Happy Thanksgiving

I know I am late on my Thanksgiving post, but better late than never! We were home for Thanksgiving this year, which made the days off feel even longer. It was  a great break. Katie and Zach hosted this year and boy did they have a house full of people. We had about 25 there including my Aunt Colleen who came in from Omaha! It was so fun having them there with us. The meal was great and the company even better. We enjoyed the weekend and did a little shopping, visiting, decorating and relaxing.

Here are all of our turkeys together!

Lost Tooth

Nora finally lost a tooth! I think she was one of the last to lose a tooth in her class! It was really loose for quite some time and after many days of me harassing her to pull it she finally let Peter do it. After he did it she said that didn't even hurt! Our neighbor, Martha, had made a tooth fairy pillow way back in the winter of last year. We used it and the tooth fairy left her $5 for her first tooth! Hopefully the tooth fairy won't be leaving that much for every tooth ;) The one next to where it fell out is loose too! And the big teeth are already there!

Stella is 3!

We had Stella's birthday party the day after Halloween this year. She is in love with the show Bubble Guppies and so we had a Bubble Guppies themed party. We transformed out house to an underwater wonderland. We also had a clown come and do face-painting and balloon twisting. She was great. Stella did not want to have anything to do with the face-painting though. Most of the girls had their face painted with some sort of Frozen theme. It was a lot of fun. Stella also received so many gifts that she has enjoyed so much! We are so blessed to have such great friends and family.

She also had her 3 year check up and is in the 80th%ile for both weight and height! She is 33 lbs and 38 inches tall!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was COLD! this year. We headed to the Kountzman's as we always do and trick or treated with Daphne this year. It was also a first because Jalen did not trick or treat this year. We lasted longer than I thought considering how chilly it was out. Nora told some funny jokes and Stella did a great job saying trick or treat. Nora made one up and then changed to "Why can't Elsa hold a balloon?" Because she always let it go! Ha! They got a good amount of candy and had a great time!

Carving Pumpkins

This year was a first for us and we carved pumpkins with just our immediate family. We just couldn't make it work with everyone. It was fun and fast doing it with just us. The girls crack me up because they are nothing like me when I was their age carving pumpkins. I would have never, ever stuck my hand in a pumpkin and both of them not only stuck their hands in, but played with the pumpkin 'guts'.

First Day of Preschool

Stella started preschool! I really cannot believe it. We decided to put her in full time and attend Affton Early Childhood Center. It was a hard decision to leave Rebecca and put her in school, but now that she is there I think we made the right decision to do it a little early. She is so ready and willing to learn. The first few days were a little rough using the potty, but she has gotten the hang of it and is doing great. She is in Ms. Kate's class and she is really great and good at communicating everything that is going on in the classroom. Here are her pics for the first day!

Eckerts

A few weekends Grandma and Grandpa came into town and we had a nice weekend. We decided to take a trip over to Eckerts and instead of going to the Belleville location we went to the Millstadt location. Wow, they have a lot of different things to do. We picked apples, went on a tractor ride, the girls rode ponies, we saw a pumpkin shooter, pig races, rode rides and fed animals! Phew! That was a lot of stuff in one place.

Pictures 2014

I haven't had the girls pictures done since last year and had something set up and between the rain and the heat it just didn't work out. So I went out on a whim and decided to try to do their pics instead. There had been a while where I was not able to do this because they did not want to look at me when I had a camera in my hand. Well that has all changed now! Yipppeeee! I can take my girls pics again. i am so excited. We headed to a park close to our house and did them super fast and easy. I wish Stella would have kept the bow in her hair, but what can you do.Nora has grown up so much!  And Stella is her sweet and funny self.

Hair cut

Right after school started Nora and I had talked about getting her hair cut. We talked and talked about it because I wanted to make sure that she really wanted to go through with it. Once you cut your hair that is it. She was tired of me brushing it and I was tired of the knots and the crying too. So we discussed it and we chopped it. We put it in a ponytail and I cut it off! It was a little crazy. She was so excited that we cut it. We also decided to donate her hair. We cut off 9 inches. Holy moly! Well Nora wanted to get in on the action and so I just trimmed the bottom and said oh look and she wasn't having it. It was already in a pony tail and she went ahead and grabbed the scissors. So we cut her ponytail off too! Here are the collages of the before and after of Nora and just the after of Stella.

Ice Bucket Challenge

So every one knows about the ice bucket challenge that has been going on. I got called out by two different people. So I took the challenge and donated as well. I did not donate to ALS though. I donated to a cervical cancer group. Here is my challenge!

First Day of School

I cannot believe that Nora is in 1st Grade! We moved her to our neighborhood school this year. She rides the bus in the morning and some days in the afternoon. The other days she stays at Flyers Club. They had a very nice, but crowded open house and we were able to take her supplies up to school and meet her teacher. She did so well for being 5 days post surgery. Her teachers name is Ms. Burns and this is her third year teaching at Long. Nora is very proud of her new school and we hope for a great year. She does have homework every night though, reading for 15 min and a math worksheet every day. She is doing great and loving it. As tradition has it I bought donuts for the first day and grandma and pappy came to get her on the bus! I just cannot believe we have a 6 year old first grader! Where has the time gone?!

tonsils

Nora had her tonsils out on Aug. 8th. She had strep a totaly of 8 times since September 2013! We did not talk about it much this summer because every time it was mentioned she cried. I did decide to tell her at not a great time at dinner one night after my surgery while I was on narcotics, but oh well. Peter and Grandma looked at me like I was crazy. So the surgery was scheduled and we did not talk to her until the morning of about where she was going and of course there were tears. luckily grandma and grandpa had sent a get well gift and we let her open one before she went to the hospital. It was Anna and Christoff from Frozen. That pretty much quit the tears and we walked right on in to the hospital.
Once we got to the floor we needed to be and checked in we had a few more tears and major tears as they were taking her back. The surgery was about 30 min and she was out in no time. The staff was excellent and took really good care of her. The doctor confirmed she needed them out. He said they were all scarred up from all the strep that she had. She did have morphine after she came out so she was pretty out of it for a while. We waited and sat and they then sent us home! Only tylenol for the first three days and then we could alternate tylenol and ibuprofen. She was a champ! We set the alarm in the middle of the night and kept up on the meds like our friend had said. Nora was spoiled and had friends and family visit. She received a balloon bouquet from her friend. Aunt Boo and Kiki brought shakes, Grandma brought movies and Grandma and Grandpa gave Elsa and the other dolls mentioned above. The doctor had recommended not going to school almost a week later, but we did end up sending her because she was doing so well! So glad it is over and fingers crossed to no more strep this year!

Feising

Nora has been dancing for two years now at the Clark Academy of Irish Dance. I have to say that when she began I wasn't sure if she would ever get it. It is really hard, but wow has she come such a long way! She can do the light jig and the beginner reel and is doing great. So instead of a recital irish dancers participate in feises and did three weekends in a row of feising. She had a great time and she really has improved. The thrid weekend on the second day she finally placed and was so excited about it!

Warrensburg

Every summer we try to get to Warrensburg. And this summer was no different. I had wanted to stay longer, but it did not work out, but I was glad to get the few days with one of my besties! Things have changed in the last 6 years and now between the two of us we have four kiddos. I just love hanging out and catching up with Valerie while the girls played and played. We took them to see where we went to college, had a picnic at the park and went to the pool while we were there. As always we had a great time and as always I am always sad when we leave. Those friends who have known you for so long and you are so comfortable with are always the hardest to say good bye. I am so thankful for her friendship and we have been through so much and are still friends. Don't know what I would do without her!