Happy Birthday to you!

A mere twenty-nine years and look at all that he is...

Survivor. Managed to make it through his childhood and adolescence with two older brothers.  Although he has had a few near-death experiences (tumbling off his bike down and mountain for one) he walked away with only a few scars!

Student. Okay so he wishes this one weren't the case any more (only four more months!) but he has made it through almost twenty years of school and had excellent grades, made great friends and drank lots of diet coke!

Husband. Somehow finds the time to make his wife feel that he values her and their marriage above all.

Father. Created a little girl that even he didn't know how much he would love. Her eyes light up when she sees him and the way she says "Daddy" would melt anyone's heart.

 

Son. Values his parents and their opinion above almost any other.

Brother. Talks to each of his four siblings at least once a week. They are some of his best friends in the world and he would do anything for any one of them.

Creator.  Joel is amazing when it comes to creating new ideas and implementing them. He find inventive ways to solve problems. I have watched him in amazement as he has improved things on numerous occasions in all aspects of our life- in our home, with our businesses and with his schooling.  He wants to be a part of big things, he has the mind to create and lead.

Leader. Which brings us to this next point.  Joel has the personality and drive to inspire people.  I have seen him do this in our family, with the young men and with the business that we started with a group of friends (nothing would have gotten done without him!)

Lover. Okay so that sounds funny, but Joel has an immense ability to love lots of people.  People are drawn to him because of this ability.

Loveable.  For all of the above reasons and more- Joel is incredibly easy to love!

 

Happy Birthday Joely!

Dress-up

I am in trouble when Norah reaches her teenage years.  She already loves clothes and shoes!  One of her favorite things to do is play dress-up.  Anytime she sees an article of clothing that she particularly likes, she attempts to "wear" it.  By wearing it I mean attempting to put it over her head but only managing to get it around her neck.  She will not do this with just any piece of clothing, she knows her style.  She likes anything soft and colorful. The other day I found her in my room digging through a bag of clothes that I had put away because she had outgrown them...

 

 

She also LOVES shoes and insists on wearing them with everything (even with nothing!).  The minute she sees a pair she won't stop saying "shoes-shoes" until they are safely on her feet. Her favorite ones are a pair of too big, black patent-leather shoes with a thick rubber sole that she can barely walk in.  I try to hide these from her as we have had one too many accidents!

But her favorite thing of all to "wear" is... my bra!  She managed to get this on all be herself and wouldn't let me take it off for a good hour. (notice the shoes)

 

The Park in December

We took advantage of an unusually nice day over the break to take Norah and Higgins to the park.  We all enjoyed the chance to get outside and play!

It is the first time we have been able to get out to the park since Norah has been walking.  She LOVED it!

 

Slides are her favorite!

 

Leaves!

Even Higgs got to play!

Play Time

By Norah Crockett

I love to play in the leaves....

...and walk along the fence.

Doing the dishes is my favorite!

Playing in the sink is so fun!

But most of all I love to play with my friends!

December

I've been slacking... a whole month and no posts!  That is practically an eternity to a child.  What a fun, crazy month December was... It started on a low and ended with a bang!

The first week in December Joel had two interviews in Ohio.  We decided it would be most economical for him to take the one car we have and drive up there for three days.  Had we known what was coming we would have changed our plans.

Norah started the first day off by throwing up in her crib, (sorry, this may get a little graphic) followed by an entire day of wet, messy diapers- I won't go into detail on those.  Needless to say I did a lot of laundry that day.  I thought it would never end.

The next day was more of the same.  Norah was not getting better.  I was worried that she was getting dehydrated and, after a few failed attempts to find someone home that could run to the store for me, I decided to bundle Norah up and walk to about a mile to the store to get pedialyte. It was frigid and I was worried the entire time that the trip was just going to make Norah worse!  Thank goodness we made it there and back without any occurrences. A lot of good it me- she wouldn't even drink it! I did manage to take these adorable pictures of her in her hat when we got back though.

Doesn't she look happy?!  It doesn't end there.  The next morning I woke up feeling nauseous- five minutes later I ran for the bathroom and emptied all the contents of my stomach.  I ran out to a crying Norah, attempted to calm her down and ran back to the bathroom.  This was a pattern that day.  Norah was still not completely better and it made it much harder to keep my stomach settled when I had to change (and smell) her diapers.  Joel got home that night and he was sick too!  What a week!  Eventually we did all recover but I pray I never have to repeat that weekend.

The month gets much better from there.  On the 17th we hopped on a plane and flew out to Utah for Christmas!  Norah was in heaven staying at "Bampa's" with "Sass-Sass", "Jo-Jo" and "Wah-Wah" aka Grandpa, Kassy, Jonas and Lauren.  Since we have been home she still repeats their names over and over. In spite of all of the kids getting nasty colds, we had a great time.

Some highlights included: seeing the lights at Thanksgiving Point, me having dinner with friends from Jr. High that I hadn't seen in 15 years, spending Christmas Eve with my mom's family at Karen and Harolds, watching movies with my mom and sisters, Joel taking his board exam,  getting snowed in on Christmas day, spending time with Tyler, Kristen and family, and being with my grandparents and dads family for the family Christmas party.

Here are a few pics from the trip:

Kyrstin, reading a fascinating story to Norah and Jonas.

Sarah, having sweet dreams...

My beautiful sister, Kassy, and her adorable kids.

I managed to convince them it would be great to go outside in the frigid weather and take pictures. Thanks for humoring me!

Emma and Lauren

Kassy and Sarah

Norah on Christmas morning. She had a great time unwrapping presents and playing with all of her new toys but she looks so sad with her puffy eyes and her red cheeks- stupid cold!

I think her favorite thing of all was the lights on the tree.  She would constantly point to them and say "yights"!

 

Jonas, unwrapping his tool set. It was hilarious!  What a little man.

Thank you to everyone who made our time there great!  We didn't get to see everyone as much as we wanted (Tyler's family, Cami's family and Grandpa and Grandma K) because of snow and sickness but we were grateful for the time we did have.  We love you all!