Bond Family Blog

Last weekend we decided to make a last minute trip to Disneyland. It was Norah’s first trip to Disneyland and I think she had a ball. Preston loved going on all of the rides and seeing all of his favorite Disney characters on everything. He rode everything from Dumbo to Buzz Lightyear to Autopia. Norah got scared on the rides that went inside, but she was a good sport about everything. It was a great day filled with magic.

For Norah’s birthday party we got to have lots of fun with ladybugs. I had a lot of fun decorating the house with everything from a monthly photo banner to sugar cookies for the party. Norah loved eating her cake and cried when it was time to stop. Everyone had fun playing with the ladybugs outside. In fact Norah’s friend Jacob was covered in them by the time we were done. I’m not sure who opened more presents, Preston or Norah, but they both had fun getting to do it together. We were so blessed to have so many family and friends who got to share the day with us. A big thank you from Norah to everyone!

Can you believe how fast this year has gone? I can not believe that our little baby is 1! She is growing up so fast! She started walking on her birthday. She is so much fun to watch as she tries to walk places and then decides that crawling can be so much easier. She’s getting better and better at it each and every day. Norah loves to play with Preston, read books and be tickled. She loves to smile and is normally a happy girl. She still loves to eat too. I have stopped nursing and she isn’t the biggest fan of milk, but she still loves her yogurt and cheese. At her 1 year check up she came in at 21 lbs, 12 oz. and 30.25 inches long. She did great with her shots and was grateful that Preston was there to hold her hand.

A couple of days after her birthday our friend Ginnie took her 1 year photos. Once again Ginnie did an awesome job capturing our sweet baby girl.

So you might think that we have fallen off the face of the earth, but never fear we are still here! Life has been so fun and crazy that I haven’t had time to blog. In November Ryan and I took our first night away with no kids. It was a lot of fun and the kids did awesome with Poppy and Grammies! Thank you! In December we had lots of fun getting our house ready for the holidays and spending time together. The kids did not like Santa Claus this year. In fact Preston was so scared of him that he didn’t want him to bring any presents. It was ok if he brought them for Norah, but he didn’t want any from Santa. Hopefully next year he will be more excited.

We were definitely spoiled this year with 3 days of Christmas. We had our Christmas morning on Christmas Eve with just us. It was so much fun to see the kids excited about their toys. Preston would go back and forth all day between each of the new toys. He loved it! That night we got to have all of the family over for our traditional Christmas Eve goodie night. The next morning (the real Christmas morning) we got to have Christmas morning all over again, but this time at the Bond’s house. It was so much fun to have all of the family in town for Christmas morning. Because Christmas was on Sunday this year we even got to go to church and be reminded of the true meaning of Christmas.

The next day we took a break from opening presents and made the long trek up to Utah. Then on the 27th we got to have Christmas morning for the 3rd time. It was awesome! We got to spend a week visiting family in Utah and then we made our way home.

We are so blessed to have so much family who loves us. We had an awesome year in 2011. I can’t believe how fast the kids are growing and how fast life just keeps moving. We can’t wait for the excitement that 2012 brings!

In November we took our first family photos. Ginnie made it so easy to relax and just have fun. Here are some of our favorites. Thanks again to Roots Photography for some awesome shots!

We have had a busy and fun filled month! We started off October with Auntie Katie’s wedding. It was at a really fun hot springs resort. We got to spend the weekend hanging out with family and having fun. Katie looked gorgeous and Preston did awesome walking down the aisle holding his “Here Comes the Bride” sign. Hopefully we will get pictures soon to show you!

After the wedding my mom was able to come out for a week and visit. It was fun to have her here to help me finish up some projects for our big craft night at church that I was in charge of. She was sick while she was here so we didn’t get to do a lot, but Preston loved playing with her. She also made Preston a fun dinosaur cape.

It was so much fun decorating our house for Halloween this year! Preston loves spiders right now. I bought him a pair of spider pj’s and that’s all he wanted to wear for a week. I finally got him another spider shirt and Grammers made him 2 more. He was really excited when we bought spiders to put on the outside of our house.

We were able to make a trip to the pumpkin patch again this year. The only way we could get Preston to smile was when I showed him candy and he said “trick or treat.”

Halloween weekend was full of fun! On Friday Ryan’s work did a trick-or-treat for the first time. Preston loved going to dad’s work. He wouldn’t say trick-or-treat, but he wasn’t shy to take the candy! On Saturday all of the family was in town and we got to have taco night and spend time with them and have Poppy’s birthday. We carved pumpkins at home on Sunday and then on Monday Preston got to go trick or treating for the first time. We only took him down our street, but he loved going up to each house. After every house he would say “more trick more trick.” The last two houses we went to he said “trick or treat” at the door. When he came home he loved handing out candy. He wanted to open all of his candy, but didn’t want to eat any of it. He would touch his tongue to it and then push it aside.

We had a great halloween and a busy month, but we are ready to start getting ready for cold weather and more Holidays!

Oh yea, something I should probably mention. We didn’t sleep much between when my mom was here and Halloween. Preston started waking up really early in the morning and then in the middle of the night and would be wide awake. After about a week I got him to start going back to sleep in our bed, but then I wasn’t getting any sleep. So we finally went to the doctor. She confirmed that there was no ear infection, but that he had allergies. So we have started him on some meds and he is now back to his normal sleeping schedule! I am so happy for him because he was always so tired and I couldn’t do anything to help him get more sleep.

