Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Oh happy day!

I am so excited that Spring is here. I realize it's officially been "Spring" for several weeks... but it hasn't really... it's been more of a lingering winter, nothing near what Spring should be like. Finally, we've started to have sunshine at least once a day, even if just for a few minutes, it's sun, and we love it! We also finally have blooms, my strawberry pots are growing like crazy!! I'm so excited for these delicious little red berries to grow so we can enjoy them all summer. 

Grow Berries Grow! Linking up with My3Boybarians for sweet shot Tuesday.



Look at all those blooms, I cant wait for the berries!

Stella has been awesome the last few days, she is sleeping more consistently, having regular nap times, eating more efficiently, and has just been more happy overall. She's such a great baby! Yes, she has her fussy moment's, but don't all babies? 

So adorable, I love milk drunk babies



and sleeping babies



and how could I not add a pic of Abby bringing me her pheasant?

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy Easter!

 Hope you all had a wonderful Easter! We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast at our favorite spot, Big City Coffee in downtown Boise. Stella was kinda a cranky pants this morning, so we got a late start, but still got a great seat and had a good time. She also celebrated the holiday by letting mommy and daddy sleep for 6.5 hours straight last night! I couldn't believe it when I work up at 6am to her just starting to cry, I always get so nervous when she sleeps that long, but she did great and didn't seem to starved right away. Thank you baby girl, mommy definitely needed the good night sleep. 

The sweet onesie from Abuela Norris, "Somebunny loves me" 

Easter kisses from daddy

This was on Saturday, she seemed so bored at our efforts to get a smile out of her and then....

A smile!! (sorry it's blurry) She has started responding to us with smiles over the past few days! They are adorable, full cheeky grins! Brent seems to get the best reaction out of her, he can get her to smile repeatedly for several minutes, it's so adorable! I cant wait to capture even bigger and less blurry smiles soon.


a kinda smile, she does this a lot

and blurry again, but how could I not share that happy face! She's so stinkin' cute!

She's over it, no more smiles for us

Now were being completely ignored. Get the hint mom and dad huh.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Flashback Friday

I'm so excited to be linking up to my first Flashback Friday this week! I've been wanting to do this for some time now, but just haven't taken the big step and done it, so here goes. 

Circa 2009. Pyramid Alehouse in downtown Seattle, my sister, Brent and I decided to stop for a Pyramid sampler on our way home from Brunch with our families.


I'm not really a beer drinker, so the below photo is totally staged, although I do think I had half the tiny glass just to see if I liked it. Nope. Still not a beer fan.


sorry its blurry... but I think this picture is pretty funny. Easter doesn't usually drive us to drink this much, promise.


Pammy gettin' her Curveball on.


and deciding what to drink next




And now to take you way back, to 2003. My first Easter brunch with Brent's family.It was raining at this moment, and Brent's mom was snapping candid photos of us. I love how young we look in this Picture, and how awkward we both are, ha ha ha.


Happy Friday! 

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Our Little Chunk-A-Monk

I have to admit it sooner or later... we may have a little chunk on our hands. Stella is getting to be so long and chubby, and she's starting to have little rolls on her thighs, its pretty adorable. She's also developed quite the little double chin, but a little neck pudge never hurt, it's quite cute actually.


Look at those thighs! and that belly! and those oh so kissable cheeks!


Now you may be wondering what a Chunk-A-Monk is... It's our nickname for the little chunky monkey that is our daughter, well more of my nick name for her, I just cant help tickling her tummy and giving her chubby cheeks a kiss and calling her my little Chunk-A-Monk very affectionately. and oh, those cheeks are so darn kissable, I love them.

And now, A photo dump from the past two weeks. I've been trying to get these posted since last week... but the little just wasn't having it when i'd put her down for more than a few minutes, she loves her snuggles.


Enjoying a little vitamin D. and Linking up with My3Boybarians for Sweet shot Tuesday...  On Thursday.

Playing Xbox with daddy... we'll at least he's trying to play, she kept wiggling and reaching out for him, which made things difficult.

Getting some loves from Auntie on her second visit last weekend

More snuggles with Auntie

And a little afternoon nap on the couch

It was pretty entertaining watching Pam try to juggle the plate with a wiggly Stella on her lap, but she did great.

