Norm, Mistie, Ellorah & Nohea

Happy Birthday Sweet Nohea!!!!!!

2009-09-25T00:31:00.003-05:00

Today my sweet baby girl turns one year old. The year has flown by. I can't believe she's getting to be such a big girl...Now she is almost walking, getting teeth, crawling up stairs, wearing shoes and talking. She is such a happy and sweet and easy baby, oh-I mean big girl. Happy Birthday, sweet Nohea! We love you very much!!!

Catching Up

2009-04-20T12:26:00.003-05:00

Okay, so we have been a little busy lately, and haven't been keeping up with the blog as we are capable of.

Here are some great Easter Photos.

Easter 2009

did you know...

2009-02-01T19:58:00.000-06:00

Thumbs are goooooooooood!

Ellorah's Second bday party

2009-02-01T19:49:00.002-06:00

Well, we've all been sick with the flu and various ailments this past week! Ellorah was out of school for a whole week. Luckily, we are all finally feeling better. Thankfully, Nohea has been spared the flu so far. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it stays that way. We've all been getting pumped up on our probiotics and immune supporters!

Anyways, on a funner note, we did celebrate Ellorah's 2nd bday on January 18th at the Pump It Up Jr in Plano. Everyone had a great time, and I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, Norm, or Ellorah! Check out the pics below and you be the judge!

Ellorah 2nd Bday

Free at last!!

2009-01-09T10:27:00.002-06:00

Well, last night marked the first night Ellorah went to sleep sans paci, NO CRYING! She did so good! Didn't even lay in there singing and babbling too long, went right to sleep within 5 minutes or so. I'm so proud of her. Hopefully this will continue. It's been a rough few nights. Nohea is doing good as well, she's starting to sleep longer at night...I usually feed her around 6:30, and we play for a bit then put her down around 7:30..and she's been sleeping until 1 or so before she is ready to eat again. If I could just talk myself into going to bed at 7:30 too I'd get a great block of sleep there! We're discussing transitioning her from her little mini co sleeper in our room to her crib in the next few weeks. She'll be 4 months on the 25th of this month, and that's about the time we moved ellorah. Of course, she was sleeping longer stretches at night by that time...but I think Nohea is almost there! yay! Both kids down by 7:30 so we have some time to get our chores done. I've been practicing my knitting. I keep knitting and then unraveling it all and doing it again so I can get lots of practice. Afraid to test it out with my new pretty yarn.

Ellorah is 2 and breaking up is hard to do!

2009-01-04T21:53:00.005-06:00

So yeah, long time, no post. A lot has been going on here at the Snowden household. First and foremost, my little girl turns two!! January 5, Ellorah will officially be my big girl. And, to celebrate that fact, we've given up the passie. Well, we, meaning Norm and I...have given it up pretty darn easily. Miss Ellorah, on the other hand, has had a hard time with the break up. Monday will mark a week she has gone without it...all day, and ALL NIGHT! The night is the most important, and hardest time. The first night we tried it, she cried for 2 hours...the second, 1 hour, then 45 minutes the next...then the last couple nights or so, about 10 minutes. Then she'll just hang out in her bed and talk and sing and play. She's just figuring out a new way to get herself to sleep and I hope it gets easier and easier each night. I hate hearing her cry in there. In other news, sweet baby Nohea had RSV! Ugh. Horrible sickness, poor sweet baby. She is feeling much better, I think it happened at a pretty good time though, since the holidays and we were able to just keep her home and away from people. It was a tough few days, but she is doing great now. We had some help from some great immune boosting supplements which I really think made a big difference in her recovery. Norm, Ellorah and I took them as well, and none of us ended up getting sick whatsoever. And that is a great accomplishment considering we were all couped up together in the house for several days.

We had a great Christmas and New years, the girls got way too much stuff of course, and we also did a family photo shoot! Oh, and Norm just got Lasik eye surgery the other day, so no more contacts or glasses. He had a little trouble adjusting after the surgery the first night, but now he is loving it. Still has to remind himself in the morning he doesn't have to bother putting on his glasses or anything. He can see!! Also, I'm trying to learn how to knit. Yes, now, where I'm going to find the time to actually learn and complete any projects is beyond me, but I've decided this is a skill I want to possess. So, I've been practicing. Norm's sis Carol tells me it's quite addictive..and I'll soon have a big stash of knitting goodies and unfinished projects. ; ) I did go out and purchase 3 oh so pretty balls of oh so soft, oh so pretty colored cashmerino wool blend yarn...guess it's already starting.

