Fall Traditions

Autumn is my absolute favorite time of year. I love the cool weather, the smell of the trees, the changing leaves, and just about everything else. Of course I made sure we spent time as a family sharing some traditional fall activities. We went to an apple orchard today and picked our own apples, took a hayride, and selected a pumpkin. It was so disappointing that they were out of apple cider, but we got a lot of different varieties of apples to make apple sauce and caramel apples (my favorite!) Here are pictures from the day. Some are blurry because I forgot to tell Daryl that I changed the features on the camera to take pictures earlier. The video, as usual, will come later when it is finished uploading to youtube.

Picking Apples

The sweetest of the bushel

Walking through the orchards
Hayride!
Look what we found in the punkin patch!
They had pumpkins that were bigger than Jonah!

Our Pumpkin!

Completely unrelated to our farm adventures, my mom bought Jonah a swing and it arrived yesterday! She doesn't know that she bought him a swing, but she did! It has a star projector, a canopy, and plays not only lullabies, but also nature sounds! It swings two different directions: side to side, and front to back. Jonah loves it!

Noah and Paddington

One month old!

Jonah is one month old!It seems like it was just last week that we were bringing him home. He is becoming so alert and aware of his surroundings, and he is spending more of his time awake! He has definitely gone through some growth spurts, and can finally fit into some of his outfits!

Here is his one month picture with the teddy bear!

I am hoping to take him to The Picture People soon to have his portraits taken. He has a bad case of baby acne right now that I am waiting to clear up. The Picture People is my favorite place to get children's portraits done. Working in preschool, we've had a lot of different portrait companies that we've worked with, and The Picture People really made an impression on me. They are so patient, and are able to get even the difficult kids to smile. They really seem to understand how to take great portraits of all the different ages.They are a little more expensive than JC Penny, but the portraits are actually worth paying for. I wouldn't take Jonah anywhere else for those kinds of portraits.

Happy Birthday Noah!!!

Saturday September 6th was Noah's second birthday!!!! Here are videos and pictures of his celebration at Grandma and Grandpa's! We went to Ray's for dinner. If you ask Noah what he did for his birthday, or what presents he recieved, he'll tell you "We ate cake and blew out the candles!"

Here he is opening his tractors from Uncle Will and Aunt Heather.


They also got him a Marvin the Martian ray gun!


Singing the song and blowing out candles.


Opening gifts from Will and Heather

Eating cupcakes at Ray's Place
Showing off his new guitar from Uncle Daryl and Aunt Jess
Rock Star!!!

Look what he can do!

On September 9th, Jonah smiled socially for the first time! He was laughing at Mommy for making funny voices. Luckily the camera was sitting right next to me, and I was able to get as good of a shot as I could hope for... it's a little blurry, but I was trying to hurry and snap it before it went away!

I was hoping to post video of Noah's second birthday celebration, but youtube is being slow again, as usual, so I probably won't be able to post them until tonight.

On How People Move Their Junk

"Music is so important. It inspires us, and helps us move our junk..."~Ellen Degeneres

One of the things in this world that continues to remain inexplicable to me, as well as bring wonderful moments into my life is the way that music affects various peoples. In short, I like the way people "move their junk." This weekend, we were privileged enough to see the different ways in which individuals engage in "moving their junk" and I would like to document it here in this short commentary.

This is my preferred way to move my junk. The band that we are moving it to is The Boilermakers Jazz Band with Erin Keufel on Vocals (sorry if I misspelled her last name) They are a band from Pittsburgh, and one of my favorites. Erin is a local singer, and the best voice in Cleveland by far! The acoustics on the video does no justice to them at all.



Here are members of my home community moving their junk to African dance music. The musicians are the Kent African Drum and Dance Society, at Art in the Park 2008. Check out the older gentleman with the cane moving his junk. He totally rocks his junk.



Finally, we have steel drummers moving their junk, also at Art in the Park 2008. The group is Flash in the Pan.



Flash in the Pan made Jonah move his junk while helping Papaw with the sound equipment. Papaw helps people hear the band, and it's his job to make sure people want to move their junk when they hear the people on the stage!



Other things that make Jonah move his junk are:

The Sitar


The Alpaca


And our good friend, Troy!


Things that make Noah move his junk are:

The guitar


and Cake!!!

More Pictures

As per request, more Jonah pictures! He will be three weeks old tomorrow, and I already can't believe how much he has changed! He is becoming less of a "lump" and is starting to gain personality! He is responding to a lot of different things like toys and music, and holds his head up like a pro! When he's awake his head is always up and he is looking at everything so wide-eyed. He is also putting himself on a regular sleeping and eating schedule, which is really good for mommy!!!

Last weekend he got his first bath! I tried to find some internet appropriate pictures (trying to save him from all the pervs that might stumble upon the site... if any of my family would like pictures of his first bath let me know and I'll gladly email them!!!) He was NOT happy about being bathed, and peed in his first water! He did not even care that he had rubber ducks to play "Cops and Pirates" with! Mommy had fun though!

Here is another one of my favorite pictures, taken when he was barely a week old. I took this picture to show one of my friends the cloth diapers we are using, and now it's one of my favorites!


Tiny hands and feet! I love it when he folds his little hands like this!