Flu Bug

I always start out the new year thinking, "This is the year where I'm going to get at least one picture every day."

Nope, not happening this year.

We started out the year getting a flu bug instead. Rich started coming down with it on Thursday and was pretty much knocked off his feet until Tuesday night. I started feeling it Saturday night and got hit hard on Sunday. Luckily, Norah never showed any symptoms (maybe because she got the flu shot and we didn't).

Norah was a champ for us through our misery, especially on Sunday. Rich and I were basically on the couch all day. She ran around and tore out all her toys, but she was as happy as could be! Rich's parents took her Sunday night through Monday afternoon to help us out a little, and that's the first time I've spent a night away from her. I always thought our first night away from Norah would be for some fun romantic weekend together, not because we were too sick to care for her. Oh well. Thank goodness for grandparents that come to the rescue.

But, anyway, things are basically back to normal here. Still a little coughing, but no big deal anymore.

So, that being said, I have very few pictures to show for the week. Which is probably a good thing considering how many I've been posting lately.

 Bath time eyelashes are the best.

I was supposed to give the Young Women lesson on Sunday, and I even made a handout for it! Thanks to Kristin for covering for me. The quote I used on the handout is one of my favorites. If you haven't read Believing Christ by Stephen E. Robinson, I highly recommend it! This talk tells a little more about the parable I used, if you're not familiar with it. I actually had Brother Robinson for a couple religion classes at BYU (although he was nothing like I expected from reading his book).

I went to my friend Aubrey's baby shower on Tuesday night. She was induced on Thursday and now is a mother to a second beautiful, and tiny, little girl.

 And this is what Norah and Daddy do while I'm away. I got home from the shower and Rich told me about how entertained she was with this diaper box. Okay... This picture is actually from the next night, when Daddy was alone with her again. Does this make anyone else think of ET?

 She really has a hard time keeping her eyes open for the flash.

She seriously loves this box. New favorite toy (and it's already starting to fall apart).

It usually takes a lot of practice for Norah to learn a word. Some words, though, she picks up right away. Yesterday, I turned on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for the first time, and she started chanting "Mickey." Like really well. I don't remember even telling her who Mickey is. There's just something about that mouse, I guess. (Another word she picked up right away was purple. That was her favorite color for a while. And by favorite I mean the only one she knew.)

I was making some lunch for us yesterday, and Norah really wanted to help. She found kept trying to grab my spoon and stir the food on the stove. Brilliant mom moment here - I gave her a bowl and her own spoon and let her go to town. I love it when my clever little ideas actually work. She fell for it again today.

Daddy pushed her around in her little stroller for a while, and then she stopped off for a drive-through snack. (For some reason, she loves using the footrest of her high chair as a food tray.)

Now that we're almost better, I'm looking forward to a better rest of the new year. This also means I'm running out of excuses to work on my New Year's resolutions. (That's the attitude, right?)

5 Years and a New Year

Our fun Christmas break didn't end with Christmas! On the day after Christmas, the Kidd family made the trip up to Spokane, so we got to spend some fun time with them (and the Wings, too).

There were lots of games at Grandma and Poppa's house, more lunches at Eat Fresh, and the traditional trip to the family favorite Fiesta Grande in Spokane Valley. Perhaps one of the best moments was when we introduced 14-year-old Alison to one of the best movies ever, "You've Got Mail." It actually turned into a bit of a history lesson. ("You hear that sound? It's called dial-up. That's what you used to have to do to get on the Internet.")

And in the middle of all this fun, Rich and I celebrated 5 years together. We've never done much for our anniversary since it's not exactly the most convenient time of year. This year was pretty low key, too. But it was really fun to think back over the years. I feel like I was especially reminiscent this year ("At this exact time 5 years ago...") Here's to 5 years and so many more to come!

I'll try to let the pictures do the talking for the rest of this post.

Norah and cousin Hailey

Rich tried to make a big deal about how he wasn't going to get my flowers this year because we wouldn't be home to enjoy them. And I was completely fine with that (and I really am being 100% honest). But, of course, he tricked me.

Fiesta Grande night

Just a little goofiness...

Since Cami and Ethan's anniversary is only two days after ours, we decided to do a double date anniversary dinner. We went to Red Robin (very anniversary-y, I know). The food was delicious, and the company was even better! (Not the best picture, but it was the only one we got.)

 When there's family in town, that usually means we're at our house basically only to sleep. We put Norah down to bed at Grandma's house, get her up to drive home (where she falls asleep in the car), and then get her up one more time to get her in from the car. She was a champ through all of it, basically going right back to sleep once we got home.

Norah and Kelsey usually got along pretty well, but it was pretty funny when they started fighting.

Games at the church. I wasn't exactly dressed for the ocassion, so I ended up with some pretty good blisters from my boots. Also, I know you're jealous of my basketball form.

 Talk about adorable!

New Year's Eve brought us bowling, a science fair project, and a rousing game of Telestrations.

Norah was way too interested in Rich's phone to take a picture. 

I think one of the main reasons Rich liked having Ethan up here was that he finally had someone to play video games with. (Ethan was definitely a fan, too.) 

Hailey had a science fair project to complete, so we all got to play the guinea pigs in her soda taste test panel.

Here is one of my favorite Telestration moments. Things get interesting when one of your players is only 7 years old.

Whitley's word... She told us later that it says light.

So, of course this was her dad's interpretation of her word.

Well, at least we got "light" right.

Okay, here's another one, too:

 Please don't make fun of my terrible art skills, but I really think I did a great interpretation of "The Office."

Nope, my art skills really are that bad. 

 This might have been my favorite written interpretation. "Church on stake conference Sunday." Yep, I can see that, too, Alison.

And my favorite Whitley interpretation of the night.

"I didn't know what the paper said, so I just drew mac and cheese!"

It was a great New Year's Eve, although staying up until midnight is hard these days. My toddler wears me out way too much! Unfortunately, both the Kidds and the Wings had to head home on New Year's Day and Rich had to work at 6 in the morning, so once New Year's Eve was over, the fun was pretty much done.

Do any more family members want to come to town again, and soon? We miss all of the excitement!