So, back to my big girl...I really can't believe Norm and I have a 2 year old, much less such a sweet, brilliant, beautiful one! (of course, I'm biased). But, she really is so much fun, and so smart. And sassy..and has a temper! Oh my. I hate to say it, but I know where she gets that from. She just surprises us everyday with what she knows and can do, it's definitely a journey each day. So happy birthday to my sweet big girl...and many more.

Snowdens Dec. 08

Christmas is almost here, and the question of what to get...

2008-12-04T23:52:00.002-06:00

Christmas is upon us, the malls are starting to fill up, husbands are starting to wonder what to get for the wife, and the count down is getting close.

You are running out of time!

Don't worry, most of us won't get serious until Christmas Eve...that is when the true masters of the quick ideas really shine.

This video was sent by my lovely wife...I wonder if she is hinting at a vacuum?

Why don't you leave a comment with the worst thing that you got for Christmas...don't worry you can post anonymously.

A butterfly and a chili pepper go into a bar....

2008-11-05T11:03:00.004-06:00

And hilarity ensues.
Happy Halloween (belated) everyone! We did our usually haunted hall this year. We had a great time, scared lots of kids, made a lot of them cry, even before they ever went in! We had extra help scaring and directing and handing out candy from Aunt 'Cella, Uncle Chris, Christopher, Nanny and Pepaw. And lots of help babysitting from NeeNee and PawPaw and friend Stacy and Aunt Devon. I hope a good time was had by all. Norm and I were exhausted afterwards. I don't know if it was the fog juice exposure or what, but we both felt pretty hungover, and didn't even have a drop to drink. Norm says he's not doing it up like that again next year, that he just wants to take the girls trick or treating. We'll see. I'm thinking the neighborhood kids would egg or wrap our house if we didn't do something. ; ) I did take Ellorah to trick or treat a couple houses, she enjoyed it...especially when she realized there was candy involved. I don't know how many times I caught her digging in to our big bucket of "give away" candy. So much so, she almost fell in a couple times. And, she was sneaking the candy corn out of the dish on the table...(who knew she could reach that high??). All in all I think it was a success. I didn't get too many great pics of the girls in their costumes. I'll have to put them in them and do a photo shoot sometime soon. I have a really cute halloween scrapbook already made up (no, I didn't do it...I bought it - off etsy.com!) to put pics in...of course, I don't even have last years finished. Oh well. It will all get done someday, right?
Enjoy the pics.

Halloween 08

Nohea is one month old (on saturday!)

2008-10-24T14:38:00.003-05:00

So my newest little baby turns one month old this Saturday. It is hard to believe the time has flown by so fast. Soon I'll be returning to work. This past month has gone really well, despite having to recover from a unplanned csection. Nohea is a really good baby and dare I say, is even more well behaved than her sister. I'm sure it helps that we seem to know a little more about taking care of a baby than when Ellorah came home. We have a system down and it seems to be working. She is really good at night, once we GET her to sleep. But the last couple days she has done a lot better. Usually I'll hit the hay early and Norm stays up with her and rocks her and gets her to sleep, then he'll bring her in to me and we'll all sleep, then throughout the night when she wakes up I take care of her, since I'm the only one who can provide food at this point! It is working well. We went to her 1 month checkup yesterday and the pediatrician told us usually they start sleeping through the night between 7 and 12 weeks...I'm hoping Nohea will be a 7 weeker!! We'll see. She is growing well, is up to 8 lbs. 6.5 ounces and is 21 inches long! That's 2 inches of growth in the past month. Maybe she will be my tall baby, since Ellorah seems to be going to be the petite one. Maybe they'll be like me and my sister, since she is tall and I am short. Time will tell! Don't know if she will have red hair yet, looks like it has some red to it, but so did Ellorah's and now she is a blondie. We are gearing up for our first Halloween with two children! It will be a challenge trying to get everything pulled together. I don't think I'll be making my traditional fried won tons this year...hot frying oil and new baby just doesn't mix well, don't you think? So, I'll have to come up with something else.

