Arizona & Christmas

We traveled this year to Arizona for Christmas to see Grandma & Grandpa and Great-Grandad, Ellen & Jo. Shelly & Dan were visiting too. Right before we left, Stephan's choir class put on a Christmas concert. (He is in the center of the back row.)

The view of Black Mountain from Grandma's patio. One day Shelly said something about the desrt to Norah to which she replied "That's not the desert! That's Grandma's backyard."

Stephan's toes had not felt sand in a long time!

One afternoon Stephan and I went shopping just the two of us at a few little "cowboy stores." We stopped for Mexican food at a restaurant that had a pond in the middle of the patio with ducks everywhere!

They even came up to the tables!

Just one of the many metal sculptures at Frontier Village that I made Stephan pose with...

Norah's new smile involves scrunching up her entire face!

We forgot to tell her "You better not pout..."

This is a smile, but she sure looks up to something sneaky, doesn't she?

We went to a fun railroad park that was decorated for Christmas. Stephan & Grandma visited the railroad museum while Casey, Norah and I played on the playground.

The kids enjoyed the merry-go-round

A ride on the train past more decorations.

Back in WI on Christmas morning...watching the snow...

Just what he wanted!

Jude & Norah

with special gifts from Aunt Jessie

On Christmas night, we went to Elise's house for a lovely dinner.

Josh & Stephan with their game store loot!

In the middle of a dance party! Norah is crazy about singing & dancing. Pops plugged in his Ipod for a wild night of dancing. After every song, Norah said "Do it again!"

Norah was Rachel's little shadow for the night! Between her Aunts Rachel & Jessie, Norah thinks everyone in Boston dances & twirls all the time.

Ready for a spin...

The kids and Grammy


We hope you all had wonderful holidays!

Getting Ready For Christmas

Norah in her letter N Christmas dress getting ready for Casey's office party.

Santa paid a special visit to Norah's holiday open house.

She was very sweet about meeting him.

While we waited for her turn, she kept saying "His name is SANTA!"

The 2, 3, & 4 year olds sang four Christmas songs for the parents.

In the middle of "We wish you a Merry Christmas..."

Last week, the kids and I went to one of our favorite coffee shops for hot chocolate. We walked up and down the main street to look at the pretty Christmas lights.

St. Nick

Do you celebrate St. Nick? I never did as a young child until Gramps married Jude because Jude is from Milwaukee. I've discovered over the years that celebrating St. Nick is a regional tradition. We do celebrate it in our home, but we try to limit it to small treats or one small gift. Some of Stephan's friends get quite large gifts, but I've always tried to remain a little closer to the tradition of candy in a shoe.

A good brother helping Norah rip open the paper....what could it be?!?

At church we had an exciting visitor....St. Nick! How did he get to church so fast after delivering surprises to our house?

Although Norah looks pensive, she was VERY excited to meet St. Nick & get her chocolate coin!

Waiting to meet the saint himself....

We had our first dusting of snow this week & I am so excited about the Christmas season! As I type, Casey and Stephan are playing with Stephan's new poker set (How on Earth did St. Nick know Stephan wanted the poker set in the silver case at Target?!?) and we're watching Up in front of a roaring fire!

27+ months

Life is pretty wonderful when you are just over two. Every morning on the way to school, Norah tells Stephan and me that "It's such a beautiful day!" On the gray mornings we had last week, Stephan questioned this observation, but to a happy toddler, every day is a beautiful and fun day!

Norah's FAVORITE thing to do at home and school is play with dolls. She loves to undress & dress them, change their imaginary diapers, walk them to "the park" (aka the other room) and be a mommy. I am very excited to give her the doll furniture we bought for Christmas...I mean Santa made for Christmas.

At school, Norah learned to count backwards and continues to practice Spanish. Yesterday when we went Christmas shopping, she sang a Spanish on top of her lungs the entire time. (We got some weird looks...) She continues to learn new words that she tosses into conversation from time to time.

