Nora is 20 Months

My baby is growing up and I am so happy to see her grow, learn and become her own, but it's tugging at the heart strings to see her grow up so fast!!  As long as I'm living my baby, she'll be.

Nora,

We are all CRAZY about you.  Your brother just laughs and laughs at what you do and say. And your daddy; you can't imagine how smitten he is with you.  I've never seen him light up and smile so wide as he does when you run into his arms. I happen to think you are the most beautiful girl I've ever seen and I'm so proud you are my daughter.  You are wonderfully made and make our family so much fun and bring so much joy to our lives.  I get teary thinking about how happy you make us all everyday just by being uniquely YOU.  I'm so excited I get a front row seat to watch you become who the Lord has made you to be with each new day.  I can't wait to see how you'll grow and change and what your likes/dislikes and interests will become.

Right now at 20 months you like, puppies, horses, monkeys, Minnie Mouse, balls, colors, make up and lotions, play dough, boots, being outside, singing and dancing, chase, hiding, forts and pillows, and your night night (blanket), and Blop Blop (paci).  I have no idea how you named it a blop blop, but you did.  You love your family and friends, and are super friendly and will yell out "Hi!" to strangers at the grocery store, yet it might take you a few minutes to warm up.  You say Hi, so and so over and over again to everyone in the room and you love for all of your people to be together. You love to hug and kiss and be held. You say "hold you much" when you want to be picked up. You squeal in delight when you are happy and have a super stink face/scowl when you aren't.  We all know how you are feeling at every moment.   You are independent and like to 'hep ooh (help you).  You love to help make "foffee" in the mornings.  You vocabulary is exploding and you know so many words and can put together 4 word sentences.  You are always surprising us with what you say.  Your diction isn't always clear, but we can figure it out quickly.  You are smart!  You are athletic and have great fine motor skills.  You are girly, yet tough and like to wear capes, throw balls, wear cowboy boots, and take your hair bows right out of your hair. You are a great mix of girly girl /tomboy.  You can't stand brushing your teeth, being out of the action, when your brother takes something out of your hands,  or being put down, or when people walk away from you...which who can blame you for that?!

You wear size 4 diapers, you drink rice milk, but can tolerate more dairy, you are a great eater and mostly like meat vegtables and rice, and you love yogurt. You take mostly one nap a day but if you wake up early (which you've been doing lately) you take two. 

It won't be long until you are two years old Nora.  What an adventure it's been and what a blessing and honor it is to be your family.  Always remember, You are the jewel in our crown,  You are our cherry on top, You are the one who lights up any room you enter, Your Heavenly Father delights in you, and we all love you dearly.

New kids room project

We wanted to encourage our kids to express themselves, color, imagine, create, and ....play in their rooms more often and ask for cartoons less!

My friend Wesley gave me the idea to paint a wall in DF's room in magnetic chalkboard paint. I thought more about it and thought it was a really fun idea! I thought it could grow with them and they could write homework, or sight words, schedules, their own artwork, or drawings of whatever interests them at the moment on them. Wesley had a graffiti wall in her room in high school and we thought it was the coolest to write our volleyball numbers, crushes, etc on her wall. Since that changed pretty often, there were lots of scratches and scribbles over names so chalkboard seems much more practical. :)

We painted two large chalkboards on a wall in both of the kids rooms. We are already at the stage of what we do for one, we must do for the other, that even goes for what each other is eating, drinking, wearing, etc.

So far, we've all had a lot of fun with them! DF has had Batman, Superman, and a pirate ship so far and Franklin drew Cinderella's castle for our little princess, Nora. Franklin and I have even gotten in on the fun more than we expected. Having kids to play with is so much FUN! Nora clobbered me during their bubble bath Saturday night. It had us all laughing so hard and left my heart so full and happy! Spontaneous joy, laughter, touching moments, loving words, and playfulness seep into everyday with them around.

