Bath time with Norah

 One of Norah's favorite times of the day is bath time. She has always been a fan of the bath, and she continues to love it. If she's having a particularly fussy night, we throw her in the bath earlier than normal and she gets a longer bath (hmmm...maybe she's catching on that fussy=long bath...)

Anyway, she was pretty cute tonight in the bath.

She was clapping for herself.

Don't you want to play with me, mommy?

There, I got you.

Don't you love the tongue out. She's so focused!

She was so curious.

She is not a fan of when bath time is over. Sometimes I can distract her while I lotion her and get her jammies on, but sometimes she just screams. She did a little of both tonight.

I was trying to get a picture of her new teeth coming in.

She was still happy...

Still putting up with me...

And, she's done.  But, don't you think that's such a cute crying face?!

Just one more...seriously, I think I would be cranky if my teeth looked like that too!

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We were glad to all get back together this past Sunday after going three different directions this weekend.  I had a board review course this weekend in Chicago. All by myself.  It was weird, but a good weird, to be all alone for a few days.  It was actually pretty intense with 11 hour days of lecture and then another 2 hours of testing at night. But I do feel more prepared for my boards than I did before I left. Let's see if I still feel prepared next month when I actually take my boards!!

I got to eat dinner with Aaron and Esther two nights in a row! I had my first experience at a Brazilian steakhouse, and it was awesome!!

Joey and Kylah headed up to Kansas to spend the weekend with Nana and Grandpa. (Thanks for taking them Jeff!!) It sounds like they had a great time.

Joe and Norah had some good bonding time here at the house. I think you forget how easy it is to only have one until you only have to take care of one. It sounds like they had a good time together too, and Norah slept pretty good for daddy too!

I was ready to see everyone when I got home Sunday night! Those kisses and hugs are the best!

She must be one of us

Norah had her first taste of biscuits and gravy for breakfast yesterday!

I think it's safe to say she liked them!  :)

We know these two love biscuits and gravy!

Just another Saturday

We had a nice and relaxing Saturday.  We spent the morning just hanging out in our jammies.

This little one is actually smiling here, but she's been quite the cranky one the past week. I chose this picture because if you click on it and make it big, you can see her swollen top gums...what I'm guessing is the reason for all of her crankiness the past week.  She is 11 months old (tomorrow!) and has NO teeth, so they are bound to come in soon. And I'm thinking they may just all come at once. Let's hope they pop through soon so we can get over this cranky phase!

Who gave him permission to become so old?!

She looks like such a girlie-girl here, swinging around and dancing...with a sword?!!!  :)

I even let Joey and Kylah paint my nails!

We spent the rest of the day cleaning out the garage. We went through every box and organized things, and made a pile for a garage sale...someday.  We can now park my car in the garage! Yay! And we can now officially say we are completely moved into this house.

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Joey got a new purple dress shirt and tie from Nana, and he really wanted to wear it to church on Sunday. When Joe told him that he also had a purple dress shirt, Joey really wanted to match. Joe was a good sport. When Joey is really excited to wear something the next day, he will lay all of his clothes out on his floor the night before. He lays it in the actual form of a human. I have gone in there in the middle of the night before and thought there was someone lying on the floor!

Anyway, Joey carefully laid out his clothes and daddy's clothes on his floor. They hung up the purple shirts so they wouldn't get wrinkled. (I didn't realize it at the time, but it looks like Kylah laid her clothes out as well!)  :)

Here are those handsome men all ready for church this morning!

So sweet!

This was a pretty cute one, too!

Little Miss Fussy Pants wasn't really in the mood to take any pictures this morning, but I really wanted one of them looking so cute!

Daddy got her to smile a little, but you can tell she still isn't really too happy about it!

Did you notice Kylah's doll that has a matching dress?  Isn't that the cutest thing?! Nana got that outfit for her as well, and she was so excited!  I was excited to find the bag of 4T girl clothes for winter when we were cleaning out the garage!

We are 3 for 3...

On what, you ask?

