Along For the Ride

The first we did after a quick nap in the car on the way home from the airport was hit up the grocery store to stock up for the trip since all I brought for two people on a four day trip was one bag that included only essentials.

Grammy was pushing the cart, and for once Norah was in the car and not the cart, she loved it. She was beeping both horns and having a blast. Compliments were forth coming, of course, and who could blame them, she was adorable!

We Made It

After a more than pleasant flight with Norah by myself following a delay in the airport and on the runway, we arrived in a snow covered Chicago O'hare. After getting lost in the baggage area, we finally met up with Grammy and Amber and cruised home to Hanover Park.

Taking a trip with Norah by myself was an idea concocted after a stressful few weeks with the kids and me feeling under appreciated. My Aunt Christie would be in town with her son, Connor and her foreign exchange student, Andrea, plus Cassie was off work for the visit making it a mini family reunion to boot.

I was excited to come, but after a FUN trip on the airplane with Norah being super cute and fun, I was literally running through the airport to greet them.

Norah is always hesitant with anyone outside our immediate family, and this trip proved to be no different, although on the last day, Norah reached for Cassie and wanted her to hold her.

Jack-ed Up

Seeing this scene is mortifying enough, but when family is visiting, it becomes a whole other story. Jack was teasing Ava with an almost full box of Lucky Charms by holding it over his head and telling her it was all his, when it started to dump out all over him and everywhere in the nearby vicinity.

I was a little upset to say the least and even took a time-out in the pantry for a minute before dealing with the disaster. The shop-vac was Kyle's suggestion, and it worked wonders, the clean up was so easy it actually made me feel silly for being upset about the mess at all.

St. Patrick's Day Smores

Jack and Ava have done smores with almost every visitor we've had, but they still talk most about when Connor and Rachel were here for Thanksgiving, and we busted out the fire pit.

You'd think kids would be afraid of open flames, but these two are fearless apparently much to their parents' dismay.

Family Fun

For St. Patrick's Day we made our traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage creation for Eric and Holly, and while they so graciously decided to do all the dishes, we got a jump start on our planned activity for the evening-smores!

It is so fun having family in town and we had to show off our humble fire pit with a batch of smores. The kids adore this activity and when the weather cooperated, we made a night of it.

The Shiner

Almost two weeks ago at this point, Norah was playing in our game room with everybody just hanging with her on the floor too, when she pulled down a huge toy from a shelf above her head.

It nailed her right on her eye, and the poor baby cried hysterically for a bit, and in the end had this little black eye. It has lasted forever, and has brought quite the array of looks from strangers, but I still think she is the cutest baby around.

Kakeball Kids

We are still digging cakeballs and whip up random batches for no particular reason, this time, though, we were getting ready for Uncle Eric and Aunt Holly's visit. This particular batch was double chocolate fudge cake mixed with milk chocolate fudge frosting and coated in our favorite white almond bark coating. They were delicious, and the kids agreed. Even Norah, who is hesitant about new foods jumped all over her mini-sized cake ball and reached for another.

Mrs. Potts

With a possible listing of our house, we thought it would be a good idea to spruce it up a bit and at the very least fill up some of the enormous niches with various things. Kyle hit up Home Depot and brought back about 6 different pots, none of which were great enough to keep, but one was big enough to fit little Norah into!

I love how the blue pottery made her eyes look so stunning.

Teeth

Those two bottom teeth have taken FOREVER to come all the way in, but they are super cute now that they are all the way above the gumline and Norah is more interested in food than ever. It might be the new height she has at the table giving her the ability to see that everyone is eating too, or it might just be that she is no longer in pain with each bite!

I Made That

Awhile back, I was feeling crafy again and made some matching hairbows for Ava and Norah, this one has ever been my favorite and with a new haircut to boot, it looked even more amazing today! You can't tell that all I did was buy some artificial flowers, cut off their stems, sewed a button in the middle and hot glued it to an alligator clip. With little one clamouring around my feet, this little project took more time than it was worth, but I love the result nonetheless.

1st Haircut

Norah has always had hair, most of the time, though, that hair has been infested with cradle cap, some unslightly crusties glued to her scalp. We have been super hesitant to do any drastic treatment, for fear we would rub off what little hair she had, thus opting for acceptance of the crust.

As of late, Kyle and I both have been hand picking out the crust and thus removing some minimal hair, but with most of it removed, she have a little less on top. Between that and my constant urges to change things, I decided to give Norah a haircut in back.

Nothing crazy, just a little clipper action where her hairline meets her neck. It was so suttle it took Kyle two days to ask if I had cut the front of her hair, which I didn't.

You can't tell from this angle very well, but the back is now nicely proportionate with the front-what a cutie!

New Chair

After lugging our HUGE high chair halfway across the country only to find it better served stationed in our attic than in our beautiful breakfast nook, we were forced to find a smaller, sleeker version for our littlest one.

We could have easily gone high end and spent a ton of cash on something that would be showered with food and grime daily, but the frugalists in us compelled us toward this $19 find from IKEA. Norah is as happy as we are to finally be "sitting" at the table again and able to see our smiling faces!