10 months old

...or 10 1/2. Who's counting. :) Norah Kate was 10 months on January 6th. I know I've said this before, but she's just getting to be soooooo much fun! Here are her stats (that we know):

Weight: not sure???

Diapers: still size 2

Eating: She still nurses in the morning and at night, but we are doing formula for her mid-day bottle. She just wasn't taking enough from me and her weight had really slowed down. So around Christmas I switched her to formula. We did have a little setback as she was allergic to the milk-based formula...so now we are on soy and all is well. :) She also eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner with us. She is a great eater as far as liking most foods and will try anything. She loves eating what we eat. I guess she thinks it is cool. Ha ha!

She is sleeping really well...goes to bed between 8:30-9:00pm and wakes up between 7:30-8:00am. NICE!

New skills: Pulling up to a stand, can take a couple of steps to the side while holding on, still crawling so fast. She has also said her first word (kind of)...Ooah (Chula). The dog. No, not "mama," not "dada," but Ooah! She is very intentional about it. When Chula goes outside Norah Kate sits at the glass door and yells "Ooah!" the whole time. :) Fortunately "Ooah" is a very mild tempered dog with NK around...mostly just ignores her.

She is still an active dancer as well.

Here are some pictures of our big girl. She still loves her bath time and has learned how to splash. :)

Smiles from our big girl!

One of her favorite past times

SPLASHING

& SPLASHING

Lovin' my bath!

SPLASHING some more!

She loves her bath toys!

She has also started putting her face in the water. It is pretty funny to watch because she is very careful while doing it. One time she did stay there a little too long though and I think it scared us both. She literally crawled out of the bathtub while gasping and coughing. I hope she learned her lesson.

I cannot believe that we will be having her 1st birthday in a little over a month! I am so happy to be her Momma and can't wait to see what is to come.

Christmas 2009

"...you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." Matthew 1:21

Christmas is definitely my favorite holiday. Not only do I like the family, coziness, and traditions, but I love that this is when we celebrate the birth of Jesus. I have been studying more of the events of Jesus birth this year. I have wondered many times what Mary must have thought when the angel appeared to her and told her she was, not only going to have a son at such a young age (probably early teens) when she was a virgin, but that this baby was going to be the SON OF GOD!!! Does anyone else become speechless at that moment, or is it just me. She was mature beyond her years and to think that she never disagreed to this task...I have so much to learn from her. I am also thankful that my husband and I have families that make it a point to put Jesus first and that we can count on them continuing to do that as they teach our daughter.

I guess you could say that this was an extension of our Christmas celebration since we had already celebrated with David's side of the family in November. Anyhow - we had a great time with my side of the family in Kentucky. My family celebrated Christmas with my mom's side every year growing up, so we have MANY traditions. Christmas Eve is spent with one side of my grandmother's family @ my Great-aunt June's house. Then we open our Christmas PJs from my grandmother. Christmas morning "Santa" comes, then lunch with another side of my grandmother's family (thankfully they come to her house...we don't have to go anywhere), and finally presents with all the aunts/uncles/cousins on Christmas evening. I am so thankful that we get to see so many relatives at Christmas.

Here is Norah Kate on Christmas Eve in her Christmas PJs. She didn't really want to leave the hat on.

Norah Kate's Santa set-up - Mama Joyce got her the doll & the hat says "Norah Kate"

She looked so happy to be getting her presents.

The family with her new toy from Santa

NK with her stocking...Mama Joyce made her stocking - isn't it beautiful?!

Here we are before church that Sunday - my happy girl!

Our family by the Christmas tree at my grandmother's house!

One of my good friends, Kari, lives in the same town as my grandmother. Kari's mom and my aunt, Ruthie, were best friends growing up...and Kari and I met at Union Univ. We were both nursing majors. I am so thankful that our friendship has continued since college. It is always so nice to see her when we to go Henderson. Here we are with our daughters. Naomi is (was...at Christmas) 4 months old. I think she likes to smile as much as Norah Kate!

We also enjoyed seeing my cousins, J.C. & Cory, but unfortunately didn't get any pictures from that night. This was our first time to meet Cory's wife, Trisha...she was so sweet.

The following are random pictures from our Christmas time...the majority were taken by David. I guess that is what I get for asking him to be in charge of the camera for awhile. :)

Jamie (my brother-in-law)

Norah Kate being tickled by her daddy!

Mama Lynn & Norah Kate - reading a new book

Suzanne with her Christmas PJs...footed PJs

My mom and her sisters on the couch

David watching my cousin, Jonathan play a videogame. Fun.

So, there were better pics of these two, but I thought this was the most entertaining. My sister and Jamie are expecting a baby in May and found out on Christmas that it is going to be a GIRL!

My cousin, Nathana, & her fiance, Zach

Cousins, Rachael & Wesley

I don't know this guy :)

Me (again...David had the camera)

Zach and a little bit of Ross to the left

Jonathan

My Dad

I think the only cousin that didn't get in on the pictures was, Sarah, Ross' wife...I guess she's the only smart one, huh? :) Well we had a great Christmas...it just went too fast. Norah Kate LOVED all the attention, but didn't mind getting back to our quiet house either...I think she missed all the crawling.

Our little dancer

So, I mentioned in my last post that Norah Kate has really gotten into listening to music and dancing. Well, this morning I had to wake her up to get ready for church, so I took my iphone in with me and had the Christmas music playing on Pandora. As I entered the room I found her asleep in her crib. As she heard the music, she opened her eyes, and before even sitting up she started "dancing" with her little body. So funny! She did end up sitting up and dancing...hand motions and all. Ha!

