Six Hundred Ninety-Four Thousand Three Hundred Minutes...

Six hundred ninety-four thousand moments so dear....How do you measure, measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee....

Or, 1 year, 3 months, 28 days, as our case may be! In our little yellow house, we measured these 68 weeks in glue and glitter and dress-up and paint and bugs and birthdays and ice cream. In library trips and books and pancakes and nature walks and good morning kisses. In movies and popcorn and baking and blocks and Little People and laundry and "see you in the morning light" said at bedtime. In these 482 days, Deb turned 30....and then 31, Scott turned 30, Emmerly turned 5 (and had a kuh-ick ass science birthday party, I might add, complete with periodic table cupcakes and science experiments galore!), Nola turned 2 with Minnie ears. Scott wore a tie 9 days out of 10, Nola broke her arm, Emmerly and Deb started a Daisy Troop, we went to Disney World and San Diego and San Francisco and Vegas too many times to count. We started homeschooling, we made new friends, Deb learned to sew, Em read her first book and took gymnastics and swim lessons and played soccer, Scott directed 150 kids and had amazing concerts, Nola fell in love. We went to 20 different nature centers, began a homeschool group with a bunch of other new homeschoolers, and read a LOT! We read amazing literature including Mary Poppins, Pinocchio, Ginger Pye, The Little Princess, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Little Mermaid, The Cricket in Times Square and The Princess and the Goblin, just to name a few. In these 11, 571 hours, we have laughed and cried and gotten boo-boos and bandaids and been at the bottom of Shanna's blog roll for too many days to count! Life just got in the way!

And now, a tiny glimpse into our 694,300 minutes...

So, here's to moving to the top of Shanna's blog roll, and to not letting another 694,300 minutes go by until the next post. Thanks for not giving up on us!!

Happy 1st Birthday Nola!

Wow! How time has flown! In so many ways, I cannot believe that little Miss Nola Jane has been part of our family for a YEAR!! In some ways, it seems like we know her so well and she's always been a part of our lives, and then in other ways, it seems like just a couple months ago we were bringing our newest addition home. Isn't time funny like that?

Nola has been such a fabulous addition to our lives. In her not-so-biased mom's opinion (ok, extremely biased!), Nola is absolutely ADORABLE and smart and has a great personality! She is generally just very happy and easy-going and really fun to be around. And, she is funny....as funny as a one-year-old can be, I'd guess! She loves to run at Scott and me and "knock" us over, and any time one of us is wrestling with Emmerly, Nola loves to join in and just laughs and screams with glee - it's really cute! She still loves to drop her head back to get tickled on the neck, and will do it immediately if you say "I'm gonna get your neck!" Her latest trick is that she dances to "Single Ladies" - we'll have to post a video of it, for it is oh so very cute! Oh, and the other day, Emmerly fell out of the stroller and Nola started cracking up! Too funny! Emmerly was ok, by the way! Nola is also quite a talker. She is always babbling and we can never count on her to be quiet during a concert or movie (darn her!). And she really does say a lot, in my humble opinion! She can sign "milk," "more," "food," "where," and "all done," and she can say Mama, Daddy, Papa, Nana, dance (it's "da", but we know what she means!), baby, ball, bobo (that's her pacifier), kitty, icky, and sometimes Mormor and Emmy, or Memmy. Actually right now I can hear her in her crib just talking to herself - such a happy girl! So I'm going to finish this up....

A family of four is even better than I imagined it to be! Emmerly, especially has really embraced Nola into our family. They are truly so incredibly cute together! If you haven't seen it yet, it is something to behold the way Nola's eyes light up when Emmerly walks into a room. They make each other laugh, comfort each other, annoy each other, and have so much fun together - they are great fun to watch. I think seeing how much they love each other is my favorite part of having a second child - and another girl in particular.

We couldn't be happier, this little family of four! This last year has been so fun, I can't wait to see what's in store for us this year! I look forward to it! I am posting a few pictures of Nola's birthday party on Sunday, which was so much fun. We celebrated with friends and family and Nola did her part - she was a little uncertain at first, but after a little hesitation dug into her cake and wouldn't let go! She wouldn't even stop for a drink of water!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NOLA JANE!!! WE LOVE YOU!!

