Babies & Bulldogs

Lazy

2011-01-27T18:19:00.001-08:00

I haven’t really been lazy lately (I wish there were time for that!), on the contrary- life gets busier by the day. The title is for this post. In October, we went to visit Joel’s wonderful sister, Caroline, and company and she did several posts on her blog about our trip. So, rather that attempt to recreate her posts, I will just post the links on mine. Lazy, I know! But hers are are better than mine would have been anyway! Crocketts have probably seen these already but for the rest of you- enjoy!

http://lifeatthebrocks.blogspot.com/2010/12/joelster-jandi-and-company.html

http://lifeatthebrocks.blogspot.com/2010/12/priceless.html

http://lifeatthebrocks.blogspot.com/2010/12/anderson-adventures.html

http://lifeatthebrocks.blogspot.com/2010/12/soaking-in-vibe.html

http://lifeatthebrocks.blogspot.com/2010/12/there-is-more-seriously.html

Three

2010-11-16T17:03:00.001-08:00

Dear Norah,

Happy Birthday sunshine girl! That is what I call you because the sun seems to follow you wherever you go. You have a light inside you that is easy to see and makes all who know you smile. You are full of life. It is my prayer that your light will continue to grow as you age and never dim.

You have grown a lot this year and I am amazed at all of the little things you say and do. From the “guys” you draw to your ability on that little red tricycle- you learn so quickly! It is a pleasure to be your mother and have a front row seat to it all.

You love many things right now. Namely, princesses, but there are other things too: playing with friends, your brother, babies, your daddy, parks, your tricycle, your cousins, your grandparents, tea parties, dressing up, family night, laughing, screaming, running, chasing, and playing… to name a few.

You are loved Norah, by many people.

Happy Birthday.

Love,

Mom

Norah… in the latest Juney Band Ad!

2010-11-13T17:10:00.001-08:00

Still deciding which one to use… smiling or serious. Either way, I think this will be the newest trend.

Walked out of the bathroom one morning to find this little cutie who could barely open her eyes because she had so many headbands on!

Hall-O-ween

2010-11-05T16:15:00.001-07:00

Introducing:

CINDERELLA and her sidekick GUS GUS the mouse…

Halloween this year could not have been more fun. Ohio just won “best place for trick-or-treating” in our book. People come out of their homes and line their driveways with chairs, fire pits and all, to hand out candy. Who wants to go knock on doors anyway? You can get twice the amount of candy doing it this way! There were haunted houses inside garages, scary things in bushes, tractors transporting kids up and down the street, spooky creatures handing out candy and hundreds of kids eating it up- ours included!

Goin Home.

2010-10-04T19:33:00.001-07:00

The kids and I were overjoyed to be able to take a trip to Utah in August. It was filled with lots of fun family time, a birthday party, a baby shower and, of course, sickness! It was a great trip nonetheless. Here are some of the highlights:

Getting to meet the newest addition,

Audrey Eva Turner

Isn’t she adorable?!

Lots of trips to Thanksgiving Point…

A Mountain BBQ with the Englands!

Ezra’s First Birthday Party!

The Hungry Caterpillar Cake

My Wonderful Parents

Cousins!

We didn’t get pictures with the Crockett cousins but are so happy we got to see them.

Whew! Lots of pictures, I know, but at the rate that I have been blogging I figured if I didn’t do it all at once I would never get them all in.

We love you all and are so grateful for your love and support. As usual, we didn’t get to see everyone we wanted to or spend as much time as we would have liked with some of you. You always have a place to stay in Dayton, OH!

First

2010-08-24T12:59:00.001-07:00

Ezra turned ONE on August 18th! Somehow it goes by so much faster with your second. Here is his first year in review…

EZRA SANDERS CROCKETT, Age1

Favorite foods- watermelon! You and your daddy can finish off an entire one by yourselves in one sitting! Beans of all kinds, cheese, fruit, fruit, fruit.

Lover of stairs (too bad you can’t go down them by yourself yet!)

One legged crawler (hilarious)

Words he (attempts to) can say: ba-ba (vacuum), ba (ball), cckkkaaa (clock), be be (baby), ba ba (bye-bye, a subtle difference between his ba ba for vacuum!), da da, wuff wuff (dog).

Animal sounds he can make (these are the cutest): oooooo (wolf), ah-ah (monkey), bababa (chicken), ba (sheep), owww (cat), cack cack (duck), fish lips, bop-bop (bunny), raaaar (lion) and of course wuff, wuff for dogs.

He loves:

balls.

sand.

music and dancing.

taking things out and putting them back in.

pushing and walking.

his sister (most of the time!)

smiling and laughing.

the bath.

We are so incredibly blessed to have you in our family little boy. You light up our home with your sweet spirit. You are calm yet feisty when you really care about something. You make all of us smile everyday. You are adorable. You couldn’t be more loved. Happy Birthday Ezra!

Pirate Face and Mommy Shoes

2010-07-25T17:30:00.001-07:00

This is what we call the Pirate Face. Ezra makes this face after something occurs that he’s not too sure about. It is typically after something Norah does. For example, when she grabs his hands and swings them back and forth as hard as she can while singing “twinkle, twinkle” at the top of her lungs, he will look up at me with Pirate Face. Or after she tries to ride him like a horse, Pirate Face. Or after she takes both arms and tries to drag him across the floor, Pirate Face. You get the picture. I couldn’t decide on just one so below are a whole slew of faces that I get to look at each day. Aaaaargh.

