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!