Children

26 years ago…

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we took this four-generation picture the day I was baptized.

Yesterday…

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we took another four-generation picture for Nora’s baptism.

We both wore the same dress, we both were cute as a button, and we both had the privilege of Godly mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers.

It was a good day!

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Nora turned TWO months old yesterday… and seems pretty darn excited about it.

For her one-month photo shoot, we had to take so many pictures because she was either sleeping or crying… this month, we also had to take a bunch, but it was because she was moving SO much!

Nora is really long and skinny {thanks to her dad} so she has already outgrown all her newborn clothes and most of her 3 month clothes. Good thing we got so much of it for free or for pennies at garage sales!

She is even wearing a few 9 month sleepers because otherwise her legs can’t stretch out!

She has gained about 4 pounds… and is getting nice little potbelly!

A few more picture from the last month:

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She just LOVES laying on her back and looking around the room.

But she’s apparently not that interested in Sunday afternoon football

She loves her blanket and teddy bear.

And she’s even starting to get the hang of sitting in her Bumbo seat.

Although she is super cute in these photos, let me just assure you that she has a pretty good set of lungs… and she’s not afraid to use them!

She’s also still being a stinker about taking naps and going to bed “on time”. But since she’s cute, we’ll keep her around!

Happy 2 month Birthday Nora!

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I’ve been getting lots of emails and comments about how Nora looks so much like me… and I have to say I agree!

And the other day, as I was looking through my old pictures {on our portable hard drive}, I came across this picture of me — crying in my bouncy seat.

I have an almost identical picture of Nora crying in her bouncy seat…

What do you think? Does she look like her mom?

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I absolutely love sending our holiday card to family and friends each year!

I’ve already shared several of our past holiday cards, but this year’s card was EXTRA special because it was also Nora’s birth announcement!

I had so much fun coming up with the ideas for this year’s holiday card… and then bringing those ideas to life with the help of Angela from Tilly Claire’s Design. She took all my ideas and turned them into the most beautiful, custom, 2-sided holiday card with our family’s New Year greeting on the front and Nora’s birth announcement on the back.

Here is a larger picture of the New Year’s card. {you can click on the image to open it in a new window}

And here is Nora’s birth announcement.

This is my favorite holiday card so far…yes I say this every year, but it’s true once again!

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this is the dress my sister wore for Christmas 25 years ago

Our first family Christmas wasn’t actually as fantastic as what I was hoping for — mainly because Nora had a bad case of diaper rash and was really fussy because we had to wake her up in order to get it to church on time…

But she was just so darn cute in her little Christmas dress that it was all worth it! And you better believe my mom was thrilled that Nora could wear the same dress my sister wore for her first Christmas 25 years ago.

Since Nora was the youngest member of our church, our family got to light the Christ candle at church on Christmas morning. Nora did great and didn’t cry at all, however, she started crying right after we sat down so I had to take her out for the rest of the service.

For the rest of the day, she was pretty fussy thanks to the diaper rash and the lack of a morning nap

The only way I could calm her down and get her to sleep was to lay on the couch with her on top of me… so I got a Christmas afternoon nap too!

For the FIRST TIME EVER, Dave and I spent a very low-key Christmas afternoon at our house, with just our family. I did make ham — which is kind of a tradition, but we kept the side dishes simple and had ice-cream for dessert.

It was so nice to be able to sit around in our sweatpants with all the Christmas lights and just lounge around watching movies {and trying to calm our crying baby!}

My immediate family came over at night for a light dinner and to open presents. They totally spoiled Nora!

Nora and I got matching ear warmers from my sister Ashley for Christmas… so now we all match.

me, Nora, and my sisters with our matching ear warmers {my sister on the left made them all}

After food, gifts, and a few games, we were back to being “home alone” and in our sweatpants – glorious!

Dave was home the entire week between Christmas and New Years so we had lots of family time and I had a built-in babysitter, which allowed me to be semi-productive!

We celebrated Christmas with Dave’s family on New Year’s Day and Nora was much more cooperative for that party! She also got to hang out with her only cousin… it was cute to see them together.

She got to wear her “Baby’s First Christmas” shirt twice — I had a cute hat too, but it kept falling off.

Despite the challenges of a fussy baby, a little bit of bad weather, and an over-all lack of sleep, we had a great Christmas break and made many wonderful memories during our first Christmas as a family — I’m not sure Dave was quite ready to go back to school today!

What are your best memories this Christmas?

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A couple months ago, I got an email from Brenda, a loyal reader, with instructions on how to make homemade Play-Doh. I was honestly surprised by how simple an inexpensive it was — so I knew I had to try it out!

Now, even though Nora is still way to young for Play-Doh, I thought this might be a fun Christmas break activity to do with your children, grand children, nieces, nephews, etc.

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INGREDIENTS:

DIRECTIONS:

Once you kneed the Play-Doh, simply put it in an air-tight container and bring it out any time you need to occupy your children for a while!

The great thing about this recipe is that you don’t have to feel bad about letting your kids mix colors or throwing it out when it gets hard — because it will only cost a few cents to make another batch. Plus you can mix and match your food coloring to create tons of different colors!

And honestly, who doesn’t love playing with Play-Doh! 
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apparently she’s super excited to be one month old!

I can’t believe our little Nora is already one month old. I only wish someone would have warned me about how fast this time goes!! {yes, that’s a joke — we’ve been told that at least 326 times!}

This past month has been pretty crazy — mostly because we’ve never had such a lack of scheduling around here before. Nora is the new boss and whatever she “says” goes, even if it’s totally inconvenient for us

just a few hours old… so sweet! 

Having a newborn is honestly SO much more work than I ever thought it would be — and I think Nora is actually a pretty good baby too. I just keep thinking about how overwhelmed I feel… and then I wonder how a teen mom could ever handle having a baby!

I’m definitely learning to live on a lot less sleep, have a lot more patience, and “fly by the seat of my pants” — NO, I’m not good at any of them yet!

all bundled up for our first walk — with one tired mama! 

I’ve worn many hats in my life and had many different jobs, but my new “mom” hat/job probably came with the steepest learning curve!

Good thing I’m a fast learner

Anyway, Dave and I are looking forward to our first Christmas as a family, many more great memories… and hopefully a little more sleep in the weeks and months to come.

Here are a couple more pictures from our “photo-shoot” this morning. I’m hoping to do one of these each month — but we’ll see! 

“Who me? It’s MY birthday today?”

ok, I guess I’ll give you a little smile!

Happy one month birthday Nora!

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