Visitors!

Last month we were lucky to have some great visits from family. A couple of weeks ago my sister Laura came to town to spend a few days with us while her husband was in Brazil for work. For those of you that also read Laura's blog these photos will be awfully familiar (seeing as I blatantly poached them from her), but she is the one with the photo-taking skills, so we let her do the documenting while she was here.


While much of the time was spent just hanging around, taking naps, and doing the day to day stuff, we did manage a few fun outings— including a couple trips to the beach...










(as well as more than one trip to Tito's Tacos, and more than one trip to Crumbs Bakery :)


...and a gorgeous sunny day in Santa Monica.




Thanks for coming sister! We loved having you and are already missing you big time.


Laura's visit was also sandwiched between two great weekends with Nathan's parents– one down in Orange County, and one here with us. Turns out California is a much bigger draw in January for visitors than New York was :).

"18 months" (or) "Please indulge a doting mother"

Norah reached 18 months last week, my baby is officially no longer a baby. She is a walking (more like running), talking, BUSY little gal.

A few things about Norah at 18 months:

She loves colors, numbers, and singing the alphabet.
She can count to ten all on her own.
She loves her music class.
She still loves a great bath!
Just like both her parents she LOVES ice cream (especially chocolate ice cream)
She loves books and puzzles and will plop down on anyone's lap who is willing to read her a book.
She loves to 'color,' (which there has been much evidence of on our walls :). Thank heavens for Magic Eraser! I've had to teach her the coloring mantra, "Just on Paper," which she now repeats to me any time I bust her coloring on something she shouldn't.)

She loves animals, butterflies, balloons, and anything to do with water. Anytime we go out anywhere I always ask her in the car what we should look for and she always says the same three things: "Fufflies" (butterflies), "manoons" (balloons), and "wato" (water, i.e. the ocean). And anytime I ask her where she wants to go she says, "Beach!"

She loves her people. Her highchair is across from the refrigerator where we have lots of pictures of family and friends, and while she eats we have to go through each photo and say everyone's name.

She is very interested in checking stuff out and exploring new ways to do things. A few weeks ago I came in the front room to find her watching her show like this:


and since then her wagon has been one of her favorite places to hang out.


One of my favorite things that she likes to do right now is to come behind us and give hugs.


Needless to say, these 18 months have been magical. We love you Norah, thanks for being our best little friend.

Christmas and our 2 1/2 weeks of winter

This year we decided to take a long holiday vacation and visit family in both Washington and in Utah. This allowed us to see more family and friends, and to enjoy 2 1/2 weeks of winter weather. We started in Washington where we were able to do such things as sit by a roaring fire, eat lots of yummy food, and wear our warmest cozy pajamas.




It also meant the reunion of these three. Which of course was the best part.


Christmas Day was also an obvious highlight. The kids weren't quite sure what all the fuss was about as we urged them down the stairs, but they sure were loving opening the presents, and all the cool toys.


Stockings.




Opening presents.





When we arrived in Utah we were glad to see that the stockings there were also hung with care, and we enjoyed a second round of gift-giving with family there.

(thanks L for these photos)

We were also welcome by fresh snow that continued to fall for much of our time there. Since we knew that this was probably our one shot at playing in the snow, we were sure to take advantage.





We had a really great time with both of our families. That was the best gift, to be able to spend time with every member of both of our families at Christmas time. What is not photographed is all the fun time we also spent with friends we don't get to see often enough. It was really really great to see everyone in both states. And 2 1/2 weeks of winter was just the right amount :).

Norah Can Read!

Well, sort of.

At the Beach

We've been exploring some of our local beaches.

A few weeks ago our friends Brad and Mandy invited us to tag along with them to go check out the tide pools just down the canyon from us at Point Dume. It was beautiful to be down at the beach as the sun was setting, and fun to get to see all the starfish.








Then the next week we decided to check out Leo Carillo beach, which is one we've heard a lot about. It certainly lived up to the hype. Look how beautiful!








A couple amazing things about these two beach trips are A. we went to the beach in NOVEMBER (!), which is still amazing to me, and B. these two beach trips were a real turning point in our plight to get Norah to wear shoes. Apparently the beach is an exciting enough distraction that she forgets how much she usually dislikes wearing shoes and just rolls with it. I'll take it.