Guess What?!

Santa Writes Back!

Noelleisim: When she gets up in the morning she usually pulls all her blankets off of her bed (including the top sheet) and drags them into our room. Annoying! I hate having to totally remake the bed which always messes up the bed skirt, etc.

The other day I was fixing her bed and she was helping me. Now, several times I have heard her use the word 'lamb' when making the bed but thought she was just talking about who knows what.

Noelle: "Mommy, get the lamb"

Mommy: "The lamb? What lamb? We're making your bed."

Noelle: (holding up the sheet) "You know...the sheep."

World's Best Babysitters!

Saturday night Aaron's boss had everyone over for a Christmas party. And you know what? Corona is really far away. We had to drive through pouring rain and saw 7 accidents on the way there but we finally made it and had a really nice time. The girls got to stay with their grandparents, Auntie and Unc. The world's best babysitters. Of course they had the best time ever. My favorite part? Whenever I pick them up, it always takes at least a half an hour because they have to tell me all the cute, funny, and amazing things the girls did all night.

They are very modern girls.

While watching Ice Age they played with their devices.

Noelle Unc's old cell phone and Madeleine the old remote.

T-R-O-U-B-L-E

Finally...this darling baby is into any & everything! My goodness. It was exactly 4 Saturday mornings ago we woke up and came downstairs. She wiggled out of my arms and was off to explore. Has hardly looked back ever since.

She found a yogurt container that Noelle had left on the table. She made mess but had such a good time, I did not have the heart to take it away. I love seeing her explore, squishing things between her fingers and feelings different textures.

You can almost see her brain working and absorbing information.

Christmastime #2

Noelle has had her Christmas list for Santa memorized for weeks and we often talk about it. Today at school they wrote letters to Santa. I guess she changed her mind last minute:

Yesterday Madeleine and I went on a frosty morning run. She looked like Rudolph pulling the sleigh (jogging stroller.)

Christmastime

Tonight we went to our Church's annual Creche display. It huge and it's beautiful! Hundreds and hundreds of different Nativity scenes of all different shapes, colors and sizes. There was even a teeny-tiny one squeezed into half of a pistachio shell. This event is put on by our church but it is totally non-denominational. Each night they have music by different choirs and musicians. Tonight is the last night and the parking lot was packed.

This year I feel like I have been doing nothing but running in circles. I'm so busy, I'm hardly enjoying myself. But I sure am trying to make it special for my darling Noelle and she is loving it. She really is 'getting' it more this year and there are no words to explain seeing the joy of Christmas through your child's eyes.

As we were getting ready to head over to the church tonight I was talking to Noelle about how we celebrate Christmas becuse it's Jesus' birthday. I know she's heard it before but this time her little face lit up, she caught her breath, broke into a huge smile and said, "Jesus and I both have birthday's in December!" Then as we were looking at all the nativity scenes, in the corner there was a Swedish puppet show (sounds weird but was neat) she saw baby Jesus in the manger and said, "Look Jesus is a baby like my sister and I was a baby, too." She was so excited by these little epiphanies.

And when she came downstairs this morning and saw all the lights and garland hung around the house she let out a big gasp and told me that the house looked, "Beautiful!"

I love her so much and I'm so glad she's mine.

Good Time Girls

Poor little Madeleine-Girl.

It takes forever for the water to heat up in the shower

so I always turn it on and then get our clothes ready.

This unsuspecting girl crawled right in.

Luckily it was mostly warm.

Last night before bed Noelle started pushing Madeleine

around on her new toy that we got her for her birthday.

They had the best time!

Noelle got going way too fast for my taste

but the night ended with no injuries or crying so I can't complain.

Our One Year Old

Our darling baby girl is no longer considered an infant.

It is so very, very bittersweet.

I was up the night before until 2:00 am getting things ready. By 7:00am I was in the kitchen, back at it again. We got over to Auntie's by 2:00 and the power had just gone out. We finally got the generator going (yea for camping!) and the cooking back on track. We finally ate and I must say it was the BEST thanksgiving meal I have ever had. It was a great meal to share with our dear family that we love so much. It was a fantastic day!

Next was onto the birthday party! My poor girl was so tired and would not take a nap so we just went fast so we could get her to bed. I was so excited for her cake and although it did turn out cute, it was nothing like I had envisioned.