Getting ready for bed with mom


I love me some bedtime baby kisses 

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

1 Month and growing

Stella, my little, my munchkin, my sweet baby girl,

I've got to start with the cliche that everyone says, this month has gone by much too quickly. You are growing and changing so much every day baby girl, and I am trying my best to take it all in, every cry, every smile, every second spent snuggling with you, nursing you, laughing at your cuteness. You have made your daddy and me so incredibly happy. So far, you have grown out of your newborn clothes at just 2 weeks old, mastered nursing and letting us know when you are hungry, gotten into the night time sleeping habit thankfully, and so many other things. You love baths with mommy, I soak and you join me for an average 10 to 15 minutes of snuggles and scrubs, you actually love to be in the water also, not just sitting or laying on me, fully submerged up to your shoulders, we usually do a few dunks to rinse you off. You also love naked time, for a little bit. This usually happens when changing your diaper, which you're now fully into cloth diapers and it makes daddy and I so happy to see you in your adorable cloth. You love laying on the changing table to air out a little, fully naked and enjoying your birthday suit. You also love your car seat and car rides, thank goodness! It's a little rough getting you all strapped in, you don't actually enjoy anything about that part, but once your in, tighten up, and clicked into the base in the truck, your happy as a clam. You love the sound daddy's truck makes, it lulls you to sleep almost instantly. Daddy also stumbled upon the fact that you love rock n roll, His favorite. Or more a little alternative I guess, Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, that kinda rock. I also discovered your like of more up beat music, Katy Perry, Sugarland, and anything with a good beat that mommy can dance around the house to, nothing too slow. This makes mommy kinda happy and certainly has helped me loose the baby weight.

This past week you've been a bit more of a challenge, fussing quite often throughout the day. You only want to be held, which it absolutely fine with me, I love to snuggle. I love my days with you, but I am most definitely ready for a break when daddy gets home, which is something rough when you cry, I wish he could see your sweetness throughout the mornings and not just the fussy you at night.

Current 1 month stats (approximated)
about 10 lbs, were guessing from weighing ourselves then you.
23.5 inches, I measure you every week just for run.
pooping and peeing all day long, and feeds about 8 or 9 times a day
Sleeping about 5 hours straight at night, then feeds for an hour or two, then sleeps another 3 hours, love!

We both love you so much Stella, you are our little, our baby girl, and we are so excited to have you in our lives.

Love,
Mommy and daddy

One month old, and a few days... I had to wait for sunshine.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Newborn Pictures with Nikki Hoover Photography


There here!! I am so excited to share these beautiful photos of Stella, Brent and I. Nikki is our Boise photographer of choice, as you may have noticed in the past few months. She is truly amazing and has a beautiful and talented eye for photography. These pictures were taken when Stella was 8 days old, isnt she adorable!?! We had so much fun shooting these, a little too much fun in fact, I think we were in Nikki's home studio for almost 4 hours... maybe more. Thank you again Nikki, for putting up with us and capturing some of the most beautiful baby pictures I have ever seen. We love them!

A Question!!! ~ edited with more info

I am so excited to answer my first question from a fellow blogger and new follower! I just got a comment email from my blog hop post and thought I would answer it really quick while Stella is sleeping.


Q: "Your blog is so cute. I havent read a ton, but just the setup alone, has me full of so many questions. I would love to know how you set up the top to display 4 photos and the options menu. Its perfect!! Love love love!!




yeah for the blog hop!
thesimsii.blogspot.com "


A: Thanks for following thesimsii!!! I found this fun website for my photo editing, www.picnik.com, it's pretty simple, and I dont usually do much to my photos, if anything, but for the blog header they have these neat layouts. Simply upload your pictures (the basic version allows 5 uploads, I'm about to the point where I would like to upload more, so I'm thinking of upgrading to a higher version), edit, find a template you like, and move pictures around until you have your perfect header. You can change the size of the pictures simply by clicking and dragging, add text, and other fun things. 

Eventually I might get photoshop, but I have no idea how to use it, so Picnik is my photo editing site of choice for now. 

Any other questions, feel free to ask away :) Now, if only someone can talk me through changing HTML codes to make my blog fully screen... I'd love some tips! 






******************** I had another question stem off of this post that I'll do my best to answer.


Q:  Brittani said...



Loving your blog! I found it via Spearmint Baby! If I can ask, what size did you make your background to upload? Thanks!
A: Thanks Brittani! I loved looking through your blog yesterday as well!
I am a total beginner at this HTML stuff, but after some research, many trial and error previews, and several size adjustments, I finally figured out how to make the blog wider. This is for the Simple layout on Blogger, Be sure your layout is how you want it before editing HTML, or you'll be going back to fix it multiple times. To change the size of the background (White) for text, go to design, then edit HTML (always save a copy of your original blog just in case things dont turn out the way you would like them to), 

scroll down just below half way to the part that looks like this for skin:
    b:template skin 
b:variable default 930px name content width type length value 1200px...
b:variable default 560px name main column left width type length value 200...
b:variable default 560px name main column right width type length value 200...


