Around the Block

Tonight we took a walk around our block - and for the first time Norah walked almost all the way. There was a lot of stopping to inspect things, especially people and their pets. I think she's ready for a marathon!

Visit with the Blinns Revisted

Today Ryan, Norah and I drove to Corvallis to visit with Gramma Joyce, Grandpa and the Blinn family. It was so good to see everyone!

Lynne, Carson and Dillon

Dillon, Carson and Norah - trying to steal puzzle pieces from the boys

Grandpa and Aunt Lynne


Norah with Gramma and Grandpa (sporting her Christmas outfit from them!)

Grandpa helping Norah open presents from the Blinns and Grandma Carmen!

C-Dog and Satur-Monkey

Tonight was an especially fun night! Misty and I babysat our young cousins, Sean and Chris. Or as we like to call them, C-Dog and Satur-Monkey. Aunt Kaye made us a delicious, healthy soup for dinner...then we took the boys to taco bell, Coldstone Creamery and a movie (with treats). hehehe - I'm sure Aunt Kaye will seek revenge next time she watches Norah.

C-Dog and Satur-Monkey, battling it out at foosball.

Misty played a video game...that involved shooting things. Very Twilight Zone. Ask her about the meth lab she busted.

Coldstone - yum!

Sweet Girl

Kodiak the Russian

Norah and I went to a playtime group at a library near Grandma Peggy's house on Friday. Thats two storytimes in one week - but they were both really enjoyable! We then stopped at Grandma's house to play for a little bit. Kodiak kept Norah quite entertained - playing the keyboard, pulling her around for some indoor sledding, as well as dressing up in his snow camping clothes and his Russian hat (he was headed camping for the weekend). In case we're invaded by a Red army he'll blend in.

Lunch with the Blinn Family

Aunt Lynne, Uncle Todd, Dillon and Carson stopped for lunch on their way through Portland!

Lynne gave Norah lots of snuggles

After lunch we had Mrs. Field's treats and watched the ice skating. Norah kept trying to climb on Dillon's lap, much to his dismay. :-)

We're looking forward to a longer visit with everyone on Sunday!

Show Me The Monkey!

Wow, look what we found...

A-hoy Matey

Norah spent some time on Wednesday captaining a foam pirate ship... There is a fun, foam play place at Washington Square Mall and she seemed to thoroughly enjoying playing on the toys and watching the other kids. Aunt Kaye met us for the fun - then treated us to lunch and an adorable outfit (for Norah) from my new favorite store, Janie and Jack!

We have a little table and chair that Norah has learned to climb up on (actually, she's learning to climb on everything, its hard to keep up with her!!). The process involves some funny bending, scooting and twisting around, but once she's up there she is quite pleased with herself. Yes, in the 2nd photo Norah does indeed have a dog bone. She likes to play with it more than Jonesy.

Its a big day - for a happy car ride

Today was Norah's first day with her car seat turned around to the front! This makes for a much happier little monkey. She spent the day at Grandma Peggy's house while I was at work - and refused to take a nap. Its way to exciting with Grandma! So she completely conked out by the time we had left Grandma's driveway.

Although we stay away from teh TV as much as possible, there is a new show on PBS that I've been TIVOing for emergency television viewing. Its called "Its a Big, Big World" and I think I love it as much as Norah seems to. If you have little ones, I highly recomend it. We watched a bit while waiting for Grandma and Kodiak to arrive. Norah has a funny habit of walking up to a foot or so away from TV, folding her arms, and watching. She looks so serious!

Mom and Kodiak stopped by with dinner so Norah stayed awake long enough to kiss them goodnight. She was so exhausted - fully asleep by seven. Such a sleepy pumpkin...

Happy Birthday to Norah...again

Uncle Dave gave me a cd of pics from Norah's birthday. I just had to post a few!

Cute Daddy............................yay, my cake!

How in the world Dave was able to get Vern to pose with a heart-shaped "I love you" balloon, we may never know. But it turned out so nice, I'm putting a copy in Norah's birthday book!

