Nora's 3rd Birthday (Sunday, At Our Home)

Sunday: Mermaid-themed birthday party with family at our home for dinner

Waking up in the morning to "the Island of Sodor" - a used train table I found on Craigslist for a STEAL.

Riding on her "new" scooter (also a good used deal - I swear, we did get her some new toys too!)

Opening one of her trains.

Playing on the Island of Sodor - where every engine's special job was to "collect the dirty washing" and Percy "chuffed past the boobies in the water". :)

Happy girl!

A little bit of playtime outside to ride her new scooter.

Later, it was family dinner time. Of course Nora's new cousin got a lot of attention as well! Here's all three of my mom's grandkids.

Look how proud she is to hold her new cousin! I love it!

Mimi and all the kids.

"Happy Birthday to ME!"

Present time!

She loved her pillow pet from Grandma Pat.

Legooooooooos!

Nora had a wonderful birthday! Thanks to all our loving family for a spectacular time!

Until next time . . .

Nora's 3rd Birthday (Saturday, YMCA Gymnastics Party)

Saturday: Rainbow-themed Gymnastics Party at the local YMCA with all her friends

Trampoline fun.

Daddy and Nora having fun in the foam pit.

Little monkey!

Some of her friends that came.

Getting her gold medal.

Nora's rainbow cake, made by me.

Cheese!

Daddy helping to open presents.

Going home so happy! (with her new Gordon in her lap.)

Thanks to all who came and helped us celebrate. We all sure enjoyed ourselves!!

Until next time . . .

30 Week Update - "The Baby Files"

How far along? 30 weeks. They changed my due date so I am a little earlier with the update if you noticed!

Maternity clothes?Yes, and even they are doing their best just to cover me up. :)

The belly progress: STICKING OUT some more! :) I am growing out instead of around this time:

Sleep: I sleep OK. It's harder for me than it was. If I am laying down for an hour or more I am VERY sore when I wake up. My left hip is giving me a lot of trouble when I wake up - it pops in and out a lot.

Cravings: I ate less junk while out this past month, however I ate worse while at home. This pin I have on my Pinterest page is SOOOOO good and I have made it so many times that I have it memorized now.

Best moment this month: My due date got moved up and they scheduled my ultrasound! :) I was shocked when they moved my date up because it's NEVER happened to me before. I am scheduled for October 29th, BUT I am measuring a week ahead of that, so don't mark down the baby's birthday just yet!

Movement: I am consistently shocked at how STRONG this child is. I don't remember Nora being like this in utero. This child likes to hit or kick me in the hips a lot! It feels like I have an octopus in here.

Gender: More people are starting to guess "girl". I still have no idea (and I would likely be wrong anyway!) I still maintain that this pregnancy is WAY different than before. It's like night and day. Whether or not that has any indication of gender, time will only tell. The heart rate at my last appointment was 141 - still not indicative of any particular gender if you believe in that sort of thing. ;)

Labor Signs: Ninguno, gracias a Dios!

What I miss: I am starting to get itchy to work out and get myself back into shape. I wanted to run the other day.

Weekly Wisdom: I have very few days left with my oldest daughter ONLY. That makes me really sad and SUPER excited all at the same time. I'm ready to have another child to care for, but I'm soaking up my Noranator as much as possible too.

What Stereotype I Embody: SERIOUSLY-CAN'T-STOP-CRYING

What I Bought This Week: Ooooooh, guilty. I bought some fabric for the nursery, but I didn't buy anything we really need. Like a diaper pail. Or cradle sheets. I have GOT to get on that soon . . . OH! - But I DID buy a bottle warmer. :)

What I Checked off my To-Do List: I have been working on the Summer Bucket List, not the baby list. I still have 69 more days so STOPNAGGINGMEITWILLALLGETDONE!! :)

What, no ultrasound photo??!!: Nope, I think I am done with those! No photo from this point on means a healthy baby, so even though I could watch him or her ALL DAY LONG, I am happy not to have one. :)

Until next time . . .