I had to leave out all of the symbols that are in there because it kept showing up blank... thats HTML code for ya I guess. 


You'll notice my values posted above are different than what you're probably seeing, these are the numbers you'll want to edit to make the columns bigger. 1200px is my middle column, and I made both left and right side columns the same size at 200px. once you've changed this, preview the new blog look to make sure you like it, then save and you're good to go :)
Now... if your wondering about the picture... I felt super smart figuring that one out *totally sarcastic*. I tried saving ALL different sizes of the header from Picnik... literally saved 4 or 5 different sizes of the same image lol. but they all kept looking the same when I would upload them!!! I was getting so frustrated I almost gave up... then I realized I had to unclick the little box that says something like "max size 960"........ Oh. So, once I unclicked that little box before uploading, I found that the photo size that worked best was around 1040 I think. 
Now to be completely honest, I have no idea what any of those numbers mean. I jumped around from 1000, to 1200, to 1400, to 1600... and just previewed each one to see what looked best... like I said at the beginning, this was all trial and error for me. 
I hope this helps! And I cant wait to see any changes made to your blog Brittani! and to read more fun stories about your adorable twins! 

The next step

For awhile now I've been wanting to do something more with our blog. I want to write more eloquently, take more pictures, take better pictures for that matter, write about things that are not all about baby... its going to be a work in progress from now on.

Today I decided to take a leap... I linked up with a blog hop!! Whats a blog hop you ask? It's where multiple blogs connect in one place and head over to check out new blogs that are also linked up. It's a great way to generate new followers, find awesome new blogs, and get inspiration for posts. Some blog hops have themes, such as post a picture of this today, or write about a favorite vacation... etc. But this blog hop is all about growing your blog into the best it can be.

So, if your joining Our Life today from the Spearmint Baby Blog Hop, Welcome!! I'm very happy you're here.

And you can join the hop also, just head here and link up your blog with the rest,

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Life with a baby

Things are finally starting to settle down here in the Norris household. Were starting to get used to having a baby around, waking up multiple times a night, eating on her schedule, going to the store on her schedule. I don't make appointments or plans with anyone without warning them that things could chance at a minutes notice... it's all dependent on the baby. We did make it out to our first restaurant with her today, lunch at Bad Boy Burgers. It went well, we were only there for 20 minutes or so, Brent's a quick eater and I just packed mine up to go to keep up with him, but she only fussed once, yay! We probably wont be back to any of our favorite down town eateries anytime soon, but hopefully starting with quick, small outings will get us ready for taking her to bigger, better places. 

On to Cloth... Stella is finally fitting into all of her diapers!! Below she's wearing a polka dot Blueberry pocket diaper, and the light yellow is a Fuzzibunz perfect fit pocket, my personal favorite on her, they fit very trimly and have not had any leaks at all! She even went 7 hours in a Fuzzibunz the other night! only for testing purposes :) I would have let her go longer but I was already feeling like a bad parent for letting her go that long. 


Napping next to Mommy the other morning


holding her own paci in her mouth... she also pulls it out on her own too



hangin out in the swing  while mommy cleaned, she had the funniest looks on her face


Daddy's new favorite snuggle spot, hands free loves, adorable

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Our Weekend in Pictures

I thought I would post some of the pictures we've been taking while Abuela Norris is here this weekend visiting the little. We've not done much, only left the house a few times, but it's been nice to have company again and have an extra set of hands. I was finally able to catch a few extra zzz's this weekend, Brent and Beth took turns helping with the baby in the morning so I could sleep, Thank you Brent and Beth! So, Enjoy our weekend in pictures. 


Thank you Sharon Wells for the adorable onesie! 



Enjoying some napping in the swing



Bath Time! We usually do baths in the big tub on mommy's chest, she loves them normally, but in this little tub? Not so much... She screamed almost the whole time! Not to mention the first minute we had her in there, she pushed off the bottom wall and splashed water ALL OVER the counter/floor/ mom and dad... it was a mess! But, she got clean and smells nice, and we still got some pretty cute naked baby shots. 





My grandma, Stella's great-grandma Grisham, made her several of these adorable crocheted hats, they are perfect for chilly days like today, and finally fit her tiny head. We added a beautiful bow that a friend here in Boise made for Stella, its adorable on this hat!



Stella snuggling with Abuela Beth




So, thats our weekend :) It was wonderful having Beth here to visit and help out, I truly appreciate helpful visitors now, and Stella loves new people to cuddle with.

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