It looks like Ryan wants to try the cupcakge shirt on...I laughed so hard when I saw this. :-)

Since I put up a goofy pic of Ryan I had to atone by putting up a goofy pic of myself. Notice, Norah inherited this expression...

All dressed up and somewhere to go.

~ After church and then kisses for Kodiak and the monkey~
Kodiak spoke at his church today, so Norah and I decided to go listen. He did such a good job - was well-organized, had a meaningful message, and was a little bit funny as well. Norah kept pointing at him up behind the podium and at one point she caught Kodiak's eye and distracted him from his talk. Fortunatly he came back to sit with us when he was done and then he and Grandma Peggy entertained Norah for the rest of the service.

On an equally spiritual note Norah had an opportunity to wear the beautiful dress Grandma Carmen gave her for her birthday... :-) OK, not spiritual, but lots of fun to dress up!

Too hungry to wait until after she changed! She ran off while I was trying to put her comfy clothes on. I guess she likes the jester look...

Happy Birthday, Uncle Neil!

Neil's birthday is on the 21st and although we weren't able to celebrate with him, we did celelbrate. Norah dressed up in her Utah Aggies shirt and played with her toys, just like Uncle Neil does every day. Well, actually we think he's going to school...but anything could be happening now that he lives in Utah and is married to Dannelle. We know what partiers they are!

Happy Birthday, Neil! I love and miss you very much - and am always so proud of you. Many happy wishes that your 23rd year brings as many blessings as the last. I can't wait to see you this summer.

Storytime, Vet, and Michelle - Oh My!

Wow, its only 2:00 and we've already had a full day!

Grandma Peggy and Uncle Kodiak met us for storytime this morning. Usually just Grandma meets us, but Kodiak was able to weasel out of school due to a power outage. I think by the time he was done singing "Wheels on the Bus" he was wishing that school would open. Afterwards we walked over to starbucks and Grandma Peggy treated us to cider and pumpkin bread - yummy!

After a quick stop at home to pick up Jonesy, we were on our way to his vet for a check up on his ear. It was a longer wait than we expected and Norah was really antsy by the time we left. However she did spend a good ten minutes reading a brochure on puppy pictures... Jonesy ear is looking a bit better, but they added another ear drop treatment. This brings us to 4 eardrop treaments per day, plus an oral pill and an ear wash once a day. Ahhh...what we do for our pets!

We headed towards home with a detour over to Michelle's home to check out her new safari wardrobe. We can't wait to see pictures after the trip! I had no idea that there are clothes that come pre-treated with bug repellent. Where was this when we lived in Alaska? Michelle was a good sport about having her photo taken in her jammies - and Norah managed not to break anything while we were there. Whew :-)

Finally, we headed home for naptime!

Visiting the Seveys!

Norah and I went down to Eugene today to play with Ian and Amariah. Norah was a very good sport about the drive and we had such a fun time when we got there! We played with Ian's MANY cool toys and everyone showed off their new stricks. OK, Ian and Norah showed off their new tricks while Amariah and I admired them. We have such clever children; I am sure its our extremely phenomenal parenting skills. :-)

So cute and lots of fun!

Amariah made me the most beautiful peridot crystal and silver bracelet. The picture doesn't do the weaving pattern justice!

Grandma Peggy saves the day

Norah had a miserable day on Monday - at the time, I wasn't sure exactly what was the matter with her, but now think maybe it as teething. Thankfully Grandma Peggy cancelled any and all activities and we went over to her house. She always seems to know what to do with the little monkey, especially when I am at my wits end! Norah even napped for a while and we had a chance to do some scrapbooking. Ahhh...I really I appreciate my mom even more as a Grandma than I did as a mom. How did our parents get so wise? I could have sworn she was so clueless when I was a teenager...of course, I thought I knew everything when I was a teenager... ;-)

Grandma is SOOO funny.......Reading stories together

Norah S. playing with Norah H.