I've been trying to get some good pics of the girls lately, but they just haven't been coming out quite how I want them. Did manage to get a few good ones the last couple days...so here is a link. In them, Ellorah is having peanut butter and apples and edamame if you were wondering!! Enjoy!

Girls - October 2008

Happy Birthday Mistie...

2008-10-16T02:45:00.013-05:00

Happy Birthday Mistie, I just wanted to let you know how much you mean to me and to the girls. You are a super Mom, Wife, and Friend and I am so thankful that you let me take you out to get that Orange drink from McDonalds so long ago.

with all my love,
xxoooxxooo

Norm

I created a small slideshow to celebrate my Babies' Mama and hope all will enjoy it. The show does have some music with it from Eleven Hundred Springs, so turn up the speakers, pop open a cold one, put your feet up and enjoy!

Lessons Learned while at the hospital

2008-09-27T16:33:00.006-05:00

I thought that I should post a little about the lessons that I have learned in hopes that it comes in handy for those about to have a new baby. Here they are listed, not in any particular order:

1. Bring a sleeping bag - hospital blankets are crap and wouldn't keep you warm in hell. Also, your wifes hormones are all messed up and they want it cold...real cold.

2. Bring your own pillow - unless you are a fan of the Lay's brand pillows (thin). I folded the one I had four times and it still wasn't enough support.

3. This whole experience has nothing to do with the guy, but that being said you are going to be the servant for the next.....I have no idea. You will also be required to get up and get things a lot, and I do mean a lot. Don't forget this time is not about you, it is about your wife.

4. You will not get any sleep. Accept it, move on.

5. Everyone's baby that you see while walking through the hall isn't nearly as cute as yours.

6. You are going to see things that you will never forget. Ever.

7. The panties that they make your wife wear, aren't what you wished they would be. Also, they don't like it when you ask are they a G-string. It seems nurses, wifes, and anything female bond together at this time and really don't like "funny" males.

8. Bring slippers - you will be required to run and get more ice water, at all hours of the night.

9. On the day of the baby arriving, plan on it being a really long day. Really long.

10. Have snacks / food available for when your wife is in labor, but (read this carefully) Do Not Eat or Bring Food around Her. She can smell it, and she can't have any.

11. When you are really tired, done all that there is to do, and you finally lay your head down for a little shut eye time, you will have to get up 2 seconds later because of a crying baby or something else. (maybe to fluff a pillow)

12. You will not be able to hear the TV, and there will be nothing on worth watching.

Ellorah meets her little sister

2008-09-27T16:22:00.002-05:00

Today is the day that Ellorah met her little sister.

I went home this morning to bring Ellorah down to the hospital to meet her new little sister. When we first opened the hospital room door, Ellorah was real excited to see her Mommy, but not too pleased to see her holding a new little baby.

Ellorah was interested in Nohea at first, and wanted to sit beside Mommy and look at the baby, and then reality set in.

Ellorah was a big help when we went on our walk around the hospital floor. Ellorah helped push her little sister. We have a video of that, which I will post soon.
I was a little afraid that she would be looking to push her down some stairs or out the door, but we wouldn't let her do that.

It is going to be interesting to see her come around, but as of now, Ellorah isn't really interested in Mommy or Daddy holding Nohea. I was holding Nohea, and Ellorah was telling me to let Pepaw hold Nohea. Mommy was even told to put the baby in the crib and not to hold her anymore.

Here are some photos that we took.

Nohea 9.27.08

2008-09-26T23:28:00.002-05:00

Well the first full day with Nohea was a quite pleasant one. I am hoping we are not in for any suprises tonight, but after last night it really doesn't matter.

