Lions, Tigers, and Bikes...Oh My!

With the the Big Boy's Birthday Bash weekend rapidly approaching, I need to try to squeeze is some blogging and catch up on a few things. Over the weekend, we visited the Austin Zoo. It's a pretty good drive, and really more of a petting zoo, so we may not venture there again. But, Noah was able to enjoy a few tigers, squirrel monkeys, a jaguar, a lion, and some peacocks anyway. He wasn't crazy about touching the goat but didn't mind watching Daddy feed them.

On Sunday, we bought a couple of birthday presents and put this one to work. Well, it's kind of a present for us too, since we can now resurrect our bicycles and haul Noah along with us. And he LOVES it! So stinkin cute riding around in there.

This is a busy, long week around here! Here's to fun weekends!

Loads of Catching Up!

After 2 weeks off, the blogging is starting to really pile up around here! I don't have all of our pics from the cruise yet (ahem :), so I'll post about that later. To sum it up, the cruise was an absolute blast, we can't wait to go again, but are happy to be back with our favorite little boy. The following week was Spring Break, so I took Noah to visit my parents in Paris, and swung by my aunt Patti's on the way home. We also stopped by to meet Baby Beau at the Chamblees!

For now, I'll post pictures from this weekend, which was the end of spring break, and some much needed family time at home! Mandi and Sophia came down on Saturday to spend the night. She never made it to South by Southwest, as planned, and Jeremy and I never made it to Cirque du Soleil, but we all had a good time anyway.

These kids got pretty dirty playing in the backyard after dinner, so a cousin bubble bath was necessary.

Sunday morning we headed out to explore downtown Austin and all its hippie wonder.

Lunch!

Dessert from Sugar Mama's :)

She thought they were pretty good.

By the way, we closed on the sale of our West Virginia house this week and are so thankful! Couldn't remember if I posted about that or not. Eventually, I'll get the 1000 pics from the cruise and visit to my parents' posted! Busy week ahead!

Evening Silliness

OK, just one more. Then I'm out. For real.

Our evenings are sometimes full of general silliness such as this. Sorry for the poor lighting.

Whew!

The Barclays on the move! All of us. In all directions.


Well, our branch of the family is not literally moving again. (No way!) But, Jeremy and I are leaving on our big cruise in just a few days! We will leave on the 5th, pick up the Nutts at the Houston airport, drive to Galveston, spend the night, and board the ship on the 6th. From there, we cruise to Cozumel, Roatan Honduras, and Belize City, returning to Galveston on the 13th. We are so excited. And so ready for a vacation. Other than our short trip to New York, we have not had a real vacation since the BBC (Birthday Bash Cruise) of August '08. You may remember that as the time we got on the boat and found out I was pregnant. Not this time, buddy! Jeremy affectionately coined "KAH" for the name of this cruise (Kids at Home). It's kind of funny, right after we got home from the BBC trip, I headed over to meet Jake & Mallory Chamblee for the first time. This trip, I will just miss the arrival of little Beau Chamblee on the 10th. Funny timing, Alli!

Debbie will be staying at our house with Noah. All by herself. Poor Mamaw. But for a good reason! Terry got a job! We are thrilled for them. However, the job is moving them to Fort Smith, Arkansas. A long drive from us. Although, I am grateful its not Milwaukee, which was the other option, we praise the Lord for this gift! Jeremy's sister, Mandi, also has some new job opportunities in the works and we praying that the closer opportunity is the one intended for her! :)

I am a little anxious about leaving Noah for 8 days. That's the longest amount of time ever! I am going to miss him. And I'm a little concerned as to what the fallout may be when we get back. Not sure if he's going to be angry at us for ditching him for so long. But we'll all be just fine I am sure! Please send up a prayer for our health, safety, and relaxation if you get a chance! I am also a little concerned about my motion sickness, which only seems to be worse since being pregnant. (How does that happen?) So I am packing lots of Dramamine! Jeremy immediately stated that "we all" need to make "pact" not to hold each other back if one gets sick. (I'm sure Stacie & Brian have not heard that we need such an agreement. In other words, Amy, don't screw up my vacation.)

Anyway, we are very excited and many plans are in the works! We are prepared for snorkeling, snuba, zipline, shopping, beautiful beaches, LOTS of eating, and whatever else comes our way! KAH!


In more ordinary news, I have been training for my new job as an hourly counselor at a local community college. It is an overwhelming overload of information but I am hopeful it will start to make sense soon and I will be of some use in my position. Noah and I love his new baby-sitter and he is doing great there. In fact, she took these pics for me!

I could swear that Noah is sleeping 1 to 2 hours less per day than he did in WV. I have been working hard to get some balance and he is doing better. When he gets overtired, it is downright UGLY!

