The Stairs

Yesterday we were at a friend's house and Norah found their stairs, it totally scared me to see our dainty princess hiking up these mile hair stairs-until she did it again at our house and my heart sank!

There were a few various toys waiting on the steps for some kind soul to return them to their home upstairs. Seeing these was temptation enough for Norah who went straight for the danger zone and made it up the first one to reach the toys.

I caught her before she got any higher and even risked her falling while I took these pictures. For some reason stairs totally scare me and since her latest discovery we have a gate at the top of the stairs and a pact between Kyle and I to watch her like a hawk while she is downstairs.

Mini-Hacker

The kids also brought along their LaughTop to keep them entertained, on the way home we promised the kids they could watch one of their Thomas DVD's, giving Norah her turn on the computer. She is already prepping for her digital days!

Farmer's Market Faces

I finally found a Chicago hot dog in the heart of Dallas! The farmer's market also boasts some local ranchers offers their wares of beef, pork, chicken, etc. One such "booth" served up some additional delights-Vienna Beef Hot Dogs. Being my favorite, we had to stop for lunch and here are the faces of Norah before and after eating her own delicious lunch!

Hungry - giving us the stink eye:



Full - giving us the sweetest baby smile around:

Bug Eyes

We decided to take a trip to the Dallas Farmer's Market as a family today. It was such a beautiful day, we wanted to do something outside with Kyle and thought picking out fresh food that would help support our local growers and taste better than the store bought stuff at a comparable price would be fun for everyone.

The car ride is about 22 minutes door to door, so the ride down was spent acting silly and trying on a few of the many pairs of sunglasses I have stashed in our two thousand storage compartments.

The kids all had a blast even though Jack was making a tough face and with Kyle driving and missing out on the action, I had to snap a few shots for the family photo album.

Dangling

Norah is always being left behind when the big kids run downstairs for whatever reason. She longinly looks at them from the top of the stairs most of the time, and soon she will be curious enough to venture down the stairs after them-the dreaded day!

Until then, though, she is constantly found perched up in her spot looking down on her domain

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Not Once

That's how many times Norah spit up today, and Kyle missed it all while vacation in Arizona to teach a patent seminar to an ASU engineering class.

Group Effort

When all the preschoolers had arrived and Norah was down for a nap, I snapped this cute picture of the frosty crew from our back doorway with 4 little girls giggling at my feet about our family's newest frosty creation.

THE Final Touch

One last pat from Jack and this frosty was finished!

Our Blue-Eyed Babe

It never ceases to amaze me that I have a blue eyed child. And not just any blue eyed babe, but this beautifully sweet one!

I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up

In the midst of all the snowballing, Norah fell over and from the look on her face, she didn't seem to mind, in fact she just kept laying there not seeming to care and not even attempting to push herself to sit up.

She definitely wasn't cold with all those layers, but after awhile I pushed her back upright and she chilled there until the fight was over and the kids and I were winners!

SnowBUNNY

I held Norah most of the time we spent outside, but when an all out snowball fight broke out, I couldn't let Kyle unload without retaliating.

At that point I gingerly placed our little snow bunny on the ground and pummeled Kyle with some good ones alongside Ava and Jack.

Every Snowman's Dream

Kyle has left a pair of flip flops on our back patio for months now, and when the crew needed a little something to give frosty that Komenda flair, they were just the trick we needed.

The Snowman Crew

Ava was in charge of making the starter balls for frosty's body and head, while Jack was just throwing a pat of snow on the pile here and there.

Snow...Again

Norah has seen snow before, and her face says it all, snow again!!!

Late Start

With all the snow and a hip pointer injury from Wednesday night's basketball game, Kyle decided to work from home. There was the necessary snowman needing to be built and even though I was slotted to teach preschool, we called all the moms and pleaded for a late start. Everyone concurred and after breakfast, we all headed out for some snow fun! The kids were still out with Kyle building frosty when the preschoolers arrived, forcing Jack and Ava to learn in the pj's, but it was definitely all worth it.

First Things First

Yesterday, Kyle told me it was supposed to snow, I went to bed and there was no sign of anything. At 5 am when Kyle came to bed after falling asleep working in the media room, there was still nothing. At 7:15 am when I am lucky enough to start my day to the sound of our cute baby, there was more than enough snow already on the ground and even more on its way.

Any experienced snow bunny knows that the first thing you do after snow has fallen is make an amazing snow angel-I'm glad to see Ava is following in my footsteps!

