Noah plays with Jake

(The last one is the best.)

Father of the Year

Last week Kyle had Scout Camp. On Wednesday morning, he called me to ask if he could take Noah with him to the camp for the night. I thought it was so sweet that Kyle wanted to take Noah along. That's true love, to want to take a toddler someplace crazy like camping! This was their first big father-son outing, so the whole thing made me a little emotional! I helped pack Noah's little over night bag and did some motherly nagging ("Make sure he's warm enough"), and then the boys were gone. I missed them so much, and I almost didn't know what to do with myself! But the night passed and they came home, and I got to hear all the stories. Here are a few pictures of their adventures:

with Dad and the cows

around the campfire

Good thing he has already had his tetanus shots :)

I know this will be just the first of many father-son things, and I love it. I feel so happy that my boys have an amazing father. He is so patient with them. He loves to spend time with them and is so good at playing with them. He brings a lot of laughter and fun into our home. He is a good example for the boys and I hope they will grow up to be good guys just like their dad.

More from the Party

The proud father presenting his son. This is exactly how he did it in church after the blessing too. Just kidding.

Mommy and Jake

The next pictures are what Noah was up to the whole day:

Playing with his food
I don't think that shirt will ever be the same!

Playing with his uncles
He has learned most of their names. He's had Kurt down for forever, but now he's got Ryan "Ry-Ry" and "Kenton" "Kenken". He was having a hard time with Christian, but when we changed his name to "Choo Choo", he says it now everytime. I think he calls Curtis "Brooke" and well Derek and Andrew, we're still working on them!

Playing with the girls--

He especially loves the Morgan girls, and Haylie in particular! He followed Haylie everywhere and tried to drag her along wherever he went. Through the whole weekend he said: " come on Haylie!" probably 300 times! The day after they went back home to California, I told Noah we were going to Grammy's house, and he said excitedly: "Haylie!" I had to break it to them that Haylie wouldn't be at Grammy's house this time. Sad! We wish everyone would just go ahead and move here with us!

Playing with The Ouch-y Plant

Since we live in the desert, we have plants in our yard that are well-suited for harsh climates. The "Ouch-y Plant", for example. It has spikes on it that are so sharp that brushing up against it the wrong way draws blood. During the party, my Dad and brothers were playing with Noah and developed a game that involves this plant. One of the big boys would pretend to touch the Ouch-y plant and then pull back and proceed to yell and writhe around the ground in pain. Noah would laugh hysterically every time. When he wasn't laughing, he directed the whole game. He would say the name of the person he wanted to hurt themself and with one finger point at the next victim, and the other finger point to the plant. He even took his turn. He would put his little finger up next to the plant and then give us a mischevious look and run in circles and yell "ouch!" and then fall on the ground. Great game. Guess you had to be there. :)

Blessed

Our little Jacob Miles was blessed in church on Sunday. We had a mini family reunion in honor of the occasion. The Piepers came out from Kentucky, the Morgans from California, the Eagle Mountain Campbells, and Grandma Campbell from Pioche! And the locals of course! It was a special day, one we won't forget. Kyle gave Jacob a beautiful blessing. I felt so grateful God sent this sweet little boy to our family!

This was my first experience with a full-on traditional Utah baby blessing and afterparty. It was pretty wild. We had about 40 people over to our house after the blessing- it was a full house! I've never been the best organizer, so I let the Pieper boys take over the food preparation, and then Grammy Shanna got here and I asked her to be in charge, and just about everyone else helped out in some way! Thanks to all the helpers, I got to relax and enjoy the party. We played Wii and ate food and talked. A new baby being blessed is a great reason for a party! We were thrilled to have everyone there to celebrate with us and can't wait to do it again! :)

The Four of Us

4 GenerationsGrandpa Chief
Brothers

More pictures to come...

Cooking with a Hungry Toddler

I woke up at about 7:00 this morning and came into the kitchen to get breakfast started. Most mornings we have cold cereal, or if we're lucky eggs or pancakes. But this morning I felt adventurous and decided to make a biscuit ring (aka monkeybread). Noah loves to help "cook", so I let him pull up a big chair next to me, expecting a little extra mess, because he is a toddler after all. Sometimes I'll let him sample the food as we go, but today he gave a new meaning to "licking the spoon". First he grabbed a handful of biscuit dough and practically inhaled it. Next he stuck a spoon in the cinnamon sugar and took a bite, actually three bites, before I confiscated the spoon. Then he stuck his little fingers into the stick of butter and shoved a chunk in his mouth. And as with each of his other taste tests, he followed wih an enthusiastic: "MMMMMMM!" At this point, I moved all the food away from him, but then he managed to crack open my prenatal vitamins (not childproof, apparently). Luckily I stopped him just before he put one in his mouth. (I won't be leaving my vitamins on the counter anymore.) My patience was wearing a little thin at this point, so I moved him away from the food, to the sink. I gave Noah a scrub brush to wash the dishes, or more specifically, the pot soaking from dinner last night. I turned my back for one moment to finish the breakfast, and when I turned back to Noah, what did I find? Noah had the scrub brush in his mouth and was nibbling on the remnants of last night's rice and whatever other scraps of food might have been stuck to that brush.
Moral of the story: don't underestimate the appetite of a hungry child.

Noah's blossoming vocab and Jacob's first month

Noah is learning new words all the time. Half the time you don't know what he's talking about, but the other half of the time, we're impressed :)

*He just learned to say "football", and his father has never been more proud.

*I asked Noah what he wanted for dinner. He said: "Cake!" I said "What else do you want to eat?" He said: "Rocks."

*Noah will pray. He automatically folds his arms when we put food down on the table in front of him, and sometimes he remembers even when we forget. When says the prayer, he rambles on for a minute (much less, depending on how hungry he is), and then at the end says amen. There's nothing cuter than hearing your child pray!

*When Noah wakes up in the morning he runs to Jake's bouncer (where he sleeps) and says enthusiastically: "Hi, Jake!" Noah holds his arms out when he wants to hold Jake. When Jake cries, Noah says: "Milk!" He likes to give Jake a kiss every night before he goes to bed. And then there's also the hitting and grabbing and poking, but we try not to draw too much attention to that (On a side note, we made it through 18 months without hearing the word "no" come from his mouth. But now that we have a newborn around the house, he hears "no" enough that he has finally adopted the word into his vocabulary!)

*When I am putting Noah down for bed, I ask him what song he wants me to sing. He used to request the horse and cow song (by making horse and cow noises). But now he says: "Mom Dad Juice Cook-cook [cookie]". so I changed the words of the song to "think of juice and cookies too/ [then he says: mmmmm!] know that mom and dad love you."

As for Jacob, he doesn't say much, but he does make lots of grunting and snorting noises. It makes sleep for us a little tricky at night, but on the bright side, the noises let us know that he is breathing! He's a good little baby. Very cuddly. That's the best part of newborns! He's growing out of his newborn diapers, he is definitely not the scrawny little 6 pounder from a month ago. His hair is still dark, but we'll see how long it lasts. He smiles in his sleep sometimes, it's very sweet. He is a good little baby! After a month, we are getting accustomed to having the little guy around. We are happy to have him!

Daddy's Home

Summer vacation is here! Which means that we get Kyle all to ourselves for the next few months! We had a party to celebrate Kyle's last day of school, luau-themed to welcome summer. We were all in our bathing suits (and even me, post-pregnancy! Which explains why the guest list was very exclusive-only the guest of honor and children under the age of two were witnesses!) Check out Noah's speedos.

Little Jacob, looking very festive.

We are so excited to spend more time with Kyle. It is amazing how refreshing it is to have another adult in the house all day. I don't have to countdown the hours until he comes home anymore! Kyle is so much fun to have around, and is also a huge help. It's amazing how much easier it is when the child-to-parent ratio is 1-1! Anyway, we love him and are so happy we will be seeing more of him!