The Ogden Family

One Month!

2012-01-12T20:41:00.001-08:00

A month old already!

Super Daddy

2012-01-02T20:07:00.000-08:00

Super Dad nap!

Super Dad hold!

Sharing

2012-01-01T18:25:00.000-08:00

Trying to get him to hold a toy

Snuggled her dolly under the blanket

Norah loves to hold her brother!

It's hard work being this cute!

2011-12-23T09:04:00.000-08:00

Welcome Baby Owen!

2011-12-15T15:36:00.000-08:00

Monday morning

Monday evening!

Big Sister Norah was there for the delivery and is fascinated with her brother.

We were able to go home Tuesday, just shy of 24hrs later.

Owen Emmett Ogden

December 12th 2011 6:02pm

7lbs 8oz and 20.5in

The short story:

Monday started with some mild contractions every 10-15mins. I called George home from work around 1pm, just in case something happened. About 4pm we went over to Hood River since George had an appointment. We had made plans to tour the birth center after his appointment. By 5pm my contractions were getting pretty painful and about every 4mins. Instead of touring we decided it would be better to just check into the hospital! We signed in at 5:30 and went back to a room so they could check my progress, I was already at 8cm! The doctor got there with a few minutes to spare and Owen was born very quickly at 6:02pm. Thankfully there were no complications or stitches needed.

We were able to go home Tuesday evening and everyone is doing very well.

37 weeks, at least ;)

2011-12-10T17:56:00.001-08:00

I'm soooo behind in blogging! So, still pregnant, still doing okay. Norah is still amazing and adorable. George is working hard and is amazing. And it's been super cold here! Yup, that about sums it up!
We got our tree today and I'll try to post pictures soon.

Snow!

2011-11-17T22:28:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday we had our first snow of the season.

It started around 8am and stopped mid afternoon.

Norah was facinated and kept telling me 'Momma! Snow Falling!'

Since we've both been sick I was reluctant to take her out, but after nap I couldn't resist!

There was maybe two inches on the ground, but it was enough to play in.

And I'm glad we went out for a little while, because it was all melted this morning! Norah was very confused. The first thing she asked this morning was to look out the window at the snow, and it was gone! I've been watching several weather forecast websites, since they're never very accurate for our area, and the general forecase says we have a chance for snow pretty much every day for the next week....we'll see!

34 weeks!

2011-11-16T10:55:00.000-08:00

34 weeks with baby boy

34 weeks with Norah

So, I'm not as big this time. He's lower and my ligaments are really complaining. Hopefully he's not going to be late! My belly has no squish to it. I wish it would stretch more. I have to focus on relaxing my muscles or I have an achy belly at night, it's like a basketball! Norah and I are fighting our first cold of the season :( She has the cruddy cough and I've got the headache and stiff neck stuff.

Side note, first snow today! It's been coming down since about 8:30 this morning.

Halloween Pics

2011-11-16T10:22:00.000-08:00

3/4th, 30 weeks, 7.5months....

2011-10-19T21:41:00.000-07:00

Almost done. Whew.

I told George today, I feel like I'm more tired now, and my back hurts more than it did at this point when I was pregnant with Norah. Oh, right...I wasn't chasing and carrying a 2yr old around then!

Mostly I'm feeling good. Baby is move a lot, a LOT. He has hiccups every day, usually multiple times. But I always feel them in the same spot, by my left hip, so at least I know he's head down. I did my glucose testing two weeks ago, everything came back normal. I'm up 12.5lbs so far, not bad! I have a routine OB appt tomorrow, nothing too exciting. George and I did get baby's room cleaned up recently. The crib is set up, the closet is cleaned/organized, and we bought a rug to cover a nasty stain on the carpet. Gotta love rentals!

30 weeks (at least) with baby boy:

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-11T18:02:00.000-07:00

Friday we had a playdate at the Rasmussen Farms Pumpkin Patch in Hood River. It was really fun! They have a bunch of free activities for the kids, and TONS of pumpkins.

Four of us went, with one child each, and all of us are expecting our second.

Norah and her buddy Leland getting cozy on the wagon ;)

I thought she would go for a huge pumpkin, but she really wanted this one!

Saturday we did a family trip so George could go too.

Here he is helping Norah with the pumpkin bowling.

Norah thought it was super funny to pose for this one:

Searching for the perfect pumpkin with Daddy

Field of Pumpkins! So many choices!

Our final pumpkin haul! Norah picked more than one....and Mommy picked the white one.

Welcome to Norah's Place

2011-10-11T16:00:00.000-07:00

We bought a chest freezer over labor day weekend.

And now Norah has a playhouse!

These pictures are from a few weeks ago, but you get the idea!

She loves playing inside, and usually drags George in as soon as he gets home from work.

