Got Milk?

I've been very sluggish posting anything--sorry!

Noelle has been growing so much over the last few months.  It's fun seeing her try new things and hear what she says next.

Some of her current favorite words (with translation):
-Melmo! (Elmo)
-Grogr (Grover--she loves "The Monster at the End of This Book" book)
-Bubble (bubble)
-Chiz (cheese)
-Bibby (bib)
-Mo? (more)
-Mun (moon)
-Cucu (color)
-Kicky (kitty)


It's so cute hearing her become more confident and trying new words.  I also like to play "I-spy" with her and am constantly surprised to see what she knows.  She can easily point to all kinds of things like sky, light, door, tv, daddy, mommy, diaper, body parts (nose, ears, hands, fingers), bath tub, car, plane, rocks, crayons, etc.


Last night I was sewing with a friend and Corey was watching Noelle.  They had some show on and a Cutie (mini-oranges) commercial came on.  Noelle loves Cuties.  Once the commercial ended she walked to her high chair and got in expecting Dad to get her a snack.  Corey took her out (it was nearly bed time).  Then she walked to her room, got a bib, came back out saying "bibby bibby" and sat in her chair.  We'll just say she got her Cutie.  Who could say no? :)

Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving break!  It was really fun having Corey home for a few days other than our typical Sunday.  We took advantage of this and went to the zoo on Wednesday.  Noelle is becoming more aware of the animals (and in general things around her) and it's fun to see her point to the animals when she realizes they are there.  Here is Noelle and a giraffe.

Here is Noelle and Corey with a tiger.

Thanksgiving day was great as well.  After getting ready we drove up to Mesa for a delicious meal at Brandon's parent's house (Corey's classmate).  It was the perfect day and we ate on the patio.  Noelle liked everything except pumpkin pie.  There were only two kids there, and the other had to leave early, so Noelle had free reign on the backyard.  She was in heaven having the swings all to herself.

Grass!  Green grass!

She was pretty cute trying to jump on the tramp (I don't think her feet ever left the ground).

Noelle also made a new friend.  Nano's dog (Brandon's Grandma, she likes to go by Nano because that's what the kids always called her) was pretty cute.  Zoe was the best dressed mammal at dinner!  A silky leopard dress with a hair bow.  She started following Noelle around after figuring out that Noelle dropped food a lot.  

On Friday we put up our Christmas tree!  Noelle is pretty fond of the tree.  She likes the lights and loves tugging and pulling off ornaments.  Good thing they aren't easily breakable and were cheap.

Here's a full view of our tree.  Corey and I were laughing because the picture on the box our tree came in (we bought it a few years ago cheap) looks so full and lush.  Ba-ha ha.  So it's not as full in person, but it does the trick for now.

My Cousin

Happy 1st Birthday Sabrina! (Thanks Aunt Lesa and Uncle Gavin for taking all these pictures of us together.)

I haven't seen my cousin for a few months, but I sure had fun playing with her this fall.

I don't know if she had as much fun.  Every time I tried to hug her she gave me a funny look.

I can't wait to play again at Christmas!!  This time I might be the one with the funny look when we play.  I hope you get your birthday presents from me (it said it would arrive today!) and I can't wait to see you at your party on Friday.

Odds and Ends

It's about this time of year we've decided it feels like a time warp.  The high is often around 70, which feels like early October and suddenly Thanksgiving is this week.  Weird.  I do have to say the weather is near delightful now...about time!  Anyway some odds and ends I've been meaning to post about.

We knew this would happen.  It's happened a time or two since.  We are relaxing watching a movie and Noelle is running around the house and we notice it's quiet for too long (=trouble).

"Oh hi Mom and Dad, I was just blowing my nose on six feet of toilet paper". 

Noelle's hair has been growing beautifully.  I finally stuck it in a pony tail the other day.  It was so cute!

Too bad it didn't stay in as well.  She looked like a grown up little girl with her pony tail.

Last, but not least, we've had fun painting a few times.  I tried using watercolor pencils, but they didn't really do much.  So after wetting the paper (it's just coffee filters left over from another project) we put a few drops of food coloring.

Noelle had fun painting, but even more fun getting food coloring on herself :)

Constantly Moving

These days it's rare that Noelle ever sits still for longer than a minute or two.  She's constantly moving looking for something to get into.  During the last few weeks walking has finally clicked and she's rarely on her knees anymore.  

