My birthday

We enjoyed a relaxing evening for my birthday. Ben made a healthy vegetarian meal, then finished it off with the richest cake ever. Ben and Alena made this flourless chocolate cake with whipped cream and raspberries. It was delicious!

Alena was savoring her cake. This was the first time in history where I beat her in finishing dessert. She was so busy saying, "mmm, mmm," it slowed her down.

Nora has a little raspberry on her cheek. She wasn't allowed to eat any cake, but she did get a raspberry. She was not impressed.

I did get a lot of help opening presents.

Grandma Dee turns 39

Angela's family came down for a surprise party for Grandma Dee's birthday. There was a spread of delicious food and a pile of presents as well. We had to tell a variety of lies to keep her off the scent but I think we pulled off the surprise! As a bonus, we got to spend New Year's Eve with the whole family. The kids made confetti and tossed it in the air at midnight (9:30.) Even Baby Nora stayed up for the festivities.

The kids were very helpful in opening birthday gifts.

Grandma gets ready to tear into her cake. She looks pretty good (Lily styled everyone's hair.)

The only quiet from these three all night.

My Christmas present

Nora's Christmas

Nora had a good first Christmas. She was mostly occupied with crawling to little pieces of paper so she could try to eat them. She drooled on one of Alena's presents and got it so wet Alena refused to open it. She at least was well dressed in Christmas attire.

Nora is always trying to climb as high as possible.

Santa brought some balls, just as Nora asked!

Eating a bow

Grandma Dee could hardly pass up this cute little dress for Nora's first Christmas!

Alena Christmas photos

Alena had a good Christmas. A couple of her gifts were finger puppets, a trampoline, a monster game, and a Little People zoo. Her favorite gift from Santa seemed to be a box of cereal. She said he made it in the North Pole. We celebrated with Grandpa Ed, Grandma Dee, Julianne, Sam, Kristina, and Great-grandpa Harold on Christmas Eve. We had Christmas dinner with Grandpa Steve, Grandma Diane, Melissa, Andrew, Tillie, Lucie, Gisele, and Benge. After opening presents at Grandma Diane's house Christmas afternoon, Alena said that there were too many toys and she couldn't decide what to play with. When we got home what new toy did she want to play with? Dr Bear and Other Bear (why did we get her new toys?)

Daddy, you be Santa, I'll be Santa's Elf. They played that game every night this month. To bad for Daddy the Christmas Little People went back into storage until next year.

Looking pretty in a dress handed down from Lily.

Standing

Nora is really into standing. She pretty much only crawls to get to something to pull up on. I bought a new box of diapers and thought she might like to use the box for standing. I didn't count on her figuring out that she could stand up and push it around the living room. What fun!

Of course the other reason she crawls is to get to me. If I go into the kitchen she is immediately upset and crawls to come find me. She likes playing best if she is in constant physical contact with me. Her other big trick that she is up to is more tongue action. She rolls her tongue and spits drool, points it out, and sucks on everything (Alena said that Nora gave her little people Santa a bath.)

Cousins in matching outfits

Grandma Diane made matching outfits for the girls. Don't they look sweet!

The big girls

The little big girls (they were not in the mood to smile, obviously)

Nora makes a break for it...

So she can work on her standing!

Santa Claus

Alena has visited Santa 4 times this year. Whenever she sees him, she needs to sit on his lap. So far she has visited him at both malls and our traditional Hy-Vee Santa stop. She is unwavering with her requests: finger puppets for herself and a ball for Nora. Nora has sat on his lap as well. She focuses mostly on tugging on his beard to see if it is real.

The big shot's first ride in the basket of a shopping cart. Now we will finally get to put Hy-Vee's giant carts with room for two kids to use.

Decorating Christmas trees

We decorated our big Christmas tree but first we warmed up with a gingerbread tree.

Alena chose to put all of the candy in the snow next to the tree. See the picture on the box? It was our inspiration.

Glass ornaments on the top, less destructible ones on the bottom.

