Wild Neighbors

So a few days ago our cat did the crazy crouching run to our kitchen window/doors. I looked over and saw something climbing the tree so I grabbed the camera.

It sounds so wrong, but I usually only see these guys as roadkill! It was fun to watch them climb up the tree and disappear in the branches.

My Soapbox.....is filled with Rockin Green!

That's right folks.

We're back on cloth!

I stopped cloth when Norah was around 5 months old. We were having too many leak issues, the fit just wasn't right.Well, I decided to give it another go. Obviously she's in a different size now, but my sister and I split the cost of the mediums back when my niece was using them. They've just been waiting for me!

It's been almost a week now, and everything is going great! It was actually easier to go back then I thought it would be. We haven't had any leaking so far. The diapers needed some tough love washing (sorry to say sis!). After an overnight soak in Rockin Green and a few washes they are stink free and working great!
We've been using Rockin Green on our clothes for several months and love it!

This is just part of my effort to be a little more earth friendly.

And no, we're not cloth 100% of the time. She is still in disposables overnight and when we are away from home all day.

The difference a year makes....

2009

Our cute little baby

2010

Our beautiful little girl

Snow Family

Gobble?

Guess who went walking down our street on 11/30...

November snow

Last day of November and so far we have about 3 inches of new snow that fell last night. It's still going strong this morning! Very curious how much we will get before it switches to freezing rain.

Norah update, 15months (and a few days...)

Norah is a walking, running, climbing, talking little kid! She LOVES our cat and tries to snuggle her at every chance. She knows where her hands, feet, hair, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and bellybutton are and will poke you in the eye too if you're not careful!

She can climb on our kitchen chairs, the coffee table, and couches, and she loves getting in the rocking chair in her room.

In the last few weeks she has decided she likes babydolls. She will bring them to me wanting them to be wrapped in blankets so she can hold them.

She still loves stroller rides so we try and go for walks everyday. This is getting a little more difficult with the cold/snow/ice here.

The talking. She started with Up. Then Uh Oh and Duck. She is now up to the following:

Hi

Hello

bye

byebye

drink

juice

kitty

cheese

cracker

cookie

choo-choo

all done

no no

wow

thank you

This past weekend she started to combine Hi with other words. Hi Daddy. Hi Kitty. And while we were visiting over Thanksgiving, Hi Kaylee (her cousin). It's been pretty exciting!

I forgot to add, she's still tiny! She still fits in all of her 12 month clothing, and she can wear a few of the 18mth things. She's been at 21lbs since we moved here. Oh and she loves to use her spoon and fork, I'll have to do another post on that.

Just had to share...

Issued by The National Weather Service
1:35 pm PST, Wed., Nov. 17, 2010
Special Weather Statement for East Columbia River Gorge, WA

... COLDEST AIR OF THE SEASON TO ARRIVE THIS WEEKEND INTO EARLY NEXT WEEK...

A WET PACIFIC LOW WILL USHER IN COLD AIR AND SNOW TO THE CASCADE REGION THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING... RESULTING IN THE POSSIBILITY OF 5 TO 9 INCHES OF SNOW ACCUMULATION.

MUCH COLDER ARCTIC AIR WILL OVERSPREAD THE REGION THIS WEEKEND INTO EARLY NEXT WEEK... DRIVING SNOW LEVELS TO THE BASIN FLOOR. SEVERAL STORM SYSTEMS WILL IMPACT THE AREA PRODUCING SNOW... AND POSSIBLY PROVIDING FOR A WHITE THANKSGIVING FOR PORTIONS OF THE REGION.

PEOPLE PLANNING TO TRAVEL THIS WEEKEND INTO NEXT WEEK SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR WINTER WEATHER DRIVING

An interesting read

I found this interesting, it's about how a lot of women view their bodies, and how they should change that perspective.
Warning! Do Not read if you are offended by f*bombs and a few other choice words.
a-call-to-arms-and-abs-quads-calves-and-shoulders

Look at that Hair!

Cheesy grin!

Music with Daddy

Banana

Norah prefers to hold her banana like a big girl now. None of that silly breaking it into pieces business.

Chocolate Cookie

Never liked them....

