Christmas

Merry Christmas and what a great Christmas is was! We started celebrating the weekend before with Peter's parents. They came and town to celebrate with us in St. Louis before the actual holiday came. It was great and I was so excited for them to see our house all decorated for the Holiday Season. Nora got some fun stuff from Grandma and Grandpa and Aunts and Uncles for Christmas. I do have to say her favorite is her newest baby and cradle. She thinks that the cradle is for her sometimes and will sit her little butt right in it! She likes to put the baby in it and say, "Shhh!, baby is sleeping."

We then celebrated Christmas Eve at my grandma's house this year. My Uncle Dan was in the hospital the few days prior to christmas so we did something different. She had fun running back and forth from the kitchen to the family room laughing and laughing. She got a really cute stuffed leopard from Great Gran and she carried it around all night!

If you didn't know already we have a fabulous little girl! We put her to bed on Christmas Eve and then woke her up at 10:30 to go to the 11:00 church service. She was a champ! She was so good during church and made it the whole hour and a half it was! We are so blessed in many ways!

Christmas morning came and she wasn't sure what to do when she saw the presents, but after about the 4th one all she could say was, "more, more!". The kid got way to much from Santa and even more from her grandma, pappy, aunts and cousin on Christmas day. She made a haul. She was so wound up that she took two very long naps on Christmas and still went to bed fairly early. I hosted Christmas at my house this year, which was a little different but very fun. Our living room was a little snug with six adults and two kids and a big dog wanting to be in the middle of everything! As we opened presents from my family Nora really knew what was going on and kept wanting to open all the presents. She finally stopped when she opened an Elmo dvd and wouldn't stop saying his name until we opened it and put it in! She sure does love Elmo.

We did get some okay pics of the family. If you didn't know Nora really as at the stage where she does not want to have her picture taken. Which if you know me at all, it is killing me!!! She just wants to have nothing to do with the camera, even if you bribe her with something. We did get a couple of good shots. Here she is with my mom and Jalen. As you can see she is eating in this pic, but that is all I could do to even get her to sit still.

Here is the one picture of all of us and Nora was playing peek-a-boo with her dress! I sure hope that this stage ends quickly because I want to take pictures of the cutest girl ever!

I hope that everyone had a fantastic Christmas like we did! We love you all! Merry Christmas!

Bath and Books

Well Nora has discovered the fun bubble bath! She just loves it when we put bubbles in the tub with her. All she says is bubble, bubble, bubble. It is too cute. She squeals with excitement! Since we are on break I have had lots of extra time to be taking pictures so that is what I have been doing.

Here she is mad at mom because she did not, and I mean did not want me to take her picture reading her book. She kepts saying, "No, No mom." But I don't listen very well and snapped the picture anyway and got a priceless look. Can she look any more like her daddy?! My friend Jenni commented on one of the pics and said how can our kiddos look so much like their dads?! Sad but true, but still pretty darn cute if you ask me!

Christmas Activites

We went and did Cookies with Santa through our Parents as Teachers program last night. There was not really cookies but more activities. This was Nora's first time seeing Santa this year and she did not know what to do about it. She would hardly even look at him and would not get on his lap. She clung to me with a death grip. She wouldn't even go to him when he had a cookie and candy cane in his hand so that tells you something! Here she is writing a letter to Santa.
This is her and Brooke making cookies with play-doh. Nora was not quite sure what to do, but took cues from her friend Brooke on what to do.
Here we are making Reindeer food. This was a riot because Nora kept sticking her hand in the bowl and finally took a big handful out and stuck it in her mouth!!! It was oats, birdseed and cinnamon and she said "mmmm". She wanted more and I had to quickly put it in the bag and hide the bag. We also made a holiday tamborine with paper plates and crepe paper and noodles and a jingle bell with a pipe cleaner stuck through it to make a bracelet.
After we were done in the activities room we went into the little gym and Nora had a blast climbing up and down the stairs and playing. They had a mini trampoline and she did not know what to do with it and wouldn't bounce. She did not want to leave. Overall we had a pretty good time and will probably do more activities this winter with our PAT program!

Thanksgiving Fun

We spent Thanksgiving this year in Chicago with the Reids. We had a wonderful 4 1/2 days with them. The weather was nearly as bad as many other Thanksgivings so it was really nice not to have to wear our heavy winter coats. We spent Thanksgiving day just lounging around and then we went up to Wisconsin to Peter's cousin Melissa's house for dinner. The drive was a little longer, but it was great to see Melissa and Rob's beautiful home! Nora had fun playing with her cousins, Shamus and Molly too! Isn't it funny that they are all three red heads?! Crazy, I know!!

