Singing "Elmo's World"

A Fun-Filled February

What a busy month February has been! I can't believe it's almost over. I also can't believe we're 29 weeks along with baby Brenton and that we'll get to meet him in just 11 weeks! Of course, Noah turned two and I must admit that I was a bit teary-eyed putting him to bed on his birthday. How could two years of his life already passed by? In the hospital, the nurses kept telling us how "alert" he was for a newborn and that they couldn't believe they got a picture of him with his eyes open for the nursery webpage. He certainly hasn't slowed down yet, either! Whether playing with blocks, flying around the house with a cape (aka his blankie) pretending to be Super Grover or asking us to dance (while shaking his fingers in the air), he keeps us busy, but more importantly so in love.

Eric's 29th birthday was relaxing and low-key. Noah and I picked up Fleming's for dinner. Eric's favorites are their Double Thick Apple Pork Chop and Fleming's Potatoes. Earlier in the day, Noah and I made homemade strawberry cupcakes with a strawberry cream cheese icing. I'm the chocolate lover in the relationship, but Eric loves just about anything strawberry. They turned out great, but the best part was seeing Noah get so excited about singing "Happy Birthday" and blowing out his daddy's birthday candle. Earlier that morning, I'd put a candle in Eric's cinnamon roll for breakfast which Noah thought was great, too.




On February 12, Eric and I attended the 2010 Evergreen Ball benefitting the Friends of the Smokies. Since I served on the planning committee, we got to go for free and enjoy a delicious meal, open bar and dancing (well, I enjoyed the ice water from the open bar anyway). We considered this our Valentine's Day date :) On the real V'Day, we went to brunch at one of our favorite spots and picked up dinner at P.F. Chang's (i.e. no cooking was done on our part!)


Noah also got to hang out with our former neighbor Caroline who came over one afternoon to keep him for a few hours and then had dinner with us. He is such a flirt and thinks the world of Caroline. Andrew, Thomas and Lauren came over for the Super Bowl, but we didn't take any pics. We were all rooting for the Colts of course, but at least it was a good game.


Over the weekend, we finally saw some sunshine and warmer temps. We played outside and spent time on our deck. I LOVE this picture of my boys!


Right now, we're in the process of finishing up Noah's "big boy" room. The furniture is arranged, artwork is on the walls and the window panels are hung. Now we just need to transfer his clothes and toys over before making the big switch. We've been talking it up quite a bit and he refers to his room as the "big boy room" or "big boy bed" so hopefully it will be a smooth transition. He handles change pretty well, but I'll be interested to see how he does with more "freedom." We'll post pictures once the room is finished.

Brenton....our shy guy?

The 3D/4D ultrasound was great yesterday. It's amazing how precise the technology in these ultrasound machines is...and we were able to see Brenton snoozing away. He was sucking his thumb, yawning, and moving around a little.

Based on the first 29 weeks of this pregnancy, we both think that Brenton is more laid back than Noah, and that proved true again yesterday. In Noah's 3D ultrasound (click to see pictures), he was a wiggle worm, and seemed to follow the camera around to make sure his face was front and center. This has definitely carried over, as he's still on full-throttle all day every day.

Brenton seems to be a little more reserved and shy to this point. He seemed to want to move away from the sound of the ultrasound and kept nuzzling away. We saw some great profile views, and they look a little bit like Noah's ultrasound pics. (It's amazing to us how much Noah's 3D ultrasound pictures look like him!)

It's going to be fun to see if Brenton's personality carries over into his "out of the womb" life too, as it has with Noah.

Here are two of the better pictures we got...sorry they aren't very clear, I took them on my phone.

Laughing?

sleepy boy!

Playing House

This cracked us up, especially the "THE END" at the end!

2 Years Old!

At Chuck E. Cheese's on his "real" birthday on Sunday

He loved watching the show at Chuck E. Cheese

Caroline and "Super Grover"
He didn't let go of Grover for a long time!

