Over due

I am long over due for a post.  I tell you, I am bad at this blog thing.  I just totally forget about it or I get on here and I can't think of what to write.

I can tell you I am grateful for a house to live in.  I haven't lived in a house since 06' and while I was perfectly happy in apartments, it is just so nice to have our own home.  We have painted walls! That is a crazy thought.  It is nice to have some room to spread out and not always be thinking 'how soon will we out grow this place?'.  

Anyways, I think I need to post about Noelle.  She turned one this month and I feel like she is just a little kid now.  She has SO MUCH personality and spunk.  She has real likes and dislikes and I can no longer force her to do what I want her to.  I had a hard time with her birthday, I cried a lot inside.  Where is my little baby?!?  She is just going to keep growing up which is exciting but also very sad and scary.  Time never went by so fast until I wanted it to go by so slowly.

Noelle at 1:  She walks about 10 steps at a time but prefers crawling because it is faster.  She is obsessed with shoes.  She walks around the house trying to have my shoe on her foot.  She tries to put her own shoes on her feet all of the time and whines until I come over and put them on.  It is annoying and also really cute how much she loves shoes.  Noelle loves the outside.  We can not open our back door to take the trash out or anything while she is around because she will throw a fit that she can't go out.  Speaking of fits, Noelle throws some awesome tantrums.  She does what we call the "superman" where she just plops her body, face and all, onto the ground crying.  She is generally a VERY happy little girl, I have never seen a kid smile more.  She is SUPER social, saying "hi" to everyone she sees, even cars.  Noelle loves strawberries, yogurt, string cheese, and gold fish.  She will pick out all of the gold fish out of a snack mix.  Noelle transitioned from formula to milk like a pro, she doesn't mind it ice cold out of the fridge.  You can stop Noelle from crying at any moment by putting her on a couch or a chair, she thinks it is so fun!  Her giggles kill me, they are the cutest thing.  Sleeping is always a mystery.  While she could be much worse, she usually wakes up once at night but she sleeps all through the night once in a while.  She gets about one bottle a day and drinks out of sippy cups and eats solids the rest of the time. She claps when you say 'yay' and waves when you say 'hi' or 'bye'.  She also can say 'hi' in her super high pitched voice.  She often cries when daddy leaves for work.  Finally she is not exclusive in saying 'dadda' but also 'momma'.  She plays by herself for longer periods of time and takes regular naps.  She loves going to the day care at the gym and she loves getting babysat by her cousins. Noelle is a tiny tot weighing 17lbs 3 oz and 27 inches tall but she is cute and chunky that way.

All in all we are SO lucky to have such a sweet and happy "baby" girl.  We love her so much and we rejoice in all of her little accomplishments.  It is amazing to see her progressing.

Here is a video of Noelle's first Bday Cake!  It is long though lol.

Some pictures:

This one is so Noelle because she is constantly trying to make noises with her mouth and blowing bubbles and all that cute stuff.

Yumm cake!

Did I mention that Noelle loves to swing.  She screams when you take her out.  It is never long enough.

At the Hoover Dam.

Another video post..

I am getting lazy and feel like I do not have much to say BUT I have some videos to post.  I am sure


 parents will watch them all, but I am not sure about anyone else.

Some big news would be that Noelle took a couple steps on Saturday night but nothing since.  She seems to be pretty happy with crawling instead lol.  

Noelle Videos!

Here is a video of little Noelle walking with her walker.  She became cranky quickly though.  I always wait too long to get the camera.

This one is from the first day we say her doing this.

This is Noelle showing off her new skill of going down the stairs.  No one taught her this and I do not know when she learned it.  I just caught her half way up the stairs the other day and she came down to me, that is how I found out.

Now this video is a MUST SEE.  She is so giggly! I love that laugh.

In this clip Noelle is wearing the cutest outfit and just being cute!

Now a little update:  We love our house and love living in a house.  Devin is still working quite a bit and he had to start studying for the CPA exams so basically I get very little time with him BUT he is very good at trying his best to spend that time with Noelle and I wisely.  I haven't seen him watch TV or really do anything for himself in at least 3 months. 

Yesterday I babysat a couple of Noelle's cousins.  We had a blast going to some parks, eating ice cream, and watching movies.  I love being an aunt almost as much as I love being a mommy.  Noelle seriously loves having other kids around to play with.  If I could meet some people with kids to watch in my home I would do it.  Anyways, we walked every where and only had Noelle's stroller so Easton and Kate took turns sitting on the front part and we tried a bunch of other crazy things lol.

Noelle is SUCH a ham.

