When we first found out we were pregnant, I remember feeling like I hadn't had enough time with Norah. I felt like I was just getting to know her and was going to miss some very fun things with her because I would be preoccupied with a baby. Well, the past couple of months Logan has been way busy so Norah and I have had a lot of fun one-on-one time together. I have had a great time getting to know her and hanging out. I feel so lucky that I get to chill with such a cool girl all day, every day. I love being a mom (most days).

Here are some pictures to catch you all up on our lives .
What a fun ride this has been so far!


October:




Logan paced his friend, Steve Hooper, at the St. George Marathon. They were shooting for 2:36 and got 2:39. Way to go Steve.


Norah was a bumble-bee for Halloween. So cute!

November:


It's never too cold to go running with Daddy. Yes, those are socks on her hands because we couldn't find her gloves...who needs gloves in St. George? :)

December:
I don't know why my in-laws had these goggles in with the Christmas decorations, but Norah found them and loved them.


January:Logan and me at the USA vs. Venezuela soccer game in Phoenix, AZ. It was so fun to visit my brother Jet and his family and watch this game together. It was still a good game even if Landon Donovan wasn't there. :(


Norah and her cousin, Gabby at the game. They were both little angels during the whole game. Gabby asked me a question the very last minute of overtime and I turned to answer her and of course that's when the US decides to make the one and only score of the game! Ha. It was still fun.

Norah turned 2! Wow. We had a big party with WAY too many people in our little house. Norah had fun eating cake and opening presents.

Norah's uncles, Bryce and Caleb, taught her how to make a finger mustache and say "I mustache you a question". Oh, the wisdom only family can teach. We were so proud.

February:

Norah's tubes in her ears started to come out, so she immediately starts to get ear infections again. Which means she didn't nap or sleep well at night. So what did she do when she wasn't sleeping? Destroy her room, of course. She ripped up 2 books into tiny shreds, broke slats out of her blinds and pulled all of her clothes out of her drawers. I would often find her standing in her window sill waving to neighbors across the street. The most ridiculous event was when she got into the candle that I kept on her dresser. It was a soft candle in a can which made for great dipping and spreading on such things as her bed, decorative pillow, pajamas and last, but not least all over her hair! (see matted, greasy hair below).
I tried to wash it out, but the wax was still in there. I finally googled how to get wax out of hair. I poured baby oil in her hair and combed in out, then used dish soap, then shampoo, then conditioner. That worked. Whew.
Needless to say, I took her in and got her some antibiotics and her ears are now clear and she is sleeping and napping well. Hooray for modern medicine.

March:

We had a workaholic spring break and finished more of our backyard. (Pictures of that coming soon). It made a huge crashing sound when they delivered the rock, so it drew the attention of all the neighborhood kids. They had fun "helping" as well and running up to the top of the pile. Cute kids.


Logan works with a wonderful lady named Fran, who let us come ride their horses and pony. We brought along one of Norah's friends, Brayton. Norah was scared at first but was fine if she rode with Brayton. Then she only wanted to do it herself and then she only wanted to ride the big horse, which she did. It was a fun day. We tried to tell her that it was a Shetland pony and she said, "Oh, a s**t pony". And would proudly say she rode a s**t pony from then on. The best was when she said the prayer for family night with Logan's family. She listed all the things she was thankful for including the s**t pony (which she repeated 4 times)! Oh man, we laughed so hard. What a funny girl.


Later that month, Norah and I "ran" a 1 mile race together. I am proud to say she ran the whole way and loved it. She even passed a little boy! Woo-hoo! She just had to wear her pink tutu (thanks Granny for that one) over her pants. She got a cookie, drink and a book at the finish line.


April:I told you she was napping again, I didn't say she was sleeping beauty! There's that dang pink tutu again.