Now, we just have to get everything packed and wrap up the last minute stuff (pedicure, waxing, spray tans...) and we're outta here! Sayonara! I am officially on blog hiatus!

Will You Be Mine?

You may notice a few pictures of cookies in this post. Maybe in every picture. I apologize for that. But it's because this is the Valentine's Day 2011 post!!


I love Valentine's. It is one of my favorite holidays. I love all things pink and red, chocolate, roses, cupids, jewelry, you name it! So I say "Boo!!" to all the haters! Love it up! :)


I made dinner and some homemade sugar cookies. I really made the cookies because I wanted Noah to help decorate them. Well...he tried but just isn't there yet. Here is the finished product and they are mighty tasty.





Here is Noah decorating...the table. The closest he got to sprinkling on the cookie was to plant the jar of sprinkles in the frosting. Oh well. He seemed to really enjoy shaking sprinkles out all over the table. I will continue to look forward to the days of craftiness together in the future.




Some of you may have seen the Smilebox I sent out this year because I never got it together and made Valentine cards. Kind of like my intention to make some "Happy New Year/Thanks for the Christmas Gift/We Moved!" cards and send those out. Anyway, these pics are from Noah eating a red velvet cake cookie on our front porch last weekend. I tried to leave out the ones with obvious crusty nose issues. :)

And the Mama scored big! Jeremy gave me this beautiful amethyst ring from James Avery and a pair of amethyst studs AND some white roses!

Finally, enjoy some smooth moves brought to you by our own Dancing Diapered Dude. (Sorry about the blurry lens, but the content was too cute to pass up.) Happy Heart Day!

Happy Hour!

We had such a great weekend! Jeremy's parents decided to drive over on Thursday and stayed until this morning. We had fun and got enormous amounts of stuff done around here! Except for a few things left to hang on the walls, the house is ready to go and open for business! I was also able to get a ton of errands taken care of too. Noah was a Papaw groupie all weekend but finally said "Mamaw" this morning before they left.

The only downside was Noah developing a yucky cough and cold over the weekend. We had to take a hiatus from the church search. I had an interview for a part-time counselor position with a local community college today and even found a lady who does child care out of her home that I really like who agreed to watch him while I was gone. Luckily, Jeremy was able to leave work and keep him.

So what do you do when you are sick, snotty, coughing, can't sleep more than 45 minutes at naptime, and generally grouchy, tired, and cabin-feverish? Head out for your first Sonic drink, of course!

Cranberry slushes are pretty darn good! And I guessed maybe the least of all the Sonic evils. :)

Mmmm!

Until you drop your cup and it busts everywhere. Hanging out on the front porch was a smart idea.

Sticky feet to follow.

Now we are snuggling in bed watching videos... lots of Elmo and Baby Einstein around here lately! I hope you have a great Monday and stay well!

Fiddle-Dee-Dee

More of what we've been up to lately!

Naps are better! I took the above photo to document my having to wake him up yesterday from a long one. :)

Noah's Kindermusik course is called "fiddle-dee-dee" for this session and it's pretty cute. I think he's really going to love it, as much as he enjoys music and dancing. And I think he's going to get the hang of this "social interaction" thing too. :) It might be a little pricey, but I think it will be worth it the end. Check it out if you've got a little one and are interested in some fun time, just the two of you, learning and interacting with other little guys.

I found a group on Meetup.com for moms and kids born in 2009. So far we went to one playdate at the park and plan to go visit someone's home tomorrow for another. There are usually 3 or 4 different meetups scheduled each week to choose from, and I'm hopeful we'll have a lot of fun with this.

Up until today, when the Great Arctic Blast of 2011 hit Austin, we have been living up the outdoors as much as we can. Noah has always loved to swing and has been unabashedly finding joy in the baby swing at the park. Even after 20 minutes of swinging, he still puts his head down and cries, or throws a fit, when time is up. He enjoys the slides and running around, but once he knows there's a swing there, forget about it.

Waving bye-bye to an airplane passing over. Have I mentioned this boy loves airplanes too? He hears every single one when we are outside and searches the skies for them.

There it goes!

Listening.

Where is the airplane, Noah? *He points.*

Finally, Mommy let him get in the swing.

I still almost can't believe God has blessed us so much and brought us back home so quickly! I still wonder what my purpose was in WV because when we went, I thought there must be a big something I was supposed to do out there. But I guess not. Maybe none of it was about me. I hope to find one here, aside from any personal happiness about being here.

Oh! Please continue praying for our house in WV! A couple looked at it Sunday and are trying to decide between making an offer on our house or one other they looked at.

Stay warm this week, Texans...and the rest of the country too, I guess!