Sweet Girl

Norah is such a sweet girl. That is probably the best word to describe her; sweet. She is always so happy and LOVES to lean in and give you kisses. She also has quite a sense of humor and is always making us laugh. She has turned out to be just a little thing like her sister. The doctors are a little concerned because she is so small, so they are making us get labs... poor baby. If they only understood that it is normal for my kids! Norah at 10 months weighed 16.9 lbs, while Adeline barely weighed 16 lbs at a year! Some things I want to remember about Norah at 11 months old....

-Loves baby dolls. She will pat them on the back and pull them around with her. I always find her giving them kisses too
-LOVES Chloe. She is also always giving Chloe kisses and chases her around.
-makes this funny grunting sound all the time. She mostly does it to be funny and it's kind of her signature thing now. Adeline will always do it to mimic her.
-Is such a good eater!! She eats more than Adeline right now.
-Loves drinks. If you give her a sippy cup w/ anything in it, she is a happy girl (except Formula, she hates it)
-Loves cheese, drink yogurts, fruit, noodles, rice. Has refused to eat baby food for a long time. She has to feed herself or she most likely won't eat it.
-Sleeps from 8-7am
-two naps in the day. One in the morning and one in the afternoon.
-Has such a contagious smile
-LOVES daddy. When she sees him, she will reach for him and yell at him until he finally gets her... or she will crawl over to him and start climbing up her leg.
-loves Adeline and wants to be just like her.
-loves bath time
-She is still a little gecko
-Loves the stairs... it freaks me out since they are wood stairs.
-Loves splashing in Chloe's dog bowl
-Can blow kisses, clap her hands, wave
-Is close to saying "all done, up, balloon" and she consistently makes the same sounds for certain words. I feel like very soon she will start saying words that we can understand.
-Took 3 steps yesterday!!! I'm sure she will be walking in no time :)

I love this little girl so much! She is consantly making me smile and laugh. I can't imagine a sweeter girl than her. Even when she is napping I love to stare at this....

Thankful

The day before Thanksgiving Adeline's preschool had a Harvest Breakfast. I was pleased they actually did something for the Holiday, because I was quite bummed they didn't do ANYTHING to celebrate Halloween. They just did a little breakfast for the kids and the families could join them. They made cute little place mats to each their breakfast on in honor of thanksgiving. On the place mat it said "I am Thankful for....." and Adeline's said, "my doggie Chloe and that I could go to California". Kind of funny that all the other kids said mommy, daddy, my family, etc. But I'm sure she really is thankful she could go to California. She tells me just about everyday that she wants to see Jojo and that she misses her. After she ate her breakfast I painted her hand and she made a turkey out of it on paper.

{Norah playing in the preschool toys :) }



On Thanksgiving we had our friend Rob in town. We all headed over to a friends house to have dinner with them. It was pretty mellow... well for Abe & I, but probably not for our friends Sam & Heidi since they don't have kids!! Heidi and I decided that we would split up the food responsibilities. She probably won't ask us over again though because I did not do a good job at all! The sweet potatoes were really good, rolls were ok, turkey was great (Abe Fried it), but the green bean casserole and my pie were a flop. One of my friends made fun of me when I told her about the green bean casserole because she said that is just about the easiest thing you can make. Well, since I NEVER have made a green bean casserole, I really had no idea what recipe would be good or not. Apparently I picked a disgusting one. Rob was nice and said they were fine, but Norah was really the only one that would eat them. We ended up throwing away almost the entire pan full :) Now for the pie.... it was a french silk pie which turned out perfect last year. I thought up until we were about to eat it that it looked perfect. Heidi was getting the pies ready and said, "uh, Nicole, is this pie raw?" Right then it dawned on me.... I DID NOT COOK THE PIE SHELL! Really I have no idea where my brain is. It ended up being fine because I scooped the entire pie out into a bowl, cooked the shell, and then scooped it back in. It just wasn't as "set" as it was supposed to be and didn't look as pretty. Maybe next year will go better ?
I was also a really big slacker about taking pictures...so I hardly have any.






I really am so Thankful for many things this year. I have such a motivated loving husband, two beautiful healthy girls, loving families and many wonderful friends. I kind of wish that I posted about something I was Thankful for every day... but since I have been such a slacker... maybe next year!

California

I absolutely HATE being away from my family! My sisters both live about a mile away from each other and get to see each other just about every day. I wouldn't say that I would necessarily want to live in California, but I would LOVE to live right by them :) As soon as Amanda had her baby and Sierra would be having hers, I knew I needed to book tickets and get my butt out there. So that is what I did. It was actually perfect timing because Sierra had her baby about 2 weeks before I came out, so I was able to meet both the babies. We had so much fun and I feel like it was Adeline's dream trip. She was able to see her Grandparents, play with her cousins, go to the beach, Johanna's Birthday Party, YogurtLand, movie at the Theatre with Grandpa & Jojo, kid concert at the park, etc. Her and Jojo are pretty much solemates and have a blast together. They entertain each other 24/7 when they are together. Wouldn't it be nice if we lived closer... I'm glad they love each other so much. I was out there for a week, but it flew by and felt like 2 days. I was so happy that my parents were also able to be there and I could spend time with them!! I was pretty nervous to fly with both the girls across the country, but they did extremely well. I really don't know how since it was two very long flights, but I am thankful for it.

One night we ran out and took some pictures. I am SO happy we got one with all the little cousins :)





Johanna's Birthday Party






The Beach








Fountains at the mall



Special attention from Great Grandma Dofi...



Baby Dylan (Sierra's newest Addition)

Baby Claire (Amanda's)

Hanging out with my sisters and their darling kids/babies :)

Breakfast w/ Karen and meeting cute little Marissa for the first time!



Dancing at a kid concert..... so fun for me to watch. Adeline was in Heaven

Halloween

This year we went to our Church Truck or Treat for Halloween. We invited some friends of ours that have a little girl about the same age as Adeline. They are the best little buddies. We were thinking there was a very good possibility that it would be lame, but it was so much fun and was very well organized! There were a bunch of games for the kids, apple cider, cake contests, costume parade, and the trunk or treating of course. Adeline had SO much fun. Norah slept in her car seat for the first half of it until we decided to wake her up so she wouldn't miss out on all the fun!

Mt. Washington

A couple weekends ago Abe and his friend went to go hike Mt. Washington (the tallest peak in the NorthEast, aka home of the Worlds Worst Weather). I was a little bit worried because it was SO windy and rainy here... which only meant it was way worse there. They camped overnight in Abe's two man tent. Pretty hilarious since Abe's friend is 6'6. Anyway, they started hiking at 7:15am the next morning. He said the weather was pretty nice while they were below the tree line, for about 3/4 of the way. After that the weather got pretty crazy with wind, snow and hardly any visibility. Abe's friend decided that he could not go any further and convienently decided to stay back in a shelter that was nearby (short story, he listened to his wife, not to push himself :). Abe, being his crazy self, decided to finish ALL BY HIMSELF! Right before Abe got to the peak he did not know where he was for sure and had no visibility. He just kept on going in the direction he thought he should and eventually ran into an "expert" hiker that had hiked that peak many times before. All I can say is this man was a blessing because he let Abe tag along with him to the top of the peak and back down until Abe got to the shelter to meet his friend. Luckily Abe had brought goggles with him, or he would not have survived! Hopefully Abe has learned his lesson not to hike by himself.... or more importantly, listen to your wife!!!