We did a lot of shopping while we were there too. Debbie and I got up and did some Black Friday shopping, but we did not get up at 5 am like some of the other members of my family. We got up and went at 8:00 and still got a lot of great deals and it wasn't nearly as crowded. I got all of my shopping done for Nora and Jalen and Aunt Kiki while I was in Chicago. Way to go me!

We did get to see Uncle Tim and Aunt Candace. Of course we had Lou's one evening and stayed in and hung out and just played and laughed at Nora.

We also got to see our friends that live in Chicago. Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to watch Nora for the evening while we went out for dinner and drinks with Mike, Maureen, Dana & Joe. We had a great time and had some great margaritas and mexican food!

While we were gone Nora started to call Grandpa, Bob. I guess she has heard us say it so much that she is now referring to him as Bob and says it in such a cute little voice. It really cracks us up, but Grandpa didn't think it was quite that funny. It is funny for now, but we will continue to call him Grandpa so she doesn't call him Bob for the rest of her life! We had a wonderful weekend!

First Hair Cut

So tonight we had Nora's first hair cut. My stylist said it was time along with the rest of my family and numerous others. It was really time for the mullett to get cut! I was a little nervous about how she was going to react. She would not sit in the chair by herself, but she did sit on my lap. Maria gave Nora a comb to do her hair with and Nora was content. She cut the back and evened out the front and blended the rest. It doesn't look too much different, but I do have to admit it does look a lot better than it did before. Hopefully it will start to grow a little faster and come in a little thicker! I didn't get too much cut off the front because I do want her bangs to grow out. Hope everyone is doing well and has a wonderful Thanksgiving! I will definately post after the holiday!

Growing Girl

Well Nora is officially 18 months old!! She is just getting bigger by the day and learning lots of new things! We went in this past Friday for her 18 month check up and she is definately growing. She weighed in at 26.4 pounds and 34 inches long!!! She didn't gain to much weight but grew almost 3 inches! She is in the 77%ile for weight and the 97%ile for height. She did much better this time when we went for our visit. She did not cry and scream like the last visit. She actually laughed at the doctor, which was a first. Of course when she had to lay on the table and get measured or when he looked in her ears she cried, but right when he finished she stopped. Progress!!! She took her shots like a champ, one in each leg. The assistant put on flag band aids and as soon as she say those she stopped crying and wanted to take them off because she was trying to get them to stick to her body! Too funny. She is learning new words everyday and is trying to repeat everything you say. Guess
we better start watching what we say. She just chatters up a storm and some of the things she says I can understand and a lot of it I still don't understand. Her favorite phrase is up....peeasse! She can say around 20 words right now. We have also graduated from the high chair. She loves sitting in a booster seat. She got up from her nap on Sunday and it was time to eat lunch and I sat her in the seat and you would have thought I gave her the best gift in the world. She kept looking around as if to say look at me! She also is starting to eat more on her own and this day she got to eat her own yogurt for the first time. She was is hog heaven. Our girl is getting big and fast. Peter asked me the other day if I remember what life was like before Nora and it is starting to get fuzzy! I do have to say our lives are much bettter with her in it!

Happy Halloween!

Well Halloween finally got here! We had a great time. The week was full of fun halloween events and Nora really knows the meaning of candy now! We made caramel apples, carved pumpkins and went trick or treating. We started Halloween day by just relaxing and taking a nice long nap before all the trick or treating began. Nora and I headed to my mom's house first and started from there. We went and visited many friends before our final destination of the Kountzman's house.





We went and saw our friends Tom and Rose, Pappy and some of his friends at a party, Grandma's friend Peggy and her mom and Great Gran and Uncle Ken. Each stop had wonderful treats for Nora and Jalen! They got cupcakes, treat bags and Nora's new favorite M&M's!! Here is our pic with Great Gran. Nora did a great job in her costume, she just didn't really want anyone touching her while she was in it.




We got to the Kountzman's house around 5:15 and had our traditional chili dinner and waited for the sun to go down before we started trick or treating. Now in St. Louis the thing is to tell a joke for your candy. You have to actually work for your treat. So all day long I had been practicing with Nora on saying "boo". She did an excellent job! Aunt Boo, Aunt Kiki, Zach, Peter and I took Nora and Jalen trick or treating, well some of them started with us. She was such a trooper walking around from house to house and saying boo. She had no problem once she realized that everytime she said it she was going to get a piece of candy for it! She was too funny. I had given her a big tootsie roll and that lasted like 10 houses and she was content. We walked around with Jalen and Aunt Boo for a little over and hour and then headed back to the Kountzman household.

When we got back to the house Nora walked up to the door and said boo and Grandma gave her a piece of candy and she turned around and walked right back out the door. She was ready to keep going to get more candy!! It was too funny. She kept saying more, more, more. Our little piglet did a great job and made a haul! This last picture is of her and all of her candy. She had that pumpkin filled to the top!! Peter has really been enjoying Nora's candy. She saw the pumpkin this morning and said "boo, more, more". I guess she really wanted more candy!

We had a great Halloween and first trick or treating experience. Can't wait for many more Halloween's!!!!

Pumpkin Carving

So we had our annual pumpkin carving night. We had 6 pumpkins to carve this year. Peter, Katie, Zach and myself all carved pumpkins. I carved 3 pumpkins this year. One for me, one for Nora and one for our friend Natalie. We had pizza and then had our carving party.
We had a fun time carving the pumpkins. Katie and Zach decided they were going to do intricate designs. Zach ended up scratching his original design and Katie made some modifications. Peter went with another original design this year that as you can see fits him well!!
We have decided that next year we are going to try to grow our own pumpkins up on our hill. We are going to plant enough seeds for 10 pumpkins and hope we get at least 3 out of that. We won't plant the seeds until July so we have a while yet. Happy Halloween!!!!

Apple Picking and Pumpkin Patch

Grandma and Grandpa came into town this weekend for our monthly visit. We decided on Saturday to go to Eckerts and do some apple picking and pick out our pumpkins for carving for halloween. We totally lucked out and had a beautiful day to go to Eckerts. The weather ended up being around 60 degrees and sunny. Such a change from the last few days we had seen in St. Louis.

We walked around and a lot of the stuff they had to do was for bigger kids, but we did get to see some animals. Nora LOVES animals! She wanted to pet the camel and goats. She ended up feeding the goats and grandma and grandpa's hands got all spitty from the silly goats. Nora loved it and wanted more!

We got onto the tractor and they took us to where the apples were. We got to pick honeycrisp apples. They were really sweet and yummy! Nora enjoyed picking the apples, but really enjoyed eating the apples. She was too funny. After I let her have a bit she kept signing and saying more. Grandpa helped her pick some apples that were high up! We got a lot of apples and can't wait to make candied apples with great gran tomorrow!

Nora made daddy share some of his apple with her. She was too cute walking around looking and watching all of us pick apples.



After the apple picking we went back to the main part of Eckerts and picked out our pumpkins! Nora had a great time posing for pictures for mommy. Well at least I think she did. She looked so darn cute sitting in front of all those pumpkins. She kept touching them all. We should have an interesting time carving them this year. Check back later in the week for new pics of that!

Of course we couldn't leave without getting a shot of the family. We had a great day with grandma and grandpa!

16 months old

Nora is 16 months old now and I can hardly believe it. We have been having so much fun with her lately. She had a virus last weekend, but this weekend she has been in the best mood! I have to say I love this age. She is interacting with us more and more. I got out my camera this afternoon and captured some of her today. She got really inquisitive and this first pic she was in my face. I really like it because it really shows off her baby blue eyes! I wish her little fingers wouldn't have been on the lens though!


She loves clapping and running and singing and marching. She kept marching across the living room today and cracking me up. She has been playing peek a boo with Staley too, which is hysterical. She will run at him and turn around and run out of the room and he will run after her like "where did she go?" and she just laughs and thinks it is soooo funny. The things that make them laugh.




She has also figured out that if she uses her little stool that she can climb on the couch all by herself. This has been a major achievement. I am just waiting for her to figure out that she can use it to climb on other things as well, but I am hoping that is not figured out for a while! She is just so proud of herself once she gets onto the couch. She is also talking a lot more. She officially says ma-ma and dada without any problems. She will even say it if I ask her too. It is the best when I here her yell Ma-ma! out when I leave the room. I will probably curse myself later, but I love it right now. I think she likes to say it because I answer her back too.



Her hair is getting long and she has a mouthful of teeth too! We started to brush her teeth at night and that is a job. At first it wasn't so bad, but now she wants to do it herself and just sucks on the toothbrush. At least we are trying to teach good hygeine.





Nora and I are headed to Chicago next weekend on the bus all by ourselves! I am going to see my favorite bands, Dave Matthews Band, with a friend of mine and I couldn't come to Chicago without Nora. So it should be an interesting trip! Keep your fingers crossed for us that it goes okay. Hope everyone is doing well!

Half Marathon

Well I completed my first half marathon today. Right now it is about 3 hours after the race and I am hurting! I have been training since May for this event and I finally did it! The race was a lot harder than I thought it would be and I completely give compliments to those of my friends who do full marathons. I really don't know how they do it!

This first pic is right around the 6 mile marker. Peter, Nora, Mom, Katie and Zach were there waiting for me. I started to cry when I saw them and some guys was like it's okay, you can do this. It made me laugh because he didn't know I had family standing there. After he realized why I was starting to cry he said, that is cool, you can still do this! The people running were very nice.



