Gingerbread Houses and Sushi

Our first annual Gingerbread house and sushi party! Fun to start new traditions and we have just created one this year. 

My mom and I made enough gingerbread houses for everyone ahead of time, then bought candy, candy and more candy. Oh and the royal icing! Here is Hailey working on her masterpiece. See the picture below of her AWESOME house.

Ben even joined in and created a house!

He had the best tree!

Everyone joined in and decorated a house.

Becky and Brian both "painting" away!

Becky did very good on her house. With a pretzel roof and awesome cereal tree.

Noah was quite proud of his house.

My mom and I split the last house and each decorated a side. 

Leggo roof. Good job Abe!

Well, I said sushi, but don't have any pictures of it. But we made a ton and ate every bit!

More Babies!

Our good friends, Tim and Christine had little Simeon about a month after we had Norah. Here is my Brian holding both babies!

Tim and Chris have four boys now! Zane, Owen and Ezra along with Simeon. 

Why not another picture of Norah! She is almost 2 and 1/2 pictures in this picture. 

Norah and I went to four Christmas parties one weekend. she wore her beautiful Christmas dress more than once!

Christmas Fun!

Thanks to Jeremiah and Isaac our tree was decorated properly. Then, they decided that Norah needed to go under the tree. They promptly went under the tree with her for a photo. 

She enjoyed looking at the lights for a small period of time, but then got fed up and started crying. We told Santa to cheer her up, but it didn't work.

I met my good friends, Sarah and Darla for our annual Christmas cookie decorating party. We make sugar cookies (and other cookies and deserts) and then frost them. It usually takes hours to frost, Sarah and Darla are pros at frosting, I'm usually too impatient to make the cookies look nice, besides lacking the vision for each cookie. Here is our Santa faces. 

Does anyone else get overwhelmed by all the sweets at Christmas???

More Norah pictures. In a cute little Christmas onsie with her Santa hat. 

She is getting bigger! On Friday she had her 2 month check up and was 11 pounds, 14 ounces and 23 1/2 inches long. 

Visitors in the last two months.

We have been lucky enough to visit with many people over the last month (actually, two months). Of course they are all coming to see Norah. Brian and I are just an added benefit of visiting the Felix household. Here is a scattering of pictures of Norah and her first friends. And don't be hurt if your picture isn't up here, we probably didn't get a picture of you holding her!

Trisha and Troy Welstad. Two of our favorite people, Troy was a little uncomfortable holding little Norah, but he did just great!

Grandma Joan, Norah's first days of life!

Benjamen. I love this picture because Ben is on his I Pad. Silly Ben.

Yeah for Elia! Our friendship has lasted over 20 years,

Pat Kent held me as a little baby, and now gets to hold our little Norah.

Grandpa Matt and Norah napping together. Somehow I think they will be doing this often when he visits from Alaska.

"Grandma" Pam Welstad, (my other mother, so technically she is a grandma to Norah). Traditions of making stockings for everyone in the family. Norah has her Christmas stocking now!

Cousin Kyle came for Thanksgiving and played a little music on his saxophone and melonica for Norah.

Mema and Norah, reading a good book during nap time.

Norah is loved by many, thanks to everyone who has sent gifts, and love and time our way for our precious little bundle. We are thankful for it all! She is our gift this year.

Thanksgiving Fun!

Two dinners, delicious food, great company, wonderful family.  

The random selection of people at our home for our first Thanksgiving. Brian's mom and sister were in town, and his cousin Kyle. We had planned to go to California for Thanksgiving, but due to Brian's work schedule we stayed here in Salem. I'm sure Norah didn't mind not having to ride in the car for a full day anyway. 

Norah and Grandma Karen

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Photo Shoot

Our precious daughter had her first photo shoot at four days old. Here are the wonderful pictures that my friend Brigett took on Norah Belle. 

Enjoy!

Birthdays, Beaches and Blue Skies

We headed to the beach for my birthday present from Brian. Spent one night overlooking the ocean. God granted us with some pretty nice weather, especially for November! 

Trying to help Norah out since the sunshine was soooo bright. She didn't really like wearing the sunglasses though. 

Brian's new hobby whenever we go to the beach is to rent a skimboard and go at the waves! Brr, But the wet suit keeps him warm, or so he says.

He also just likes to play in the waves. I do too, but I only like it when the water is much warmer.

Norah just waking up after our little walk. She almost always falls asleep in the Ergo carrier.

We enjoyed our short stay and will go again. Onwards to the holidays!