Norah is 22 Months!

Norah turned 22 months old on December 5th!  I can't believe in two short months we will have a two-year-old!!  Crazy!!  Miss Norah's last eye tooth, the one on the left, came through this past month!!  We are officially done with teething!! (Until two-year molars, but hopefully that will be a little bit!) :)  Norah is still in the helping mode.  She needs to be helping with everything, which has it's good and bad. :)  Anytime I open the dishwasher, I can expect her to come running to help.  She has also now started to go get the footstool out of the bathroom and bring it with her because I won't let her stand IN the dishwasher to get the things out of the top rack. :)  Norah is now in full "I DO DO IT!!" mode.  Whether it's getting in her seat for a meal, climbing in her car seat in the van, buckling herself in to her carseat or chair, or anything else that she thinks she needs to do, Norah must do it BY HERSELF.  She will then throw a fit if you try and help her in any sort of way. :)  Then when she realizes she can't quite do it by herself, she will ask you to help her.  Norah loves to "talk" to different things, trains, her babies, or other stuffed animals.  Sometimes I hear her sitting on the floor looking the "object" right in the face and saying "Hi ____, Hi!"  Norah loves to play with her babies, and "check their bottom" to see if they have a dirty diaper.  Kyler and Norah are really starting to play together and pretend.  Kyler is doing more of the pretending, Norah just follows right along with. :)  The other day they were sitting at the little kids table we have with pretend food and their drinks having "cake" and just chatting away, it's the funniest thing to listen to. :)  Norah also likes to sit on the potty.  We haven't really started potty training, but I'm thinking I might give it a go after Christmas.  She loves to sit on the potty each night before she gets in the bath, and usually will go.  She will occasionally ask to go during the day too if Kyler has to go, but to take everything off of her and her diaper can be complicated. :)  Here are some pictures of Norah at 22 months!

  

22 Months Old!

Crazy hair girl hanging out in her PJs in the laundry basket :)

Helping with the Christmas lights

If you can see, the fabric seat on this doll stroller is gone...because it's ripped from someone sitting in it :)

Driving the John Deere tractor with her John Deere hat :)

All Decorated!

We brought in our Christmas tree just a couple days after we brought it home.  Kyler and Norah were very excited to have a tree in our house! :)  Each year we let the kids pick out a Hallmark ornament to put on the tree.  This year, Kyler chose a Tow Mater one, and Norah picked Minnie Mouse with a puppy.  Kyler has been telling everyone that he's going to put Tow Mater on the tree. :)  The kids helped decorate the tree this year.  Kyler took it very seriously and took his time trying to hang the hook on a branch.  Norah was more interested in just pulling out all the ornaments and then having someone else put them on the tree for her. :)

Erik putting on the lights :)

Checking out the lit tree :)

All lit up!

Best picture of them in front of tree :)

Getting out the ornaments

Norah's "first Christmas" ornament :)

Kyler putting on an ornament

Apparently I don't have one of the tree all decorated....will have to get one and add it later :)

Thanksgiving 2012

Our Thanksgiving celebration began the Sunday before Thanksgiving when we celebrated with Erik's immediate family at his parent's house.  After church we headed over to Craig & Deb's for a yummy lunch of turkey, corn, jello, potatoes, and rolls.  It was a short lunch, as we had to get home for naps, but a great start to the Thanksgiving week.

On Thursday we headed to my mom's side of the family's Thanksgiving celebration at my aunt's house in Denver.  We enjoyed the Macy's parade at home in the morning, as well as looking through the Black Friday ads, and then headed up to Denver around noon.  We enjoyed another wonderful meal of turkey, potatoes, green beans, bread, salad, and pies.  The kids napped in the afternoon and the adults watched football and checked out the Black Friday ads.  We had a small dinner, and then headed home in the evening.  Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving Day! (I forgot my camera, so these are courtesy of my aunt!) :)

The "kids" table :)

Norah and Cousins Andrew and Ryan

Friday brought a little Black Friday shopping!  My dad offered to watch Kyler and Norah with my brother so my mom and I could go shopping kid-free, and we definitely took them up on that offer!  We were also glad we did because it made everything so much easier without two kids in tow. :)  Friday night we braved the cold and headed down to the Holiday Hoopla in downtown Cedar Falls.  We watched Santa come in on his sleigh, and then headed down Main Street for the fireworks display.  The kids always love the fireworks because we are always at the lake over the 4th of July, and by the time it gets dark enough up there for fireworks, it's about 10:30 at night. :)  We all hurried home after the fireworks because both kids were freezing and ready to head home.  

On Saturday we had our final Thanksgiving celebration in with Erik's Mom's side of the family at his grandparent's house.  We enjoyed another wonderful meal and then hung out with family for the afternoon.

Sunday was our annual Christmas Tree hunt!!  We always go to the Volga Valley Conservation Tree Farm up by Sumner to find our Christmas tree.  We have been going to get our tree there since I was little.  It has been so fun to carry on this tradition with Kyler and Norah.  My parents and brother go along too so they can pick out their tree.  We left as soon as Erik got home from church to head to the tree farm.  It didn't take us too long until we had found our beauty. :)  We loaded it up in the truck, and then headed back home.  Here are some pictures from our Christmas Tree hunt:

Out to look for the perfect one!

Norah and Grandma

Kyler and Daddy

My parent's HUGE tree :)

Cutting it down

Our tree!

Cutting it down

Ready to haul away!

Headed to the truck

Miss Norah!

All loaded up!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with family, great food, and fun traditions.  We have so much to be thankful for this year!  We hope your family had a great Thanksgiving too!