Option 2

Randomly enough, Kyle and I have been looking into building in a neighboring city with an even more excellent school system for our upcoming kindergartner and bigger lots to boot. Our first choice for a lot was a culdesac that won't fit a floor plan big enough to hold our growing family, but our second option was the lot with the cool wall and only one neighbor yet to build. We'll see how things pan out!

V-Day Project

For dessert yesterday we had some friends over and decided to whip up Kyle's back-up plan for my birthday cake in the form of cupcakes. The frosting was the best part, and second to it was the cute little boxes, the kids helped me make this morning to perfectly hold our cupcakes for delivery to our friends and neighbors.

On The Move

Norah has been crawling for a short time now, but her sweet, ginger steps are taken so thoughtfully, I just had to mention it.

She literally takes one step at a time and if she doesn't face plant it, she thinks about whether or not to make another move and most of the time just sits down where she is and reaches for whatever has caught her eye. I'm sure her slowness will fade and we will be left our very carpet shark, but until then, I will enjoy this tender stage!

Primary Talk

Early this week, I got an email from our ward's primary requesting that Ava give a talk about Jesus being our Savior and Redeemer. I was instantly nervous, until I sat down with Ava and asked her what she thought about Jesus and what he means to her.

She came up with the sweetest responses, talking about why Jesus makes her happy, praying, and how much He loves her. She had it down after the first reading, but we practiced all week anyway against her will.

By Sunday morning, she was not interested in practicing at all and even spouted it from memory days earlier. We reminded her that she would have to give it today and that she wanted to do her best.

I guess her best would involve losing her talk somewhere between the kitchen and church, because even after a trip back home to look for it, we were without a talk and about 15 minutes left.

We told Ava that her talk was gone and she spouted from memory the first version of her talk right there in Sacrament. It was awesome, but what was even more awesome was her delivery of it in Primary.

When it was her turn to walk up front and stand at the primary podium, she did so without fear and simply opened her notebook, flipped it so that it was right side up, found the page we had written her talk on and proceeded to read it/recite it and then close with an Amen.

It was one of the most proud moments of our life thus far and we were able to experience in a short 4 years! Ava, sweetie, you are so talented!

Making A Wish

I can't tell you what I wished for, but what else could I want, I already have a testimony, three beautifully healthy children and a husband like no other!

Birthday Kisses

Ava, Norah and I had matching poppy purple sweaters on all day, we all looked gorgeous!

31 Years Young

Last year's birthday was the best one on record, but not being pregnant and with all the time spent out and about with and without Kyle thanks to a work from home day, this year was a close second-thanks again KYLE!

"My" Kind of Cake

So after an unbelievable morning with Kyle at Bread Winners for breakfast and a stop at Nordstrom Rack for a workout jacket and a delicious garlic cheese bread/dessert pizza lunch, I totally became a brat and threw a tantrum when I found out Kyle was only going to make me a red velvet cake from a box with some homemade cream cheese frosting. I guess I was hoping for something even MORE over the top.

Well, after an apology from me and a trip to exchange a gift and pick up a sweater I have been trying to find for two months, I came home to find that Kyle had gotten a friend to come over and sit with the kids while he ran to Target to get the ingredients to make one of my favorite cakes-Too Much Chocolate Cake!

It was an awesome moment when I drizzled the melted Hershey's kisses all over the top after it cooled.

It tasted even better than it looked! Thank you KYLE!

Crawling Finally!

Tonight when it was time to get everybody ready for bed, Norah busted out a crawl!

Apparently Jack isn't the only one interested in the Bat Cave. Norah full on crawled over to it and when pulled away from it to see if she would crawl again did it three more times!

She was pretty unaware of what she was capable of until tonight, she is pretty slow about it, but that will change shortly.

It only took 9 1/2 months, but officially have a crawler!

5 Days of Dry

On Friday after a huge messy diaper, I told Jack he could no longer have his diaper. He ran around naked while helping me clean the house for about 2 hours and which point he put a diaper back on so we could head over to the gym. He was diaperless again after naps until bedtime.

Saturday he put on some underwear and actually had the world's smallest accident and wore some fresh undies until he left the house with Kyle for a daddy son outing to get some sporty shorts that would be easy for potty training. He was in underwear again after naps.

Sunday he wore underwear all morning and to church for Stake Conference until naps and then went underwear style until bedtime.

Monday was more of the same, with a trip to Target thrown in the mix and more dryness.

Today we went to a birthday party at a bounce house gym and he did spectacularly!

You never know what tomorrow will bring, but we are well on our way to a potty trained boy!!!!!