As she's been walking on her own so much I realized she hadn't played with her little walker for a while.  I decided to switch it to the scooter and she has been loving that.  There's only one problem.

She only knows how to go backwards :)

Noelle cracks us up with the funny things she does.  Yesterday while walking around she wanted us to put her bib on and then she decided to put on a hat to complete her ensemble.  If she sees stray socks laying around she likes us to put them on too--she thinks it's fun to pull them off.  I think this little girl is going to grow up liking clothes like her mom does.

Halloween Night

As predicted I'm a little late with the Halloween pictures.  The lighting was pretty bad, but you can see how cute Noelle was.  I wish you all could have been here in person, she was adorable teetering around.  

I made Corey dress up as something.  Funny thing is all the other adults didn't for one reason or another.  Oh well, we had fun being nerds.  Totally different from what we are on a normal day... Noelle's antennas worked perfect!  By some miracle she didn't tug on them at all.

Noelle had fun going on walks with all the people around.  The weather was perfect.

Here's Noelle chilling outside after getting her loot (she got two candies trick-or-treating, one for each hand).  We sat outside our friend's house and helped hand out candy while the older kids went out.  Noelle loved her candy and started trying to take candy from the bowl once she was done eating her other stuff.

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone has a fun Halloween!  

Here is a sneak peak of Noelle's costume:

Anyone know who she is?  It's very possible as we go out tonight no one will know, but that's okay.  

After many months with Yoda in mind I randomly decided to do something else.  It seemed too fitting not to.  "He turned around fast, and he saw a small Who!  Little Cindy-Lou Who, who was not more than two."  The short blond hair, the blue eyes, the button nose, and not more than two?!  I couldn't resist.

Cindy Lou Who Cartoon image from here.

I hope to get more pictures tonight, but wanted to share these now just in case I was slow to get them up.  And for the curious folk, I drew the antennae on--I have pipe cleaners that I am going to attempt to get in her hair tonight.  I was too afraid to put them on early.

New Fun

Recently I have been trying to be better at finding fun activities for Noelle to do.  She is such a curious little girl, left to her own devices would rip apart the entire house.  There have been many cries of pain when Corey and I are getting ready for bed only to discover some cutie pie pulled out our bookmarks for scriptures.

I picked up a set of cheap beads the other day for an activity.  I got a large yarn needle (i.e. not sharp) and some yarn and we had fun stringing a necklace.  She would shriek every time she helped me put a bead on--it was cute and a little ear-numbing.

Full disclosure, Noelle had more fun swishing the beads around the bowl than making the necklace.  As soon as we finished and I tied it off she held it up to me--she wanted me to take the beads off and put them back in the bowl to play with :)  She's not use to wearing necklaces yet, but will put it on for a few seconds every now and then.  

Noelle has also recently developed an interest in the digital signing things at banks and grocery stores.  It made me think, I wish I had something like that for her to play with.  Then I remembered.  Duh!  My ancient palm pilot!  So I charged it up and she has had a few minutes of fun here and there scribbling on it.  Who knew that would ever be useful again?  Bonus she can't accidentally call anyone on it or erase years of files or pictures on it.

Also, we had a fun surprise arrive in the mail the other day.  A souvenir package from Grandma Karen and Grandpa Larry from their New York trip!  Noelle got a sweet Minnie Mouse Statue of Liberty.  Her face lit up as we pulled it out of the box.

Corey got a fun NY license plate frame and I got a pretty pashmina scarf/wrap.  I've already worn mine around one night.  There was also a sneaky present hidden with Minnie--some money for a nice dinner (we can't wait to use it).  Noelle has had a ball playing with the wrappings and box for the last few days.  She likes to pretend the tissue paper is for wiping her nose, funny girl.  Thanks again for the gifts!

Fall Visitors

Last weekend we were happy to welcome Grandma Darlene and "Aunt" Amy to Tucson.  We (I use the term "we" loosely as Corey was having a ball finishing a 20 page paper that weekend) had a lot of fun goofing off at home and visiting a few places around town.

