Best Buddies

I can tell that we are gonna be friends...

Happy First Birthday, Nora!

Sigh. Well, the time has come...I knew it would...my baby girl is 1!!! I don't entirely know how that is possible already, but alas, December 10 has come and gone, and my baby is growing up. True to Nora form, she started walking just a couple of days before her first birthday, which was a bittersweet (and quite adorable) reminder that she's not my squishy baby anymore. I am thankful, however, that she is still a little cuddle bug, and she's just pint-sized, so that makes the big birthday a little bit easier to swallow, I suppose.

We celebrated Nora's birthday on Thanksgiving weekend because many of her aunts, uncles and cousins were already planning on being in town for the holiday. She had a fabulous penguin-themed party complete with way more presents than any one-year-old could wish for. We can definitely say that she is a blessed little girl! 

Nora is also becoming very verbal these days. Added to her vocabulary lately are the words "brush" (i.e. toothbrush), "drink," and "out." She definitely gets her point across, as she is very expressive in her body language and facial expressions. She's even starting to hold her own against Joel, which is impressive! 

Halloween Fun

We sure had a happy Halloween this year. The kids had a ton of fun trick-or-treating, and of course, they looked adorable doing it! Nora ended up having two costumes because it was just too cold to wear her pumpkin tutu outfit trick-or-treating, so she just wore it to church. She ended up wearing Joel's old lobster outfit on Halloween night instead. We had a lot of fun and got way too many treats!

 Little Pumpkin Girl

 Scary shark! Actually, he just had Tootsie Roll stuck in his teeth! 

 My little aquatic friends. 

Nora as a lobster. 

And Joel as a lobster two years earlier. See the resemblance?

The Big Apple

In mid-October, Jack and I took a trip to NYC with Wes and Jen, our friends from college. Though it was extremely difficult to leave Joel and Nora behind for 5 days, the trip was such fun, and it was nice to leave behind responsibilities for a few days (not to mention to eat a meal without cutting food or wiping faces!). We had a blast, but we were so happy to return home to our babies!

 At Rockefeller Center, a few blocks from our hotel. 

Dinner in Little Italy.

 Jen and I on our way to a Broadway show.

Harvest Time

Joel's wildest dreams came true a couple of weeks ago when our friend Jeff Bottcher, a.k.a. "Farmer Jeff," called and wanted to know if Joel would like to come run the combine with him during harvest. Oh my, was Joel excited! He has talked for weeks about harvesting with Farmer Jeff, and we even had to "call" Farmer Jeff one night to convince Joel to eat his dinner. After all, Farmer Jeff eats HIS chicken! haha. Joel definitely has a new hero. Here are some shots of Joel harvesting. What an adventure for this little man! And yes, his hat does say "Keeping it Rural." :)

My Little Chatterbox

Nora has been very busy these days. Not only is she just days away from taking her first independent steps, she is also talking up a storm! She will repeat many words if you say them to her, such as "thank you," and "off." She also knows and says the words "mama," "dada," "Jack" (yes, you heard right), "truck," "block," "ball" and "hello!" She's just such a cheerful little sweetie, and we laugh and laugh at her determined personality and happy disposition. Although she hears the word "no" often, she is not very obedient as of yet, and she doesn't really care if she gets in a bit of trouble. I hope this is not a sign of things to come....
A prime example, if she is crawling toward something she's not supposed to play with and I tell her no, she doesn't even look up, she just crawls faster! Yikes!

And despite all my best efforts, this girl just loves tractors and trucks. She would rather play with big brother's tractors than anything else in the world, and she even makes the appropriate truck noises when she's playing. Maybe someday she'll become a girly girl!?!

Look What Came in the Mail Today...

