Sarah Jane Landvatter

My newest niece!

Born November 8, 2008 - 5lbs. 12oz.

OME!

On November 21, 2008 Twilight the movie premiered- need I say more? 

Most of my friends in St Louis and abroad were under the impression that I was taking a trip to lovely Utah to visit my sister who just had a new baby (which was true, of course) but the real reason for the trip was to see Twilight with my aunt and best friend Cami!  Sssshhh- don't tell!

Oh what fun it was!  It started with the midnight showing on Thursday night at The District.  The place was packed with girls and women of all ages who were wearing everything from vampire shirts to prom dresses!  (The theater put on a "Twilight Prom" before the show, hence all the girls in dresses) I couldn't believe how crowded it was!  Everyone was abuzz with anticipation for the movie.  When the clock finally struck twelve we were just as excited.  And the movie didn't disappoint!  Granted, we didn't go in with high expectations, and it definitely wasn't as good as as the book, but overall I liked it. 

We made it home by about 2:30 and dragged ourselves to bed to try to get some sleep for the big premiere event.  Cami is a part of this group called Twilghtmoms.com.  When she joined it had around 150 people- now there are over 20,000!  About 30 of them put on a premiere event at The Disctrict, including Cami, and I think it was more than she signed up for!  It was the largest premiere event outside of the one in Los Angeles!  It was crazy!  Who knew that people were so mad about Twilight?  Cami was there pretty much all day setting up and helping out with Twilight pictionary!  Due to a mix up in location (I'm an idiot and drove to Jordan Commons first) I didn't get there until about on hour before our showing started.  It was crazy though!  They had everything Twilight that a girl (or boy) could want!

We started out in the Vampire Dazzle Booth where we were sprayed from head to toe with glitter, got our goody bags and free movie posters and then proceeded to shop at the booths that were set up around the room.  Some of the more interesting ones included:

Twilight Lips

Twilight Baby

Twilight Jewelry

Twilight Fragrances

Twilight Home Decor

They had a Twilight inspired band

All of the cars from the book were outside the theater

The production company sent over life sized cutouts of some of the actors and they had a photo both- which, of course, we took advantage of!

I have now fully embraced my Twilight dorkiness.  I discovered that getting excited about something (even if it is a book about vampires!) makes life interesting!  I mean, I could have just stayed in St Louis and gone to the movie with Joel or one of my girlfriends and that would have been that.  I would have missed out on all of the fun!  THANK YOU CAMI for all that you do for me, for being my friend and for letting me join you for the Twilight madness!  I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

PS- for all of you Twilight rookies out there OME stands for "Oh My Edward!" hee, hee...

My Favorite Place

by Norah Crockett

My favorite place in the whole wide world is high up on a sill.

I love to see the grass and trees, the squirrels, oh what a thrill!

The neighbors wave to say "hello" as they are passing by.

Pounding, banging, laughing, shouting- that's how I say "hi"!

 

Don't you think Norah should be a poet when she grows up?  So advanced for a one-year-old... (or sad for a twenty-eight-year old!)

Party!

For Norah's first birthday we gave her a party!  We made her a big pink cake with all the fixins and invited the Andersons, Rusts and Broadbents to help us celebrate!  Norah's favorite part was playing with all of the kids- she was in heaven!  She got a slide, shopping cart, blocks, a barn with farm animals, some adorable boots and an aquadoodle.  We got to watch her tear into her first cake!  She loved it a first but I think all that sugar was a little too much...

 

Before...

 

After...

Happy Birthday Norah!

One.

Well, Norah Lyn, you made it!  You are officially one year old.  You are the light of our lives and couldn't have parents that love you more.  It has been such a blessing to watch you grow (you've done it so quickly!). You make life happy.

NORAH LYN CROCKETT age 1

Favorite foods right now: beans of any kind, cheese, bananas, grapes, turkey sandwiches, honey nut cheerios (not that I feed her those, of course), did I mention beans?

Climber of all things tall (this can get scary!)

Favorite Toys: Books, balls, babies, night-night bear, other kids, anything that opens and has stuff inside for her to pull out (this creates a lot of messes for mommy to clean!)

Words she can (attempts to) say: "mama", "dada", "no-no" (for Norah), "ouch", "socks", "shoes", "uh-oh", "wasdat" (what's that), "ni-ni" (night, night), "hi".

Animal sounds she can make: "mmmmm" (moo), "ssssss" (snake), "roar" (tiger), "ah-ah-ah" (monkey), "ruff, ruff", she can also make a fish face.

She loves:

all things furry, mainly her best bud Higgins.

crawling and can do so faster than any baby in town.

laughing, smiling and giggling.

being chased and chasing.

imitating.

music and dancing.

riding face forward in the car.

watching other children.

She is loved.

 

 

     

 

My Little Papoose

For Norah's first Halloween we dressed her up as an Indian papoose.  Isn't she the cutest little Indian you have ever seen?  Seriously though.

We got to dress her up twice.  We went out on Thursday night to Kirkwood, a neighboring town with an adorable downtown area, where all of the local businesses were passing out candy to the kids.  It was packed with people from all over the area.  We pushed Norah around in her stroller and received many comments about her costume!  She was in awe of all of the kids and was happy just to be there.  There were some classic costumes but I think Marge Simpson, tall blue hair and all, was our favorite.  Isn't Halloween the best when you're a kid?!

