Easter

Holiday's are so much more fun with children. Watching Norah's excitement about everything all day long was so precious. From the fun of opening her Easter basket (and having candy for breakfast) to watching her eyes light up every time she found an egg (we did about a million egg hunts and it never got old) it made me so glad I'm this little gal's mamma.

When you ask her to smile, this is what you get :

But here she is smiling at Jason who was hiding behind me:

Norah got a quiet book for Easter, a fun church-only toy she seems to love.

We tried to take a few pictures after church, but Norah was really tired and not in the mood to play nice for the camera.

After her nap, Jason hid a few eggs and she was egg-static (I couldn't resist) when she realized there was candy inside.

So of course she tried to get Sonny in on the action. As usual, he wasn't interested.

Egg hunt with the family:

Farm Country

For the past year, we've had a membership to Thanksgiving Point. It's been so much fun to be able to take advantage of all the fun activities there but since most of what Norah enjoys there is outdoors, it's been several months since we've been. Because Norah loves animals, we decided to take her to Farm Country on Saturday. She was in heaven! The first animals we saw there were sheep and Norah loved yelling "BAA" (super loud) at the sheep and having them bleat back at her. The highlights for here were definitely riding a pony and feeding the ducks. Now that her vocabulary is growing every day, it's fun to hear her tell us about what she did. "Mama. Horse. Ride." "Mama. Duck. mmmm (while making the ASL sign for food)" over and over. We'll have to go back soon ... and not on a Saturday when it's super crowded. 

A tale of two pregnancies

In theory, it would make sense that if you've been pregnant before, you know what it's like to be pregnant, right? Well in my case, my two pregnancies have been SO different, from day one.

Case in point: with Norah, we were trying (btw, I hate that term, eww) fooooreeevvver and a few months before I was actually pregnant, I had a chemical pregnancy which broke my heart. So Jason told me I wasn't allowed to take any more pregnancy tests until I had actually missed my period. But before I had missed my period, I knew I was pregnant. I just knew it. And when the "pregnant" showed up on the test, all I could think was "well no-duh, I knew that." With baby C ... not so much. I had stopped taking birth control in August and on October 11 I was a few days late so on my way home from my brother's birthday dinner, Jason convinced me to stop at Walmart to pick up a pregnancy test. I brought it home and took it, but not thinking it could actually be positive, I left it in the bathroom and went about my evening. Jason looked up from his computer and asked if I seriously wasn't going to check the results and I told him what was the point? There was no way it was positive. Wrong.

With Norah I was sick. Super sick. Throw up twice-a-day-every-other-day sick. Around week 17 that calmed down, but I never really got over the nausea. With baby C, I threw up seven times and in general feel pretty fantastic. You know it's a good pregnancy when you can actually count the number of times you lost your lunch.

Sleep was my best friend during my pregnancy with Norah, it came easy and often and was the highlight of my life. With baby C, sleep is that best friend you once had but it's been so long since you were friendly that things are awkward and you mostly avoid each other. Except it's the sleep that's doing all the avoiding. I even told Jason the other day that I'd rather be sick and throw up than not be able to sleep ever, at least I could sleep through the sickness. I think he'd probably agree since I've done some pretty expensive online shopping on my iPad while lying wide awake in bed.

Braxton Hicks were a common occurrence for me while pregnant with Norah, but not so much this time around. Which is nice, because Braxton Hicks are annoying. 

So, there you have it, a few major differences between each pregnancy complete with a heavy dose of TMI. And while we're at it, here's a baby bump picture from when I was 13 weeks pregnant:

The one and only "baby bump" picture I've taken so far... and of course I thought I was huge. Ha. If only "13 weeks" me could see "29 weeks" me.

Be mine

Last night we celebrated Valentine's Day the same way we have since we started dating in 2005, with dinner at Thai Ruby. In those 8 Valentine's Days, we have only missed going to Thai Ruby one and a half times, the first in 2006 when we were not dating and last year Jason surprised me by bringing home take-out from Thai Ruby when we had a much to sick baby to leave her with a sitter. It's always the same, I order C6 with tofu and Jason gets SF7 with pork. And we couldn't be happier. 

Doug, our amazing wedding videographer, put together a photo montage for us for Valentine's Day, view it here:

http://video214.com/play/T1ppfeRIAkB500YOlQtDeA/s/dark

Curlers and a bed-time story

As a baby/toddler/child, I lived in pink sponge curlers. 

Which resulted in some beautiful blond curls (and while we're at it, check out those huge cheeks!)

So tonight I figured I'd extend the family tradition of golden curls and I set Norah's hair in nothing other than pink sponge rollers. I'll be honest, I'm not sure I did it right, but we'll see how it looks tomorrow!

The Zoo and Freestone Park

There was no shortage of fun things to do in Arizona. We especially loved going to the zoo with all the cousins.

We even got to spend time with some of my cousins! Jason's step-dad Tom's sister is married to my mom's brother. Confusing? I sure like being able to see them at family events on both sides of our family.



We also went to Freestone park where they had tons of fun stuff for kids to do, including a train (which Norah LOVED) and a carousal (which Norah did not love.)

Couldn't you just die? This little baby is perfect! I have the most beautiful nieces and nephew.

And no, it's not just because I'm usually behind the camera that you see so many pictures of Jason and Norah. He is her favorite, she is 100 percent her daddy's little girl.

The Snow!

While we were in Arizona, we headed to The Snow (aka, Jason's grandparent's cabin). We hadn't brought winter clothes, so we made a quick stop at Walmart and bought some necessary items including the cutest snow boots for Norah ... that she hasn't had to use since because UTAH forgot about winter and we haven't had real snow yet. Which is really a major shame because Norah seems to have inherited her mother's love for snow. 

Don't let Norah's expression fool you, she LOVED sledding.