Pictures from the past week

Dane's second day of skiing, and he got to meet Riperoo!

Heading up the lift with Daddy. Looking quite cool in their shades, I must admit!
Some backcountry goofin' off!

Grammy and her kiddos by beautiful Lake Tahoe last Friday evening.

We passed through the town of Goldfield, NV on our trip to and from Lake Tahoe. In the early 1900's, it was the largest town in all of Nevada with around 20,000 people during the gold boom. Now it's mostly a ghost town, but they have kept up this cute fire station and the old fire truck which Dane was most intrigued by.

"Am I supposed to smile like this for the picture, Daddy?"

Early morning snuggles before Mommy heads off to work.

Mike had a rather busy week at work with his national conference here in Vegas. Then I was on call this weekend and put in a long day yesterday, so he didn't really get his Saturday off. He proved again why I married the most amazing guy in the world. During my day at work, he took care of the kiddos (even made their beds!), washed, dried, folded and put away every bit of dirty laundry in the house, ran and emptied the dishwasher, fixed a leaky pipe on our water softener, and took the kids and dog for a walk to the park. Impressive, isn't it?

Videos

I didn't forget that I had promised videos after my last post a week and a half ago! Here is little Miss Nora learning to patty cake.

As you can tell, Dane loved to ski, and he does pretty well! Hats off to Mike who shot this video while skiing backwards in front of Dane!

Mike's already teaching Dane the fine art of jumping on skis! When I first met Mike, he and his brother would pile up snow in their farm yard and take turns pulling each other on skis behind the four-wheeler (or truck or snowmobile). They would hit the pile of snow and do backflips and other crazy things. Oh, the joys I have ahead of me as my daring boy grows up and becomes even more daring!

Tahoe

Dane plans our trip to Tahoe. He loves to look at maps recently! We are currently in South Lake Tahoe and have been there since Saturday. We will be headed home in 2 days. It has been loads of fun!Walker Lake, middle of nowhere, Nevada.

Road trippin' through Nevada.

Lee, Selina, and Peyton came over to visit us. Selina just loved Nora. Jared came as well, but I don't even have any pictures. It was so great to see them all. It had been way too long!

So happy to see Grampy!

We celebrated Grampy's 50th(!!) birthday a few days late. Dane wanted to make sure we had some cake!

Playing with Selina.

Nora gnaws on some rib bones.

We had some crazy "Dipping Dots" snow while we were walking around town Sunday evening.

Nora learned to patty-cake Sunday evening.

Sledding!

Our accomodations, right under the gondola up to Heavenly ski resort.

"...If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands..."

The entire family.

Kisses for sister.

Family photo in front of the beautiful lake.

Some morning snuggle time with Uncle Benny before he left yesterday.

A day of skiing/boarding at Heavenly together.

The beautiful view.

We accidentally found some powder!

Daddy found this little slope next to our condo and started teaching Dane to ski yesterday. He loved it and did so well that they went up on the hill together today.

More kisses for sister.

Dane inspects his skis before hitting the runs.

Posing for a photo.

Fun on the chair lift.

The cutest kid on the hill.

Nora and Grammy enjoy some snuggle time.

I will eventually post a video of our little ski champ as well, but this is all for now!

It just gets better every day.

Despite trying moments (Dane is a 2-year-old after all, and Nora has yet to establish good sleeping habits), I can honestly say that I love my children more and more each day. Sometimes I love to just stare at Nora and kiss her sweet baby cheeks. Often I feel my heart catch as Dane says something even cuter than the day before. It feels sometimes that my heart just might overflow with all my love for them. I'm so thankful for the privilege of being a Mommy.

On a walk to the park the other evening. Dane loves to run through the desert with Teddy.

Dane thought his slices of pear looked like little sailboats on his plate.
A puzzled look from Nora.
A sweet smile with that pretty little dimple. Big Brother is often on the receiving end of these big grins.

Shooting some hoops during bathtime.

Nighttime snuggles with Mommy.

Nora is definitely developing at a different pace than her big brother. He was crawling by this age, she just rolls around a bit if she feels like it! Dane would do his best to get to toys that looked exciting. Nora is more likely to just let you know (there's a reason we call her our Drama Queen)that she would like a toy- especially if Brother has just snatched it away from her. Dane had teeth before 6 months old. Nora is over 7 months old with no signs of teeth. Dane was too busy to snuggle. Nora would be happy to be held 24/7. I think it's just her way of being certain that she gets her fair share of attention with a busy big brother around the house. I'm quite happy if she stays my baby for a bit longer than her brother did. It all goes too quickly!

Brief Update

I'm posting some pictures quick before I lay my head down- I told Grammy and Grampy I might, so I don't want them to be disappointed when they check in the morning!! We had a bit of drama here this week with Dane's first trip to the ER. We had just finished our supper Tuesday evening and told Dane we were all getting ready to go to the local rec center to shoot some hoops with Daddy. He was so excited that he starting spinning circles down the hallway (tile floors) and slipped and hit his head on a nearby door frame. I thought it was just another bump on the head (not too uncommon around here!) until we noticed the drops of blood on the floor. Just a little gash on the back of his head near his crown, but I could tell it needed some attention. Dane and I headed to the hospital and returned home three hours and two staples later. (I didn't take any pictures.) It didn't even faze him, and he's been his usual monkey self since. I guess I'm just happy that we made it almost 3 years given his activity level!

Here's our little diva all dressed up and growing so quickly.

Dane demonstrating some martial arts moves, it appears. Any wonder he knocked his noggin the other evening?
Helping Daddy feed Teddy.

Naked kiddos getting ready for bath time.

Meal time is getting a bit messier with all the fruits and veggies. Nora loves to blow raspberries about the time you get a full spoon up to her lips! We find food splatters everywhere!

Resolution

Nora has resolved to get more exercise this year. Looks like she's already working on it! She has been sitting in this jumper for the past three months or so but just realized she could jump this week.

Welcome, 2009!

We didn't brave the crowds downtown to ring in the New Year. Instead, we enjoyed a nice quiet evening at home, counting our many blessings. However, we were quite impressed with this amazing feat that occurred here at The Paris on New Year's Eve.

New Year's Day brought back some nice weather with temps in the 60's. These mountains look a bit different without all the pretty snow from a couple weeks ago.

Dane was happy to be running outside again with his new Vikings "tuque" that Jackson picked out for him.

He and Daddy headed out to the driving range in the nice weather. Here Dane tees one up.

Today, Dane played grocery store in our living room. He arranged all his groceries on the shelves, and brought baby Joey along for some shopping.

Our other little growing monkey. This is her quilt from Allysa (see previous post).

She has learned how hold her own bottle, and I didn't even know it. I got home from running some errands, so Daddy had to give her a bottle.

The words from the Jason Mraz song "Lucky" keep running through my head- "I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend..." I'm so thankful, and I wish everyone all good things for 2009.