Happy 4th

Today was a strange day. It's weird to have a Wednesday off, right smack in the middle of the work week. All day, we were confused as to what day it actually was. It felt like a Saturday. It felt like a Sunday.

It was just weird.

We didn't actually do much to celebrate the 4th of July today--just took advantage of the day off by running a few extra errands, spending time with our girl, and being productive around the house during her nap. We did go to my in-laws' for dinner--hamburgers, hot dogs, beans, mac and cheese, and corn on the cob--so that was decidedly a very "American" dinner. :)

Because the holiday fell during the week, some of the surrounding towns scheduled their official celebrations--parades and fireworks--for last weekend. On Saturday morning, my brother was marching with the fire department in one of the parades, so we met my mom (who had Hunter) and my grandma there to watch it.

The parade started pretty early in the day (10 a.m.), but it was definitely warm out, even then. And the parade was no joke--it lasted an hour and a half!

The kids were so, so good. Hunter actually stayed in his stroller THE ENTIRE TIME, which was amazing considering he is 3 years old and tends to be a bit wild (he is a boy, after all). Nora was good in her stroller for about an hour but then she wanted nothing more to do with it so we let her out.

There's Ty! He's the one right there in front, with his hand outstretched toward us.

Nora's first temp tattoo! :) We were given SO.MUCH.CANDY at the parade--all of which we confiscated from Nora before she even had a chance to really see it--so it was refreshing when a local swim club came by with the tats instead! Nora is obsessed with stickers so I figured she would love this, and I was right. She proudly showed it off on her arm for the rest of the weekend (I removed it with rubbing alcohol on Sunday night without issue).

Michael smartly thought to bring chalk in case we had to occupy little ones and keep them in one place for a little bit. It was perfect!

Nora still took in plenty of the parade.

And did some marching of her own.

So cute! And so fun.

It was nice timing, because we were still able to get Nora home in time for her nap--which she REALLY needed, poor kid was worn out after so much activity in the morning!

Sadly, we went another year without any fireworks. It's just too hard for us with a child as young as Nora. The fireworks around here don't start until 9:30 or 10:00 p.m. and it's just WAY too far past Nora's bedtime. Do any of you brave fireworks with small children? I just can't see it working out well. And to get a babysitter (one of the grandmas!) would be possible, but we would feel too badly because they'd have to deal with Tessa, who barks and trembles like crazy the entire time (she hates fireworks!).

I hope you all had a happy 4th of July. Don't forget to send thoughts--or a little prayer--up for my brother and all of the other men and women currently serving our country so that we (and others) can continue enjoying the freedom that we do.

And just for fun, check out my little Nora, one year ago today. How is this possible?

Now, back to work tomorrow. Whaaa? :)

Read more...

Sayonara Poconos/Memorial Day

We woke up on Monday morning, had some breakfast, packed up the car, and hit the road by 9:30 a.m. We were ready to get home and have a few hours remaining of our holiday (Memorial Day) to get settled and unwind before jumping back into work and our normal routine on Tuesday.

But before we left, of course we had to take our annual group photo:

After a really-not-so-bad drive, we arrived home around 1:30 p.m., unpacked everything, and decided to have an early dinner. Of course, we didn't have anything in the house and didn't feel like going grocery shopping, so we treated ourselves to burgers at a local chain restaurant.

We were all hungry! I couldn't say I've ever had dinner out at a restaurant with General Hospital on in the background before... but now I can. :)

It was a nice day out--but HOT at 93 degrees--so once we were home, we spent some time letting Nora expend some energy in the backyard.

This is Nora, in the middle of telling me "NO!" (I don't even remember what it was about. Toddlerhood: 'Tis fun.)

Good thing she's so gosh darn sweet the rest of the time! :)

A lovely Memorial Day and long weekend, indeed.

Of course, the reason for the day off did not go unrecognized by me. Thank you to all of the men and women who have given their lives for this country. And thanks to all of their family members, who made the ultimate sacrifice and continue to live without the ones they love.

And to all of the men and women currently serving--including my very own brother--please, come home safely. <3

Read more...

