Norah's 1st Field Trip

Norah had her first preschool field trip on October 21st.  I thought it would be fun to go along, as I really didn't go with Kyler on any of his field trips. :(  They were going to be going to the Heartland Farms pumpkin farm.  I got to preschool and Norah and the other kids were just finishing up their snack.  After they were finished, we got our coats on and then loaded up to head out on the school bus. It's so funny to watch all the kids get on the bus, as most of them have never been on one before. :)  The ride there lasted about 20 minutes.  Once we got there, we unloaded and then headed over to the hay ride.  It was a bit bumpy and windy, but we had a fun little ride.  After the hay ride, we walked over to check out all the animals.  Norah thought the big black pig was the best. :)  She also liked the turkeys.  After the animals, we hung out for a while on the sides that were held up by hay bails.  The kids spent a good amount of time sliding down, and then climbing back up to do it again.  We then took a class picture, got our souvenir pumpkin and then loaded the bus to come back home!  It was fun to do something with just Norah for the morning as usually when Norah goes somewhere, we have Grace with us too. :)  Here are some pictures from the morning!

On the hayride!

Pumpkin Norah

By the turkey

Mr. Turkey himself!

With friend Ahnie

Down the slide!

Norah's class

Heading home!

Grace's Birthday Party

We celebrated Grace's birthday a couple weeks early as my dad was going to be out of town the weekend of her real birthday.  We invited our families over for an evening of food and fun to celebrate Grace turning one.  Everyone arrived about 5:30 and we enjoyed some tacos, cheesy potatoes, chips and salsa, fruit and relishes.  Of course as soon as people started to arrive, Grace went into "cling to mommy" mode, so she wasn't too sure what to think of everything. :)  After dinner, we hung out and chatted for a while, and the older kids went outside and played.  Next, we opened presents, Kyler and Norah had already decided they were going to open Grace's presents for her.  I heard Kyler tell Norah a couple days before the party that "You can open 10 presents, and I can open 10 presents, okay Norah?".  I quickly reminded them that it was Grace's birthday and although she is not able to do a lot of things yet, she could probably do a little opening herself. :)  Grace of course thought the paper was great, and once I helped her get started, she was able to hold on and tear the rest off.  She was then very interested in everything that was inside the box. :)  After presents, we had cake and ice cream.  We sang happy birthday to Grace, and she just sat there :), and then let her have a cupcake.  I knew she wouldn't dive right in, as it has taken her a while to get used to eating solids.  She picked at it for a bit, and then started squishing it between her hands.  She spent a lot of time just playing with the frosting and cake in between her fingers.  Finally, she went to stick her finger in her mouth out of habit, and realized there was frosting on there and thought it tasted pretty good! :)  She had a few more licks and ate a few bites of cake, but not too much.  After cake and ice cream, people chatted for a bit longer and then headed home.

We had such a fun time celebrating Grace turning one!  We are always so blessed by our wonderful families that come to help us celebrate.  Happy first Birthday Grace!

Grace's cake :)

The "decor"

The birthday girl in her outfit!

Hi Mom!

:)

Grandpa reading before the party

My mom, Geneva, and Norah

The birthday girl :)

Some guests :)

Opening presents

More presents with helpers ;)

Checking out her card

More birthday guests

The cross-stitched name that Erik's mom makes for all the kids' 1st birthday

Cupcake time!

Hmmm, squishy :)

This is fun!

Let's try it!

Birthday photo with Uncle Ben

An attempt at a picture with Geneva ;)

Grace is ONE!!

I cannot believe a whole year has passed since Miss Grace entered this world!  Grace has such a laid back personality.  She waits and waits until she gets her turn after her big brother and sister's needs have been met.  This is especially evident at the dinner table.  Grace loves Kyler and Norah very much and she is really starting to want to be doing what they are.  In the evening, when its time to head up to bed, and Kyler and Norah take off running up the stairs, Grace will see them do this, stop what she's doing, and crawl as fast as she can over to the stairs to head up there too.  It's like she thinks, "well, they're heading up there, I need to go too!". :)  Grace loves animals.  Even when she sees a squirrel out in the yard, she points at it and gets so excited, like she needs to go out and check it out.  When we go and visit Henry and Geneva, and their puppy is out, she loves to crawl over to him, and touch him and pet him.  Grace is still very unsure around people she doesn't know.  If someone she does not know or isn't around much comes up to talk to her, she usually just stares at them.  It's hard for a stranger to get her to smile.  She still loves her mommy and daddy very much, and will only go to someone she has seen frequently for a little while.

At Grace's 12 month appointment, she weighed 18 lbs 4 oz and was 29.5 inches long.  Grace got two more teeth this past month, the top front side ones, bringing her total to 6 teeth.  Also this past month, Grace started crawling on all fours!  She is now pretty fast at it, and rarely uses her army crawl any more.  About a week after she turned 11 months, I told Erik I didn't think she would ever crawl on all fours and would just go straight to walking since she was already pulling herself up on everything, but then a few days later, she started to transition over to crawling on all fours, guess I was wrong! :)  Grace continues to pull herself up on everything, she is also starting to walk along things.  One of her favorite places to be is under the dining room table.  She can go under the table, and walk along all the chairs around the outside too. She also has started to push the chairs across the floor, it's always funny to watch them do this. :)  I put Grace behind the walker/stroller thing we have and she took off across the living room and thought it was pretty cool to do this. :)  Grace started pointing at things this past month.  Erik taught her to hold up one finger to say that she is going to be one year old, and she has also used her one finger to point at things.  She also loves to do "soooo big". :)  We have also hit the stage where she is in to everything.  One of her favorite things to do is to go and open the drawer on the bottom of the stove/oven and stand there and pull all the towels off the rack and then pull the pots out of the drawer.  I keep paper towels in-between the pots to keep them from scratching each other and I often come into the kitchen and find Grace eating the paper towels. :)  Grace loves to babble and it's always fun to listen to her at this stage as she sounds like she is speaking a completely different language.  She looks at you and just says "abab cochicou ababa, etc……" :) and you respond with "really?" :)

Grace is still napping twice a day, in the morning at 10:30 for about an hour, and then again about 2:30 for an hour and a half.  She made it the whole year nursing (yay!!), so now we will begin the weaning process….I'm afraid she is going to be the toughest one to wean since she doesn't take a pacifier…. :)  Grace is still eating mostly pureed food, but she loves her puffs and cheeto looking things.  She asks for those cheeto puffs multiple times a day. :)  I have tried to give her some other pieces of regular food chopped small, but usually she isn't interested or takes a couple bites and then is done.  She will sign "more", but usually that's in reference to her wanting cheeto puffs. :)  Something almost everyone comments on with regards to Grace is her hair.  She never went bald after she was born like Kyler and Norah did, so she has a lot of hair!  And, it's dark, curly, and crazy! :)  I'm so interested to see what happens to it as it grows, if it stays curly or straightens out.  It's getting to the point now where we have to put it in a ponytail or it's in her face.

Miss Grace,
You are such a happy laid back little girl!  You are starting to play more and more with your big brother and big sister and they love you so much! (But also don't like destroying their stuff!) :)  You are such a joy to have in our family!  Happy 1st Birthday!  We love you!

Here are some pictures from the last month:

One Year Old!!

Crazy hair :)

:)

Big girl with her pony tail

Grace does this occasionally and I think it's so funny :)

Practicing walking

On a mission :)

Hi Mom!

Someone thought she should sit in the baby stroller….and got mad when we took her out :)

Happy girl

Teeth!

Standing up!

Watching dad paint the front door

I came in to find her like this….not sure if she did it herself or had some help…. :)