Boo Boo

For some reason unknown to either Kyle or myself, Ava has started calling Norah Boo Boo! It was weird at first, I actually tried to correct her. It has since grown on me and apparently on Jack too since he has started saying, "Boo Boo wake!" when he hears her crying after a nap!

Grandma's Sweetie

Packages from Grammy are cherished around here, the kids just love seeing their names on the box and guessing which item is for them. I love that she is good at letting the kids know she's thinking about them even though she doesn't get to see them all the time.

This last box was awesome, bringing books and clothes - my personal favorite! Norah was the proud recipient of the little outfit. The shirt says, "I'll Always Be Grandma's Sweetie" and it's totally true!

Naked Norah

Because Norah has to be upright all the time, she has her diapers changed and gets dressed propped up on a Boppy Pillow on the floor of our bathroom. Tonight before her bath, she was so cute just chilling there naked, waiting for what was coming next that I just had to try and capture her mood.

I think I did a pretty good job, she is both excited and happy looking in all the pictures!

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I took this picture to help us remember these precious moments at night with just Norah while the other kids are sound asleep. I guess these moments eat into "parent time," but they don't last forever and once their gone, they are missed!

Toy Maniac

Sundays are the laziest days, giving us tons of time to chill and just play with the kids without worrying about what needs to be done or where we need to be. Today was no exception and while hanging out upstairs we decided to get out all the baby toys.

Norah wasn't too impressed by all the hand-me-downs, but when Ava was through the box, Norah was covered from head to toe (literally) with fun!

YES!

Jack has been so funny lately with his words. I gave him chocolate milk one day after his nap and now he is always asking for, "Chocnac Nuk!" I love his little phrases.

Another favorite was hatched when I started asking him "Yes or no" to whether or not he wanted something. He kept saying "Yes or no" in response but eventually caught on to picking one of the two. Now whenever he's asked something he replies with a super clear, "YES!"

You can totally tell Jack is becoming Mr. Independent, because every other phrase out of his mouth is, "Did, SELF!" He is so proud of whatever it was too!

He also says, "Oh my, DOSH!" Which is totally hilarious to me!

Nice Picture Dude

The kids and I let Kyle sleep in this morning after staying up with Norah while I got a decent night's rest for the first time in months! I was trying to stall the kids so we could still eat breakfast together as a family. While Kyle snoozed I peeled foam sticker after foam sticker for Jack and Ava carefully peeled her stickers herself. Well, after about a half hour of peeling, I started to make breakfast and let Ava take over the job for both her and Jack. After awhile I noticed they were finished and once I uncovered this masterpiece under all the garbage, I was blown away. First by the shear number of stickers on one sheet of paper and then by the height of the picture. It was a proud mommy moment-Jack's first work of art!

Homemade Photoshoot

Ava was so pumped about the matching dresses for her and Norah from Nana that while at the store today, we found some cute shirts with capri leggings in both their sizes.

The minute we got home Ava was instantly in her new clothes and once Norah woke up from her nap, Ava insisted on her changing into the matching clothes as well.

I was thrilled to see both looking so cute and thought it was a good time to get some brother-free photos while Jack was asleep upstairs.

Norah was super interested in Ava and couldn't help looking at her most of the time.

This picture isn't my favorite, but it shows both girls' beautiful eyes!

The Crew

The gang is all here, these three kids definitely keep me on my toes, but most of the time it's exactly where I want to be!

Here is a cool shot of the kids standing up, Ava and Jack are so HUGE compared to tiny little Norah!

Mirror Images

People say Norah is a spitting image of Ava, except with hair. We're not completely convinced, but there is no doubt the two of them are sisters.

Brotherly Love

Despite being less than interested in the tiny person Mommy, Daddy and Ava are always cooing to, Jack does show signs of endearment now and again. I got this one of the two of them in my bathroom while I was getting ready this morning.

Tummy Time

Another aspect of Norah's new temperament is her doing things most normal babies do, like sleep, eat and have tummy time! She isn't the biggest fan...YET!

Towel-Head

Ava loves to give Norah baths, but since we do her baths at night after Ava and Jack are already asleep, Ava has started putting Norah's towel on her head and dancing around the house during the day. It is super cute and I finally got a picture of her in action!

Better

It has been almost a month of Prevacid and Norah has become all we could ever hope for in a baby. When she is awake she is happy and cuddly. She only cries now when she is tired or hungry and even though she is not a regular nap-taker, she does take naps and even snoozes for a monster 2-3 hours almost every afternoon.

She has started watching what we are doing and is so interested in both Ava and Jack. Norah is so cute on top of all of this, making her a joy to be around all together!

Daddy's Tiny Princess

Kyle is such a good father to all the kids, but Norah is his Tiny Princess. He truly cherishes his time with her and loved every minute of his two weeks off of work with her.

The CAKES

Kyle's secretary, Della, fulfilled Kyle's birthday dream with a giant cookie cake for the office staff in addition to one for him to take home for the family.

Even though we knew he would be bringing home such a huge dessert, he insisted on a Too Much Chocolate Cake, recipe courtesy of Allrecipes. I was hesitant at first to have so many delicious desserts laying around the house, but one bite of each and we were all loving life!

We lit all the candles and sang Happy Birthday to the coolest 30 year old we know!

Rockstar Birthday

In addition to the Epiophone Masterbuilt guitar, Kyle also got his first real pair of sunglasses. He appropriately began referring to this day as his rock star birthday!

The BIG 3-0

Kyle turned 30 today and even though he has been working like a mad man these past few weeks, he somehow managed to stick around this morning for breakfast with the kids and a few random presents to open.

I had done a fantastic job this year of keeping my gifts under wraps and hiding the hugest box somewhere Kyle wouldn't find it. Despite my lack of clues, though, Kyle still managed to figure out what he was getting when he started opening the box.

I figured Kyle was in desperate need of a new guitar that wasn't broken and wasn't from his high school graduation. His face showed his excitement and when he started to play, I knew it was a good gift!

Matching

When Nana visited back in May, she brought with her the first of, hopefully, many matching outfits for Ava and Norah.

Ava's dress was super cute with ruffles at the neckline and Norah's was sweet too with a pink gingham trim.

The girls even had matching hair flare. Ava had a pink flower clip while Norah had the same GIANT flower in a headband. Both were made by me making them even more unique!

Ava was SO thrilled to be able to match Norah and was so excited to take pictures with her baby sister, while Norah just seemed tired the whole time.

Our Own Fireworks

We wanted the kids to have some fun with fireworks since we never keep our kids up late enough to see the local festivities. Kyle and the kids picked up some mini poppers at the grocery store while Norah napped with me at home.

They were both unsure at first since they have no experience with fireworks at all. After Kyle pulled the first one and the explosion let fly a bunch of streamers, Ava and Jack couldn't pull the rest of the poppers fast enough!

It was way cute to see their faces after each "POP," if only we had bought more than 10!

4th of July

We spent our 4th of July at the pool in the morning and dropping off Aunt Cassie at the airport followed up by a trip to Costa Vida in Colleyville near DFW.

It was a busy morning and turned into a late afternoon with late naps and a rushed dinner before bedtime.

It was sad saying good-bye to Aunt Cassie, but the kids bounced right back when there was mention of fireworks!

Babies

It is truly amazing that our closest friends and us had babies with a month of each other. It was so fun being pregnant together and it will be even more fun watching them grow up to be good buddies too!

In order of age, Lauren, Connor, NORAH, Lex, and Elsie!

They are all so cute, we sure do good work!

Kiddos

One of the kids is missing from this picture, but you can see how crazy this party was with all these kids and another 5 babies on top of the 11 adults!

Thank goodness it was cool enough to have them eat their chocolate outside.

THE Cake

I ordered our family's favorite cake from Sam's Club-marble cake with chocolate buttercream and fudge frosting. It originally had Happy Birthday Kyle smashed into the circle in the center, but after overcoming the language barrier, the pastry chef hooked us up with this classy 30 instead!

It was so AWESOME, I love this cake!

Surprise!

Considering these pictures are total action pictures they definitely show the chain of events.

We arrived right on time and fortunately everyone was in place and ready to shout, "Surprise!"

I was so nervous all the way home from the restaurant, but when it was looking like things were going to pan out I got pretty excited!

Everybody screamed in unison and Kyle swears he had no idea and was completely surprised! It couldn't have worked out better!

Party Planners

When Cass got here I had an epiphany and decided to throw Kyle a surprise 30th birthday party complete with 26 guests (15 were 5 and under), 1 awesome Sam's Club cake and a whole lotta flies!

I lured Kyle out of the house with an anniversary dinner at Carraba's while Cass and the kids (sans Norah) hung up the sign and greeted all the guests!

Taking The TIme

What's the first thing a busy college grad does with her time?

Visit her awesome sister and nieces and nephew, of course!

Cass has been here all week hanging out and she'll never really know just how much we love her visits! Thanks for taking the time-we'll never forget it!