New Baby

....Nope, not OUR new baby. My cousin Katrina had her baby Monday morning (her due date is a few weeks after mine! go figure...). Cora and I took Anna and Addy into Salt Lake so they could see their new baby sister! The baby is so cute, with lots of dark hair, and her face looks so much like Anna and Addy's when they were born.
Cora loved seeing a baby and wanted to be right by her saying 'baby, baby' almost the whole time. She did pretty well with not touching her and being gentle, so that was reassuring for Kevin and I! Hopefully seeing her cousin in the hospital will get her all ready to go see her new little sister in the hospital this week or next. This morning I was telling her about how a new baby is going to come live at our house and be her little sister. Who knows how much she really understands, but she was pretty excited!

Easter

Easter morning we did a little basket and egg hunt for Cora. Here she is with her little foam cut-out book on the creation. I hope it helps keep her occupied during Sacrament meeting!

Before she could be made interested in the eggs, she had to check out everything in the basket and all the grass....

We finally got her to look for some eggs. Here she is finding one in the baby swing.

She REALLY got interested in looking for eggs after she figured out there was candy inside... but then she wanted to stop and eat the candy after each egg find!

All dressed up for church. Look at those cute shoes! Still a little too big, so I guess they'll be perfect for summer.

After church we went to my Aunt Zeann's house for Easter dinner with her family. They are so kind to include us in all their holiday celebrations! We had a yummy dinner and an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. Here's Addy and Cora getting all ready to do first finds-- youngest goes first! They are just 2 months apart in age.

All of the kids with their fun loot. (These are Cora's second cousins)

Row, Row, Row

We spent the afternoon at the Children's Museum with Amber and Jaxon yesterday. Cora and Jaxon were pretty cute trying to figure these oars out! I was afraid they might whack each other in the head with them, but they got lucky and avoided each other--and themselves.


Other Cora cuteness:

- Cora likes to give big (wet) kisses! If she's tired, we have to remind her to give us a 'kiss with noises', and then we get a big 'mmmmmmaaa!' along with the kiss. If she's in a rambunctious mood, her kisses are sometimes accompanied with growls.

-Cora still loves belly buttons and will look at ours, her, and her dolls' belly buttons whenever she can. She's been puzzled the last week or so as to why my belly button is flat and she can't poke it as well as she used to! It hasn't popped yet, but it might soon if the baby stays in much longer!

- Cora tells us when she thinks she needs a diaper change. Usually she is right, so it's nice to know she's beginning to clue in on some pre-potty-training skills. Sometimes she's wrong, so we just have to pretend to change her diaper so she can start thinking about something else!

- Cora is talking more and more, and even more fun, she is singing along with a lot of our songs. I think "The Wheels on the Bus" is her favorite, she'll sing along to most all of it. Her favorite verses are about the baby and the mommy, and she always chimes in with ''ALL though the TOWN" at the end.

A couple more Boise trip pics

These were on my sister-in-law's camera and I just couldn't resist posting them. So cute! The girls had so much fun together!

French toast time at the kiddie breakfast table.

All the kiddos with Kevin and the Thomas the Train book Sunday morning. Just think, in a week or two there will be 4 cousins in the family.

There's also a video I'm trying to figure out how to get, I just need to get Kevin for a second to work his technological magic. Soon! (He did it tonight. Thankyou Kevin!)

I had my doctor's appointment yesterday-- still no progress. It looks like we'll set a date to induce for April 2nd or so if nothing has happened by then.

Busy Week!

Well, we've definitely had a busy week here at our house. My dad came in town from last Friday to yesterday (Saturday) morning to help Kevin work on the basement. They got so much done! Now all the electrical is wired, the recessed lighting and bath fan in, the doors are all put in, the bathroom is plumbed, and a huge load of junk got taken to the dump. We also got our sheetrock bids, which were less than we expected-- one good thing I guess about the housing market downturn. Besides the basement work, it was also the week for visiting teaching, home teaching, a RS activity, doctor's appointment, practising for an Easter musical number, and Kevin was in charge of a dinner for youth leaders and spouses for a combined YM/YW activity. So it was busy! We also enjoyed having Shad and Jen come over for dinner one evening, we hadn't seen them since Christmas, so it was nice to visit all together.

