Being fancy

Between being evacuated because of the Dump Fire and my spending most the next week at the Salt Palace for work, we squeezed in some time with the little Stewart ladies. And I'd say Norah's first Fancy Nancy party was a success. Not because of me, of course, but because Grandma Debbie is willing to make an extra crown and basically put ribbons and a glue gun in my hands to make a tutu.

And then I nearly died from the adorableness.

And then we flew to Virginia to throw up on Josh's white carpet

Having Norah on a set schedule is awesome when we're home. We all know exactly what to expect. Take her out of her routine though and you will pay dearly--which makes her a horrible traveler. Add that to a stomach virus and I give you our week in Reston at Josh and Jess's house.

Norah started puking the night we got there and didn't stop until the day before we left. Luckily, my mom was prepared to drive Jess to the hospital in case she went into labor, so she knew her way around to take Norah and I to the emergency room at 4 a.m.

The idea was that Norah and Ellie would play and that me, my mom, Alexi, and Jessica would have a girls' week before little Piper was born. Awesome, right?

Here's what most of the week really looked like:

And did I mention that Josh and Jess have white carpet? Norah threw up all over their white carpet.

So we were the opposite of helpful and fun. But for me, it was nice to not have to be home by myself with a sick kid. I got breaks from the puke monster to go shopping and see an actual movie in an actual theater. Plus, I never get to see Josh and Jess, so it was great just to be able to chat it up and watch some reality TV.

My mom managed to get a picture of Norah looking happy and not ill on one of the walks she went on with the girls.

Norah was well enough for one outing. We all went to the Taste of Reston for food and a little carnival. So adorable to have cousins together!

Norah was not convinced that the carnival games were fun.

But she did enjoy the prizes.

A BIG thanks to Josh and Jess for being amazing hosts and to my mom for being so darn helpful as always. I really am so glad we got to go. Sure, I wish that Norah wasn't such a baby--but kids ruin everything, right?

About the month of June...

Any time Norah sees something out of the ordinary--something that is particularly large, strange, unexpected, or awesome--she says, "It's a big one!" But she kind of slurs the sentence together so it comes to life sort of like "is-a-big-whon." It's our favorite thing that she does right now. Nic comes home with a different truck: It's a big one. I give her a piece of pizza: It's a big one. Moxie and Sup run by really fast: It's a big one.

So about June: It was a big one.

Our trip to California for Russell's birthday started it off. Because what better excuse to take one last trip where Norah flies for free? Although she could have left the attitude at home, as I captured so perfectly here:

And here:

It's as if she has no idea how few kids get to go to California, like, four or five times before their second birthday.

We celebrated Ham Lincoln style, complete with a life-sized Lincoln log house.

And a group of adorable kindergarteners.

This birthday boy is extremely lucky to have the best party-throwing mom pretty much in the universe. You can check out a full slideshow of the event on Alissa's blog. I was behind the camera, but I swear I was there and it was extremely awesome and I'm pretty sure I'll have to do it again next year.

I'm lucky I got to be a part of this guy's special day. Thanks King family!

Broken record

Right now I feel like every other blog post for the rest of my life is going to say something to the effect of "Hey, we've been super busy living life, it's super awesome and exhausting, here's some pictures." And I only have one kid! Unless I can count two dogs and two cats as like 3/4 of a kid; or at least as a annoying nephew or someone who I don't like most of the time. I understand now why my mom had a one cat and one dog rule. THAT was being generous!

But listen, we've been super busy living life, so here's some pictures:

If Nic is home, you can bet money that Norah is standing on his chest and "bouncing!," which is more like having a 28-pound kettle bell hurling itself at his gut. Way fun to watch, but we do not "bounce" on Mom.

Did you notice the for sale sign in the first picture? Our house if totally for sale, but it's totally not going to sell for what we want it to. We put it on the market to see what would happen. If it does sell, we'd like to move to the Millcreek/Holladay/Sugarhouse area. But I have already cried a couple times at the thought of moving, which leaves Nic wondering what in the world is wrong with me. You see, I have a hard time making friends and I have really good friends who live about 100 feet from my house, so why would I want to change that? I could go on and on but then you would be right there with Nic wondering what is wrong with her? Here is Norah with the neighbors in a wagon we got when the three of us ditched the husbands and kids to go garage-saleing and subsequently filled up Nic's entire truck bed with treasures. Why would I want to change this?

