Random Photos of Nora

Nora loves giving her moose a kiss, babies kisses, books kisses but not quite into giving mommy or daddy kisses yet. Here she was giving her 'Grandma Nora Bear' a kiss...of course I didn't catch it in the picture because our camera is too slow!!!

Now she is done giving kisses and wants to sit on the poor bear!


Nora LOVES the tupperware drawer....maybe it is because it is one of the few cupboards she doesn't get in trouble for going in

Nora loves getting her toys out of her toychest

Messy Messy Nora

hm....what IS she doing here?

Nora LOVES carrying around this Dots lunchbox I bought at Old Navy on clearance for 1 dollar!!
check out her hair....MULLET

Nora sleeping on a pillow, I went in to check on her and she was like this---she looks so grown up.

Nora and daddy hanging out

Nora

Nora getting so big, she loves to get up the stairs and then go to her room and get her 'lovey bear' and nuk out of her crib.

Nora walking

Visit from Kirsten and Grandma Debbie

Nora and Kirsten

Nora and Grandma

Nora showing Grandma how to use a spoon!!!

Nora and Grandma Debbie

We were again lucky to have 'stuff' going on this week. We had 2 visitors this week.

My high school friend Kirsten came and spent Monday and Tuesday night with us. Nora was a bit wary of Kirsten at first but then warmed up to her. It was so fun to see Kirsten and hang out with her. We caught up and enjoyed our time together. Nora showed her all her toys and had a few temper tantrums.

Then Wednesday came and my mom came into town. Nora enjoyed spending time with Grandma Debbie since she doesn't get to see her very often. We ran a few errands, I needed some maternity jeans! Then Thursday morning Nora, Grandma and I were all up at 6am to drive Grandma to the airport so she could get to Vegas with her sisters/sister in law . wow, were we tired. Nora took a nap when we got home from our long drive.

We love having visitors and it was so fun to have a few in a short time.

Week of catching up: with friends

Katie and Adam and Nora

Nora hanging out with all her toys while daddy is at work!
She loves carrying around her pumpkin bucket.

Matt had sales training this week, which means he is training for work from 8-5 and then gets to go out to eat/drink from 5-10pm. Needless to say, I was a single mother for the week. I put a post on my facebook asking if anyone wanted to do dinner (hoping that this wouldn't be a status that WAS NOT commented on making me look very SAD and PATHETIC!) I was overwhelmed by people who wanted to hang out with ME!!!!! I feel like sometimes I want to be such a great wife, mother, housekeeper, worker that I forget to be a friend. This was a great week to remember to do this.
Monday: Ate at my neighbor, Kelly's house-she made amazing chicken pot pie.
Tuesday: Ate at other neighbors house, where Nora got to play with her boyfriend William
Wednesday: Night free with Nora and Mommy....we enjoyed girl time
Thursday: Night at Noodles & Co with Katie and Adam
Friday: Matt was home early so we ate PB&Js at home

It was a great week, although Nora missed daddy quite a bit!!

It's a........BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!

So the news is official and we have had a few ultrasounds so I think it is safe to let the blogging world know: We are pregnant, we are having a boy, due date is May 21st which means we are about 22 weeks along. Baby boy Forslund looks good and healthy, according to the ultrasound tech. Matt says he could tell that the baby was a boy before the ultrasound tech told us...ha ha Matt!

We are very excited to turn into true FOURSLUNDS! I guess our blogname will need to change.

Nora LOVES babies, she loves to poke them, and pat their heads so she will be a great big sister!!

The kids will be about 17 1/2 months apart so it will be a crazy household but we are looking forward to the adventure!

Nora's HAIR!!!

Nora has ALOT of hair!! I feel like I could give her a haircut every other week. I am too scared to do this so I am waiting for my mom to come in a few weeks. Right now she has a mullet, Matt and I tried to capture the wonderfulness of this with some photos! I know, poor girl is going to hate us when she grows up! I try to put her hair in pig tails or ponytails everyday so that her hair isn't in her eyes!

Nora trying to put on daddy's viking crocs

Nora looking like 'Hulk'

Nora

Nora and her mullet....Matt put on a vest as well to make her look like McGruber!

MOPS--Praying BIG!!