Grandma gave Noelle a fun Elmo doll that she loves to play with.  Whenever it says "bye bye" Noelle says it too.  Noelle was cracking Amy and mom up with her "crazy eyes" look and Chinese talk.  Noelle loved playing roll the dice on Amy's phone and sneaking up to anyone with popcorn.

One day we spent some time at the park.  Aunt Amy helped Noelle go down the slide.

Then Grandma took Noelle down the big slide.  I wish I had a picture of Grandma and Noelle going down the tunnel slide--it was pretty funny.

After conning a little girl out of the swing (in all fairness she wasn't even moving and her family kind of forgot she was still there), Noelle had fun swinging for a while too.  The swings are her favorite.

While we hung out on the grass for a while we had fun looking at this neat parrot in the tree (it's owner was nearby reading).

On Saturday I took mom and Amy to the most packed fabric store you've ever seen (if you are claustrophobic I don't suggest it) for them to pick out some things.  The really old owner thought Noelle was cute and gave her a set of baby chick buttons.

On Sunday Grandma took Noelle to her first official day of nursery and she didn't even cry once. 

The trip ended way to quick and early Monday morning they were off and on their way back home again.  We always enjoy visitors!

What's Up Doc?

The other day I decided to be healthy and pull out a carrot as a snack.  It had been a while since I remembered to buy them at the store.

Not two bites into it and someone was at my heals...

I finally gave up and let her have the rest.  She love it.  She munched on it for quite a while (I took it away once she got too close to the end), and I found another snack.

In other news Noelle is as cute as ever.  Her hair is getting long and she's had another tooth break.  Just two more and I hope we will have a break from teething for a while!

Day at the Park

Our little play group introduced us to a nice little park not too far from our house.  It has some nicely placed trees so it's cool and shady on the playground and swings.  

Speaking of swings...Noelle loves them.  I think she could swing all day.  

She has no problem swinging high either.  Chill as a cucumber.

Noelle had fun saying hi to the pigeons that live in the park.

And making funny faces...Boo!

Noelle is always cracking Corey and I up now.  Whether it's her brushing her cat or turning an old (but clean) butter container into a hat. Maybe she'll grow up to be a fashion designer or engineer.  Or maybe she'll be something entirely different.

We are excited for some special visitors next week.  In preparation for our visitors Noelle officially has one more tooth, with another really close.

Busy Bee

Part of the reason there's so many gaps between blog posts is that Noelle has become a busy bee (the other part is I forget to pull the camera out).  We had 3 days of beautiful weather, but the news said next weekend we'll be at 95 again.  Tear tear.

We finally decided to join a little play group and we had fun going to the zoo last week.  Noelle didn't care much for the big animals (they barely moved), but thought the walking turtle, the swimming turtle, and the chipmunk eating the turtle's lunch was fun.  

Noelle loves pulling out all her diapers, and would pull out all her wipes too if we let her.  We found an old wipe box that she will put things in and pull out.

At the library I found an amusing book:

I never followed the TV show, but still found it funny.

 We've had some interesting bugs about our yard recently.  The black beetle below has been munching on all of our cacti.  I wonder which one tastes best.

Also, one morning Corey discovered a stick bug on our dryer vent.  Now I want to go watch Bug's Life.

There's Still Time

To wish Uncle Andy happy birthday!!  Between being up until 2 am with a very un-tired little girl and conference we didn't have much computer time today.  

Happy 24th Birthday for a few more hours!

Makeover

Is 17 months too young for your first makeover?


Here's the before:

Here's the after:

Can you even tell it's the same girl?!  Just kidding :)  We just pretended to put on some makeup.  I let her know she can talk to me about real makeup in about 13 years.  When I am getting ready in the morning Noelle has started clobbering me until I let her look at my makeup bag too.  She likes trying to imitate what I do.  Good thing I don't have lipstick heavily stocked, I have a feeling I would have a colorful girl if I turned my back for a minute.

Noelle is getting closer to being a little girl all the time.  She's getting better and better at steadying herself and will be running around soon I'm sure.  She enjoys watching Sesame Street now, at least for a few minutes.  Having not watched it for 20 years, some of their new stuff is lame (just my opinion).  And some of the best characters are hardly in it (Kermit, Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie?!).

The other day after a rainstorm we had an unusual visitor.  A horned lizard (at first we thought it was a toad, but then noticed it's tail).  Doesn't it look like a dinosaur?