After having the baby yesterday, Mistie and Nohea had to hang out in recovery until 12:30am, and then we were transferred over to the postpartum room. This is the room that we will stay in until they allow us to go home. So by the time we where allowed to go to our "home away from home", we were all worn out. One would think that we would all be tired and in need of some rest, but the nurses and the med techs that work nights had other plans. I understand that they play extremely important roles, but from a worn out Dad's perspective, it seems that they think it is funny and some sort of initiation into parenthood. It starts off by the shift nurse helping you get into the room, and understand where everything is, then they say something like, "go ahead and get some rest, and we will check in on you through out the night, but we will be quite and you will be able to sleep". In reality what happens is they wait patiently outside your room until the lights go out then they like to start knocking on the door and then come in and check on you. They say stuff like, "Are you guys sleeping?", "I just need to know if you want your medicine now or in 30mins", "I just wanted to ensure you are resting...do you need anything?". Then the door slams and you are suppose to go back to sleep, for another 7-15 minutes before they come back again and repeat the same 'keep 'em tired' tatics. I would prefer that they did it more military style and kick a trash can into the room yelling "Get up" and firing a 50cal machine gun into the air. At least then I wouldn't be suckered into thinking that they are here to nurse us back to 100% health so we can be ready to take the new baby home and do it ourselves.

The husband sleeping arrangments here at Baylor are far different then that of Plano Presby. At Plano Presby, it was a hard couch that seemed to attempt at breaking your back while you rested on it. Here at Baylor, I would love to have that couch, instead of this crappy fold out chair-bed. It is almost like they built the room, bought an expensive bed for the mother, and then were like..."oh yeah, the Dads.". Which this would explain why my chair bed was out in the hallway when we first go into our room. I managed to move it into our room and put it to some use. I have been through the Navy's SERE school and I am aware of some military tatics that are used to get information, but I don't think the military is aware that this chair-bed exists or I would have seen it in SERE school or at the very least breaking news out of Guantanmo and some prison camp. While I am typing this post, I have thoughts running through my head wondering if I will even be able to stand up at the break of dawn tomorrow. We will see.

The day went great and Nohea has been the perfect little angel. Mistie allowed me to go "Skin to Skin" with Nohea, and that has to be the best thing about having a baby. If you never have experienced taking your shirt off and having a little baby sleep on your chest, then I am sorry, you are missing out.

Mistie has been getting up and moving around, which is a positive sign. I have to keep telling her that she had major surgery and that her stomach is only being held together by stiches so she needs to slow down and take it easy. I guess in the "super Mom" handbook it doesn't point out this small inconvenience. If you have a cape, nothing else matters - it seems.

Tomorrow, Ellorah is going to meet her little sister. We are curious to see how that goes. I know Mistie and I will be glad to see her.

Here are some photos from 9/25/08 that we took.

Nohea 9-25-08

Sept 25, 2008 @ 9:31pm --- Nohea Memphis Snowden

2008-09-26T01:43:00.003-05:00

Nohea Memphis Snowden
7lb 10oz - 19" tall
born at 9:31pm

Nohea (pronounced: No hey ya) was born via a C section, and when they pulled her out the cord was wrapped all around her legs, so I don't know if that is what prevented her from coming out or not, but I am sure glad to finally meet her.

Mistie is doing fine, and like always was a hard trooper. She always seems to impress me with her strong will.

Meaning of Nohea

Baking Girl Update

2008-09-25T19:46:00.002-05:00

The Doctor just got through checking Mistie, and everything is progressing. She is now a 7, and the doctors are going to be monitoring the babies heart rate over the next hour. If she keeps progressing and the babies heart rate stables out, then they will allow us to continue on, if not the C word has come up a couple of times.

Will keep you posted.

Baby Baking Update

2008-09-25T16:43:00.002-05:00

Today is the day! We had a bright and early appointment this morning to get things moving along. Started at 6 am with the ceremonial breaking of the water bag in hopes to get things moving. So far, so good. Mistie is at 5cm but seems to be stalling out. To get it moving along, they have suggested a small dosage of pitocin and will re-evaluate in 2 hrs.

We will keep you posted.

Apparently my babies prefer to be overbaked

2008-09-23T21:57:00.003-05:00

Nope. Still no baby yet. Baby girl baking is currently 5 days past her due date. Will she ever decide to grace us with her presence? My midwife assures me she will come out eventually. We go back tomorrow for a biophysical profile/sonogram check, if all is well, she will let me stay pregnant until next Monday! That's almost a whole 'nother week! Egads! We will see what happens. If things don't look as well as they should on the profile, we will talk about our options. So, will let you know what we find out tomorrow! In light of that...here are some suggestions well meaning folks have given me to "get the process started":

Do squats
Ride around on bumpy roads a lot
Eat pineapple?
Walk
Walk up and down stairs
Do Lunges
Eat a spicy meal
Laugh a lot
Rest and don't think about it!
Have sex!
Drink lots of water
Take castor oil (yuck!)