On having three children who all SCOOT on their butt instead of crawling normally!  Yep, Norah has joined the ranks that her brother and sister started when they were babies. Who would have thought?! I thought it was crazy when Kylah started scooting on her butt like Joey did when he was a baby. And now, Norah too?  I'm thinking it is either genetic or something we are doing to make them do this. I promise we do tummy time, but they have all just hated it and have never tried to get up onto all fours like normal babies do. My mom thinks kids who crawl differently will be smarter...we'll go with that! :)
So far, it seems like she is scooting girlie style, just like Kylah did, opposed to Joey's animal-like scoot!

Anyway, I started getting some glimpses over Christmas break that Norah might start scooting, but today she was actually moving, and I caught it on video! (Don't mind the food-stained shirt she has on...we had just finished dinner.)  :)

Christmas Road Trip

We had quite the Christmas marathon. We left on Friday, the 23rd and headed to my parent's house in Ohio. We weren't quite sure what to expect on that long trip, since our last long trip home from Ohio this past summer didn't go to well. Norah actually did great on this trip. Kylah was a little whiney, but other than that, it was smooth sailing. We had snacks, movies, bottles and baby food, and only had to make quick stops for bathroom breaks.

The kids were so excited to get to Papa and Gramma's house!

 Christmas Eve morning was filled with fun crafts and things to do for the kids. My mom had this fun idea for ornaments.

I was impressed with how well they all did, and not one poke with the pins!

Gotta love the concentration!

This was common to see...lots of relaxation!

We headed to a Christmas Eve service that afternoon.  I failed to get a picture of our whole family dressed up on Christmas Eve, but here's Joe and me.

Joey sat by his Auntie Esther, who scratched his back and head during the sermon...she knows how to speak his love language!  :)

Kylah sat by Papa and Gramma for most of the service. I love this picture of her and my dad!

When we got home, we all had some of my dad's yummy chili and cinnamon rolls (a Manes tradition on Christmas Eve!)

Then, we decorated the tree.

Joey was pretty excited to see his ornament from his first Christmas with the year he was born.

Kylah hung up her own ornament too, with a little help from Uncle Andy.

Alright, who decorated Norah instead of the tree?! (But she looks pretty cute decorated in those lights!)

Meet Husker...this is Tony and Gina's dog. He is really a cute dog and good too.

Another Manes tradition is Santa making an appearance on Christmas Eve. Of course, Kylah was not a fan, which is saying it lightly. She screamed bloody murder. My dad pulled his beard off and showed her that it was him, and then she calmed down.  We even got a picture of all the kiddos with Santa! (Side note: this is the exact same costume that my dad used to wear when I was little!)

Stockings were hung, Christmas jammies were put on, and then the kids were put to bed. I think the adults then played a rousing game of Pictionary. It was girls against boys all weekend in games, and the girls just did not fare very well.  :(

Anyway, Joey and Michael were so patiently waiting on Christmas morning and staring at the pile of wrapped presents.

All of the kids were blessed with so many fun new toys. I love watching their reactions as they open the gifts.

I think Norah may have been more interested in the wrapping paper than the actual presents...

Joey may have the best reactions of all when he opens gifts. He is so excited about each one!

Aaron and Esther enjoying watching the kids open all their presents (maybe?!) :)

I had my dad's name this year, so I made him a Husker blanket. I think he liked it! :)

My mom got a picture that spells GRAMMA from Joey, Kylah and Norah.

Joey and Michael had a lot of fun playing together with their Transformer masks.

Not sure why they were hugging, but I caught a picture of it and thought it was cute!

I surprised Joe this year by getting him a Big Green Egg. He has been wanting one of these for quite some time, but since they are fairly pricey, he thought he would have to wait a few more years. It just so happened that I made a little extra money a few weeks ago, so I decided it was time for him to have one.

Needless to say, he was a little surprised when he read the card I put in his stocking. :)

Sweet Kylah in her new robe.

Do you see the remote control helicopter that Joey got? He had been asking for one, and I found one for really cheap (on sale and I had a coupon), so I decided to get him one. It lasted about 10 minutes and then took a rough landing and broke. Well, it was fun while it lasted!

