Another thought. . .

A friend of mine just started selling Usborne books. Have you heard of Usborne? They have the best books! We love their touchy, feely books for babies, but they also have great books for older kids, too. If you like to spread out your Christmas shopping - Usborne books make great gifts!!
I am having a party for her this Friday, August 31 at 7. If you are in the area and want to come, let me know. Otherwise, you can look at the e-show. If you want to purchase some books, click on my name, Heather, under "Active E-shows." The books will be delivered to you - so no matter where you live, you can place an order!

Also, my sister, Alison, started a blog a couple of weeks ago. Check it out if you have a chance.
Thanks!

Birthday Party!

Saturday we went to a birthday for Norah's friend, Kylie. The party was at our church in the indoor playground. The girls had a lot of fun and filled up on cake and ice cream.

The rest of the day we just hung out and played. I did a little scrapbooking - I was about a year behind!

Today we went to church and then had the Morrison's over for brunch. The girls went straight to the basement to dress up like princesses! Norah seemed exhausted when the Morrison's left, but never fell asleep. Thankfully, we didn't have any meltdowns from a sleepy girl.

Our Trip to Morton

Since my jury duty was canceled on Wednesday, the girls and I went to Morton to see Contessa. It is only a 3 hour drive - how bad could it be? It was interesting! Lucy is only taking a morning nap about twice a week and she was due for one on Wednesday morning. Perfect - she would sleep atleast half of the trip. Wrong. She cried off and on the whole trip. I made mutiple stops, but nothing helped. Norah was upset because I didn't put in the right movie - yes, we have a DVD player for the car! The rule is that she gets to watch one movie on each road trip. Since Lucy was screaming, Norah decided that she should join in. Wow! I was quite frustrated by the time we got to Litchfield and that is only the halfway point! We made it eventually and I was more than happy to hand the girls off to my mom while I ran a couple of errands!


Since we went to Morton to see Contessa, I took quite a few pictures of her. The girls instantly fell in love with her! She is beautiful and she looks just like Denise!
Norah enjoyed talking to Denise's dad. She practiced her Spanish and he practiced his English. It was very sweet.

While we were in Morton we also went to visit my friend, Janelle, who had a baby about a month ago. Norah took her dolls, knowing that Tobias (22 months old) might not have any. Tobias wanted to play baseball, though. Eventually, they realized that they both love to play chase so they ran around the house chasing and squealing. They had a great time, and on the way home to St. Louis, Norah said, "I wish we could live near Tobias! Wouldn't it be great if we could walk to his house?" Norah and Tobias posed for a cute picture! The baby, Tehya, was sleeping and Lucy was at Grandma Jackie's taking a nap.


We went to Eli's - my cousin Katie's coffee shop in Morton - on our way out of town today. Norah LOVES her pumpkin apple muffins!!!


Although Norah didn't fall asleep until we crossed the bridge into St. Charles and Lucy slept the first half hour of the trip, it was relatively uneventful!! The girls were glad to be home - they really missed their daddy!

Here are 50 random things about me

Give us your own answers in your own blog...

1. Do you like cheese? Yes, the more cheese the better!

2. Have you ever been arrested? Nope

3. Have you ever shot a gun? No

4. Your favorite song? too many to name just one

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? Sometimes

6. What do you think of when you eat hot dogs? BLAH!

7. What's your favorite Christmas song? White Christmas

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? tall nonfat peppermint mocha w/whip

9. Can you do push ups? I can, but do I? Hmmm.

10. Is your bathroom clean? 1/2 bath is - the others are questionable

11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? wedding ring

12. Favorite Hobby? cooking

13. What are you listening to right now? dishwasher

14. What is the last thing you ate? ice cream with magic shell

15. What one trait do you hate about yourself? opinionated

16. Middle Name? Janelle - this is why I may not do the middle name game -it's too long and I don't know enough people with blogs to send it to - sorry!

17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? 1- Why do I hear jumping coming from Norah's room?, 2-Why is David Hasselhoff singing on National Television (Kevin just turned on TV and that is what is on), 3-Would it be bad if I had a second bowl of ice cream?