I'll let you know when I get desperate enough to try all these. Until then, we'll keep you posted!

Tribute to Elvis

2008-09-17T21:38:00.004-05:00

Memories of the Great Butter-Bean:

When I first got Elvis, he was a handful. He loved to chew on everything, piss on everything, and play. That is what those days were made of. He used to wake me up in the mornings after a long night of working at the Midnight Rodeo by dropping a slobbery, chewed pig ear in my face and once he saw my eyes open, would immediately start chewing on my hands.

When we lived in Amarillo, we would always go to the park and play fetch. We even got enrolled in obedience training, which turned into attending the Amarillo Search and Rescue trainings. Elvis at a little over 6 months could find me hiding behind a wall, in a culvert, and even in a car trunk. He used to love playing “hide and seek”.

The Kong was his favorite toy, one time we bought several kongs and gave one to everyone. Once we all were outside, he started going crazy for one kong, then someone else would pull out their kong, and then another, Elvis didn’t know what order he was going to get all 6 or 7 kongs in, but he knew he would get them all. We even tied all the kongs to the fence, thinking he wouldn’t be able to get all of them, after a little while, we went outside only to find all of the kongs where missing from the fence except the ropes. Elvis had pulled every kong off its rope and only the rope was hanging from the fence.

It didn’t matter where you threw the kong, he would run after it. You could throw it in the water, mud, as far as you could, and he still would go after it and bring it back.
He was a good protector. I have heard from a few people that he liked to show his teeth if he wasn’t expecting anyone home during the day. One time when Mistie and I were living in Valley Ranch, I came home late and it was really dark in the apartment. I pushed the bedroom door open to enter the bedroom and Elvis started growling the serious kind of growl. I quickly spoke up to let him know it was me. I don’t think Mistie was ever afraid having Elvis in the house with her. I know he always watched over his family.

Elvis helped us meet our good friends Carmel and Kris Helsley down in Houston. Carmel and Kris have a black Labrador named Camden, which Elvis and Camden became good friends too. We all used to go to this huge park and throw the toys. There was a creek that we used to throw the kong into and have both Elvis and Camden run and play in the water.

When riding in any car, Elvis always liked sitting right next to me. In my pickup, Elvis would sit extremely close and just look out the windows. He was even known to get special treats as I would go through a drive through window. Typically, the girl taking orders would be like, does your dog like chicken nuggets? He would score so much.

When we brought Ellorah home from the hospital, we were a little afraid on how he would react. When Ellorah would start crying he would get all nervous, and bring his toy to her thinking it would calm her. He did play ball with Ellorah several times, being real gentle and allowing her to take the ball from his mouth and say “Mine”.

One time, in Houston Mistie and I took Elvis out to do his business. He was very particular about walking on the grass, and eventually did his business. I don’t remember exactly why, but I poked his poop with a big stick. Well, as curious as Elvis was he wanted to know what was on the end of the stick. I offered the end of the stick for Elvis to smell, which he did, and quickly made a noise from his mouth like someone would make when they shrug their shoulders in disgust, and let out a small exhale of breath like that was the most disgusting thing ever and why would you put that in my face to smell. I still laugh, when I think of that.

When I worked at the Midnight Rodeo, I would work sometimes during the day to make some extra money. The manager during the day was real dog friendly, and would let me bring Elvis up and let him run around the dance hall while I worked. I was working, and noticed that Elvis took a huge dump in the middle of the dance floor. I had to quickly clean it up before anyone else saw it. After that, I could honestly say I saw everything in that place.

Elvis was a great lifeguard. He did not like anyone jumping in the pool or running around the pool. If I would jump in the pool, he would immediately jump in after me. He loved playing fetch in the pool, having to jump in the water and swim to the ball.

I Houston, Elvis was known at the local Marble Slab Creamery, where many nights he would get to eat his own ice cream cone.

