Thatcher is ONE

Thatcher is ONE! I just cannot believe how fast this time has gone by. We had a great time celebrating with Jimmy, Erin, and Thatcher and all our family!

Singing Happy Birthday

Loving his new truck

Snuggin' his doggy

And of course Norah will rope in anyone she can to read her a book!

Santa Came, We Saw...We Were Glad to Leave

Well, I shouldn't say 'we' were glad to leave, but a certain 2 1/2 year old was glad to leave. We stopped at Northstar Bank a week ago to see Santa. We were really talking it up with Norah for a couple days ahead of time to try to prepare her because I figured this was going to be the year she would be reluctant. And I was right! We walked in and immediately knew Norah wasn't going to have anything to do with it. Hazel did great though! Norah did get close enough to tell Santa that she wants 'presents' and 'toys' for Christmas. We will see if she gets what she asked for!

Hazel just hanging out with Santa.....and yup, that is Norah clinging to me for dear life!

Ok Mom and Dad, any time you are ready to go, I'm ready to go!

Cocoon

My secretary at school made Hazel an adorable hat as a gift. After she found out how in love with it I was and how much I love photography, she decided to knit her a cocoon too! Of course this just called for a photo shoot!  Here are some of my absolute favorite pictures of Hazel to date! :)

Busy Turkey Day(s)

We had such a busy, busy week, but it was so much fun! It was wonderful spending lots of time with friends, family and eating (too much) delicious food! This has been a bitter sweet holiday because I head back to school on Monday. I just can't believe my maternity leave is over. I am excited to get back to my kids at school, but I am going to miss being at home with Hazel immensely. I am not sure I am ready for the chaos that is about to ensue. Luckily, I have an amazing hubby who is my partner in crime and we will just have to divide and conquer to make sure things run as smoothly as possible. And I just keep telling myself, just a few weeks back to work and then we get Christmas vacation, so I know we can do it! :)

We started the week with a visit with the Flanagans.  Bryn and Norah had fun playing together and thought it would be a great idea to get in Hazel's crib for awhile!  Wild girls!

Playing in Hazel's crib

Norah and Bryn after a fun night of playing!

One of my new favorite pictures of Hazel Bug!  Such a sweet little face!

Hazel had a little trial run at daycare on Wednesday.  I didn't want my first day back to work to be the same day Hazel went to daycare for the first time and I wanted to be able to help Drew get both girls there for the first time.  Of course I cried and just can't get over the fact that my maternity leave is already over.  It just went too fast.  I know Hazel will be in good hands though and she has Sissy right next door in the toddler room.  Norah even got to go down to the baby room to visit Hazel for a little bit.  

This was the scene after both girls got home from daycare.  I was worried Hazel was going to have a horrible night just from having such a busy, unfamiliar day.  However, it was the total opposite.  This is a picture of her at 5:00pm.  She slept, and slept, and slept.  I finally woke her up at 11:00pm because she had to eat something before bed.  She ate a bottle, we got her jammies on, and she went back to sleep until 4:30am.  She had a bottle and went right back to sleep and didn't get up until around 8:00am.  Basically 15 hours of sleep!  Crazy!  Let's hope daycare treats us this well every day! :)

Ready for Thanksgiving celebration #1!  We spent the day at my parents house with lots of family, food and playing!  This was the first time my aunt and cousins met Hazel, so it was a special night!

Cousin Love
Norah and Thatcher playing the next morning!

On Friday we were lucky to have a visitor.  My friend Jamie from high school was in town and she just had a little boy, Caleb, six weeks ago.  Hazel and Caleb are two weeks apart.  It has been forever since I have seen Jamie, so it was wonderful to visit and get to meet her little man.  And I think Caleb and Hazel had a good little bond going on!  Aren't they cute!?

Jamie and I with Caleb and Hazel

Thanksgiving #2
Papa playing with the girls and all the new blocks Grammy bought!

The dress up clothes were a huge hit!  Norah was hysterical walking around with this dress, hat and purse on.

As you can see, the hat was a necessary accessory for dinner too!

After spending the day at Grammy and Papa's we headed into town to watch the Christmas parade.

