Kaden turns FIVE!

Kaden turned five Dec. 11. We had his party Dec. 14. He requested a Hawkeye party. Everyone wore their best Hawkeye gear and we tailgated like it wasn't frigid outside.

Kaden poses with his super fabulous Hawkeye cake. Grandma Kathy should make cakes for a living don't you think? Oh. Wait. She does. But she doesn't get paid nearly enough. How much does that cake rock?!

Drums. thaaaanks grandma and grandpa. They're the silent kind of drums, right?

Norah dancing in her birthday finest. Mommy forgot about the Hawkeye gear when she got her dressed. We could have changed. But she looked so darn cute. Hard to believe it's her first birthday in less than a month. Doesn't seem like an entire year ago that we were impatiently waiting for her arrival.

Santa's coming to town

We went to the mall yesterday to see Santa and give him Kaden's wish list, which you can see he's reading very carefully to Santa. This is only the third year that Kaden's even come close to the big guy without sobbing. The first year he managed to summon up the courage to sit on his lap was only because he bargained in exchange for a baseball and bat.

This year he couldn't wait! He was giddy. Once he climbed on to Santa's lap you could tell he was so awestruck he didn't really know what to do. He'd planned on introducing Santa to Norah, because they've never met you know. But he was so nervous he just looked at his list the whole time.

And Norah. Our curious little monkey. She laughed and smiled and yanked on Santa's beard. Didn't seem wierd to her at all that mommy had just put her on some strange man's lap.

We also put up the tree last night and decorated the whole house. We woke this morning to our first snow on the ground. It certainly is starting to feel a lot like Christmas ...

Norah vs. Spaghetti

Bring it!

Ooops. Missed one.

Who knew food could be this fun?

Norah had spaghetti for the first time last week. In this case a picture really is worth a thousand words. Suffice it to say that we're still picking out pieces of noodles from the carpet. But she had a ball.

She still has a couple of bottles a day, but mostly we're all about the table food now. She's also coming around to the sippy cup.

P.S. I am annoyed that I cannot get the photos to reorder correctly. Grrrr.

Thanksgiving 2008

Scott, Kaden, Norah and I all went to Grandma and Papa Weber's for Thanksgiving this year. We've hosted the last two years and it was nice and relaxing to go to bed Wednesday night without worrying about whether the house was clean and the food was all prepped. AHh! Grandma cooked a lovely spread and we all ate waaaay too much. Norah enjoyed her first Thanksgiving meal. She loved the potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, turkey and apples. She only made a face at the cranberry sauce. Too tart for our sugar I guess.

Maxin' and relaxin' after a big day.

Grandma, Papa and Norah

Mmmmm. Turkey.

Daddy? There he is. The guy behind the camera.

Noran in her Thanksgiving finest. Did I mention she's FAST!

Walking!

Just hanging out.

On the move!

Daddy's little dolphin.

Norah started walking a couple of weeks ago and she hasn't stopped moving since. We thought she was good at getting around before. Boy were we wrong! She's FAST! And so curious! That probably explains why her favorite character is Curious George.

The Alaskan exchange

So waaaay back in August my family came to visit. To visit and to deliver Taryn to Coe College, which is conveniently located just a few blocks from our house. She babysits and we feed and drive her around. It's a nice exchange we think. It's so nice to have family here ALL of the time. Really it is.

It was hard to say goodbye to Kelsey, Avery and Grandma. But we had a great time while they were here. Such a great time we took a pitiful number of pictures. Here's a few though.

Grandma reading to all the grandbabies.

Kelsey with our baby girls.

Swimming with cousin Avery. All summer any time we coughed up the $4 it cost to get an infant into the pool, Norah HATED it. I mean HATED it. Screaming. Tears. The works. But, this little pool. The free pool in our back yard. She LOVED. Go figure.

Go Hawks!

There's a nip in the air. Leaves are falling. Sure signs of ... Football season. In our household one person (one guess who that is) cares more than the rest of us. But we put on a good face.

Daddy's little hawkeye. I had to put a clip in her hair after someone asked how old our little boy was in this outfit.

Converting another Alaskan.

Hawkeye love.

The tooth fairy

Kaden has been busy too. He lost two teeth!

As I'm digging bloody tooth no. 2 out of my wallet because it decided to relinquish its hold at a fall festival, I ask Scott, "So, what's the going rate for the tooth fairy these days?"

"Five dollars," he says.

Hmm. I think. Doing the math. That's gonna be a lot of money. There's a lot of teeth in that mouth (20 in case you're wondering. I looked it up). That's 100 bucks. No way.

It's obvious at this point who the evil cheapskate parent is.

We settled on a dollar.

Say cheese!

On the move

Norah has been a very busy girl in the four (gasp!) months that I have been ignoring this blog.

She sits.

She crawls.

She climbs.

Trick or treat -- Halloween 2008

We went to Preston again this year for our annual tradition of trick or treating with the rest of the Weber clan. Of course it was the coldest day of the fall. We ended up driving around town, but Kaden got plenty of candy and Norah enjoyed the excitement from the car.

One red ranger. Check. One monkey (with a banana). Check.

What a rag tag bunch! Three rock stars and a red ranger.

Momma and her monkey.

She really is the Ghostess with the Mostest.


No your eyes do not deceive. He did indeed have two costumes. One red. One blue. Rangers can morph colors you know.

10 months and 5 years -- Almost

We got pics of the kids taken Sunday. Luckily they were both incredibly patient. It's hard to believe how big they are both getting. Norah had her 9 month appointment on Halloween. She's 24 lbs and 29 inches. Still in the 95 percentile. Our big girl. She'll be 10 months this weekend and Kaden will be five in a little more than a month. How time flies!

Our kind of town

We celebrated our second anniversary early this year. Scott and I went to Chicago for one night over the Fourth of July weekend so Norah spent her first weekend at the farm with Gradma and Papa Weber. We all had a fabulous time. Grandma got Norah to start enjoying her cereal and fruit and Scott and I got to enjoy a full night's sleep after and evening out on the town. We had dinner and listened to some jazz at Andy's Jazz Club and then went to the Howl at the Moon Piano bar. We ended the night at the Billy Goat Tavern, an old haunt for Cubs fans and Chicago Tribune reporters. Pretty perfect!

The view from our hotel room at the Hyatt (which by the way is bigger than a small town).

Scott gave up a free upgrade in a deluxe room for this view. I have to admit it was pretty nice. But a deluxe room, honey, really?

Our first weekend away from baby Norah.

Bath time

Norah had so much fun taking a bath in Grandma Weber's sink that we decided to try it at home. She has a ball, splashing and eating Mommy's measuring cups.

Soul Sista

Norah's getting her groove on. Think she'll play the alto sax?

Summertime with Dad

Scott has been home with the kids this summer.
The life of a teacher. Summers off. Life is easy. Right?
Not so much, he's discovered. Two kids are a lot of work ...

Like lots of laundry.

But, they're also a lot of fun ...

Like taking time for a game of Spiderman Memory

They've even found time for some sun bathing.

40 years and counting

Scott's parents Larry and Kathy celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary on June 29. 40 years! Congratulations guys. We love you!

Here's the whole fam. We didn't really even try to get all five kids looking at the camera.

Mmmmm. Good.

Norah is going through an oral phase. She likes to eat ...

Woody from "Toy Story"

Rattles

Power Rangers (especially the red ones)

Everything but food.

This was bananas.

As you can see, Norah isn't such a fan of eating solids. She likes to grab at what mommy and daddy are eating, but try to get a spoonful of anything in her mouth and she's not interested.

Bath time at the farm