Saturday, November 12, 2011

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!





Well it is Nov 12 and it just snowed last night for the first time this year. I'm grateful that it has waited this long before snowing. It really is beautiful outside today. I'm sure tomorrow I'm going to be cursing winter. But this is getting me in the Christmas spirit. I'm listening to Christmas music as I put this blog together. I think I may break the decorations out soon too. I find that the Christmas season does not last long enough. I remember back when I was going to school in Utah, I somehow convinced my roommates that Christmas should start the day after Halloween. They put up fuss for a bit, but then they got into it and loved that the season lasted so much longer. We decorated and had the music and filled the apartment with Christmas smells. It was wonderful.

I'm really looking forward to Christmas. It is my all-time favorite holiday. Aric's is Halloween, and I love Halloween, but Christmas just brings everyone together around the world. It is such a happy, loving season. Aric is coming around.

I've got plenty of photos of Naomi to put on here. It's so hard to narrow the amount of photos that I post. She is so darn CUTE!
What is this white stuff dad?


Let's hide your belly from the cold


Umm... what do I do with the snow now dad? It's cold.




We have a mesh waste basket that Naomi has been playing with... she so cute when we put it on her head and she walks around with it. This little girl is a such a crack up.


You can often turn around and find Naomi laying around chillin out. Here she is just relaxing watching something on the TV. Once in a while she will get in that position and it looks like she is right into whatever is on. She has started to just lay her head down anywhere now too. The cutest was when we went out to dinner with Aric's mom when she was up. Naomi had had enough and she was tired so she just payed her head on the table. We quickly finished as we knew she was very much ready for bed.

Now to end the blog I leave you with a link to a video of Naomi walking. She just decided one day that she was going to walk.
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150925440745004

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Halloween and other exciting stuff

Our little black cat.

Happy late Halloween everyone. Here is a video to show what we did with our front hallway, and some photos our little black cat. She was just so cute. With all of the set up of the hallway, Naomi had a blast playing with all the pieces from the zombie hands to the sculls. She even hugged one of the sculls when I asked her to. I tried to snap a photo of it but she was too quick. Someday these decorations will scare her really badly, but now she just loved the black lights and the bones. Here is a link to video that wouldn't post on here. Hope you enjoy. http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150905913025004
Enjoying the raw pumpkin that she was eating as we carved our lanterns





Enjoying the decor. She loved the bones. Someday she will not want to touch them I'm sure.




The other day Chelsea brought the kids over to play while Benson was at pre-school and we decided impromptu that it was time for McKay's first haircut. So we got out the scissors and started going when we finally figured out, with my mother-in-laws advice, that feeding him snacks would be the best way for him to hold still. It was a tough job, but we got it done with team work, and lets just he is a STUD now.




The final product




So lately Naomi has been enjoying her torch. We have a little flashlight that fits perfectly in her soother. The first time we did it she just giggles and giggled and giggled. She loves her torch. I had to take some pictures of her enjoying it.







And last but not least... we had our first ultrasound. Within 30 seconds the ultrasound tech knew what we are having. Here's there picture. See if you can figure it out yourself.
BIG NEWS!!!! NAOMI HAS BEEN WALKING JUST ABOUT ALL MORNING NOW!!!


Tuesday, October 18, 2011

A much needed update!!

Hello all. Here it is the much anticipated, long awaited update to the blog. First and foremost, for those who may not know, we are expecting a either a little brother or sister for Naomi. Cleatus the fetus part 2 is due in our home around the 30th of April. We are very excited for this new chapter of of lives.
Well Naomi is just a little sweetheart, and a little sponge. She is such a smart little kid. I've been teaching her little things here and there that she is picking up quickly. She can say a few words now... when she chooses to say them that is . She can say "hi", which is usually when she is holding a phone, or phone like object to her head. She can say "down". And her version of "thank you". She is just so cute, she makes me smile every day. She is not quite walking yet. She will along furniture and if she can hold your hands. As soon as you try to let go... down to her bum she goes.

We took a video of her showing off her somersaults the morning she learned.




So now I'm going to work backwards with the pictures, as the most recent stuff is still in my head. We had a birthday party Naomi on Saturday the 15th of October. I came up with the idea if a cake with a little backyard scene with a gnome and a toadstool and a pond. Well this is what it ended up looking like. Not too bad I don't think. It wasn't quite what I had imagined, but it worked. The fence was a bit too close to the edge which is why it started to fall off. i had some help with the cake from family members, but the idea and most of it was me.



We gave the toadstool to Naomi to eat. She was such a little lady to begin with. She took her finger and wiped off the white spots of the toadstool and tasted it.


Then she really got into it. Her favorite part was definitely the icing. She loves to share her things now. So here she is offering me some cake.







Sugar hang over?

Sporting the hooded towel from Nana and Papa
Lots of people came to help us celebrate Naomi's birthday. The house was full!!! We had family from Calgary come up and friends and family from around here come and celebrate. She got some new books, and new dress, sippy cups and toys. A good time was had by all I think. A first birthday party really is for the parents as Naomi will not remember it at all! We had a good turn out.


Another thing that Noami likes to do is give hugs and kisses. Kisses are of course open mouthed and slobbery. She will hug anything she has in her arms when I say "give hugs". One day I was trying to get her to pick up her doll beside her to give hugs, but she just hugged the remote control that was in her hand at the moment.



Here Naomi is peeking in on daddy as he showered. She loved being able to peek around the door. She loves to join one of us in the shower too. She just plays in the bottom with her toys until we are done and can hold her in the water and have her warm up.


Just a cute photo to add


Very curious she gets into EVERYTHING these days. Here she is getting into mommy's nightstand. Anything she can reach gets thrown on the floor.