Norah loved seeing all the lights, animals and finally getting to see Santa at the end of the parade.  We hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  

Big Girls

We have a couple of big girls on our hands. Norah did something very 'big girl' last weekend. She gave up her paci!!!! We prepared her the whole week before and told her how she is a big girl now, not a baby like Hazel, and she didn't need her paci anymore. I had gotten the idea from my sister-in-law to pack up Norah's paci's and take them to the store to trade them for a toy. I told her all week we were going to take them to the store and she could pick out an extra special toy and trade her paci's for a toy. The big day finally rolled around, so after her nap we packed up all of her paci's (yes, I kept one just in case of a major catastrophe ;) ), put them in a ziploc baggie and headed to the store. Everything went exactly as planned. She picked out a Rapunzel doll with color changing hair. We put her in the cart and headed to the checkout! I whispered to the clerk, "Please just play along with us!". Luckily, she was a mom herself and totally understood what was going on. Norah handed over her paci's to purchase the doll, we paid for some diapers and we were on our way. That was it! She has happily been brushing Rapunzel's hair since and has only asked for her paci twice maybe. We just remind her she traded them at the store and the nice lady was going to give them to the next baby that came and needed them....and that seems to distract her enough and on we go! She is still sleeping great without them and everything! Such a big girl! Our other big girl news is that Hazel has been sleeping in her big girl crib for the past few nights!!! We finally decided to move her out of the bedroom because I am going back to work soon and Hazel seems to be one that likes a little more peace and quiet, so we figured she would love her crib. And boy does she! The first night she slept from 11pm to 7am with no wake ups. The next night she slept from 9pm to 3:30am, ate and went back to bed until about 8:30am. Now, don't let me fool you, she is still going through her fussy periods at night, but not nearly as bad as the first 6 weeks (knock on wood)! We are proud of both of our girls!!

Had to share these glow stick pictures!  This is our new 'thing'.  Glow sticks in the bathtub.  I don't know who likes it more, Norah or Mommy!

Good thing she can't read yet!  Some day she will though....boy, am I gonna be in trouble! :)

Big girl ready to head to the store!

This is the best 'after the paci trade off' picture I could get with Rapunzel.  She was too busy changing her hair color with the magic wand!

Hazel waking up in her big girl bed!  Happy girl!  Click here to see a picture of Norah when she woke up one morning at 8:30am in her big girl bed!

Trick or Treat

We had a wonderful Halloween this year! We just wish the weather would have cooperated a little more, but we still had fun!

A couple days before Halloween we spent the day baking goodies for Norah's daycare party.  She did a fantastic job helping unwrap the Hershey Kisses for our witches' hats.

What a great helper!

Pretty sure this is the only reason she was so enthusiastic about helping out.  Unwrap one Hershey Kiss, eat one Hershey Kiss, unwrap a Hershey Kiss, eat a Hershey Kiss....you get the idea!

I didn't want Norah to wear her Peacock costume to daycare because I was worried her feathers would get ruined.  So, we had the perfect solution!  She wore her little ballerina outfit instead!!!!!  And what a cute Ballerina she made!

Here are a few more snapshots of our evening.  Here is the one thing I realized after all this.  See that picture with Hazel and my Grandpa up above?  That is the only picture I got of Hazel this Halloween.  How horrible am I?  I was so caught up in the excitement of Norah and her actually being able to go house to house this year that I forgot to snap a couple pics of Hazel.  She was inside most of the night anyway because of the weather and I got those pics of her about two weeks ago in her costume, so those will have to do.  I promise Hazel, Mommy won't forget about you during the next holiday!  We hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!

Happy Halloween

Fall Fun

We have been enjoying the mild fall weather so far and have taken full advantage of being outside. We painted some pumpkins this year, instead of carving them! We also headed outside to jump and play in the leaves. One of Norah's favorite books right now is a Clifford book where his friends, Cleo and T-Bone, and him gather leaves and jump into the piles. Norah thought this was pretty cool that she got to do the same thing as her favorite characters! This nice weather is supposed to stick around for a little bit longer, so hopefully we can get in a few more fun fall activities before the snow starts to fly!

This year we used painter's tape and made the girls' initials on the pumpkins!  Then, Norah painted the pumpkins, we removed the tape, and voila....pumpkins with an 'N' and an 'H'. 

Taking the plunge!

Sisterly love!!!

Hazel's first leaf pile experience!

Our precious girls!
Happy Fall Everyone!!!