Norah is Nine Months!

Wow. I can't believe we have a child this old. She is starting to look (minus the hair) like a toddler instead of a little baby :O( But I guess it will eventually happen so I might as well get used to it.

She is so much fun!


She loves to laugh and giggle and is very ticklish. She apparently took her first step when I wasn't looking so I don't count it yet :O) Our predictions are she will be walking by Halloween but we'll see if that really happens. She loves to make noise any way she can, especially with the pots and pans or "singing". She likes to push our chairs and stools around the house which also makes a lovely noise.


She loves her dad and will light up and run (crawl really fast) when she hears him open the front door at the end of the day. Most of all she loves to be outside, which I am happy about. If she is ever fussy we just take her outside and she calms right down.


She now weighs a whopping 21.6 lbs. (89 percentile) which sounds like a lot but she has actually been at this weight for 2 months now so we see this as a tampering off sign, thank goodness! She is 27 inches tall (50 percentile) and her head is 18.5 inches (98%) large. "It's like an orange on a toothpick"! haha. We love her and are grateful she is here.
Oh and she loves to eat paper. She has destroyed more books and magazines than our dog ever did. Oh the joys of parenting :O) I love it.

Sewing attempts.

So my whole family is coming down this week (I'm so excited!) and we are getting family pictures. My mom wants us all in navy blue but we couldn't find any navy blue tops for the little girls...so I decided to make some. haha :O) This was kind of a silly idea becuase I didn't have a pattern and I have major size issues....meaning I always make things super small. I once tried to crochet hats for my nieces and nephews for Christmas and ended up making hats too small for dolls. But hopefully the tops will fit them better than the hats did. Here they are...

And what would a post be without some
picture of Norah? Here she is standing..almost walking and her cute new
cheesy grin.

Growing up and out!

Here's our little Norah...not so little anymore.



We missed a few months in there but I think you get the picture....she's grown! I added the 1month picture back next to the 8th month just cause I think it looks so funny.

Peach pie disaster!

About this time last year I made the most amazing peach pie I had ever tasted. I"m not bragging, it was simply common knowledge. Ever since then I have been trying to recreate the masterpiece with dismal results. The first 2 tries of the season didn't even make it to the pie pan. The cornstarch and junk wouldn't thicken and then suddenly burned. I almost ruined my pan that night. The next try made it in the pan and onto a plate but was basically peaches with graham crackers all over them. Not much pie-ness (pronounced PIE-ness, not the other way) going on there. But the sister missionaries said it tasted good...but they have to say that, they are missionaries! The 4th, and I think final one for this year, was a tad better but still just a messy goop on your plate. *sight* I guess I'll perfect my FoodNetwork award winning peach pie next year. We'll have to wait and see.

Me and Norah in Zion

All pie's aside, we have had a fun couple of days. Last week Norah and I went for some fun hikes. One is Snow Canyon State Park called Jenny's Canyon. It was more like a little jaunt in a river bottom but with a 21lb. baby on your shoulders it was just the right distance. Then Logan did the Red Rock Relay that went from Brianhead, through St. George, and then out to Zion's so Norah and I did a hike while we waited for Logan to finish. I have never seen the park that packed with visitors before! There were parking lots I didn't even know existed that were full of cars. It was fun to be told that Norah was pretty in so many different languages and accents. I've decided that Zion's is one of my favorite places because it combines so many of my favorite things. #1- Beautiful landscapes #2- Fun hikes and rock climbing #3- International people-watching! Ha! I could be so content just sitting on a bench in Zion's watching the crazy/fun people walk by. I love it.

Norah at Emerald's 1st Pool.

Random side-note: There are only 18 more days until the St. George Marathon. I can't wait for Logan to rock it. Then it will be over and I can have my husband back and I will get to exercise a little bit too. Yay! Training takes so much time and I am always grateful when it's over....and when he does so well. :O)

Norah stuck under the exersaucer.