Norah is 21 Months!

Norah was 21 months old on November 5th!  Our crazy little girl has quite the personality these days!  She loves to "help" out whenever she can!  If the dishwasher is open, she wants to help unload it.  If Kyler is going potty, she wants to help get toilet paper for him, when we pull up to the checkout at Fareway, she will help take the groceries out of the cart so the checker can scan them, you name it, she will help you do it! :)  Norah is becoming quite the talker.  She puts an extra "it" in her sentences, for example she will say, "need it, tractor", or "have it, step stool".  One of Norah's eye teeth came through this past month!  The one on her right side is through, now we are just waiting for the one on the left!  Norah also moved to a big-girl bed this month!  Her and Kyler are in the same room and she is in a regular bed with a railing.  I must admit, this went way better than I had thought.  I usually still lay down with her in her bed until she goes to sleep, which doesn't take that long.  She was getting to the point in the pack-n-play (yes, she was still in a pack-n-play), where she would pull herself up and lean way over the rail.  I was afraid she was just going to flip herself over and land on her head, so we went to a big girl bed.  Here are some pictures from this past month!

21 Months Old!!

Helping mom with the dishes!

Trying out her new bed!

Pretty comfy mom!

1st pony tail!!  I can't believe how long her hair is getting, so we tried one!

Don't take my picture!

I came out of the kitchen one day to find Norah wearing Kyler's shoes and socks!

Trying on her snowsuit!!

Halloween 2012

Our Halloween fun started the weekend before Halloween when we headed to the pumpkin patch!  I have been wanting to take Kyler to a pumpkin patch the last couple of years, and we just haven't done it, and I knew this year Norah would be old enough to enjoy it too, so we picked a Saturday and went! We went to the one just north of Waverly.  It was a cool morning but we had a great time.  We got there right when it opened, so there weren't that many people there yet.  Here are some pictures from our trip to the pumpkin patch!

Kyler, Norah, and Daddy in the truck!

Norah driving the tractor!

Kyler taking a turn!

Checking out the ducks

I don't know if you can see, but Kyler is over to the left and there are four turkeys over to the right that he was chasing, it was pretty funny.

On the "Haunted Path", it was just fine until the end...

Riding a horse in the animal barn, Kyler had a great time on here!

This huge bird was "talking" to us the whole time the kids were riding their "horses", I was afraid it was going to come after us!

Going down the slide!

Having fun on the tire horse!

Norah taking a swing

We had a great time at the pumpkin patch.  It was just the right size for our kids, older kids would be bored I think, but it was perfect for Kyler and Norah, we hope to visit again next year!

I don't have any pictures from this, but the Sunday before Halloween we went to Bethany Bible Chapel again this year for their Western Town Trick-or-Treating.  We did this last year with the Reisetters, and even though they weren't able to go with us this year, we still headed over.  It's really neat because in the gym at Bethany, they have all these cardboard store fronts set up like a western town.  People are then dressed up like the person at the store, a teacher at the school, a sheriff at the police station, a conductor in the train, etc.  The people at the store then hand out candy as you walk by.  It's great because it's all inside and perfect for little kids.  

The night before Halloween, we decided to carve our pumpkins!  I think this is the first time we have carved pumpkins with Kyler.....we have bought pumpkins, but I don't think we have actually ever carved them until this year. :)  Kyler really wanted to do a Twins pumpkin, which Erik was all about, and I really wanted a "face" pumpkin.  Well the Twins one took a little longer than we expected and so that is the only one we ends up doing.  The kids were interested at first, but after about 5 minutes, it was Erik by himself. :)  Here are some pictures of our pumpkin carving extravaganza!

Norah checking out the inside

Watching closely...

Norah sticking her hand in...

Working on cutting out the design...

Almost done :)

Here she is!

All lit up!

Our pumpkin!!!

Halloween morning we decided to paint some of the miniature pumpkins that we grew in our garden this summer!!  We had quite the crop, probably 10-12 pumpkins total, so I thought this would be a fun activity for the kids to do!  Kyler and Norah each painted two pumpkins.  Norah thought that the "stick" end of the paint brush worked better than the "brush" end. :)  

Kyler working on his pumpkin

Norah concentrating hard....

Using the "other" end :)

The kids took naps in the afternoon, and then as soon as they got up, we got them dressed in their costumes to take a few pictures and make a couple of stops before real trick-or-treating started.

Miss Norah the Kitty Cat!

Kyler the Tiger and Norah the Kitty!

My two cute Cats!

Our first stop was at Henry and Geneva's house!  (Geneva babysat me when I was little).  

Kyler and Henry

Norah and Geneva

Everyone!

After Henry and Geneva's, we stopped by Erik's parent's house to trick-or-treat there and show them our costumes.  I don't have any pictures from this stop.  After Erik's parent's, we came home and had a quick dinner, handed out some candy while we ate, and then headed out to trick-or-treat on our street.  We went up and down our block, and then loaded up in the van to head to my parent's house for our last stop of the night.  Here are a couple pictures from my parent's house:

Miss Kitty in her chair :)

Kyler and Uncle Ben

We had a fun Halloween with all the different activities we did.  Kyler really understood what Halloween was this year and is already taking about what he wants to be next year.  Norah caught on quickly and loved wearing her Kitty costume.  If she sees her costume she says "Kitty, on!" because she wants to put it on again.  Both Kyler and Norah collected quite the bag of goodies, and have enjoyed eating them for dessert.  We hope your Halloween was as fun as ours!