A Trip to the Pumpkin "Farm"

At the end of September, Jack and I took the kids to the Liberty pumpkin patch for a little outing. They both had a ton of fun, especially Joel because we were able to see lots of tractors and even take a hayride into the field to pick out pumpkins! Joel was just way too excited to see the "pumpkin farm." He asked us repeatedly if the farmer was going to "harvest the pumpkins with his combine." However, Joel was not a fan of the green pumpkins because "they're too yucky!" It was a fun and very memorable day for all of us. Hopefully we'll be able to make time to do this every fall.

Fall Flashbacks

I was digging back through some photos of Joel in October 2008, so I decided to re-create them with Nora. It's so crazy to think that two whole years have gone by and now we have a new little member of the family! I just don't think these two look a whole lot alike anymore....not to mention the fact that Joel is twice the size of Nora (and two months younger in these pictures!). Happy Halloween everyone! 

Nora's 9-Month Check-Up

Just a quick update: I took Nora to the doctor yesterday for her 9-month baby well check. Our little runt is now tipping the scales at a whopping....wait for it......15 pounds and 6 ounces! She's such a little squirt! Although she's only in the 3rd percentile for weight, she's just in the 10th percentile for height, so the doctor isn't concerned since she is growing proportionally. Other than that, she is very healthy and very, very active and engaged....just perfect!

Happy Homecoming!

Last Friday, I took Joel and Nora to the SHHS Homecoming parade and pep rally on the courthouse steps. It was such a fun time of reminiscing and thinking ahead to what it will be like to have kids in high school....and after talking to several of the mothers there, I'm certain that those days will be here sooner than I'd like to think. Time just goes so fast when you have little ones! Anyway, Joel, of course, loved the parade with all the motorcycles, tractors and big trailers. He even liked the band! But Nora, oh Nora, she just ADORED  the cheerleaders. I put her up on my shoulders, and she just watched them and smiled and screamed and laughed, flinging her arms up above her head the whole time! It was simply adorable! I guess we have a couple of little bull-pups on our hands!

Hurray, Hurrah, Mizzou, Mizzou!

With football season in full-swing, Jack has been practicing catching and throwing with Joel, and I must say, he's pretty good! He has a great, accurate arm, and he catches more balls than I thought a 2-year-old would be able to! He's so proud of himself; it's just adorable! It's all in good fun and Tiger spirit! M-I-Z!

And here's some of our little happy cheerleader.

Camp Out

On Labor Day weekend, Joel had the brilliant idea to have a "Bunny Scout camp out" on the deck (thank you, Max and Ruby for the Bunny Scout tie-in). So after Nora hit the hay, Jack, Joel and I got in our p.j.s (or sweats in Mommy and Daddy's case), got out the sleeping bags, flashlights and s'more supplies and headed outside for "ghost bunny stories" and s'mores.

Well, let's just say, a camp out wouldn't be the same without Joel puking on the deck....a few s'mores into the evening and he had officially overdone it. Out came the s'mores! I guess they were just too good to stop with just one! But we had fun anyway, after he was done ridding himself of the excess s'mores, he stood up, took a drink of water and asked for more stories. What a funny kid!

"Fair" Game

Labor Day weekend brought about the annual Northwest Missouri State Fair. This year, Joel was old enough to ride some of the rides, so on Wednesday (opening) night, we took Joel and Nora out the the fairgrounds to get the first dose of the fair festivities. Joel had a blast riding rides with his friend Lucy (who was also born in February 2008). Someday these pictures will come in very handy for the senior slide show at graduation!

Joel also got to go to the demolition derby on Monday afternoon with Daddy and his friend Bradley and Bradley's daddy, Scott. He had so much fun that he is still talking about the "cars crashing into each other at the pear" ("fair"-Joel for some reason uses the "p" sound for the "f" sound....result: he eats his "pood" and puts his shoes on his "put").

Nora got her share of fair time in too, when I entered her in the baby show. The little sweetheart did not win, but she hammed it up for the judges anyway. How could this cute little baby not win????? I just don't understand what they were thinking! Of course, I am a little bias! I think we're done with the baby show circuit...