Nora's First Day of School

I cannot believe I just typed that as the title for this blog. Surely my baby didn't just start preschool today??!! It's true what they say: time really does fly by too fast.

Nora was in a great mood upon waking up - which I had been praying for - and we got ready and out the door on time. One of my babysitting kids (-L-, Nora's self-proclaimed "best friend") came with us to drop Nora off for her first day as a - gulp! - Preschooler.

I know it looks like she was all smiles, but she was actually very serious about getting in there to play. She got her stick from her teacher and put it in her name pocket, then she was given permission to "go play!" A few quick hugs for mommy and -L- (in which her eyes were NOT on us, but already on the toys), and that was it. Drop-off complete. :)

Cory and I are so proud of her. :) She did so well that I really felt no need to cry about it. Why weep over such a great success in her young life? Of course, it does feel like a little piece of my heart is torn this morning as I get ready to clean the empty house. But I am praying that she has a good day and that she is all smiles when I pick her up later. :)

UPDATE (after pick up):
Nora's assessment of her first day (direct quotes): Ms. -N- gave me a popsicle, I didn't take toys from friends but I knocked a friend's block tower down, we sat criss-cross applesauce, for snack we had graham crackers and milk but there was no more milk, I played on the playground on the slide, we didn't talk about anything, I don't know my friends names, and it's not SCHOOL it's PRESCHOOL. :) Her teacher said she had a good day, and told her "Ms. -N-, I'm really tired.". She looks happy to me! :)

Until next time . . .

New Wall Decor

I decided that before the baby comes that my walls could use an update. I have been so busy rearranging everything in this house to fit another child and more recently I have been working to fill the downstairs room in a somewhat organized fashion since Kelsey moved onto campus. Nothing is organized quite the way it should be yet, but I am working on it. Nora going to preschool two mornings per week should help me get this house back into shape - at least, I hope! In the meantime, here are my two latest projects:

School Drop Zone
This is something I just started last weekend, and it's not quite done yet. I needed a place for my kid and babysitting kids to "drop" their school stuff off at. For my child (and future child) this will be our mudroom, so I went ahead and just set all the kids up in there. Like I said, it's not done, but it IS coming along:

So far I love it because it's VERY functional and helps all the kids that come through this house to have an "I-can-do-it" attitude. Plus, up until now, the kids didn't always know where their stuff was. Now that we have a spot for it all, that is not a problem!

I still need to get Cory to touch up the paint above on the wall and figure out what else we need there. I may buy one more set of hooks because Nora has about 352 jackets - and none of those are a current winter coat. And what if we have another girl??!! Yeesh. I am also thinking of adding either art or an art display board above this arrangement because the wall looks so bare. Time will tell what we need, I'm sure!

New Photo Wall Arrangement
I have had a photo bar up in my living room for years and years. This wall has looked a hundred different ways in that time - it never gets old!

From this:

To this:

To this:

To this:

And this at Christmas:

And this at Christmas!:

And that's just what I have taken photos of - I am pretty sure there are a few ways that I have had it that I didn't photograph.

Anyway, it needed a change. Plus, I am getting ready for new newborn photos, family photos, and nephew photos too! This is what it is looking like at the moment:

I plan on taking off the chalkboard to use for smaller pictures and adding some horizontal frames to the shelf as well for MORE photos. I will change out my "maternity shots" to newborn photos as well. I like this design the best so far. :)

Until next time . . .

Summer Bucket List Post Thirteen - Museum of Transportation

Go To the Museum of Transportation - CHECK!

We had one (super-duper) nice Saturday left before Nora was slated to start preschool. ONE. So I totally freaked out and decided that I would take her on the ONE "long" journey we had left on the Bucket List - a trip to the Museum of Transportation.

