Big trip to Hawaii in April to watch Aunt Kelsey get married. What a journey. Seriously. The kids were so good on the plane, we made it and had an awesome time. Hawaii is paradise to Brian and I. We stayed on Oahu, went swimming in the pools and ocean, visited botanical gardens, drank mai tais, visited the North Shore and Waikiki. So grateful that Norah was able to get the salt spray on her face from the ocean. Our goal is to come back to Hawaii when our kids are older (high school/middle school) age, rent a beach house for 2 weeks, and enjoy life.
Norah turns one year old! What a milestone, we had a nice family/friends party at our house in Ankeny. Grilled some of Norah's favorite foods and had an Elmo cake. I'm not one for tutus, but I did put her in one for her party. This summer she started to get into playing in the pool but mommy was always nervous! The sand and water table was also a big hit. This is by far the best time of the year to have children and makes me wish I was a teacher.
Norah and Will...these two have really discovered each other. This summer, Rachael Jack and Will came down several times to play. I remember sitting in the backyard and watching them chase each other back and forth. Will is so loving to Norah, always watching out for her, reassuring her, giving her things to play with, talking to her in his own words. Norah looks to Will for guidance, she watches him to see how to do things, prefers to take the reins and boss him around a bit, and likes to read books on my lap with Will. He will be a great big brother to his little sister, Blair in February 2012.
We took our first overnight trip without Norah over Labor Day. It was hard! But we don't ever get out on our own much. Grandma Edgar was brave enough to come to Ankeny and spend time with Norah while Brian and I went to Colorado to visit my sister Kelsey and brother-in-law Jake. We had a great time; saw a few concerts and did some alpine camping/hiking. Brian and I both feel like Colorado owns our hearts and souls, someday we will make the move home.
Fall brought apple orchards, leaves, Halloween and Thanksgiving! Norah's favorite thing is to take walks outside. She likes to point out things on the pavement, name them, pick them up and hand them to me as presents. According to her "apples" are everywhere - choke cherries from our tree, tomatoes from our garden, seeds from the Hackberry tree. She enjoyed gathering her "apples" and putting them into her pail. Thanksgiving this year was so mild that we actually had the windows open during dinner! Never in my life have we experienced that. Norah and Will had a great time playing ring around the rosie in Gram's kitchen.
I can't believe Christmas is here. Norah is beginning to develop an attention span so we have been doing crafts on the weekends. We even made it through an hour and ten minutes of Toy Story 3 last weekend! Brian and I billed it as "movie night" and made a fire (which Norah isn't so sure of). Her favorite time is wrestling after dinner during the week. Brian and I lay on the floor and let her tickle and flop on us. It a great way for us to wind down too after busy work days.
I promise to update more often now. I got an iPhone 4S a month ago, there's an app for blogging :)
Merry Christmas, cheers!