Pausing for a quick picture

Elmo Cake

Counting

It is so much fun to see Noah learn more and more. We're finding that he's got a great memory and lately, he's really starting to count higher and higher. It's just rare that he ever does it when we have our phones or camera out. Luckily, we were ready to catch this...(sorry it's so dark...it was late afternoon and we filmed it on our phone)

It's A Boy!

We found out the great news yesterday that Baby #2 is a BOY!!! We are so excited! He's doing great and is growing and developing perfectly up to this point. It's hard to believe we're already halfway into this pregnancy, and it's so nice to finally know that this one is a "HE." We're excited, thankful, and blessed that we can look forward to a houseful of boys. Noah is going to love having a baby brother!

As for the name, I think we've decided on Peyton Manning Haag...kidding!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

Last Saturday morning, we woke up to a snow covered yard! Noah loved it and kept saying, "snow, snow!" He got to go exploring in the snow for a little while and we were able to snap some good pictures. He played in the snow a few times last year, but this year he was really able to walk around in it and enjoy it more. Hopefully we'll wake up to a snow covered yard a few more times this winter!

Sesame Street Live

Talk about committed fans...Tyra and Noah drove 3 hours this morning to Nashville for Noah to see his very first (of many, I'm sure) "Sesame Street Live" show. I used to love going to these when I was little, so it's neat that Noah is getting to see it in the same place (Nashville's Municipal Auditorium) I used to go with my Mom.

Tyra and Noah met "JenMommy" this morning for the early show, and according to Tyra, he loved it!! They had front row tickets, so luckily Noah was able to stay seated in his stroller with the help of his trusty Paci and Blankie.

As for the 3 hour drive to Nashville to see the show...at the time we got the tickets, it was the closest show to us...only to find out (YESTERDAY!) that a different Sesame Street Live show is coming to Knoxville next month. Oh well! ha!

Here is some footage of the fun morning...

Waiting for the show to start. Being in the front row means room to explore and high-five's from lots of the characters since they parade around the front of the stage some during the show.

Noah was mesmerized most of the show, like he was concentrating hard on what he was watching. He normally only gets his paci and blankie during naps and bedtime, but car "long" trips are another story. Noah does fine during them, but we make sure he has a snack/juice and Elmo DVDs. Of course getting him to give them up after a trip is another story...

Eating a fruit strip before the show. They offered him some cotton candy, but he thought it was trash and tried to throw it away :)

It was nap time during the last part of the show and Noah was ready for bed! Luckily for Tyra, he slept for 1.5 hours during the trip back to Knoxville.

Bye bye Elmo and friends!

Noah and all of his "loot" after the show--a pennant, soccer ball and Elmo jacket.

Return to the Hermitage Hotel

We had a great Thanksgiving in Hendersonville. We were able to spend time with family and ate a lot of good food.

On the Friday night after Thanksgiving, Tyra and I were fortunate enough to have a "night away" for Tyra's birthday, which was on Saturday. It was the very 1st time we'd been away from Noah for a full night, believe it or not. (Thanks to GiGi and Aunt Susie for keeping him and JenMommy for keeping Gabi!)

We spent Friday night at the historic Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, where we stayed on our wedding night over 5 1/2 years ago. The hotel is amazing, and we enjoyed a great birthday dinner at their restaurant, the Capitol Grille. Everything at the hotel is so fancy and nice, so we relaxed, took a 2 hour nap on Friday, and took advantage of a full night's sleep without the sound of a baby monitor or an alarm clock...aka Noah's peeps!

Here are a few snapshots from our stay....we love the Hermitage Hotel!

Excited to be back!

This is a view of our hotel suite!!! (just kidding, it's the lobby)

At Capitol Grille for dinner (that's ice water, not wine in the pregnant wifey's glass!!)

The sign outside of the men's restroom...which was voted Best Public Restroom in the world!




And here it is in all its teal and black glory!