18. Name the last 3 things you have bought. 1-Lean cuisines, 2-backpack for Norah, 3-30 golf balls

19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink. 1 - water, 2 - tall nonfat peppermint mocha w/whip, 3 - fresh squeezed lemonade

20. Current worry right now? No worries - jury duty was cancelled!!!

21. Current hate? Running, but I'm doing it anyway

22.Favorite place to be? anywhere, as long as Kevin and the girls are there

23. How did you bring in the New Year? hanging out with the Diehl's

24. What is your quirkiest habit? Where do I begin? I'm a little OCD

25. Name three people who will complete this and Return? I will tag Alison and . . . .

26. How many siblings do you have? 1 older sister and 2 younger brothers

27. Do you own slippers? Yes, 2 pairs

28. What shirt are you wearing? tan and white v-neck top

29. What shampoo do you use? Pantene

30. Favorite color? blue

31. Would you like to be a pirate? what kind of question is that?

32. What songs do you sing in the shower? Sadly, I often catch myself singing kids songs!

33. Favorite female name? Norah & Lucy :)

34. Favorite male name? Eli

35. What's in your pockets right now? cell phone

36. Last thing that made you laugh? Norah

37. Best bed sheets as a child? don't remember

38. Worst injury you've ever had? sprained ankle

40. How many TVs do you have in your house? 3

41. Who is your loudest friend? Don't know - I'm as loud as any of them

42. Who is your most silent friend? not sure

43. Does someone have a crush on you? not that I know of

44. Do you wish on shooting stars? don't know that I have ever seen one

45.What is your favorite book? anything by Lori Wick

46.What is your favorite age? current age - 28 - love being a mom and wife

47. What song do/did you want played at your wedding? How Beautiful and Love Light Burning (this one was a Scott Giffen original - for all you Greenville Grads)

48. What song do you want played at your funeral? How Can I Keep from Singing Your Praise, I Stand in Awe of You

49. What were you doing at 12 am this morning? Rocking my sleepless little Lucy

50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? Do I really HAVE to run? What? It's raining? Yes!! Wait!! That means I have to run on the treadmill!!

A Norah Quote

I forgot to mention this yesterday - when Kevin told Norah he was going golfing, she asked, "Is Tiger going to be there?"

Kevin told her no, then she asked why. I told her Tiger lives too far away and Kevin told her Tiger was taking a break. Norah then said, "Taking a break to stay with his baby Sam? The baby Sam that is a girl?"

We didn't realize she knew much about Tiger besides his name. lol

Sleepy Sunday

After a busy weekend, today has been a lazy Sunday. It's nice every once in a while to have a day to just lay around! Actually, it isn't a lazy day for Kevin. He is at a charity golf outing in Warrenton. Muggy day for golf!

Let me catch you all up on our last few days!

Thursday, the girls and I went to Nicole Snyder's to play and have lunch. A.J. will be 1 on Sept. 3 and my girls loved him. Norah talked about him the entire rest of the day! He was very sweet and didn't seem to mind my aggressive 1 year old! Nicole and Cory have a dog, and Lucy was quite interested in checking him out. She fell asleep on the way home and when I unbuckled her to get her out of her seat, she woke up kicking her legs (in excitement) and barking! Norah has tried off and on to teach Lucy to bark with no success - I guess the dog was a better teacher!

Friday morning, Sawyer and Savannah Morrison came to play while Heather got ready for Ryan's surprise 30th birthday party. The kids play great together! Friday evening, the girls, Kevin, and I went to the Morrison's house for the big party! Ryan was really surprised! Check out the pictures on Heather's blog! Norah and Lucy went to bed at the Morrison's and did just as well as last weekend! It was fun to hang out with college friends and make new friends!

Saturday morning, we took the girls to the Botanical Gardens - yes, we crossed the city line! The girls had fun exploring in the Children's Garden. Lucy thinks she can do everything Norah does! After the morning at the gardens, we headed to Shawn & Shawna's in South City for lunch. We hadn't seen Jackson since he broke his arm, and Norah really wanted to see his cast. We also hadn't seen Janelle in about 2 months - she has really changed! She is 5 months and very happy! The girls definitely enjoyed some much needed time with their cousins!

After going to church today, the girls and I have been sleeping, playing and eating pumpkin bread!

Weekend in Review

We had a great weekend! Saturday evening we went over to the Morrison's. The Robertson's were in town for a visit. Kasey Laughlin had 4 tickets to the Muny to see Les Mis. Kasey, Heather, Amie, and I went to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner then headed to the Muny. We had great seats and the show was fantastic! Check out Heather's blog to see a picture of us girls! http://notesofus.blogspot.com/pot.com/

The men were in charge of the 6 children! It sounds like all the kids got along great! Norah and Lucy fell asleep at the Morrison's so we woke them at 12:30 a.m. to get them home. Norah fell right back to sleep, Lucy was awake in her crib for about an hour - just giggling and talking.

