Norah 6 months

-Is quite the mover-- if you set her on the floor, she is across the room in no time. She seems like she is trying to crawl, wanting to get on her hands and knees but doesn't quite have the strength to do it. She gets herself into some interesting places when I look away for a few minutes.

-Grabs at everything-- I mean everything! If there is something she can see she will go for it. I used to be able to look at my phone while I was feeding her but now she sees the phone and has to grab at it- I guess it is more interesting than the food.
-Big blue eyes and big eyelashes that curl perfectly.

-Still has very little hair and it is getting lighter.  I have a feeling she is going to be a little blondie. I guess we will see.
-Chubby chubby cheeks which are very kissable.
- Is a great sleeper still. She goes to bed when we do or earlier and will sleep all night til 8 at least. She doesn't have a consistent place she sleeps. We had her in her crib in Lincoln's room but he kept climbing in with her and I was scared for her being in their with him at night alone.  So now she either sleeps in her carseat or the pack and play next to our bed in our room.
-Sleeps only on her side or tummy. If you put her on her back, she immediately rolls over.
-Has started consistently on solids. It took her a bit to figure out how to eat but she is now getting pretty good and finishes off a bowl in no time.  She lets you know she wants more by opening her mouth wide open. So far she has tried: butternut squash, peas, sweet potatoes, bananas, peaches, oatmeal, rice, applesauce. I either make a bunch of food for her and freeze it or just grind up fruits for her.

-Drinks only breastmilk. I am still only pumping and have a whole freezer full of milk.
-Drools like crazy.
-Wears 3-6 month clothes.
-Loves Lincoln. If she is being a little fussy I just tell Lincoln to go and talk to her and she gets happy as can be.
-Likes to kick with her feet and push off things.
-Overall is so content and chill.
-We love our little NorahGirl and love seeing her little personality start to develop.

This pic is of both Marci and Norah at around 5 1/2 months. 

Lincoln at 2 1/2 years old

-He is our "Mr. Independent." If I try to help with something he promptly lets me know that, "Lincoln do it."
-He loves riding his Strider bike- he is getting so good at lifting his legs up and balancing as he is going around.  He is getting 'Super Fast' as he would say and sometimes Norah and I have to jog in the stroller to keep up with him.

(yes his pants are very short for him--- It was a chilly morning so we got the pants out from last year-- He has def. grown. :)
-Can be very winey when he wakes up from his nap. If we go in his room because we hear that he is awake he freaks out-It is super annoying.  I guess I should be happy that he still naps on 'most' days for at least 2-3 hours.  The days that he doesn't nap, he usually just plays in his room- usually reading books or chatting to himself.
-He sleeps pretty good at night.  We haven't been getting him to bed until 9 or later the last month or so and then he usually sleeps until 8 am or so. Lincoln thought it was so cool when I let Norah lie down by him for a minute. He was pretty upset when I said she was going to sleep there with him.

-He is pretty hit or miss when it comes to eating.  Some days he eats and will try most everything and other days he wants nothing to do with anything (well except sweets and juice, which he will eat anytime, anyday). He def. has a sweet tooth. He still doesn't like many meats.
-Is quite the chatterbox.  Over the last couple of weeks he has really started putting longer, complete sentences and thoughts together. He really does say the funniest things.
-Some of the things that he is constantly saying to us, "What's that?"  "Whatcha doing Mom?". It is cute but gets old at the same time.
-He still LOVES Norah. Loves her so much that he wants to lie right by her, lie on her, or straddle on top of her. I can't count how many times each day I say, "Get off her" or "Leave her Alone." He believes that she can do more than she actually can. He can be quite devious around her. If we tell him not to do something, he still tries to do it--- just a little more slyly.

-We have also been babysitting Andrew once a week while Izzy does her student teaching. Poor Norah gets ganged up on.  I think she like it though--- most of the time.

-We started potty training about 2 weeks ago. It started horribly that morning- def more accidents than successes... but than that afternoon something just clicked and he was doing great. Very few accidents at all. He even went poo in the potty. He is still doing pretty good with pee. He usually doesn't have an accident unless we give him a ton to drink and then we forget to remind him to go. He hasn't had an accident when we have been out-- except church of course.  Our biggest issue has been that he refuses to go poo on the potty. He waits til I put a diaper on him for nap time or bedtime and then poops--- or on occasion just goes in his underwear. It is getting old---  Not cool at all. We've tried about everything to get him to go but nothing has worked.  He also refuses to go on a 'normal' sized toilet (which we are also working on).  It makes church difficult for sure- or if we are going out for a long period of time. I must say that potty-training so far is pretty high on my list of Worst Parent responsibilities.  Can't I just pay someone to come and do it for me?
-Good at putting things together...
-Loves to play outside... doing anything.
-Def. prefers cars, trucks, balls- really anything all boy.
-If we are watching a sporting event on TV, he always says we are watching the Red Sox (which is true a good part of the time).
- He loves being my 'sous chef' in the kitchen.
-He always wants to 'help'- although oftentimes him helping is only slowing the process down. But at the same time it can be very handy to have such a good helper around to get stuff for me etc.
-Loves to play with other kids; especially kids that are a little older than him. He seems to be a bit of a bully with the younger kids(we are working on that).
-He likes nursery... I think too much. We were informed by the nursery leader that he takes toys away from the littler kids.
-Likes to climb on everything.
-Is good at counting things-- and can count to 20 pretty good.  Knows all his shapes, colors and can identify simple patterns.  We are still working on the ABCs.... we have a long way to go. :) He basically can only identify 'A' and 'O' consistently.
-Loves the van because it has a TV that he can watch on long drives. We found out that he loves the movie "Aristocats."
He really is such a good- happy- funny little boy! We couldn't ask for anyone better.