Lately Nora is a little obsessed with Thomas the Train. For her birthday she is getting the two things she asked for: "more of Thomas' Friends" (specifically James and Percy), and "the Island of Sodor" - in the form of this underbed train table that I got very new-looking for a STEAL of a deal on Craigslist. So a trip to a place where she could ride on and climb through trains sounded like lots of fun - as long as it wasn't 100 degrees! :) The day we set out it was 78 - perfect! - and I started off by giving Nora a special pink train shirt to wear on her outing.

While there, we rode the small train, rode a tram, climbed through boxcars and locomotives, and rode a trolley before having lunch and heading home. Nora's favorite train was probably the "Big Boy" locomotive - it had lots of knobs and dials to twist and turn. That place seriously wore us both OUT! Nora fell asleep in the car (a rarity nowadays) and I took a long nap when I got home as well. It was a fun trip!

NOTE: If you head to this place, GO ON A WEEKDAY where it's not hot. The "Creation Station" is mostly only open on the weekdays, and it would be a pretty miserable trip in the heat. When we go back, this is what we are doing!

Here are the photos from our trip:

Nora riding on the small train.

Big locomotive.

Nora playing on the trains.

A firetruck for daddy!

An updated Bucket List . . .
1. Go to the museum of transportation
2. Build a swing set
3. Go to the pool at least ten times
4. Go to a baseball game
5. Go to a festival and ride rides
6. Go to the farmer’s market
7. Go to the library
8. Go to an outdoor movie (Hopefully this gets done soon)
9. Nora/Daddy Date to the zoo
10. PB and J Festival
11. Nora/Mommy Date to Splash City
12. Celebrate Dad’s 30th Birthday
13. Celebrate Nora’s 3rd Birthday (Next weekend!)
14. Meet Nora’s new cousin
15. See fireworks
16. Have a yard sale
17. Get new porches (Only one will probably get done this year, and we are working on it!)
18. Drink a fun fruity or coffee drink
19. Go get Snow-cones or Tropical Sno
20. Have a movie day with a fort and pillows in the living room
21. Pick out a baby crib
22. Slip-n-slide
23. Visit all the grandparents (One down, three to go!)
24. KBK
25. Pick Nora’s preschool
26. Go to TWIST
27. Do something messy with three or more kids
28. Go to the beach at least five times
29. Go meet daddy for lunch
30. Go up in the arch

Until next time . . .

Visiting with Benny

My newest nephew is almost a week old now, and initially Nora could not come to visit him because she had just gotten hand, foot, and mouth. So the first time we saw him at the hospital it was just Cory and I. That day I was SUPER cautious because I was so worried about passing this illness on to him - I didn't even hold him, which was so hard for me!

I mean, just look at how cute he is!

Today is a full week after the onset of Nora's hand, foot, and mouth, and the day that the doctor said we could visit and he would likely be safe. So we headed on up for some Benny-time:

Cousins!

Happy I got to hold him finally. :)

Until next time . . .

Summer Bucket List Post Twelve - Meet Daddy for Lunch

Meet Daddy for Lunch - CHECK!

Wow. My husband has been working at Boeing for about 8 years. That makes me more than a little ashamed to say that up until this week I had never been there . . . not that I could go in anyway (but - still!)

This week I took Nora up to Boeing to the "Prologue Room" so that she could get a feel for the kind of work her daddy does. The Prologue Room is just that - a big room with models of all the Boeing aircraft and space craft inside. It's not a big trip, so we decided to see if Cory could come have lunch with us as well while we were there.

Nora did a great job in the Room. She loved walking around and looking at all the different airplanes. Her favorite was probably the 787 - because it was "the prettiest blue airplane" she has ever seen. :) I told her about the different planes that daddy has worked on, and we climbed up the stairs to see inside a model space craft.

The room took us about 30-45 minutes to tour. Here are the photos we took:

Arrival.

Checking out the rocket . . .

Posing with the large and small scale models of daddy's aircraft.

Not ready to let daddy go back to work after lunch.

Until next time . . .