Quick Spring 2012

Justin took Nora to "Take Your Daughter to Work Day" at his office. She mainly helped his assistant Shannon shred papers and seal envelopes. She even got a paper cut! After an hour, she was ready to go home. Whew, being a grown up is hard!

We've been seeing a lot of Grandpa Jeff lately as we've been building our garage. Here's Nora helping grandpa.

And here's where we are in the project. We still need a roof, siding, windows and all that jazz, but it's coming along.

Anna will be 18 months next Friday and is at the stage where she has an insatiable curiosity for everything. Here she is after I found her unrolling a whole thing of scotch tape.

Caught in the act-again! After much silence in the next room, I decided to investigate what my little rascal might be doing. She had gotten a lipstick out of my purse and had drawn all over her face, hands, and shirt. My lipstick is a goner and she got a "Anna, no touch" speech from me. But inside her puppy eyes and cute little pigtails were melting my heart. As much work as it is, I do love this stage!

 

 

(Sorry this video wasn't working originally)

Here's Anna talking up a storm. At least, we can understand her. She will usually at least try to say whatever we ask her to. My favorite is when she says "Mup" for pick me up. Nora similarly said "Muk" so interesting to see the similarities. I love their little words. Nora pretty much says every word right now, so I know this stage passes quickly and I just want to soak it all up.

What We've Been Doing Since November Rewind-November

Sorry I have been very behind in updating the blog. I think now I am all caught up. This and the 2 posts after it should give the summary of what our last 3 months have held.

November, there was not too much going on. We went to Justin's parents for 3 of the weekends for deer hunting, Thanksgiving and Anna's Birthday.

Here's me and Anna with her cake. The little clown candle holder was something Justin's family always used on cakes for the boys birthdays growing up. It's fun to carry it into the next generation.

Justin with Anna who is eating her cake. She was on the medium-low side of the messy cake eating scale, kind of like Nora. I'm hoping for very messy cake eater for one of our kids.

Anna seemed to get the hang of opening her presents. Here she is opening her favorite present-a "diva dog" as we call it from Great-Grandpa. Nora was a big help too.

Now that I think of it, I think this actually happened at the beginning of December. Whenever it was, we had our garage torn down and old driveway filled. We also had a gravel pad put in which is the footprint of our future garage and driveway. We were hoping to get through more of this project in the Fall, but alas that was not to be, so we will resume this project in the Spring. Nora loved watching the excavator do his work through the window on our landing.

What We've Been Doing Since November Rewind-December

Merry Christmas! We took this picture on our stairs right before we gave the girls their surprise sisters present-a play kitchen! Then we headed to the first Christmas Eve at our church.

Then, we changed the girls into their pj's and headed home to Justin's parents. Above is Anna opening presents on Christmas morning. She has gotten so good at opening her own presents, here she is trying to open Grandma Sue's.

Nora got a dance leotard for Christmas for the new Tippy Toes dance class she started in January. Here she is doing a "Pre-formance" for us, as she calls it.

After Christmas, we went down to Milwaukee to visit my Grandma Kay and brother Sam. It was a fun time and we got to eat at Kopp's-a custard/burger joint we used to eat at a lot growing up.

What We've Been Doing Since November Rewind-January

Sorry we've been MIA in the blog world since November. Here's what we've been up to since then.

Playing with all the toys the girls got for Christmas. Nora having a tea party with her friend, Mia, from across the street.

After an unusually warm winter, it's back to winter as normal. Last week, I went on a walk with the girls on a 50 degree day. No snow was on the ground and the girls were wearing light jackets. The next week, we got several inches of snow and the weather turned cold-tomorrow is supposed to be a high of 4 degrees. Here Nora is making a snow angel and "helping" me shovel.

Nora and Anna watching Justin snow blow the sidewalks.

Anna just being the goofy girl she is. Perching her sippy on her shoulder.

Happy 1st Birthday Anna! (tomorrow)

Thank you God for giving us this...

smiley,

thrill-seeking,

curious,

tag-along,

sometimes serious,

clothes loving,

friendly...hmmm....

There we go. friendly,

precious,

Little daughter and sister!

It has been such a delight to raise our little Annie for the past year. She has added so much adventure and sweetness to our lives and we can't wait to see her personality blossom as she grows. Personally, I love the age/stage she is coming into. Already since the last time I posted a week ago, she started saying da-da (for daddy or doggie) and ma-ma, pointing to objects, signing "All-done" and "More" and is walking more sure footedly. Amazing!

Fall 2011

Hey everyone. Just thought we'd update about what we've been up to lately.

In early September, we took the train to visit my parents in Montana. It was a very fun trip. Here's Justin and the girls inside our little fort we made in our train car.

Just an average day around the house. The girls "helping" me with the laundry.

Making apple pie, yum. Smells like fall! And now, some videos of Anna...

Anna taking a few steps and also saying "Be-be" (baby). This is her only word & she says it a lot.

Anna shaking her head yes and no. She does this cute lip smacking kiss which we couldn't get her to do for the camera.

Anna growling with Justin and Nora. She does this a lot.

I can't believe she's going to turn 1 years old next Saturday already. This last year has flown by.

Birthday Girl (Belated) and other summer fun

Here's our little 3 year old on her birthday. Her friend Sophie invited her over for a dress up tea party on her special day. We had a party this past Saturday with family to celebrate too!

Nora has been having fun with all her new birthday presents. Here she is painting on her new easle. We are still remodeling our sunroom, but it is progressing slowly but surely and we are enjoying it on these more mild summer days.

On hotter summer days we've been going to the local pool. In fact, we haven't even gotten a kiddie pool for our house yet, so we've been filling up tubs of water and turning the sprinkler on. The girls love it-they don't know what they're missing!

It's been fun watching the girls start to interact more. Sometimes they play really well together, with Anna talking baby talk, smiling, and laughing back at Nora. And sometimes Anna is the unwilling victim of Nora's games. Here Anna is Nora's wiggly patient. Anna loves to suck on Nora's doctor tools while Nora gives her a check-up.

In late July, we went on a little mini-vacation. We stayed at the house next to Justin's grandpa's house on his lake with Justin's cousin's family. We spent hours down by the lake swimming and also, Justin taught Nora how to fish. Wait, is that...yes that is Grandpa Jeff fishing with a Tinkerbelle pole.

Justin and Anna swimming.

Nora was outnumbered with boy cousins her age, Benjamin and Ethan, so she joined right in to their muddy building and water fight activities.

Here's Anna and her little cousin, Juliet, playing at the children's museum.

Uncle Jon not letting Nora off the dock until she said the password. She thought that was so funny!

And as promised, here is our bathroom remodel reveal.