Mama's Day

I may still be waiting for that magical word--"Mama," of course--to cross Nora's lips, but there are a million and one other reasons to love being her mother.

I had a fantastic Mother's Day. It started with waking up to another beautiful day, grabbing my smiling girl from her crib, and bounding barefoot down the stairs to make a homemade breakfast in the kitchen. The kitchen that is looking REALLY awesome these days.

That's right--the cabinet doors are back on, folks. If you follow Heather Drive on Facebook, you got a sneak peek cell phone pic this weekend. If you don't follow on Facebook (why not? you totally should!), you'll get to see a few bits of it in these adorable pics of Miss Nora "helping" me make our strawberry pancakes this morning. Little one likes to be all up in the action in the kitchen.

(Hello, glistening white cabinets. But ANYWAY... back to Mother's Day.) Check Nora out withher measuring cups and her little bear. Gotta love it.


My beautiful girl. A single tear hanging out on her cheek--I don't even remember what she was losing her cool over, but I think it might've involved the delay in breakfast being served. Girlfriend doesn't like waiting for her food in the morning. Go figure.

So serious. I can assure you that I successfully turned that frown upside down once I set a plate full of strawberry pancakes (recipe coming this week!) and fresh strawberries in front of her. She was just as excited about plate #2. And then plate #3. She sure does love homemade pancakes.

After breakfast, Nora went over to the sliding glass door and "asked" (without using words) to go outside, so she and I went on an adventure in the backyard while Michael tackled the dishes (good guy).


The remainder of the morning was pretty normal, a few errands out and about before coming home to put Nora down for a nap.


While she was sleeping, I went to Joann Fabrics with my mom to pick out fabric for the shade I'm going to make for the kitchen window, and once I was home and Nora was up, we went to my in-laws' for a little while before we ended up at my mom's with my family for some delicious takeout Chinese food, which we ate out on her deck in the gorgeous weather.

Fun, fun, fun. Seriously a great day.

Then, I did bathtime, which ended the best way bathtime possibly can end:


Yeah, pretty much the greatest thing ever.

And then I realized that aside from the sunglasses photo, we hadn't gotten any nice "posed" pics in honor of Mother's Day, so we did them with Nora in her jammies at bedtime.


Precious girl. I feel so blessed to be her mommy.

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there. I hope you enjoyed your day as much as I did.

Read more...

An Early (Now Belated) Easter

As I mentioned last week, I was actually out of town for work on Easter--so I didn't get to spend the day with my little family. :(

Instead, we celebrated the week before (on April 1), which worked out for a variety of reasons. For one, my brother was home for a short leave from his deployment. Since he left in January, he's remained in the States for additional training, so they gave him the opportunity to go home for about a week prior to leaving for Afghanistan. It was nice to have the chance to see him--and celebrate a holiday, even if it wasn't the official day--before he left for the middle east.

Secondly, my dad was in town. This was to coincide with my brother's visit, but he stayed with us, so it was great to get to spend several days with him, too. And we almost never get to see him for holidays anymore, so to get to celebrate Easter with him was fun, too.

Obviously, since I was going to be traveling anyway, this all just seemed meant to be. And that is how Easter 2012 came to be celebrated on April 1.

Anyway, my life has been decidedly unbalanced lately--too much work, not enough living--so I am just now getting around to posting some photos!

We woke up to a crabby Nora (someone woke up on the wrong side of the crib that morning), but we were still able to convince her to check out her Easter basket before breakfast. Balloons are like the best.thing.ever. right now, so it's no surprise that she ran right over to get her hands on that.

The Easter Bunny went simple and low-key (and sugar-free)... just three Fisher-Price ZooTalkers animals to add to her zoo, and the balloon, which was sure to provide hours of joy.

She even ate breakfast with the string clutched inside her tiny little hand. Love.

After breakfast, I needed to start baking the cake to take to my mom's for our Easter dinner, and Nora was completely fascinated by what I was doing. It's a harder to bake with one hand, by the way.

Nora watched some "Up," and then we put her down for a nap a little earlier than normal because she was so crabby and clearly tired. After a long afternoon snooze, we got her up and ready for dinner.