Norah still loves shoes. Today, after church, she put these on and wouldn’t take them off for a good hour…

About time.

2010-07-24T05:39:00.001-07:00

I know. Over a month and no posts. I know I need to post about the move, the house, Ohio, etc. I just need to summon the energy. For now, here are some pictures we took at the St. Louis Temple a week or so before we moved.

Finally…

2010-05-30T18:46:00.001-07:00

The Crockett clan has already seen most of these but for the rest of you, we finally got our picture taken as a family. It helps that we have an amazing photographer in the family but it’s hard when she lives 2000 miles away. Thanks Mandi, (yes we are both named Mandi Crockett) these are perfect!

Good Night Ezra

2010-05-18T19:31:00.001-07:00

This is one of Norah's favorite games to play with Ezra. She reads or tells him a story, lays him down on a pillow, puts a blanket on him, tells him "Good Night" and walks out of the room. Then she comes back in, lifts him up and starts all over.

In this scene, she begins by reading him a story. She puts on a "comfy blanket" and leaves the room. On the second round she wakes him up with "good morning", tells him a "princess Noh-nohs story" (part of our nightly bedtime routine) complete with a castle and a walk through the forest. Ezra (sometimes) loves the attention!

p.s.- please ignore the mess

I heart spring.

2010-05-01T18:35:00.001-07:00

Here are a few recent shots of the kids. Some are from the Missouri Botanical Gardens- one of my favorites places in St. Louis- it’s all azalea-ed right now. And some are from right in our own backyard. Spring this year has been amazing- very mild, lovely, love it.

They are both at the cutest ages right now, (I think I’ve said that at every age) but seriously, they are. I just want to eat them up!

hop, hop…

2010-04-28T20:20:00.001-07:00

I know, I am behind. Here are shots of some of our Easter festivities:

We took the kids to the Oakland House in Affton. It was pretty classic. There were old ladies in dresses straight out of “Gone With the Wind” who led the kids around the house to various stops. First it was an Easter puppet show, followed by a live bunny petting. After that they got to make an Easter craft and finally, they got to see the Easter bunny himself….

The entire house was decorated with bunnies, chicks and eggs- no shortage of Easter paraphernalia.

The Oakland House was followed by an Easter Egg Hunt with about 30 kids from the ward- it was madness- but fun!

And finally, Easter morning, after the Easter Bunny had hopped by.

We listened to General Conference and had some good friends over for dinner that evening. It was a great day!

Norah

2010-04-05T14:09:00.001-07:00

Oh the joys of having a two-year-old. Norah is at the cutest age right now. I constantly find myself having to discipline her while trying not to laugh. Here are a few of the latest examples:

The other morning I walked into the dining area and Norah had just finished eating her cereal. She was dunking Cinderella in her milk.

Me: “Norah, let’s don’t put Cinderella in the milk because it makes her all sticky.”

Norah: “Mom, she’s getting baptized.”

What do you say to that?!

Last Sunday we were driving home from church and I was talking to her about not pushing kids in nursery and being kind to them like Jesus is. I asked:

“Do you want to be like Jesus, Norah?”

She replies, “No, I’m Noh-Nohs” (what she calls herself)

Well okay then…

Today, as I was trying to get ready to take us all to a doctors appt, I walked out of my room and found this:

Dog tattoo? Couldn’t keep a straight face as I was telling her “no!” on this one! Poor Higgs.

Note to self: don’t buy non-washable markers ever again.

Life with a two-year-old is crazy but she sure is making it fun!

California Dreamin

2010-03-28T19:15:00.001-07:00

Joel had a rare week off at the beginning of this month and we took a trip to sunny (sometimes) CA to visit his family and go to the beach. Our good friends, the MacDonalds, joined us for a couple of days. With the exception of a few days of overcast weather, we could not have had a better time! Here are some of the highlights:

The kid’s favorite day was probably this one- spent at Dennis the Menace park…

The following day was at the Aquarium and Cannery Row:

This is a seadragon- not a plant!

Future engagement pictures…haha. These two were so cute together:

Finally, Point Lobos and the beach…

After the beach we went to stay at La Colina where we delighted in spending time with Grandma Vicki and Dr. Papa for a couple of days, had a serious Bandi photo shoot and stayed up way too late hanging with two of our favorite people. Thanks to everyone for making us feel loved.

We’re already dreaming up our next trip…

Hats On

2010-03-24T19:47:00.001-07:00

This was a month or so ago (yes, I am behind) and I forgot to post it… it made me laugh. Norah was rummaging through her closet one day and pulled out a couple of hats that Aunt Caroline had sent to us a while back. She tried several on before deciding on her favorite. She even chose one for Ezra but he wasn’t so jazzed about it. Maybe it was the pink…

Sittin’ around…

2010-03-16T14:37:00.001-07:00

Six months and sitting! A whole new world has opened up… for both of us.

His “I’m so happy I can hardly take it” face

5 months…

2010-02-21T19:05:00.001-08:00

I can’t believe how fast they grow! Ezra just turned six months but I snapped these a few weeks ago and haven’t had time to post them. He still loves his tongue! Does it get any cuter?

Lost of fun…

2010-02-21T18:58:00.001-08:00

To celebrate the final season of Lost, we had a little get together with our friends the Gunn’s- complete with island-themed Dharma food (pulled pork sandwiches from Pappy’s, mango salsa, pineapple and coconut ice cream and macaroons for dessert- so yummy!), tropical decorations (I put every plant in the house in the “viewing” room) and, yes, costumes! Wish I could have captured the moment we all saw each other… it was hilarious!

