How to Read a Book

She usually starts out with the best of intentions

Yet can't seem to get a handle on the book

So she sits on, steps on, or waves the book around in the air

...and then it goes straight to the mouth.  Notice how this book says delicious, nutritious on the back ;)

I love that she is so interested in books, I just wish she would spend more time reading and less time eating.  Any tips from the experts?  I keep all the board books within her reach to keep her entertained throughout the day, but they seem to be the most tasty to her and she loves to get her little teeth on them. Something about paper...mmmmm. 

One More Month!

A lot is happening for our family in One Month!  I can't decide what I am looking forward to the most....

-In one month Ben will be finished with school and we are done with homework forever!

-In one month we are officially unemployed which is a good and bad thing, we hate our job (managing an apartment complex) but we sorta need some income....

-In one month we will be on an intense job hunt, if we haven't found something by then :0  The plan is to head to Utah to be with family if we still don't have a job opportunity by the time Ben finishes his classes, so THAT is something to look forward to as well.  We are MISSING the family!  I have to admit, I'll be a little bummed if we find a job outside of Utah and then don't get to see family this summer.

-In one month Norah turns ONE!  I am excited to celebrate my baby, but really, one year already?!?!  Since we don't know exactly where we will be in one month, I'm not sure if we'll really get to have a big birthday party for her, but I had already decided she needed one of these cool tunnels for her 1st birthday.  I have had to restrain myself everyday from opening it early for her, I am so excited for her to play with it.  She is into hiding in small spaces these days.

So One Month, can we do it?  Yes we can!  Change is hard sometimes, but refreshing, I love change :)

Yuck

For some reason YUCK is one of Norah's favorite words.  I say it lot when I am changing her diapers and she just giggles and giggles.  But this is how we are feeling at our house this week, YUCK.  I can't trace back to where I could have picked up this nasty sickness, but I got something good. I went running last Thursday and after that day I have felt progressively worse.  It started with a little coughing and wheezing but turned into a full blown cold with a little nausea and dizziness mixed in between.  The most painful part though is the sinus congestion, feels like my face is going to blow up.  I am finally starting to feel a bit better today, but it's still quite miserable. 

This is really the first time I have felt this sick as a mom (besides postpartum issues of course), and let me tell you, it's rough!  Although, every time I go through something hard in my new life as a mom, I can't help but feel a little wimpy as I think of all the great and noble mothers who have two plus children and are doing the same things I am, plus more, and are probably doing it much better than I.  Maybe this was just a little reminder for me to be grateful for good health and take advantage of all the things I can do when I feel healthy.  Luckily Ben has been around more than usual and has helped lighten my load.   The worst part is I think I passed it on to poor Norah; she has been coughing most of the day and doesn't act like she feels very well.  It's hard to tell with her though because she is such a happy girl all the time, always smiling!  She has been breaking two new teeth this week as well, so yep, we are feeling a little YUCK.  Cross your fingers Ben doesn't get sick too, he's got 6 more weeks of classes!

Happy Mother's Day!

 Enjoyed celebrating Mothers Day with my baby girl and wonderful hubby.  Especially thinking of my own great Mother today.  Thanks for teaching me to be the mommy that I finally get to be, I love you!

Meet Ginger

My sister made her baby an adorable "taggie monster" and I have been wanting to try my hand at one ever since.  Initially I didn't have enough ribbons, because as a beginning crafter, I just don't have that kind of stuff laying around.  I've been buying spools of ribbon here and there over the past few months and finally got around to the monster. Here is the tutorial I used as my guideline.

 

 

Her face makes me laugh, she's thinking "thanks a lot mom for this BORING toy" :)

Norah LOVES tags although I haven't really seen her pick at these tags much, she just likes to fling it around by its legs.  I put a bow on the top because it's a GIRL monster...and we named her "Ginger".


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I also finally finished my apron!  I was working on it off and on for several weeks.  I started it but then lost interest, however, after repeatedly getting my clothes dirty while cooking and doing dishes, I found the motivation I needed.  Like everything I make, don't look to closely :)  I found a tutorial here.

Happy Easter!

We were STOKED to celebrate Norah's 1st Easter.  I was very particular about picking out her Easter basket, because I have every intention of her using it for the rest of her life.  It was kind of a bummer that she couldn't eat any of the candy, but we put some in there anyway for the photo ops.  Norah has a farm animal book that she is fascinated with, so I thought she would like to have some of the animals squeaky style.  She thinks they are pretty cool, but at the time, this candy wrapper was way cooler :)




We had a pretty great Holiday and were thankful to be reminded of the Savior's sacrifice for us. We are missing being so far away from family but find comfort in our ward family and are so grateful for the gospel and the blessings we enjoy.  Happy Easter!