She recognizes her letters very well and has been doing a great job of matching picture flashcards with the right letters. She has an eye for the letter N and can spot it everywhere & knows what letters are at the start of her family member's names.

Norah always says things that bring a smile to my face. On the same shopping trip yesterday, Norah asked an older girl for her name. Even though the girl didn't reply, Norah said "I am Norah Paige & I like to dance!" Norah also loves to sing. She knows the first few lines of the Christmas songs she is learning at school & loves to "sing along" with the church choir. Although, one Sunday she flipped open the hymn book and belted out "Old MacDonald..." before we quickly covered her mouth. (Luckily no one minded...)

It is SO much fun to watch her this Christmas! Everything is so new for her. She can't wait to visit Santa and tell him she wants a backpack (she calls it a "pack pack") and a car seat for her doll. She is CRAZY for the lights and often says "It's almost baby Jesus' birthday!"

A no picture weekend...

Don't worry....a new camera is coming....

Miss Norah has a yucky cold. I can't remember when she didn't have a runny nose, but it advanced into something more.

As we get ready for Thanksgiving, I have been thinking of how thankful I am for our little family.

I have a wonderful husband who does so much! For example, on Thursday, he got up and left at 5 a.m. to drive very far for work. He had a very physically tiring day. I went to work, went to the hospital with Jessie and Jude, and went to Stephan's parent teacher conference. Although I was mentally drained (not sure why--all I did was sit all day), Casey had a far more exhausting day. Yet when I got home from the conference, he had cooked and cleaned! This weekend, he had another 6+hour day working on the yard & leaves while I had a leisurely day of getting my hair done, running & snuggling with Norah. No matter how sore and tired her gets, he keeps giving more.

I am thankful to have such a courageous son. I am always amazed at how Stephan faces a challenge head on. I always pray that he is filled with confidence as he grows and lives life & it's a routinely answered prayer. I am always amazed that Stephan is willing to fill in as goalie during soccer, which is a thankless and difficult job. And tomorrow he is auditioning at the high school to be in their play. While he is scared, he does not let his nerves get the best of him. Middle school was a hard time for me. I did not know who to be when all I needed to be was myself. Too bad I didn't really know who that was...but not Steve. He knows who he is and what he likes. He doesn't stray to fit in with people who are not his friends. He has a sponge for a brain & impresses me with his intelligence. Tonight I tried to tell him something about WWII only to have him tell me the story happened in WWI and I didn't have it quite right...he filled in all the details!

I have so much gratitude that God gave us our peanut. She is such a happy little girl with lots of spunk. Lately she has showed more affection than usual toward Lily and Stephan. She runs to hugs her brother whenever we get home from school and squeals "Steeeeeeephan, my brudder! I missed you!" And she always wants to know where to find her doggie so she can wrap her arms around Lily and tell us that she is a good dog. She has so much love and joy in her heart.

I am SO thankful it is a short week with lots of time for the four of us to spend together. (And the food won't be bad either!)

My camera broke, but luckily Liza sent me a cute picture of the kids so I have something to post. Pops and Liza had a fun night with the kids last week while Casey and I celebrated our anniversary. We had a delicious dinner and lots of wonderful surprises! We are lucky to have such loving family!!!

We had a fun weekend celebrating Ethan's birthday...again! :) Stephan had SUCH a blast! He and Ethan have a lot in common (like their love of history) and played for hours. Norah enjoyed playing with her older cousin Helena's toys & was quite fond of Great Aunt Kerri. Later that night we visited with Shelly. Norah was thrilled to rediscover all of her toys at Grandma's house, but she definitely did not understand why Grandma was not there.

I also ran in my first 10K (6.2 miles). I ran this distance 5 times before the race, but never did I train on the monster hill that was part of the course not once, but twice. It gave me killer charley horses that I have never experienced when running. And much to the dismay of many runners, they miscalculated the distance & the course was 6.9 miles. It might not seem like a big difference, but when you are not expecting the change, it is! It was a great learning experience for me & it could not have been a prettier area. It was in the 50's, sunny, and part of the way, we ran along a trail, creek, bluffs & Lake Michigan. (Even that killer hill was pretty!)

