life's a beach!!!

a little tired after a day (or hour) at the beach...

lunch time!!! (at least for one)

my "two babies"

after a big dog (maybe a great dane) took nora out.  

chubber boy!!  what a sweet thing... on his "changing table" attached to the pack-n-play. 

so we went to the beach this morning (auntie sony... note the shoes nora is wearing... thanks for the gift!!!).  it makes everyone happy to get out, have some sun (or may gray...  cloud cover that lasts most of the day on the coast) and exercise (especially the dog...).  

we had a rough night on thursday night.  james was up every two hours, and he and i ended up on the couch.  nora was also sick, so she was up a few times.  but yesterday, everything changed!  james got used to his casts and nora got over her fever.  james even figured out how to wiggle out of his shoes at night... wow!

nora just figured out how to open the fridge.  she walked up to david with the pitcher (thankfully plastic) in her arms, saying "more oj".  wow!

REALLY expensive shoes...

james got his casts off!!!  and i have two miserable babies.  one doesn't like his new braces... finally fell asleep and is now whimpering in his bed, in his sleep.  it's so sad!!!

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the other has a fever of 102.8 and got to watch a full length disney film in its entirety today!  we watched nemo and snuggled!
 

here's james after getting his casts off.  man, did his legs stink!  i washed them well when we got home....

but he doesn't really like his legs or feet touched right now...  

sweet little buddy this morning!!!  what a happy guy!!!

nora got up super early this morning, while i was out running, so she got to play and read with daddy while he got ready for work!  

this is from the other night...  they got to snuggle and read!

sweet baby james....

nora likes to have james snuggled in her crib!  

reading the other morning...  so cute

nora, seconds before falling off the bike and hitting her head!!  thankfully she's fine!  note the red lips... first popsicle!

our very cute friends... spencer and nolan.  they love to play with nora!! 

and hold james!!!

nora also loves to hold her brother...!!!!

so, i love shoes.  lots of them (although all i wear at the moment are reef sandals- and i only vary color...).  i have one, very special pair of manolos.  but even those, i didn't pay for.  i love to find deals on shoes.  i love the nordy rack shoe section...  i hate paying full price!  i even struggled this morning with an $8.99 pair of shoes i bought for nora at target (although they were SO cute!!).

james got his casts off today.  he is now in the brace.  it's shoes attached to a bar (which happens to be an awesome purple...  not sure why purple??).  insurance pays for the bar, but not the shoes.  they will only pay for the shoes if the patient is diabetic.  who's ever heard of a 7 week old diabetic???  and why only then??  anyway, the shoes are $95 a pop...  and let's be honest... kids grow out of shoes FAST!  so, he gets new $95 shoes every time he grows!  

lots of pics... but that's what i get for not posting in a few days...

nora.... the other day, we were on ichat with my mom.  my mom asked her to read a story.  nora looked at my mom and said "please?"... as in "you have to say please when you ask me to do something".  as soon as my mom said please, nora got a book and read it.  today, we were in the car, and i turned on nora's music.  she hadn't asked for it, but turned to me and said "thank you".  i think she gets it!!!  what a sweet angel girl!!!

so, this is a REALLY long video...  like six minutes.  but, it's for me, mostly... so i can remember how cute she was at this age, and how much she talked!  

we pray at every meal.  nora is good at folding her hands and bowing her head, usually before i even ask!  if i happen to have my hands folded at the table, regardless of whether we have prayed or not, or where we are in the meal, nora will say "pray" and get ready to pray again.  when we are done praying, she usually asks to pray for someone specific...  depending on who comes to mind.  we prayed a lot for byssa during basketball season, so she is the most popular.  we have also been praying for pop-pop to get a job, so he also ranks high.  auntie sarah and the elephants is a new favorite!  

today, we prayed and started eating.  nora looked at me and said "pray pop-pop new job", then bowed her head and said "dear Jesus"!!  bless her sweet little heart!!!

nora was calling james "buddy boy" this morning.  it was so cute!!  she just kept saying it and kissing him.  she absolutely adores her brother.  it is so fun to watch.  she just wants to kiss and hold him all the time.  (when she's not reading, that is!!) 

