Westward Ho!

This post is way overdue, but I thought I'd re-cap our move a little bit.

You'd think that having only a 600 square foot apartment would mean there wouldn't be much to pack up, but it sure didn't feel that way. And that 600 square feet filled up pretty quickly with boxes everywhere.



Our month of packing up the apartment also coincided with Norah's new found zeal to stand and climb on everything :).

Last day.

On our way out to California we made a pit stop in Utah where we bought a car (!). We haven't had a car in over 6 years, so this was kind of a big deal. Here we are all packed up ready for the drive to Southern California.


An hour outside of Las Vegas in the early hours of the morning Norah had one of the biggest poop-outs of her life (sorry to get graphic). It was only fitting that our closest pit stop was a casino called "Terrible's."

Little sweetie asleep in her car seat.

We made it to California and were successfully able to find a new home (thanks to the help of many, the Blakes in particular). One of the first things we did upon arrival was hit the beach!

(I still can't believe we get to live here.)

We had to wait a couple of weeks for all of our stuff to arrive from New York, and on the day it did Nathan came home from work with a 103 degree fever, so it was a little bit crazy, and hence no photo documentation of the move-in. But we are getting settled in nicely and will post pictures of the new apartment soon. I do have to say though, one of the perks of not having your stuff for six weeks is that all the old toys seem new again :).

I Am A Robot!

This is one of Norah's favorite things right now. A friend of one of Nathan's cousins developed this to help teach his daughter the alphabet. He designed it all and did the animation, and then had his daughter do the cute little robot voice. We love it. Anytime I'm on the computer Norah comes over and wants to climb on my lap and watch it. She especially loves pushing the buttons to get to a new one. My favorites are M, R, and V. Norah loves H, and of course D. Thanks friend of Nathan's cousin!

(and thanks Laura for reminding us we should post about it and pass it on!)

Norah's 1st Birthday

So I know we are waaaaaaay behind in our blog chronicles, but after successfully moving ourselves to Southern California (more on that to come), we are back up and running. So look for a string of 'catch-up' posts to come.

But 'first' things first. Norah's birthday.

Our baby girl turned 1 last month. We were still in Utah on her birthday, so to celebrate we capitalized on the beautiful summer weather as well as access to my parent's great backyard and an awesome grill (which also included two fabulous grill masters— my dad and my brother Jim), and most importantly, being with many of Norah's 'people.' I'm not sure how aware Norah was of what was going on, but she sure had fun regardless. Here are some of the highlights:

opening her gifts...

(New York in a bag... the first of many not so subtle reminders of where her roots are)

...blowing out her candle



...and diving into her first birthday cake

Happy Birthday little sweetie, we love you!