Hacked by Penny - My First Cheerio

Hello again, all you blog people! I wanted to share a new discovery I've just made. They're called Cheerios! Not only do they taste delicious, but they feel great on your gums! They're one of the first foods I've had that aren't just all soft and mushy. I think they call it "crunchy". I can't get enough of them! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Here are a few pieces of advice in case you decide to try them for yourself:

1) Cheerios do not go on your nose. If this is your first time eating one and you have a particularly mischievous Grammie she might try to convince you otherwise.

2) Having a Cheerio on your nose can get a little frustrating.

3) Trying to look at a Cheerio on your nose can be REALLY frustrating.

4) If you have a Cheerio on your nose, use your hand to put it in your mouth.

5) Once you have the Cheerio in your mouth, be sure to show it to your mischievous Grammie to prove that you know where it really goes.

6) You may be tired after all that work, but trust me, it's worth it. Enjoy!

Family Photos - In a Tree

We decided to play hide and seek to keep Norah interested and in a good mood. Why not use nature as a prop? I'm really glad we did. These are three of my absolute favorite shots from the whole shoot!

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Photo Post...

...for this exciting announcement!


Penny is 7 months old today!!



And look how excited she is about it. :-)


Stay tuned for the last of the family photo posts tomorrow.

Family Photos - With ENERGY!

Guess who had an abundance of wiggles and sillies to get out about halfway through the session...

Fortunately by that point we had moved to a less rocky, more open location which Norah called "The Forest". She was running the second her feet hit the grass!

After she got the wiggles out, Daddy was happy to help relieve the sillies.

Family Photos - Just Norah

The many faces of my big girl...

Family Photos - Kisses

What's a family without kisses?

Family Photos - In Pairs

This is the only photo we got of just my man and me. It was while the grandparents were still there to wrangle the children.

This is the only photo we got of just Norah and Penny before Penny started screaming. I love the clenched fists and pouty face.

Finally, More Family Photos!!

Sorry these are late in coming. We've been super busy lately.

Here are a few more of my favorites from our recent family photo shoot.

Could be because they showcase my three favorite people on the planet. Stay tuned for more soon!

First Boyfriend

This is Isaac. I suspect you'll be seeing more of him in the coming months (and maybe even years).

Scenery, Seasickness and Snacks in Silverton

We took the girls to Silverton on Sunday. We had a picnic in Cunningham Gulch, which is a beautiful spot near an old, abandoned gold mine.

Norah though it was to coolest thing ever to get to eat lunch on the tailgate of the truck. She was convinced that the wheel wells were seats that were made especially for her.


Penny got to sit in her own special seat too.


After the picnic we drove back into Silverton. On the way in, Penny fell asleep in her car seat (all that unpaved road will do that to ya!), so we diceded to let her sleep while we took Norah to the community park. I don't have any pictures of that part, but Mark got a couple.

It was her first time riding one of the old merry-go-rounds. You know, the kind of merry-go-rounds where you get a running start pushing it and then jump on screaming that you're gonna fall off? You know, the merry-go-rounds that are being removed from parks nation-wide because inevitably, some kid is gonna fall off and break their leg? Yeah, that kind. She loved it. I mostly pushed the thing as riding was decidedly less fun than I remembered it being when I was a kid. It just made me feel a little seasick. Anyway, I taught her how to sit and hold on in the safest way possible on such a death machine. It saddens me to know that once she's old enough to try the real daredevil stuff, like hanging off the edge or running across it while it's moving, they probably won't exist any more.

After the death-defying park adventure, we decided that Norah had been so good that we could get some ice cream. We told her that if she got a cone we would have to help her eat it so that it wouldn't make a mess but if she got a cup she could eat it on her own. Guess which one she chose. Also, she got to choose her flavor of ice cream. She was very clear that she wanted Pink flavored, until she saw the Green. She decided the Green looked more appetizing, since it had chocolate chips in it. This reminded me of the fact that I too used to choose ice cream by color. I always picked the Blue. It was cotton candy flavor with gumballs in it. Gross! Fortunately there was no blue. That would have totally been her pick. Eewww.