We had a MOPS meeting tonight and our speaker talked about praying big. It was a great awakening to looking to the future of our daughter, our goals, and our future together. I really came away from the meeting knowing that God can help in the smallest and BIGGEST ways, I needed that reminder.

Matt's New Job

Matt took a new position within the same company, Shavlik Technolgies. He is now managing all the international account business for the company. He got a major in International Business, so he is so excited to put that degree to use! His hours: 5am to 2pm. Awesome to have him home in the afternoons, but wow 5am is early. He has a 1 hour commute to work so that means leaving our house at 4am. We'll see how the transition goes, I am praying smoothly. I know he is very excited about the new position and the challenges that will come with it.

Maybe he will actually post about it soon......hm...

New Years!

New Years. How the celebration has changed since we have a baby! We used to go to an annual New Years Bash, but now with a baby, it is more fun to stay home and turn in at 11!

This year we spent New Years Eve with our neighbors and their son William who is about 4 weeks younger than Nora. We had a wonderful steak dinner and played sequence (Jon and I won 3 times....I am NOT gloating though!)

New Years Day, we went to Williams' birthday party and just hung out trying to get Matt ready for his new job starting on Monday!

Williams Birthday Party....what a cute monkey!

Auntie Katie & "soon to be" Uncle Adam!!!!

Celebrating at Burger Jones
Me, Matt, Katie and Adam

Matt's sister got engaged on Christmas Day! We are so excited for her and Adam. We went out to celebrate at Burger Jones in St. Louis Park. We had never been there before, but will definetely be back. They had awesome shakes and good beer specials (I did NOT get to partake of the beer but DID have a shake!) Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Forslund for watching Nora for a few hours so we could celebrate with the excited couple!!

Katies ring is beautiful and Adam totally surprised her with it in her stocking! Can't wait for wedding plans to begin!

Week Off...

Nora loving her time with Daddy!!!!

Matt has the week off and so do I. We get to just hang out with Nora! We did NOTHING. It was fun and boring and relaxing. Just what we needed after a long weekend of fun and Nora not feeling well.

We really enjoyed our time of 'us'.

Christmas!!

Christmas WEEKEND:
We celebrated Christmas, Christmas eve morning first and had brunch with the Forslunds. We feel so lucky they live 'right down the road'. Nora loves watching their dog, Polo, run around. It was a good time for everyone to just share some quality time together as a family. Nora again wasn't soo interested in the presents, but she loved the empty boxes! She got some awesome books, an adorable skirt/outfit from Auntie Katie/Uncle Adam, and a doll from Great Grandparents. She is a lucky girl.

We then drove to my parents farm to celebrate Christmas with my family. My parents live on a gravel road so in winter time getting to their unshoveled, unplowed road is a challenge. This time the road was only open from the West so we had to travel a few miles out of the way to get to the farm. The snow covered gravel road was a new experience for Matt and we almost got stuck on the way!! We had 5 oclock church which I drove to since I am used to driving like a madwoman on snowy gravel roads. We ate our annual Christmas steak dinner and opened presents that night. Nora got WAY too much, although she didn't seem to care as she had a fever of 101 all weekend. She needed to be held and didn't sleep very well due to feeling sick. I felt bad for her. I don't know if it was teething or a viral bug but she was not happy and NOT feeling well--which in turn did not make mommy or daddy very rested or happy!!

Christmas Day--Santa came to Grandma and Grandpas house. Grandma Debbie took Nora and Nora finally took a nap in her arms. Her fever broke during that nap....poor grandma got Nora's sweat all over her from it! The kids all played outside and we cooked and played games all day.

The day after Christmas--we drove to Roseville to celebrate with my dad's family. We had wonderful food and took a great family photo OUTSIDE on their deck. Nora was still not feeling well so she was pretty much stuck to my or matt's hip. My cousin Erika did get her to nap again in her lap so that was a nice treat! We had a great time hanging out with the family and just enjoying Christmas.

Nora in her cute skirt from Aunt Katie/Uncle Adam

Grandma Anne

Grandpa Steve

Grandparents and Nora on Christmas Morning

Nora EXHAUSTED after only our FIRST Christmas celebration....she still has 2 left!

