Aaaahhh, summer nights...

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!

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...

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.

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...

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.

Front Page News!

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!