Noah is 3!

I'm a little late posting for Noah's 3rd birthday. Mike and I are a little shocked that our "baby" is 3 years old now! For the first time in almost 9 years we're not buying any diapers!
So much has happened in these 3 years. Noah has turned out to be our most "spunky" of the 4 kids. His intensity is so much fun and definitely adds to the challenge of parenting. This boy is full of life!

Noah and his "brudder". Noah LOVES "Destin" (he can say Weston but calls his Destin out of habit). Most of their time together is spent playing Daniel Boone or soldier or some other fierce game. Although they're over 5 years apart in age, they really love and enjoy one another....well, most of the time.

It's hard to believe Elsie was only about 20 months old when Noah was born. They are now really starting to play well together and I frequently hear them giggling over some shared joke from another room. From the day he was born Grace has been Noah's biggest fan. She loved to help take care of him and hold him. She is such a nurturer. I look forward to seeing what their relationship will look like as they grow into adults.

Being a 4th-born child, Noah is definitely parented very differently than Weston was. He really didn't play with baby toys for very long, but started playing with the older kids as soon as he was able to toddle after them. He's definitely big for his britches sometimes. At about 2 years old he considered himself on the same level as his 7 year-old brother :) I love this picture! Noah was such a butterball baby!

Hard to believe our baby is 3! Notice his gun is tucked into his cowboy boot and he's holding his horse "Oosta".

My mom made an awesome "Bob the Builder" birthday cake for his party! Noah started planning his birthday party months in advance.

Mike and I took Noah out to dinner at Red Robin for his birthday. You can tell he was excited :)

Noah Love

Brothers in matching outfits. I don't think I'll get away with this for too much longer :)

Noah and Gracie.

The Meaning of "Noah Peter"

Noah- "comforter, peacemaker, preacher of righteousness"
A few days ago I wrote that I would do a post with why we chose "Noah Peter" and the meaning of the name. Obviously, we named Noah after the Noah in the Bible who built the ark :) While doing a read-through of the Bible last year I realized what faith in God Noah had to have in order to steadily build the ark over many, many years (may have been over 100 yrs.). Chapter 6 of Genesis brings us the beginning of the events that led up to the flood and the salvation of Noah and his family. Here are a few verses about Noah that led us to choose the name:
Gen. 6, verses 5 speaks of man's wickedness and that "every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." However, verse 8 says, "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." Verse 9 says, "Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God." After God gave Noah the instructions for building the ark, verse 22 says, "Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did." Our prayer is that our Noah will also walk with God and obey all that the Lord commands him.
The Noah in the Bible was obviously not perfect (as seen in Gen. 9), but I think this highlights even more how Noah's righteousness did not come from within himself. Noah was made righteous (God saw him as righteous) due to his faith in God and belief that God would keep His promises to save His people. We now know God fulfilled all His promises to mankind through providing His own son, Jesus, to die on the cross in the place of those who believe in Him. Noah was looking forward to Christ, while we stand looking back.

Peter- "rock"
Noah's middle name is after one of Jesus' 12 disciples. The book of 1 Peter (written by Peter) would have to be my favorite book in the Bible. My sophomore year in college I did a Bible study on 1 Peter which included reading the book 50 times and doing written studies for 5 days a week for 10 weeks. Although I had "accepted" Jesus as my savior when I was a child, I did not truly begin to seek Him and give Him my life until after I made some very bad decisions my freshman year and realized I could never be "good" enough on my own. I simply could not change myself while trying to do it through my own strength. I finally gave it up and told God that He needed to rule my life as I was making a pretty bad mess of things. :) God began to open my eyes to Himself and His grace through the Bible study of 1 Peter and other passages in scripture. I had read the Bible my entire life but all the sudden it became so exciting, and I started to grow spiritually. I was finally able to turn away from some sins I had always struggled with because what I found in Christ and His forgiveness and love was so much better and more fulfilling. I identify with Peter the most of all the disciples as Peter was impulsive and impatient like I am. Peter even denied knowing Jesus when He was led away to be crucified (Matthew 26), but Jesus forgave him and restored him (John 21:15 and ) so much so that Peter later became one of the pillars of the early church. Jesus says of Peter, "On this ROCK I will build my church."

Like Noah in Genesis, we pray Noah will walk with God and obey Him, and like Peter in the New Testament, we pray that Noah will find forgiveness and grow into a wise and faithful man.