Can you guess who they are???

Goodbye George…

2010-02-10T12:20:00.001-08:00

George has officially left St. Louis but there was a going away party for him at the Magic House that Norah did not want to miss. Finally got a picture of her and George too… (although not a very good one…she is holding his hand!)

Play Day

2010-02-07T14:47:00.001-08:00

One day last week, the day after the realtor came to look at our house and after I had spent hours upon hours cleaning and organizing and Joel was on call at the hospital, I decided that I was going to have a work-free play day with my kids. We all needed it.

We started the morning off (of course) by making cookies! Norah loves to help and has even advanced to turning on the kitchenaid when the dough is ready to be mixed. After licking a few spoons and plopping the cookies in the oven, Ezra went down for a nap and Norah got her first glimpse into the world of nail polish. She chose pink for her nails, orange for her toes and loved every minute of it.

I am obsessed with her feet!

When Ezra woke up, we piled in the car, delivered some of the cookies to a few neighbors and then headed to the bookstore where Norah got to play with trains and stuffed animals to her heart’s delight. We had a gift card to the store so she even got to choose a book to take home with her- a rare treat!

We got home and had a special “bean soup” lunch- Norah’s favorite. Then the kids napped and I took a little “me” time- also, much needed.

When naps were over we climbed back into the car and drove to the library to get this:

Norah has never seen it (although she has several Ariel toys and books) and it is one of my all-time favorite movies. I still remember seeing it in the theater for the first time when I was a little girl and all the emotions that came with it. My littlest sister watched it so many times when it came out on DVD that I (still) have every line and song memorized.

We both put on our PJs, put Ezra to bed, popped a big bowl of popcorn and snuggled up together in my bed for an evening of mermaids and song! I did have to skip through every scene with Ursula (she is only two) but nonetheless, it was magic. It was one of the most enjoyable days I have had in a long time.

Treasured

2010-01-25T12:46:00.001-08:00

I love this man.

He has always been adorable.

He has always been funny and fun to be with.

He has always been a good friend.

He will always be a great doctor.

He will always be an amazing father.

He will always be my best friend.

Happy 30th Birthday babe. I love you.

Collection

2010-01-10T11:10:00.001-08:00

Forgot about this…

For about a month after Halloween (when I finally decided to pack up all of the decorations) Norah carried her jack-o-lantern everywhere she went. She picked up things of interest to her and stowed them away in her little bucket of wonders. She kept an inventory of everything in it. For example, if I took out the half-eaten hershey’s bar and put it in the trash, it would somehow end up right back in the pumpkin. If she saw me using the makeup brush she kept in it she would say, “No, Mom!”, take it from me and quickly put it back in her stash.

Here’s what I found one day:

makeup brush
thing you you freeze to keep your breast milk cold (I’m sure these have an actual name)
one shoe
half-eaten Hershey Bar
golf ball
bracelet
empty wrapper
teaspoon
rubber band
toy horse
clothespin

The items would vary on different days as she would lose interest in one thing and be attracted to another. It was always fun to see what made it in the bucket.

Our little collector!

Four months

2010-01-07T18:00:00.001-08:00

Ezra has learned all kinds of things in the past week or so. It’s incredible how fast they learn! He rolled over on his own for the first time last week and I just happened to be taking his picture.

One

Two

Three!

In the last few weeks he has also found his tongue (as you can see), had his first bowl of rice cereal (loved every minute of it), started playing with his feet and is able to hold toys and put anything he can get a hold of in his mouth. It is truly a wonder to watch them grow!

We think he is starting to look a lot like his daddy. What do you think?

December

2010-01-05T19:38:00.001-08:00

Think I’ll just roll the whole month into one post. Whew.

We wanted to make December magical for Norah this year since it the first Christmas she understood what was going on. She immediately fell in love with Santa Claus, lights and Christmas trees. Here are some of the highlights of our month:

She first saw Santa at the mall a few days after Thanksgiving. A group of teenage girls were standing in front of him asking him various questions. (I heard one girl say, “Okay, seriously, you can tell me, are you the real Santa?” Classic.) Norah had no thought for any of the girls. The moment she saw Santa she started running, arms open wide, through a mess of legs, right into Santa’s lap. This Santa was amazing, real white beard, rosy cheeks, plump in the middle and a jolly chuckle. He picked her up, gave her a squeeze, an elf hat and a candy cane. She couldn’t have been more excited.

We went to another (deserted, half-abandoned) mall a few weeks later and found a Santa there who let us take a picture with our camera. This Santa was probably in this thirties but talked like he was still in high school. Norah was a little apprehensive… Note to self: don’t go see Santa in malls that are about to close down, even if there is no line on a Saturday in December.

Some of the other festivities included:

A trip to Santa’s Magical Kingdom. (A campground turned into a Christmas wonderland with lights and characters of all kinds. We drove through it.)
Picking out our Christmas tree. Norah was not happy about this when she realized all it involved was driving to a parking lot filled with boring, undecorated trees and walking through them in the cold rain. She did love getting it home and decorating it though.
Opening packages from our friends and family. One of her favorite times of day was when the mail came.
Making Nativity puppets with mom and watching the Christmas Day puppet show.
Playing and sleeping with Trixie the elf.
Reading stories about baby Jesus.
Driving down Candy Cane Lane. Another Christmas light drive. She LOVED the lights. Any time we were in the car and she would see them she would yell “Ahh! Christmas lights!”
Decorating Christmas cookies.
Christmas Eve with the Reagan’s. Feliz Navidad- yummy mexican food and a piñata!
New Christmas PJs.
And of course, waking on Christmas morning to see that Santa had actually come! Even if our basement did flood on Christmas Eve…

He came! Every night in December she slept with her “baby elf” and “mommy elf”. They have since gone back to the North Pole.

