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!