   

 

On Halloween night we dressed her up again and took her to our friends the Anderson's.  They live in an apartment complex where about seven or eight other med student families live.  It's always an experience as it is subsidized housing and it is pretty much in the ghetto.  They don't venture out of the community gates much.  The first house we went trick-or-treating at the lady was waiting for us with a cigarette in her hand and a bowl of candy in her lap.  It was classic.  We went around to all of the med students apartments and then had dinner with the Andreson's and the Brown's.  It was a GREAT Halloween!

This is Joel's good friend Pete Anderson.  He dressed up as a white-T clown (you can't see the beer shirt he is wearing or the half-shaved head) and he LOVES Halloween. While his wife was in Utah, he decorated their entire house for Halloween, complete with scary hand-painted pumpkins, cobwebs everywhere, blood writing on the fridge and a paper mache head with real human hair!

Home Sweet Home.

As many of you know we have been nomads for the last three months, traveling from St. Louis to Utah to California and back again.  We had such a great time with parent, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins that Norah doesn't know what to do with herself now that it's just her and mommy again (mommy doesn't either)!  It is fantastic to be home though.  I think you need an extended trip like that every once in awhile to really appreciate what you have. Here are some of the highlights...

 

The Twilight Zone

I started off in UT for a few ways, then jetted away with Cami to Seattle for a Twilight weekend, leaving Norah with my sisters who were kind enough to watch her for me.  We had a blast!  We began the trip sightseeing and shopping and ended at symphony hall at a "concert" with Stephanie Meyer (author of the Twilight series) and Justin Furstenfeld (the lead singer of Blue October).  It was worth it just to see all of the people who attended! We were pretty much laughing the whole night. It was a trip I will never forget... thanks Cami!

 

 

 

Cousins!

We stayed in UT for about three weeks.  Norah couldn't get enough of the kids... she even grew to like Grandpa Scott.  (The first day we were there every time he would look at her she would start to cry- sorry dad!)  They have since bonded and are great friends!

 

Norah's first masterpiece... by the end we had ditched the paper and moved to the highchair tray.

 

Bulldogs...

Meanwhile, Joel and his brother Tyler drove halfway across the country to pick up Tyler's dog Angus (bottom right). Higgins was reunited with his family!  His sister is in the center picture with him- check out those rolls!

 

    

    

         

              

This is Joel, Angus, Seth, Charlotte and Norah at Tyler and Kristen's the day after the men arrived with the dogs. Marianne took these pictures- can we say professional?

 

Photo Shoot

The Crockett's other professional photographer, Mandi (see bottom left picture under "beach house"), took these adorable pictures of Norah one evening outside her home.

         

 

 

Beach House

It wouldn't be a California vacation without a trip to Joel's parent's beach house in Pacific Grove, near Monterey and Carmel. We went down with Joel's brother Ben, his wife Mandi, and their two kids William and June to relax and get away from it all.  Somehow when you have two crawling babies that are everywhere and into everything life isn't as relaxing!

Higgins loved the ocean. He would've chased waves all day if he could have.  Norah- not so much.  She started crying the second I dipped her toe into the frigid Pacific.

 

Babies and Bulldogs....and Bikes?

Mandi and I decided to be adventurous and take the kids on a bike ride through Monterey.  We rented bikes, suited up and loaded them in.  It started out great- smiling kids, sun and blue skies (which is a treat in Monterey)...

 

Somehow it didn't end quite the same.  William fell asleep with June laying on his shoulder while Norah was trying with all her might to get herself out of the straps. 

 

You can't say we didn't try!

 

Tilden Park

We took a day trip to Tilden Park in the Berkeley Hills.  Our first stop was the carousel (Norah's first one), followed by the steam engine trains where they even let Higgins ride!

 

I'm just now realizing that Joel isn't in any of these pictures although he was there for most of these events- he was taking the pictures- Love you Joely!

 

Babies

Watching two rambunctious almost one-year-olds made me grateful that I don't have twins and feel for those mothers with multiples!  Here is a glimpse into what it was like...

I decided to corral them in one room and create toy stations for them to play with. That didn't turn out as well as I was hoping- they both wanted to same toys, fought over them and then came crawling toward the exit pleading with me to save them (top middle picture).  In the end I had to resort to food... hmm...maybe I should rethink the "babies" thing? Mandi, I understand if you don't ask me to babysit June again!

 

Harvest Festival

Back in Utah we all went to the harvest festival at Thanksgiving Point. They had lots of large blow up slides and bounce houses, a children's haunted house, kids games and even a toddler station with toys and games for Jonas Norah. It was a beautiful day and everyone was enjoying themselves...until we tried to get the kids to pose for pictures that is...

 

 

 

Was this the longest blog post that you have ever read? I was trying to give you a feel for how looonnnng our trip was! And that wasn't even all of it- for more exciting adventures see Mandi's blog- there's fairyland, picnics, playing at grandma Vicki's, Berkeley, and Sunol. 

THANK YOU to all of the grandparents, aunts and uncles who made our trip outstanding. You went out of your way to ensure our happiness and comfort- from Tyler, my dad and Vicki driving and flying around the country with us, to my sisters watching Norah so I could have some "me" time, not to mention Ben and family feeding us and letting us crash at their house whenever we needed, Mandi always being up for anything (and coming up with lots to do), and Kristen and Tyler opening up their home and lending out their car on short notice.  Thank you all!  We love you!