Holiday Memories

Okay, I'm a complete heel for not posting any pictures from Noelle's birthday. We didn't have anything decent and I keep forgetting to ask for some good ones. If/when I remember to ask Leo for some pics that he took that night I will update with a late birthday post.

Here are a few pictures from our first Christmas season as a foursome.

We are currently housebound with more snow than they originally predicted. There has to be a foot out there. Coming from Maine I wouldn't normally see that as a problem. But when we have to go to a website to see which roads the town intends to plow just to find a safe route to the grocery store, that makes things more challenging. They don't do ANY residential streets. It's pretty sad.

Noelle is enjoying herself, though. At the moment she is outside building snow castles with her sand bucket and shovel. She has been out there an hour and is on her second pair of mittens and a fresh hat.

I hope our Christmas cards made it out in time.
Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Noelle got this t-shirt as a gift for the holiday. Too funny!

Wardrobe change #2 for the Christmas photo. We didn't think any of the poses in these outfits were quite right. But we still had to show off our little reindeer!

We took the kids to see Santa at Redmond Town Center. Noelle had a nice long chat with the friendly elf. Gabriel had a nice snooze.

Gingerbread house making at the Adkinsons'. Noelle would put the candy on, admire it, pull it off and eat it and then add more. That's my girl!

John passed down that sage advice of old... "don't eat yellow snow". Incidentally, the snow is taller than Gizmo. Poor little dog!

First Thanksgiving

Gabriel celebrated his one week birthday on Thanksgiving - also his Papa's birthday. We are fortunate enough to have a friend who hosts Thanksgiving dinner every year, so I didn't have to cook. Our amazing contribution? Green beans - woo hoo! Noelle decided she is not a fan of sweet potatoes. Personally, I loved them!

Noelle had a great time playing with the dogs, Toby and Molly, at Kevin's house. She also tortured the adults with fifty million rounds of 'hide-and-seek'. Gabriel hung out with his new friend, Milo, who is only a couple of months older than he is.

Photo op. The outfit was actually too big for him to wear for the big day.

Our two Thanksgiving babies. Hmm... what would be the odds of having a third born in November? J/K!!!

Sriya holding Gabriel and Leo holding Milo. Play dates are more like nap times at the moment.

Our Newest Addition

Well, this isn't "new" news but hopefully I've chosen some pictures that you haven't seen yet.

Gabriel Joseph DeCuir was born on Thursday November 20, 2008 at 5:27pm. He weighed 9 lbs 2 oz and was almost 21 inches long. An ultrasound estimated his weight at almost 10 lbs. I went into the dr's office on the morning of the 20th and burst out crying. I wanted him out! It was my doctor's last day in the office, filling in for my original doctor (long story). She snagged us the last c-section scheduled for that day. And now here he is!

He had a little jaundice that has since cleared up. He lost a lot more weight than he should have and we're working on getting him back up to his birth weight. We've got about 3/4 of a pound to go. He is a champion eater so that shouldn't be a problem.

Gabriel is also a champion sleeper, giving us good solid three hour chunks - one of the perks of having a bigger baby, I guess. He is more and more alert every day and loves to stare into our eyes. He only cries when he's hungry. When he does cry Noelle jumps up and says "My baby needs me!"

Okay, gotta wrap up this post as it's almost time to feed him.
Enjoy the pictures!

The day of my baby shower, just a few days before Gabriel was born. Oh, my aching back! ;)

Gabriel at a few minutes old.

Noelle is totally in love with her new baby brother.

Gabriel at four days old.

Halloween '08

Halloween season started with a trip to visit Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. John just had to ask if she remembered working with his father on her movie. She says she did.

Late pregnancy aches and pains kept us from attending Kevin's annual Halloween party and pumpkin carving event. Luckily someone posted pictures so we got to see what we missed.

John took Noelle to work with him all day on Friday. She was an angel (behavior-wise, not her costume). She scored a ton of loot at Microsoft, trick or treating up and down the halls. The problem? Now that she's collected all that candy, she seems to have forgotten it's there. She sure doesn't ask for much. And - big shocker - I seem to have lost all interest in food. This stuff will be here until next Halloween!

Enjoy the pictures!

Okay, this struck me as funny. I call it the first picture of 'the kids' because my huge stomach is in the way of a perfectly good picture of Noelle. ;)

The DeCuir family meets the Mistress of the Dark.

I was trying to get John to take a picture of Gizmo in his pumpkin costume... but Noelle and Cleo insisted on being in the picture.

Catching a few zzz's before the afternoon festivities.

Our little astronaut got lots of compliments that day.

