New Toy

My parents bought us a sewing machine over the holidays. I am VERY excited to use it, but I'm not quite sure where to start.

My mom helped me make a skirt, but now that I'm on my own, I want to start with something a little more basic since I am a newbie to the sewing world. I have been wanting an apron, and I've seen some pretty cute ones for LOADS of money. But I'm hoping I can tackle sewing one myself.

That's all I have in mind for the time being. I think eventually I'll try sewing curtains and crib skirt for Norah's room. And maybe some other cute stuff for her. I came across some sewing blogs in the past but never payed much attention to them because I didn't have any desire to sew. Now that I have the machine, I want to learn. Are there any blogs/sites people may recommend or other sewing tips that might be useful to me? I am usually pretty good at following tutorials and stuff on the internet. So I am hoping to get the sewing machine out of the closet soon and actually START sewing. Wish me luck! :)

Family

Norah met a lot her cousins and Aunts and Uncles for the first time over the Holidays. It was so much fun to see her interact with everyone. It will be fun to get together with all her cousins again when she is a little older.





Mason(age 2) really wanted to hold Norah :)

Meeting her new Cousin RJ

Putting together Puzzles with Aunt Cindy.

Aunt Ruth

Unfortunately we didn't get many pics of Ben's side of the family. I usually leave the picture taking to Ben and we were too busy having fun to take pictures!

Zoo Lights

We had some fun outings during our Christmas Vacation...


One evening we headed out to the Zoo Lights with Ben's brother Dan and his family. It was pretty cold but we were all troopers; Norah pretty much slept through it all, but it was fun nevertheless.

My baby's First Christmas! It was a wonderful one, complete with our loving families, great friends and lots of good food! :)

Although my parents no longer have any young kids at home, we still got to participate in all the little family traditions.

Waiting to see if Santa came! We always woke up SO early when we were kids, but this year my dad was the one to wake us all up.(Norah slept in :)

Ben and I had fun getting gifts for one another. Ben really wanted this watch and kept talking about it. I told him no way because it was too expensive for an "accessory". Well I bought it for him and kept it a secret. However, before Christmas he decided to purchase one himself over the internet, and I couldn't talk him out of it; I really wanted to surprise him! Anyway, he was pretty surprised and loved the watch. We ended up keeping the one he bought too. I guess a guy can never have too many watches.

I wrapped his gift in several different packages to build the excitement...


Ben kept telling me during the week prior, that this was going to be my best Christmas yet! The fact that he was so excited about was so fun in itself. He's so cute when he has a surprise up his sleeve. And surprises he had! He spent some time with my sisters the week before shopping for me and even doing a little crafting. So yes, my sisters get some of the credit, but the idea was all his. For every present he had for me he made a cute little model out of paper. I opened the gift bag full of these little paper cut outs and then had to read the backs of them to find the actual gift. So I spent a little time treasure hunting. It was such a fun idea and I LOVED the cute gifts. He gave me 5 or 6 gifts so imagine all the time he spent making the paper models. Here are a few of the gifts...



New Running Gloves!

Norah was still a little sleepy when she finally woke up, but she got the hang of unwrapping gifts really quick...






Thanks for the cute stuff Grandma and Grandpa!

Santa brought Norah these stacking cups, she loves them!


We headed to Ben's parents later in the evening to wrap up the day. Norah was so worn out from all the excitement! Hope your Christmas was as MERRY as ours was!

Sneak Peak

Here's what we've been up to....

Norah is starting cereal...she doesn't really like it much yet.


My baby is 6 MONTHS now...we loved celebrating her First Christmas!


We got to visit with my Grandma; Norah's GREAT Grandma. 4 generations, awesome!


We are loving our vacation and the much needed family time. Norah is definitely getting worn out :)

Thanksgiving at Whidbey Island

Instead of making the long trek home twice during the Holiday Season, we decided cut the trip in half and head out to my sisters home near Seattle. It was fun to be with them; we don't get to see them NEARLY enough.

Norah was loving all the attention. I need to let her play with other kids more often, it is so fun to watch her interactions.

Here's to the start of a wonderful Holiday Season!


McCord and Norah

Norah's Aunt Kelly(My Sister :)


And I just had to include all of the following...
Isaac is so cute with "Baby Norah" (as he calls her). It was so adorable to watch him play and try to snuggle with her. I asked him to pose for this picture and he was trying so hard to get Norah to look at the camera too!





Norah did pretty GREAT on our drive too, just a few tears here and there. Hurray for traveling with a baby! :)