More about my baby girl

Well, my kidlets are just growing and growing and are the cutest things ever.  I wanted to share (and document) the milestones and funny things that they do.

Nora is growing leaps and bounds (as they do at this age).  I feel like every day she is a new person with a ton of new stuff to show us.  She is starting to mimic noises, even trying to say words.  She will copy things that we do as well.  She is so smart that she even picks up on social cues.  A few examples:

• At dinner the other night, she dropped her water cup on the floor and I said "uh-oh".  She immediately repeated it.  
• She will feed the dog and I tell her "no-no" and she will laugh and purposely drop more food on the floor for London - little rascal.
• I had her in the car and then put Reed in.  I told her to say hi to Reed and she waved at him and said "hi!".
• The other night I was telling above stories to Fogg and she was listening and started saying hi again but hit herself in the head instead.  We laughed about it. She hit herself again on purpose and laughed at us, looking at us to have the reaction again.  She kept doing it, hitting herself and laughing.  
• If someone calls out, for example if I call for Reed, she will repeat the sound the same way.

She is has a tooth and a second one just broke through today.  Below is a picture of Nora in the bath that shows her tooth.

 She also has a lot of fun in the bath

 After her bath the other night, she just loved walking around!

 And she climbs the slide really well.

 She has a funny look on her face cause she is making a spitting noise as she walks.

 Baby monster!

 Here I said "let's go to your room" and she followed me down the hall laughing the whole time.

Nora can also go up and down the stairs though she doesn't really enjoy it.  A few stairs on the way down and she is usually whining for someone to come get her.

Reed doesn't let me take too many pictures anymore but he sure is starting to say funny things.  You know what you say too much when you have a 3 year old.  He started to answer questions with "probably" or "that sounds like a good idea". Because he can really use his imagination, he will use good descriptive words when he can't think of the word he wants.  He called shorts "up pants" (complete with hand motion), a step stool a "climber" and a trampoline a "bounce-aline".  I love his little words.  On the way to school in the morning, he will ask me to tell him a story or that he wants to tell me a story.  He is obsessed with Spiderman though he's never seen a movie, show or comic book of Spiderman.  But he knows what Spiderman is all about, often he makes an appearance in Reed's stories in the form of him becoming Spiderman so that he can get off a roof.  He started calling me "mama" which is kinda funny.  This afternoon, I said to Reed "Reed Fogg, I love you".  He said back to me "Mama Fogg, I love you". 

That's all I have for today - later!

Videos

Oh my, my 11 month old little girl is cruising!  She is walking more and more each day, I'm sure soon, she will be walking 100% of the time.  I was thinking about how much different Nora is than Reed in how she learns.  Reed was a lot more calculated in how he learned to walk.  He only did it in the safety of mom and dad's arms, walking between us for months.  He was stable but not sure he could really do it on his own.  And only after he learned to walk did he learn how to stand up without the assistance of furniture or an adult.  Nora, on the other hand, is much more willing to fall and then get back up again.  She learned to get to a standing position without assistance long before she was stable to walk all the time.  She has even started multi-tasking while walking (hold a toy, drink her bottle, wave or clap her hands, talk).  Here she is again doing some solid walking!

I simply love the way that Reed says the word "girl", so I had to record it before he starts getting it right.  It's so dang cute.

Carol gave Nora this adorable Hawaiian outfit, straight from Hawaii as a baby gift.  The finally fits into it and we had to wear it at least once before winter hits.  Luckily, Carol got to see it on her and this picture is just adorable!

Project Runway

Project Runway is one of my most favorite shows.  I wish I was creative enough to make the clothes, talented enough to sew the clothes and rich enough to afford the clothes (and have events to wear them to).  The people on the show are always such characters, so much fun.  

Well, anyway, that's the reason behind my title, but really nothing to do with the pictures.  I am bringing this brand in to sell on our site and I just love it!  The company - A for Apple - sent me some samples so I could check it out.  It happens that most of the clothes were in Reed's size.  So I took them home to try them on him.  Here he is modeling for me.  He was into it at first:

 But then we decided to go outside for better light and he tripped cause his hands were in his pockets (as you can see above) and crashed hard.  He wasn't really into taking pictures anymore after that.

 But then dad made him laugh, so he was a happy model again.  His above pictures are probably more "modelish" cause they are always grumpy right?

Anyway, cute stuff right?  I'll be purchasing some of this stuff for the kids.  Especially since they all fit into the "cozy pant" category even though they look like jeans.

Nora stuck a puff on her head like a head bow.  Reed did the same thing when he was little.  It's just too cute!

 Another random picture. Reed wanted to ride this thing at wal-mart a few weeks ago.  He let Nora join in the fun.  They both thought it was a blast, personally I think it wasn't worth the 50 cents.

By the way, Nora is 11 months old today - can you even believe it?  She's about 50% crawling 50% walking at this point and "talking" a lot.  She doesn't say actual words but rather just blabs.  Quite cute actually.  She can also blow a kiss but she gets snagged up on the part where she puts her hand on her mouth, she just starts licking her hand.  It's funny!

Bryce Canyon Labor Day Trip

We went to Bryce last weekend and got to use our new camper.  We also got to go with a lot of our best friends.  I won't narrate much cause it's getting late and I want to get these posted quickly.

We left Friday morning really early and stopped for breakfast along the way.  Here is Reed and Jane walking around together:

 Nora takes a nap.  The kids traveled really well.

 Oh yeah, so did London.  It's hard to tell but he is laying half on his bed and half on my bag.

 Once we got there, we set up camp then took a walk to the lake we were near - Pine Lake.  Lala and Reed walk across the bridge:

 Of course, London swims.

 Nora and I hike to the lake too!

 The next morning, we headed into Bryce for a hike with our friends Keri and Eric and their two little boys Liam and Emery.  Liam and Reed did great hiking most of the way!  These spires along the way are called "hoodoos".  Neat formations!

 Reed and Liam got to spend some quality time together.  Reed started calling Liam "my loving friend".  They were watching a bird here.

 Reed is running here.  I got this picture a split second (or possibly as it's happening) he tripped and fell.  He skinned his knee but there was a nice lady (sitting behind the sign) who gave him a band aid and a snickers bar, so Reed was able to continue on ok.

 Nora is just about to give in to sleep.

 Yay!  Reed and Liam made it to the top!

 My cute boy put a rock on his head.

 Nora had cheerios with a side of dirt for lunch.

 Fast forward to the next day, the boys went for a mountain bike ride so it was up to the mom's and kids, with the help of grandparents, some friends and a few others to find adventure.  Here we are hiking to a waterfall that left something to be desired.

 Reed fell again, Gerald fixed him up.

 After that, we drove through the park to get a good look.  Beautiful and strange place.  Reed looks out over Rainbow Point:

Lala and Nora enjoy the view

At camp, Nora snuggled with daddy

 And she really enjoyed Terry

 She didn't do much of this but when she did, at least she is cute!

 Near our campsite was a ghost town called Widstoe.  Only a few buildings remain standing but there was a lot of debris.  This is the school house.

 View from the schoolhouse window.

 Only house remaining standing.

 A lone tree

 Our last evening at camp!

Here is the compound (as we called it).  The Gompert's on the left, ours on the right.  Fun times!

Let it be said, this was a GREAT trip!  We got to know people that we know already better, we got to know people we know a little better and got to meet new people.  We had a lot of fun and fellowship.  The scenery was great and we had some nice amenities.  One of which was the food.  Every meal was provided for us and it was all cooked in dutch ovens.  Elaine did us well.  Can't wait for next years camp out!