for baby Moses, made from dryer sheets :)

The next day was Moses and the burning bush. He got to stick the fire on the bush, and he loved it!

Noah walked around the house saying "Let the people go!"

He also said that God's name is "I AM" very cute. Today we did the plagues of Egypt, and Moses telling Pharaoh to let the people go. I'd ask Noah, "did Pharaoh listen to God?" Noah....."NO!" Tomorrow will be Pharaoh letting the people go. It's been quite fun coming up with a small lesson every morning.

Nature walk

Noah has been asking almost every day this week to go to the beach, but its been so cloudy/windy so I told him we'd go see a waterfall and walk along a river. He didn't seem to know what it was, but he seemed excited, so off we went! There is a little nature reserve about 10 minutes from our home down the Kloof Gorge, and it turned out to be an amazing day.

"Fall" leaves in the river even though its Spring in SA. It's like the Lord placed them there just for me to enjoy since I miss the Fall season in the States.

The area we live in is so beautiful and lush, I love it! Noah discovering the waterfall, he kept saying "BIG one momma, BIG waterfall!"

He liked poking the leaves with a perfect Noah sized stick.

We made a quick potty break for Noah, since he's potty trained now I was so grateful there was a loo nearby, and these leaves were right outside the little hut, so pretty.

And back to the river we walked! I've been teaching him the song "Our God is so Great" for quite a while now, and he loves it. In the song it says "the rivers are His" so it was cool to show him an actual river.

This photo makes me think of Huck Finn

Amazing leaves in the river again.

Balancing on the rocks

We walked over a couple of bridges to a lake

Then back to the waterfall for some water fun

He wanted his shoes off, and the water wasn't actually that cold, so he had alot of fun splashing and playing with the leaves, and we left quite soaking wet!

It's so fun seeing God's creation through a toddlers eyes.

First time to the beach

Last Monday we went with Charl & Nina and their relatives to the beach. After lots of rain, it was a perfect beach day, and it was Autumn's first time to the beach! She loved it, and kicked her little legs and laughed into the wind.

Although she wasn't too sure about touching the water, and whats with this strange sand castle?

Noah always asks to wear his hat and sunglasses, he loves them

Autumn kept looking at the water, why is it so cold?

Playing in the water with daddy

I would have taken even more photos, but alas my little camera has died, but Autumn loved sitting on the towel playing with her sand toys, we had tons of fun in the waves, and Noah every day this week says "Suns out? More beach? Oh mommy its bright, so beach?" It's been raining this whole week, and he keeps looking for the sun in hopes we can go back.