september 2015

September was a big month for Nor (8 months old)...she took her first steps! She was about a week shy of her 9 month birthday and now she toddles around like a pro.

cousin zoo fun

more lake time

aunt jame and uncle bill came for a visit

nora discovered the fridge

always happy if she's outside

very first steps!

oakstone fan club

snapshots: mary's baptism

Our sweet niece, Mary (Nora's younger cousin by four weeks) got baptized this past weekend (and kind of slept through it!)  Here are some of my favorite shots:

eleanor's hospital visitors

Uncle Travis

Aunt Blythe

Aunt Jackie

Uncle Derek

Amy and an especially chubby looking Nora

Uncle Steve

Traveling Grandparents

Award for longest trek to see her on her first day

All grandparents

Aunt Amy (resting Nora on her almost-here cousin, Mary!)

Nora had many visitors in her first two days (the only two we spent in the hospital), who came bearing gifts of cinnamon rolls, Northstar, beer, slippers, and lots of snuggles.

snapshots: christmas travels 2013

I've always traveled a lot during the holidays.  In fact, I've only been home on Christmas day once in my whole life.  We always all piled into the conversion van (then the mini van, then the SUV) and made the rounds; we traveled two hours to my dad's parents, then four and a half to my mom's parents and made it back to our house about a week later, exhausted and present-laden.  We braved icy roads and screaming toddlers, played thousands of car games, and watched Ace Ventura in the car too many times to count (and Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls...obviously). 

This year, we did all of our traveling before Christmas.  We went to my mom's side at Thanksgiving and had an early Christmas.  We stopped by my dad's side on the way to Luke's side and did it all in one weekend.  And then we spent Christmas day at The Burrow. 

I photographed our travels, but didn't take any pictures of our actual Christmas day at The Burrow.  My parents came over, Luke's parents traveled two hours to spend the day with us, and Blythe and Travis came over.  Most of us were in pajamas all day (okay...some of us...mostly me).  We had stovetop cocoa.  We had a fire going.  We played Mexican Train Dominoes We watched Christmas movies (The Grinch!, It's a Wonderful Life).  We ate too many cookies.  We had Christmas at The Burrow.

Here are some of my favorite shots from our travels the weekend before:

and at our next stop...

There are more Christmas posts to come...stay tuned! (It's just the beginning of the Christmas season!)

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