Let the festivities begin!

We decided to go downtown Lansing and join in the official Christmas kick-off with a downtown parade and lighting of the tree at the State Capital. We were planning on going with the Woolf's but I left my phone at home and I don't know Ashlee's cell number - I usually just use speed dial - so we had to just go alone. I'm glad we went - but we probably won't go again next year! It was SO crowded, Brian and I had the kids on our shoulders so they could see the parade because there were so many people. The parade was a little long - or maybe it just felt long with Nora on my shoulders. But the fireworks were fun, the tree was beautiful, we got free hot cocoa, and now I have something to post on my blog! So enjoy the pics... and happy holidays!!

A funny similarity

I have been trying to organize the photos on my computer (I have almost 11,000 pictures on it!) so I can make sure I have copies before taking them off and I ran across these pictures of the girls and it made me laugh to realize that they both pulled this funny face at the same age. The picture of Sophie is her when she was Nora's age and Nora's was taken about a week ago. This is the ever popular standard funny-face at our house, which is pretty funny!

Here's the latest...

Just some info on Sophie and Nora's busy lives... :)
Sophie has taken her last ballet class and is now looking forward to swimming lessons in a few weeks. Of course this has caused Nora to think she is going to be taking swimming lessons as well, so we may end up getting some kind of family pass so I can take both the girls once a week (we need some cold weather leave-the-house activities!) Sophie now writes the letter J perfectly and about a week after I dropped the subject she came up to me and showed me a paper she had been practicing the letter J on and said, "I used to get confused about letter J, but now I can do it the right way!" Yay! Sophie called my mom while I was reading her a book the other day and I said, "Hey, I'm reading a book right now can you call Naunie after we're done?" She put her hand over the receiver and said, "I just need to ask her one thing." So I put the book down and told her to let me know when she was ready and she said, "Well, I'm going to be a minute." Silly girl, and so grown up!

Nora WAS doing so well only having her binky at night but ever since she was sick she's had a relapse and now wants it in the day again, and because me and the girls have all had a cold for the last week I have not been as diligent in NOT giving it to her. She is growing up so fast lately. Here are some of the things I've overheard her say just this morning, "You'll never find me now - hee hee hee!", "I'm a princess every time!", "Let's hide from the big bad wolf, sissy!", "Bibbidi bobbidi boo - your a frog!", "I see something, it's maybe a giraffe - oh, how bout 3 giraffes. No it's something else - a bear. Watch out!", "Why sissy do that mommy?", "Open it that please. Oh, you want me to open it?", "Let's cross bridge. Cross, cross, cross! I made it!", "Let's go outside. That be awesome!" She is talking constantly and she and Sophie have some pretty cute conversations, if only I could remember them all!

Anyway, the girls and I are about over our colds and luckily Brian hasn't caught it yet. The weather has turned colder and we've been listening to Christmas music, I still plan on enjoying Thanksgiving but there isn't any music for it - I figure the season comes and goes so fast we may as well make the most of it!

Fall in Michigan

Fall has been so BEAUTIFUL in Michigan! Maybe because it is a new place to us, or maybe because it stays greener here so much longer which makes for prettier leaves. Either way we have loved enjoying the changing leaves and the crisp fall air. Each day I prepare myself for the possibility that it will be the last nice fall day before the cold hits! My landlord told me that Logan's winters are MUCH colder than ours, so that was a nice surprise since we are used to freezing Logan, Utah winters! We have heard that the hardest thing about winter in Michigan is that it can be overcast for weeks at a time. So we'll see..... We went to our favorite park a few days ago and played in the leaves and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine. We love being together and playing with our sweet little girls, they are growing up way too fast!

Halloween Happenings

We went to some pretty fun Halloween parties this year! The first one was our ward Halloween party where the girls dressed up as Rapunzel and a witch. Brian wore his standard powder blue 70's polyester suit and black mullet and I went as a tired pregnant mommy in my bathrobe and slippers (I know - boring!) All along Sophie has insisted she didn't need long hair to be Rapunzel so I didn't worry about it, of course on Halloween night she changed her mind so we quickly made a nice long braid out of yarn and bobby pinned it to her hair, luckily that was good enough! Nora was so excited to be a "witchy" and for about 2 weeks before would wake up each morning and say "Paint my face like a witchy for Halloween!!" On Halloween night we went to a party at the Woolf's that Ashlee and I had planned. This time I was a pinata and Brian went as the birthday boy! We had a great time eating food, visiting and making new friends with families in our ward. The girls had way too much candy, stayed up way too late and basically had a blast! A typical Halloween night!!

So Thankful....

Brian and I had our biggest parenthood scare (thus far!) on Saturday night. Brian studied most of the day and I took the girls to a birthday party and later that night we all went to our ward Halloween party. We came home and had our usual nightly routine (dinner, bath, books, bed...) Around 1:00 AM Nora woke up and was having trouble breathing and had a barking cough. Brian was still up working on a paper so he had heard her and brought her upstairs, I heard her on the baby monitor as well and came out of our room to see if she was okay. She kept sucking in really hard and then would cough 3 times and seemed to have trouble breathing out. We immediately decided to take her in to the emergency room. While I was running around getting dressed and grabbing my purse, our insurance cards and the diaper bag, Brian was holding Nora trying to calm her down. She was still having trouble breathing and passed out as Brian was holding her - which she did twice. So we panicked!! Brian gave her a quick blessing and then called 911 and told them he may be an over-reacting parent but our 2 year old wasn't breathing well and had passed out twice. They sent the ambulance and the fire truck to our house and I waited in the driveway for them while Brian held Nora inside. She did calm down a little and that helped her breathe easier, but the EMT's took her and I in the ambulance to the hospital while Brian followed in our car (we woke our very kind neighbor to come sleep at our house so we didn't have to wake Sophie!) They gave Nora some oxygen on the way and that helped a lot. Everyone at the hospital was so wonderful and took great care of Nora. They gave her some medicine and she did the nebulizer and after an hour and a half we went home. The doctor said it was croup, which we didn't think could come on that fast. We thought she was having some sort of allergic reaction to something. Anyway, to make a long story not quite as long she is doing well now and has only acted a little sick the last few days. We are so thankful for good doctors, medicine and technology, but mostly we are thankful for our Nora Grace!

Mini-vacation to Grand River

Brian had a conference in Grand River, Michigan on Wednesday and Thursday. Since his program was paying for him to stay in a nice hotel the girls and I decided to tag along. The girls got spoiled on Wednesday with a trip to McDonald's, Toys 'R Us, Cold Stone Creamery (okay, that one was my choice!) and swimming back at the hotel. We had a great time and it was fun to see a new city we've never been to. Luckily I had Brian's phone that has GPS on it or I wouldn't have dared be so adventurous - or I would have surely been lost! Thursday the girls and I went out for breakfast and to a local park while we waited for Brian and finished up by watching Cinderella in the car on our DVD player. Although we didn't see Brian much while we were there the drive up and back were nice, sometimes driving in the car is the best time for Brian and I to feel like we are on a date (Nora was asleep and Sophie is an excellent traveler and mostly just colored and listened to stories on CD). Overall, it was a fun couple of days!