Student of the Month

 

 Today we went to a ceremony for Colin as he is currently the student of the month for his class. It was really fun to see how excited he was to see us.  And this time Daddy was able to come too. Its a short ceremony but they have each teacher write out why the student won the award and its really fun to not only hear what they think of you own kid but also to learn about the other kids who got the award.

 Colin was excited

Joel was proud to see Bubba walk back up on stage for pictures at the end for the school yearbook.

This is only half of what his teacher said about him.  For some reason it didnt occur to me that 1st grade would come so soon in the ceremony :)  We're so proud of you Colin! 

its beginning to look a lot like christmas

 It looks like Christmas in our house.  We put up our fake trees again - but I think I might have found a tree I'm not allergic to.  A friend went and cut hers down in Pungo and I have been to her house twice and not gotten blocked up.  Maybe we'll try that next year.  But it is so much easier for the fake ones - especially our one prelit tree :) 

 The boys have a tree in their room. Colin was upset Joel added "snow" (packing peanuts) onto the tree. 

 I love watching the kids look at the tree.  Norah loves it and is pretty good with them.  Joel has already knocked down one tree when he threw one of his toys in it.  But after his spiderman ornament lost his head he's been much more careful. 

Ducks

 Feeding the ducks at a lake near Ant Ant (this was after the half marathon)

 Norah was not amused by the ducks.

 But she liked the walk around the lake. 

 Not sure what the boys are looking at.  Probably some ancient artifact or something like that :)

It was a beautiful day and I'm glad the kids had so much fun.   I think Ant Ant and I were dragging towards the end. I think she said it was a mile around the lake. 

Happy Monday

8 months

I know this post is a few weeks late but in my defense I left my camera at Sarah's a few weekends ago.

8 months.  I know I keep saying this but it goes so fast.  I keep looking at pictures of my cute nephew (yay! I'm an aunt) and it seems like so long ago that Norah was just a newborn. Its hard to remember when she was that small.  But then at the same time wasn't she just born?

She is into EVERYTHING! I think she is my fastest crawler.  Probably because to get what she wants she has to go fast since most of what she wants isn't baby safe and mommy takes it away from her.  She loves to crawl into the boys room and go straight for the Lego's.

She is also trying to stand on her own.  I want to say she doesn't know what she's doing but I'm pretty sure she does. I think I will blame Joel if she's walking soon :)  He loves to carry her all over and she loves it.  (most of the time) Her little feet kicking the whole time.  She does pull up on everything.

She gets so tickled by Colin.  Its so sweet to see them play together. She loves it when the boys crawl after her.  You can always tell when she has something in her mouth she shouldn't because she won't smile or open her mouth and will crawl away fast from you.

She is eating everything we are eating.  No purred baby food for her.  She does get this weird rash from random foods.  Red under her eyes with fruit and then a rash with other things. But its strange.  Pumpkin bread is fine, pancakes made out of same ingredients gives her a rash.  So we're keeping an eye on it and thankfully she hasn't broken out at all this week.

Her favorite word is mama. (and only word) She waved at Brent the other day when he was waving to her and he said his heart melted at least ten times over.  He keeps trying to get her to say dada but she just says mama. 

I think one of the cutest things Norah does now is take her blanket everywhere. She has a few a&a blankets and she will crawl around the house dragging one of them.  And when you pick her up and give her one of her blankets she will squeal and just nuzzle into it.  So sweet. 

She still sleeps awful.  But she does have 4 teeth in now and hopefully the rest of the teeth will take their time so we can get some sleep.  Sometimes she is a great napper and other times will only sleep 30 minutes at a time.  Its hard to put her on a schedule since the boys have things they do and if I did then we would never leave the house. But she is so laid back and just goes with the flow.  Except at church.  She cries so hard each week in the nursery that it takes me about the rest of the time to calm her down.  She used to go to everyone and was the baby passed around.  Now she only wants mama. 

She was not liking the fact that mommy wanted to get her picture on the bed.  She would much rather have been crawling in the grass eating leaves. But that pouty face is adorable. 

Exersaucer

 So glad we got the exersaucer down for Norah.

Ha! I'm pretty sure the boys spend more time in it than her. 

Santa

Since we were in Louisa we of course had to go see Santa at Southern States on Saturday.  The rest of the family went to a football game but I gladly gave my ticket to Brent (which wasn't hard since I'm still nursing Norah I couldn't go anyways) BUT I didn't mind since I wasn't missing this Santa. He's the real deal.  I've mentioned it before but for the past 6 years (we did miss one year in there) we have seen him.  And apparently he's getting very popular.  He takes his time with everyone but he had to hurry a little bit since the line was out the door.  But we still got some good time with Santa. And all the pictures were just too good not to share them all. 