Can you believe that Norah is 9 months old already? 9 months is a sad age for me because that means she has been outside of my belly for longer than she was inside. At her 9 month check in she weight in at 19 pounds, 29 inches and 44.5 head circumference. Norah is such a sweet baby girl. Her two favorite things to do are laugh and eat. It is so easy to get her to laugh and she always has a huge smile on her face. She would eat all day long if I let her too. She is doing good on all of her solids and will often times eat more than Preston does at dinner. She is a crawling maniac. She loves to follow us around and to get into things. She walks along furniture and has started letting go a couple of times, no steps yet though. When daddy gets home at night she gets a huge grin on her face and crawls as fast as she can to him.  She loves to swing at the park and loves to play with all of Preston’s toys. She had fun dressing up for Halloween as a Ghost. Our good friend Ginnie with Rolling Shutter Photography took her pictures. We are so grateful that Norah is a part of our family!!

Can you believe that Norah is 8 months already? It is crazy how fast she is growing up. She has started crawling and pulling herself up. She gets so proud of herself every time she stands up. She loves to follow us around the house. Preston and Norah still love playing with each other.

We had a great trip to Utah. I was able to take my sister Aimee up to BYU-Idaho. It was a lot of fun to see everything that changed and to help out. While we were in Utah we also got a chance to take Preston to the Zoo and to the state fair. I think everyone had a great trip. Preston is still doing great with the potty training, and even made it on both car trips with no accidents.

I just looked at the calendar and realized that Norah is 7 months old today. When did that happen? This year has gone by so fast and the last two months have flown by. Since I last posted we had Aunt Molly’s wedding. It was so much fun to be there and help her celebrate that day. I hope that she gets her pictures soon and shares them with us because we were so busy we couldn’t take very many pictures.

After the wedding we took a week as a family to go to San Diego to see the sites. It was a lot of fun and there is a lot to tell you about, so I will save that for it’s own post.

This week I didn’t have anywhere that I had to go so I decided it was time to start potty training. Preston has done awesome! On Monday night I had him sit on the potty for two hours and we got nothing. Finally Ryan came home and suggested he stand to pee, still nothing. Tuesday morning he woke up with a dry diaper and wanted to go potty first thing. He finally got his Toy Story underwear! Tuesday was a pretty intense day and a lot of it was spent in the bathroom, but Preston is a pro! We have had accidents every day, but he has started telling me when he needs to go and he can hold it until he gets there. We are so proud of him!! I am still scared to leave the house, but each day is getting better and better so hopefully we can make a trip somewhere soon.

Norah update: So with all of the craziness that has gone all I forgot to post Norah’s 6 month stats. At her 6 month appt. she was 16lbs 4 oz. and 26.5 inches. We got to have a fun dinner with some of the family. Aunt Molly and Uncle Neil were in town getting ready for the wedding, so they were able to come too. A couple days after her doctors appt and shots she started waking up in the night….and has been since then. I think some of it is teeth and some of it must have just been a growth spurt. Finally the last two nights are almost back to normal. I realized how spoiled I have been by her great sleeping habits! Norah sits up all by herself. She was a little wobbly at the wedding, but by the time we got to San Diego a week later she was a pro. She loves to sit and play with all of her toys, and Preston’s. She loves to roll around on the floor and has starting pushing up on to her knees this week. I’m afraid that crawling is right around the corner. She loves to watch Baby Signing Time. She is eating three meals a day of real food. I am trying to make most of her food and she is so funny because she knows that when I get out the magic bullet that it’s almost time to eat. She is a very “intense” eater. Once she see’s the food, or it’s time to eat she doesn’t let you stop putting the spoon in her mouth until it is all gone. The only food I have found that she doesn’t like so far is green beans. We love her so much and are so glad that we get to spend time snuggling with her every day.

Preston Update: I can’t believe how fast he is growing! He is so smart. He is still a great help around the house. He helps me empty the dishwasher and we try to make his bed everyday. He is still pretty good about cleaning up his toys when I ask him to. His new favorite thing to do is to have “dance parties”. He loves to jump around and sing to music. He loves to play with Norah and to make her laugh. All he has to do is smile at her and she’ll crack up laughing. He likes to help me feed her, which comes in handy when she is cranky in the stroller. I have really been trying to focus on playing with him more the last couple of weeks. He loves to figure things out and gets really excited when he gets something to work. We are so proud of everything that he does and what a great big brother that he is.

Last weekend was Uncle Neil’s Bachelor party. I didn’t want to stay home alone all weekend, so I went with Ryan and we decided to make a weekend out of it. Preston and Maya got to spend some time playing together in the Tandon’s pool. We are hoping they will remember each other in 9 days for Aunt Molly and Uncle Neil’s Wedding! Here are some pictures that Nina took for us. (In the pictures are Uncle Neil’s family, Marianne (Mom), Dinesh (Dad), Nina (Sister), Maya (Neil’s niece), Jac (Neil’s nephew))

As far as how the bachelor party went…all I know is they had a lot of fun and got a lot of sun!