All about the kids

Blake- turned 7 years old this year. He is quite the type A personality and has a hard time when things don't go exactly the way he thinks they should. He can be quite hard on himself with homework and getting in trouble at home. His teacher even wrote on his report card that he needs to give himself a break. But at school he is excelling and doing wonderfully. He won a special award at school which we were so proud of. His reading is exceptional and his math is getting better. He loves Lexie and Brady to pieces but struggles with Kalli. They are direct opposites of each other and I think she lives to drive him crazy. Blake is incredibly helpful around the house and helps me a ton with Brady. Next year Blake will get baptized and he talks about it constantly.

Kalli- turned 5 years old this year and really should be in kindergarten (dang late birthday). She is enrolled in our districts free preschool which we love! She is doing so well in school and comes home and just wants to write letters and notes to people all day. Kalli is a friend to all and makes friends pretty easily. Kalli is also very scatterbrained and spacey at times. Often I will find her wearing two pairs of underwear because she didn't take off her old pair to put her new pair on. Dinner is an absolute nightmare with Kalli. Most nights she screams and wails about what I made for an hour and then will buckle down and eat it and discover that she actually does like it. For the most part Kalli is our very sweet and gentle daughter.

Lexie- turned 2 this year. This girl has more personality than any child I have ever met. She makes me laugh throughout the day and I really do consider her my buddy. She loves being home without the big kids 4 days a week for 3 hours. She loves baby dolls and doing to them what I do for Brady. She has Joe and I wrapped around her fingers and we will often let her have what she wants because she gives us a face we can't resist. Lexie is always singing a song around the house and always ends it with "thank you very much". Often I am expected to clap for her. I keep a notebook of the funny things my kids say, and the majority is from Lexie.

Brady- was born in October. He is the sweetest most calm baby. He loves riding in the car and will fall asleep instantly, which is nice since we're in the car a lot. Brady seems to smile at his mom the most but I'm around the most. He moved into the boys' room this month and is doing really well, only waking once in the middle of the night. It helps too that Blake never seems to hear him cry. Brady rarely cries, mostly because we're on a good schedule and he doesn't need to cry to be fed or put to bed. Brady also loves to cuddle and sometimes it kills me that I can't drop everything just to love on him. He is the perfect last baby for our family.

Welcome Norby #4

Brady Scott was born on October 10, 2013 two weeks early. He weighed in at 7 lbs 10 oz and 20 inches long. He came fast and furious but we are so happy everything worked out in the end. Wednesday evening Joe and I were watching tv when I felt a gush. Figuring my water broke I ran to the bathroom only to discover that I was gushing bright red blood. I immediately called our friend to come be with the kids (who were already asleep) and called the on call dr. Then within 10 minutes Joe and I were heading out the door to meet my dr at the hospital. Within 3 hours Brady was delivered by emergency c-section. We found that I had placenta abruption and Brady's cord was wrapped around his body pretzel style so the doctor and nurses needed to move fast to make sure that both Brady and I would be ok. It wasn't the most ideal delivery and I really didn't want a c-section on my last baby, but I am incredibly grateful for a doctor that did what he had to do to save me and the baby.
We are adjusting ok to having 4 kids, it just seems even more chaotic around here than normal. He is a calm and sweet baby. The kids all adore him and fight over who gets to hold him.

Durango Get Away

It seems that a good amount of people in Albuquerque escape to Durango, CO a lot during the summer months. We had heard great things about this place for the past couple years so this year we decided to venture up there with the kids and see what it was all about. Joe had traveled quite a bit this last year so we used his hotel points to stay free for a couple of nights. Joe has been so busy at work he was only able to take a day and half off, but we were just happy to get to spend any amount of time with him. 

 Friday morning we took a walk by the river. It was so beautiful and fun to people watch and river watch. The kids had a pretty good time but got tuckered out. We luckily found a fun little park by the river that we played on a couple times.

 No matter where we go, the hotel must have a pool. This is a requirement from the kids. Although it was a bit chilly and seemed to start raining every time we ventured to the pool, we persevered and got some pool time in. While we were swimming for the third time one day, Blake decided to pull his floaties off and go for it. Joe and I were amazed when he swam across the entire pool unassisted. He proceeded to jump in and swim for another hour or so before we had to get ready for dinner.

 Friday night we went to the Bar D Chuckwagon cowboy dinner. They had a little village tucked into the mountain that was a lot of fun. The kids got to ride a train (and Blake got to ring the bell the whole time). They also had a little playground for the kids. The food was good, the entertainment was fun and it was a lot of fun just to be together as a family in the mountains. Dinner wasn't served until 7:30, we didn't get ours until 8 and the show started at 8:30. Lexie promptly fell asleep just as the show started and slept through the whole thing. Blake got a kick out of some of the funnier songs. We were glad we made time to go to this fun little show.

Saturday we spent on Durango Mountain. The kids and Joe went on the alpine slides, Blake and Kalli were zipped into some hamster balls and ran on water and they both got to do a trampoline trapeze thing. Pretty much all Lexie and I could do was sit and watch. She was too young to even go on the gondola up the mountain and they weren't too keen on letting a 7 month pregnant woman go down the alpine slides.

