My best fwiend

So Nora makes us laugh everyday...and can drive us crazy everyday.  The past two weeks she has made me laugh more and more!

The last two night my child has slept. through. the. night!!  Well with only one waking, which is huge for us!!!  She had not been sleeping through the night since Christmas.  It has been very taxing on us both and finally it is starting to go in the right direction again.  I am not sure what caused it, but think it has been a combination of things.  Whatever it was is changing.  I think part of it is that Peter had been working so much and we were never getting to see him.  Daddy is now home with us and Nora is no longer saying not nice things about daddy, but loving the time with him.  She even let him put her to bed with minimal fuss last night and they are ready to go in the mornings for Mimi's!  It is awesome with his new job and I love the help that I have been getting.  I do have a great husband!!!  Shhh...don't tell him I said that.

On to the funny things.  So all of you know we have animals in our house and our dog takes a beating everyday with Nora, hence the previous posts of her on his bed.  And we have a b@*#*h of a cat....she is not nice and anyone who has been to our house would tell you the same thing.  She spits and growls and swats at people, myself included.

To my shock yesterday Nora said, "Mommy where is my best fwiend?"

I said, "Staley is in the kitchen."

She said, "no mommy, nala, nala is my best fwiend"

I must of looked at her pretty funny because she started to giggle.  She has been pursuing the cat more and more and Nala has actually been taking it, which still baffles me.  All night long if she couldn't find Nala she would say..."best fwiend, best fwiend, where are you?"  Peter and I just laughed all night long. 

Now I think what makes it all the funnier is that she still won't get to close to Nala though.  She still keeps her distance and is very cautious, yet she calls the mean, silly cat her "best fwiend".  She even said it this morning.  We shall see!!  

Snow Day!

We have had our 3rd official "Snow Day" of the year as of today. The first one was in December and we had no boots or snow pants so we did not venture outside. The second one was last Tuesday and Nora had a bladder infection. Today we PLAYED!! We got some boots when we were in Chicago over Christmas and Mimi, our baby sitter, gave us some snow pants that her girls had outgrown. We were ready for the snow.

I was a little nervous to take her outside considering as soon as we got outside last year she started to scream. This year was different...she LOVED it!!! I was excited! She walked mostly on the driveway and a little in the yard, but not too far. We were out long enough that I could get the driveway shoveled. She had fun with playing with Staley in the yard while I worked and she kept throwing snow at him, which was pretty darn funny. He would just run after it and she would just laugh.

We went back inside and Aunt Boo called to see if we wanted to go to Pappy's house and go sled. So we packed everything up and went. She wasn't really to keen on the idea of sledding or sliding. My dad has a pretty good hill next to his house so I she had to go down at least one time. The top pic is of Nora and Aunt Boo walking to the top of the hill. She really does not like to walk in the snow. I think it just has to do with the fact that it is hard to do.

Here they are at the top of the hill. She didn't like it so much and after one time down she was done. It is a pretty fun hill. I went down a couple of times on an inner tube and because this snow is so light it made the tube go fast. It was fun. Nora was done so we went home and now she is napping! What a great snow day!

Hanging Out

We have been enjoying our time at home and playing with all of our new toys from Christmas. Nora has a few favorite spots of where she likes to play. She likes to play in her room, on the couch and her most favorite spot is to play next to Staley on his pillow?! Seriously!! She just loves her dog or, "gog" as she says it, so much that she needs to be next to him, even when he doesn't want her to be. This is on his bed in our room. She also loves to play on his other bed in the corner of the living room as well. Kinda gross if you ask me, but it just isn't worth picking a fight over!

Here she is in her new crown and jewels she got from Pappy and below she is playing with her new cash register or "puter" as she calls it. She loves playing with the bottons and likes to make me buy things and pay for them. Now that she has play money to play with she is using her purses a lot more. It is funny...she is funny.

Sickness

Well it seems like we just cannot get past this sickness thing.  Christmas break was spent being sick, by Nora and myself.  We all finally started to feel better and guess what....Nora is sick again.  This time she has a bladder infection.  Poor little girl...I feel so bad for her.  Hopefully there isn't a theme to this year!

Recap of 2010

Wow!  I cannot believe that another year has flown by.  I think this year has gone faster than most.  2010 was a pretty busy, but good year.  We had lots of things happening and here is the recap.

A few things happened for me this year.  I left a job and friends to take a new position in the Affton School District.  So far I am not regretting that decision.  I am still counseling, but with 2nd and 3rd graders and am liking it a lot.  I have made some new friends and am really enjoying most of the people that I work with.  Building those relationships take time and I think they will get better in 2011!
I turned 30 this year!!  I still cannot believe that I am 30 years old and to most who cares, but I still feel like I should be in my 20's.  Not that being 30 is a bad thing, it is just kind of crazy to me to think that I am! 
I drove Nora and myself to Chicago, which is a huge deal for me.  I don't think I could have done it before and now that my little girl is getting so big, it makes it much easier.
I finished 3 chapters of my thesis!  I have two more to go, but I would have never thought I would actually get it done!

Peter has had a busy year as well.  Last January he decided he was going to lose weight and he did!  He has lost and kept off over 20 pounds!  I am so proud of him. 
Peter also got a new position within Express Scripts and will be starting that in a few weeks. 
Peter bought a new car...we traded in my Ion and he got a Focus.

Nora had a very busy year growing and learning tons of new things!  Nora is potty trained!  She is talking up a storm and can actually carry on a conversation with you.  She had her first ear infection this year and for the first time ever we had to give her antibiotics...pretty lucky for us!  She spent another week in Chicago with Grandma and Grandpa. 

Sweet Pea Photography has taken off!  I cannot believe it.  Thanks to my family and word of mouth I have been busy taking lots of pictures. I did 31 shoots between April and December of this year! I am hoping to buy a better camera this year with the hopes of doing a wedding.  Thanks to all of you that have hired me to capture your families moments.  It means more to me than you know!

And there are tons of other things that happened this year as well!

-Katie got engaged!
-My cousin Kurt got married!
-My cousin Kristina got engaged!
-Tim and Candace are expecting a little girl!

Lots of great things happened in 2010 and I can't wait to see what 2011 brings!