Our Day Out

We're getting a bit tired of the cold weather over here. Yesterday I decided that it was warm enough to venture out. We headed to a local park for a stroll. Norah had a hard time keeping her eyes open she was so relaxed. Looking forward to more fun walks, hopefully in the SUN :)

I made this!

Like I've said before, I'm not the craftiest gal ever. When our church Young Women activities consisted of sewing or baking bread, I was ticked and wondered why we couldn't be out bowling, playing capture the flag, or doing something FUN like the guys were! Yes I DO know how to sew a button(thanks mom), and I knew how to stitch a small hole, but thats really the extent of my sewing capabilities...until now!

I made this bean bag!

I needed some practice on my new sewing machine, and the idea to make a bean bag developed as I was trying to sew some straight lines. I think it turned out pretty good, and it was fun! Seriously though, it took me over an hour just to figure out how to thread the machine, man it was complicated. Actually just finding the materials was an experience in itself; the fabric store is another WORLD.
Stay tuned for more projects though. I am working on making some fun baby blocks. Hoping they turn out well...
And all you sewing experts, stop laughing at my inexperience! :)

All About NORAH

She's the one having the most fun around here, so why not plaster her all over the blog. She's so stinkin' cute!

This little babe is a rockin' and a rollin'. Sits up like a champ, although we still have a few spills here and there when she loses her balance, ouch! Crawling all over the place, pouts when we leave the room and follows after us. Eating solids, and starting to like the sippy cup too. My baby is also sporting two bottom teeth with more shortly on their way. Oh how I miss my lil newborn, but this lil girl is SO MUCH FUN!


Check out that double chin-love a chubby baby!


This is what she does best; she's addicted to the thumb!





















She doesn't LOVE this jumper yet,
would much rather be
on the ground crawling around...


















My attempted photo shoot was a failure, she was much too busy to sit still and look at me. Oh well, I guess it's going to be like this for quite some time. It's so crazy but also super exciting to see her become her own little person.

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!