So that was our exciting Sunday. Needless to say, once we got home Norah took a nice long nap.

The above photos are the only two I got that really turned out. Actually, I was trying to get a photo of both girls looking cute at the same time, but that didn't happen, so I had to crop the cute on out of each. Man, what did we do before digital photography?

Eight Years Ago Today

I married my best friend.

**Yes, this is a blurry phone pic of a photo in our wedding album. Who needs a scanner these days, right?**

Hacked by Penny - Hard Core Baby

Hey, not everyone can rock the faux-hawk and pink cupcake jammies. I'm just cool like that.

Family Pics - Preview

I mentioned a while back that a friend of ours took some family photos. We got the final proofs yesterday and I LOVE them!!

The ones on the sidebar of Thing 1 and Thing 2 are from the same photo shoot. Aren't they awesome!?!

Here's another for your veiwing pleasure. It's all I have on this computer. I'll probably post them a few at a time so you won't be overwhelmed by the awesomeness. ;-)

Builder

If there's one thing my little engineer enjoys, it's building her "towers".


She's versed in the art of mixed media block building. It's really the only way to make her towers as high as she'd like them.


"See? I made this one almost as tall as me."


"Haha, just kidding."


Penny looks on in amazement at the feats of architectural genius accomplished by her big sister.

Wild Flowers

Today, for our activity (aka - We Have to Get Out of This House at Some Point Today) time we went to the back yard and picked wild flowers. Norah made three bouquets, which we put in little plastic cups because the stems were so short. I wanted to make one big, sweeping, slightly wild bouquet of random flowers that I was able to get a hold of right outside my door.

Here's what I learned:

• It's not as easy as it looks to make something look beautiful and wild and thrown together all at the same time.
• I don't do asymmetrical and chaotic very well.
• Sometimes, the most beautiful side of the bouquet is the one I'm NOT looking at when I'm arranging it.

This made me think a little about life in general.

Maybe all that we see as

wild,

thrown together,

       chaotic,

unbalanced,

really takes a lot of work on Someone's part.

Maybe the most beautiful parts of my life are the ones I'm not focused on controlling.

Maybe God is a better florist than I am.

Good Eats

My parents took us out to eat Friday night for Mark's birthday. I promised Norah that if she was good and listened AND ate enough of her dinner, she could have her own dessert. She listened, she ate dinner, so she got to order her favorite dessert from the restaurant where we were eating.




Can you tell what it is? Yup! A simple ice cream sandwich, right out of the box.

Just goes to show ya, presentation is important!

By the way, aside from sharing a bite with each of my parents, she ate the ENTIRE thing.

Summer Days

That's my little water baby.



She sure knows how to chill in style.

Hap-ppeee Birfday!

Mark's birthday is July 3. Because it's so close to the 4th, we rarely do a party because everyone has plans. This year, for the Big Three Oh, I told him that I had asked all of our friends and they were busy so we were just going to have to plan something for the next weekend.


Then.... SURPRISE!!!!!!


I wanted to do something really special for him, and I couldn't think of anything more special than giving him the chance to spend his actual birthday with good friends who love him.

I got very few photos, since I was trying to pull everything together without Mark finding out. My friend Jill took this one on her phone.



In case you're wondering, everything went off without a hitch. He really had no idea what was coming. It was so much fun planning something just for Mark without him having to worry about the details at all.

I had a couple of girls come and hang with all the kiddos downstairs during the party. My second favorite part of the whole event (after the surprise, of course) was after all the grown-ups sang "Happy Birthday" upstairs I heard Norah's sweet voice from downstairs exclaim, "Guys! It's time to start the party!"

Right now, officially in our thirties, it is indeed time to start the party.

Fourth of July

Everything's a toy... Even camp chairs!

The Camera-less 4th

My camera wasn't in my purse when we drove over to Silverton for the fireworks. Oops. I can only post one photo at a time so I might do a couple of posts. Anyway, here's one of the better phone pictures I got. Isn't she all patriotic and stuff?

Teething!

Penny has enjoyed her first frozen wash cloth. So begins the teething for my poor little drool bucket. At least this time I have a few tricks up my sleeve...