It's holding up pretty well, but I think we will be stalking the Sears store for a new box when this one finally breaks down!

Cartoons and Baby Dolls

2011-10-08T17:32:00.000-07:00

Norah gets to watch a cartoon after breakfast, lately she's been bringing all her dollies to the couch to watch with her. Although, sometimes the dollies are sleeping....just have to ask, she'll let you know :)

28 weeks

2011-10-07T14:09:00.000-07:00

I'm round enough now I can't hide it under clothes anymore. I gave in a bought a few nice long sweaters since most of my maternity shirts are tees or tanks!

It sure feels like this pregnancy is going much faster than the first time! This little boy is very active, has a lot of hiccups, and is getting really strong. I'm ready for him to start growing out more than up, since he is already almost kicking my ribs, which Norah never did!

I'm have some aches and pains, but all normal stuff so far. My next appointment isn't for two more weeks, so nothing very exciting to tell about.

Welcome Baby Cole!

2011-09-30T13:06:00.000-07:00

My sister had her baby yesterday morning!

He was delivered by csection and everyone is doing well.

Although he is two weeks early he has some impressive stats!

9lbs 8oz

20 3/4inches

He has very long fingers and toes, gray/blue eyes, and a tiny bit of hair!

26 weeks

2011-09-21T19:09:00.000-07:00

One of these days I'll have George take a belly picture with the actual camera!

I think baby has really started poking out in the last two weeks.

I've started getting some ligament pain and a few leg cramps but overall things are good.

Tomorrow is my OB appointment for a routine check, and I think I have to do the glucose test soon too.

Last Friday my mom, sister and I went the the Just Between Friends cosignment sale at the expo center. It was awesome! This is the fourth time we've gone and I always find great stuff. Now we have lots of warm little jammies for this little boy, and jeans and long sleeve shirts for Norah. And a great winter coat for her also! I sold some stuff at this sale for the first time and made about $60! Sweet!

Starting to feel bigger...

2011-09-10T20:27:00.001-07:00

I should be at about 24 weeks now...depending on who you talk to! I'm in a disagreement with my docs on the dates. By my LMP the due date should be 12/17, but they are going by the measurements from my ultrasound, which gives a due date of 12/27. I think this is silly since Norah always measured about 10 days behind. We had to have a zillion ultrasounds because of it! But they don't seem to care about that little bit of history. So, I'm either 24 weeks, or almost 26. We shall see, but I won't be suprised if this little guy is here closer to the 17th.

So here I am at 24 weeks with Norah:

And here's one from tonight, about 24 weeks

with baby boy:

So, I think I was actually bigger with Norah at this point, but I'm starting to really feel like I have a belly now. Especially when I'm sitting, and at the end of the day when my muscles are tired and my belly is really hanging out! I'm up 7lbs so far so not too bad. And this little guy is a mover, he's wiggling all the time :)

Canning, feeding the need to nest...

2011-09-02T10:33:00.000-07:00

Canning this time of year is just normal to me! My mom has always canned over the summer. I remember being kindergarden age and seeing peaches/pears layed out on every counter and table just waiting to be perfectly ripe.

I skipped a few years when I first moved out on my own. It's so much work! But then I started missing the jars. What!? No peaches in December?? And seriously, buying canned peaches from the store, nasty! They just don't taste right when you've grown up on home canned fruit.

I picked up some peaches yesterday from a local orchard in Hood River.

These are HUGE!

I'm trying a new variety called Glowing Star, they're supposed to be great for canning.

I cut up one, okay two, this morning to share with Norah. Wow, yum. I totally understand why they are marketing these for canning too. Super easy to pit and peal! I'll probably have to go back for another box.

Since my Mom started her CSA (aka massive garden) we've been canning tomatoes too. I took a box of peaches down to her yesterday and she sent me home with a bin of tomatoes, good trade!

It's so nice to have canned tomatoes for cooking in the winter. They don't have the tin/metal taste of the store bought. It's so easy to make soup/chili etc, just grab a jar and get cooking!

And you gotta love that these are organic, go Mom!

Ahhhh beautiful peppers.....for freezing not to can!

Purple bell peppers, Jalapeno Peppers, and my favorite, Jimmy Nardellos (not hot). Rinse, stem, seed, and freeze!

This is just a tiny amount of the peppers Mom has growing, the rest are headed for market! Okay, and her freezer too.

Being pregnant during canning/harvesting seasons really makes me want to preserve everything! I love stocking my pantry and freezer.

Although, it's a little hard with our tiny freezer, so we're looking into getting a small chest freezer.

Pears are coming soon. It's a really late season for them, but at least I'll be done with peaches by then.

I know this winter when I'm super pregnant, and after the baby is here, I'm going to be so happy to have all these goodies stored away!