Elvis’s tail was known to clean off a many low tables, knock kids in the head, and hit any and everything. I would say that his tail gave him the energy to do everything else.

Elvis would place his nose in your face while you were sleeping and give a “bbrrr” noise to wake you up. There is nothing like waking up with a big cold wet nose in your face. If you hung your foot off the edge of the bed, Elvis would walk back and forth, just so that it would rub his back.
When you would rub his back, he had a tendency to wiggle and back up towards you so you would keep rubbing his back. Mistie made up a song and would sing it to him while he was wiggling around. The song went like this: “You’re a big fine puppy, why don’t you back that thing up, back that thing up”

The stories could go on and on, and I probably haven’t even told the best ones. Elvis was a great friend and huge part of the family. He would always greet you at the door, happy to see you, and would put a smile on your face when you felt down. He is a very special dog and he is truly missed.

Not a day goes by that I don’t think of his wagging tail, and all the joy he has brought to me and my family.

Vaya Con Dios, my good friend.

Elvis has left the Building...

2008-09-06T01:19:00.005-05:00

Dec. 1998 - Sep. 2008

Comments to a pregnant lady

2008-08-26T15:07:00.002-05:00

We all know pregnant women can be overly sensitive, shall we say?
These are a few choice comments I have had along the way during this pregnancy...some good, some not so good!
Enjoy!

"Oh yes, I remember last time...you got SOOOOO HUGE!!!"

"Mommy, that girl was REALLY fat!"

"It looks good on you, Ma'am"

"You must eat here A LOT!!" (the owner of babe's chicken restaurant

"It sure is hangin' low"

"You are carrying well"

"You look so cute!"

"You're belly is so small" (and then the next day:...

"Wow, you are VERY pregnant!" (really?? I hadn't noticed!)

"Hoping for a boy this time??"

"Can I touch the belly?" (only if I can touch yours)

"You must be dying in this heat" (yes...I am!)

Random updates

2008-08-21T09:21:00.003-05:00

Hey all, sorry we haven't posted in awhile, it has been a rough month this month! Very busy and a lot going on!
Baby girl baking is still baking right along. We are right on schedule for almost 37 weeks...so, I'm starting to freak out a little b/c we don't have her room ready yet. Have made some progress as in Norm got the room painted, and we hired out getting the floors put in. What a relief that was. So nice to have that check in the box. Norm really wanted to do it himself...but there is just no time. So, our small little project of putting new floors in the baby's room turned into not only that, but new floors in the front room and new floors in the living room and foyer, plus new baseboard trim for everyone! I'm not so sure I would recommend major home improvement right before your baby comes, but hey...we like living on the edge.

In other news, if you haven't heard, we have a sick puppy, people. Our sweet Elvis was diagnosed with lung cancer a few weeks ago. I know, lung cancer, in a dog? Weird...too many cigs for Elvis I guess. : ) Not sure what his time frame is, we're just taking it day by day. Of course, the last time he was diagnosed with the stage 4 "very bad" tumor that we had removed, they gave him 2 months..even with the surgery. That was almost 4 years ago I think? So, we'll just see. The dr. said there isn't much they can do, and that we can make him comfy and feed him whatever he wants! He is loving that! Norm grilled him a nice new york strip the other day which made him quite perky. He has good days and bad, we're just loving on him the best we can and seeing how it goes. I don't think he's quite ready to "leave the building" just yet.

Other than that, we are just trying to get prepared for the new addition! Pepaw Snowden is coming down this weekend to help Norm put together baby furniture and try to get this room pulled together. I'm going out on a search for curtain material and other little things we need. Gotta get the co-sleeper out of the attic and the infant car seat cleaned up and ready to go! Etc, etc, etc...will keep you posted on any new developments!

An Open Letter to my Baking Baby

2008-08-01T10:56:00.000-05:00

Why must you always stand or kick or punch mommy's bladder? Why????

Pretty baby pigtails

2008-06-19T09:26:00.002-05:00

Ellorah has been going to the beauty shop lately...as in...I send her to school with her hair all crazy (but still brushed) and she comes home with these cute little pigtails. I have no idea how they get her to sit still to do this, but it's awful darn cute. I have tried and failed numerous times to get her hair up in pigtails...and I can sometimes succeed at getting one lame little pigtail, but these are like a marvel of modern science! Not too tight so as not to cause that dreaded pigtail headache, perfectly straight and curly on the end! Kudos to her teachers!