To hit our next major basement milestone of having the basement all sheetrocked, we just have to wire for internet, a couple of phone jacks, and cable, put up insulation, and try to clear out and clean up for the sheetrockers. Once it's all sheetrocked, we'll finish the two bedrooms completely, and save the family room and bathroom for later. Dad and Kevin put in a lot of long days, learned a lot about plumbing, and we made many, many, many trips to Home Depot-- on the day of crash course plumbing, it was 7 times between the 3 of us!

The most crucial trip to Home Depot was the one we needed to take Friday night at 9:30pm-- AFTER they closed. When all the plumbing was almost done one of the connections cracked, and we had to keep our water off all night long to wait to buy a replacement piece Saturday morning. Luckily we didn't need our water much that night, it was a relatively easy fix the next morning, and Dad still made it home (through a snowstorm) to Boise in time for his stake conference meetings! We did have our 5 gallon container of water from storage that we used, and the dishes and showers were just put off a little.

During the week Cora and I ran errands for miscellaneous items (bring home 4 half inch pex connectors and steel epoxy!), picked out stair lighting, bathroom lighting, a vanity and top, shower fixtures, and sconces, and made sure Dad and Kevin were well fed. We also brought the newborn girl clothes out of storage and assembled the cradle! Cora didn't think it was very fair that Kevin was home so much and not spending the time with her, so most of my days were spent making sure she didn't sneak down into the basement to play with the tools and be underfoot. But she did take her naps and slept pretty well at night, despite the banging noises, which was a blessing.

All the excitement must have taken a bit of a toll on her though-- we went to town to see Kevin's grandmother on Saturday, and even though Cora doesn't sleep much in the car anymore, she fell sound asleep like this on the way there.

We thought she was playing an extended version of peek-a-boo for a while until it was just too quiet. Cora even stayed asleep when we parked and turned off the car, which I don't think has happened since she was a baby! So I stayed in the car with her for a bit until she woke up.

I think she did have a great week too though, we went to the Children's Museum, storytime, and played outside quite a bit, thanks to the warmer weather. And Cora loved spending extra time with Pata, especially reading books and running around after balls and Elmo bubbles outside. And, we were extra grateful he was here to watch her while Kevin and I went to the youth activity Wednesday night.

Bow Mania

The latest task I got to cross off my list of "things to do before the baby comes" was finishing up these bows. They were fun to make, and they will be great additions to Cora's hair-wardrobe. She loves bows and clippies and makes sure to remind me about doing her hair if I forget. I actually made twice as many as in the pictures, so I could give some away (and I have lots more ribbon to make bows, but I decided the rest could wait!).

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday, and just to let you all know, the baby is not coming anytime soon! I guess there are some signs my body is getting ready to have the baby, but nothing immediate. I think we'll be waiting 2-3 more weeks!

Trip to Boise

We spent a weekend in Boise visiting my parents and seeing this cute family:

(my brother's family) who was visiting from Maryland. What a fun time! The only sad part was that Shad and Jen couldn't be there with us too. We ate yummy food, played lots of games, swam at the YMCA, and of course, Cora spent a lot of time jumping on the new indoor trampoline and playing with cousins.

Emeline and Cora reading books with Pata.

The trampoline was a BIG HIT! The little girls loved jumping and running, especially in their matching princess nighties. Cora was a wild woman, and almost went off the edge a few times, but managed to keep on. I was out of the room for her scariest near-fall, but I heard she made an incredible save.

Pata and Kissie with all the grandkids, Jarom, Cora, and Emeline.

We love the Boise YMCA! It is even more kid friendly and fun than our local swimming pool. Cora must have gone down this slide 20 times, she loved it. She made Kevin take her down the big slide quite a few times too!

Cora does prefer going belly down though! I was worried she'd hit her chin, but she always came up smiling. When we went to our neighborhood park last Sunday afternoon, she was a belly-rider there too. She just loves slides! She slid down the big slide at our park over and over and over.

Cora, Emeline, and Kevin.

Jarom and I. Look at his cute church outfit!

