First camping trip!

Last weekend we went camping with the Boyds at Evangola State Park in NW NY, along Lake Erie. It was a lot of fun and Nora was, as usual, a champ.

We forgot our camera (the debate continues re: whose fault that was - Chris's), and as a result we don't have any pictures! Luckily, Norma and Joe have a great post about the weekend on their site.

We're already planning another weekend at a different park for later this summer!

9 months

We had Nora's 9-month check-up this morning. Dr. Snyder declared her healthy and cute. :) She's 20 lbs and 28 inches long - from 7lbs6oz and 20 inches just 9 months ago. Craziness.

This feels like a big milestone to me - Nora has now been out in the world for as long as she was in my belly (well, for as long as we knew her to be there, anyway). Time sure does fly.

Here she is in all her chunky goodness:

And, she's off!!

See for yourselves, our Nora is officially mobile (she also got her second bottom tooth - I'm still trying to get them in a picture)! It's an exciting development, although it has my mind reeling about the cleanliness of our floors and all the loose cords we have hiding behind furniture. The cats and Sadie don't know what's about to hit them - literally.

Here's a video from the 14th...she's close, but hasn't quite figured it out:



And here she is yesterday...she's getting faster every time we put her down!

Nora Wordle

We thought this was very cool and an interesting way to see what we've been yapping at you about for the past 9 months. It's from a website called "Wordle" and we found out about it via the "Team Taseff" blog. Thanks guys! Click here for the site.

We're back!

We got back last night from a wonderful week in Michigan. First, we went to Port Huron to visit the Gilberts and then we headed up north to Crystal Lake w/ the Sikes gang.

Nora's first tooth (the bottom right one) popped through the day we left (the 4th) and the second (bottom left) is very close. She didn't seem to mind the tooth work - it's probably good that there were so many distractions!

There were so many great pictures from the week, so we made a Shutterfly album (click here to view) with all of them and have included some highlights below. Enjoy!

Mia, Kevin & Nora (and Nicole in the foreground) in Port Huron:

Jaden, Mia & Nora:

Jaden & Mia playing peek-a-boo with Nora:

Nora with Mommy & Daddy at the Trick Dog, overlooking Elberta Bay:

Nora & Mommy walk down the switchback path from the cottage to the Crystal Lake beach:

Nora & Daddy at the Crescent Bakery, where she flirted with more than a few customers!

Nora & Mommy in Frankfort:

Nora & Daddy in Crystal Lake:

Nora in her adorable little swimsuit & sun hat:

The Sikes-Gilbert kids on the Crystal Lake beach (Kevin had some nasty poison ivy...ouch!)

Nora with Uncle Kevin:

Nora & Mommy on her first day at the beach:

Nora's first dip in the water:

The usual scene of the Sikes gang hanging out at the cottage:

Huzzah!

Well, it's been an eventful couple of days over here. First off, Chris turned 30!!! We had some folks over on Saturday to celebrate the momentous occasion and to take the obligatory hundreds of photos of our adorable kids!

Happy Birthday, Chris/Daddy! We love you very much!


Will (up top, almost 3), and from left to right Sofia (2 and a bit), Nora (8 months), Alta (6 months), Mae (4 1/2 months), and Fiona (3 months).



Sofia, Norma & Fiona, Molly & Mae, Ashley & Alta, and Naomi & Nora (we didn't do the name illiteration on purpose, I swear!).


I had to put this one in b/c Sofia is being so sweet trying to calm little Alta (who stayed up a bit past her bedtime to party with us)...so cute.


Second, our friends Jake & Sarah had their baby on Monday! Welcome to the world baby Finn! We can't wait to meet you! You can check out their blog, Speedville, linked to the right.


Almost lastly, Nora got to go to her first baseball game, Tribe v. Giants! The Cleveland Baseball Team won 4-1 and Nora had a great time! We're a bit worried that she's going to be forever disappointed b/c we'll never get to sit in such good seats again, but it was worth it. Thanks to UCI for letting us tag along (and thanks to Matt C. for Nora's super cute outfit)!





Finally, Leche was picked up last night to go live with his wonderful new family! I must say, I'm glad we only had him for a day b/c it would've been really really hard (as opposed to just hard) to see him go! In his new home he'll have 2 kitty friends and 2 little kids (as well as 2 parents) to love him. We miss you already, Leche!