Time flies!!

My baby boy turned 9 months today!!!!!!! whaaaaat?!

Noa is an amazing little baby, and we love him to death!

He is AMAZING because:

☆He gives adorable little *kisses*

☆He can stand up without holding onto anything!

☆He can totally take steps! - the most he's done so far is 12!!

☆He can clap, wave bye-bye, click his tongue, stick his tongue out, pat himself on the head, AND give high-fives on command
☆He can "beep beep" {poke} your nose :D

☆He can open drawers/cupboards/half-open doors - and pulls anything and everything out that he can get his hands on!

☆He eats bread, green beans, bananas, sweet potatoes, rice/rice cereal・・・ like a champ!

☆He has the most contagious smile ever!

☆He is SO ticklish! {and lets us tickle him ALL the time....so fun!}

☆He has 6 adorable fully-grown teeth

☆He sleeps through the night

☆He LOVES to laugh and giggle!

and the list goes on and ON!

Bottom line, we are so blessed to have this little angel in our lives!
We LOVE you, little Noa!
Happy 9 month Birthday!

Exciting developments!!!

You know how my little boy likes to always reach his milestones right before his MONTH-marks? - LIKE: getting his first tooth just before turning 4 months, or pulling himself up onto his feet before turning 6 months...? well, he's done it again....{he never ceases to amaze me}

Just these past few days Noa has started to stand up without holding on to anything...doing some squats here and there {working those glutes!!!} - but thats not even the exciting thing...

THIS is:

Yup, he is taking STEPS!
It all happened so quick, first he was crawling super fast....then standing up holding on to things.....slowly letting go of things.....walking with a walker.......standing up without holding onto anything....balancing on his feet....doing squats.....and now, taking a few steps {the most we've counted is 8} - This all happened within a couple weeks

Only 2 days away til his 9 month birthday, and Noa is starting to walk!

Pizza Pizza Pizza!

Just the other night (at girl's night), I had Papa Murphy's Mediterranean Chicken Pizza for the first time, and I fell in love! It was soooo good....but on a poor-college-student budget, not so affordable on a regular basis... :(

BUT I came up with a solution! MAKE IT myself :D

I searched high and low for copycat recipes of the crust and toppings for this delicious pizza and I found 2 (not 1, but TWO) websites that gave me some great tips! I am going to share them with you, here!

For the CRISPY crust: {I LOVE crispy crust pizzas!}

(from GreatPizzaRecipes) with a few of my own adjustments ;)

Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ cups warm water
• 1 packet active dry yeast
• 1 ¼ tablespoons sugar
• 3 ¼ cups flour
• ½ teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. mix the water, yeast, and sugar in a glass bowl - allow to sit for 8-10 minutes
2. place flour and salt in a mixing bowl, mix/sift together
3. add liquid to flour mixture and mix for 4-6 minutes (the end result should be slightly sticky and firm - adjust with flour/water)
4. cover and allow to rise for 1 1/2 hours in a warm place {I turned the oven on LOW and put it in there after turning the heat off}
5. put on 14-inch pizza sheet for thick crust and 16-inch for thin crust {I actually cut the dough in HALF and made 2 very THIN crust pizzas on 14-in pizza pans}
6. top with desired toppings (below), bake for 10-15 minutes (or until golden brown and crispy) on 450 degrees.

For topping:
(from TammysRecipes) for the papa murphy's take-and-bake pizza
Sauce Ingredients: {mix and spread over dough}

• 1/3 cup Light or Fat Free Italian salad dressing
• 2-3 cloves minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• dash of black pepper

Toppings: {sprinkle on sauced dough in order listed}

• 3-4 cups (12-16 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1-2 cups cooked cubed chicken breast
• 1/3 cup Sun Dried tomatoes
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/3 cup diced onions, optional
• 1 cup (or one small handful) fresh baby spinach leaves
• 1 medium-large Roma tomato, diced

This time, I didn't have very many of the ingredients listed here, so I (once again) improvised!

I made a sauce with a can of Italian diced tomatoes, sprinkled sauteed chicken/onions/green peppers, and topped it off with sliced fresh vine tomatoes and mozzarella cheese! It was still SOOO good!
Here are some pics of the masterpiece:

Fresh out of the oven! - YUMMY!

Close-up {with some grated Parmesan cheese}

I ran out of cheese on the second one, so there's only a little on it, but it was still tasty!

I highly recommend making your own pizzas!

It's so simple, soooo much cheaper, and it's completely customizable to your liking!!

It doesn't get much better than this :D

Ribbon headbands!

I've been working on more headbands!!

This time, I bought some inexpensive ribbon

and made these beauties:

 cute, right? They were SUPER simple and easy to make!!
you just need a headband, some ribbon, and a hot glue gun!

close-ups:

This one with the white ribbon flower is probably my favorite...

I didn't really have an idea on how to make this but I improvised, and I think it worked!

I might start my own *bowtique* one day! How fun would that be?!!

Tell me what you think of these headbands!! ♥

Noa's (newer) newest trick!

Remember this toy:

??

Well, amazingly, it transforms into.............

...a walker! and of course, Noa mastered it on his first try!

Chad and I both walked at 9 months - according to our parents - so I'm thinking it'll be really soon for Noa too...? the only thing is - I'm not sure if I am ready...
There are so many babies in our ward who have or are turning one, and none of them can walk yet...maybe Noa was in my tummy for longer than 9 months??!!

Noa's newest trick!

My AMAZING baby, at it again (He's such a fast learner!!!!)....now on top of being able to wave "bye bye" on command and respond to *clicking* sounds of the tongue by doing it himself,
Noa can now *CLAP*


- "pachi pachi" is one way of saying "clap clap" in Japanese -

isn't it adorable? - isn't HE adorable?! - makes me smile just watching it!

*Videos*

*For my family, and for whoever is interested enough in my sons life to watch ALL these videos*

Noa is learning and growing so much everyday, it is so fun to watch him develop new skills and do weird/cute baby things....
Lately, he's been sticking his tongue out a lot....so we taught him to copy us - we would stick our tongues out, and he'd do the same... it's so cute!

The second trick, or skill, he is trying to master is -----
standing on his own. {this is not the best video of it, but he only does it really good when no one is watching...}

This morning I looked over and he was practicing letting go all by himself (everytime he let go, he stood on his own for a good 5-10 seconds)...i wish i could have recorded it, but once i got my camera out, he was done for the morning....so this is the best i can do for now...

At the park the other day - asleep on the swing...

He must have liked it, because he was OUT.

He must have been hungry - I have never seen him suck on his toes as much as he does here!

The sounds that he makes (his vocab) have now expanded to - "ma" "da" "pa" "na" "ya" "nya" "pff" "ah".....and he mixes the different sounds up, instead of just the same sound over and over like he used to. exciting, right?
His sounds also includes.....

He would randomly do this, or he would do it copying us, after we start clicking/clucking our tongues. This might be my favorite trick he's picked up recently.

I love this age! He is so alert and aware of his surroundings and his body...because of this, I have actually started to sign with him and to teach him 3 basic baby signs that are useful to know and use- milk - eat - more -
Although he can't produce the signs himself, I'm noticing that he is starting to understand that the signs correlate with certain actions. I can't wait for him to start doing the signs himself! It definitely requires patience and effort/not giving up on my part.


It's so fun to watch him learn and grow!