Norah turned 8 months old today. Wow! Time is flying by. I took her to the doctor yesterday and she weighs 21 lbs....I already said that but wow. I am getting an incredible arm workout every day. She has 7 teeth and getting her 8th one as I write. She is crawling super fast especially when she is getting into something she shouldn't, like toilet paper, garbage cans and the fridge. She will walk if she is holding onto something or someone. She has the best smile and laugh. Overall she is a super happy baby and we are so lucky to have her in our life.

Norah also loves to "kiss" mirrors. Basically she just spits all over them and laughs. Pretty funny until she does it on a dressing room mirror at the store and I have to explain that they might want to wash it after she has slobbered all over it. hehe.

Her favorite thing to do right now is look at books. I will find her in her room just holding books like she is reading them and then she'll shake and twist them. It's pretty darn cute.

Huntsville Fun

Last weekend Logan, Norah and I went to Huntsville to visit Logan's grandparents and to run the Huntsville half. It was a great weekend. First of all it was perfect weather! I loved wearing a jacket in the mornings and not sweating to death during the day! Logan won the half marathon with a time of 1:13, not his best time but he was satisfied with it. It was so fun to see him running all alone at the finish line. He has been injured for a while and is just getting back into his regular running again. I'm so proud of him! Norah was too I'm sure :O)
Then we spent the day with Logan's grandparents. They are so funny! They both have grown up in Huntsville so every corner, every house and every rock has a story. I loved hearing what a "rebel" his grandpa was when he was young.


Our little family after the race.

Logan getting denied by Norah for a kiss. Ha!

Grandpa Reed and Grandma Toni with Norah.

We visited the Monastery and bought yummy jam and honey!


Norah LOVES the swing!


Cute!

Norah is growing up so fast! She now has 7 teeth and is saying dadada. You can't see the teeth in this video but you can hear the dadada sounds. Logan is so proud that she is saying dadada instead of mamama....he thinks it's because Norah likes him more. :O

Just kidding...the video wouldn't load so just go to my facebook and watch it...I think it's funny.

Mommy Margaret.

Had a fun visit with an old friend last week. Margaret Keiffer (oops I don't know her new last name) and I met 11 years ago when we were both exchange students in Germany. I haven't really kept in contact with her over the years but found out she was visiting family in Hurricane, Utah via facebook and forced her to come visit me. It was so fun. I can't believe how sometimes you wont see someone for a really long time and yet you pick up right where you left off. In Germany we all called her mommy Margaret because she basically took care of us and was so loving. She is now a for-real mommy and it was fun to get our girls together.

Yeah her girl is a month and a half older than Norah but
Norah looks like she could eat her for breakfast!

Watermelon and Vampires

We bought our first watermelon of the season (I know we are a little late) and it was terrible. I guess I'm not good at selecting this fruit. Banana's on the other hand I am a pro at! So after discovering it was disgusting we let Norah play in it. It was pretty funny. She had no idea what to make of it. She ate some of it but I couldn't tell if she liked it. But she loved the feel of it and kept squishing it in her hands. The clean-up was just as entertaining.















That same day we decided to document her vampire teeth since her other teeth will be in soon. It was definitely a two person job. I held her down and forced her mouth open while Logan snapped some pics. Once again, pretty funny. I don't know what we did for entertainment before she came!

We also had to teach the 5th Sunday lesson at church yesterday on how to teach a lesson. Yeah it was a little intimidating to say the least. We made it through and it was actually fun to plan and give a lesson with Logan!

Logan (in the middle) with Dave Holt left and Clyde Behunin right. They crossed the finish line together. Aw cute! I'm sure they planned to have Logan in the middle too so it would look good. They are funny guys.












Norah and me at Pine Valley Resevior for the running camp.












Norah showing off her sexy legs and standing skills. Yeah she's got skills.

Funny Runners

We went out to dinner with a bunch of Logan's running buddies for Dave's birthday. His buddies call themselves the Circle of Trust...apparently a lot of secrets are revealed while running 20 miles together at 4:oo AM. They are all crazy to run that much at that time in the morning but they are pretty happy in their madness so I just leave them alone. They are all elite runners and it is so funny to hear them talk....not IF they will qualify for Boston but offended that someone would think they wouldn't; not IF they will finish St. George marathon but how far under 2:30 pace will they get; not "oh I shouldn't eat this burger, I'm in training"...but "Double burger, double cheese, double root beer float, endless fries and a mud pie" because they will loose 10 lbs during their early morning run the next day. They are not cocky, far from it, this is simply their reality. I love that the wives are all in the same boat. We are lucky to run 2 miles 2 days a week hitting maybe 10 minute mile pace. I could just listening to these guys banter, joke and tell stories for hours. It is always a good time with them and I am glad to be a part of it. It's days like this I am so glad we moved to St. George.

