Party Time

With Gracie turning 1 we had to have a party. I really have found I quite enjoy party planning. It can be a lot of work but I want my girls to always feel extra special on their birthdays and know how loved they are. We did Cafe Rio pulled pork with either burritos or salads as options and of coarse cake and ice cream. So here are the pictures of the...

Decor

 I loved the timeline and I think it might have been just as fun to put it together as it was to look at..like living the year without words just pics 

 

Silly daddy

Present Time

Then of coarse the cake

More pictures to come of her eating the cake...cant wait to post them. I feel so blessed to have Brit to help me capture the special moments in my family's lives.

Our 1 yr Old Gracie Goo

I can't believe Gracie is already 1 yr old. Shortly after Gracie was born Hallie started calling her Gracie Goo and it has stuck. She also gets lovingly called permagrin Gracie seeing that she almost always has a smile on her face. She is practically running now to keep up with Hallie and they play extremely well. She can climb the stairs really well although Im still pretty cautious about letting her go down them alone. She has started doing a little talking she says hi, whoa, mama, dada, and something that sounds like hallie. She is like a bloodhound when it comes to getting in the tub and food. It doesn't matter where she is when either the tub water is started or a cupboard or fridge is open she suddenly appears at your feet whiny to get in or have some of what your eating. She eats pretty much anything and everything. On the way out of Walmart last week I sat her in the cart when we got to the car she had somehow found a yogurt container and managed to pierce the top of it and was sucking the yogurt out of it. If you look close you can see the yogurt container still in her hand.

 This is after a night of chili..she got an extra bath this day

Up to this point there have been times when Hallie wants what Gracie is playing with and Hallie will take it Gracie usually quickly finds something new to play with and goes on with her day. I had given Hallie a sugar cookie the other day and she had set it on the couch while she was playing. I noticed Gracie go over and pick it up, look it over, and put it in her mouth without Hallie noticing for about 5 minutes. After that Hallie saw her cookie and went to take it and when she did you would have thought she had  hit her over the head with a rock. I looked over and assessed the situation I asked Hallie if she would be willing to share and she said yes, all the while Gracie is melting down. I broke the cookie in 2 and attempted to give Gracie the other half of it. She was insulted to say the least and immediately melted to the floor I left her piece of cookie next to her which she picked up when I started ignoring her...silly girl she could be a handful. She does like to get into things but is getting pretty good and listening and being redirected. We are currently attempting to transition her to whole milk a lot slower than last time hoping for a better result. She sleeps for about 9p-9a. She still likes to be bundled with a binki at times with her white noise running. She naps 2-3 times a day ranging from 45 minutes before bed to 2 hours. She likes to dance and be chased. I love the squeal she does when she knows your coming to get her. True joy has to be something like her and Hallie chasing each other around the couch both laughing like there isn't anything more fun they could be doing. What joy and happiness this little girl has brought into our lives. Happy Birthday little goo

Fun with the Fam

Saturday Nic had the great idea to invite Kim & Ez to come spend the night since they were coming up for Gracie's b-day party on Sunday anyways. Nic then invited us to come have dinner and play games. After eating some yummy chicken chili, corn bread, and warm cookies we played with the kids and watched some football. Later we turned the kids on a movie and the adults played games. Hallie and Rigs decided they could share Rig's sleeping bag to watch the movie. Hallie & Gracie also enjoyed playing with Rigs new Christmas toys...its always fun to play with someone elses' new toys. 

It was such a fun night and we came home looking forward to doing it again the next day....good thinking Nic

Happy New Years & 1st New Years Resolution

Our New Years was nothing super special we aren't big celebrators and I usually work New Years Day so I can have Thanksgiving and Christmas off and this year was no different. We had pizza and sparkling cider complete with pink sprinkle rimmed glasses(hallie's fav) along with a good family friendly movie then off to bed early. This year started and ended pretty quickly and busy and everything in between all complete with smiles, laughs, tears, and learning that have become memories that have brought us together as a family and helped shape us into what we are today

Happy New Year's Everyone
For at least a couple years now I have been wanting to learn how to bottle chicken for our food storage and for multiple excuses have not gotten around to it....well no more. Thanks to Joy for buying me a pressure cooker and Walmart for having chicken on an amazing sale(1.29lb) it was time. So after looking it up on Pinterest and talking to Nick & Brit about a few questions I had I started. I bought frozen chicken and will probably continue to just for the fact it was a lot easier to deal with as far as cutting and not being slimy. I got all the bottles ready and decided to bite the bullet before Matt got home(I was really nervous that I would blow up our house with the pressure cooker). There was a slight learning curve in figuring out how the pressure cooker worked but after that it just took a LONG time. After 2 batches and 5 hours we were done and ready for bed but the finished product turned out beautiful. We did 12 quarts equal to 40lbs of chicken.

