The 1st half of January 2016

January 1st- Aisley's tea set and beautiful princess dress that she got from the Norman family white elephant gift exchange.

January 2nd- Christmas card love. I usually leave my cards up for months after Christmas is over, but this year with our new house about ready for us to move into, and lots and lots of packing to be done, they are going to have to come down early.

January 3rd- Richard Royal Norman's blessing day. Justin gave a very special and sweet blessing to our sweet baby Rich. It was the perfect day surrounded by our family.

All dressed up for the occasion. Rich is wearing the same blessing outfit as Keaton, and before Keaton, Maccoy.

Grandma Carma.

Grandma and Grandpa Norman.

Grandpa Greg and Grandma Shauna.

(I didn't mean to not get any pictures of my family with Rich, sadly, it is just the way it turned out. But regardless, Rich is loved by all of his big family!)

January 4th-

Keaton doing just about anything to keep himself entertained while I spent the day cleaning my guts out at our new house!!! It took me all day and into the night (Justin took the kids back to our old house for bed after work.) and I still had more cleaning to get done. It was a LONG day. But, I wanted to make sure everything was just perfect for moving in.

January 5th- Aisley playing with the dollhouse Grandma Shauna gave her for Christmas. She has the cutest little imagination.

January 7th- Rich and his sad face after getting shots at his 4 month well check.

Building a house takes a lot of money (surprise, surprise!) and I was nervous that I would want all kinds of new things once our house was done. Top of that list was new dishes. So, although I had to drop lots of unneeded stuff off of my new house "wish list" I was able to get a few new things. I am absolutely in love with my beautiful new dishes.

January 8th- Keaton and Aisley cuddling in Grandma Melanie's minky and watching a movie while we move all of our stuff from our old house to our new house!!! The young men came and helped us and it all went really quickly. I already had everything boxed and labeled and I was shocked at how great the young men were about just getting in there and getting it done. Justin will surely miss his calling as young men's president over such great youth and leaders.

January 9th- Living in a state of constant disarray throughout the first week or two at our new house was rough for me, but I kinda think the kids actually liked mixing things up with all the craziness.

January 10th- Lately, I've been trying to soak up all the baby snuggles that I can. It won't be long and I'm sure this little guy won't love falling asleep in my arms anymore... he'll just be too big and too busy to be sleepy in content being patted on his little bum for nap time. It makes me sad to watch him get so big, so fast, but such is life! And, I'm trying my best to embrace it!

January 11th- 4 months old! (a few weeks late- oops!) This little guy is the best. He is a light in our home and such a joy in our hearts. He loves to cuddle. He is rolling over from his back to his belly. And, he hardly ever cries at all. At his 4 month appointment a week ago he weighed 11 lbs. 15.5 oz.

Rich is so very loved and taken care of by his older siblings. Keaton and Aisley fight over who gets to talk to Rich, who Rich should be looking at, and who gets to bring Rich a toy or two. They are both always looking out for him and try to comfort him if he ever gets a bit sad. Rich puts up with a lot of smothering, but in the end, I think all 3 of these kids love each other very much.

For Aisley, a new house meant getting a new bed! A big girl bed! Man, was I nervous for this big change for our stubborn Miss Aisley, but she has loved her new bed and we haven't had any problems at all with bedtime since she has been in it! Isn't she the cutest little thing you've ever seen?! We sure love this little miss thing.

"Yay for being a big girl!"

Oh and of course, since Aisley got a picture on her bed, Keaton needed a picture of him on his bed in our new house!

Another place that I splurged on new things for our new house was in the bathrooms. I was able to get all new towels and rugs for both of our bathrooms and I just love how fun and cute the kids bathroom turned out.

Bathtime with their fun new bath towels in their brand new bathtub!!!


January 12th- Like anywhere I've ever lived it was once again hard to say good-bye to our old house... so many memories and warm and special moments happened in this house that became our home and it's sad to close that chapter in our lives even if we are entering the next exciting one. I got all kinds of sentimental coming back to this house for the last time to lock our keys inside.

Our sad faces about saying good-bye.

January 14th- Feeling like a big boy holding his own bottle.