We've had some really good bruises form on Naomi as of recent. This one on her face happened when she was playing with the computer chair when it turned and she fell forward and landed on the metal bar that connects the bottom to the back. Ouch!


Here I got into trouble after I figured out how to take the pump out of the lotion bottle. I love to eat lotion!



Yet another bruise. This one was shen I was on mommy and daddy's bed. I got too close to the edge and mommy and daddy couldn't get to me. I rolled off hitting my ear on the corner of the nightstand on the way down.



In August grandma Wutzke came and visited. We took some time to go play at the legislature building in the fountains. That was a lot of fun.


What? What are you staring at? Do I have something on my face?


For Aric's birthday we got him a portable fire pit. We had many fires before it got too cold. We do plan to have a few in the winter if we can find some wood when we need it.


As for Aric and my lives. Aric is working hard this year to impress his principal and vice principal so he can get a full contract next year. Once he has that he can apply for any job in Edmonton. He could choose a different school if he wanted. He is finding this school quite restrictive at times and challenging.
I have started back at work 2.5 days a week. The first couple of days was really hard to leave Naomi with a sitter. 1.5 days a week she is Rachel Iverson's house. She is in the ward, as well is a quasi relative through Chelsea and Graham. She is also a friend :-)
The other day of the week she goes to Chelsea's house. She loves her cousin Benson. He sure has a way with her. HE can really make her giggle. She gets so excited wen he enters a room.
I plan to be working until pretty close to baby time so we have a better chance of qualifying for maternity leave again this time. Any money is welcome to help us out.
Well that is all that has been going on around here. I hope everything is great with everyone else.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Camping adventure

We decided to venture out on our very first camping adventure with Naomi over the weekend. We forgot the camera so there are no pictures to accompany this blog post. I'm deeply sorry.

Well we headed out with Chelsea, Daniel, Benson, Kimber and McKay, and a young couple from our ward, the Bullocks.
We went to Mink Lake which is out past Stony Plain (west of the city). It was an alright campground to begin with, but there were definitely not enough trees around each site. There was not enough privacy by far.
Benson was super excited to camping for his first time... although I think that sleeping in a tent at his great grandma's cabin counts, but Chelsea and Daniel don't count that.
He was very excited to be making smores. But you know he was freaking out a little when his marshmallow was turning brown in the fire. We had to explain that that is what happens when you roast marshmallows. The only other time he has had smores, was at my mom's house and the marshmallows were heated in the microwave. It was so cute!!!

Naomi had fun I think. She did not want to go to bed at bedtime though. She is used to her bedroom which is pretty dark, and much quieter. Just a few sites a way was some people consuming a great amount of alcohol, and they had their car radio up about as loud as it would go I assume. So after listening to her cry for half an hour we got her up and she came and sat around the fire with us adults. Around 10 we tried again to put her to bed since it was now darker. She finally gave in after about 20-25 minutes of crying. The music finally shut off around 11. We decided to head to bed around 11:30. Well Naomi being the lite sleeper that she is woke up as we filed into the tent. I grabbed her and tried to nurse to sleep between Aric and I. This is when the funniest thing happened. Aric was trying to give us a bit of space, when he disappeared off the edge of the bed!!! We have one of the air mattresses that is on it's own bed. So he went off the edge about a foot and a half to the ground. His sleeping bag combined with the cover of the air mattress equaled very slippery!! I had to control my desired to laugh, to ask if he was alright. Apparently Chelsea and Daniel on the other side of the tent were laughing (but keeping it very quiet). "Did he fall off the bed?" they were whispering to each other.
Anyway Naomi would not calm down so for the sake of the rest of the camp, I took Naomi and myself into the van to sleep. It was a lot quieter in there and she fell asleep in her car seat in about 7 minutes. Now for me to get comfortable and try to sleep. I was in the seat with her which does not give much for leg room or laying down. I wedged my feet between the door and the front seat and tried to sleep. Naomi is very much a stomach sleeper so anytime she tried to roll to her stomach she would wake up and freak out. So most of the night she slept on me... in that middle row, very uncomfortable.

Around 4 in the morning I saw a body emerge from the tent and disappear. Then about 10 minutes later I notice the fire burning pretty small. I sneak out of the van and go see who it is. Aric is sitting there playing a game on his phone. Apparently he had not slept at all due to noise from nearby campsites. Our friends with the music had turned their music back at some point apparently. And another site was having a laughing attack. So I convinced him to come into the can for a bit as it was quiet in there. He stayed in there until Naomi woke up for good around 7. He went to the tent to try to catch a few z's. That didn't last long though as we were all starting to wake up and life was starting at the campground. Well needless to say we did not really enjoy that campground and we won't be going back there. We will look for something a bit more secluded next time.

Over all I think we all had a fun time... minus the sleeping situation. I know I only got about an hour and a half collectively that night. I think we might try sleeping in the tent in the backyard to see if we can get her used to going to bed in a tent.

Well that's it for this post everyone. Nice to see people are reading this blog. I know it really just to check on Naomi :-)

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Mirror, mirror on the wall



Hello all.
We are back. We went down to Calgary for the weekend for our niece Eliza Jane Iverson Harker. Boy is she a cutie. When we got home I realized I had not taken one photo of her! Sorry everyone.
Well they have a little rocking chair for Eliza and Naomi just loved it! Here she is chillin the chair.
Later we decided to take some photos of her in the tree. By the time I got the camera this is what we got.

Ready to go to church
A couple of days ago I decided to bring out a mirror for Naomi to play with and the following photos are a few of the photos of her enjoying her new "friend"




She just loves to play with mirrors. You would think that she was the most self centered child eh? But you know it really is the cutest thing to watch her play with the mirror image.