Happy New Year

Our New Years was nothing super special we aren't big celebrators and I usually work New Years Day so I can have Thanksgiving and Christmas off and this year was no different. We had pizza and sparkling cider complete with pink sprinkle rimmed glasses(hallie's fav) along with a good family friendly movie then off to bed early. This year started and ended pretty quickly and busy and everything in between all complete with smiles, laughs, tears, and learning that have become memories that have brought us together as a family and helped shape us into what we are today

Happy New Year's Everyone

Christmas Eve & Morning

This year we headed for Vegas on Christmas Eve. Matt's work party was supposed to be the morning of the 24th but at the last minute they changed it to the previous Friday in order to give the employees more time off with their families. But by the time the party had changed flights were to expensive to change so we decided to spend the weekend relaxing before heading out on Christmas Eve. Because we were flying we decided to leave most of Matt and I's big stuff home so we didn't have to travel with it. Matt got a new hand gun with some fun accessories and I got a new sewing machine and a sewing box(mine had seen a better day and was my great grandma's machine before it was mine). I have already sewn some sleeping bags for the girls on it and it seems to work alot better than the one I have before.

We flew out about 5pm and got to Vegas just in time for some gag gift exchange, dinner, and games. Then the not so fun started. For some reason the girls REALLY struggled. Gracie was up most of the night crying(which has never happened in her whole life) and of coarse because we were all sleeping in one room it ment Hallie was up a lot also. I tried my best to find quiet spots so we didn't disturb anyone but that was near impossible with everyone there. I was extremely frustrated and even more so when Hallie came down the stairs in the middle of the night when we were setting out Santa stuff. Fortunately she was mostly asleep and hardly noticed as we quickly ushered her back to bed. Gracie finally fell asleep for longer than 20 minutes about 4am so needless to say we slept in Christmas morning and got up about 9am. Hallie was excited to see what Santa brought her.

Growing up we always opened our stocking presents first usually while we waited for Grandma and Grandpa Norr to get there to spend the rest of Christmas with us. So in true Norr fashion Hallie opened all her stocking stuff. Most the adults sat around eating breakfast before opening many of our presents. Hallie was really the only one dying to open gifts. Rigs didn't really seem to get it or care and Gracie slept til almost 11am.

New Panties

Paint Markers

Popup Circus Tent

Hallie thought her circus tent was a perfect princess castle. She told us at one point if we needed her she could be reached in her castle...oh to be a kid again

Hallie has been asking for a purple Tangled dress since her birthday party and she finally got it...this is what she wore for most of the day

Then she opened the gift my mom made for her it was a beautiful princess dress made to look like Ariel from Little Mermaids wedding dress complete with veil.

I love the picture with Hallie in her dress partially because Rigs is totally photo-bombing it of coarse he wouldn't smile until I wasn't trying to take a picture of him

About that time Gracie decided to be part of the world again but she wasn't sure what all the fuss was about

Santa brought Hallie a barbie set

Once Graie got some food in her she was a little more interested in what was going on.

She spent some time opening Christmas gifts with just about everyone

Cindy & Jerry(my dad's cousin) joined us since their families were far away. Jerry was great to play tea party/picnic with her.

Gracie in her new pom pom hat

That afternoon while reading stories Hallie's head started to bob and then st practically fell over(she had completely fallen asleep. I moved and laid her down, she continued to sleep there for a couple hours in the middle of the house...she must have been so tired!

Once again with the photo-bombing...thanks mom for the laugh

Then we made gingerbread houses my mom had gone after Halloween and bought the clearance ones they ended up a lot cuter because they were all different styles and not just square with a roof and bonus they were pre-built so we just had to decorate

I think this is such a cute picture of Rigs when I ask him to smile he usually doesn't but not this time

Hallie really likes her paint markers they are basically a water paint that built into a marker type thing so you don't need separate water, brush, and paints

And here it is after all the hard work and good time visiting

And that is our Christmas in a nut shell. It was fun to be all together but this will probably be our last year traveling for Christmas it was hard. We left some of our Christmas home since we didn't want to pack everything there and back. After we all opened our gifts we basically packed them back up and it made me sad that we didn't spread them out and play with them more(future post) I think we will now revert to how we were raised by rotating houses for a Christmas Eve party and Christmas dinner. We will just invited my parents to come with the younger kids and hopefully they will be willing what our grandparents did growing up. They would rotate whose house they slept at on Christmas eve and on Christmas day travel around to see what everyone got. I love that my sisters now live close enough that we can do that because after this year I'm not traveling again

Dinner with Brower's and Stair Climbing

The Friday before Christmas we met up with the Browers and Bennetts for dinner at Chuck o Rama. I thought it was a great idea since no one including me wanted to cook for everyone or dive all the way in one direction or the other. It was so nice to have a variety for everyone and it made it pretty easy for me to find something to eat as well. Hallie and Kaylee played so cute while the rest of us ate and visited. The girls got to open their presents from their cousins. Hallie got a little makeup kit and Gracie a dolly of her very own. I let Hallie keep some of her "beauty" stuff mostly the stick on earrings but took the rest. I am way not into makeup especially since she is only 3 I think the time will come for that soon enough. Maybe this is silly but I want her to see the true beauty in herself inside and out before the superficial stuff comes in to play. We did however take her and let me get some lipgloss and pretend makeup so she has something for her bag.

I love this picture of her and Kaylee 

I was going through my phone the other day and found multiple pictures Hallie had taken...they are quite good and I found myself second guessing whether I have taken them or not. Among them was this picture of Gracie climbing the stairs(a new thing in the last couple weeks) Thanks Hallie for helping me to document our lives.