I just had too much to do given her birthday and the holiday.

I don't think she knew what to do when we put this huge thing in front of her. She just kept licking it. After we cut it and she got a piece she loved squishing it in between her fingers. Such a wonderful mess!

Lastly, it was presents. We got a couple of fun toys, an outfit and couple of stuffed animals. One of which sings Happy Birthday in Grandma Honey's voice. So cute.

All in all, it was such a great day! The power outage threw things off and sort of messed a few things up. I didn't get to put up all the cute birthday decorations I got and we were so rushed but there is so, so, so much to be Thankful for and we are blessed beyond words! By 6:30 I was literally dead on my feet. We went home and went to bed

Here are some facts about our precious girl:

• She smiles and waves at everyone.
• Gives kisses on command (albeit sometimes they are open mouthed & WET!)
• She is a lover of ALL things food! Fruit, crackers, meat, bread, yogurt, cereal, vegetables.
• Her favorite toys are those that open and close. So intriguing.
• She has the best laugh.
• Has a great set of chompers and bites her Mama. I've got little bruises everywhere.
• She loves her family. Anytime Mommy, Daddy or Sister walk in the room she lights up.
• She loves to climb the stairs, it makes her Mommy panic.
• Very early riser. Ugh.
• Has quite a temper and an angry squeal.
• Is a snuggle bear.
• Is a pianist. Crawls over the the piano and reaches up to tap the keys.
• No walking yet but she's taken her time doing everything else, too.
• Says: Mama, Dada, Nana, and Uh-Oh
• I could go on for days....
  

There are no words to tell you, Madeleine, how much we love you!

You've brought so much joy to us and made us a family unit. We're excited to watch you grow and develop. There is no greater blessing than being your parents. You are an absolute dream come true.

Thank you for picking me to be your Mommy, Madeleine Gracie-Girl!

Oh, what a difference a year makes!

STATS:

Height: 29 1/4 inches - 53%

Weight: 21 lbs 12 oz - 62%

Cookie Time X 2

Noelle saw these cookies on TV and wanted to make them REALLY bad. So we got together with our friends and got to work. It was FUN! We are so blessed to have such good friends that we have such a good time with.

We love, love, love Sundays around here. It's our one and only day out of the week that we usually don't plan anything (except church!) and spend the day as a family. But, I remember Sundays being SOOOOOO boring when I was a kid - there was nothing to do and my parents napped. I don't want Noelle to fall into the TV trap for hours. So, we are always trying to find ways to keep ourselves busy with so many consecutive hours at home. Yesterday was number cookies.

While the dough was chilling Daddy and Noelle started in on some of the frosting. Little Stinkers. Even Sweet M got her first taste of frosting (which I wasn't happy about!)

Then came time for the real deal.

Is there anything better than all that yumminess while wearing your jammies?

Murmuring Update

Yesterday we went and saw the Pediatric Cardiologist (Dr. Leong) to have Madeleine's murmur checked.

She is 100% healthy and her health is NOT being affected by any of this. It will require some follow up.

She has two things going on: First off she has a small leak in her Mitral Valve. No biggie. Common. Second: As I mentioned before when she was born her PDA failed to close right away, it was still open when they did an echo, still could be heard at one week, and could no longer be heard by two weeks. But, Dr. Leong could see on the echo that it is not completely closed. Again, it is a very small narrowing and not affecting her at all but it is very uncommon for this to happen.

These things just cause her heart to be a little less efficient. Say for example it is causing 1% of her blood volume to leak out where it is not supposed to. Let's also say that her heart should beat at 100 beats per minute but now has to beat at 101 bpm to make up the difference. This will not cause any negative affects at this point.

He spent a lot of time talking to me gave me loads and loads of information that I will spare you all. We will go back in 6 months to make sure they have gone away or stayed the same.

Both My Babies

Yesterday afternoon Unc called and asked if Noelle could come over for a sleep over. It took us all of about .03 seconds to respond, "YES!" It has been a while and they were long over due for some quality time.

After he came to pick her up, M went down for a nap. I closed my bedroom door on my messy, dirty house and did the same. It felt goooooood.

Then Aaron came home from work early, Liz watched M, and we went to see a movie. Can you believe it!? In the theatre. Not from our couch. On a Wednesday night. We walked into the theatre holding hands and not worrying about anything else. It was fantastic. We have not been on a solo date since child #2. Ridiculous.

