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!

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!