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!!!!