The highlight of my story:

When I picked up Noelle today she heard me coming and came running into my arms. When I picked her up she started rubbing my arm with her little hand and said, "Oh, mommy now you have both of your babies again."

Totally Irresponsible...

Yep, that's me!

The last thing I should have done was to buy myself a new camera. But I did it anyway.

I've been desperately wanting one for a good year. I've scrimped everywhere possible while saving my babysitting money and pulled a few strings...

Thanks to my darling husband who helped make it happen.

The pictures are amazing and I've yet to spend time learning.

Yesterday playing in the backyard...

I love it when I can just hang back, observe and watch them play.

My favorite part was when Noelle looked up and said, "Look Mommy! The Sky has polka dots!"

My Grandma had her shoulder replaced so she spent a few days at a rehabilitation facility, while we were outside visiting Noelle was jumping and dancing around.

Oh, how I love the care free life she is able to live

Madeleine LOVES apples.

She doesn't want little baby pieces, either.

Give her the whole things and she will work it to death.

Our ward had the Primary Program on Sunday. It was awesome. All the kids did great!

Noelle's line was, "Mothers nurture the family."

I seriously need professional help. I knew her turn was coming...I saw her step up to the microphone and heard her sweet little voice. I almost lost it. I looked over at Aaron - his lip was quivering and his eyes were brimming with tears. He whispered,"Oh, Mom. She's getting too big."

Little stinker would not cooperate for pictures...these are the best I could do.

I actually think they're pretty funny.

11 Months

On the October 26th Madeleine turned 11 months old.

In 3 weeks, on Thanksgiving Day, she will be one year. Unbelievable!

We are so in love with this darling girl.

She has the sweetest face, softest skin, and is just plain irresistible.

Want to know what else? She waves. Constantly. At everyone.

It all began when we were saying good-bye to Amy & Joseph in Texas...she waved good-bye to them. So tender. A week or so before it I thought she did it to someone else but had yet to do it again. Then as we were walking through the airport she was waving at all the people walking by. On the plane as people were coming down the aisle, once again, her little hand flapped up and down at each person. Precious is a huge understatement.

Now, no matter where we are as soon as someone starts cooing at her, looking her way, smiling or whatever she starts her wave. If she doesn't, I tell her to say, "Hi!" She breaks into a big grin and starts waving. Some old ladies have even gotten teary over her.

Sleeping has been a challenge lately, plus daylight savings. Let's just say I have not slept past 5:00am in almost two weeks. Some mornings it has been 4:00am. But, she 's so funny and cute it's hard to hold it against her. Even Aaron who HATES mornings starts to laugh when she crawls on top of him (in the dark), starts her giggle/growl and pulls on his nose.

She is getting even better about going off and playing on her own, even made a few messes along the way! But still follows me around crying while I try to side step her a lot of the time. Sometimes I just have to get a few things done! But eventually she gets a hold of the back of my legs, pulls herself up and I am stuck. She'll be walking soon!

We love you Sunshine Girl!

Thank you for all the love, fun, and laughs.

Amazing

Madeleine fell asleep on the way to pre-school this morning and she slept in her car seat all the way until.....you're not going to believe this....11:00!

I think I had to most productive 2.5 hours of my life!

4 loads of clothes washed, folded and PUT AWAY

Picked up whole house

Cleaned kitchen counters

All the floors swept and mopped

Removed, washed and replaced all the bed sheets

Dusted downstairs

Cleaned bathrooms

Made phone calls

Scrubbed out the kitchen sink

Had you been at my house you may have confused me with:

Noelle-ism

I have not been good at writing down these lately but this made me chuckle and melt inside at the same time.

I do believe I have spoken of how Noelle likes to talk about her, 'bodily functions.' When something on her body makes a noise she giggles and asks me, "Who/What was that?"

A couple of nights ago:

Noelle: *Giggle* "What was that?"

Mommy: "Did you burp?"

Noelle: *Giggle* "Noooooooooooooo!"

Mommy: "Did you pass gas?"

Noelle: *Giggle* "Noooooooooooooo!"

Mommy: "Well, then what?"

Noelle: "My tummy squished. That's all." *Giggle*

Trick-or-Treat!

