Thursday, December 28, 2006

Christmas...not over yet!

Well, we are home for about 18 hours before we start traveling again! Just enough time to do 4 loads of laundry, unpack and repack, get Nora her 2nd dose of the flu shot (apparently when you are a baby they give it to you in two doses...not inconvenient or anything), go by the bank, and post on blogger.

The first part of our Christmas vacation is over. We spent the first few days with Matthew's family in Oklahoma. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were not exactly what I imagined Nora's first Christmas would be like. She was sick both days...throwing up and running a fever of 101. It was sad and she was pitiful! I felt so bad for her and wished I could take the sickness from her. Because she was so sick, I did not even think about taking pictures those two days. I did get a few cute ones of her before the bug hit her though. I'm glad to say she has been fever free for 12 hours!


Our plans were altered a bit when a dear friend passed away on Christmas Eve. Marilyn Fowler died after fighting a battle with leukemia. The cancer is not what caused her death, but complications afterwards. She was a loved woman in the town of Searcy. She was the innkeeper for Heritage Inn at Harding. The loss was especially difficult for Matthew because he lived with the Fowler's for 3 years. Mrs. Fowler was, in a lot of ways, like a 2nd mother to him. Proverbs 31 was read at her memorial service and it was completely fitting. Matthew told me that he could not imagine a more fitting eulogy for her. In everything she did, she did it for the Lord and she is now rejoicing in her reward. Please pray for the Fowler family as they adjust to life without Mrs. Fowler. Her husband, Al, has been with her for over 40 years (they were married for 40). Her daughter, Alicia, was her best friend. They talked everyday and are so much alike. Mr. Fowler and Alicia were in the room when she passed away. She also has a son, Ryan, he is Matthew's age. Please pray for all three of them (and Alicia's husband and her two children). We were blessed that she was able to come and see Nora right after she was born. That will always be a precious memory for us.
When Mrs. Fowler passed away, we immediately changed our plans. We were supposed to leave for Texas yesterday to see my family. But, we are now leaving tomorrow and coming back on Monday. We ended up leaving Matthew's mom's house early Christmas day and traveling to Searcy to be there for the visitation and funeral. We were able to see his grandparents though...that was a treat. Grandma crocheted Nora an adorable hat. I am going to have to go buy an outfit to go with it...the girl only has pink in her closet. (You can tell by the dark circles and puffy eyes that she is getting over her sickness.)So, I'm off to bed to rest up for part two of our Christmas celebration. We are going to be missing our New Year's festivities here in Arkansas, but I think we have decided that a quiet evening at my mom's house is just what we need. So, until 2007, Happy New Year!

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Merry Christmas!!!!


I probably won't be posting again for quite a while. We are going to be crazy travelers for the next two weeks. I'm sure I'll have a ton of pictures to post when we return. Merry Christmas everyone!

Monday, December 18, 2006

Guess Who's Crawling!

Yep! Last night, Nora decided to start crawling FORWARDS. She has been crawling backwards for about 3 weeks now, not really getting to her destination, but last night she figured out the forward motion. I started crying today when she was crawling-do you think I'm going to be a basketcase when she starts school? Here is a quick video of her doing her new trick. (By the way...if you have your volume on you'll hear a machine gun firing in the background...it's just my embroidery machine. No need to be alarmed, we don't have fire arms in the house.)



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Thursday, December 14, 2006

Losing a person

I don't know if any of you watched "The Biggest Loser". I don't usually watch it, but the hype about it on the Today show yesterday was enough for me to DVR it last night. They kept on and on about how people would not believe the weight loss that had occurred. So, last night after we got home from church, bathed Nora and put her to bed, Matthew and I plopped down on the couch to watch the amazing weight loss...and it was AMAZING!

Since I am not a regular of the show, I do not know exactly how much time passed from the beginning to the end, I think 11 or 12 months. But the winner of the 250,000 dollars lost 214 pounds (52.58% of his total body weight)!!!!!!! That's right, he lost a person! I was sitting there speechless! He did not even look like the same guy. Check out the before and after photos:


Friday, December 08, 2006

"Dear Santa"...to all moms

My good friend, Lyndsay Magar, forwarded this to me and I wanted to share it with all you moms out there:

Dear Santa,

I've been a good mom all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my children on demand, visited their doctor's office more than my doctor, sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shadetree on the school playground.