Katie joined me around 8.25. I was really starting to struggle by then. I went and got a knee brace yesterday and that really took the pain away, but my foot was starting to hurt. It didn't start to hurt until around 6.5-7 miles. it was around 6.5 that we started our trek up 370 over the bridge. Let me tell you that is what took it out of me. Now I have trained in hilly areas, but my hills are steep and then down, so it is hard for maybe 1-2 minutes and then okay. This was a steady incline for 1.25 miles. It really killed me. I was not expecting to see my family again at 8.25. Again, I started to get choked up and Peter said they could tell I had hit a wall. I did take some free GU that they were handing out at mile marker 8. It wasn't too bad and I thought I might need it. So I got to 8.25 and my family was there and Katie was ready to start running with me. I am so glad that she did. I really needed a boost and she gave it to me. There were not many people along the race route. So when you saw and heard people it was nice. It ended up getting pretty hot too. I think that effected me more than I would have thought. I have been so used to running before the sun comes up that running after the sun was up was hard. It wasn't a very shaddy run either. But we made it. I started to really break down after mile 12. I thought I would have gotten an adrenaline rush or something, but my body was hurting so bad by that point. I did get excited again once I could see the tent and more people were lined up on the street. Katie was right next to me cheering me on thank goodness. She kept saying, "We are almost there! You can do it! Look how far you've come!" I love my sister! My goal for this race was to finish in under 2 and a half hours and I did it. We ran across the finish line in 2 hours and 28 minutes!

I started crying and she started crying and it was awesome! We forgot to get a picture there with Katie and I so I made Peter take one once we got home. I am proud of myself and all the hard work I have put towards this. I really can't believe I, Debbie Reid, ran a half marathon! It's a little crazy if you ask me! But I did it. Don't know if I will do this again, but we will see. Maybe it is like childbirth and you forget after a while. Now I am going to take it easy the rest of the day and relax and hope my body starts to feel better soon! Thanks to all the people who have supported me through this, by encouraging me and/or running with me. I couldn't have done it without all of you!

15 months

Well I cannot believe that our baby girl is now 15 months old!! It is amazing how fast time flies. We had our 15 month check up yesterday and she is a healthy little girl. Nora weighed in at 25 lbs. 10 oz. and is 31 1/2 inches tall. She is in the 87th % for height and weight. So at least she is proportioned right!

Nora is doing so much right now. She is walking all over the place and is starting to try to run. She has figured out how to walk backwards and will do this for a few steps at a time. She is learning how to climb up onto things and knows that she can use her "og" dog as a step ladder to help her get onto the couch. She is starting to talk, slowly, but surely. Some of the words she says is

"ello" hello

"up"

"hi"

"uh oh"

"ala" Nala

"a one" all done

"ore" more

"og" dog

Of course being the worrier that I am is worried that she isn't saying enough right now, but she is definately taking everything in. She still loves books and would prefer books to other toys. She is loving baby dolls too. She has three of them now and loves to take care of them and feed them and wrap them up in blankets. She is a little mother to those babies!

Next week I officially start back to work. How lucky I am to have been able to be home this summer with my baby and watch her grow. I cannot believe how fast it has gone and I wish I had more time. Nora is lucky enough to have a wonderful sitter who cannot wait to have her back full time. She will have new friends joining her at Rebecca's house two days a week so Nora will not be the only one at her house. Poor girl is going to have to get used to getting up early again. Again, we have a great little girl and she is used to sleeping 13 hours a night and taking a 2-3 hour nap during the day. Gosh for her to get 13 hours we would have to put her to bed at 6! Needless to say that is not going to happen so we all will have some adjusting to get used to. We are all still trying to figure out how it is all going to work in the mornings with me running, getting her up and Peter off to work. Busy times! Happy end of summer everyone!!

1 year and Family Pics

Well we had Nora's 1 year pics done, a little late I know, but better late than never right?! We went to Portrait Innovations again, but I was a little disappointed with them. They were running a 1/2 hour behind and we missed out on Nora being her great self. The photographer we had was just okay too. This is the first time that I have not been that satisfied with them. We had some family pics done as well and they did not turn out that great. He kept putting us in the same pose and it was not a good one. We did get a few great pics, but usually we get more than just a few and this time they only took 60 and normally it is more like 100. Overall it was fine. So here are the good ones.

Peter was trying to get her to laugh in this one and he caught her doing her piggy face!

Not a bad family shot, but Nora is not smiling.

This is the one that we got the most pics of. She does look pretty cute if I do say so myself!

This is the other family one we got. Her shirt was too big so it kept getting all bunched up and Peter's shirt wasn't laying right. At least she was smiling in this one.