Man-Oh-Man, was this year FUN! We had all kinds of festivities and Noelle was having the time of her life at every single one. Madeleine spent most of her time hanging out in the stroller, but next year she'll be right in there.

Tuesday night started out with our ward trunk-or-treat. We began inside (the decorations were awesome!) with a chili cook-off (I won 2nd place!) & hot dogs, an awesome slide show, carnival games, and a spook alley. Then the kids had a costume parade and finally it was CANDY time. Noelle did this last year but did not really remember, it took her all of about 3 seconds to get it again. Poor little M had not really gotten a chance to nap during the day and was miserable. I finally got smart and put her to sleep in her stroller. She missed out on all the fun. :(

Noelle could not wait for Friday to come so she could dress up in her Pony costume again for school. She loved everything about it - the hood, the mascara, the pink nose. It was so much fun! Parents came for the last 10 minutes of class for a costume parade (to the tune of Ghost Busters) she was so excited to see me there she almost burst!

Saturday was finally the real deal. She talked about dressing up all day but fell asleep in the car while we were running errands. I could NOT get her to wake up, I tried everything. It finally took us walking out the door without her. We had a soup pot luck (yum!) with some friends and then were off to terrorize our neighborhood. It was a big undertaking going out with 10 kids and their parents but the memories made were fantastic!

I love living out my suburban fantasy life!

Our Halloween Girls

My darling friend Kelsi made her daughter Georgia, my girls, and Melanie's daughter Norah matching Halloween skirts. They are to die for. I've taken pictures to post but my blogging habits stink these days. So here's this! We took them to Picture People and this was the best shot we got, can't see the skirts too well, but under the circumstances not bad.

Can you stand how cute they all are?

Some Fun Times...

We've gotten to eat out a couple more times at Friends & Family nights at brand new restaurants that Aaron sold. The only thing better than eating out is eating out for free!

No, Aaron would not be caught dead wearing this hat. I mean, seriously, that would mess up his hair. Noelle begged him to put it on and I snapped this before he could get it off.

Noelle asked our server if she could have a pink balloon and he gave her the whole bouquet. It seriously made her life! She was so excited she fell asleep holding onto them.

Murmuring...

Last Wednesday when Madeleine woke up from her nap and her little body was on fire. I took her temperature and it was 104.8, GASP! The raging fever continued through Friday and although she had no other symptoms and Motrin would knock it right out, after 48 hours of it, I wanted to error on the side of caution. We called the doctor but she was out of town so they sent me to her back-up, it was just a virus (always!) but he asked what our doctor thought of her heart murmur. "Uh, What? She doesn't have one." He said he absolutely heard one and they can be brought on by fevers (because the body has to work extra hard putting off all that heat) but at the time she'd had Motrin so was her fever was down. He said to make sure we talked Dr. Kasel about it.

It was a slightly disconcerting but I knew it was somehow related to the fever, plus kids have harmless murmurs all the time. And, she had an Echo done the day after she was born because her PDA did not close right away. So, her heart is fine.

Let me just give a shout out to Dr. Kasel's office. She was out of town at a conference and her office manager called back at 7:00pm Friday night to say that she had gotten a hold of her in Boston to ask her how she wanted to handle it. Who does that? Seriously awesome. She thought it was probably fever related, give her a couple of days to get better and have us come in.

We followed up yesterday, I thought for sure it would be gone but nope. We see a Cardiologist on 11/13 for another Echo.

Wish us luck. Madeleine can't stand for me to hold her still to change her diaper let alone this!

Pumpkin Patch

On Monday Noelle's preschool had their first field trip - to the pumpkin patch! Noelle had the best time ever.

After she picked out her perfect pumpkin she could not get the stinkin' thing in the bag. But, she did NOT want any help from me. Oh, this age is such fun.

Noelle loves her friend Sean. She is so glad they get to go to school together (and he now lives across the street.) We tried to get them to stand together for a picture but it wasn't easy. Eventually Noelle just went straight for her man. That's my girl! :)

Here is a not so good mothering moment. Madeleine was miserable pretty much the whole time we were there and I did not have a stroller so my arms were killing me. It was tough for everyone. At breakfast I tried to feed her some banana and cereal and only wanted a couple of bites so I figured she wasn't hungry. While we were there I tried to give her some of Noelle's sandwich, again, after a few bites she was done. I chalked the misery up to her being really tired. After she slept in her car seat for a little while and we got home she was almost inconsolable. Crying, crying, crying. Finally, I put her in her chair and fed her some some dinner I had blended from the night before. She inhaled two bowels of it and was my happy girl once again. Poor girl was starving.