Noelle's First Field Trip

This is going to have to be a third-person perspective post, as I was not there today. People had warned me that the farm the preschool was going to was not exactly the best environment for someone in her third trimester. :(

Noelle has told me the highlights she'd like me to mention.

There was a pig in a pen as they walked in. She really liked this little guy. They had a huge sandbox themed area, but instead of sand it was filled with corn kernels. The kids had to take their shoes off to get in. Noelle did "corn angels". (Wonder if I'm going to find stray kernels at bathtime tonight...)

Among all the assorted farm animals one would expect, they also had kittens and puppies for the kids to play with. One little puppy kept going after the tassels on Noelle's sweater sleeve and trying to take her for a walk.

She said her favorite part of the whole trip was the hayride. She was excited that they kind of had to hunt for the pumpkins, looking under the leaves. The last place we visited that had pumpkins, they were all in huge piles and you just chose the one you wanted. This was much more authentic.

Thank you, John, for the awesome pics!

Noelle absolutely fell in love with this Bassett Hound and tried hard to catch him so she could pick him up. Good luck with that, honey.

This must have felt so cool under their little feet!

What is a farm without hay? Noelle and Lilly look like they are having a blast.

Two best friends enjoying an autumn hayride.

Yum! Creamsicles! Good thing the day finally warmed up.

These guys went easy on John and picked small pumpkins for him to carry back to the car. Aw, shucks! ;)

3-D/4-D Ultrasound

Well, these are going to be old pictures to some of you. John posted them on Facebook the other day. So this post is for those of you with no access (or who can't remember their passwords ;) ) to Facebook.

We went to a place in Bellevue to have this ultrasound done. They don't get into the diagnostic side, so I was disappointed that she wouldn't tell me how much he weighed and if my due date had changed at all. Oh, well... guess we'll find out soon enough.

Having Noelle with us made this a very different experience than when we had this done with her. We were amazed to find that the baby responds to her voice. She stood beside me and his head turned whenever she spoke to him. It was the sweetest thing!

Twice, during the procedure, he brought his foot up to his mouth and sucked on his toes. So cute!

I'm so glad we got this early chance to meet our little guy. It makes me that much more anxious to meet him in person. (Geez, tearing up like a fool right now...)

He had the umbilical cord right over his nose for the longest time. We had to capture good pictures as quickly as possible.

The technician thought he looked just like Noelle. That's the best compliment we could receive.

I thought this profile shot was very sweet.

This is John's favorite photo. Baby is on his knees with his butt up in the air. Uh... proud father moment I guess. I can't really relate. ;)

More Noelleisms

Well, it's getting closer to the birth of the baby and I'm sure I will be updating the blog with an overabundance of baby pictures. I wanted to get in a Noelle-centric post before then.

She is having a ball with this pregnancy. She sings to my belly and reads books to her little brother. She giggles hysterically when the baby kicks at her hand. The other day she was talking to him, asking if he could hear her. I said he could. Then she started tickling my belly. I asked what she was doing and she said "He can feel me tickle him, right? I'm tickling his little feet." If he's being quiet (which I am normally grateful for) she goes "Let's wake him up!" Gotta nip *that* one in the bud right now!

Last night I was heading to bed and Noelle was still awake. She called me into her room and asked when she was going to lose a tooth. I told her probably not for another two or three years. She frowned and folded her arms over her chest. "But I want to lose a tooth now!" Our little princess... so anxious to grow up. :(

And here are a few Noelleisms that I promised:

A head ick - a headache.

"Mommy, I just stumped my toe."

When entering a parking garage in the minivan - "Ah! Daddy, tell the car to dunk!"

Breakstast - modified from 'breastest' (can't wait to tease her about that one when she gets older) : meaning breakfast

Upcoming post:
We have a 4-D ultrasound on Thursday. Should get some very clear pictures of Gabriel to be able to scan in. Sure can't wait to meet our little guy!

First Day of Preschool

Our baby is growing up! Believe it or not, we got through the morning with no tears (from either Noelle or myself). She was super excited to go to school.

The teachers were amazed that the day went so smoothly. Usually someone has a meltdown and they said this was the first year that all the kids were calm.

Noelle's teacher noted that she stayed behind and was an extra help cleaning up all the toys in the playroom. Figures. She won't do that at home.

Her two favorite things to mention: snack time and outdoor time.

Oh, and later that afternoon she lined up all her teddy bears and she was the teacher - organizing circle time and teaching her bears the two new songs she had learned at school. She read to them for a long time, too. So cute!

I'm so happy that she's really enjoying herself. With the baby coming, it's good that Noelle has something major in her life that is just for her. Lots of new friends and new experiences. Yay!

"Mommy, I did it all by myself!" Noelle in her upside down sweater, all ready for school.