I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find anymore free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:

I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any color, except purple, which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze; but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store.

I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy.

If you're hauling big ticket items this year I'd like fingerprint resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music; a television that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals; and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, "Yes, Mommy" to boost my parental confidence, along with two kids who don't fight and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools.

I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting "Don't eat in the living room" and "Take your hands off your brother," because my voice seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.

If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container.

If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely. It would be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is ringing and my son saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back. Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in and dry off so you don't catch cold.

Help yourself to cookies on the table but don't eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet.

Yours Always, MOM...!

P.S. One more thing...you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my children young enough to believe in Santa.

*Santa has asked that this gets passed on to all the mommies you know

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Santa Baby

I know I posted a ridiculously long post yesterday, but I wanted to share Nora's first visit to Santa. She started crying as soon as she saw the jolly man and buried her head in Matthew's chest. Some parents would have taken that as a sign to bail immediately...not me, I plopped her down on his lap and told the elf to capture the moment. I think it is definitely a memory keeper!

Nora and Santa

Friday, December 01, 2006

All About Nora (and our snow day!)

It has been quite a while since I last posted about our little girl. So, for those of you especially interested in her...read on...

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving. We traveled to Fort Worth, Texas (where my family lives). We ate a ton (I felt like I gained about 25 pounds...good thing I'm not pregnant, that "weigh-in" would have been traumatic and I'm sure my doctor would have scolded me. He's one of those doctor's who runs 6 miles a day, even if he has just had a leg amputated and malaria.) and enjoyed family time. Nora was able to "hang out" with her cousin, Bailey (he is 6 months old).

On Thanksgiving Day, Nora turned 9 months old! I cannot believe how quickly time is flying. She seems to be changing every day. Here is a little list of what is going on with her right now:

  • She has two teeth (on the bottom) and constantly chews on everything that she can reach

  • Her hair is coming back in, sandy blonde. She has some very long strands that I refuse to cut...they are part of the "original" hair.

  • She is still is 3-6 months clothing, but they are starting to get a little short, but fit great in the waist. 6-9 month clothing swallows her...it's pretty funny

  • At her well-baby check-up on Monday, she weighed 15 lbs. 13.2 oz. (6th percentile) and was 27 in. long (12th percentile). She is tiny, but proportionate.

  • She loves to laugh! Matthew can make her laugh so hard. It is so neat to watch them together!

  • It's amazing how far she can reach. It's like she has Inspector Gadget arms (Go, go Gadget arms!). When she is sitting down, she is very determined about reaching out to things and getting them. Usually she won't give up until she has tried everything. Because of that, she has a little red spot right above her lip that occurred because of diving onto her face in her quest.

  • She is just about ready to crawl (at least that's what we tell ourselves). She can get up on all fours and rock, now she just has to figure out how to move her arms and legs.


  • She is starting to hate her carseat. When I put her in it, she has started arching her back. GREAT! Oh well, just a few more years of this...right?

  • She sleeps about 11 to 12 hours at night! (Except for last night when she was up about every hour...she has a little cold and can hardly breathe when she lays down...it wasn't much fun for mommy and daddy. We actually tried to put her in bed with us at one point, from sheer exhaustion, and she thought it was party time. It lasted about 2 seconds and she was back to her own bed!)

  • She loves ALL food! She is a really good eater (you would think she would weigh more!). She especially loves bananas. Here is a picture of her eating a banana at my mom's. We don't usually give her the entire banana, just little pieces, but this was a cute picture.

  • She loves books! We read the same two books to her every night (Goodnight Moon and The Going to Bed Book) and she is so still and quiet for those. During the day I will take her into her room and sit in the chair and read several books to her and she seems to be paying attention.

  • She "talks" all the time! Her favorites are "mama", "baba", "dada", and humming.

We think she is pretty great! (Sorry for the long list of accolades!). The rest of the pictures are some of the things we did during Thanksgiving (made a gingerbread house, went to a play) and pictures of our snow day today! Matthew didn't have to go to school and we went out and "played" in the snow. Happy 1st day of December!




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