Hot Air Balloon Festival and Fall Fun

We took the boys to the annual Knoxville Hot Air Balloon Festival in Hardin Valley last weekend and had a great time. Noah loved the balloons, and enjoyed feeding the ducks in the nearby pond and seeing a dog-show, where the dogs did tricks like running obstacle courses and catching frisbies.

The weather is finally starting to turn cooler, and we're looking forward to some chilly fall weather.

Brenton is doing awesome. He is growing well and has started eating rice cereal now. He does pretty well with it and keeps most of it in his mouth and not on his face or shirt. He is a smiling machine and likes to laugh a lot. He loves being entertained by Noah, who continues to be a great big brother. Brenton weighs a little bit less than Noah did at this age, but he's taller, so some of Noah's clothes fit a little bit shorter on him. he loves to be held a lot, but is now enjoying playing in his exersaucer and play mat for a few minutes at a time. He is also good at dodging stuffed animals that Noah may be tossing around the house.

Noah is learning more and more in his new class at school. He always comes home with new songs to sing and new prayers to say. It's always so neat to hear him bust them out at unexpected times. His imagination is growing more and more and he really enjoys pretending with his many Grover dolls. He is still very much in the "super hero" phase and is hooked on Super Grover and Super Why. If you haven't seen Super Why before, we encourage you to check it out. It has really helped supplement what he's learned about letters and numbers at school in a fun and interactive way. Here are some more tidbits on our always energetic, strong willed, and rough and tumble 2 1/2 year old...

Favorite foods: Pop-Tarts, Cereal Bars (only the Apple/Cinnamon flavor), pizza, fruit snacks, Chick Fil-A nuggets, Rice Krispies, Cheese, and sandwiches. He's not the best dinner eater, but eats his other meals really well. He is losing most of his baby fat and is looking more and more like a little boy instead of a toddler, which is bittersweet.

Favorite Shows: Sesame Street, Super Why, Thomas the Train, and Tom and Jerry. We really have to limit the Tom and Jerry, as it's pretty violent for his age. He thinks the cat's name is "Tom and Jerry" so he often refers to it as "Tom & Jerry and the mouse."

Other fun facts: He is always very proud to wear his "Rocky Top" (orange UT) football jersey and Peyton Manning jersey. He loves to pretend he's going to work and grabs one of our coffee mugs and a bag and says "I go to work...." leaves the room then returns and exclaims "Noah's home"...it's funny! He is good about memorizing songs and enjoys listening to the Roger Day kid's cd in his bedroom. He loves putting on his super hero cape and pretending to fly around the house. He's is still a VERY early riser...5:45 am wake-ups almost every day. Sometimes a little later if we're lucky, and earlier if we're not.

Here are some recent photos from the past few weeks:

Noah loves swinging on the back deck

Gabi decided to come cuddle with Brenton

 First bites of rice cereal

Eating a picnic dinner at the Balloon Festival

Loved feeding the ducks

Noah and Addie loved the balloons

Noah took over the exersaucer and loved playing with it more than B