Miss Manners the Smartie Pants

2011-08-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

While sharing cake with Norah today:
'Norah, would you like a bite of cake?'
After careful though she slowly said,
'Yes, Please'
Yay! Happy Momma moment :)

Shortly after that she came running up to me saying,
'More Cake!' Momma More Cake!!'
I told her she needed to ask nicely, she forgot to say the please part....so she says,
'Please Part!'

This evening she brought me two saucers from her new tea set. She put one in each of my hands, pointed to one then the other while saying,
'One, Two!'
Then had a huge smile, she was so proud and so was Momma!

Ultrasound!

2011-08-17T14:30:00.000-07:00

Yay Baby!

What a cutie :)

Baby is measuring just right for 21 weeks so we still have a due date of Dec 27th.

Most of the other pictures are just weird leg shots or spine and all that, so you just get the cute ones this time! Oh and I'm not a big fan of posting pictures of the gender confirmation...

But no worries, it was pretty clear!

IT'S A BOY!!!!!

Wish we could see the reaction from George's family :)

Halfway! 20 weeks...

2011-08-10T16:44:00.000-07:00

More phone pics, but oh well!

Yay 20 weeks!

Baby is wiggling and bumpin away and I'm feeling pretty good.

I don't have a whole lot to report.....things are good!

Our ultrasound is on the 17th, one more week :)

My kitchen helper

2011-07-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

Norah loves helping me bake things. We make bread every week and she really likes watching the mixer. She also loves licking flour off the counter after I've rolled out the dough....

As soon as she sees me getting things ready she grabs a chair and pushes it right to the counter so she doesn't miss any of the action!

She's also very helpful at sampling cookie dough :)

Egg free of course.

Yes, we make bread, at home, every week.

I haven't bought a regular loaf of bread since we moved in October.

wow.

We have bought special breads, french/garlic etc.

But I make our regular sandwich/toast bread.

It's yummy.

18 weeks and a little belly

2011-07-30T17:54:00.000-07:00

George wasn't home, so you get a phone picture! There's a little bit of belly now :)

16 weeks, updates, and a few pictures

2011-07-13T15:17:00.000-07:00

I had an OB appt today, just a routine check up, and everything is great! After having a rough start with the doctors office by our home I switched to one in Hood River. I'm so glad I did! They are really nice and very professional. Most of my appointments are with a midwife, but there are also two OBGYNs who I will eventually see.

Daddy and Norah enjoying the cold pool last week

We (Norah and I) heard the heartbeat today and the midwife went over all my labs from the last visit. Everything is going just fine! I told her how I almost passed out after my blood draw, so I'll need to have someone with me for the next one (glucose screening). The baby seems to be a little higher than I remember Norah being this early, but the placenta might just be attached high. Whatever it is, I feel like I'm starting to poke out already!

Train ride for Lyle's birthday party in June

One of the things I really like about this office is they only have you do once a month appointments until 36 weeks, unless you become high risk. My next visit is actually at 21weeks for our ultrasound (8/17)! I'm excited that we get to find out who this little one is right before our mini vacation. We're headed to the beach the next day for a long weekend to celebrate our anniversary and Norah's second birthday on August 19th!

Kaylee and Norah playing together last saturday, go teamwork!

In other news, I'm getting over a sinus infection which has turned into a nasty cough. George is back from his AT Army time and working hard trying to figure out some complicated stuff at his job. Norah is cutting her two year molars and......Potty Training! We're actually about three weeks into the potty training. It's going really well, but I was a little afraid to say anything at first, didn't want to jinx it.

Yup, that's right folks...

2011-06-22T19:15:00.000-07:00

Baby Ogden

Due 12/27/11

Easter Egg Hunt

2011-04-26T19:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday was so beautiful! We join in an easter egg hunt with some friends in Vancouver.

The kids had a lot of fun playing in the bubbles!

There was lots of nice grass to run around on...

And yummy cookies to decorate and eat!

And of course hunting for eggs!

Norah enjoyed all the goodies, stickers and toys and silly bands oh my!

Easter then and now

2011-04-26T18:32:00.000-07:00

2010

(Isabelle left, Kaylee center, Norah right)

2011

(Isabelle, Norah, Kaylee)

2010

2011

I have a lot more pictures from this year, but they need their own post :)

Post-Bathtime Gigglefest

2011-04-07T17:57:00.000-07:00

I Have the Right to Know if it's GMO

2011-03-22T10:35:00.000-07:00

Obviously I'm not going to DC for this, but I still believe they are sending the right message.

More information and local events:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/index.cfm

Cousins

2011-03-22T09:19:00.000-07:00

Kaylee & Norah

Can you believe they are only 8 months apart?

They are about as different as you can get, in looks and personality.

This was at Grandpa and Grandma's house three weeks ago. They were running around the house holding hands, too cute!

Two weeks ago Jamie and Kaylee (my sister and niece) stayed with us while George was out of town. The girls had so much fun playing and making huge messes in every room. They both like to play 'ni-night' and were being very good and sharing Kaylee's special cot.

I'm so glad we didn't have to move too far and are able to see them every few weeks.

So Serious

2011-03-22T09:12:00.000-07:00

This was just too funny, she gets this look when she's really focusing on something, just like her Daddy! Someday I'll have to get one of George for comparison.

Operation Move The Piano -Success!

2011-03-04T11:04:00.000-08:00

George has been wanting a piano for years. The whole time we were living with my parents he asked about getting my grandmas piano about once a month.
The piano was with family. We talked with them over the holidays, and lucky for us they were willing to part with it. George and I were waiting for tax return money before we moved it. Hey, it's expensive to move a piano! After many phone calls, emails etc, I was able to set up the move, without telling George! After we got the money in, he would ask me every few days if I had called about moving it yet. I tried to put him off, telling him I hadn't called that day, writting myself notes etc to remember to call.....
Well, yesterday was the big move day! I had to wait for George to leave for work, then get started on moving our bookshelf. Ugh, that was not so fun. Luckily it didn't have to go very far.

Then cleaning up and vacuuming before the piano arrived at 1030. The movers said it was the heaviest upright they have ever had to move. They guessed it was about 800-900lbs.

Tada!

This piano is so beautiful, I just love it. I'm going to visit my Grandma this weekend and hopefully she can give me a refresher on the history. I know it was given to her when she was young (not sure what age) by her brother. It's a Chickering piano from about 1895.

Norah really likes it! She askes to play it all the time.

And she's super cute sitting there, so serious!

She's going to have long fingers like her Momma, it'll make playing easier.

I think she was getting a little tired of me taking pictures...

SUPRISE!!!!

Norah had to show Daddy how to play with this new toy!

Not bad for not playing in forever!

And a bonus video, because she's just too cute

Snowman

2011-03-04T09:34:00.000-08:00

This was a few days ago, when George got home from work. He took Norah outside to build a giant snowman!

He didn't even wait to change out of his work clothes first!

Have a mentioned that Norah likes to eat snow?

That was a tasty snowman!

She had to taste the top too!

Bye Bye Binkie

2011-03-04T08:38:00.000-08:00

In January we weaned Norah off her binkie. We had been talking about it for a while since both George and I don't like it when little kids have binkies. We're all for babies and binkies, but it's just weird to see a three year old walking around with one. Then I noticed she had chewed a few tiny holes at the base. I was concerned she would chew the whole thing off in the middle of the night! So we sniped a little hole in the end so it would feel weird to her. She was not happy. That was a difficult night. The next night wasn't as bad, and after the third night she didn't complain much at all. However, because it didn't feel right when she sucked on it anymore, she chewed it a lot more. I noticed some big holes in the base after a few nights...so we decided to just cut the whole thing off.

We let her have the base, giving it to her at naptime and bedtime just like we would have done before. She said a lot of 'Uh Oh!' and 'Oh No...' So we just told her binkie was all done, agreed with her every time she brought it to us, 'yup, binkie uh oh, it's all gone, it's all done' and tried not to make a big fuss about it. We let her take the base to bed with her, which was a little comical when she tried to put it in her mouth. She did cry a little the first few naps and nights. Nothing too horrible, just that complaining cry that you know isn't serious.

After about a week of sleeping with the base she stopped looking for it in her bed, so I just took it out.

It's been about a month and a half now, and she's doing just fine. Sometimes I wish we still had one when she's being really cranky, but mostly I'm happy she's done with it!

Cuties

2011-03-04T08:15:00.000-08:00

So nice of Grandpa and Grandma to have kid sized windows!

Snow Days

2011-03-01T11:33:00.000-08:00

We had snow about a week ago, but it had all melted off by Sunday night. Then yesterday it started again! Snowing all day long, big fluffy flakes! Norah and I went out to play in it yesterday afternoon. We had about four inches at that point. It was very wet and heavy since our temp was at 33*

I showed Norah how to catch snowflakes :)

She thought it was great!

I picked her up after this and we ran around the yard trying to catch the biggest ones. She thought it was soooooo funny!

Above is a shot from yesterday afternoon.

Below is from this morning!

George actually had a bit of a hard time getting out for work! The driveway has a slight slope to it, so he had to try a few times.

Static Kid

2011-03-01T08:18:00.000-08:00

One of Norah's favorite games right now is playing "Boo". She hides behind the blanket that hangs over the couch and peeks out, we exchange Boos and she laughs and hides again. Super cute. Very static generating!

