War in Buffalo

We went to a civil war battle re-enactment!!! I've always wanted to see one and now I have :) This particular one was the battle for the Erie courthouse (yeah I know, the Confederate army actually got some troops this far north). It was kinda small, but still interesting. after the battle we looked around the museum that was hosting it. They have moved a lot of old buildings from the area to the museum grounds for restoration and preservation and they made a little village out of them all for the battle. It was fun. And of course, we forgot to get a family picture :(

The Rebels!

Moving some troops (in vain!)

We're winning!

We win! After the battle all the actors lined up and shot their guns and whatnot. The cannons were super loud during the fight, but surprisingly Noelle was not bothered by them or the gunshots.

Spectators. In pretty dresses.

This is called a crazy quilt. Apparently they were all the rage in the late 1800's. Basically you plan out this crazy mismatch of a quilt, then you embroider all the seams with different patterns, and for good measure embroider all sorts of flowers and animals onto the patches. And the nicer the fabric scraps you used, of course the more affluent you were. The museum had several of these on display, they were really neat to look at.

A Summer Misadventure

Last week Noelle, Anee, and I all decided to go to a couple of the Karpeles Manuscript Museums that are in downtown Buffalo. Just our luck, we went on Monday, the one day they are closed :) However, while driving to get to the museums, which were themselves very cool old buildings, we noticed so much interesting old architecture in the area. So instead of wasting a trip we decided to walk around and take pics of all the cool buildings and homes we found. I know this is a lot of pictures, but this is only about a tenth of all the pictures I took! It ended up being a very fun way to spend the afternoon :D

Above and below are pics from the same church. It was so amazing! You could tell it was built with absolute love and care by the people who would be worshiping there. I have LOTS of pics from this one building alone and if I was a professional photographer I could probably live my whole life just taking pictures of all the different details on this church.

Who would not want to live in this house?!?!

Or this one?

This tree was so big, I'm sure I looked pretty silly bending all different ways to try and get it all in one shot.

This fountain was on the grounds of another building we loved. We had to go in a gate and walk up a drive to see it, but all the gates were open, so we figured no one would probably get mad at us ;)

Above and below are from the same building, another old and awesome church! The fun thing about the area we live in is that there are old church houses EVERYWHERE!

This was and still is a Red Cross building. They have a new building built in the back of this one, but I'm so glad they didn't just tear this down and rebuild over it. The architecture was so pretty.

If you want to see all the pics we took I'll put them all up on my facebook. There really was so much!

Funny!!!

So my sister, Krysta, is a security guard at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. She works the night shift and her job is apparently very top secret ;) but she just posted this little gem on Facebook and I thought it was too funny not to share!

So i found a dead pigeon on the temple roof at work and went to go tell one of the custodians..
Me: excuse me, there is a dead pigeon on the roof that needs to be cleaned up
Female Custodian with a look of terror : There is a dead patron on the roof??? (Patron is person attending the temple)
Me: NO,No, a dead PIGEON
Custodian with a look ...of relief: oh a pigeon, i thought you wanted me to go clean up a dead body lol

Haha feel free to laugh for like 20 minutes now :)

Like a Little Fish in the Sea!

FIRST TIME SWIMMING!!!!!!

Ok so I took her swimming a little last year but this year the pool opened the Saturday before Memorial Day and so I took Noelle real swimming for the first time. I thought she would really dislike it cause the water was pretty chilly, but she LOVED it! We have gone every day we can since, weather permitting :)

(This might look like an upset face, but it's actually a smile)

Look at how neat the water is!

Getting ready to go!

Erik is doing great this summer. The summer started a little bit rough but things have picked up tremendously. He is kept very busy which is very good, but we don't get to see him a whole lot lately. But that's the name of the game in the summer :)

Summertime Fun!

Well after the first two weeks the rain stopped here in good 'ole Buffalo and we have been enjoying ourselves! Our days are very lazy and relaxed, but we are having lots of fun together!

I found this beanbag at the goodwill and Noelle loves it! It's a little deflated and just her size :)

Noelle can stand up and get around and do pretty much whatever she wants now, but she simply does not want to walk! She just loves to crawl all over, but then when she gets to where she wants she is up and figuring out how to get the things I try to keep out of her reach.

First time in the sand box! She had a great time playing in the dirt :) She is playing with our friend Anee. Anee is another APX wife and is kind enough to keep us company and help us stay entertained.

So what's Noelle doing now? Noelle is just more and more fun every day! She officially has 4 teeth now! Her two front teeth are coming in and I am excited to see what her smile will be like when they grow a little more. She finally broke the 20-lb mark so it is not illegal for her to be in her car seat lol. She has officially taken her first steps too! It was a truly magical moment, but I guess not for her cause after attempting a few short times, she seems pretty determined that she like crawling a lot better than walking. If I try to get her to practice she just sits down and refuses. Oh well :) We have been going to several play dates so she can have a chance to see lots of other little kids running around and hopefully be inspired. She is learning lots of new tricks including blowing a kiss, singing "Old MacDonald", and clicking her tongue. She still loves dogs and lucky for her there are a lot in our apartment complex. She loves to watch out the sliding door and see all the people taking their dogs on walks. She loves to swim and her favorite treat is marshmallows! How we love our sweet angel Noelle!

More More More....

...Videos!!!!! Hope you all enjoy a little taste of sweet Noelle :)