Our little dancer

So, I mentioned in my last post that Norah Kate has really gotten into listening to music and dancing. Well, this morning I had to wake her up to get ready for church, so I took my iphone in with me and had the Christmas music playing on Pandora. As I entered the room I found her asleep in her crib. As she heard the music, she opened her eyes, and before even sitting up she started "dancing" with her little body. So funny! She did end up sitting up and dancing...hand motions and all. Ha!

9 month stats

Our little girl has recently turned 9 months old...and has become even more fun (if you can imagine that!) I am really amazed when I look at her. I thank God so many times for giving her to us. Her little personality is just so exciting to see...she is happy and playful; inquisitive and mischievous at times; and calm and peaceful when it needs to be. David and I were talking the other day about how well she does when other people care for her. For example, we are in the process of looking for a new church home since we've moved, and she has been to so many different nurseries...without ANY problems!!! That has made it so much easier on us as well.

Here are some stats on her as of now:

-Crawling everywhere...and very fast, I might add...I don't know that I've seen a baby crawl as fast as her. Sometimes I worry about her falling on her face she goes so fast.

-Pulling up to a stand

-She is nursing just 3 times a day now

-Eating Breakfast, lunch, & dinner

-Loves the puffs and LOVES eating off of our plates. She wants everything we have. :)

-DANCING! Any time she hears music she starts dancing...even if she is nursing which is pretty funny to watch.

-Pointing her little finger...at anyone and everything. She will point to Chula and say "ooh ooh ooh..."

-She is babbling a lot. She is definitely trying to tell us something...what it is, I do not know. But she is enthusiastic about it.

-Sleeping great through the night, but she has starting waking up about 7:15 or 7:30...and if you know me, you know that this is NOT cool!!! :)

-She is obsessed with Chula (the dog).

-weighs 17.3 (25%)

-length 27.5 (between 50-75%)

-head circumference (don't remember, but she's still in the 50%)

We did have a recent "set-back" with her first bacterial infection. She was sick, sick. She started the antibiotic, Amoxicillin, and then the next morning was covered in whelps from head to toe. So...she was quickly switched to Zithromax and had a few doses of Benadryl and we were on our way again! :)

Here are a few of our most recent pictures. I do like them because I feel that they show her personality. Just havin' fun!

She has LOVED listening (& dancing) to the Christmas music, so we have it playing most all the time. We are exciting about her first Christmas coming up...and we hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas!

Christgiving!

Oh - I know, I know...it's been way too long. I can't believe that 2 months ago today we made our move to Jackson. I can't say that it feels like it was just yesterday...because I don't. I feel like it was at LEAST 2 months ago, if not more. We are getting more settled in our home and the town. In November we were able to go to Branson, MO with David's side of the family. While there we celebrated our Christmas and Thanksgiving = Christgiving is what we named it. :) It was so much fun and all the kids are getting to the age where they can play more. Here is a picture of Isabella (3) and Aiden (2) playing on the loft upstairs in the cabin.

Here is another cute one of the two of them at the bottom of the stairs. So sweet!

Norah Kate LOVED playing with her big cousins. As you can tell with this picture, she took everything in...

Such a sweet kiss from her big cousin, Isabella. All the kids (Isabella, Aiden, & Brooks) did really well with Norah Kate. You never know how kids that age will do around a baby, but they were more than wonderful and very gentle with her.

Here is David with Brooks (1) and Aiden. The movie, Cars was definitely the highlight of the week. I can't even tell you how many times it was played. :)

This was Christgiving morning - Norah Kate with her Grammy (David's mom). NK really enjoyed getting to see her grandparents.

And boy did she rack UP on the TOYS!!! Here she is with some of her loot...and her cute scarf!

Such a happy girl with her Daddy!!!

Merry Christgiving everyone!

And then it was on to Thanksgiving...

David's parents visited each of the 3 sons individually while they were in the states, and we were excited that our visit fell on Thanksgiving! We hosted it this year and had a housefull! (is that a word?) Anyway...We had his parents, my parents, my sister & her husband, and David's brother Jonathan & his family. It was so much fun and everyone interacted so well together.

As you can see from both of these pictures, the guys took their traditional places in front of the T.V. Ha Ha! No, they really did help out a lot...Dad even did the dishes! :)

Here is Aiden with Boo. The two of them were really missing their other dog, a pug named Hercules...who had surgery a few days before. Fortunately Hercules was okay and just had to stay at the vet to be observed for a couple of days.

NK with her Auntie Lauren...not that she wanted to look at the camera or anything...but at least she's smiling!

I love this picture! It looks like Aiden is hiding. So funny!

As you can see, we've had lots of fun, and lots of craziness lately (as always). Hopefully it won't be too long before I post again. :)

Birthday & Halloween Celebrations

Happy (Late) Birthday, David!!!

On Wednesday, David turned the big 2-8! :) Unfortunately we really didn't celebrate much. :( I had the flu last weekend...which lingered until Wednesday. We did make his coffee & blueberry muffins on his birthday, and he took the leftovers to work with him. Anyway, Norah Kate & I hope he had a great birthday!

