Manthe Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with Joe's family this year. It was a nice and relaxing holiday with lots of great food!

Thanksgiving was a beautiful day.

Norah spent a little time with Grandpa.

James got out one of his old army men games and played with Joey. They were pretty funny to watch, and Joey had a great time.

Joe is the official "turkey carver." He would make his Papa proud! I think this was his smoked turkey from the Green Egg. There was also a bigger turkey that was cooked in the oven. We never have to worry about running out of food at the Manthe house!

Here is almost everyone gathered around the Thanksgiving table. We missed you Josh & Val and kids, and Jeff! Gotta love the kids' table. :)

I should have taken a picture of the food: turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy (I made homemade gravy...I think I won Joe's dad over, but I'm not sure about his brothers!), stuffing, green beans, cauliflower and cheese, Val's sweet potato casserole, homemade rolls, and fresh cranberry sauce.

YUM!

These two had some fun together this weekend. They are starting to interact a little bit more, which is so fun to see. (Doesn't Naomi have the best eyes ever?!)Here they are "talking" to each other. Always have to have something in each of their mouths...




Joey and Kylah got to help Nana decorate her tree. Nana has an awesome tree with ornaments that each actually do something when you push a button. The kids love it, and they loved getting to decorate it. (Good thing, because we might miss out on having a tree here at our house this year since we are moving in a few weeks.)

Saturday night we all went to Power Play (think a bigger ChuckECheese or Dave & Busters). The kids always have fun, and always get to ride some fun rides.

Kylah is a fan of the swings.

Jason was the only one brave enough to go on this ride with Joey (actually he was the only one that didn't think he would get sick with all that spinning!) :)

Fun Dip and prizes at the end!

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. I got some good naps in. The kids had a great time playing. We all ate some great food. And we spent a lot of fun time with family. Couldn't ask for more. On Saturday I was telling Joey that I needed a hug because I felt like I hadn't really seen him for a few days (he is just go, go, go when we are at Joe's parents). He told me he would cuddle with me when we got back to Arkansas. :) I guess he just didn't have time for that there!

9 months and ready for Thanksgiving!

Norah Mae is 9 months old!

We took her last week for her 9 month check up, and here are her stats:

Height: 29 inches (90th percentile)

Weight: 19 pounds, 8 ounces (55th percentile)

Head: 18.5 cm (100th percentile...I'm still not sure the nurse measured right, but we'll go with it. At least her head doesn't look that big!)

I have to write a few things about Norah at 9 months on here, because she is already getting less written in her baby book than the other two. Sorry Norah!!

Norah is drinking about 4-5 ounces of milk 5 times a day. She nurses in the morning and then gets bottles of pumped milk (mixed with formula as needed) the rest of the day.

She is napping SO much better. She takes a 1-1.5 hour nap in the morning, and then usually a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon.

She goes to bed by 7:00 pm.

She is getting better at sleeping at night. I have high hopes that by 1 year she will actually be sleeping through the night every night. She has given me a few nights here and there, so I know she can do it! But, even when she does wake up, it's usually only once a night now, and she goes right back to sleep after nursing.

She usually wakes up around 6:30 am.

She LOVES her brother and sister, and they love to entertain her (thank goodness!)

I still think she is one of the most loved babies by her older siblings. I love it!

Norah loves her food (one of the reasons she is filling out so nicely!)

I still make her baby food, usually a mix of sweet potatoes, green veggies and chicken.

For her fruits I usually make a combination of apples, pears, strawberries and/or blueberries.

I think she would keep eating all day if we let her!

She loves puffs.

I have given her very small bits of food, but not too much, because she still has NO teeth.

She waves hi and bye-bye, but she does it backwards. So cute!

She babbles all the time. Actually, she's very loud!

I've heard her say mama a few times, but usually when she is crying in her crib. :)

Norah you are a blessing to our family, and we love you!!

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Look at these sweet sisters!

The picture of all three is tough to get sometimes, but I can get a cute one every now and then.

Joey is so excited for Thanksgiving (and Christmas, too, but he knows Thanksgiving comes first.)

Today at school they had their Thanksgiving feast, and he loved all the yummy food!
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Norah and Matty are still good friends. Matty loves to "help" Norah eat her puffs. One for Norah, three for Matty...
Bathtime together is always fun (sorry Norah and Matty, but we did the same thing to your brothers and sisters!) -----------------------------------------------------
Joey and Kylah love to go in our closet and dress up in our clothes.
I got a picture of them the other day. They look a little more like hobo's here than a mommy and daddy...what's that saying about our clothes?... ------------------------------------------------------
A few weekends ago our downtown had a fun Princess/Toy/Cars thing. (I'm really not sure what it actually was called or what it actually was.) They had lots of fun different booths with samples of little toys for the kids and toys they could play with there. There were also supposed to be princesses there, so the girls were to dress like princesses.
Kylah made a beautiful princess!
Joey finally got to see the life-size Lightning McQueen. We stopped for a quick picture and then kept going...it was packed!
And we finally found some princesses. I thought there would be more "real-life" princesses, but Kylah didn't know any better, so she was happy to see these cardboard cut-outs!

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In other news...we have found a new (bigger!) place to rent!

We were feeling a bit cramped in our 1100 square foot house after 2 years here, and this new rental kind of fell into our lap! It's not huge by any means, but it does give us quite a bit more space. We have some packing to do to be ready to move there mid-December, but we'll make it work.

