Christmas Vacation

We have arrived in Iowa!! After a long 15 hour day of driving, the weather was wonderful though, no complaints we finally got to Orange City. We are taking an extra long trip this year to go back to Iowa for Christmas since I (Rebekah) am on maternity leave. Noah has made his first BIG trip out of Texas. He has now traveled through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa in his little life. He did very well in the car too, a little upset about the car putting him to sleep but all in all a good boy.
We have spent time with Grandma and Grandpa Elder, Aunt Laura and soon Uncle Justin will be here. We have also gotten together with college friends who have stayed close and all of there kiddos. Pretty soon the kids are going to out number us adults, it is great fun to see everyone. Next week we will see the Shelton side of the family! We have yet to get snow pictures with Noah, we will have to do that before we head back to Texas!

Our Small Family

We are enjoying our days as a family. David has been done with school for a few days now and I am obviously on maternity leave and Noah is here as well as our dog, Molly. It has been wonderful finding out what parenthood and being a mom and dad is all about. David and I still sit on the couch with Noah in one of our laps and just look at him and then look at each other and realize how extremely blessed we are. We are so blessed to be a mom and dad to our little baby boy. When he looks up at us with his deep blue eyes we are in awe of what God has given us in Noah. We look forward to watching him grow up and discover this world for himself. But, right now we are content with sitting here on our couch next to each other with Noah in one of our laps and gazing upon his little round face, long fingers, dark hair and looking into those deep blue eyes and wondering how we never realized we could love so much and that such a little fella could show us so much love.

You may have noticed my hair

You can see 3 hairy-headed babies above. The one on the bottom is David, the one on the top right is Rebekah, and the one on the left is Noah. Everyone that sees Noah notices his hair first, comments on how unusual it is (and how beautiful it is), and lets us know that it'll all most likely fall out. As you can see, however, that in our family, it is not unusual (though it was beautiful in all three cases) and for Noah's parents, it didn't fall out. So, get used to a hairy Noah.

Sadly, he is not hairy enough to have had a beard upon birth as so many of us had hoped for.

Hello!

The whole family went for a walk yesterday and today! The weather has been so beautiful here in Texas! My grandmas and grandpas in Iowa are freezing in 10 degree weather!! We are all very excited to see them for Christmas.

Noah really enjoys taking walks, he loves to move. Mom (Rebekah) loves to be able to get out too and enjoy the weather.

I love my baby

As you can see from this photo, our baby is stronger than your baby. Noah was 7lbs 13.5 oz at his last doctor's visit, and I can tell you: it's all muscle, baby! Just look at those guns.

Anyway, he's pretty cool. He's starting to open his eyes and look around at things. Even though I'm pretty sure all he sees is a blob of weird color when he looks at us, I can tell he looks at us with love. He also has a lot of hair (obviously). I (David) say he's working on a killer mullet. His mom (Rebekah) begs to differ. I guess only time will tell. I know there's a party in the back, I'm just not sure yet if he's got business in the front...