Halloween

After a fun day on campus, it's Trick or Treating Time

Noah with the Eric Berry jersey

Hanging out on the Torchbearer statue

Big News and The Pumpkin Patch

It's been a very busy month in the Haag house, hence the severe lack of blog updates. We will try to do better in updating it.

The big news, for those who haven't heard, is that Tyra is pregnant again! She is almost 12 weeks along, and the due date for baby#2 is May 12...3 days before our annivesary. We are very excited, and it's amazing how much faster this pregnancy has gone by already. Tyra is feeling good and once again, has been blessed to not have any bouts of morning sickness.

Other than all 3 of us having a cold/sinus infection/lingering sniffles for the past few weeks, we're doing well.

Noah has had a lot of fun this fall, and it's so neat to see him learn more and more literally by the day. He repeats almost everything we do and say. Last week at his preschool, they had a fall show where all of the kids performed for a senior citizens group. Noah's class sang a song called "Scarecrow, Scarecrow," and Noah was the only kid in the class to actually sing or do he "dance moves" to the song...he's a HAM already. He loves to sing and over the past few weeks has really started to memorize the words to songs and can fill in the blank of almost any of our "regular" sing-a-long songs. He's almost as proud of himself as we are of him when he does this.

Yesterday, before the TN/Bama football game, we all went back out to Oakes Farm/Corn Maze/Pumpkin Patch. It's out in Corryton, TN, just northeast of Knoxville. It's beautiful out there and with the cool windy weather, it was a perfect, scenic fall day. We took him there last year too , but this year he was able to have a lot more fun and do more of the kid's activities. He really enjoyed sitting on the tractor, the hayride, playing in the big tub of corn, and navigating through the kid's maze.

Here are some photos from the day:









Next weekend, we are looking forward to another home football game on Rocky Top. Since the game (vs. south Carolina) is being played on Halloween night, we are going to take Noah to campus with us and let him walk around and see the sites (Vol Walk, Band parade) before Tyra takes him home to trick or treat. It we be fun to see Noah's face when he sees all that orange on gameday. He loves Rocky Top and loves hearing the band, so he'll enjoy seeing them parade to the stadium.

New Foods, Bleu Cheese, and The Beatles

Noah has had a fun start to the fall season. Last weekend was especially entertaining (for him and us). Uncle Andrew and Cousin Thomas let us borrow their Playstation 3 game "Rock Band - The Beatles edition."

Noah had a blast playing the instruments, especially the drums.

Last week, he also tried bleu cheese dressing for the first time, on a celery stick...and while the celery stick remained in tact, he couldn't get enough of the bleu cheese. He gladly offered Gabi a bite or two also (on a different celery stick!!).

For whatever reason, it seemed like Noah tried a bunch of new foods last weekend. Since it was the weekend of the TN/Florida football game, we continued our annual tradition of getting some grilled/blackened Gator meat from a local Cajun restaurant. Noah tried it, and loved it. He also devoured his 1st peanut butter and jelly sandwich too.

We'd been trying to wait until he was two to give him peanut butter, to stick with what the pediatricians recommend and b/c one of our nephews has a severe peanut allergy...but we gave in. By giving in, I mean I accidentally let him have some peanut butter/chocolate Chex Mix a few weeks ago, and since he didn't have any kind of allergic reaction, we figured we'd just let him go ahead and tackle his 1st PB&J...Noah was glad we did! He'd had some Chick Fil-a chicken (peanut oil) and things like that before though, so there was probably nothing to worry about all along.

Speaking of chicken, Noah helped me eat a few boneless chicken wings while we watched the TN/Florida game. And I was really proud of him, b/c he actually watched a lot of the game, and he gets so excited when he sees "Foot - Baaaaaw" on tv...which happens all the time in our house this time of year.

Noah also loves (and loves is putting it mildly) our neighborhood kids! Zach and Matthew, or "the boys" as Noah calls them, love to come over and play ball with Noah. They are so good with him, and he loves to watch them play ball outside in the cul-de-sac.