Nora(almost 13 months) and Landrey (15 months)

Look at all the hair Nora has compared to Landrey!!!!

All the cousins doing their 'program' - When we were younger, we always needed to read the Christmas story and create a program before we were able to open presents on Christmas. Now the tradition has been transferred to the younger generation!

Nora crawling through the paper....look at her poor eyes, you can tell she doesn't feel well!

Decorating for Christmas

We FINALLY put up Christmas decorations. We got a Little People nativity set from my aunt/aunt/cousin last year as a baby gift. We were slow to put up decorations so we just put out a few decorations.....a nativity set, a SMALL tree, and our stockings. I put the 2 nativity sets up that we have so Nora got her nativty set and I had My Willow Tree Nativty set. She enjoyed looking at mine and PLAYING with hers.

Nora is WALKING!

Nora is WALKING. She is actually preferring to walk over crawl. If she falls, she will get back up instead of finishing her journey crawling. It is amazing and nerve-racking watching her toddle around the house hoping she doesn't fall too hard. She does not enjoy shoes though so we need to work on that more. When I put shoes on her, she will not walk, she just stands there staring at her feet like she has Ronald McDonald shoes on.

Nora taking her first few steps. She started walking at her birthday and this is the first time I was able to catch it on tape because everytime she sees the camera she drops down and crawls over to get it!

1st Birthday - Owl Style

Nora and her Godmother, Kirsten

Nora and Anne

Nora in her outfit from Grandma Debbie.....Daddie thinks she kind of looks like a P I M P(He added the hat to give her the full look!)

Nora 'trying' her birthday cupcake

Nora and Aunt Elle with her owl 1st Birthday Cake

Nora's Smiles

Kitchen Crew on 1st Birthday---Courtney manning all the kids!

Nora's 1st Birthday

We did not know if we would have Nora's birthday since we had been all sick. We were feeling better so we decided to go ahead with the party. Nora NEEDED a 1st birthday party.

She had an owl themed birthday "Look WHOO's turning 1". My neighbor Jessica who has a Cricut helped me with the invites. The Cricut is now what I want for Christmas!



Nora's party was full of fun and presents and good food. My mom and Courtney, Charlie, JT, and Kate all came down early to help me get ready which was so nice! Courtney manned the kitchen so I could mix and mingle and watch little miss Nora run around. Our house was chaotic to say the least. There were more than 20 people crammed into our TINY house. She was not really into opening the presents or eating the cake but oh well!



She got a bunch of presents that make LOUD noises and she LOVES them! Thanks everyone!!

She got a toy chest from Grandma and Grandpa Ulstad (we can now HIDE her loud toys...ha ha!) She got a set of keys and a book from her pseudo aunt Anne K and she cannot stop playing with them!! She also took her first 'real steps' at her birthday party. I think Grandpa Steve maybe got it on tape(do you say tape or dvd? well...whatever you are supposed to say these days!!)



She was VERY tired and was out cold until 9:30 the next morning! Wow, she partied like a rockstar!

Nora is 1!!

Nora is one. Where did the year go?

We had her 12 month check up. She has an ear infection. Poor girl.

But she weighed 21 lbs 10.5 oz which is in the 55%

She was 29.5 inches which is in the 60%

Her head circumference was 43.4cm which is in the 15%

I knew it was coming and the doctor agreed that Nora needed to wean off the bottle. EEK! She loves her bottle, it is her comfort and she falls asleep with it (I know, horrible, but it helps her sleep!) So the next day we started with the whole milk sippy cups. I still give her a bottle at night but no more daytime bottles. She got a set of books from a neighbor for her birthday and one was called "Baby Cookie Monster says Too Big For Bottles" So we read that to her....and she is so smart that she 'gets it!!'

She is walking around, slowing and wobbly, but walking. She is turning into a cuddler which mommy and daddy LOVE! She is starting to point and ask for things. She is REALLY loving having temper tantrums. I am hoping it is just because she cannot communicate what she needs/wants that she feels she needs to throw these rages. Please, Please, Please let these tantrums be temporary!!

Nora is so sweet and it is amazing to think that one year ago, we were driving to Waconia getting ready to deliver her. It has been an amazing journey of a year and we can't believe what we did with our time before little pookie came along! Happy Birthday dear little one!