Too bad we won't see these cuties for quite a while longer-- At least we had a great weekend! Thanks for the fun times, and for hosting us all, Mom and Dad!

Cora and Sophie

We had a great morning at the Children's Museum yesterday! My college friend, Becky, and I got to visit, and Sophie and Cora enjoyed themselves with the water toys, balls, grocery store, and in this play kitchen. We didn't get a lot of pictures since we were chasing them down a lot of the time! Cora was beat by the end, but loving it still.

If anyone would like to join us, email me! My pass gets 4 in for free, and I love the company.

Family Pictures

Cora and Kevin before church.

We decided that Cora's head is finally big enough to balance out these huge bows. So cute! I wonder how long we'll have to wait to use the next size up of bows???

Our little family.

Belly shot! Less than 3 weeks to go!

Updates

Here are a few new things Cora has been doing lately:

~First instore tantrum! We've had little ones with trying to get her to sit in the shopping cart, etc, but our first major one was at Deseret Book last week. It was the first time in a long time I've taken her in a store where she wasn't in a stroller or a shopping cart. She loved it! She loved all the books and wanted to pick them up and take them around. But when we had to leave, she threw herself on the ground and started shrieking. Not that fun, but it did make me laugh (inside!). I guess it's a milestone!

~Kissing it better. Cora has picked up on the idea of having her owies kissed better and loves it. Sometimes I can't figure out where her owie is, but she'll always show me and it works for her!

~Stringing words together. She has a bunch of phrases down, like "Where did it go?" "There it is" "Daddy come home" and some shorter two-word ones, like "Let's go" and "go outside". It's fun to see her put it all together and see how much she understands and can verbalize.

~Elmo. One of the great loves of her life. If we are in a store and see an Elmo item, immediately the whole store hears "ELMO!!!". We were shopping at the Gateway, and everytime she saw one of their Elmo posters (for the Children's Museum exhibit), the whole street knew about it.

~Cora has successfully jumped a few times now-- achieving lift-off of both feet at the same time. We talk about bunnies --"What does a bunny do?" and she responds "Hop!" and then she tries to hop too.

~Babies. One of the other great loves of her life. We went to the Church History Museum last week, they had a children's exhibit called "I Am A Child of God" with lots of hands-on activities. So well done! And free! But we needed to walk through the exhibit backwards-- the babies were in the very first part, and I don't think Cora really saw too much else of the cool activities they had there. They were pretty big babies, the hard plastic kind, and she had to carry the baby, blanket, and bottle everywhere with her. This was quite a feat for such a little girl. That baby sure got fed and cuddled a lot. And there were some tears when we had to leave.

~More baby stuff. My cousin Monique let us borrow the family cradle again for this baby. Cora loves it! She put all her babies in it, rocked them, and told us "shhh" because they were sleeping. Hopefully she likes this new baby too! We have been reading a few big sister and baby-prep books that she really likes too.

~Learning new songs. We've started to add more songs to our repertoire, The Wheels on the Bus, Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam, and a few others. She loves doing the actions, and sings along sometimes. She's got about half of the ABC song down too, but we might be the only ones who understand it so far.

~We've been doing family scripture time every night for the last few months, just 5 verses a night. I'm sure Cora doesn't get a whole lot out of it yet, but it's a good habit to start. We know she is listening some though, when we read a set of verses that mentioned the Jews several times, she started demanding her juice.

~We've successfully weaned her tv time down again, not an easy task after using it as a comfort tool when she and I were both sick for those few weeks. But she still likes to watch Curious George off our DVR most days. I always know when the show is done because when the screen goes black I hear a loud "Oh No!" and she runs to come get me.

~Popcorn is a new favorite snack. She loves watching it come out of the air popper and fill the bowl. This morning she woke up saying "popcorn, popcorn".... I didn't think she would notice, but she must have smelled the (burnt) popcorn smell from my snack last night!

~Kevin was teaching Cora how to hop on the ball in the backyard. She picked up on it pretty well and was having fun with it. Cora LOVES to play outside, no matter how cold it is, or if it's getting dark, she'll point out the window and say "outside? Elmo bubbles? bubbles?". We've been lucky to have a bunch of nice days in a row, but it's going to cool down here again this weekend.