Rodeo and Weekend in Pine Valley

We had a fun weekend... we first made a stop at the Rodeo. 

We then headed up for a fun weekend with the Wittwers to Pine Valley.

Lincoln and Andrew at the Reservoir.

Nana with the Boys!

Norah had her first horse riding experience--- She didn't go anywhere, just sat up on top for a minute with Nana.

Lincoln and Jackson had a good time playing with the irrigation water-- mixed with the rain. You always get dirty when you go to Pine Valley and this was no exception.

Jordan, his girlfriend Whitney, and Lincoln cruising on the 4-wheeler.

We were hit with a pretty big storm--- which left us with a bunch of little pebbles of hail.  The kids thought that it was great!

We always Love going to Pine Valley and now with the new cabin and all the space we love it even more!

Adam's 34th Birthday.

We didn't do anything too crazy and exciting for Adam's birthday. The night before we went out to Texas Roadhouse for some good eats. Then on his birthday he woke up early and did a long run of 20 miles-- to get ready for the Marathon.  We then just hung out and relaxed. It was Adam's request just to watch football all day- So that's what he did.  We did manage to fit in some yummy cheesecake.  

 The next day we had dinner and Red Velvet Birthday cake with the Wittwers.

 We love and appreciate what an amazing Dad and Husband Adam is!

San Diego--- and the Red Sox Game

One thing that we don't like about living in Southern Utah is that we don't have very easy access to attending MLB games. Living in the Midwest we were surrounded by 6 or so ball parks that we could go to that were withing 5 hours of us in Iowa City. So when we checked the Red Sox's schedule back in March and noticed they were playing the Dodgers in LA, we decided to plan a SoCal trip so we could watch the game, enjoy the beach, and see some great friends.

We arrived in San Diego later Tuesday night-- and Wed. morning we headed over to Coronoda Beach to enjoy the morning and early afternoon.  

 CORONADO BEACH

From the moment we stepped onto the beach Lincoln was obsessed.  He loved running up to the water and then running away from the waves.  More than that he loved playing in the sand and filling his bucket with mud.   Norah basically hung out on the towel-- until the wind came and showered her with sand; after which she hung out in the stroller for the rest of the time.  I must say that Day 1 of our trip started off perfect

After the beach we got  cleaned up and headed to Petco Park for an afternoon game.  It was perfect because it wasn't too crowded so Lincoln had space to run around and play.  Plus the Padres even won! Norah again was her chill little self and hung out in her carseat, sleeping most of the time. No better way to spend your first MLB game right?

SAN DIEGO PADRE GAME- Petco Park- vs. Pittsburgh Pirates

 Norah's 1st MLB game

SEA WORLD 

Thursday morning we headed over to Sea World. We all had a great time! Lincoln loved every bit of it. 

 Although it would have been nice if he were a bit taller so he could go on a few of the rides we had a great day!  By 4 oclock we had wore Lincoln out and he fell asleep in the stroller---

 While he was sleeping we were even were able to sneak in a few of the adult rides. 

We loved the shows, the dolphin one being my favorite. The Shamu show was great as always and the Sea Lion show was interesting because one of the Sea Lions didn't want to cooperate at all but the trainers there just went with it and played along.

Our hotel was right near Mission Bay Park so Friday morning we headed over there for a hour or so to let Lincoln plan.  We then headed over to Old Town for lunch at Cayote Cafe and walked around.  

 Old Town, San Diego and Mission Bay Park.

After lunch we went down to La Jolla Cove and saw the Sea Lions and played on the beach. Well mostly Lincoln played while Norah slept, I relaxed and Adam buried Lincoln in the sand.   Later that afternoon we met up with JoAnna and Blair at their beach right in La Jolla. I always love getting together with these 2 girls! They live in La Jolla so they were kind enough to let us crash with them in their house for the night.  After hanging out on the beach with them for a bit, we walked back to their house then got some yummy dinner at a little place just near their house.  We chilled the rest of the evening and I had a good time catching up with them.  

LA JOLLA COVE and BEACH

The next morning we packed up and headed up to LA to go to the Sox game. On our way up we stopped in Fullerton to pick up Brian, Tamara, and Jacob Hills.  After picking them up we headed to the stadium.  We made it just in time for the game to start but after almost getting to the entrance of the stadium we realized we left Norah's binky in the car-- so Adam had to run back and get it.  While we were waiting for him we could hear cheers and boos going on in the stadium-- we were def. missing something exciting. Sure enough when we got in the stadium during the bottom of the 1st inning the Red Sox were already up 4-0.  We missed all the excitement. :(   It was a fun atmosphere and the Dodgers fans were pretty accomadating to us!  So glad the Sox won!  

DODGER vs. RED SOX GAME at Dodger Stadium

 My and some of my most FAVORITE girls ever!

 Norah loved all the attention Blair and JoAnna gave her.

 Dodger Stadium.....

After the game we went back to Fullerton and had dinner with the Hills. It was the perfect day---

The next day we went to Sacrament meeting with the Hills and then headed back to Santa Clara.  It was a very successful trip and we were not ready to come home.