 

Last bit of fun this Winter Break

We had some fun before winter break ended this week! We visited friends in Searcy, saw baby Andrew Allbritton, and went to The Wonder Place in Little Rock with the Vaught cousins. We also played a lot outside in the backyard, and went on a family hike to the waterfall at Lake Catherine State Park. We have also had a cowboy from the Wild West wear the same outfit for 3 days straight! At least we got him to take his cowboy hat off for church but everything else stayed.

Christmas



"Christmas Eve Gift" at Meme and Grandpa's!

This has been a wonderful Christmas, and pretty unusual due to the weather! One we will never forget.

Santa came and that was thrilling! We have had a blessed day and Christmas season. Here are a few phone pics from our Christmas and Christmas Eve with the Bass Family. We have a winter wonderland here, over 6 inches of beautiful snow! It would be heavenly except for thousands are without power, including us. Thankfully there is power at Hamilton Pointe and wonderful family to be with! We are soooooo grateful for this extra special time and warmth we feel...on the outside and the inside.





First sign of snowfall at Mammers house Christmas night.  The kids had to go out in it immediately, so we improvised on snow gear. 

Sledding at the lake!

Daddy can make the sled go super fast! 

It was a costume Christmas for this boy, here he is modeling his Jake the Pirate costume!

Christmas Eve night, we are ready for you Santa!

The girls on Christmas day at Mammers, Nora is wearing a dress and coat of mine when I was a baby!  So special!



One of the most special gifts this year, a rocking horse put together with love from Grandpa!  Nora loves it and her grandpa very much.



This is the letter to Santa that DFB dictated for me to write.  Precious!!  Advice for the big guy.

Johnson family Christmas

We went to my dad's farm for Christmas with the Johnson's and had such a good time. There is no phone or Internet service so it is was like an old fashioned country Christmas. With a home grown Christmas tree and mistletoe.

The kids played their hearts out, they got a new puppy so that was exciting and they jumped hay bails, we shoot skeet, went to "town" for burgers and Leslie and I ran a 5K that morning! My first real race to ever run. Leslie won first place overall for the women, and I got first place for my age group. Granted, there weren't many in the race, about 40 total, but I was still happy! Always nice to be with family and friends this time of year, and it was nice to get it started early.

Operation Bless update

Well, I can honestly say this project has been tougher to complete than I originally thought. There have been days of sickness, company in town, and/or pure laziness that have kept us from completing our tasks. Some days we didn't even rip a ring to read what to do, but then there are other days (like today) where we played catch up and complete several acts of kindness in one day. And once you start doing them, it's hard to stop!
Here are a few pics from our various acts so far, and yes. DF is usually dressed in unusual dress up clothes and Nora is in her Jammie's.... What can I say?

Santa Claus

We saw Santa Claus for the 3rd time this year at Summit Bank last night.  David Franklin loves Santa and runs straight to him. This Santa remembered him and said, Hi David Franklin.  He couldn't believe Santa remembered him and it was so sweet.  He had some new, rather strange items on his list last night... a shark with one fin, eyes, and monster claws. (huh?)

Nora sat on Santa's lap for the first time on Sunday at the Country Club brunch and wasn't a fan.  Last night, I thought it might be better because it was a smaller crowd and this Santa helper was very friendly and had toys.  Not the case, she didn't totally melt down, but she didn't care for him much at all. Poor Santa.  I bet next year, she will change her mind! 



Round 1 at the HSCC, not happy!

Ran right up when he arrived at the bank!

 

Santa even tried crawling on his hands and knees for Nora, but she still wasn't having it.

This Sunday DF sang in church for the first time!  It was one song that they preschoolers sang the chorus of and we were so proud of him! He was so happy to see his grandparents in the audience and his sister got to come to big church to watch too.  She said "Bubby" and clapped!  It was a proud moment for all of us. 



Singing "The Gift goes On" at church for the first time. Pretty sure he licked the mike stand- ha! (Sorry it's blurry)