A few kid updates...Norah is 26 1/2 months. She can recognize numbers 0-8 (9 confuses her...she thinks it's a 6) and almost all capital letters (she gets mixed up by a couple that look similar like E & F). She is a whiz at puzzles & love playing with Stephan's old Brio trains. Norah likes "calendar time" during group time at school. She can tell you the current month, but I don't think she knows exactly what she means. She feels terrible when she does something wrong and talks about it for days & days. When she ripped a book at school a couple of weeks ago, she told us every night for over a week about the book. Poor cutie. She is still our happy girl, but if you need evidence that a stubborn toddler is under that sweet disposition, she does goofy things like refuse to wear pj's to bed because she wants to hold them in her arms like a stuffed animal instead.

Stephan is off to a great start in his second quarter at school. This week he starts Community Service Club and will soon start indoor soccer (no games, just weekly practice). He has a nice group of buddies & seems to be navigating middle school life very well. The high school is performing Les Miserables this year (Uncle Nic was in that play the first year high schools were allowed to do the show!) and Stephan wants to audition. They need three youth, but Stephan isn't sure if he is ready to audition solo. I think he is particularly interested in this show because he remembers the exciting battle scene when we saw it years ago. I'll let you know what he decides.

New camera and new pictures to come.......

ready for her close up

I know what you are thinking....more pictures of this day? We keep getting more photos from this fun day at church last month & I think these are especially cute. Our friend at church who took these likes to tease us that Norah is going to start a fashion ministry at church. (Jessie,
Norah wears these sunglasses or carries them in a purse almost everyday!)

This weekend Casey was away for work. The kids and I had a nice weekend, but I didn't manage to take one single picture! On Saturday morning, Norah and I had breakfast with my friends Katie, Annie, and Annie's baby daughter Taylor. Norah loved meeting Taylor! When Casey got home tonight, Norah told him that Taylor "is SO cute!" Meanwhile, Stephan had some fun Gramps time. Stephan had a blast at his cousin Ethan's birthday party while I took Norah running at Elm Grove Park. Grandma introduced us to a nice trail there that was packed with runners, walkers, bikers, dogs and ducks on the gorgeous 72 degree day. That night the kids spent time with Grammy while I went to the Bucks with work friends.

We are happy to have our Daddy Man home!

Our good student

Today is the last day of the quarter at Stephan's school. Yesterday in a 6th grade assembly, nine kids received awards for outstanding participation and performance. Here he is with his certificate & student of the month pin. We are so proud of his hard work in middle school!

catch up pictures from Shelly

Shelly sent some cute pictures from the past few months & I posted a few favorites.

Here is Norah at Grandma & Grandpa's house one last time before they left for Arizona.

Aunt Shelly and Norah


Norah the fairy


Norah and Aunt Sarah when she and Adam came to visit last August



Stephan & Josh

Norah loves to climb up and sit on the rocks in Grandma's yard.

Speaking of the name Norah....she is one of three Norah/Noras at her school! Nora ranked 216 on the Social Security Administration's list of top 1000 names. Even so, in her little school of 65 children, there are three of them. AND one is going to be new to her class. We didn't think it was an uncommon name, but I am surprised at how many Norahs we have met since she was born.

Norah has been saying cute things to us like "You are a great mom/dad" and "You are the best brother in the world!" Today when we dropped Stephan off at school, she yelled "Goodbye, brother! Goodbye, brother! Good luck!"

They have such a loving relationship....even though he knows how to make her squeal! When Norah was an infant, Stephan used to say that he couldn't wait for Norah to be two so they could really play. Well, he got his wish! Lately, they have played and played off on their own...hide & seek, made up games like "Help me move this heavy boulder" and "I'm stuck in the mud," and Norah's new favorite...Stephan's Jame Bond race car track! It warms my heart to hear the two of them talk and say sweet thing to each other.