Jack's letter

My little brother joined the Air National Guard last year and he is now at basic training, he'll be home in just under 3 weeks. So last night for Family Home Evening we made valentine's to send to him. Jack's letter was hilarious to use, so I thought I'd share. Andy wrote it exactly like Jack said -

"Dear Keenan, 

I hope you have a great day. I hope you have a great Valentine's. Bless that you won't wake up early. Bless that you doesn't cut yourself. Bless that you have checkers. Bless that you doesn't get hurt."

Obviously his grammar needs some work, but I also love that he switched to prayer format half way through. 

Thanks, Google.

Even Google wished me a happy birthday. Awesome. :-)

just chillin'

This is how she rolls...not sure why we got her toys for Christmas and her Birthday!

 She was sitting under the desk staring at me while I was using the computer the other day, she just looks so funny...and shamed...we don't even punish her!

The Party!

Baby Nora had her 1st birthday on December 30th.  Though preparation was largely delayed due to that silly little thing called Christmas a few days before, Kizzie put together a nice little party for the family that was able to attend.

It should be no surprise that Nora was not interested in keeping the hat on that Mommy made for her (despite it being very cute)... same with her clothes, evidently.

 

As with most things around Christmas time, Nora was pretty confused by having her own special little cake shoved in her face....

 

And having more presents to open...

Even when cake time came, she was reluctant...

 

  

  

But eventually dug in with a ferocity we've come to know and expect from her!

She really enjoyed her new toys, once she figured out what was going on!

Happy Birthday Nora Girl!

One Year?!

This girl turned 1 a few days after Christmas.

She is our sweet, adorable, smiley, cuddly, stubborn, tiny, perfect, happy girl. She makes us all laugh every day. 

She wants to be a big girl (sometimes!) and run around yelling and playing with the boys, she visibly perks up when they are within earshot and will squeal with delight when she sees them, even if it's only been a few minutes. She loves her brothers and they love her, they are so sweet and dote on her. I love watching them interact. 

She is indulging mommy by staying "babyish" as long as she can by not walking. She actually refuses to try, but I know once she starts she'll just take off. So we indulge her as well and don't make her try :) Did I mention she's spoiled?

She loves to make mischief and then look to see who's watching, and most of the time someone is...we can't help but sit and watch her learn and grow and be adorable all the time. 

Some of her recent favorite things are - 

Getting into the trash

 Making a mess of the kitchen

 Helping with the dishes

 eating treats!

Playing peek-a-boo!

 AND - being adorable! (maybe that's our favorite..!)

We love our girl, and she definitely knows it : )

 

Mischief maker

I knew she was being too quiet : )

Christmas morning

Avery came out to use the bathroom on Christmas morning and as he was going back into his room Andy told him they could go out and get their stockings. Avery was surprised and excited, he said "Oh! I was just coming out to use the bathroom!" Our boys haven't caught on to the excitement of tearing into stockings early in the morning yet. :)

We had a very successful Christmas morning. The boys were excited about everything. Nora...was excited by a few things. She wasn't interested in tearing wrapping paper. At all. She wouldn't even try, probably because she's spoiled and when she doesn't want to do something for herself she knows someone else will. (it's still cute at 1 year...we'll work on stopping that before it becomes NOT cute!)

She did light up when she unwrapped a baby doll, and she liked some of the boys toys. She also got a shaking cow ball/toy that she likes to giggle at, if only it would shake for longer than 10 seconds...or if she would figure out how to turn it on herself!

  

The boys got some new costumes, Jack got some Toy Story toys he's been hinting that he wanted (by "hinting" I mean telling us all year. Thank you ebay and kids not caring if they're used or not!), they got a new  video game to play together and some other little books and toys. 

Andy spoiled me as usual. He got me a laminator (yay!) and made me a book. He compiled all the letters we have written to each other from his mission to anniversary and valentine cards and bound them for me. He made different sections with clever descriptions. We've loved laughing at the letters we wrote to each other, so fun!

Andy got some new fun socks, a digital picture frame for his office, and some various star wars toys and a movie he wanted. 

After our morning of presents we headed over to Andy's parents for a big Christmas breakfast. And more presents : )

By the end of the day we were exhausted. And happy. It was a good Christmas. My favorite present? Andy taking almost 2 whole weeks off work! It was amazing. And now I'm thinking of convincing him to take a nice summer vacation too, even if we just stay home!

Christmas Eve!

Ugh. I'm so far behind on the blog.

Christmas was great this year! We had Christmas Eve with my family at our house again, lots of food {too much!}, visiting, presents, singing. It was fun. Crazy that our group is small enough to comfortable gather at my "small" house for family things. I guess the people count wasn't that small, we still had 27 of us.

 

 

 

 

 

Josiah and I did our fun gift exchange after all the kids had opened their gifts.
I turned a picture of Josiah from Christmas a couple years ago into a vinyl decal and put it on a toilet seat (Andy's new favorite gag gift!), I also glass etched it onto a couple of heavy duty steins. His last gift was a framed picture of the kids feet wearing floppy socks (Josiah hates floppy socks!).

 He gave me the beginning of my "cat/stuffed animal lady" collection. Andy, please never leave me.
I have some lovely cat themed jammies, a clock and several dolls (some creepy!) waiting to be placed on a shelf and stare down at small children...ew.