speaking of reading, she has been going into her room all morning to get books.  she brings them out to her chair to read.  then, she looks at me and says "shelf?", like she's telling me she is going to put them away on her shelf!  she just walked out and said "two books.."  man, she is definitely our kid!

my sweet husband came home from work yesterday and told me we were going on a date.  he had babysitting arranged (our first time leaving james!!!) and movie tickets bought.  we had a FABULOUS time, and no problems leaving the little ones with my AWESOME friend who took both kids along with her own boy (thanks chels!!!).  

mother's day...

a fabulous mother's day... we spent the afternoon at the beach.  and my sweet boy even slept for some of it!!  

nora loves to walk around in daddy's hat!!!

 

and snuggle with her daddy!

nursing with our friends...  

nora got to snuggle with baby caleb...

the dads and their boys!!!

nora loves to play with my shoes while i change james.  she found one of my heels, and walked around the house for quite a bit in just the one shoe... it was quite hilarious!  

baby james was wide awake while daddy took a little nap...  

pretty dress...

sweet little boy!!!   

nora loves to hold her baby james!!!

nora just looks so big in these pictures!!  she got to sit and watch "bean shows" (thank you, sesame street, for having videos on your website!!!)  

today, she saw this dress (as i was cleaning up), and she wanted to wear "pretty, new dress".  so, who says you can't wear a duponi dress on a friday afternoon, just for fun??  so,w e did!!!

yesterday was the last Bible study of the year.  i spent quite a bit of time getting dressed... cause i'm still in the nothing fits quite right stage.  so, i ended up wearing a cute new dress i got from target.  it's linen, i think, and long, but casual... you know the style!  so, i walk into nora's room to get her up and she says "pretty dress, mommy".  sweet angel!!  she made my day!!!  

morning routine..

nora's trick... putting something up to her face, or her head through her crib slats or around a corner and saying "i see...."  (as in "i see you... )
mostly, i was trying to get a shot of her in this outfit, because it is the EXACT SAME ONE she was wearing a year ago... (i mean, same size, same EXACT one!!!)

look at what a difference a year makes!!

i made her put all of her books back on her bookshelf yesterday..  it took about a half hour, some bribery and threats, but they all got (precariously) placed on the bookshelf.  if we breathed too hard, some might fall!!!  (and did later on...)  but they got put there.

nora and i were eating spinach and cheese ravioli for lunch yesterday.  several times, she had spinach stuck to her teeth (like her mom-mom, nanny carolyn and mom like to do...), however, i couldn't get a good pic.  i even tried doing it and showing it to her (she found it quite hilarious), but it didn't work...  
the few weeks, james has been waking up consistently once a night (i think he was up twice one night this week...) between 4 and 5:30 am.  when he's up at 5:30, it works out well for me.  i am awake before my alarm goes off and 6, therefore much more inclined to actually get up and not just turn it off and roll over.  my goal is to get up at 6 am on the mornings that we haven't planned to walk with friends.  then, i can take sadie for a run/walk and be showered/quiet time/blogged by the time the kids get up.  the mornings i know i will get a workout in later, i will sleep in.  so, this morning was a 5:30 wake up!  (plus, i feel pretty rested after 7 1/2 hours of sleep!!)  

all that to say, we hailes like to sleep!!!

exercise...

i absolutely love the way nora says exercise.. it's so cute!!!  and i think i've only said the word once!

she got a postcard from auntie sarah that she loves!!  it's so cute...  she is associating things with people right now.  she got a bunch of stuff in an Easter basket from my mom.  she got some Easter books and an Easter movie.  we watched the Easter (Jesus) movie with kayden and jace when we baby-sat them.  today, she brought me the book and said... "Jesus book... Jesus movie... kayden and jace".  mind you, we didn't read the book and talk about the movie, or vice versa.  the pictures were similar.  

or, we have a "good-night, seattle" book that we bought in seattle.  there are places in the book that we went with mom-mom and pop-pop.  so, she gets the book and says "pop-pop book".  and on every page, we talk about pop-pop!  so cute...