Bath time

Nora took her first bath in the big tub this week. Yes, she had fun! Alena was a good big sister and she used a washcloth to scrub that baby down. Alena has been better about sharing with Nora lately. It might be due to Santa's upcoming arrival. Other things Nora has been up to, now that she is 7 1/2 months old: Crawling, though only for short distances. Pulling up on short toys--constantly! Her favorite thing to pull up on is me when I am sitting on the floor. The goal is to grab my hair so she can stick it in her mouth and suck it while she sucks her thumb. She can say mamama and dadada to the correct parent. I think she might be saying ahahah for Alena. She is finally eating food and she loves it. She hasn't turned down any food offered to her lately. I am going to try green beans out on her tonight. She contunues to hate formula, though. She will agree to a 50/50 mix as long as it is warm enough. No hint of upcoming teeth, yet. She continues to be a good napper and gets about 3 hours of sleep a day. That is why I am here on the computer!

Thanksgiving, again

We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Jensens yesterday. In addition to the usual suspects, Gisele's aunt and uncle who are visiting from Brazil joined us. We hadn't seen them for over three years so it was their first time meeting Alena and Nora. Nora was happy to have people holding her and paying attention to her, and Alena got along well with Jorge. He taught her how to say "more" in Portuguese. She gave him an arm hug and multiple kisses when he left. How does he rate so high?

Martha and Nora

Jorge learns more about Thanksgiving traditions--sitting around watching football after overeating.

Alena showed Rusty proper blanket smelling technique. He was pretty brave as I don't think kitty blanket had been washed in awhile.

Baby Nora playing with Grandpa Steve

Early Thanksgiving

We went up to Minnesota for an early Thanksgiving last weekend. We got to see Angela's and Julianne's new houses. The whole family was there, as well as Cousin Steve and Krista. Angela and Julianne did a great job on the feast! Nora played with toys the entire meal and we hardly heard a peep from her. She did crawl over and started to eat a magazine when nobody was watching, though.

It snowed on Saturday, so Uncle Tyler pulled Lily and Alena around on the sled. Lily was nice enough to give Alena a pair of princess boots to wear.

Nora reads a magazine while relaxing with Mommy and Aunt Julianne

Nora and Finn played together a lot while the big girls did their thing. Finn is really good at sharing with Nora and she loves him!

Angela put on the Baby Bjorn for old time's sake. Finn spent a lot of hours in that thing.

Crawling

After a couple of weeks of scooting around, Nora finally is starting to crawl! It is pretty cute; too bad I can't get the video to post. Here she is hanging out with the toy pile Alena made for her. She is trying to look in the mirror on the yellow block.

Big red barn

We brought home Ben's barn toy box so we could store some toys. Alena put it to other use. She brings her flashlight and toys and climbs into the box to hang out. Yesterday I came into the living room and I heard her laptop but couldn't find Alena. She soon peeked her head up--yep, she was in the barn. She also encourages others to join her in the barn. No, Nora cannot join you in the barn. Yes, Jones and Ruby can come in if they want.

Crawling lessons

Nora has been working on her crawling skills lately. She has the "get on hands and knees and rock" technique down, but when it comes time to move her legs she collapses. She will do an army crawl to get what she wants, but has yet to move more than a couple of feet at a time. Favorite temptations are pretty standard: cell phones, paper, remote controls, and of course the most tempting of all--Alena's toys!

She leaves a pile of her toys behind to go for her big sister's stuff

Nora "eating" the toy

Alena is sharing some wisdom, obviously. She has the pacifier in because she is pretending to be "Baby Alena." The lemon container is pretend medicine and is dosed using a nerf dart. Alena's imagination is serious stuff. Right now she is sad because her friend Nonie broke her leg and can't come over to play.

Crawling position in gnome hat. She even has a rosy nose from her cold.

Trick-or-treaters

The girls got decked out in their costumes to get some candy. They lucked out and got to see both sets of grandparents! Nora was a little grumpy due to sickness and lack of sleep, but she perked up once she was being carried around outside. It was a perfect night for trick-or-treating!

Alena (monster dog)

Nora (teddy bear)

Let's get this show on the road!

Happy Halloween!

Alena and Nora pose in their super cute Halloween outfits with the pumpkin that Alena gutted and Daddy carved. What cute girls!

"See Baby Nower, this is where the seeds were."

Today, Alena and Daddy roasted the seeds harvested from yesterday's Jack-o-lantern. They are seasoned with garlic salt, butter, and worcestershire sauce - delicious!