Crayon meets Dryer

2011-02-08T19:37:00.000-08:00

So I posted on Facebook a few days ago that Norah 'helped' me with the laundry. Ugh. Usually she likes to push the clothes in to the dryer and is a good helper. This time she added a crayon. No idea when she did it, you'd think I would have seen it since I was standing right there....

Sooo yeah. Green crayon melted to my dryer and just about every item of clothing that was in it.

It was worse then the pictures look since the camera didn't pick up on the faint marks or the door side of the drum.

After much scrubbing over two days, by myself and George, it's now back to almost normal.

The clothing however, I had to rewash multiple times after soaking overnight. Most of the green came out, a few items still have marks that just won't come clean.

Not an experience I wish to repeat!

Static and Balloons = Fun!

2011-02-07T20:08:00.000-08:00

Pretty sunshine between the clouds

2011-01-23T12:36:00.001-08:00

We've had some odd weather here lately. A few days ago I saw the sun shining on the hill behind our house with some foggy clouds above. It looked so cool I just had to take a few pictures.

Ooblick?

2011-01-23T11:00:00.000-08:00

You know, the cornstarch and water mix? We were bored the other night and trying to think of things to do with Norah. So I said to George, 'Hey I have an idea, but it's going to be messy' and he said, 'Oh yeah? Like making Ooblick?' It was so funny that he instantly thought of the same thing!

Pie

2011-01-23T10:39:00.001-08:00

I really wanted an apple pie last week, so I decided to just make one. It turned out pretty good! I know a few changes I'd make next time, but not bad for a first try.

I had some leftover dough and filling so I made a tiny pie for Norah.

She liked it! Although, she liked the crust more then the apples, which I thought was odd since she loves apples. I guess she just doesn't like them cooked.

Christmas in pictures

2011-01-09T17:15:00.001-08:00

Christmas Morning

Christmas Evening

Tree and deco

2011-01-09T16:52:00.000-08:00

Wild Neighbors

2010-12-22T08:20:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-12-16T14:12:00.000-08:00

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....

2010-12-13T20:12:00.000-08:00

2009

Our cute little baby

2010

Our beautiful little girl

Snow Family

2010-12-02T16:06:00.001-08:00

Gobble?

2010-12-02T16:02:00.000-08:00

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

November snow

2010-11-30T08:07:00.000-08:00

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...)

2010-11-29T19:59:00.000-08:00

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:

Hello

bye

byebye

drink

juice

kitty

cheese

cracker

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...

2010-11-17T20:37:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-16T11:33:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-11-15T20:46:00.000-08:00

Cheesy grin!

Music with Daddy

2010-11-15T20:42:00.000-08:00

Banana

2010-11-15T20:38:00.000-08:00

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

Chocolate Cookie

2010-11-15T19:53:00.001-08:00

Never liked them....

2010-11-15T14:09:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-09T21:45:00.000-08:00

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....

2010-11-08T20:22:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-08T20:20:00.001-08:00

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!

2010-10-27T08:00:00.001-07:00

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

2010-10-23T14:06:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-28T21:19:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-09-26T20:43:00.000-07:00

Daddy is so proud :)

Random September Photos

2010-09-26T20:31:00.000-07:00

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!

Dahlia Festival

2010-09-18T21:37:00.000-07:00

Labor Day we headed down to Canby, OR for the Swan Island Dahlia Festival.

It was beautiful!

I love dahlias and this was the first time I was able to go to the festival. Oh my, soooo many to pretty flowers to chose from. Hopefully next year George and I will have our own yard to plant some it! If not, I'm sure my mom would love it if I planted her's again! This year we only have about 100 plants in the ground because the tubers didn't winter over well. Last year we had over 300! It was great to see some of the varieties in person. I decided I really liked some of them that didn't look so good to me in the catalog. I'm excited to pick some new ones for next year.

The view was amazing, they have over 40 acres planted.

Norah did very well relaxing in her stroller for most of the trip. We did let her walk around a little and she went right for the flowers.

George tried holding hands for a while...

But it was easier to just carry her!

1st Ear Infection

2010-09-18T21:15:00.001-07:00

Poor Baby! She's better now, but that was a yucky ear infection. Norah had her 1 year shots on Monday 8/30 right after we got back from VA. That Wednesday she spiked a fever which we thought was a reaction to the shots. She was sleeping horribly and by Thursday night the fever hit 104. We took her back to the doc on Friday and they determined that the fever was not from shots, but an ear infection. Poor thing! She was pretty much a lump for several days until the meds started helping.

Her right ear was so swollen it stuck out from her head!

A few days after she started feeling better, we saw a big white thing in her mouth, she had been cutting her first molar too, ouchie!

She's still been having a hard time sleeping, last night was the first night she slept all the way through since before we went to VA...so almost a month. Hopefully tonight will go well!

