Condiment of Choice

During tonight's dinner:
"May I please have some ketchup for dessert?"

What Mommy could refuse such delightful manners?

Entertainment

Owen told me this entertaining story to accompany my breakfast cereal:

"YEOW!

YEOW!

YEOW!

There was a stomping elephant!

Jesus and God had to go in their house...called the heavens.

Yeah.

It is on the other side of the concrete."

"Lawn Mowering"

Anyone for Cupcakes?

To celebrate Nosy's Happy Half B-day, we had a "decorate your own cupcake" party. Owie and I baked away while No-nos napped. Once he woke up, it was an icing/sprinkle free-for-all!

Happy Half B-day to Nosy!

Sweet Nosy,

The months are flying by way too fast for your Mommy! You are so grown up, Son, and your grasp on life amazes me. At 18 months old, what a bright, sunshiny toddler you are, full of life and laughs!

Stats:

Weight: 25 pounds, 4 ounces (50%)

Height: 33 1/2 inches (80%)

You have earned the title of family clown, always attempting to make us laugh at your antics. You will toddle up with three pacis in your mouth or your shoes on your hands, giggling to yourself while just standing there, waiting for us to acknowledge you with a chuckle. You keep us all in fits of laughter!

Although your vocabulary consists of only three tiny words ("Ma-ma," "Da-DY!" and "Uh-oh"), absolutely nothing gets by you. Your comprehension level is out of this world. Sometimes, I will give you a crazy-long list of tasks to do or ask you a question embedded in a paragraph just to test your understanding. Almost always you follow the directions or answer the question with your trademark adamant head nod or negatory shake. You can somehow manage to carry on complete conversations using only your three words, sign language and pointing. Maybe that is why you only have three words! Your communication is that good without ever talking!

Our wonderful pediatrician, however, is quite concerned about your verbal skills, enough to dust off his super-intimidating book on (gulp!) autism. "Only a precaution," he said, "but I need to go over a few things just in case. He does have a few of the trademark signs..." In my limited scope, however, I have never met a less autistic child than Nosy-Posy. I'm not going to worry about it...

Your "What you talkin' about, Willis?" face

I have been so pleasantly surprised this month, Noah. I must admit that you had me a bit worried. Your personality is stubborn, your will is strong, your compulsion is to rebel. Your Daddy and I pray for godly wisdom to shape your personality and will to honor Christ. We never want to squash your amazing, God-given traits, just mold them into qualities that will be beneficial to the Kingdom of God. This month, you have become increasingly compliant! I can see in your eyes the desire to please me and obey. You respond more quickly to rebukes, and I have had to swat you much less often. I am so proud of you, Nosy, and your new-found desire to obey.

Noah, you light up my life and keep me on my toes. You play hard, challenge me endlessly, run me until I am exhausted, but your precious cuddles and kisses can instantly erase any trials of the day. Anything you do, you do to the fullest, whether it is throw a fit or hug my neck. I love that about you, Nosy. Now that I mention it, I love everything about you, Nosy.

Tinker Friends

Meet "Circle-y" the dinosaur, named such not because he consists of circles, but because he only eats circles: "Things like peas and pancakes...not wheels by-cuz his mouth is too little. Okay? Only small circle things like peas and pancakes."

And introducing "Puppy," the flying dinosaur, who I am sad to say lunches on puppies. "But Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy. He is nice. He only sucks the puppies. He does not chew them by-cuz he knows they are people's puppies."

Where does he get this stuff?

Streaking Shepherds

The new after bath, squeaky-clean ritual around the House of Halpin. All the while, Owie sings, "We are shepherds, Mommy! Shepherds!"

Departure

All too soon, our trip drew to a close. What a wonderful time we had!! After one last picture, we loaded up our car and started the drive back to Texas.

Since our drive to the lake had been ideal, we had similar expectations for the ride home. We could not have been more wrong! Owie was running a pretty stiff fever, shivering and shaking, refusing food and fluids, and having great intestinal difficulty (to put it delicately). We saw our fair share of gas station restrooms along the highway! And Noah was just plain crabby. He whined and cried and pouted and screamed. It was a long, long, long trip. But once we set foot back on our home turf, all the yuckiness flooded away. It is always so great to get HOME!!

Our Lakish Life

A few random, but none-the-less blog-worthy, photos.

The five bedroom, four bath cabin where we stayed. We also rented the two cabins on either side of this one for various people to stay in. We had abundant space for everyone to spread out and make themselves comfortable.

Our dock. How great it was to be right on the water!

Every morning started out bright and early with snuggle and reading time. Various adults would get the honor of having a cuddly boy climb up in their lap to enjoy a good read.

As soon as some coffee had been chugged, we girls jump-started our day with a power walk, only with less power in the walking, more power in the talking. These are some of my favorite memories from the whole trip, reminiscing with these women and discovering who they grew up to be. I am so grateful to them for opening up their hearts so willingly and allowing us to know them.

I insisted to Jeremy that we needed to bring our double jogger, just in case of hiking or exploring. I used it one whole solitary time on this walk in which Owie tagged along. (Sorry, Babe!) Afterwards, we decided both O and I would enjoy ourselves more if he stayed home with Daddy and the other kiddos.

How did we spend the days?

We snuggled the sweetest babies,

happily warmed up chilly Boys after swimming,

poked quite a bit of interesting stuff with sticks,

and juggled jellyfish! (Okay, okay. These are actually just really cool, squishy balls that begged to be juggled.).

And the evenings?

The ladies chit-chatted,

while the Grandparents smiled

and passed on their wisdom to the innocents.

Scrumptious food was prepared by different teams each night while the rest of the crew visited and relaxed.

We learned a new game called koob which we all loved,

and played quite a bit of an old favorite.
(Don't Noah and Jeremy look so much alike in this picture?!)

We ran some,

and rode some...

and then headed off to bed, exhausted, stuffed-full and extremely happy.

A-caving We Will Go

I have been deprived my whole life and never even knew it. I had never, ever been inside a cave. And so, when given the opportunity at CuzFest, I jumped at it! We caravanned out to Bridal Falls Cave to see what we could see.

First,we had to set the adventuresome mood. Here are my two cave explorers.

We had a little time to kill before our tour began, so the families indulged me by allowing me to take family photos. Here's ours! (The others are posted in "Introductions.")

The cave was incredible! I have never seen anything like it! This great picture was taken by my cousin Katy. Isn't it unbelievable?! God's creation is so awesome, creative and unique!

Here we are inside the cave, the Halpin cave dwellers.

Firefly Hunting

Each evening, as the daylight waned, the three bigger Boys would excitedly head outside to track down some fireflies. What simple, wonderful fun it was to watch them enjoy the challenge of the hunt! The adults couldn't help but join in as well! (Sorry the pics are so blurry. Like I said, the light was dim, but I still love the shots I got.)