Send your own ElfYourself eCards

One year old!

Nora celebrated her first birthday a couple of weeks ago. It seems like it has just flown by! Nora is a determined little thing. She definitely knows what she wants. She is anxious to keep up with her big brother and as Grandma Tolman says, "She's not going to let the grass grow under her feet." She is a good little walker and can say a few words: "more" (sign and say), "mama", "dada", wave bye-bye, gesture yes and no, and sometimes says "hello" when pretending to talk into a phone. Her favorite toys are whatever Zane plays with--cars, blocks, calculators. She can be affectionate with dolls but isn't really interested for very long, although I keep trying. She has a lot of spunk and personality and we're glad to have her in our family.

What are you thankful for?

Just Nora

Isn't she cute--double chin and all?

Trunk-or-Treat

After dinner at a friends house we headed over to the "trunk-or-treat" at the stake center. I had Zane all warmed up to say "Trick or treat!" but I don't think he said a word for about the first 15 minutes after we got out of the car. He just stared, kind of dumbfounded. He did however readily open his treat bag and I eventually had him saying "thank you" near the end.

My Little Animals

We had to wrestle Zane and had lots of tears getting this lion costume on, but once he got the idea (happily in my costume = candy) he was happy to oblige. Nora just thought it was great fun.

Laughing at Tigger

I'll admit it. Zane has probably watched a bit too much television the last month or so. Usually, I try to just let him watch one movie or program per day, but since I'm looking and feeling nine months pregnant I just had to put a movie on one afternoon and lay on the couch myself. I was surprised to hear Zane cracking up. He really thinks Tigger is one funny cat.

Rainy Day Play

Went to the mall last week to play. 'Twas too rainy to go to the park.

Little Pu'kin

Nora has become a bit possesive of this little pumpkin. She thinks it is hers and all last week she walked around the house with it. I finally managed to get it back to the front porch. We'll see how long it stays there.

Sunday Afternoon in the Park

Heading out. . .

While we were there. . .

Home for some hot chocolate and snacks. . .

We've had a fun October so far. Nora has really started walking quite a bit. She started just taking a few steps, but then last week she started walking more and crawling less. She's still quite wobbly and gets frustrated when she falls.

Saturday we went to Rasmusssen farms to the pumpkin patch. Although it was a bit of a let-down given what their website touts, we still had a fun time. Yes, it was chilly, but Zane refused to wear his jacket. Zane had to go through the corn maze twice, enjoyed pumpkin bowling, and picked a couple of fine pumpkins. We also got a lot of apples for our apple pie filling. It was really just nice to enjoy the day as a family and also to have our friends the Saunders' there with us. Of course I think Kevin's favorite part of the day was when we were walking out of the corn maze and a parade of Mustangs started pulling in and parking.

Some of the cars at the farm

My favorite

A nice little pumpkin for Zane

Learning about Johnny Appleseed in the corn maze

Nobody look at the camera, okay? Checking out the pumpkins

Some funky gourds

Nora walking and Zane sweeping

Thomas and his friend

A couple of Saturdays ago we got home late at night and found a package had been dropped off in the mail for ZANE! Sunday morning I let him open it and he was so excited to find a new "Thomas the Train" book, Thomas engine and Thomas pajamas. Although he's never really watched Thomas the Train, he loves trains and was so excited about this package. He wanted to wear his Thomas jammies after church, and I thought it wasn't worth a fight, so he wore jammies all day. He also wore them to bed that night and requests to wear them every night. His train goes on our walk with us almost every morning. He loves this package. After we opened it I had him call Grandma to tell her thank you, which he did. What I thought was the best was Sunday afternoon he was playing with his Thomas train, I saw him pause and realize how much fun he was having with it and he brought me the phone and said, "Call gramma. Thank you, gramma." So we called and thanked grandma again.

Just another day at the beach

My parents were here for a bit on their anniversary trip to the coast. Zane, Nora and I joined them for a day in Lincoln City. Once again, it was a most beautiful day. It was hard to leave. Of course Zane and Nora had a fabulous time. The day before we went to the beach we spent some time down town.

Happy Anniversary

My mom and dad celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary this month. We tried to surprise them with a dinner at one of their favorite restaurants, but they were on to us. We had a delicious dinner and a nice visit as a family, although it was a quick one. They're a great couple and I'm glad to have them as parents.

It's a . . .

GIRL! Hopefully, this isn't too big of a surprise to too many people, but that's right. We're having ANOTHER baby. A BIG surprise to us, actually. We had the ultrasound yesterday and the technician said he was confident it was a girl. I could tell with Nora but not this one. He tried to tell us how he could tell but I wasn't seeing it. However, I wasn't seeing what I saw with Zane either so I believe him. So we'll be happily welcoming baby 3 in January!