(Name that TV show..."make it work!") :)

Star Student

Kylah is Star Student of the Week at her preschool. She was so excited! The Star Student gets to bring a few fun things from home to show her class, bring pictures from home, and gets to be line leader.

Here is Star Student Kylah with her teacher Miss Amber (whom she loves!)

They do a fun little interview with the Star Student and that stays up on the poster on the door all week.

Here are the answers that Kylah gave...

When I grow up I want to be...a princess.

My favorite subject is...painting.
I am proud of myself because...I share with my brother. What I like most about school is...playing in the doll house.

I am a star student because...I listen and obey.

I am good at...writing my name.

So sweet! And we are so proud of our little Star Student of the Week! :)

cell phone upload

I realized I haven't blogged in over a week (gasp!!).

So, here are some recent pictures from my phone to tide all of you grandparents out there over until I can get good pictures from my camera.

Norah loves to wear headbands and flowers...ok, I just like her to wear them.

This was one of my favorite outfits that Kylah used to wear (and I think Olivia wore it before her!) I think Norah got to wear it once, and now she is about grown out of it. She is my chunky monkey!!

The kids LOVE to paint. I really should just let them do it every day! :)

And Norah doing something she does best...eating! Still no teeth, but she can "chew" soft foods, and loves her puffs!
In other news, Kylah has finally kicked the sucking-her-fingers habit. We think. We started a little over a week ago by putting the nasty stuff on her fingers during the day and putting gloves on her at bedtime. I think she really must have been ready this time, because she didn't fight it at all, and doesn't really seem to mind. We haven't put any of the nasty stuff on her fingers during the day for about 4 days now, and she doesn't even try to suck her fingers! And, we forgot to put her gloves on her last night for bed, and she wasn't sucking fingers when I went to check on her (still awake). We'll keep doing the gloves for a while just to make sure she doesn't slip back into doing it in her sleep.
Falling asleep is harder for her, especially if she isn't too tired, but she seems to be doing ok.
We are so proud of her!

(Now, if only she would want to poop in the potty...)

Nana visits and Halloween

Last weekend Joe's mom, Grammy, and Aunt Kris came for a quick visit. Joey and Kylah got to go swimming at Nana and Grammy's hotel Saturday morning, and they had a blast. I would have taken pictures, but I got to stay home and sleep for a few wonderful, quiet hours!! :)

Aunt Kris brought her little friend Samuel, who knows Joey and Kylah from when we have been down to Hot Springs before. They had a fun day together.

Here they are enjoying some hot chocolate.

Nana and Norah had some good time together.
We took the kids to Fun City, where Nana gave them lots of tokens to play games (which they don't normally get to do when mommy takes them!)

Joe got in on the fun with Joey too!
Norah had fun talking with Grammy and Nana.

And Norah got to ride her first ride ever! :)

After Fun City, we headed to MarketPlace to eat, which happens to be a favorite of Grammy's!

Of course, we had to get a Chocolate Mess for dessert. This was the first time our kids have experienced this yummy dessert.

I think they enjoyed it... Love the chocolate on his face!

Joey loves his Grammy!

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Monday night was Halloween, and instead of taking the kids trick-or-treating, we took them to a carnival our church was having.

Our friend, Kena, kept Norah for us so we didn't have to worry about her being out late or being cold. It was great.

Here is the only picture I have of the three kiddos together.

The rides were great! (Although there were a few that Kylah was too short to ride on, which she was sad about.)

She had fun on this one, though, with Audrey behind her.

This was one that took the kids up high (Kylah actually could have gone on this one, but said it was too high for her!) :)

What a cute little Spider Girl!

Joey and Connor were excited that they were both Superman!

Joey loved climbing this wall.

He has never done anything like that before, so I think he felt like he had really accomplished something. He was so proud!

Spider Girl loves her daddy too!

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And, just for fun...Norah got to enjoy her first bath like a big girl in the big tub with Kylah. She loved it!

Oh, the drama.

Kylah has been potty trained for about the past month. We finally just told her that she was going to wear underwear everyday (she had been wearing underwear to school and pullups at home for a few weeks prior, so we knew she knew how to stay dry if she tried.) We were so excited to finally be rid of pullups during the day. And, one bonus to her potty training late was that she literally had maybe one accident at the very beginning, but other than that, knows how to hold it and how to stay dry.

Anyway, then our battle with going Number 2 came. Oh my. This has been a battle. She will hold it and wait until she gets a pullup on at nighttime to go Number 2. We would catch her trying to go in her pullup and put her on the toilet, but she would not go. She said it was scary. Anyway, we are at our wits end, because we know she knows how to go Number 2, she just needs to do it on the toilet! The past few nights (when we know she has to go) we sit her on the toilet and tell her she has to stay on the toilet until she goes poopy on the toilet.

Oh. My. The. Drama.

She cries the whole time she's on there. But, both nights, after about 10-15 minutes she has actually pooped in the toilet! Yay!

But, here's the funny thing. The first night after she actually went, she came to the bathroom door, and when we asked her if she went, she started bawling! She could not stop crying. We tried to figure out why she was crying. We asked her if something hurt. No. We asked her if she was scared. No. She just said, "it made me cry." Well, we still celebrated! Same thing last night. She started bawling again after she went in the toilet. Again, "it made me cry." Maybe she's just so overwhelmed with emotion! :)

Seriously, I don't understand girls. I know I am one. But, I guess I don't understand 3 year old girls! :) And, just think...we get to do this again with another little girl. :)