More VA fun in the cabin

2010-09-17T20:52:00.000-07:00

Nana with her granddaughters

Norah enjoying Nana's hat

George and Sarah extreme marshmallow roasting in the rain

Fun with mini golf

Elaine and Emily (with baby on board)

Sarah and Evoly (who called it pokepoke golf)

George and his awesome Daddy/golf skills

Virginia!

2010-09-13T22:30:00.000-07:00

On 8/20 we flew to VA for our niece's baptism and to visit family. We had so much fun while we were there! We went to DC for a day, then stayed at an awesome cabin resort, went to Williamsburg, went crabing, and got to hang out with family we haven't seen in a while! Here's a few pictures of family and DC. Blogger must hate me because it is taking forever to load pictures, seriously, I've been working on this post for a few days because the pics won't load.

Party 8/19/10

2010-09-05T20:28:00.001-07:00

The Birthday Girl playing with her favorite toy, a kazoo!

Lots of people came over to celebrate with us!

We had a yummy dinner! Norah enjoyed Purple Mashed Potatoes (No Food Coloring!) and a variety of other veggies.

After dinner we opened presents! Norah received a lot of wonderful gifts.

Then it was time for Cupcakes!

Norah really enjoyed her cupcake!

Our One Year Old

2010-08-30T20:43:00.001-07:00

To our family- Don't worry about trying to copy pics from here, we will be sending them out by mail

Happy Birthday Norah!

2010-08-19T15:18:00.000-07:00

1st Birthday pictures coming soon!

Happy Anniversary

2010-08-19T07:51:00.001-07:00

Due Date a year ago?

2010-08-18T21:11:00.001-07:00

Yup, a year ago. I drove myself to my 40 week doctors appt and had a pretty normal day.
But, I haven't been able to wear this shirt again. Nothing wrong with it. Something about delivering a baby while wearing it makes me keep skipping over it this summer...Maybe tomorrow I'll put it on for a photo.

A year ago today we were waiting.....

2010-08-15T13:34:00.000-07:00

Cannon Beach 8/7/10 Nana's Birthday

2010-08-10T17:23:00.001-07:00

Kaylee and Norah on the beach! This was Kaylee's first beach trip and Norah's second.

It was a little cool and we had a few sprinkles, so basically your typical OR coast weather.

It was Nana's birthday! She was trying her hand at flying George's trick kite, and she did pretty well!

Norah had a lot of fun climbing on Nana's chair.
Kaylee enjoyed carrying handfuls of sand to different people.

It was a really fun trip! We left around 9:30am on Saturday after some issues with our car. (Both brake lights were burnt out!) Norah stayed awake all but the last 15mins of the drive, then stayed up the whole day! That made for one tired baby, considering she woke up at 6:30am. We spend a few hours at the beach, had lunch and played in the sand. Nana and the guys flew kites, Jamie and I played with the girls and tried to prevent them from eating all the sand on the beach. We also walked around town and window shopped for a while. We ended our day with dinner at Mo's!

Green Bean and Sausage Chili

2010-08-01T11:37:00.000-07:00

We have a green bean chili recipe that is really yummy. I though I was going to make it last night, but after looking around the kitchen we were lacking some pretty major ingredients. So we just improvised! It turned out soooo sooo good. If you would like to try it, I thought I would write it down before I forget what we put in it!

1 lb sweet italian sausage
4-5 cups chopped fresh green beans (cut to 1-2inch pieces)
1 can kidney beans
1 jar spaghetti sauce (4-6 large tomatoes would be better)
2 large onions
1 Tbsp dry basil (fresh basil would be great too)
1 Tbsp chili powder
2-3 tsp Montreal steak seasoning
Sour cream to top it off

Brown the sausage in a big stew pot. Add chopped onions and stir around until they soften a little. Then just dump the rest of the stuff in! Simmer until the green beans are done. Top with sour cream, or not, but we like sour cream over here!

Matching

2010-08-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

Jamie and Kaylee were here yesterday and stayed for dinner. It ended up being pretty late so we just bathed the girls together and Kaylee borrowed some bigger jammies I had stored away for Norah.

Too Cute.

I always though my sister's and my childern would look a like. I'm constently suprised at how different they are. Then I dug up a pic of Jamie and I when we were little. Our kids may not look much like each other, but they sure look like their mommies!

Sharing is Caring!

2010-08-01T09:38:00.001-07:00

New Trick

2010-07-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

Peaches

2010-07-24T14:01:00.001-07:00

YUM

11 months

2010-07-19T10:45:00.000-07:00

So, you may have noticed I skipped a month...We were in Utah for the 10 month post, and with all the blogging I did to catch up after we got back that one just didn't make it in. So I guess this is sort of a combo 10-11 month update.

