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.