We're glad we got to discover a little bit of this fun little mountain town. We look forward to going back when our kids are older and we could do more on the river.

What I'm loving...

The girls in my ward do a favorite things party twice a year in which we bring an item we love that is $5 or less, we buy 4 and draw names so everybody goes home with 4 new items. It's a blast and a fun way to try out new things. At this last party a friend brought this pineapple corer and slicer. Unfortunately I did not win it, but I was intrigued. I am a huge pineapple lover but tend to get lazy when it's time to cut them up. While I was perusing Target one day I came across the pineapple corer and decided to get it. Life changing people! I love this little gadget probably more than I should. It's super simple to work, creates a great outcome and makes my love of eating pineapple even easier. It also helps that at our Costco a pineapple is 1.99 and incredibly tasty.
The first time I used this the kids were incredibly impressed and ate their fair share of the pineapple. Before this instance, they never wanted to try one. So now I am buying a pineapple a week and we are all loving it!
So if you love pineapple, hate cutting pineapple or have a penchant for buying new kitchen gadgets, go look for this one. I bought mine at Target for 9.99 and bought one for my mother in law for her birthday off of Amazon, so they are pretty easy to find. You could even go more high class and get the stainless steal one (I hear the edges are cut cleaner, as if I care about that!).

End of first grade

Blake got out of school a couple weeks ago and we're trying to fill our days with fun things to keep summer fun. I love this little tradition I started last year and being able to see how much a year changes a kid. I get to start Kalli's favorites list this next year as she starts pre-school. 

Last year's favorites:

Only race of 2013

 On Saturday I ran my only race of 2013. I had originally signed up for the 10k but per doctors orders, I decreased to the 5k. I have trained since I found out I was pregnant and felt good the first couple weeks, then my endurance took a huge nose dive, so in a way I was pretty happy the doctor asked me to decrease my distance. Even though the 5k isn't much, I am very proud of this accomplishment. Doing it pregnant was much harder than I would have thought. My only goal for the race was not to stop running, which I can proudly say I didn't. My pace was pretty slow, but I ran the whole thing. In my running career, running a race pregnant is a major accomplishment. I can't wait to get my energy and endurance back after the baby is born and run my first 10k next year and hopefully a half next summer!
By the way, there were two other pregnant women running that day. One did a 10k and killed it! And another did a half marathon. I was completely impressed!

Lexie turns 2!

Lexie celebrated her 2nd birthday last week. I tried to fit as much stuff that Lexie loves into the day. Luckily it was a short day for Blake so she got to spend a ton of time with the family. These pictures are out of order, but oh well. 

We started the day out with her opening presents. She had quite a bit and by the end she kept asking us to open them for her. She got quite a few baby dolls and she was in heaven!

After nap time we went to the park for a while and then off to chick fil a to have dinner and play. We got lucky that Darren and Amy and their brood were able to join us. It was really fun! We then came home and had cake (it turned out ugly but boy was it good!). Although Lexie didn't even touch the cake, she's not a baked goods fan. 

It was so fun to do all things Lexie. We sure love this little girl and are so happy she is part of our family. 

Lexie and her loot.

Unfortunately Lexie caught a virus on Saturday and didn't stop throwing up until Tuesday. Luckily we think she is finally on the tail end of it, but it was quite nerve-wracking and scary (with an almost trip to the er for dehydration).

And Still, A Handsome Man

Blake - 2006

Blake - 2013

6 years later he is still our handsome little man!

(and 6 years apparently makes a big difference in how my parent's kitchen looks)

To grandma's (and grandpa's) house we go...

Blake had 3 days off from school last week for parent teacher conferences and president's day so we had planned a fun weekend trip to Utah to visit grandma and grandpa Norby. We hadn't been up to Utah since June and that was the last time our kids took a road trip too. We tried to fit in as much fun stuff as we could in 4 days. 

 We caught a Grizzlies hockey game. Can't beat $10 a ticket for Blake to be in hockey heaven. It was a really fun game, ending in a shoot out. Fun was had by all (except maybe Kalli. She looked incredibly bored the whole time but she insists she had fun).

 A trip to grandma's always includes dessert. This time I picked my favorite, strawberry crepes. I won't admit to how many I ate while visiting.

 Visiting also means eating things for breakfast that mom usually wouldn't allow (like sweetened strawberries and whipped cream on pancakes).

 Blake played in the snow quite often. He loved this little snow thrower. His favorite was going out with Maestro and playing in the snow. He also loved having Maestro sleep with him each night.

Lots of dress up time. Kalli was in love with all the new outfits to try on.

We ate at a couple places that I had been wanting to eat at. Kneaders is every bit as good as people say. I am still dreaming of my tomato soup from there and wish I would have made time to get soup from there one more time before we left. And a trip to Utah is never complete without a stop at In'N'Out. Joe and I also got to do a session at the Jordan River temple which was fun.

First tooth...gone!

Right before New Years Blake lost his first tooth. He had been wriggling it for about a week and Joe and I couldn't take it anymore. Blake had been reading Ready Freddy Tooth Troubles and got the idea from the book to tie a string around his tooth and attach it to a doorknob. I thought that was pretty brave, especially on a first tooth. Although there were tears I'm pretty sure they were more because of the fear of the unknown, not that it hurt too much.