On Thursday night my parents and sister came and we did take David to Outback to celebrate. Here is a little picture of our family below. You can tell we were all worn OUT from the day...um...and that Norah Kate had just finished her carrots. :) Oh well!

Norah Kate did give her Daddy a good birthday present...she started CRAWLING on his birthday! Yay NK!!!

Then it was on to the Halloween festivities. NK really (obviously) did not care one thing about Halloween, but we had fun dressing her up and showing her off to the neighbors. She was Princess Leia (spelling???) and Chula was Yoda. We did go trick-or-treating to a few houses in our cove...but really just to meet our new neighbors and not really for the candy.

Below is a family picture from the night. You can tell David and I are really trying not to laugh. Our friends, Isaac & Sarah, came over that night and took some pics for us, and Isaac was "trying to get NK to smile for the camera." He definitely has his own way of doing that. Ha Ha!!!

Then we tried to get a few pictures of the celebrities...but they didn't really cooperate:

So we finally got this cute one of our little princess.

We are trying to settle in to our new home and new responsibilities here in Jackson. David and I really enjoy the town and the people that we've met. Hope to be able to post more soon! ...our little girl has a 8-month birthday coming up, so stay tuned!

Happy Fall Y'all!

This week Norah Kate turned 7 months old!!! I just can't iterate enough how much of a good baby she is! These picture are technically her 6 month pictures...we had them taken about 3 weeks ago.

There isn't a whole lot new with NK. She is really just perfecting all of her "moves." She is SO CLOSE to crawling...she'll move her legs, but not her hands - which just ends in a face plant on the carpet. So far it hasn't been too bad. She is still eating 4 times a day, and usually 2 "baby food" meals. We are beginning to give her a lunch every once-in-a-while. Within the next month we will start the puffs. I still haven't really found anything that she just doesn't like. She is a great eater.

She goes to bed about 9pm and sleeps until 7am ...-ish...sometimes its later. However, she has also just started to talk to herself and entertain herself for awhile when she wakes up in the morning, so I guess we don't really know what time she is waking up! Ha!

As far as the move...well, this time next week we will be Jackson residents! We are moving Thursday, and it is hard to believe that the time has come. I am totally ready to not be living in limbo anymore...I do hope it is a nice move. :) Well, I better get to packing! Wish us luck :)

80 Days

60 days ago - David was approached about a job at Union University

44 days ago - We made a day trip to Jackson for David to interview

43 days ago - David was offered (& accepted) the job in Campus Ministries

40 days ago - We put our house on the market

26 days ago - David began working at Union

18 days ago - Our house sold

8 days ago - We bought a house in Jackson

7 days ago - I was offered & accepted a job as a Nurse Practitioner in Jackson

...

in 10 days - We close on our Memphis house

in 11 days - We close on our Jackson house

in 18-20 days - We will be moving to Jackson

...80 days total.

It has been extremely stressful for us these days. We knew it would be hard, especially with David commuting/staying in Jackson part of the time, but I think we've even been surprised with how hard it has been. The events above are in addition to our daily work, caring for a 6 month old, house duties, a dog having surgery, showing the house, traveling back and forth to Jackson, etc. We are amazed at how God has worked out all the details for us. It is without a doubt that we can say this is what God has for us right now. We look forward to the days ahead...even if they are flying by too fast for us to remember them! :)

6 months!

Our baby is 6 months old!!!!!!!!!!!

I know I say this every time...and I know EVERY mother says this, but I can't believe she is 6 months already!!! Unfortunately this update is a little late...as usual. Norah Kate actually turned 6 months on Sunday, but with all the cleaning, rearranging, and shoving stuff places in order to show our house; I can't find my camera! I had to steal my mom's camera for awhile. :)

Norah Kate went for her 6 month appointment last week. She was 14.6 lbs (25%), head circumference was 42 cm (50%) and she was 26 inches long (75%). She got her regular shots, and the first of her flu shots...and screamed. But she did stop as soon as I picked her up.

Here are some other stats for her:

-As you can see, she is sitting up by herself. She sits up, leans over to play with her toes, and sits up again.

-She has started pushing up on her hands and knees, and even rocks sometimes, but never goes forward...sometime she slides backwards.

-Just begining to wave bye-bye; actually she does the motion a lot, but only in regards to "bye-bye" every once-in-a-while.

-Gives kisses (well, slobbers all over our cheeks!)

-Reaches for EVERYTHING!

-Just beginning #2 foods. We really haven't found anything that she doesn't like to eat. She definitely doesn't prefer peas, but she just eats them and makes a bad face the whole time.

-Nurses 4 times a day; eats foods twice a day.

-Still in size 2 diapers.

-Bedtime about 9pm and sleeps until 7:30-8:00am (which is great when I work because she usually sleeps until I get home from work in the morning and its perfect timing for her to eat!)

-Naps...on the other hand...well, sometimes yes, and sometimes no. :)

-Smiles all the time!!! Really, she does smile about 90% of the time...I love it!