Snow Day-Round Two

So today was a real snow day with around 6-7" of snow on the ground. I couldn't resist sticking Nora out in the snow again today. We had to get a picture of her with a lot more snow on the ground! We had another fun day together. We went and saw our friends Nicole and Julia this afternoon. They had fun playing together. Nora again did not know what to think of all the white stuff on the ground. Jalen loved it though. He had a great time sledding with Grandma and Pappy today. They spend 2 1/2 hours outside today!!! He said he can't wait for Nora to be able to play with him (maybe next year!).






Nora and Jalen in the snow!!!








Julia and Nora playing together with the leapfrog table. Julia just cruises around everywhere! Nora did try to pull herself up on the table, but the table is too light for that. She is successfully pulling herself up onto people.

The two buddies. We tried very hard to get a picture with both of them smiling, but that was not happening today! Such cute little friends!

Nora's First Snow!!

So St. Louis got a small snow last night. It was bad enough to call off the schools though. We are expecting more this afternoon. Nora and I are definately enjoying our snow day together though! Thanks to our friend Brooke, Nora had a snow suit to go outside in today. We got all dressed in our warm snow gear and headed outside. She didn't really know what to think, partly because she couldn't really move!! She had a lot of fun watching Staley run around like a crazy dog! He LOVES the snow. It was pretty funny, her head just kept going back and forth as he ran across the front yard. At one point she did get excited and fell backwards. It was funny because she couldn't move at all and was yelling. I tried to get a picture of that, but she was getting mad because she was stuck.





Here she is kind of smiling. She just didn't know what to think at this point.








The Nora "look".

"Here I am stuck in these clothes, not being able to move!"

Grandma and Grandpa came into town a couple of weekends ago. We had a great time and the weather couldn't have been better. On Saturday it was so nice that we took Nora and Staley for a walk. Here she is all bundled up for our walk. She had a lot of fun looking around at everything. Her poor little hat kept coming down over her eyes because she was looking around so much! That evening we took Bob and Debbie to Cunetto's! It was really yummy! We had a great visit with them!

Our Lazy Sunday

So as a New Year's Resolution to myself I have decided to not do anything on Sunday's. No grocery shopping, no Weight Watchers planning, no work. Which means enjoying the day with Peter, Nora and of course Staley too! So today was the first Sunday this happened and so far I am enjoying every minute of it!!!

Staley vs. Nora (who will win)
I don't know why we all spend so much money on toys when all Nora really wants are Staley's toys. If it is with in her sight she is after it. It does take her a while to get to it since she isn't crawling, but she slowly inches her way towards the object. I had put her on her belly in front of Staley in hopes we could get a good couple minutes of tummy time this way and it worked!


Having fun playing with toys!

This is Nora's little play area, which is great until she learns how to crawl. I have all of her toys on a blanket right next to the couch. Since she doesn't really go anywhere yet it works out perfectly. I know, I know I need to be thankful for this stage because it will soon pass and then there is no turning back and no staying in one place for very long!

Nora got this toy for Christmas and loves it. She hasn't quite figured out how to make them pop up, but she loves to close them. All she needs is someone to play with and she is highly entertained!

The Infamous Look

Nora loves to give this look. She just stares at you like "What?!" If she is not in the mood to play or eat or whatever you want to do at the moment she gives you this look. I think it is the look my mom talks about that my sister Susie used to give. She can just stare at you for a good 5 minutes with this look. Luckily for us it doesn't last too long and she is back to her smiling self. See picture below.

I love playing with toys!

This is our fun loving little girl. We are so blessed to have such a great daughter. This look captures the true Nora. She is smiling and just happy! We are still awaiting the first tooth, which I could have sworn would be here this weekend, but no such luck. I heard the longer they stay down the stronger they will be, so that is what I am hoping for!

Our little Free Bird.

For Christmas Uncle Tim and Aunt Candace got Nora Free Bird t-shirt and here she is rockin' it out!

Christmas in Chicago

We were in Chicago for Christmas this year. We had a lot of fun.
We got to spend Christmas Eve with the Reid side of the family and Christmas Day with the Harrigan side of the family. Nora had a lot of fun too. She had a blast tearing all the wrapping and tissue paper.


The family








Nora playing with the paper

Nora and the big green ball at Aunt Mary and Uncle Paul's house.

How Full Is Your Bucket?

So I am adopting a new philosophy in my life and wanted to share it with everyone. It is the Bucket philosophy. I was at a workshop in October and one of the presenters shared a book with us called "Have you filled a bucket today?" It is meant for children K-4, but everyone gets the point. It really got to me. So I decided that would be my lesson to my 3rd and 4th graders for the month of December. I was going to teach them the Bucket philosophy.

You see each person has an invisible bucket and all day long people are either filling it up or dipping out of it. You fill a persons bucket by the nice things you do. You can also dip into a persons bucket by being mean, rude or just plain ignoring that person. When you fill someone's bucket you fill your own bucket too!

So I had such a great reaction from the kids and the teachers in each of the classes I was doing this in that I went to my principal to see if I could do a staff development using the bucket philosophy. She said yes! So I got mini buckets and gave them to each of the teachers and cut out a ton of stars. I read the book to the teachers and told them that when someone does something nice for them to let that person know they filled their bucket. So if someone does something nice for, let's say my principal, she would write what they did on a star and put it in my mailbox. I then will attach a piece of candy to that star and give it to the proper person. Well what do you know that we had almost 30 stars handed out this week.

I have decided to try to be a filler instead of a dipper in my life as well. I guess you can say that is my New Year's Resolution. I think that I am doing a pretty good job so far. So here is to being a filler in the New Year!!!

St. Louis Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with my family the Sunday before Christsmas since we were heading to Chicago for the actual holiday.

We had such a great time opening presents with Grandma, Pappy, Aunt Boo, Jalen, Aunt Kiki & Zach.

We all recieved lots of really nice things. Aunt Kiki gave Nora a stool with her name in it (Aunt Kiki had one when she was little). Aunt Boo gave her a really fun ball that moves around on its own. Grandma and Pappy gave lots of cute clothes for her to grow into.

We also recieved some great gifts. We got an electric fence so we don't have to physicall take the dog outside anymore!!! Yippee!!! Peter got "Best Chicago Sports Arguments" and a Marvel Comic Book that talks about every comic book character (it is pretty cool). I got some clothes and new slippers!

Jalen had fun helping open Nora's gifts and watching her yell at the paper. We had a great Christmas with my family!!!