Almonds that is. Until now. I bought a groupon for The Nutty Guys.
Butter Toffee Almonds, Cinnamon Toffee Almonds. My oh my, they are soooo good.
I'm sure they lose all they're good nutritional properties when you cover them in a butter/sugar mixture, but hey, they're delicious! Groupons are so cool!
I also got in on an awesome deal from this new site Gilt. They were giving $20credit for creating an account. I was able to get Norah a super cute organic bamboo shirt for free! It even covered shipping! I actually got George to sign up too so we got two shirts :)
I love free stuff! Thanks internet!

Slide Climber

Norah likes to climb up slides more than go down them. She's pretty good too, better then I thought a 14mth old should be!

She likes to go down this one by herself, it's not that steep at the bottom and has a long flat end so I let her! She was so proud of herself!

Updates updates updates....

So we've only had one weekend home since we moved. It's been a little crazy here. George has had lots of Army stuff. We had family visiting. We moved our horse. More Army stuff. Busy busy busy...we are ready for some downtime. The house is mostly unpacked and in order. We still need to hang pictures, but we needed a tape measure, which I bought while we were in Vanc this last weekend. It's been a slow process of finding out what we are missing and shopping over the weekends while we are in Vancouver since there aren't a lot of places out here. There are still a few boxes of random stuff and lots of empty boxes that need to be taken to the recycling center.

Otherwise we are all doing great! George likes his job, I like being here with Norah. Norah is crazy smart, oh and she's cutting her fourth molar. I need to start working on her 15mth old post....she has several words now! Okay, time for random pictures:

Her eyes are turning brown!

I made pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting....yum.

Livvy and the boys came to visit for a few days!

He Cooks!

She sat on the box and fell in, so she just relaxed there for awhile

Looks comfy right? I'd probably lay there too if I could fit!

Mmmmmm

Too bad it took four hours to make!

Or maybe that's a good thing, so I won't make it too often...

The mountain is out!

I think this must be a OR/WA thing, George and I say it all the time. We get up in the morning and look out the window and say, 'The mountain is out today'.

Home

So, I've been posting more on Facebook and neglecting my blog. Sorry Blog readers!

We moved to White Salmon on Saturday the 9th. The moving van was huge. I was suprised at how much room our stuff took up! And that was after purging and condensing boxes. We had a lot of help loading and unloading everything, it was still crazy and stressful, but overall not too bad.

Norah has been enjoying the baseboard heaters in the morning

Our office is still a mess, but the computers are functional!

I spent the first few days focused on the kitchen and getting all our new dishes and things clean.

We've also been enjoying the view....
We can see Mt Hood almost every morning. Although you can't see it in this picture, if it was clear it would be visible through the far left window.

Like this!

I found a stable for my horse! It's super nice and he gets his own 'shed' so he never has to be closed up in a barn/stall. You can kind of see how big his paddock is, and he will be turned out in a big pasture everyday unless the weather is horrible. I'm so excited and relieved we were able to find such a nice place at a price we can handle! I'm hoping we can move him next weekend.

To the East Side

Movin on up!

I am so so so incredibly happy to let you all know that George accepted a job today!
American Aerospace Engineering, in White Salmon, WA. Which in is the Columbia Gorge across from Hood River, OR.
We have been through some really frustrating ups and downs in the job search the last few months. This position was referred by a friend and it all happened very quickly! George got a call from a friend on Saturday that the position was open, he sent his resume in within an hour of the call and got a reply right back setting up an interview for Monday. The interview went really well, and he got an offer this morning! He signed, accepted and returned the paperwork within a few hours. He starts on Oct 11th!
We are searching for rental houses right now since we need to move so quick and there aren't any apartments in the area, well, unless you go to Hood River and we really don't want to pay the income tax!
Over the last few weeks we have been going through our things in storage. Purging, reboxing, and organizing so moving would be easier. It was a lot of work but we are so glad we took the time to do it then so we don't have to now.
We are going up to look one place on Friday (maybe more if I can find any), and hopefully moving by next week!
There are still A LOT of details to work out, but I'll update when I know more.

First Bacon!

Daddy is so proud :)

Random September Photos

Grandma helping her put on and walk around in Mommy's shoes

Eating a pear that she picked out of the box we had on the kitchen floor. She wouldn't even let go while I washed it off! She ate it down to the seeds!
Enjoying the spring horse that Grandpa and Grandma got them

A favorite treat, being pulled around on a blanket by Uncle Galen

This is what happens when she skips her afternoon nap, asleep at dinner!