I am pretty sure that this picture was taken after Thanksgiving, but I'm not for certain now.... Micah has become quite an adept climber of the tree in our front yard. And, I have been told, that the reason that he's wearing what looks to be a rastafari hat is that he "wanted to wear daddy's hat". :)
On the first snowfall of the year, and boy was it a big one, we made the unwise choice to be out and about...all...day...long. We went to the Christams tree farm that the buck family has been going to for decades. Other than the death-defying driving and the fact that we got lost (no don't ask), we had a good time there. As you can see, Micah was pretty bundled up because of the weather (see the streaks of white snowflakes in front of his face). The boys are loving the snow...as all boys do, I understand.
I'm not one to say that "my kids' gonna be a scientist because he likes bugs" or something like that. But I will say that Noah, more than Micah, has always gravitated toward piano-type toys. Now, perhaps this will translate into a love of the piano, or maybe it will just be that he (like me) will not really try too hard and only later on in life regret the lack of real effort and time put into it.
Micah has been on a big kick lately about how strong he is. The evening of the storm we went to church (all of us) to clean and caravan back home. For about 30 minutes (and that's only as long as I noticed) Micah was pushing that red chair, the table, and another table across the room - from one end to the other - back and forth, back and forth. All the while saying, "this is so heavy" and "I'm really strong, aren't I daddy?"
This picture (and the following ones) was actually taken on the morning of Saturday the 8th. The night before we all went to Wal-Mart to, among other things, print out some pictures. Well, the photo center equipment didn't like the memory stick that I brought along, so on Saturday morning I found a way to kill three birds with one stone. I'd take the boys to Wal-Mart and (1) keep them out of Steph's hair so that she could get the birthday prep finished, (2) get the pictures printed, and (3) let the boys play on the "snow mountain" that they saw the day before. We went to the end of the parking lot where there was a virtual snow mountain range. Micah had a lot of fun climbing and sliding down, except when he did a face plant in some poudery snow (is it bad that I chuckled a bit at how cold he was and his reaction to it), and Noah picked up snow balls and tried to throw them (mostly at me). Good times.
Micah was so proud that he climbed to the top of the mountain. This wasn't his loftiest goal, but it was the one that he could attain. The other was a giant ice-ball that was on the top of another mountain that, unless I had lifted him up and kind-of tossed him to the top, he woudn't have gotten to the top of it.
When we got back, the cold boys enjoyed nodles and ham with a side of hot coco. Noah enjoyed it thoroughly...as you can see the evidence all the way down his shirt.
Micah always wants to make a funny face, have me take a picture of it, and then see it. I tend to humor him on that one.
Stephanie made Noah's favorite gift (it would have been mine too). She made a "barn fort" out of cardboard boxes, red table clothes, and a lot of packing tape. The boys both had fun.
I don't know if Noah ducked once when he went in and out of that barn. He figured (rightly so) that the cardboard moves when his head hits it, so why waste the effort that it takes to bend over. 
I was quickly commandeered or taken hostage inside of the barn fort. Noah wanted me in there, so this is the view to the outside world. It's a pretty good view.
Other than the barn fort, this was Noah's favorite toy of the evening. He received a hippo-flashlight. The other top contenders were a doctors set and the gift bag that some of the stuff came in.
Micah did a good job of not opening gifts...but like all kids everywhere - he was right there with all of the action.
It was pretty hard to get Noah to wear his special birthday party hat, but we got it done. In order to coax him into doing it, we all wore our party hats (I have not included those images in order to not hand an easy one to future potential blackmailers). 
This was another great creation of my wife's. This was Noah's Birthday cake. Micah was so concerned about this that for weeks he pleaded with Stephanie for her not to make it. He even went so far as to suggest other options to Noah in order to get his approval (a car cake and a blue cake were the front runners). Micah's reason for not wanting this cake to be made was that if we ate the cake, specifically the cupcakes, "it would hurt the piggies and the chicks". 
Noah tried to put out the candle - more with water than with air.... - so I helped him a little.
First taste...good. 