Wow. Sorry for such long post. I'll try to be better. But let's be honest, I"m not a good blogger. So here's hoping I post soon. :) Life is good.

weighty issues

Ok. So I know that kids are supposed to be cute and chunky and that they eventually work it off...BUT is there a limit? So we were at a friends house for dinner and we thought it would be fun to weigh Norah to see how big she was compared to my friends kids. She weigh 32 lbs!!! That was 5 lbs. more than her 2 1/2 year old and only 2 lbs. less than her almost 4 year old! I looked this up on a growth chart and she is 60% for height and well over 100% for weight...maybe even 110%. Ah! Does Norah have a problem? Should I be concerned? Should I do something? And if so, what? I've thought about limiting her milk intake or maybe watering down her whole milk but I don't know. Help.
On the other hand, I am a professional worry-wart and tend to over-dramatize situations, so maybe I just need to chill out and see what happens.
Thoughts???

Girls Camp #3

I have now been in the Young Womens long enough to go to 3 girls camps. Crazy! It has been an adventure every time...and a lot of fun. We went to enterprise this time and camped on someone's property. It was nice, but there were tons and TONS of bugs. I don't like bugs. But we lathered on the bugs repellent and carried "Off" candles wherever we went and it turned out fine. The girls had fun exploring the area and just being silly, fun teenage girls. I loved hanging out with them and having a little break from one tantrum-throwing toddler. :)
Here is what I did the whole time...literally the whole time.

That's right folks, I 'm a french-braiding Queen!

I think I braided every girls (and some of the leaders) hair at least twice a day! I got bored with the regular braids and had way too much time on my hands, so I got creative. :) It was fun.

I also played the guitar for them. They all loved my bitter break-up song and my one about nuclear waste. haha. (Even though this picture looks like I was either drunk or half-asleep, I assure you I was neither of the two).

Um...maybe I should blog?

Here's a quick recap of the last few months.

1)Logan's soccer team made it to the state semi-finals and lost a heartbreaking game to Judge Memorial (boo!).

Cute, cute boys! Wish my young women were old enough to date them!

2)Norah got tubes put in her ears, and hasn't stopped talking since. It made a huge difference in her talking and sleeping habits. Yay! No pictures, sorry.


3)Norah learned that you can look at pictures of animals on the computer. Now whenever she sees a computer or ipad she repeats "neigh, neigh" or "moo, moo" over and over again like a really cute broken record.

Norah with her Baba looking at his ipad.


4)We took a little vacation to see family and got sick, then proceeded to get everyone else sick. Not the most exciting trip we've ever taken but it was still fun to see family.


Gabby and Norah on one of the few outings we made during our trip.

5)Logan started Graduate school and I'm actually jealous of all the papers he gets to write. I'm such a nerd. We got him a desk just so he could do all his homework in the guest room without Norah and me bugging him. Guess where he does his homework? On the kitchen table. Grr. :O) But it's fun having him home!!

At least he matches the decor.

6)I went through a mini mid-life crisis (I'm turning 30 this year) and decided I need a new hobby. Any suggestions? Here are facial representations of the crisis phases.

Phase 1: crazy, freak-out mode. Phase 2: oops maybe I shouldn't be crazy mode. Phase 3: thoughtful face mode.

7)Fun pictures of Norah...

She likes to wear non-traditional hats. Norah with her buddy Jake.

She loves the splash-pad and the Grandparent's pool!

8)I am going to Girls Camp next week and am super excited! We have already done the hike and most of the certification so we can just relax and have fun camping! Yay...and fighting off rattle-snakes.

Our "hike" around Red Mountain.

Amazing Capri Sun

My creative young women wanted to make shoes out of capri sun packages but didn't have a pattern and could only find one vague picture on the internet. My searches also brought little help. So I experimented. We finished them last night and I think they turned out great. The future crafting world is in good hands. :O) Cute, cute! I wish I had remembered to take a picture of all of them. Each pair was different and super awesome. What a fun activity!

I can't believe we have a one-year-old.
Way to go Norah for surviving our family so long!
We love her so much. I can't imagine life without her.

(It was exactly one year ago this very minute that I started labor...crazy huh?!)

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.