 Especially Norah's! 

 Poor Santa was trying everything to get Norah to like him. 

 Norah looks so little compared to Santa's big hand.  My little girl that is already trying to stand on her own. 

Mary took Lenny and Lenny barks at all men until he gets to know them.  But he didn't bark at Santa.  See even Lenny knows :)

When we were at Christmas Town we saw an Elmo show and it was all about what Christmas was about and afterwards Colin told me "Mommy they missed one big thing about Christmas. They didn't say why we have Christmas, its to celebrate Jesus' birthday"  And then he went on to say "Poor How-How wont have Christmas this year.... oh wait, yes he will.  He will be with Jesus at the REAL birthday party this year! He's going to have more fun at that!"  And it made me teary eyed but also smile at how God keeps using Colin to make me smile when I start missing my grandpa.  And it also made me want to tell people who thinks that if you teach your kids about Santa then they wont believe in Jesus to just look at my son.  A day after seeing Santa he doesn't care about that part of Christmas. He knows its to celebrate Jesus' birth. 

And if anyone wants to know what the boys asked for - Legos.  Norah just wanted to get off Santa's lap.  She could care less what that strange man will bring her :) 

Thanksgiving weekend

I have a lot to be thankful for.  But on thanksgiving day I was really thankful for my husbands strong stomach.  The morning went off really well. We had Pops over for an early feast. I had put my turkey in the crock pot the night before (got that idea from Jamie at her baby shower) and it worked great.  The kids loved all the food.  They have gotten picky lately but Colin loved the stuffing and sweet potatoes and Joel at tons of "chicken" I was amazed.  After we ate we got in the car and headed to the farm.  Right before we got in the car Joel had told us his ear hurt.  And then fell asleep in the car.  He had a blanket over him and thank goodness because about 20 minutes into the ride he started throwing up.  And it just kept coming. Thankfully the blanket caught most of it.  So we turned around.  Joel sweetly kept asking for a bath and Colin was sobbing.  He was devastated that we werent headed to the farm. Brent and I werer glad we weren't too far into the trip so we could get home and clean Joel up.  I have this picture on Brents phone of Joel looking so pitiful with puke all over him and Colin just so upset in the back.  It does make me laugh.  But we get home.  I get Joel into the bath and Brent cleans out the car. So gross. Sometimes I think our car misses Rod and Debbie. Colin is still crying.  Wants us to get a babysitter for Joel so the rest of us can go to the farm. Joel feels better once he has a bath and falls asleep for the rest of the afternoon on the couch.  Colin calms down and plans out how he will get to the farm if Joel is still sick the next day.   

Everyone goes to bed.  Trip to the farm take 2.  We had to pull over close to Richmond because Joel is claiming he is going to throw up.  This time Colin is all smiles because he has figured out we are closer to the farm than home so even if little bro gets sick we should go to the farm to clean him up :)  But Joel was just car sick.  We moved him to the back of the car and he perked up right away. 

 But we get to the farm and no one is sick. Norah fell in LOVE with Lenny, Mary's dog. She thought this dog was so funny and would screech and laugh when he came near. She also would crawl after him. Lenny is such a good dog and was so sweet to her. Just would lick her every so often.  I really like Lenny.

On Friday most of the family came to pay tribute to a wonderful man and to bury the rest of him. (My grandpa was cremated and wanted to be buried at the farm as well) 

It was strange being there without him.  I've only spent one other thanksgiving away from family (even after we got married Brent's parents and now dad usually join us) So I missed grandpa a lot this weekend. Its a new "normal "that isn't very fun to get used to. 

But I do have to say that my family knows how to have fun. And it was good to see my grandma laugh and have fun. 

Uncle David tried to talk the boys into cheering for Richmond.  He might be able to talk Joel into liking the Spiders. Especially since he is facinated with Spiderman right now. 

After numerous trips to the creek and just following Lenny track scents in the hay fields, the kids were tired. 

But somehow Brent had planned a trip to Christmas Town at Busch Gardens with our friends Pete and Ashleigh, and Dan and Kathy and all their kids.  They were all vacationing in Williamsburg. So on our way home we stopped there.  And it was a really fun night.  At first I wasn't sure since we didn't have the stroller and Joel wanted to be carried all the time, and Colin is 1 inch shorter than being able to go on all the rides (he could go on most) but it was really fun and now we are definitely in the Christmas spirit. And a great night with some really great friends makes it all worth it.  I wish I had gotten a picture with Dan, Pete and Brent and all their kids.  They were close friends in college and have remained close.  Makes me wonder if this is what they thought life would be like almost 15 years later :)