9 month stats

Our little girl has recently turned 9 months old...and has become even more fun (if you can imagine that!) I am really amazed when I look at her. I thank God so many times for giving her to us. Her little personality is just so exciting to see...she is happy and playful; inquisitive and mischievous at times; and calm and peaceful when it needs to be. David and I were talking the other day about how well she does when other people care for her. For example, we are in the process of looking for a new church home since we've moved, and she has been to so many different nurseries...without ANY problems!!! That has made it so much easier on us as well.

Here are some stats on her as of now:

-Crawling everywhere...and very fast, I might add...I don't know that I've seen a baby crawl as fast as her. Sometimes I worry about her falling on her face she goes so fast.

-Pulling up to a stand

-She is nursing just 3 times a day now

-Eating Breakfast, lunch, & dinner

-Loves the puffs and LOVES eating off of our plates. She wants everything we have. :)

-DANCING! Any time she hears music she starts dancing...even if she is nursing which is pretty funny to watch.

-Pointing her little finger...at anyone and everything. She will point to Chula and say "ooh ooh ooh..."

-She is babbling a lot. She is definitely trying to tell us something...what it is, I do not know. But she is enthusiastic about it.

-Sleeping great through the night, but she has starting waking up about 7:15 or 7:30...and if you know me, you know that this is NOT cool!!! :)

-She is obsessed with Chula (the dog).

-weighs 17.3 (25%)

-length 27.5 (between 50-75%)

-head circumference (don't remember, but she's still in the 50%)

We did have a recent "set-back" with her first bacterial infection. She was sick, sick. She started the antibiotic, Amoxicillin, and then the next morning was covered in whelps from head to toe. So...she was quickly switched to Zithromax and had a few doses of Benadryl and we were on our way again! :)

Here are a few of our most recent pictures. I do like them because I feel that they show her personality. Just havin' fun!

She has LOVED listening (& dancing) to the Christmas music, so we have it playing most all the time. We are exciting about her first Christmas coming up...and we hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas!

Christgiving!

Oh - I know, I know...it's been way too long. I can't believe that 2 months ago today we made our move to Jackson. I can't say that it feels like it was just yesterday...because I don't. I feel like it was at LEAST 2 months ago, if not more. We are getting more settled in our home and the town. In November we were able to go to Branson, MO with David's side of the family. While there we celebrated our Christmas and Thanksgiving = Christgiving is what we named it. :) It was so much fun and all the kids are getting to the age where they can play more. Here is a picture of Isabella (3) and Aiden (2) playing on the loft upstairs in the cabin.

Here is another cute one of the two of them at the bottom of the stairs. So sweet!

Norah Kate LOVED playing with her big cousins. As you can tell with this picture, she took everything in...

Such a sweet kiss from her big cousin, Isabella. All the kids (Isabella, Aiden, & Brooks) did really well with Norah Kate. You never know how kids that age will do around a baby, but they were more than wonderful and very gentle with her.

Here is David with Brooks (1) and Aiden. The movie, Cars was definitely the highlight of the week. I can't even tell you how many times it was played. :)

This was Christgiving morning - Norah Kate with her Grammy (David's mom). NK really enjoyed getting to see her grandparents.

And boy did she rack UP on the TOYS!!! Here she is with some of her loot...and her cute scarf!

Such a happy girl with her Daddy!!!

Merry Christgiving everyone!

And then it was on to Thanksgiving...

David's parents visited each of the 3 sons individually while they were in the states, and we were excited that our visit fell on Thanksgiving! We hosted it this year and had a housefull! (is that a word?) Anyway...We had his parents, my parents, my sister & her husband, and David's brother Jonathan & his family. It was so much fun and everyone interacted so well together.

As you can see from both of these pictures, the guys took their traditional places in front of the T.V. Ha Ha! No, they really did help out a lot...Dad even did the dishes! :)

Here is Aiden with Boo. The two of them were really missing their other dog, a pug named Hercules...who had surgery a few days before. Fortunately Hercules was okay and just had to stay at the vet to be observed for a couple of days.

NK with her Auntie Lauren...not that she wanted to look at the camera or anything...but at least she's smiling!

I love this picture! It looks like Aiden is hiding. So funny!

As you can see, we've had lots of fun, and lots of craziness lately (as always). Hopefully it won't be too long before I post again. :)

Birthday & Halloween Celebrations

Happy (Late) Birthday, David!!!

On Wednesday, David turned the big 2-8! :) Unfortunately we really didn't celebrate much. :( I had the flu last weekend...which lingered until Wednesday. We did make his coffee & blueberry muffins on his birthday, and he took the leftovers to work with him. Anyway, Norah Kate & I hope he had a great birthday!

On Thursday night my parents and sister came and we did take David to Outback to celebrate. Here is a little picture of our family below. You can tell we were all worn OUT from the day...um...and that Norah Kate had just finished her carrots. :) Oh well!

Norah Kate did give her Daddy a good birthday present...she started CRAWLING on his birthday! Yay NK!!!

Then it was on to the Halloween festivities. NK really (obviously) did not care one thing about Halloween, but we had fun dressing her up and showing her off to the neighbors. She was Princess Leia (spelling???) and Chula was Yoda. We did go trick-or-treating to a few houses in our cove...but really just to meet our new neighbors and not really for the candy.

Below is a family picture from the night. You can tell David and I are really trying not to laugh. Our friends, Isaac & Sarah, came over that night and took some pics for us, and Isaac was "trying to get NK to smile for the camera." He definitely has his own way of doing that. Ha Ha!!!

Then we tried to get a few pictures of the celebrities...but they didn't really cooperate:

So we finally got this cute one of our little princess.

We are trying to settle in to our new home and new responsibilities here in Jackson. David and I really enjoy the town and the people that we've met. Hope to be able to post more soon! ...our little girl has a 8-month birthday coming up, so stay tuned!