jingle bell rock

We started teaching Caylee some Christmas songs over the holidays and the habit has continued...every night when we put her down to bed she asks to sing a Christmas song. So, she knows the words to Jingle Bell Rock pretty well - here she is performing and dancing. She LOVES to perform. enjoy!

Chunky Monkey

Haedyn has her four month appt tomorrow (wed) so I'll post her "stats" later...but wanted to get this picture up while i had a spare moment. She is so chubby...its awesome!

remember that dessert from Carrow's called Chunky Monkey...ahh, high school memories :)

garage sale musings...

so, i'm sitting in my garage with all my "junk" sitting in my driveway and listening to Caylee holler "birdie, birdie" it is supposed to rain today and there is a tornado warning a few hours north of here...not the best weather for garage sale-ing...but i kinda like it overcast and breezy. Caylee gets to play outside which she LOVES and I get to NOT be melting. I think its so adorable that her hair gets so so so curly when she's outside in the humidity...
i am also wondering who took down my garage sale sign yesterday...and why? i don't think i'm going to get much traffic because there isn't a sign on the main road now. maybe when the baby wakes us - yes, she's still asleep at 7:45 - we can all go put another sign up.

sleepy head

the other day Caylee was really quiet in her highchair at lunchtime...i came around the corner to see this...so FUNNY!! that's my girl - trying to stick it out and finish the sandwich instead of just asking to be put to bed for her nap.

Dedication

This past Sunday we dedicated Haedyn to Jesus, which just means we have publically committed to raise her to know Jesus and His love...and all that that entails. It was precious...and the girls were dressed in the outfits grandma connie made them. so fun to dress girls!!

Videos

the crew - eating pizza

baby haedyn and Ms Amy

caylee eating pizza w/ the kids

yum - chocolate cake!

Caylee is TWO!!!

I can't believe how fast its gone...doesn't every parent say that? It has been hard and frustrating and exhausting and hilarious and exciting and wonderful - all at the same time!

We spent Sunday afternoon with our church small group - talking, playing football, eating pizza (caylee's fav) and just celebrating our "family". Driving home that afternoon both girls were asleep in their car seats (exhausted from having so much fun!) and I was overwhelmed with gratitude to God for putting us in such a loving community. It was so great to watch my girls be loved, and known, by people who love God. Most of my longtime friends have their families around to celebrate their kiddos birthdays and I'm always a little jealous of that. Even though they aren't blood relatives our friends here are definately family! Living in Navarre has not been my favorite place...but the relationships here have been so wonderful!! Isn't that just like our Lord?

So - I'll post some videos and pictures of the party for your viewing enjoyment :)

Videos of our girls

Haedyn smiles

another sweet picture of the baby

Countertop re-do

hooray for home improvement! and for getting rid of that yucky lookin' laminate countertop! we are in the middle of re-doing our kitchen countertops...our first attempt at anything this involved and we are really enjoying the process.

here are some pics...hoping to have this section done soon.

silly girls

the Norris girls are becoming a lot of fun....Haedyn smiles all the time now and its so fun to watch them interact.

One of my favorite things is when they are in the stroller they face each other. Caylee likes to talk to Haedyn and tickle her feet and Haedyn just coos and smiles. So fun! Caylee has taken to wearing these sunglasses (usually upside down) and just leaves them on...crazy kid.

Caylee opening gifts

Two little videos of Caylee opening some Christmas presents from my brothers...

Ice Skating

On Christmas Eve we took Grandma Laurie and cousins AJ and Robbie ice skating. No one in the group had ever been ice skating before (except me) so we weren't sure how it was going to go...I told them the "rule" that I was told the first time I went - "When you fall (because you WILL) you must laugh out loud, not cry" that keeps you from getting frustrated and discouraged.

So, we got all ready and headed out on the ice...needless to say there was a lot of slipping and sliding...but Caylee loved it! AJ and Robbie made some dents in the ice but kept working on it. By the end AJ was going around by herself and Vic was looking like a natural! Haedyn seemed to like it because she was being held by Grandma Laurie in the bleachers:)

All in all, we each took a few spills and had a great time!

Christmas recap

Let's see...its been a while since I've posted anything except a picture and brief story of the picture. Wow, God has been good to our family this Christmas season! I think the efforts we made to keep Christmas special, fun and purposeful worked. We made the road trip up to Ohio to spend time with family, were blessed by the surprise of Vic's dad coming to Ohio also and made some fun memories ice skating and looking for houses with cool Christmas lights. We are constantly amazed at Caylee's comprehension...she continually surprises us with the things she remembers and learns. For example, I was in Sam's Club with both the girls on Dec 30th and Caylee was talking up a storm (as usual) so I was half listening and half trying to get the things I needed and get out. At one point she was saying something I couldn't really understand so I stopped to listen harder...she was saying "Santa, presents?? noooo....songs, lights?? nooooo....thistmus cards, cookies?? noooo.....Jesus? YES! This is the little game we've started playing...is the sky red? noooo...is the sky green? noooo...is the sky blue? YES! you get the point. Caylee was given a book about the meaning of Christmas that has this same type of format...its a great book and just the right level for her understanding - thanks KG!! So, there we are buying diapers and paper plates and Caylee is thinking about the meaning of Christmas..its about Jesus! I was so proud of my little girl!!

i walked away from this post and I'm now re-reading it...i kind of rambled on and didn't write in proper sentences...but hey, i get to write how i want to on this blog, right?? you all get to see how my mind really works i guess. its that spaghetti vs waffles thing.

Here is a picture of Caylee asleep in the car on our roadtrip after "reading" that wonderful Christmas book about 10 times :)

Christmas with the Ohio family

Here's a picture of our sweetie pies on Christmas day at Grandma Laurie's house.

I'll write about the trip later, but wanted to get these out there :)

Eyes a'smilin'

okay, she's not irish...but her eyes sure do smile!

more pics and update of Christmas happenings coming soon...