Growing

I've been trying to get all my unfinished craft and sewing projects done before the baby comes. I didn't realize how many of them I had that I had started and not finished! Yesterday we got quite a few of the little tasks done, and even got some closets cleaned out too-- another thing on my 'to do' list for the next 5 weeks. Kevin and I hung this growth chart in Cora's room. It's vinyl lettering on a mirror, so Cora can see how tall she is (she looks even taller in this pictures with her crazy left-over ponytail hair!). I also wrote on the mirror with a Sharpie to mark her height at birth and one year, and will continue to track her growth this way.

Pictures

Here are some scanned images of pictures we had done recently. I never got in for Cora's 1 year pictures (aggh!) but wanted to get a few of her before the baby came. I thought I was picking a good time of day and was prepared, but Cora must not have thought so. It was our most difficult picture-taking session yet. No smiles! We had a few that turned out okay, but hopefully we can get some better ones when she turns two, and some family ones after the baby is born.

Concentrating

Today was Cora's first chance to finger paint. I spent a while getting it all set up-- smock, paper, paints, everything. Cora spent about 3 minutes on one sheet of paper before she decided enough was enough and she wanted her fingers clean! We'll have to try them again another time.

I think she did like it, she was so intense, she couldn't be bothered to look up at me or smile.

First finger painting masterpiece.

More Fun at the Aquatic Center

Saturday we went to the acquatic center. I'm not up for swimsuits anymore, so I was the picture-taker! Cora and Kevin had a lot of fun, and the life jacket was a hit too. Cora cried when we tried to take it off her before we left. I'm not sure if she loved the life jacket sooo much or if she really didn't want to leave! But the jacket made it a little easier for Kevin to relax and have fun too.

Cora is getting braver about water splashing in her face!

In the kiddie pool.

She has hated floating on her back before this, but she didn't seem to mind! Must be the head support on the lifejacket.

Jumping in the deep pool.

I guess that's why dads are more fun....

I was doing some stuff on the computer tonight and heard giggles in the kitchen! When I went to investigate, this is what I found:

Elmo bubbles INSIDE the house! Cora loved it, she had fun blowing the bubbles around and popping them. And, Kevin mopped the floor (that part of it at least :)) afterwards, so it was a fun time. I think next time Cora and I will try it in the basement though!

Cora was waking up at night when she was sick because she wasn't feeling well. But, now we're going on the second week of her waking up in the middle of the night even though she's all better. It's killing us! We don't do anything to encourage her, just go in once if she's crying loudly for a long period of time to make sure she didn't toss her binkie or something. But, many nights she'll be up for several hours crying only in little spurts and talking to herself in a playful way the rest of the time. We are longing for her 12 hour a night straight sleeping habits she had before! Tonight we tried keeping her up a little bit later to see if that helps, but she really was so tired at her normal bedtime, it was a struggle (hence Kevin pulled out the Elmo bubbles). I guess we'll just have to see how it goes and experiment some more. It might have something to do with her finally catching on to the one nap a day habit, maybe it threw her sleeping schedule for a loop. Any ideas? She usually goes to bed at 7:00 and wakes up at 7:00. Lately she's been up 2-4 am. And she sleeps from 11:30-1 or sometimes longer for her nap.

Post note: Cora slept 7:30-6:30 last night. Hurray! Maybe patience is the best tactic. Or maybe we just got lucky :).

Happy Valentine's Day!

Cora and I had a fun day today! She got to wear her "Daddy's Litte Valentine" shirt, and we made a Valentine's Day card for Kevin. She loved putting the little sticky foam hearts on, and we even broke out the markers for the project. Here she is with her little presents: fingerpaints and a lap quilt I just finished. We might even be brave and make a decorate sugar cookies this afternoon! A day of a whole bunch of 'firsts' for Cora. Kevin and I had our Valentine's date last weekend-- dinner and a movie. It's been a long time! So it was great to do something just the two of us, especially before the baby comes. And tomorrow, we'll all go to IHOP for breakfast (thanks Kissie and Pata!) to celebrate all together-- the snow was just too bad this morning to make it out!