Walking walking walking! Norah is walking pretty well. She still crawls a lot of the time, but she can get up from the ground without holding on to anything and start walking. But when speed is needed, crawling it is!

Climbing. Oh the climbing. If she can get her knee up on something, she will climb on it. Not my favorite due to the falling danger, but it's great for her motor developement so I'm trying to teach her how to safely get down from things also.

Snuggles and hugs. Sooooo cute. She will now wrap her little arms around your neck and hug you. Sometimes she just likes to lay her head on your shoulder and snuggle. She also likes to lay her head on the kitties and snuggle them, depending on the cat they either run, hiss, or lay there like a blob (strider...). Or pillows. She loves to snuggle and roll around on pillows.

She likes to play peekaboo and will chase you around the house in her walker playing this.

She waves byebye. She waved bye to Grandma Ogden when we left Utah, we were saying byebye and she just started waving, too cute.

Clapping! Although she hasn't figured out the correct context to start clapping, she likes to do it. Like when she's finished eating, she will clap. When she was really mad and sleepy and crying she started clapping, so it's a work in progress.

Eating. Yum. She's a pretty good eater now. She eats better for me then George, but probably just because I'm the one feeding her 90% of the time. She was sick for the last part of June and the first week and a half of July. We're pretty sure she had Roseola. All the symptoms and timeline matched up and she had a rash for two days. During this time she didn't want to eat or nurse much at all. Well, now she's making up for it! For the last week or so she's been eating 4-5 times a day and by dinner she will eat two containers of baby food (about 8oz) plus whatever veggies I've cooked for her, and some puffs or crackers. She started to eat more 'real' food. Most recently she's been eating peaches and bananas, and carrots and cauliflower.

Sleeping. Ahhhhh sleep. For the most part Norah goes to bed between 8-9 and is up by 7-8. Nice. Really nice. Every few days she will wake up crying in the middle of the night, but usually it doesn't last long and she will fall back to sleep on her own. In the last few days she decided she doesn't want to be rocked and snuggled before bed. She will snuggle for a minute or two, then just start wiggling. We lay her down at that point, tuck her in, and generally she will fall asleep within a few minutes. I miss the snuggles, but it is making bedtime faster and easier. We are also starting to transition from two naps to one. Not fun.

Okay, so that's a ton of reading. Good job if you made it all the way through.
Norah is a little too wiggly for a good photo shoot today, so you will have to settle for a few videos.

Oregon Zoo

2010-07-19T10:18:00.000-07:00

Saturday we took Norah to the Zoo for the first time. The weather was great, it was of course crowded, but manageable.

George insisted we use the map.

Norah seemed to enjoy the outing. She was very good the whole time. It took us just over three hours to walk the whole place, although we did manage to miss the rhinos.

All good family trips end with a nap!

Pool with Daddy

2010-07-14T22:29:00.000-07:00

Norah was getting a little fussy this evening before dinner, so we decided it was time to hang out in the pool. It was much warmer today than last time we played in the pool and she seemed to enjoy a lot more.

George trying to squirt me with water

Poke Poke

So pretty

Look what I can do!

2010-07-14T22:23:00.001-07:00

I knew she would figure it out eventually.

But I was hoping she would wait another month or two...

Lessons for Mommy

2010-07-14T22:18:00.000-07:00

Cucumbers are fun to hold and yummy!

NEVER leave the diaper bag within reach.
That was a nice little roll of bags for dirty diapers.

Favorite things to do

2010-07-14T22:15:00.001-07:00

Climb on Stuff

Sit in the toy box
And snuggle pillows

Playing in the Pool

2010-07-14T21:59:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, Jamie and Kaylee came over to play and have dinner with us. The girls were getting a little cranky so we decided to break out the kiddie pool! And would you believe nobody would help me blow it up?! Oh well, it was worth it. Grandma brought a couple big pot fulls of warm water to add to the mix, but it was still pretty chilly!

We warmed them up afterwards with a nice bath together. Their first shared bath and probably many more to come this summer!

Utah- The rest of the story

2010-07-14T21:46:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I'm having a hard time getting the motivation to post the rest of our Utah trip...SO. We drove down to St George to visit with Grandma Ogden for a few days. George drove since Papa was hopped up on pain pills ;) Nah he wasn't that bad, but it sure looked painful. We had a good time visiting with Grandma, and going to Zions National Park. Papa and George went fishing and caught several big trout. We also took Norah swimming for the first time! So here's the important part, the pictures!

Wednesday June 16th

2010-07-07T16:13:00.000-07:00

We went shooting! Yup, with guns. Out in the middle of the salt flats somewhere that I could probably never find again. It was fun. George's Uncle Bruce and cousin TJ took us and a bunch of different guns to try out. I shot the 22 rifle and the 45 handgun. George shot those and a few crazy other ones. It was more fun then I thought it would be, and George had a great time :) Norah came with us and one of us played in the car with her while the other shot stuff. Papa stayed at Aunt Dianes full of pain killers from the boating/water skiing accident.