Out For a Stroll

Last weekend we saw the SUN and so tried to get outside for a bit.

Norah helping Daddy pick out shoes for our walk.

We have a great park near us comprised of many gardens.  I wanted to go see the tulips because I was sure with all the rain we had gotten there were bound to be tulips blooming.  Well Ben was sure there were NOT going to be any tulips.  And so we made a bet....I told him that if there was not a single tulip blooming(which meant I had to see color, not just green) then I would give him a massage.

Found one!  I was losing hope but eventually spotted one.  And then Ben confessed to me that he had seen one already as well, but didn't say anything because I hadn't noticed it.  Tricky, tricky Ben...although he assures me he would have eventually told me ;)

(Can't rotate this, but you get the idea, dumb blogger.)

Norah has learned to smile for the camera, such a fun girl!

We also saw a lot of people out walking their dogs, Norah would get excited every time she spotted one.  Our little lady adores puppies :)  This germaphobic mom even let her get down and touch one.  Oh the things that change when you become a mommy, love it.

Aunt Becca Comes to Visit!

My sister is attending Graduate School in Idaho and was kind enough to come and visit her favorite sister during Spring Break.  We were very excited to have her around for a few days and nearly died of boredom after she left :0
It wasn't fabulous weather the weekend she was here but we decided it was nice enough to head out and do some hiking.  I looked up some trails and we tried our luck with an area not too far from our house.  It seemed to be a great little hike and we stopped midway to eat the lunches we had packed.  Well after lunch we must have taken a wrong turn somewhere because we ended up way out in the woods and were completely lost.  We hiked for what seemed a very long time with no trails in sight.  I was beginning to get quite uncomfortable as I carried around my 20 pound baby in the tummy pack.  Luckily she fell asleep amidst our wandering in the wilderness so I didn't have to worry about a grumpy baby.  Eventually we found our way back to some trails and made our way back down the mountain to our car.  It was strange because although we could see the city down in the valley, we were as lost as could be up there on the mountain.  I was imagining the worst case scenario, us having to sleep on the mountain or something, but thankfully it all panned out! :)

 

We really had so much fun with my sister and wish we could see her more often.  Miss being close to family and hoping to move closer really soon!

Just Kidding, Not Yet

It has been brought to my attention that many people are not using google reader, therefore they do not get automatic updates from blogs they read, therefore they probably haven't read my blog yet and are not aware that we are making the blog private.  So I'll wait a few more weeks...

In the meantime, this cute girl is starting to take steps on her own this week, go baby go!

What was I thinking?!

That's the thing here...I just wasn't thinking!  After playgroup today I decided to quickly stop by the post office since I was already out that way.  Walking in I knew Norah was tired and ready for a nap and I also knew it was going to be difficult to try and put together one of the flat rate boxes that I needed and close it up with the items I planned on sending, while holding a baby.

So there I was waiting in line with Norah, and she was getting bored pretty quickly.  I finally got my box and stepped to the side counter to package up my stuff.  I set Norah on the counter and wrapped one arm around her while I tried to package up my box with my other hand.  All the while everyone is staring at me but nobody is offering to help, which was fine, I just wish they would stop staring :0  So I get the box all ready and realize I neglected to bring the address I needed!  Norah was getting pretty unmanageable at this point so while I was on the phone trying to get the address I handed Norah a chocolate dove egg wrapped in foil to keep her from squirming out of my arms.  I just needed a few seconds and I thought this might buy me some time.  What I didn't think about was the fact that my baby has FIVE teeth.  I finish up my phone calls, with no luck and start putting my stuff away planning to just come back to send the package out later when I have the address. I had been holding Norah away from my body so I couldn't see her face, but I went to get the chocolate from her and lo and behold(DUH)...there is loads of chocolate dripping from every corner of her mouth and her fists are both up to her face smothering the chocolate everywhere.  I panicked for a second then dug in her mouth to get the foil parts out.  At this point all I could do was laugh,how dumb could I be!  The worse part is that this post office was located in a grocery store so I had LOTS of people staring at me and saying things like, "looks like she needs a napkin", and, "wow, that looks good".  Luckily as I made my dash out of the store I noticed a garbage can and a wipes dispenser.  I tried to clean Norah up and with every wipe of her face she grunted in frustration at me bothering her while she was trying to devour the chocolate smeared all over her lips, face, and fingers.

I kept chuckling to myself the whole ride home as I replayed the scenario.  At least the eggs weren't completely chocolate, she got a some coconut in her little body too :)  Once we were home, I walked in the door and handed Norah to her daddy and asked him to guess by smelling her what she had been up to.  He said she smelt like alcohol and then looked panicked for a second, so I told him the story and got a good laugh again.  Oh this child is definitely her mama's daughter.  We love our chocolate!