Like Christmas, I see Easter as a perfect excuse to dress my baby in a ridiculously cute dress. We took advantage.

Getting photos of her in said dress was quite the challenge, but whatever.

Once at my mom's, the kids had an egg hunt and played, we all chatted, dyed eggs, and finished preparing dinner.

My mom got the kids a few little Easter gifts. For Nora, they were a couple of books, more ZooTalkers animals, and an Elmo phone!

Not a bad little holiday!

Read more...

The Bunny

We were planning on getting Nora all dressed up in her Easter best, and making a special trip to the mall--just to see the Easter Bunny.

And then we realized, WHAT THE HELL ARE WE THINKING?

We knew there was about a 0.001% chance that Nora would actually sit with the bunny long enough to take a photo, and figured it most certainly was not worth putting in that much effort. So, we instead lumped in a quick stop at the bunny with dinner out with my family on Friday night. The bunny was right next door at the mall. Nora wore what she had been wearing all day.

And it went just about as well as we expected. Which was not well at all.

Despite attempts to thwart the crying with a lovey (the lovey of choice varies by day--in this case, it was her stuffed giraffe), and then trying to distract with a new little ducky toy that they were giving to the kids... Nora was not a happy camper. And I didn't want to torture the poor kid, so I only left her on his (her?) lap for about five seconds.

Done. D-O-N-E.

We figured that almost-3-years-old Hunter would be better suited for this. Nora is shy all around, while Hunter is more outgoing and comfortable with strangers. But even Hunter kept saying "No!" every time we tried to get him close to the bunny. He was fine waving to the bunny, saying "Hi Bunny!" and everything from afar, but he didn't want anything to do with approaching him and sitting on his lap.

We thought that maybe if we took the two of them up together, they would feel more at ease knowing they had each other.

Nope. No dice. This was the best we did.

Oh well. Maybe someday, Nora will be all about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Or, maybe she won't. I think we'll probably at least give her the opportunity to visit each year, but it's not a big deal. Honestly, I don't blame the kids one bit, because it's admittedly strange to walk up and sit on a giant bunny's lap.

At least we got a cute picture for Nora's first Easter, before she was old enough to know how creepy that Bunny really is! :)

How did everyone else's kids do with the Easter Bunny this year? Do you remember visiting with the Easter Bunny when you were a kid? Did you like him, or were you terrified?

Read more...

Christmas Day: The Finish Line

After Christmas morning breakfast and gifts, we left my mom's house a little before noon, if memory serves me right. We made a brief stop at home to drop off the gifts we had just received (we needed the room!) and began to the drive to spend Christmas with my in-laws at my sister-in-law's house. Nora napped for a good part of the ride, the weather was great, and we made good time (the roads were empty!). It was time for more family fun!

It was actually quite relaxing. The cousins played together and watched movies (even though they couldn't agree on what to watch), and us adults were able to talk and catch up, which doesn't always happen during our normal, whirlwind visits.

We received more gifts--the majority of which were for Nora--and were very grateful again for everyone's generosity. As always, we had a lot of fun GIVING gifts this year, too, and they seemed to be well-received by everyone, so that's always a good feeling. :)

Tessa traveled with us (here she is, sporting her new collar that Santa brought for her), so we truly had our whole little family with us.

Melissa and Andy made us a wonderful Christmas dinner--lasagna rolls. Everything was delicious; in fact, Nora ate an entire lasagna roll by herself, so clearly something had been done right!

After dinner, we tried to get some nice photos of the three cousins together, just like we had done with Nora and Hunter in the morning. Unfortunately, we waited too long and Nora was too tired. This is the best we could do:

Oh well, at least we have photos for posterity. No one ever said all of the kids have to be smiling in them, right? :)

We spent the night at Melissa's and came home the following morning. It was a busy holiday for us, but one that we really enjoyed. We felt like we got to spend a lot of quality time with our families, and the kids all had a great time together.

I can't wait to see how Nora does with it all next year. It seems like it'll just keep getting better and better as she comes to understand it more.

Read more...