On Sunday after church, Jeff, Karen, and Kate Harper, Kevin, Norah, and I headed down to the Cardinal game! What a day for a ball game . . . 103 degrees!! Whoo! It was Build-a-Bear day at the game so the girls got cute little bears! Our seats were in the Redbird Club, so thankfully we could go into the air conditioning. We didn't realize, however, that Norah had absolutely no plans to sit in her seat and watch the game. She and I sat inside at a table most of the game. When we did go outside, as soon as we sat in our seats, Ludwick hit a home run. The whole stadium exploded, fireworks went off and Norah started screaming! She screamed and screamed! She kept screaming, "I want to go home, I want to go home." So we went back inside until the end of the 6th inning. We bribed Norah with ice cream to get her back outside. She was so tired, though, she just sat on my lap until we left in the middle of the 8th inning. Kate really seemed to enjoy the game! No screaming from her. Both girls fell asleep on the way home!

Lucy was at the Keim's house. They said she was perfect! She probably loved all the attention she got from Cherie and the kids!

Today was Norah's last day at the Little Gym. She and Kate showed off a little so I could get some pictures. My camera seemed to have some issues so the pictures are sort of grainy.

Friday with Friends

Yesterday, the girls and I spent the morning at Aaron & Alisha Cobb's. Micah is almost 3 months old and so cute. Lucy couldn't get enough of him! Norah kept busy with a project Alisha had out for her. It is always fun to catch up with friends when we have the chance. We left their house about lunchtime so we met Kevin at First Watch to eat. Eating out is often a challenge, as I have stated inprevious blogs, but yesterday the girls did great! One old man stopped by our table and told us he thought the girls were very well behaved! It is nice to hear that every once in a while.

Norah and Kevin went to the park early this morning, then to Trader Joes, and Kevin's office. Norah seemed to enjoy her one-on-one time with Kevin.

Budgets

Okay, here I go with my first Thoughts for Thursday post. Budgets - boring, some-what depressing topic I know, but I'm looking for a little advice. When it comes to a grocery budget, I am really struggling. I have no idea where to begin! I have one friend who spends $80 a week on groceries. I spend anywhere from $80 to $160!! That is quite a difference!! Am I out of control? I meal plan, cut coupons, and watch ads. I think I have things all ready to go and I am not going to overspend, but then I get to Walmart and I start putting things in my cart that are not on my list - sometimes reasonable like bananas, just forgot to put them on the list. Other times things end up in my cart that are just not necessary - Crest Whitestrips, jumbo sidewalk chalk, DVD's, unhealthy snacks - someone else must put these items in my cart when I'm not looking! I try so hard to stick to my list - I must not have any self-control!!

Anyway, how much is normal to spend on groceries each week? Is $160 totally crazy for a family of 4 (including a 3 year old who eats like a bird and a 15 month old who only eats meat and cheese)? I'll take suggestions if you have them!!

Contessa

Here are pictures of our sweet little niece. Mommy and baby are doing great!

Our New Niece!!!

We have a new niece! Contessa Isidora Leitch!! Since Max and Denise are in Morton, Illinois we won't see her for a few days, but my mom says she is beautiful!! She seems to have her mommy's Latino coloring with curly, jet black hair! Yah!!! After laboring through the night and most of the day, then pushing for 2 hours, Denise had to have a c-section. The doctor cut into her bladder - so her recovery will be longer that usual! Denise wasn't due until the 17th and her parents are flying in from Chile on Friday. Please pray for a speedy recovery so that she may enjoy her time with her parents. (Since they live so far away, Denise usually only sees her parents every year and a half or so).

Norah is so excited to add cousin number 5 to the family!

I will post pictures as soon as I get some from my parents!!!!

So Corny . . .

Now that it's been several days since my last post . . . where do I begin? My parents were in town this weekend. Kevin brought home 2 bags of corn on the cob for my mom and I to freeze. We had 120 ears of sweet corn!!!! We ended up with 33 - 3 qt. bags. We get the corn from Theis Farm on Creve Coeur Mill Rd. and it is excellent! Corn is the one vegetable Lucy will eat without me disguising it.

The girls did all they could to keep cool during this heat wave we are having!

The girls played and played with Grandma Jackie and Grandpa Steve. Norah woke up Saturday morning with a fever of 101 degrees. She seems a little nasally, too, so we are doing extra breathing treatments. Blah! She doesn't like them, but as long as we pop in a DVD she does great! She still has a fever today so we may be making a trip to see Dr. Hanson tomorrow.

My mom, sister, and I went to the Muny last night to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It was a great show, but crazy HOT!

I guess since Norah isn't feeling well, we will be taking it easy for a couple of days!