Ezra woke up just as we were finishing up the opening of presents. Happy first Christmas little boy!

Watching the Nativity puppet show put on by mom and dad.

I love December and all that it means. Happy Christmas.

Blessed

2010-01-05T19:37:00.001-08:00

We were fortunate enough to take a trip to Utah this year for Thanksgiving. It felt like we were going to be there awhile but somehow the time flew by and we didn’t get to see everyone we wanted to. We didn’t take very many pictures either. I will refer you here for a bit about our Thanksgiving. Thanks Kristen and Tyler!

We blessed Ezra at my parents house on November 22nd. It was wonderful to have family from both sides attend. Joel, as usual, gave a great blessing.

We are so thankful to have this little one join our family. You can’t tell from these pictures, but he is always smiling and laughing. He likes to cuddle, suck on his fingers, eat, watch his sister run around and he just learned how to roll over!

Two.

2010-01-01T20:16:00.001-08:00

Two months and no posts?! Sorry. A lot to catch up on…

Norah turned two on November 16th and to celebrate we had a few friends over for a party! Friends, yummy food, games, cake, and presents… what more could a little girl want?

Pin the tail on the donkey.. note to self: this game does not work so well with two-year-olds.

All of her friends her age are boys: We had Luke, Nolan and Harris over for the party…all very eligible bachelors :-)

The presents came out and all the kids wanted in on the action. Somehow Shannon still had the energy to play pretend…

Two of Norah’s favorite people… Lily and Megan.

Norah continues to amaze us as she grows into a little person. She pretty much has a full vocabulary now and is a constant source of entertainment as she says things all the time that should not be coming out of the mouth of a person her size. She looked at Ezra today (who had had his socks removed by his sister), looked at me, put her hand up and said:

“Okay mom, I will be right back. I am going to get brother’s shoes. His feet are cold.”

She loves Ezra (a little too much sometimes) and always has a smile for him. I think his favorite thing to do is watch her run around as she has never-ending energy.

Her nursery teachers have told us on several occasions that they think she is a genius. She always has the answers to all the questions and knows all of the words to the songs. Her teacher said that one time she was playing in the corner and he was asking questions to the class and she called out the answers from the corner, not really paying attention, when no one else knew them! She has an amazing memory and loves to talk- I think that helps.

She loves Dora the Explorer and Curious George at the moment. She can’t get enough books to read and would watch movies all day if we let her.

Norah is a light in our home. She makes us smile and laugh everyday. She couldn’t be more loved.

Happy Birthday Norah!

The Better to Eat You With My Dear…

2009-11-06T17:02:00.001-08:00

I thought the wolf was supposed to eat Little Red Riding Hood…

Halloween this year was a blast! We had a family from our ward with two young boys over and ate a yummy dinner, went trick-or-treating, decorated cookies and carved pumpkins. This was Norah’s first experience trick-or-treating- took her a few times to get the hang of it. She kept walking right into peoples houses! After a few lessons in trick-or-treating etiquette she was a pro and got extra candy at every door for being so cute! They have a tradition in St Louis where you have to tell a joke at the door or you don’t get your candy. The joke for the group was:

“Why can’t a bike stand on its own?”

“Because it’s two tired!”

Joel and I had fun creating Ezra’s costume. There wasn’t a pre-made baby wolf costume to be found so we had to improvise. Sort of a “Where the Wild Things Are" version of the big bad wolf.

Norah LOVED dressing up in her costume and asked to do so on a daily basis.

We already can’t wait til next year!

Countdown

2009-11-01T18:38:00.001-08:00

Halloween this year was so much fun with Norah. We started preparing her weeks in advance for the big day (the actual day will be in a post to follow). I bought her a Halloween book all about trick-or-treating, she helped me decorate the house, we made cookies in the shapes of bats, pumpkins and cats, and, of course, we took her to the pumpkin patch to choose out her very own pumpkin. She was in heaven...

Where to begin...

This one looks good!

This is Norah's "happy face"...classic.

This is what Ezra was doing.

Joel had to take this picture (several of them actually) because he knows stuff like this grosses me out... pumpkin tumors.

There were so many pre-Halloween festivities in St Louis that we couldn't possibly get to them all. We decided on two: the Magic House trick-or-treat and the ward "fall festival".

The Magic house is our local children's museum and it is incredible. Norah has really been in to Curious George lately and the museum has a Curious George exhibit going on. Norah loved the exhibit- lots of hands on stuff- but the best part of all was the life sized George or "Big George" as she calls him (guy dressed up in a Curious George suit). The look of absolute awe and wonder on her face when she first saw him was something that Joel and I will never forget. She spent the rest the night giving him hugs and kisses. He even let her hold his hand and walk around with him. I don't think she has ever been happier! Too bad we forgot our camera...

The ward party was great too. Norah was Little Red Riding Hood and one of Norah's favorite people, Lily, and her friend Lindsay, dressed up as the same thing! Norah loved marching along in the costume parade with two "older" girls!

The pre-festivities were a hit!

Butterflies!