We had a nice Christmas day...

The kids had fun playing games with Gramma.

Dad and I cooked Christmas dinner. Dad made an awesome prime rib! So yummy!

Gramma played with Norah and Luca too.

The big boys played football outside for quite a while.

Norah hung out with her Auntie G for a while.

I had to get a picture of Joey in his Transformer mask. He always had to have his new neck pillow around his neck anytime he had the mask on. So funny.

We restarted our Bingo tradition this year. We always used to play Bingo when we would have Christmas at my grandparents growing up. We decided it was time to bring it back. We always get silly gifts for whoever gets Bingo. I think we had about 100 gifts stacked on the table this year just for Bingo!!

Kylah enjoyed this disguise.

Joey convinced Uncle T to dress up as a Transformer (notice that he also gave him the neck pillow to wear!)

Papa had a little wrestling time with Joey and Michael.

The guys went out to shoot some clay rocks. Joey was able to go out and watch. I'm pretty sure he was amazed. I think as they were going out I asked Joe to make sure to have some gun-safety talks with Joey while he was out there!

Auntie Esther is a good sport and let Kylah do her hair. Kylah was gentle (most of the time...)

We played a lot of games while at my parents: Speed Scrabble, Pitch, Pictionary, Catch Phrase, Scene It. We always have fun playing games together (even if we do get a little competitive!) :)

I did have to include this picture of one of our Speed Scrabble games. It's probably not as funny as if you were there, but during one round, all of a sudden my mom stops and asks, "does beautiful have an A in it?" We all look over and this is what she had spelled...(you can see the A just waiting to be used if needed!) :) It must have been late...  We all had a good laugh at that.  :)

We had such a nice Christmas at my parent's with everyone.  We felt like we had enough time to relax and just enjoy being there.

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On the 28th, we loaded up and headed to Kansas to Joe's parents for a few days. We decided that since we still had some time off, that we would stop there and have "Christmas" there too!

The kids gave Nana her gift (pictures that spelled NANA).

Norah got to spend some time with her favorite twin cousin, Naomi.

We had a hard time getting them both to look at the camera at the same time.

They were very interested in trying to take each other's bows off!

Naomi took her first few steps while we were there (yep, she's only 10 months). Norah...not so much. She's not even crawling, although we have seen the beginnings of a scoot.  But who needs to learn to crawl, when you have a cousing who can walk and push you on the scooter?! :)

Kylah got some fun gifts from Nana and Grandpa! 

See what I mean about the great expressions when Joey opens gifts? :)

And then my camera battery died, so I don't have any more pictures of our time at Joe's parents house. We had some more great relaxing time.  Grammy and Aunt Kris brought over some fun gifts for the kids, which they loved!

 Joe's mom offered to watch all of our kiddos for us so we could go out for our anniversary (which was on the 28th...9 years!!)  We headed to a matinee movie and then dinner at a nice steakhouse. It was nice to be out alone.

The next day we got to see Jake and Katie and Naomi some more, eat some yummy chili, play Nerts, and eat some yummy snacks. Later that night we got to see Grandma and Grandpa Manthe, Aunt Susan, and Grammy and Kris again. It was fun! 

We headed back home Saturday morning to give ourselves a few days at home before we had to head back to work. We are mostly unpacked, although trying to find room for all these new toys has been challenging! :)

The Adair's came over for New Year's Eve. Joe cooked his first meal on his Green Egg...steaks!

The kids enjoyed playing with all the new toys.  Joey loves this army game that my parents got him!

We put the kids to bed on New Year's Eve, and kept ourselves awake until midnight by playing Spades.  We must be getting old, since it is hard for us to stay awake until midnight now! :)

Joe has been having fun with his Egg.  He's cooked something on it every night since he's had it. We had steak that first night, grilled chicken last night, and then he made some amazing ribs tonight that the Matchell's enjoyed with us!  Looks like maybe this Green Egg was good for me too!  :)