NOLA FAQs

So, while I posted the "rice in the eye" pic from Nola's nine month bday - loved it! - I neglected to write about the cutesy things Nola is doing these days....so here goes:

• She continues to take a few steps on her own here and there, but mostly finds walking on her own a bother. Crawling is still the preferred method of autonomous mobility. However, she LOVES to walk and hold onto one of our fingers with one hand, or walk behind a push toy. In fact, sometimes she will not stand for anything BUT walking - no being held, no playing, she just wants to walk, and is inconsolable unless doing so. But, as I mentioned, she likes to only hold on to our hand with one of her hands - she likes to keep one hand free for waving!
• She is such a social butterfly. She will wave to anyone she sees, and especially loves people her own size.
  
• She still has just two teeth on the bottom, and doesn't really know how to use them very well yet - as I said in the previous post - she's a choker! I've had a few scary moments!
• She loves to babble, and is seeming to be associating certain sounds with specific people or things. The other day she seemed to say "ball" at the right moments, and she can say "mama" and "dada" and often seems to know when to do so. But mostly, she just talks and talk her gibberish and it is quite cute.
  
• She can sign "milk" and "more". The only problem is, sometimes "milk" can look like she's waving good-bye, and "more" still is mainly just clapping, so when she claps, we aren't really sure if she wants more food, if she's excited, or if she wants to do Patty Cake!
• Speaking of Patty Cake, she LOVES to do Patty Cake! She squeals with delight when we start to do it, and if we're only saying the words and not doing the motions, she pulls on our hands so we'll do it with her!
• She has a ticklish spot on either side of her chest, and when we tickle her there, I cannot contain my own laughter, on account of her so-adorable face and her scream laugh!
• She cracks herself up! She'll be sitting and playing, and just start giggling - it's so funny!
  
• She has begun flopping her head back, leaving her neck exposed, so we'll either tickle or zerbert that spot. When she started doing it, it reminded me that Emmerly used to do the exact same thing. I love it just as much now as I did then! Adorable!
  
• She LOVES her sister! If she hears Emmerly, but does not see her, she will look in every direction, searching her out. And she still responds every time Emmerly starts to sing to her, either quieting down from crying, or just smiling her big smile. I love it!
  
• She's a snuggler. We absolutely adore this. Few things are better than that little head snuggling into the crook of my neck when she's not even sleeping - just to give a little love!
• She likes to move it move it! Any time she hears music, she either starts bopping her head or her whole body - she definitely got the rhythm gene!
  

PS - Just now when I was nursing her, she looked up at me, signed "milk" and then clapped her hands with a huge smile - I think her message was clear - Woo hoo! Dinner!

Happy 9 Months Nola!

A few days ago, Nola celebrated her nine month mark with a big plate of rice - FUN STUFF!! I know it doesn't sound like much - she should be eating much more by now, right?? Well, she chokes very easily, so rice was a big step for us!! We can't believe she is already nine months old! Just a few more months before the big ONE!! WOW!!! How time flies when you've got two adorable kids and are having just too much fun!!

Pumpkins, Poodle Skirts and Pom Poms

Well, I'm finally getting around to posting our Halloween pics.....sorry! We were in Las Vegas with the Melvin-Richards-Wiseman clan and I just didn't get it together before we left. We had a great Halloween this year, having two little trick-or-treaters, and Halloween definitely took on epic proportions in our house.....no really! It literally lasted the whole week! From Sunday to Friday of Halloween week, we had six Halloween events! Yes, six! We had a marionnette show, a class party, a friend's housewarming slash Halloween party, a birthday slash Halloween party, and we went trick-or-treating at a "place for lots of grandmas and grandpas" and finally, not too Halloween'ed out, on Halloween night itself, with a bunch of kids from Em's school. All of it quite fun, but it made for a long, sugar-filled week! Here are some pics of our fifties girl and our little pumpkin/cheerleader....I had a warm and a cold outfit for Nola, and she was able to wear both with all our events!!


The Daigle Girls' Party

Em's very excited about her goodie bag!
Halloween Marionnette Show - it is really very cute - all the kids wear their PJs and bring blankets and pillows to sit on while they watch they show, and they get hot chocolate and cinammon toast - as evidenced by Em's chocolate goatee! Em is with her friend Lillian, enjoying the show.

At school, all the kids dress up and get to walk up the ramp and show off their costumes. Then they have a parade outside around the playground. So adorable! I was working that day, so I got to dress up too! And Nola got to join us for some Kodak moments.

We went to the assisted living facility, or "the place with lots of grandmas and grandpas" with Patti and Ralph and Grace. Penguin Grace and Pumpkin Nola were not quite sure what to make of each other!
Finally Halloween! Trick or Treat!