Three Months Old

Busy and Fun-filled Weekend

This weekend Joe's sister and her family came up from Maryland for Norah's baby blessing. It was fun to spend time with them. Their kids are getting big and are so smart and cute! Friday night our ward had a ward Christmas where Joe, Norah and I played Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus. Sunday morning Norah was blessed. After Church we had some friends over for lunch. Later that night we visited my brother Bryan. It was so good to see him seeing that it had been almost a year since I last saw him. I am so blessed and so grateful for such a great family!
Andrew and Joe (I especially love Andrew's seductive look):
Viv and Norah:
Andrew and I:
Mona and Hailey made friends with these twins, Grace and Abby, in our Ward. They were so cute dancing around, following each other, and pretending to be Rudolph:
Norah's first Santa experience:
Here we are, four generations! Definitely not the best picture of us all but it will do:
Norah with her Maryland cousins:
Norah likes her hands:
Andrew and Norah enjoying the monkey gym. Andrew was so gentle with her, it was cute!:
All of us saying goodbye! See you in a couple of weeks!:

Big Girl!

At Norah's two-month check up about two weeks ago she weighed 12 pounds and was 23.5 inches long. She is growing so fast! She is all smiles now and it's getting really fun. When she smiles at you she'll bat her eyelashes and sometimes nuzzle her head in my shoulder like she's shy. It's pretty cute! One thing is true about parenting; just when you think you understand the babe, it all changes!! Norah was sleeping so well. Then we stayed out late with her two nights in a row and ever since has been throwing us for a loop (whatever that means). She's been waking up almost 5 times a night these days. I'm ready for a good night's rest but I refuse to let her "cry-it-out." I never thought I'd be such a wuss but I just can't do it. It just breaks my heart to see her scream and get so upset. SOo today we took out the book "The No-Cry Sleep Solution" from the library. I'll let you know how it goes! Wish us luck.

Happy Thanksgiving

HOORAY!!!

Joe was offered a job at Liberty Mutual yesterday and will be "officially" accepting it on Tuesday. Hooray! We are so very grateful and excited. The four long months, a ton of hard work, a lot of patience and prayers have finally paid off. Love you babe! So if anyone is looking for some sweet insurance, Joe's your man.

Help!

What started out cute has turned lethal. Ok, not lethal, but it's a problem. Norah is addicted to sucking on biceps. She refuses (and when I say refuses I mean all out gags and sometimes throws up when we put it in her mouth) to take a binkie. We have tried four different kinds of binkies of various sizes, shapes and textures. When offered the bicep, however, she will immediately latch on and fall asleep within probably two minutes. It's our fault for letting her do it in the first place but we never thought it would get this far. When she's tired she pretty much will scream until she gets to suck on it! And really, it wouldn't be so bad if the hickies up and down our arms didn't make it look like Joe and I are shooting up drugs or beating each other. I had to convince people in the Doctor's office on Monday that it was infact my seven week old daughter who inflicted these hideous wounds. So, I'm looking for some advice from all you mommy's out there. Is there anything out there that she might enjoy sucking on? Anything remotely flesh like? Any binkie tips? Help!

Cute

Even when she's upset. OK I know I said one per week, but maybe this can be last weeks? Oh forget it, I just can't get enough of this little girl.

Halloween

Halloween was uneventful this year. No parties, no games, and no costumes. We were lame-o parents and didn't even dress Norah up. But we will probably be buying next year's costume on clearance sometime soon. This may be hard to believe but we didn't get ONE trick-or-treater! So basically, it didn't feel like Halloween at all. We're looking forward to a more festive one next year. Next year little Norah will be running around with her new best friend, Mia:
Our neighbors Jamie and Aviv have a very cute little girl. She is so precious! We are all hoping she and Norah will hit it off. Jamie and Aviv are a really fun couple and we've enjoyed spending time with them.

To avoid the risk of overwhelming you all with pictures of Norah, I think I'll post one favorite per week. Here's this week's favorite:
And lastly, Joe's brother Aaron and his son Zach were on TV this past week demonstrating how to make "gnarly witchy fingers." I'm posting it so you can save this cool recipe but more so because I think Zach's face is classic when he realizes the camera is on him. Check it out!

Drama Queen

Just kidding. But really, these three pictures were all taken within the same MINUTE:



Check out this serious face:OK, one more picture just because she's cute

Smiles

Norah is starting to smile and it's really fun. This picture is the closest thing to a smile I could capture. She is a chunker!! She had her one month check up yesterday and weighs in at a whopping 10 pounds! That's a pound a week. Luckily, she is starting to space out her feedings a little more. She is even starting to sleep longer at night which is a relief. Last night she lengthened her three hour stretches to five hours AND I didn't have to rock her back to sleep once. She just wakes up, eats, and burps all without even opening her eyes. Though it may look like she is completely bald, she is growing white peach fuzz on the top of her head. Her eyes are starting to lighten up in the middle. It's so fun to watch her change but a little sad that she is growing so fast!

It's been so nice to have family close. Occasionally on Friday nights we will go on dates with my parents. These last couple of pictures are from last Friday. Norah is getting to know her grandparents and we're not sure what she thinks about Chris yet.

One Month Old

All snuggled up in her sherbet blankie I made her:

This is a great shot of Norah's little "bum" chin. She got that from her dad!:

A little big, but so cozy!:

Burping:

Probably trying to figure out what the heck I'm talking about:

Here is Norah sucking on Joe's arm while holding her binkie. The only time she'll take a bink is when she's in her car seat, otherwise she just gags on it. Joe has about four hickies on his bicep and he loves it:

I can't believe it's been a month! Norah is growing fast and is so pretty. I could just kiss her all day long! She is finally starting to fill out the newborn clothes we have for her and can sometimes even pull off the 0-3 months size. She has even filled out the rolls in her thighs, so cute! She is starting to realize that there are fun things to look at and recently made a friend (her stuffed penguin which she loves). I really can't complain because she loves to sleep (she gets that from me) and has been sleeping so well at night and for naps.

We've Gone Old School

So if you have some free time on your hands (or don't) you should check out yearbookyourself.com for some good laughs. You upload a picture of yourself and the website places it within faces of various timeframes. Here are some of our favorites: