Teeth Time

Norah was up at 11pm last night for some crazy reason, forcing Kyle to head up there to soothe her and hopefully get her back to sleep.

Well, this morning, while we were all getting ready for church, I noticed a new friend in Norah's mouth, her first tooth!!

The bottom right tooth is officially through her gums, and the one next to it isn't far behind. I guess now we know what woke her up, OUCH!

It's That Time Again

I am pretty sure we have been "potty training" with Jack for at least a month now, getting him to sit on the toilet before baths, etc. Well, I have been more hard core about it this week, much to Jack's shegrin.

He has on multiple occasions told me he doesn't want to go on the toilet followed by a request for a diaper, please! I am trying not to get frustrated, but he three now and at this point Ava had been going on the toilet seamlessly for months.

Sibling Rivalry....Kinda

Today, the kids were found in this position-huddled around a Baby Einstein lift a flap sound book given to the kids by Grammy a few months back. Ava was reading the story and then she and Jack would take turns pressing the corresponding sound and lift the flaps while Norah just looked on contentedly.

There is tension between our mix of ages and genders some of the time, but this morning, the overwhelming feeling in the game room was just joy!

On THE Move

Norah is nine months old now and the only movements she has been making are in the wrong direction, literally. She can only push herself backwards while on her tummy. It is the funniest thing and you can tell she is somewhat frustrated.

Today she started in the doorway of the laundry room and a few minutes later she was crammed up against the opposite door, happy as a lark, but not where she intended. Someday she'll figure it out and then I'll long for these day again.

I Survived...

The 3 days before Jack's birthday we had house guests, making Jack's birthday stand out less in our minds. We didn't forget about it, but we sure weren't pumping it up every night before bedtime either.

Saturday night, Jack knew his big day was tomorrow and although we were skeptical about how awesome a Sunday birthday could be, Jack enjoyed his birthday hat in Nursery at church and hanging with his family all night eating his favorite foods.

Our Giant Boy

The candle may say three and Jack may tell you he's four, but our little man is now 50 pounds and 41 inches tall. He is off the charts in both and although he is super into sports, he is also interested in learning letters, colors, and reading books.

We are so glad to have such a cool boy in the family, Kyle loves the company and I love the new twist things he brings to our dynamic.

The Cake

During naptime, I whipped up this beautiful fun-fetti cake with a chocolate ganache filling and chocolate frosting with sprinkles to accentuate the letters and other detailing on the cake. I thought it looked amazing and even ended up looking pretty smooth for not being fondante. I even piped some frosting around the bottom edge to make it look even more pro.

Raclette Again

For Christmas Eve dinner we used our Raclette grill and the kids loved it, so for Jack's birthday dinner we got it out again and the kids enjoyed it just as much. For some reason having control of what you eat is very enticing to these two!

Our Own Rockstar

Grammy hit the right note with this gift, Jack's very own guitar that has strings to strum and a whammy bar to whammy on. It was more than appropriate to give Jack his size guitar, since lately we have been rocking out a ton on Kyle's new Beatles and Guitar Hero 5 games.

Ava and Jack love to rock with us, but the instruments are a little big. Ava has settled for the microphone and can sing her "favorite song," Human (the Killers), while Jack tries his hardest to use an adult size guitar. Not anymore, now Jack can rock out with his own toy!

In addition to his rockstar guitar, Jack also got this crazy cool sweater and for some reason has even more rockstar highlights in his hair right now. What a cool kid.

The Bat Cave

Before Christmas we took the kids to Toys R Us to pick out gifts for each other for Christmas. While there, Kyle and I had to split up for the sake of anonymity. While Kyle was distracting Jack he noticed him head towards the same toy most of the time.

Well, after Christmas, when we were playing at a friend's house, I noticed Jack playing intently with the same toy Kyle had noticed earlier. It was then that we decided the Bat Cave was on Jack's short list for birthday presents.

When he ripped off the paper to find it hiding underneath, he was speechless and then couldn't stop babbling about his new favorite toy!

He's 3!

Today was Jack's third birthday, it was awesome! I wrapped his presents yesterday and last night I busted open the box from Grammy to reveal our matching color scheme.

I made the JK labels on the computer and wanted to incorporate one of my favorite colors right now, a turquoisey blue. Apparently Grammy and I are in love with the same scheme, because her gifts were wrapped head to toe in the same shade.

It was a picture perfect moment, and when Jack woke up to see his presents and his new blue bike, he was just as thrilled!

She Kind Of Likes This

Norah isn't even close to standing up or pulling up on her own yet, but she totally loves to feel like she is standing and will oftentimes stiffen her torso so she can't be sat down.

Tonight Kyle was holding her thighs and balancing her in front of him. She was hysterically laughing and smiling the entire time.

Her smile was so big in this picture, that her dimple looks like a canyon!

The Only 2 Pictures...

When Matt and Kenzi were married, we bought two beautiful pink ball gowns for them to wear with their Komenda cousins.

Norah was only 4 months at the time and still sleeping and barfing a TON. We wanted to wait until the very last minute to put her in the dress at the Temple and then forgot to take pictures of her in it. When we were taking family pictures at the reception, there was so little time to think we forgot to ask someone to take one with our little camera.

Thus, we have no pictures of Norah at the wedding in her pink dress that will soon be too small. Luckily enough Ava wants to wear hers every week to church, allowing us ample opportunities to take a picture of both our girls in their princess gowns!

The "Frown"

When Norah puts her pacifier in by herself, it oftentimes looks like this. Ava calls this Norah's frown and I call it adorable.