2009-10-28T14:32:00.001-07:00

Joel and I got up one Saturday morning a few weeks ago and decided we wanted an adventure. The weather wasn't too pretty so we decided to make the 20 minute drive out to the Butterfly House and see what we could see. It was pretty amazing. Butterflies of all shapes and sizes flitting and floating around your head while you walk through a tropical rainforest. There were some other rather disturbing exhibits as well... a very large glass display of the biggest cockroaches I have ever seen, tarantulas, HUGE worms (these things could've been on King Kong!)... you get the picture. All in all, it was a great adventure!

2 Months

2009-10-28T14:03:00.001-07:00

He's a growing boy...over 14 lbs... and in the 94th percentile for weight! We couldn't love the little chunk more. Look at that sweet face!

We love you little boy!

Girls Day In.

2009-10-05T18:39:00.001-07:00

Norah has been loving all things princess lately and so one afternoon, when her brother was in one of those deep newborn sleeps, Norah and I decided to play princess. We fashioned crowns out of paper and dug around in my closet and jewelry box for our get-ups. We paraded around the house and couldn't stop looking in the mirror at how pretty we were. We ended the event with a princess tea party! Oh to be a little girl again...

Growing

2009-10-03T19:12:00.001-07:00

Here are some recent pics we have taken of Norah and Ezra. It is amazing how fast they grow! Norah is losing all of her "babyness" and Ezra is a chunk! My six-week-old looks like he is 3 months!

Norah is starting to say some of the funniest things! Her favorite movie right now is Toy Story 2. Yesterday I was feeding Ezra and Norah was in the other room playing with play dough. Out of nowhere I hear a voice from the kitchen shouting, "Yard sale, Woody, yard sale!" I about peed my pants laughing.

Some other Norahisms:

She LOVES to sing and is constantly talking a tune (doesn't quite have the melody thing down yet). The song she sings most: The Barney Song

In Norah:

Wuv you (I love you)

Wuv me (You love me)

a happy fam-ma-me (We're a happy family)

blanky hug (with a great big hug)

kiss me a you (and a kiss from me to you)

say you wuv me too (Won't you say you love me too)

She loves "cold doodles" (any type of pasta noodle with no sauce)

Any word that has the "eerie" sound it in she will take and repeat that sound before she finishes- just for fun: cereal is cerea-erea-ereal and ariel is arie-arie-arie-ariel - the number of times she does it varies and sometimes she won't do it at all- hilarious!

Ezra at one week

six weeks- our other bulldog!

Norah likes to share her toys... wonder how long it will last.

These are for Grandma Vicki... she's in her princess skirt and her "fairy godbrother" shirt!

Ezra Sanders Crockett

2009-08-22T20:07:00.001-07:00

He's here!! The newest addition to the Crockett clan.

Ezra Sanders Crockett

8.18.09 - 4:50pm

8lbs 5oz

20 inches

We couldn't be happier! I decided I couldn't wait any longer to get him here and went in to get induced about 4 days early... SO glad I did... he is a big boy! Things went pretty smoothly. Checked into the hospital around 9, got my epidural at noon and delivered Ezra at 4:50. He came out a little banged up and bruised but healed pretty quickly. He is absolutely adorable but we're still trying to find out who's kid he is! All that dark hair...we don't know where it came from!

Norah took to him immediately and her face still lights up every time she sees him. Sometimes she "loves" him a little too much. Our new favorite word is "soft".

He is definitely one loved kid...

Story Time

2009-08-16T20:52:00.001-07:00

Norah LOVES books right now. It is probably the thing she requests the most throughout the day. She loves looking at pictures, being read to, "reading" them herself and reading them to others- that includes dogs. The other morning she plopped down next to Higgins and said, "Read a book?" She proceeded to put one arm around his neck, open up the book and "read". It was one of the cutest things I have seen...

Goats!

2009-08-08T18:42:00.001-07:00

Joel and I took Norah to Grant's Farm the other day and she can't stop talking about how she got to feed the baby goats a bottle. Every time she sees a picture of a goat, hears the word "goat" (which is more often than you would think) or sometimes just at random, she will say "goats! Noh-noh's (what she calls her self) feed a bottle?" Then she wants to see the pictures once again. It is actually adorable. Here are the famous pictures...

She even got to ride the carousel. She couldn't have had a better day!

4th of July

2009-08-04T18:48:00.001-07:00

For the first time in three years we were able to celebrate the Fourth in St. Louis. Our city holds an annual carnival that is literally in our backyard and does fireworks from the same place. We were excited to be able to take Norah to the festivities this year- although we took her around 6:30 and she was extremely tired so she looks like she is in a daze in every picture. We tried!

Watching Higgins during the fireworks was a sight to see. He was so scared he didn't know what to do. He came outside with us before they stared and a few random ones went off. He scrambled under my chair and couldn't stop shaking. When the real thing started he couldn't take it. He did his fastest low-to-the-ground run (would have been an army crawl if he was human!) and darted inside. Joel went in to check on him and found him downstairs, under the bed in the guest bedroom trying to get in as deep as he could. Okay, so it was kind of sad and maybe we are bad people because we were laughing so hard... you would have laughed too. We spoke soothing words to him and gave him lots of extra love that night. He calmed right down. Needless to say the next night (they did fireworks Fri and Sat nights) he stayed inside and did much better.

Riding the choo-choo with daddy

Riding the carousel with daddy

The balloon ride with daddy and a random girl- daddy was so scared he couldn't keep his eyes open!

Mommy was very pregnant and couldn't go on the rides but had fun watching and taking the pictures but not being in them!

Back Again!