I love dressing her up on Sundays.  She is just so fun.

The bear crawl due to a long-ish dress.

Noelle says bye bye!

We're Home

We moved into our new home this month and it has been really exciting.  Buying a house for the first time was an interesting experience to say the least, especially in Vegas where it is not a buyers market.  Many homes we put offers on were being purchased in CASH so it was hard to get one accepted.  We ended up getting the house that is perfect for us.  It is 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, in a very nice gated community.  We have a 2 car garage and a small backyard and it just suits us right now.  We moved our stuff in and did some painting and the first night we slept in our new home was on my 25th Birthday.  "Happy Birthday, here is a house."  It was great.

We already had our first visitors and we had a blast on the strip and just hanging out at our house.  We love having people visit us.

At the Shark Reef with John and Kate

Noelle at 10 months:  I love my owl stuffed animal and I like to look at books.  I walk along everything and like to stand a lot.  I am learning how to give 'high fives'.  I like to take 2 naps a day so mommy can unpack the house.  I rock back and forth and up and down when I hear music.  I love to play the drums at the gym day care and I bang on anything I can pretend are drums.  I love to climb things and I love to play on the couch.

Just standing with my owl.

Just resting on my owl.

Noelle's new coral room.

 She loves the new room.

 

I have been to the strip 4 times now and I like the M&M store the best :)

I played in the sand for the first time.

Lovin' on daddy.

Catch up

Well since I have not posted in a century there is a lot that has happened.  This biggest thing is that WE MOVED to Las Vegas!  Devin is working with an accounting firm here and it is a crazy busy job but we hoping see each other for an hour each day :)  That is not actually a joke though, that is about how much I have seen him on the week days, a couple more on the weekend.  It is busy season though, so it will get better.  We are living in Devin's sister's house while we find our own.  I am very grateful for their willingness to have us here and that has actually been going very smoothly.  Noelle loves seeing her cousins running around and has progressed in her development so much.  She now is a full blown baby that crawls, climbs, goes up the stairs, throws little fits when I say 'no', cuddles, giggles, waves, claps, etc.  She is so much fun right now and I just love having the opportunity to stay home with her and take care of her. 

So here is the timeline update... 

In October, I was honored to be part of my friend Jenny's Wedding.  We have been friends since age three and are still very close. The wedding was in Moline, Il and it turned out beautifully.

Devin was actually able to come with me for this wedding and we had a blast dancing the night away together while Noelle slept in her car seat from dinner time until the end of the reception. It was very nice of her.

Noelle was the cutest duck ever for Halloween.

 

We were in Vegas visiting so Noelle was able to hangout with her cousin's for Halloween festivities. 

Noelle turned six months old and started CRAWLING!

Noelle experienced her first taste of fresh winter snow.

 

My parent's visited Utah in November for an early Christmas with Noelle. This was also when Noelle decided to start teething a tooth broke threw days later.

 

We spent Thanksgiving in gorgeous Brian Head at a cabin with some of Devin's siblings. 

Noelle learned how to pull herself up so we had to move the crib level down.

 Noelle met Santa and was her happy self.

Noelle learned how to sit up.

We said good bye to all of our dear friends in Salt Lake, some we didn't even get to with how moving seems to just sneak up on you.  John and Kate were the most sad to see Noelle leave.

We celebrated our 4th anniversary the day we packed the moving truck.

Noelle had an exciting Christmas morning at her cousin's place in Las Vegas.

 

Playing with new toys.

 

Shortly after moving into Jana's house, Noelle learned how to climb the stairs.

 

And then she climbed other things!

Noelle started taking baths in the big tub! 

Noelle's first time on The Strip! haha!

While Devin was in training out of town, Nelly and I visited Chicago.

Noelle loved to crawl on top of her immobile younger cousin Aubrey.

We stayed in Chicago for ten days and had fun visiting with family and friends.

Nana and Papa had a blast with Nelly.

 Then Noelle and I flew over to Pittsburgh to meet her cousins and see her grandparents. This is Anna and Cole, Jacob must have been watching a Pens game or something.  It was nice to visit with the other Burnett Family, we had not seen them in over a year.

  

While in Pittsburgh we went to the National Aviary.

Diane always plans such fun things to do when we visit.  Noelle was very good and even seemed to enjoy seeing some of the birds.  

Now I am back 'home' in Vegas readjusting to life. Noelle and I both got the stomach flu in Pittsburgh and I barely made it through the 10 hr travel day the next day.  I still feel like I am re cooperating.  We are enjoying our stay at the Lewis's but we will soon be hello to our new home as long as things go as planned.  We are just waiting to close next month!