We also love the parks all around our house.

Nic is currently obsessed with fishing. Like get-up-at-3-a.m.-and-drive-to-the-lake obsessed. For Memorial Day he agreed to leave at 7:30 a.m., so we agreed to be present. On our way to the mountains, we discovered that Norah gets car sick, which is why she's wearing a jacket, gloves, boots, and shorts. I'm impressed that I even remembered to pack another set of clothes.

Easter

On a lighter note, Easter happened, which was actually more like three days of Norah eating more candy than she's ever had in her entire life to date. The weekend proved to me, yet again, how blessed we are to have such an amazing support system. For example:

What kid coloring Easter eggs has the complete attention of six adults? Seriously. I hope it doesn't go to her head--but then again I kind of do. Not to get too serious again, but there is just so much in her life that I won't be able to control. She will, however, always know that she is loved.

And we love her even though she can be a giant turd, as evidenced by Nic's fist shaking. She really likes telling everyone "No!" and "Mine!"

She even stared down my dad. Apparently he was doing it wrong.

A lot of our time was spent re-dyeing eggs. It went like this: Drop egg in dye, get spoon, lift egg out immediately while shouting "Get it get it get it get it get it!" Repeat. And repeat. And repeat again and again.

When it was time to go, we could not get her to let go of the paints and brush she was using. She clutched onto them the whole way home and ended up going to bed with them still in her baby death grip. I think she had a good time.

Eagle Mountain city had an egg hunt that began and ended in about five minutes. But check out this Easter baby mullet:

We also had an egg hunt at Grandma Stewart's with Norah's cousins. And you know what is so awesome? Norah is finally at an age where we can go to Grandma's house and she will actually play with all these cousins she's lucky to have. It really is the best thing ever.

Here they are on the hunt:

Showing Dad her spoils:

Still excited to show Mom:

About the thing I learned from opening my mouth when I shouldn't have

You've probably never noticed, but on the About Me section of my blog I've given myself a Grand Canyon-sized disclaimer about how I really can't (read: won't) blog about "the really good stuff." Truth is, I usually do write about the good stuff--at least most of the sort-of-interesting-to-people-who-know-me stuff. At very least my daughter is cute and my family can come here to see the latest pictures of her adorableness.

What I can't (i.e., won't) blog about so far has been much more personal. Stuff like, oh, I don't know, the fact that I haven't been to church since Norah was blessed. Yep, I just put that out there and, nope, still not ready to talk about it.

But I relearned something this weekend. And even though I can't really share, I still want to share. See, I thought that I knew how to be the bigger person. Ever heard the quote "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle"? I thought I was all over that shit. Like, "Oh, you don't think someone should be able to marry whomever they want? What if that person was your child? What if that person was you?" Or, "Who am I to say what I would do if I were destitute? I would probably do whatever it took to get into the U.S. too."

Bam! I'm so not judgmental.

And then I got offended.

And then I started judging.

And then Nic got involved.

And now more people are involved.

And now we have a family member who isn't speaking to any of us.

So that "hard battle" I was supposed to be aware that everyone is fighting, was just made a lot harder for a lot of people because I felt like I needed to make myself heard.

Now, I realize that family drama does not begin or end with me, but if I could just put this out there to anyone who has managed to read this far: Be kind, people! Everyone you know if fighting a hard battle.

...

And lest you get distracted by my little church disclosure there at the beginning, look! Adorable pictures of Norah!

My mom and dad were kind enough to watch the babe while Nic and I were in Las Vegas for the weekend. These are two of the pictures I was sent. See if you can tell which one was titled "Like Grandma" and which one is "Like Grandpa."

Busy-ish

There has been so much going on around here, but then again kind of nothing at all. More than ever, I've been finding that the whole business of simply living our lives is exhausting. Exhausting. I keep wanting to catch up on my blog, but then it seems more important to watch Norah dance around in her hand-me-down superhero costume yelling "Awesome!"  for hours.