January 15th- Rich likes to be a part of the action going on at our house and so we put him up in his seat during meal time and homework time etc. so that he can see watch everything going on around him.

Mostly Aisley- the beginning half of March...

March 4th- 18 months old and sad (but still so cute!) after her check-up and shots at her Dr. appointment.

So, here's a quick update on Aisley Pearl at 18 months old...

-Aisley weighs 17 lbs. 7 oz.- 1% (this is the first time she has been above the 1st percentile!) she is 28 inches tall- 0% and her head circumference is 18.25 inches- 53%. Big head, tiny body- just like Keaton always was.
-She has 8 teeth with lots on the way. Teething has been no fun with Aisley! (Keaton never seemed to be bothered by teething, Aisley on the other hand is really sad and fussy when trying to break teeth- which lately seems to be 24/7.)
-Aisley is quite the little talker. She can say so many words I'm not sure I'll even be able to name them all, but here's a list of the ones she says most frequently- "Mom," "Dad," "Keat," puppy," "bubble," "bite!" (when she wants more food and she wants it now!) "Mouse," (for Mickey Mouse) "Minnie," (for Minnie Mouse) "Ow!" or Owie" (this is probably the word she says the most lately since she says it when she is sad, when you are bugging her by wiping her face, or changing her diaper, or sometimes even just if you touch her!) She can also say "Grandma," Papa," and quite a few other names in her own little way. She is really quite good at mimicking too and will say/try to say almost any word you ask her to say if she is in the right mood.
-Aisley knows and can point to almost all of her (or anyone else's) body parts. She knows what a dog, cat, cow, and monster say. And, she loves to sing songs with actions like, "Popcorn Popping," "Once there was a Snowman," and "If you're Happy and you know it."
-She still doesn't walk! She knows how to walk and if she is in the mood she will practice walking back and forth across a room, but she hasn't decided that she is ready to walk around everywhere yet. She prefers to either crawl, or her new favorite, walk on her knees. I guess she is just nervous and/or stubborn about "taking the next step."
-Aisley loves playing with Keaton, watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, looking at books, and playing with her play food and kitchen.
-She loves to laugh (especially when it is something brother has said or done that is silly or funny) and is most often a happy good girl, unless she is tired or hungry... which is often since she still doesn't sleep through the night, and she isn't a great eater at all...
-Aisley certainly isn't a very good sleeper. Nap time has been alright (she is down to one nap a day). But night time... ugh. I don't even like talking about it. She usually wakes up at least 1-2X a night and no matter what method I try to sleep train this girl we don't seem to be making ANY progress! I'm trying to be patient with the whole situation, but I'm tired of us both being tired! Ha.
-She is making small strides as far as food goes. Currently, she likes pizza, fruit snacks, yogurt, beans (especially in Grandma Patsy's homemade chili!), cheese quesadillas with dip, ice cream, and chocolate! (Of course!) I'm currently working on weaning her completely off of the bottle, but since she doesn't eat well or drink from a sippy cup/regular cup very well it's been harder than expected. Lately, I've been trying to only give her 1 sometimes 2 bottles a day (the second one is usually during the night when all other means of getting this baby girl back to sleep have become hopeless). The goal is to have her off of bottles completely within the next month or so.
-Aisley is a good, happy, smart, little girl. She is loving, cuddly, silly and sweet and she makes us all happy. We love our 18 month old Aisley!


March 5th- What a 103.7 degree temp does to this sweet, and so sick baby girl.

March 8th- How these two enjoy a movie together on a Sunday morning while staying home sick from church.

March 10th- I guess this boy was still pretty tired after getting out of bed. Keaton fell back to sleep in the hall while waiting for Justin to finish his morning shower. (Keaton likes Justin to get him breakfast on the mornings when he wakes up earlier than normal and knows I'm not ready to get out of bed yet because Aisley is still asleep.)

March 11th-

Aisley woke up and was sad she couldn't reach her binkie that had fallen to the floor from her crib. I couldn't stop laughing after realizing that either Justin or I had, in our tired state, in the middle of the night given Aisley one of her old, tiny binkies instead of the ones she uses now that she is older. (It's about time I start weaning her altogether, but she sleeps so poorly at night I'm not sure it's going to work out to take it away quite yet...)