2009-08-04T18:21:00.001-07:00

And you thought I was done with the vacation posts. After San Francisco we finished out trip with a few more days in CA and then drove to UT and stayed for a couple of days. Joel drove home and I flew with Norah. Two weeks later... WE'RE BACK! Only Norah and I could make it but the reason was well worth the flight being 8 months pregnant with a squirmy toddler on my lap- Kyrstin's Wedding!

It was a crazy week- lots of last minute things to get done, a girl's night, going through the temple and not to mention the wedding. Kyrstin looked beautiful and I think it was all that she wanted it to be. I am so impressed with her and her ability to make everyone feel loved and appreciated. I love you Kiki!

Our girls night out... we went to Cafe Rio and saw The Proposal

The bride-to-be and her friends

Norah and JoJo waiting for the bride and groom to come out of the temple...

They did it! Doesn't she look gorgeous?

Jonas and Ryan at the reception

I left my heart…

2009-07-29T19:42:00.001-07:00

After the beach house we drove up to Joel’s parents house to visit for a weeks or so. It happened to be the week of our five year anniversary and we were privileged enough to drop Norah off with Joel’s brother’s family and go stay in San Francisco for a couple of days. We almost forgot what it felt like to sleep in. Almost.

We had a blast. We got to eat yummy food together, go on walks and we even got to see a movie! The highlight though was definitely the GoCar. We saw a couple of them whizzing around the city the first night we were there and on a whim decided to rent one for a few hours the next day. It was hilarious (and only a little dangerous)! We could not stop laughing the entire time. It was great because we were able to see parts of the city we had never seen before. The cars have GPS tours and guide you around while telling you about what you are seeing. You can also go off the tour and just drive around. These things are street legal though- you are literally driving in this miniature, three-wheeled car on the same street with buses and trolley cars! If you ever are in a city where these are available- do it! Here are some pics…

Getting suited up

My stud muffin

The GoCar

The drivers

A view from the road

Isn’t he handsome?!!

Trying to look cool with my helmet… not pulling it off.

One of our many scenic stops

The End

2009-07-29T19:20:00.001-07:00

The last few glorious days at the beach Joel, Norah and I spent in bliss. We relaxed, we found our own little private beach that we visited everyday, Joel golfed, I read books in the sun, we even drove down the coast to Big Sur and ate at the famous (to the Crockett family) Nepenthes. The food was overpriced but the view was unparalleled. Needless to say we were sad to leave…

The view from the restaurant

Norah’s favorite game was throwing rocks into the water with Dad

It doesn’t get much better…

THE END.

Part Three

2009-07-25T18:51:00.001-07:00

One by one my family had to pack up and leave. Unfortunately for them, on the day the last car pulled out the weather turned gorgeous. Joel and I got to stay there for another five days! We lived it up...

We rented a surrey and biked along the coast... hilarious!

A stop to look at the sealions

Higgs had to stay back at the beach house... poor guy.

Only one more beach post. I promise.

Part Two

2009-07-25T18:30:00.001-07:00

One of the highlights of the trip was our visit to The Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is one of the biggest and best in the world... the kids were in heaven. Well, most of the kids. Norah loved it but she was so tired from all the excitement that we had a few mishaps...

Exhibit A: The Touchpools

If you look closely, in the back left of this picture there is a starfish, a live starfish. Norah was enjoying herself, touching the seaweed and the abalone when she suddenly noticed a bright orange star that she just had to have. If any of you have been to the aquarium, this one in particular, you will know that everyone there is very animal rights friendly, save the Earth and our Oceans, etc., etc. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Is just makes it all the worse when the following occurs:

Norah picks the starfish up out of the water.

Me: (horrified because people are staring) "Norah, we don't pick that up- it needs to stay in the water. You can touch it but please put it back."

Norah: "Nooooo!"

Me: "Put it in the water, Norah"

She tightens her grip on the starfish.

At this point I give up trying to talk to her and try to get it out of her hands. She does not want to let the it go. We are wrestling with it when she finally decides that she will take charge and she proceeds to take it and hurl it on the ground!

I am mortified and people are giving me the "why can't that woman control her child look". I scramble to pick up the starfish, hoping that it is still alive, put it back into the pool, grab Norah and book it out of there expecting security to stop me at any moment. Luckily we weren't arrested for a starfish murder.

That was just one of the many fun moments!

Emma and Norah

Norah and Jonas in the whale exhibit

The seahorse exhibit was one of the favorites!

The next day, Kassy and I took the kids to Dennis the Menace Park. It is a massive park in Monterey with paddle boats and all the works- need I say more?

Where's Norah?

The roller slide was definitely the favorite

Still more to come...

To the Beach!

2009-07-21T19:50:00.001-07:00

Right after Zion we headed northwest to the most beautiful place on Earth- the beach house! Joel's parents were kind enough to let the McGlochlin clan crash their house in Pacific Grove, CA... what a week! Carmel, Monterey, 17-mile drive, Point Lobos, The Aquarium and Dennis the Menace Park to name a few. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate when everyone was there but we still had a blast. This post will have to be done in parts...

The Clan

The Girls

The Guys

Kassy and family

Blake and Bryndie

A walk on the beach

Hiking at Point Lobos

Emma and Jonas

Grandpa and Jo Jo - Blake and the girls

Views from the hike - are you kidding me?!

Norah wasn't a fan of the hiking backpack

To be continued...

On the Road Again...

