It's that time

Today was pre-registration day for Kindergarten for Joey.

Where has the time gone?!

This picture has nothing to do with the post. It's just a cute one of my little man and me.

 

I am so excited for him. I know he will do so great and is so ready!

Hodge Podge

Norah was just hanging out with Joey the other night. She still loves her big brother to death!

 

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So, the other evening the kids were out playing in the backyard. Since we moved in during the winter, we haven't really done any lawn work or picked up anything that the previous owners left here. There's some random bags and concrete blocks, etc. that will need to be moved come spring time.

Anyway, so the kids are playing outside and Joey comes and tells me to come see what they are doing. He shows me his hands and tells me he "found some soil, so we are making a garden." He thought it was pretty funny because his hands were covered with the dirt. I came to see and looked at the bag of "soil" that they were playing with. Zoom in on the bag and you can see that the bag says "manure."  Yep, there hands were covered in manure!  

 We scrubbed those hands many times and used GermX a few times for good measure too! :)

 

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On Thursday, Joe surprised me by coming by my office with a dozen roses. So sweet. (and it's not even Valentine's Day yet!)

He then proceeded to cook an awesome dinner for him and me that night. We timed it so that we ate a late dinner after the kids were all in bed. It was amazing that we could actually hold a conversation during dinner at our own table!  :)  It was yummy, too!

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Yesterday we put Norah's hair in her first little pony tail. So cute!

Norah has been back to being a happy baby after being so cranky for a good three weeks. We are so glad to have our happy baby back. She pushed through 3/4 of her front top and bottom teeth, but somehow that other top one hasn't gotten the message yet. Oh well, we love our little hillbilly!

Matty and Norah were pretty cute together yesterday. Actually, as much as Matty loves Norah, I'm pretty sure he gets quite annoyed with her these days because all she tries to do is take every toy he is playing with. Sorry Matty. She'll learn someday.

Ah, look at them so sweetly reading a book together. Actually, this lasted about 5 seconds! :)

I love when my kids think of creative things to play. Yesterday they were playing "library" with Audrey. They made quite a mess with all the books, but it was so cute and creative I couldn't get too upset about the mess.

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Today we all went out for a little shopping trip as a family. We got groceries and a few other odds and ends.

Our trip ended at Sam's Club. We were getting pretty close to nap time, so Norah was starting to get a little cranky. Somehow we lost her pacifier in the middle of Sam's--the only one we had brought from home. (Joey found it about 5 minutes ago in the hood on his jacket!)

Anyway, as we always do at Sam's, we headed to the bakery for a cookie for the kids. I got an extra one thinking either I would eat it or share it with Norah. :)

Turns out we don't need pacifier. All we need is a cookie! She was happy as a clam the rest of the time at Sam's and the whole way home.  This was her very first cookie ever.

What, do I have something on my face?!

Kind of a gross post...

 Well, not much seems to be going on around the Manthe house this week, which is actually kind of nice!

We did have an eventful weekend last weekend.

First, Joey had his friend Zeke spend the night Friday night. This is the first friend besides Connor (whom we consider family...) that he has had spend the night. Zeke is my friend Callie's little boy, who is 5 just like Joey. For those of you who don't know Callie, we grew up together from 5th-12th grade. And now we live on the same street! Crazy, huh?! It's been fun having a close friend with kids just down the street.

Anyway, Zeke and Joey had a fun night.  We got candy, ice cream and a movie for them to watch.

They were great! They got to stay up later than normal, and they got to sleep in Joey's bunk beds. We moved Kylah into Norah's room for the night (which she thought was pretty fun!)

We had a nice and relaxing Saturday and then enjoyed an evening with the Adair's. Well, we enjoyed dinner with the Adair's and then Mere and I went out shopping for a little bit! :)

And then the not-so-fun part of our weekend came...the stomach flu. I think it actually started with Norah.  She woke up on Saturday morning with the world's smelliest diaper. I'm not kidding. Kylah (who had spent the night in Norah's room) came into our room at 6:15 Saturday morning saying, "it smells like throw up in Norah's room." No one had thrown up...it was Norah's nasty diaper. Anyway, it took the whole day and a Scentsy in her room to get the smell out.

Then, on Sunday morning, Norah woke up covered in vomit. Besides being a little grossed out, I didn't think too much of it because (after a bath) she was as happy as could be all day long and ate just fine.

We went to church, and on the way home I started feeling a little nauseous. I thought maybe I was just a little carsick and hungry. We got home and fed the kids, and I ate a little lunch, and then went to lay down because my stomach wouldn't settle down.  Well, about 30 minutes later I knew why.  And then again, and then again.  Bummer. I. HATE. TO. THROW. UP!!!

Luckily it was Sunday so Joe took care of all the kids while I layed in bed the rest of the day and night.

And then Joe woke up at 1:30 am that night. It was his turn.  Sorry, honey.

We both had to drag ourselves to work the next day, but fortunately it was only a 24 hour flu bug, and I was feeling much better by Monday afternoon.  Monday morning was a little bit of a blur, but I don't think I killed anyone at work...

Luckily, the germs seemed to stop there and neither Joey nor Kylah has gotten sick.

We are all healed and eating normally again!  :)

And as I turned the calendar today I realized that I have made no plans for a birthday celebration for our third child who turns 1 next week!  I better get on that! :)

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.)  :)