I came home from this fun evening out without children and looked in the mirror. I had baby spit-up all down the front of my shirt that had been there the whole night. Ha! It was pretty gross and I don't know how I hadn't noticed it all night. I felt like a real mom right then.

Logan was up at 3:30 AM to go run again and then off to coach a cross country meet. Oh the joys of being a runner's wife.

Norah is growing up so fast. She is crawling and standing and getting into everything. She is also hitting her head on everything so it looks like I beat my child. Yesterday she got up on the edge of a basket and it tipped over and smacked her in the forehead. Ouch. That left a mark. Logan can't wait for her to start walking so he can take her to the track. :O) I on-the-other-hand could wait for her to walk because that means she'll be even faster and into even more stuff. It's all in your perspective I guess. Norah has 4 teeth, 2 on the bottom and 2 outer ones on the top. Yep, she looks like a vampire. Her constant string of drool doesn't help the look either. Baby horror film here we come. But she is currently getting the middle 2 teeth so she will be fine in a couple of weeks.

So am I doing this blog thing correctly? Is it too much of a novel? We don't do anything so there is nothing exciting to post.

clothes

So I went shopping the other day because I have lost weight so nothing fits anymore and because I have nothing else to do. Those of you who know me realize I must have been pretty bored to resort to shopping for entertainment. Usually it is a goal oriented activity for me with little to no enjoyment. I thought maybe I could try some new things and break out of my normal, boring style but I just felt silly with all the stuff I tried on. I kind of feel like I am in this weird age group where I'm too old to wear the trendy stuff but too young for momville. I saw one of my young women at T.J. Maxx (she works there) and thought she could give me some advice. As I explained my shopping woe's to her I saw this sad look come over her face. She was thinking "Is this really what I"m going to be like in ten years!". She was no help. I ended up buying a shirt that I thought was cute but when I tried it on at home I looked like I was ready to grab my gun to go on safari.
Moral: I should just stick to the things I know. So this weekend at my 10 year high school reunion I will be wearing running shorts and a dirty t-shirt.

I am just learning this blogging stuff so I apologize to everyone who commented a year ago when I first started this thing...I just realized there was a comment section. Thanks for
posting something.

Maybe I should update this thing. We no longer have our puppy...turns out we are not dog people (or animal people for that matter). We just had a baby 7 months ago. :O) I definitely should have blogged this sooner. Our daughter's name is Norah Pearl and she is basically amazing. She crawls like a speeding bullet and pulls herself up on anything and spits. The last one is not that great especially when we are feeding her carrots. Gross.
I am not officially a stay-at-home mom and so far I love it. I do miss my job because it was awesome and I do miss people but I love spending so much time with Norah-the-destroyer (as we like to call her now that she can get into everything...but you have to say it like a thug in order for it to rhyme Norah the destroya). I am kind of working though...I am babysitting a little girl for 3 hours a day so her mom can work. Well, I guess, I'm supposed to but she hasn't shown up today so maybe I"m not.
Logan is busy, crazy busy. School started and he has 3 new students, 2 of which have severe disabilities and need constant monitoring. But he likes the challenge and is so good at what he does that I'm sure they will need less monitoring in a few weeks. He also is coaching cross country which he is also super good at. It sounds like he is going to have a pretty good team this year all because of my scouting and recruiting abilities. (haha...2 of his top girls are from the soccer team and I told them they should run because they are amazing). On top of all that he is training really hard for the St. George Marathon. His best time is 2:21 and he wants to meet or exceed that time. I have no doubt that he will do it. I will keep you posted...maybe. As you can see I'm not the most dedicated blogger, but I'm trying to change...mostly because I'm bored.