Don't let the pink rain boots fool you... it was an absolutely beautiful sunny day. Noelle thought they matched her outfit best, was all.

Class is held in a modular classroom while they work on new classrooms in the main building. It's brand new and very cute inside.

Noelle and Lilly, very excited to get inside and start their first day of preschool.

We were barely in the door before she'd scoped out a spot at the coloring table and got busy on her first art project. I got the bum's rush out the door right after this.

Evergreen State Fair

We had a beautiful day for the fair, yesterday. Though we are dogsitting Mr. Titus, we left the doggies home to entertain each other and enjoyed a few hours out.

Noelle loved the petting corral and the kiddie rides - though she ogled the big kid rides and conned Daddy into taking her on a couple of those.

Daddy loved that there was a cat exhibit and we were just in time for the costume contest. He voted for the Siamese, naturally.

I loved that I wasn't on a diet, this year, and could eat gyros and ice cream. Yum!

We had a great time and managed to get out of there without spending too much money. Here are some pics to commemorate the day.

Baby Gabriel's first time at the fair. I'm thinking it was a little too dark to see, still. And why did Daddy feel the need to chop my head off???

Ice cream break. The strawberry matches her sweatshirt.

Our little motorcycle mama. Forget the girlie stuff... Noelle knows what she wants.

You could hear her above everyone else - on every ride - screaming for the fun of it!

Dragging Daddy through the Haunted Pirate House. Noelle helped him be brave.

Ah, the requisite head cutout. Noelle can find them anywhere. What an alien has to do with an agricultural fair, I have no idea.

Who doesn't love a baby calf?

Enjoying a drive on a sunny afternoon.

Uh oh! We were afraid Noelle was going to insist we take this chicken home with us. She named it and held it for the longest time.

Daddy and Noelle chillin' at the fair.

Summer Memories

Well, it's supposed to be 90 degrees today. For an area that hasn't seen much higher than the high 70's all summer, this is a big deal. For someone entering her third trimester... this is NOT fun. I think when Noelle jumps around in the sprinkler, this afternoon, I will be sitting in my lawn chair right in the middle of the spray. :)

Anyway, thought I'd upload some pics of things that have been going on this summer. We painted Noelle's room purple... and amazingly it wasn't as garish as I thought it might be. Noelle had a play date with her friend, Lilly, yesterday. Then last night a group of us went to a local park that had a spray area for the kids. Way cool! When we got home, Daddy got out the telescope and showed Noelle the full moon up close. Wow!

Noelle insisted on dressing for dinner one night. When I handed her the plate she said "Thank you, royal chef." Grrr!

Is this what they mean by "dog days of summer"? Gizmo is so spoiled his has his own furniture now. So what if he had to steal it from Noelle to get it.

Our big helper. Note to self - never hand her a bristled brush again!

Can't wait for her 'big girl' bed to arrive!

Noelle insisted on dressing up for her play date with Lilly. Gotta love that tiara!


Mmm... Cathy brought chocolate cupcakes to the splash park. Should have seen her after the last bite. ;)

Eagerly awaiting the fountains that pop up out of the ground. What a neat way to spend a hot summer evening.

Farm Tots Fridays

Noelle and I went to a farm, this morning. It was more of a 'u-pick' veggie and fruit farm. They didn't have cows or horses or anything like that. Good thing... I didn't have the right shoes for *that* type of farm.

So they have this program that teaches kids about the produce they grow. There was an art project (a butterfly necklace). We spent some time at the small petting zoo. We went on a hayride through the working farm. All the other kids are pointing out the veggies and apple trees, etc. Noelle waits until we're almost back to the start and hollers out "Look, the port-a-potties!" Geez...

She got to pick her own container of raspberries. She was so proud of how many she collected. It was no easy feat, either, as they were pretty well picked over. She ate the entire container as an after-nap snack.

We left the farm at lunchtime and decided to stop for lunch at Mickey D's. They accidentally gave Noelle a boy toy in her happy meal, instead of a girl toy. After lunch I told her she could try to trade it. She muscled her way up to the counter and pushed her way through a group of construction workers waiting for their orders. You should have seen those grown men fall back. Too funny! When Noelle wants something, she goes after it. :)

Never misses an opportunity to flirt with a cute little boy!

On the hayride. Ironically, the little boy in the background is named Griffin. Hmm... maybe that's not so unusual after all.

Goofy face, but she said the sun was in her eyes. My bad. Noelle and her raspberry collection.

They had cut outs like this all over the farm... and Noelle wanted to be photographed at each one. What a ham!

This was an action shot. I thought it was a pretty photo op and she told me she was done taking pictures. Think quick, Mom!