So Relieved!

As most of you guys who read this saw on Facebook - I did it! I ran a half marathon. I'm so happy! More than anything, the anxiety of the unknown is gone. Everyone was telling me to just enjoy the experience but I really wanted to get a good time. I guess I'm competitive! I reeeeeeally wanted to run it in two hours, although I knew that since it was my first one that would be unlikely. A girl can hope though!

Saturday we had to drive down to Long Beach to pick up my packet and bib (too many people to have you pick up your info on race day.) And coincidentally there was a VIP night for a new Buffalo Wild Wings that Aaron sold in Lake Forest. So, afterwards we headed over for a free night of fun and wings. I, obviously, was not eating wings but we sure had fun! Just look at these sweet faces.

Aaron's going to kill me when he sees that I posted this picture but it's too funny. Two cheerleaders from the San Diego Chargers were there raising money for charity.

After dinner we drove to Manhattan Beach to stay the night with Marin. Being the awesome cousin that she is, gave us her room and hit she the couch for the night. I hardly slept a wink, kids coughing, potty breaks, husband snoring, toilet leaking, you name it. Just as I began to drift off my alarm sounded at the awful hour of 4:15am. The drive to the race was short but the traffic was crazy. They estimated 35,000 participants and spectators. That's a lot of people!

We parked and got down to the starting area to use the bathroom - the lines were insane! They have people start the race in waves according to their estimated finishing time, the faster people in front. Given our wait at the bathroom we missed our wave and started at the back of a wave with thousands of people who would be mostly walking. Ugh.

They need to make rules for races just like when you're driving! Faster on the left, slower on the right. Not only does it slow you down but it's frustrating and uses up precious energy to jump curbs, run through grass & gravel and around cones to get by people. Don't even get me started about the people who would box me in.

I felt great the first half running on the road. Seeing my family at mile 6 was awesome. Little Noelle running beside me screaming, "Mommy! Mommy! You're running a race!" was emotional. Then we turned and ran through a marina and down to the beach which I thought would be awesome but, for me, was difficult. The bike path seemed to drag on and on. We turned back out onto the road around Mile 10. This is when it kind of started to get suck-y. My big toes were rubbing against my second toes causing blisters, and in order to go easy on my really painful bunion on my right foot I was compensating with my left leg, which caused a shooting pain in my hip. At mile 10.75 there was a hill until mile 11 and that took a lot out of me. I really wanted to start walking, my head started telling me I could probably speed walk faster than I was jogging, but I just tried to lose myself in the music and push ahead. Then I couldn't remember if I was coming up on mile 11 or 12. I could see the mile marker sign but couldn't tell what it said. I was never so happy to see the number 12 in my life! My music stopped so I had to get it out but I dropped it and it went sliding through the crowd and I had to chase it down.

My cheerleaders. Noelle told me how much she loved ringing that cowbell.

Finally, I came running down to the finish line. I saw Auntie in her pink shirt plastered against the chain link fence. Then I saw Aaron & Noelle, Julianna, and Jo all screaming, hollering, and jumping up & down. I have the most amazing friends! Can you believe they drove all the way down? They even made me an awesome sign!

Crossing the finish line was the best. All I remember thinking was, "Goodness gracious it's over! I did it!"

Afterwards, I felt pretty good. My stomach was upset, my legs were tired, knees ached and I wanted an omelet. Bad.

According to Aaron's calculations my finish time was 2:12 but I looked it up and my chip says 2:19. I'm really happy given all the traffic I encountered. I say, "Not bad" when I still need to lose 20 pounds and less than a year after having a baby. Here are my stats:

Overall: 4788 out of 10675
Women: 2158 out of 6420
F 30-34: 376 out of 1033

Overall, it was a great experience. Noelle keeps saying "Mommy, you ran and won the race! You crossed the finish line and won the race." I tell her, "Yes, Mommy did win the race!"

A big shout out to my darling husband who was such a great support through training and race day and to my Auntie & Unc who went through so much to be there for me during my first race. And lastly to Marin, this was all her big idea.