2009-07-21T19:02:00.001-07:00

After a few days in Utah we hit the road and drove south to St. George to visit Cami, Jay and family over Memorial Day weekend. We ate out, swam and got in some good hanging out time. Norah was in heaven with the five boys that were there. She couldn't quite keep all their names straight so every time she saw one of them she would say "Hi Boy!" We were even able to see Great Grandpa and Grandma Kramer! Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures... What were we thinking?!

On our last day of the trip Joel, Norah and I drove to Zion National Park to see the sites. The weather was gorgeous and the scenery breathtaking. Here are a few of the moments we captured:

A shot from the road

Norah, ready to start the hike

A rattlesnake on the trail!

Waiting for the shuttle after having a snack

Are we done yet?

The Last Hoorah

2009-07-17T18:49:00.001-07:00

Joel graduated from medical school on May 15th and didn't start his residency until June 23rd. We were the lucky ones that weren't trying to move and settle into a new city like all of our friends so we decided to take an extended vacation, one last hoorah before the real job and real life started. We were able to do so much and see most all of our family! I will post this in parts because there is so much tell...

We began in Utah, I flew out with Norah and Joel drove with his brother Tyler and Higgins (he wasn't about to take an18th month old on a 20 hour drive). Tyler and his wife Kristin were generous enough to let us stay at their house for a few days. One of the highlights was a trip to Thanksgiving Point to see the farm animals with my sister Kassy and her kids and Kristin and the kids. Norah was spoiled with cousins from both sides! The horses were the highlight...

Jonas with a his tough guy face

Miss horse herself, Emma. She is obsessed.

Lauren and her famous picture smile

Charlotte, the most photogenic kid alive... These were taken in Tyler and Kristin's masterpiece- their backyard. It is massive and beautiful.

The boys- Seth and Carden

The other bulldog- Higgs cousin Angus. He's twice the size of Higgins!

Joel Crockett, M.D.

2009-07-17T17:33:00.001-07:00

So this is old news by now but I wanted to document because I am SO incredibly proud of Joel. He is officially an M.D. He graduated from Saint Louis University School of Medicine on May 14, 2009. His entire family (minus Ben) came out to see him and celebrate. We definitely had a full house but Joel couldn’t have felt more loved and supported.

Those four miserable years of pain have finally come to and end and I think Joel is (finally) breathing a sigh of relief. He has started his transition year at St. John’s Hospital here in St. Louis and actually enjoying himself! Life is better on the other side…

Here are some pics from the event:

Joel on the big screen getting his hood

Joel with his parents

Love this picture

Pete and Joel – lots of late nights, diet coke and halo

Joel and his siblings

Joel, I couldn’t be more proud and excited for you. I am so grateful for all that you do for me and our family. I love you. Lots.

Aaaahhh, summer nights...

2009-07-01T19:00:00.001-07:00

You know how you get so behind at something that you don't even want to start because you know it will take you ages to dig yourself out of the hole you have created? Yeah... no posts since Easter should say it all. We went on vacation for five weeks and I have so much to post! I'm going to try to catch up but it may take a few weeks so check back often...

I took these pictures one night before we left. It was one of those perfect nights where you go outside and you feel like the air is massaging your skin. I wait all winter for those nights.

Norah couldn't have been cuter. She loves being outside and exploring the backyard. We have a dog door that Higgins uses to get outside and Norah will occasionally use it to get in to the house. She's only used it when we are with her... until the other day. We had conversation that went something like this:

Norah: "Mom, I want to go outside!" (yes, she is speaking in complete sentences now and it kind of scares me)

Me: "Not right now sweetie, mommy needs to finish getting ready and we need to get your pants and shoes on before we go outside."

Norah: "I want to go outside!"

Me: "We will go outside in a few minutes, okay sweetie?"

Norah: "I want to go outside!"

Me: "Let's get your shoes on first, okay?"

I proceeded to finish getting ready but noticed the house suddenly got very quiet. I went to look for her but couldn't find her. I glanced out the kitchen window and saw my little blonde ragamuffin outside in the backyard in her diaper and without shoes digging in the dirt with her shovel. It was hilarious! I am in trouble...

Easters!

2009-04-14T14:54:00.001-07:00

The Easter bunny visited our house on Sunday morning and Norah got her first experience with eggs, baskets, candy (too much!), new dresses and Easter grass. We did a quick "find the Easter basket" game, let her sift through her things, took pictures and then it was off to Stake Conference where we were privileged to hear Elder Oaks and President Monson speak via satellite- that was the real highlight of the day. Although watching Norah prance around in her dress was pretty cute.

We could not get her to smile for anything- this was the closest we got.

Later that evening, we had a few friends over for a traditional Easter dinner and an Easter egg hunt in the backyard afterwards! All in all it was a fantastic Easter...

Norah found an egg! And we all loved Emily's Elmo Easter basket!

Caleb and Tyler filler their baskets!

News...

2009-04-10T13:05:00.001-07:00

So I am WAY behind on posting this and most of you have already heard but I will share anyway. March 19th was match day for Joel and his fellow Class of 2009 med students. Match day is this crazy day where everyone's fates are revealed with the tear of an envelope. You could almost taste the anxiety in the air. Nobody should have to go through this. Joel's name was near the bottom of the list and as he went up front to get his envelope my butterflies started going (I can't imagine what Joel was going through). He took WAY to long to get back to us, ripped open the envelope and then all was revealed...

Joel matched in Dermatology at Wright State in Dayton, OH!

He is doing his transition year here in St Louis at St John's Hospital and then it's off to OH for us. We never thought we would mid westerners for 8 years but are happy and excited for this next venture in our lives.