That evening we drove down to cousin Nikki's place to visit most of Aunt Joni's kids. It was a bit crazy, and loud, but fun!

Tuesday June 15th

2010-07-07T11:58:00.000-07:00

We drove to and went boating on Yuba Lake with George's cousin Trevor, his wife Kenalee and daughter Riley. Also his Uncle Bruce and cousin TJ, cousin Carly and her little baby boy Duke.

Norah didn't seem to mind the boat at all, she even fell asleep for a while. George and his dad did some boogie boarding, George tried to wake board and was able to get up for a few seconds! Then Bryan thought it would be fun to try to water ski. Yeah. No. The first time he tried to get up he strained both hamstrings so bad he couldn't get out of the water without help. Bad stuff. Luckily our rental car had an awesome back where all the seats folded flat so he could sit without bending his legs. So he road back to town in the back and made faces with Norah :) We took him to an urgent care to get checked out and he'll be okay.

Monday June 14th

2010-07-07T11:32:00.000-07:00

This is the Place.

No, Seriously.

It is. Well, for some people anyway....

This is the Place, State Park? I think it's a state park....It's a little recreated town of a mormon settlement from when they first came to Salt Lake. Interesting, a little hokey, but fun. We left the house midafternoon and wandered around this place for a while then went back to the house and visited more while the kids played.

June 12th/13th -Away we go!

2010-06-30T07:53:00.001-07:00

Utah. Okay well we didn't get there right away. We left Saturday mid morning after some last minute packing. We made it down to vancouver, got gas, and 'gatorade' for Papa (mt dew), and went through the carwash. Yes with the new rental car. No I don't care that it was pretty clean already. It's a silly tradition that George and I have to go through a carwash to start any road trip. So, carwash, then down to the PDX airport to the rental car office to get George and myself signed on as drivers. I think we actually made it out of Portland around 12:30. There were many stops along the way, about every hour and a half or so, to get Norah out of the car and run around. We made it to Ontario, WA that night and stayed at a nice hotel. We had a nice complementary breakfast Sunday morning and made better time getting started. Norah was such a good girl for all the driving. She napped a lot and played with toys, very little fussing overall. We made it to Aunt Diane's house late afternoon on the 13th and spent the evening visiting.

June 11th -Graduation and First Steps!

2010-06-30T07:47:00.000-07:00

On June 11th 2010 George walked in his graduation ceremony for his Masters in Science (in Electrical Engineering). WOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Norah and I, along with his parents and my parents were there to witness. It was so awesome to finally be at graduation! George also received the award for Outstanding Masters Student. He received this award as an undergrad too!

To make this day even better, Norah decided to take her first steps right before the ceremony! We were all touring George's lab/office and she took three steps while everyone was watching :)

Kaylee's new shoes

2010-06-29T16:17:00.000-07:00

Mass updates coming soon

2010-06-26T23:11:00.000-07:00

Yes it's been a looooong time since I updated. I have some major milestones to blog about, but I need pictures! We downloaded all the pictures off our camera on to George's laptop while we were in Utah since we filled the memory card. George was working crazy long hours this last week I didn't want to bug him to bring the laptop home. Soooo hopefully in the next day or two I will have pics to upload so I can start posting about all the awesome things we have been up to these last few weeks.
No pictures needed for this one: Norah is weaning herself. Sigh. It started Monday, day after we got back from Utah. She didn't want to nurse after nap and snack. I thought it was just a random thing, but she's done it all week. I'm having a hard time getting her to nurse for more than a few mintues everytime we try. So. I guess we're weaning. It's uncomfortable. My body is not liking it and not adjusting very quickly. And I'm a little worried about her getting enough calories since she's not supposed to start on dairy yet. Dang, now I'm going to have to start watching what I eat! No more calorie outlet other than good old exercise, bummer.

Monkey

2010-05-29T13:24:00.001-07:00

She's started using the pillows as steps to reach things on the table....

We have an awesome playgroup!

2010-05-25T15:45:00.000-07:00

Our playgroup organizer gave out these cute onesies!

Alphabet Soup

Tiny

2010-05-25T07:40:00.000-07:00

Norah had her 9 month wellcheck yesterday.
17 lbs 12oz
27 inches
She's in the 20th and 30th percentiles, but I don't remember which went with height/weight....but basically she's small :) We knew that already. We're not big people! Unlike two of her cousins that are in the 90-100+% hehe!
So since she's dropped percentiles since her last visit her doctor wants to do a 6 week weight check just to be sure they can record a change/increase in her weight. Otherwise everything looks great!