Christmas....Part 1

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We had a great time celebrating with family and friends. We are looking forward to our Christmas Part 2 this weekend when Drew's sister and her family come home from Cincinnati! I was so sad on Christmas morning when I realized we didn't get a family picture of all of us before church. This is the only picture I have of Norah in her pretty Christmas dress and fancy bows and shoes!

Reading a book before church!

Daddy helping Norah open her first gift!

 

























After we opened gifts at home, we headed to Doug and Janis' for a cup of coffee and then headed to Mom and Dad's house to spend the rest of the day.

Look at what Thatcher got for Norah!!!!!

Do you think she loves it!?  :)

Lovin' her new tutu!

Gettin' a little Thatcher lovin!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

A Very Special Message

Norah received a very special message today! Take a Look!

Santa, Boxes, and Thatcher James

No tears.....She is such a good girl!

Thanks for the sucker, Santa!

I had a box left over from my Thirty One orders and Norah has been having a blast playing in it.

The other night she was just chillin', sippin' some milk and watching some tube!

And welcome to the world the newest addition to the family.  My brother and his wife had their first baby on Monday!

Thatcher James was born on December 12th.  He was 8.5 pounds and 21 inches long.  He is absolutely perfect.  Mom, Dad, and Thatcher are all doing wonderful.  We love him so much!

Can you hardly get enough of that face?

We decided to make the trek down to the hospital to meet Thatcher.  It was a long drive, but worth it.  As you can see, Norah was thrilled to see her new cousin.  (She didn't start out this way when we got there;  long car ride, scary hospital building = cranky, scared Norah! :) )

Proud Daddy and his son!!

Playdate

Norah and I had our own little Playdate the other night with Morgan, a girl I teach with, and her son, Baylor. There is a playgroup at the ISD here in town that meets once a month. Morgan took Baylor last month and said it was fun, so we decided to join them this month. It was so much fun! There were only about 7 kids there, but they had a great time playing, eating their snack (goldfish and apple juice :) ), and listening to a book. The best part....we got to take a copy of the book home. We have read it the last two nights before bed because she loves it so much! It is the classic Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! We can't wait to go again next month!



Putting the clothes in the washing machine!  I know what her chore will be someday!



Lovin' life....and putting the puzzle together!

Norah and her bud, Baylor, playing so nice together!

I just can't help but smile at this picture every time I see it!  They are too cute...gazing into each other's eyes!

Catching Up

Well, it is the beginning of the busy holiday season, which we love, but it leaves little time to update the blog. So here is an update of our wonderful Thanksgiving break.

We headed to my parents house for breakfast.

Norah was so excited her puppy got to come with us to Grandma and Grandpa's!

She had so much fun playing with her race track!

After breakfast we headed to Doug and Janis' house for the rest of the day. Jennifer, Dan and their girls were home and Mark and Ashlie headed out after her family Thanksgiving.

The Hamilton girls and Norah spending some quality time together!

Look at that sweet face!

All of the girls put on a play after dinner.  They were all so cute in their costumes and their acting skills were fantastic!  :)

And....to me.....this is the most incredible thing that happened all night.  We actually got a family picture WHERE EVERY SINGLE PERSON, children included, are LOOKING AT THE CAMERA!!  WAAAHHHOOOO!  Now that is an accomplishment!

Another fun thing that happened over break was Bryn Flanagan's birthday party. It was so much fun watching all of the kids play together! Thanks for the great time Flanagan family!

Norah and her little bud, Luke.  He is only three days younger than her!  They had fun together!

Mommy, Renee, and the birthday girl, Bryn!

The bows and wrapping paper are always more fun than the actual presents, aren't they?

All the kids joining in to help Bryn open her gifts. 

And, I just LOVE this picture.  That is Bryn, Cole, and Norah!  I wonder what was so interesting out there.  They are all destined to be friends.  If you forgot who belongs to who and why it is so cool that they are all together in this picture, go here!

Can't wait for Christmas now!!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!!

Where Have We Been?

Well, Drew and I took a trip to Dallas, Texas for the annual Budweiser Convention. We went with my parents and had a wonderful time, but it was so hard leaving Norah for that many days (3 nights and 4 days, to be exact :). However, she was in very good hands. On Sunday, she got to spend the day with her cousins and Uncle Mark and Aunt Ashlie . By the looks of it they had a great time! Then, that same day, Grammy and Papa arrived back in Michigan from their trip to Hawaii. They picked Norah up that night and took care of her until Wednesday, when we got back home. We got such a wonderful, emotional 'welcome back' from Norah. It was a great trip, but felt so good to get home. Here are some of our pics from Dallas and then I had to share couple pics of Norah and her most recent hobby, coloring!

Our first night in Dallas!  Headed out to have a couple cocktails and then out for dinner!

The next day Mom and I went shopping while the boys were in their meetings.  There was this old streetcar that ran throughout Dallas and took us right to the shopping district.  Not only was it convenient, but it was FREE!

Monday night we headed to the American Airlines Arena for drinks, dinner and entertainment!

Our last night in Dallas.  We ate at a beautiful steakhouse called "Dakota's". 

And back home with our baby girl......

Trick or Treat

Ready for her first house.....Grandma and Grandpa's house! 

Look at all those goodies!!!!

Grandpa, Norah and Grandma

Next stop.....Great-Grandma Kaczuk's house!  We ran into Norah's
cousin, Jackson, while we were there!  So glad we got a picture
of the two of them together!

Last stop......Great-Grandpa Baird's house!  Aunt Dinah and Uncle Kenny
were there to help pass out the goodies too!  This picture has become an annual
picture.  Check out last year's picture and Halloween here!!!

Norah loved standing in the window watching all of the kids
come up to get the loot!






And I thought it would be a little comical to show all the outtakes from our
little "sweeties" group picture!  They are all so dang cute, you can't help
but love the pictures that turn out like this!  Classic!!!!