Snow Days

We finally had our first snow in the middle of November.  It was enough they kids could even play in it for a couple of days.  They had a blast.  Nora would have loved to live in it if I would have let her.  But I'm old, and I got cold way faster than she did.

But before playing in the snow we took some pictures inside while staying warm and enjoying the beautiful light.

I love the look of determination on her face.  I'm not sure what she was looking at, a scratch I think, but she was determined about it regardless.

And Ben looked so cute coloring at the kitchen table.

Nora always looks cute, even with her eating a chip face.

And then after picking Isaac up from school the snow started to fall.  This kids loved to stare out the window at it.  Especially Nora.

I don't know why but I love looking out the window photos.

She also loved finding all the winter gear and trying it on.  

But nothing topped the post-nap play in the snow!

She is a persistent girl.  She figured out how to grab things with the mittens on even though it took her quite some time.  The boys were to fast and furious in the snow to get too many pictures of them.  But Ben wanted me to take a picture of him where they "ice skate."

I snapped these two pictures earlier in the day through the window.  Isaac is same old, same old, eating the snow.

I sure hope we get some more snow soon.  Especially since these older boys have figured out how to put on and take off the snow gear all by themselves.  Brilliant!

15 Months and a Run for My Money

Our Nora girl is 15 months old!  She is a spitfire hurricane!  Seriously, every toddler cliche applies to this girl.  She loves the toilet, the outlets, the heat vent covers, throws tantrums like a pro, climbs the tables to dance, pulls chairs to reach things that are not appropriate and so much more.  She has to be watched constantly.  For example: this is a real list of things that happened in one week while being supervised...1. she put cat poop in her mouth 2. She pulled raw chicken out of the garbage can 3. She received a shock while pulling a night light out of the socket.  I think she will live to see two but she is going to have some injuries along the way! 

She loves being outside and playing with her brothers.  She loves when daddy comes home and hates when mom leaves.  She is the worst at teething and is up at night a good number of days of the week.  Can't wait for all those teeth to come in.  She looks huge to me and acts older than she is.  If only we could get a few more words from her to better understand her wants maybe some of those tantrums could be avoided...but probably not.  :)

I love putting dresses on her.  I only really do it on Sunday but I sure love dressing her up. I wish she'd let me put bows and flowers and headbands on, but no.  She hates them all.

Also, in case you are wondering, the mark on her forehead is from a burn she got from grabbing the flat iron that I accidentally left on.  Mommy fail.  :(

She is one curious girl and loves exploring how the world works.  She is also starting to really love books.  She has opinions about things and likes being able to choose things.  If you put out some options of blankets or books or whatever she will carefully look over all the choices and deliberately make her choice.  It's hilarious. 

She loves imitating others.  She will mimic words in intonation and sounds and these next few pictures she was imitating Jacob behind me who was crouching down and then standing up...so Nora was doing the same.

Nora gives the best hugs and kisses.  Full arms around the neck, and kisses on the cheek and lips with a smacking sound included. 

She is a joy to have in our home even with all the mischief and tantrums.  I can't imagine our lives without her.  We all LOVE Nora!

Halloween

We didn't go to the pumpkin patch this year.  I think I'm still sad about that.  But I was too busy replacing carpet in the boys closet because they had turned their closet into a urinal (grrrrr).  It was part of their consequence for that behavior but I'm pretty sure I was the one who cared the most about missing the pumpkin patch experience.  Oh well. 

We ended up picking up a pumpkin while running errands on the Saturday before Halloween and carved our solo pumpkin the following Sunday.  Nora loved watching it all.  She was fascinated by the pumpkin guts.  But she didn't want to touch them too much.  And Ben flat refused to help with the scraping.  Isaac did a little bit of it, but Jacob did the most.

This white pumpkin was actually pretty cool.  The whole thing glowed with the candle inside.  It was neat.  Too bad I didn't get any pictures on actual Halloween night.  We had friends over for dinner and trick or treating that night and I got busy with that and neglected pictures all together.  Halloween fail I guess.  But the actual dinner and trick or treating was a success so that's all that really matters I suppose.  

Anyway...back to pumpkin carving.

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Ben and Isaac were super excited that I let them help carve with a real knife.  I guess I was feeling brave this year.

This year we took the easy route for Halloween and bought costumes.  The kids loved these swat police officers so we just decided to go for it.  I'm hoping they keep using them as dress ups throughout the year.  They played with them the whole week of Halloween at least. 

These pictures are from the day of Jacob's work party. His work party was a full 5 days before Halloween, the day before Isaac's birthday.  It was a busy week!

I can't get over Ben in these photos.  He's using his binoculars and walkie talkie like they are real.  So funny!

And Nora!  She killed it at the work party.  Everyone loved watching her walk with the wagging dragon/dinosaur tail.  I scored this costume at a yard sale for $5.00 brand new.  She had a love hate relationship with it.  She did not love the hat because it kept falling into her eyes.  But she couldn't get enough of watching herself walk with those feet.  So cute and funny.

We brought home a few balloons from the work party and the kids loved playing with them the next day.  Until I got tired of them and popped them.  I had to retrieve them from the super high ceiling too many times.

We had really warm weather for actual Halloween and it was so fun.  Dinner and trick or treating with friends was great!  The boys were troopers and trick or treated almost our whole neighborhood.  Ben petered out a little earlier than Isaac and chose to walk along with me.  Nora was sent home really early with Grace and her younger daughter, Lauren.  I was done with Nora wanting her candy and not wanting to stay in the stroller.  She was loving being out at night and would have stayed longer if I let her.  Too bad baby girl.  Maybe next year.