On the home front, let's just say life is hectic right now. For those of you in the know, you know what I speak of...for those of you who aren't, let's just leave it as "hectic"! We still have so much to do to prepare for the new baby, we haven't done a thing. I could say times a wastin', but as all our weekends and evenings are filled with other things, it's not just really wasting time...it's that there just simply is NO TIME! I know we'll get it done eventually, I just think back to when we had Ellorah's room all finished...that was in October. She didn't arrive until January! This poor baby is due in September, and here it is half way into June and we've done nothing. I'm hoping the long fourth of July weekend will provide us with some much needed time to get something accomplished!

In other news, Norm had a good birthday and Father's day, we celebrated Father's day with a big breakfast at Aparacio's...they had a little couple playing guitar and singing to everyone, so they came over and serenaded Ellorah...which she loved. She couldn't keep her eyes off them! We also went and saw 1100 Springs and the Tejas Brothers at the Dallas City Arts Festival that afternoon. We all did pretty well in the heat for awhile...until the cold water ran out, then it was time to leave. But, nice to get out and do something different and see our favorite band.

Ellorah is finally getting a few teeth! She has her two top and two bottom fronts, and then she's got 2 molars on the top (one on each side) and 2 coming in on the bottom...on has finally come on in, the other is still working on it...she is starting to show some discomfort with the teething. The first molar I didn't even know she had until she happened to be laughing one day and I just happened to notice it. These other last few are a little more intense it seems. The little homeopathic teething tablets really seem to help her. She's also been talking a lot more lately, and putting together a few sentences. Of course, if you don't speak baby, you probably wouldn't have a clue what she is saying, but since I speak baby, I can translate for you...she has said:

"Where daddy at?"

"what's that?"

"Me get down" (wanting out of the chair)

"Mama up" (wanting me to pick her up)

"oh yeah"

and of course, the old favorites, cup, elvis, dog, duck, go, yes, oh, uh-oh, mama, dada, daddy, annie, bubbles, sock, shoes and a few others I can't remember. She still does a lot of nodding of the head and pointing at things, so we are trying to get her to use her words more instead of the pointing. She does sign "more" a lot...but sometimes you have no idea what she wants more of! ; ) Norm has made up his own sign of "more tickles" where he does the sign for "more" and then wiggles his fingers in the air...and hilarity ensues. She is really into jewelry now too. I'm not surprised. Everyday when we come home she checks out the jewelry I'm wearing and wants to put it on. She loves running around with my necklaces on and rings. I'm getting pretty good at sharing. With two girls in the house, my jewelry box is sure to be invaded on a daily basis. I'll just have to get used to it.

On the baby girl baking front, all seems to be going as planned...(except no room or crib prepared yet...see posting above) I go back for my next checkup next week, where they will do the glucose test and take blood. I'm getting really good at the blood giving these days...I even went by myself for the last one! woo-hoo! Starting to hit that uncomfortable stage, but it's not too bad. The pool is great relief for the summer heat, so I have been spending a lot of time in there. I do think my days of painting my own toenails have come to and end for now. It's just not comfortable to get down in the position to paint them myself! Time to find a good pedicure person.

That's about it for now, hope all is well with everyone!

Happy Father's Day 2008, Norm!

2008-06-14T14:19:00.002-05:00

Happy Father's Day, just a little post to let you know how much we love and appreciate all you do for us. This is one of my favorite pictures of you and Ellorah...you look so happy, as you always do when she is around. You light up at the sight of her, as she does for you. I always knew you would make a great father, but you humble me each day in just how great you truly are. We love you so much, and thank you for making us a family.

Mistie, Ellorah and baby girl baking!

No need to change the blog color!!!

2008-05-06T11:05:00.002-05:00

It's a GIRL!!!

If you haven't heard...we are expecting again...and just found out last week it's going to be another baby girl! I little baby sister for Ellorah! Sweet baby girl is due late September, and we are really excited. And no, we don't have a name yet, but yes, when we do...it will be a secret!