We are SOOOOOO incredibly proud of Joel. Dermatology was one of the hardest residencies to get into this year. Only 2 of the 4 in his class that were applying to derm matched. He has worked so hard these past four years and pretty much hated every minute of it. His hard work definitely paid off. We love you Joel!!!

We've also had some other exciting news... we went in for our ultrasound on March 28th and found out we are having a boy! Our little guy is due Aug 22nd and we cannot wait to meet him! If anyone has any good name suggestions please share- we are at a total loss for boy names...

Some Things Never Change.

2009-04-05T18:05:00.000-07:00

Higgins can still make Norah laugh harder than anyone else...

(this is kind of long but I couldn't figure out how to just put in a clip)

The Windy City...

2009-03-15T20:25:00.001-07:00

On a whim, Joel and I decided to take a trip to Chicago. It's something we've wanted to do since we moved here and we thought, why not? So, Friday morning we loaded up the car and made the four hour drive up to the big city. The drive went surprisingly well with a fifteen-month-old in tow (movies on the laptop saved us!). We arrived to a beautiful 60 degree day, checked into our hotel and headed down to Navy Pier for some fun...

Lots to see on the Pier... shops, boats, a giant ferris wheel, and a breathtaking view at the end of it all. Okay so it was a little disappointing... there wasn't a whole lot open or running but the view at the end was great! (yes, that is ice behind us in the lake!)

Norah got to play in the park at the end of it all and was SO happy to be out of the stroller!

The next day was pure comedy... we got up and decided to walk to Millennium Park and then on to the art museum. It's not called the windy city for nothing! We walked out into the freezing wind and started through the park (which was amazing... the sculptures from Frank Geary were crazy!), halfway through it started pouring rain. We ran to the parking structure for cover and after about 15 minutes we decided to make a run for it to the museum. We arrived soaking wet (did I mention we forgot our umbrella?!), ready to see all that museum had to offer... unfortunately, Norah had other plans. She was tired of being in the stroller and just wanted to run around. That doesn't work so well in museum... we saw about 1/3 of what we wanted to and then gave up, got some food at the cafe and went back to our hotel so Norah could take a much needed nap.

The rain didn't let up that night so we ended up letting Norah run around in the hotel lobby (she loved the fountains and the escalators) and grabbed some food nearby.

The next day we woke up and grabbed brunch at a favorite local restaurant- yummy- and that afternoon we walked down the Magnificent Mile, gawked at the amazing architecture, strolled through the shops and grabbed dinner. We bought Norah some gloves that she was so proud of...

Don't worry... that white thing on her chin is just a bandage holding the cut she got earlier in the day when she slipped in the bathroom and split her chin open on the edge of the bathtub... it was so sad...what a day!

The next morning was much better... the sun was shining (of course on the day we leave!) and before we left town we stopped at the Garfield Park Conservatory. It was heaven on Earth! They had several different rooms with different types of vegetation. Our favorites were the Fern Room and the Flower Room- they even had an area just for kids. We wanted to spend all day there...

All-in-all it was fun family trip but we decided, for any future vacations, we won't be taking any trips to big cities unless we are alone or have another couple with us so we can switch off babysitting... otherwise, it's the beach for us!

Cute.

2009-02-23T11:23:00.001-08:00

Front Page News!

2009-02-23T11:13:00.001-08:00

Okay, so skip the article about the Obama inauguration right on down to the other large article on the front page of our local newspaper. It’s Norah!

Our city, Webster Groves, has that good old small town feel in the midst of a relatively large city. We have a community center just for town residents where, in the summer, all the children and their parents can be seen swimming, playing tennis, roller hockey and skating boarding. We have our own little library that looks like it was constructed in the early twentieth century with all the charm of buildings from that era. Norah and I visit the library a couple times a month. They have puzzles, books and toys galore and she loves being there. The library is trying to expand and one day while we were there a photographer from the newspaper asked if she could take a picture of Norah for the paper. Weren’t we surprised when a few weeks later she ended up on the front page!

Happy Birthday to you!

2009-01-25T15:22:00.001-08:00

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

2009-01-11T14:11:00.001-08:00

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

2009-01-06T18:48:00.001-08:00

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

2009-01-06T18:20:00.001-08:00

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

2009-01-04T18:30:00.001-08:00

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!

Sarah Jane Landvatter

2008-11-30T20:22:00.001-08:00

My newest niece!

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

OME!

2008-11-30T19:00:00.001-08:00

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 Baby

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

2008-11-26T20:01:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-11-26T19:22:00.001-08:00

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.

2008-11-16T19:53:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-02T18:35:00.001-08:00

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.

2008-10-27T19:11:00.001-07:00

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!

Babies and Bulldogs...

2008-10-26T18:55:00.001-07:00

So, I've joined the ranks of the bloggers. And I'm really excited about it. In between being a mommy, naptime, playtime, ArtRiver, dinner, family time, preparing lessons and the many other things that keep me on my toes, I hope to be able to record moments in my life about my baby (hopefully babies someday) and bulldog (Joel is praying that will be plural someday too). Moments about all of our little things. I want a record for my family about the wonderful life that we share and all of the many blessings we have been given.

Here are the troops:

This is Norah and Higgins when Norah was about five months old. She is still in love with him although now it has become a game where Norah chases Higgins around hoping to get a piece of his ear or jowl while Higgins scrambles away in fright. He is not her biggest fan right now. More to come...