HAPPY SIXTH BIRTHDAY

MAY 1, 2011

It seems like every year on Norah's birthday there is severe weather. This year it was flooding that had followed a string of REALLY bad storms for our area and further south. We all met up at Nana and Popi's house, which was iffy at best becuase they had closed the roads leading that way for a while because they were under water. Luckily the roads by us were reopened just in time for us to make it to the party. Brandon was unable to get from his new apartment in Little Rock because the main highway and most side roads were closed. Some of Norah's little friends were stuck at home too, but we did have Nana and Popi, my Brother and his Wife and my Brothers Mother in Law. We had a good lunch and then cake and presents for Norah. She obviously was to sad about the weather to enjoy herself as you can tell by the pictures. My brother and his wife got Norah a mechanical dog that walks and barks. She loves that thing and goes around trying to pretend that the dog is biting everyone. She also got some beautifull new clothes to wear to school and a pink purse and flower for her hair. We saved her jeep till we got home and it finally quit raining. Glen said that yesterday Norah came out to the backyard with her pink purse, towel and her bathing suit on to let him know that she was going to drive up to the pool. Ha! Someone has gotten a little big for their britches. So we are now 6, going on 30. Lord help us all! Lori

Bunnies, Candy, and Motorcyles

 Happy Easter! Sorry this picture of Norah's Easter basket is so fuzzy but it was early this morning that I finally got to put it all together and my head was fuzzier than this picture implies.

Things here at the house are still in full swing as we try to meet our May 1st deadline for putting the house on the market. There is stuff EVERYWHERE still! Carpet should go in Monday. It was supposed to go in on Thursday or Friday of last week but Home Depot sucks. So Monday it is. We are off to our friends house for Easter. My parents have gone further south this weekend to celebrate my Aunt Janet and Uncle Wendell's anniversay. Congratulations guys! Boo and Jess are off on their own so we are going to hang out with friends.

My friend William, that I work with, came by yesterday to show off his new motorcycle. He sure is proud of it. Congrats to you to William.....be careful.

As soon as the house is ready and staged I will post pictures on here. You know in case any of you want to buy it.

    Lori

We're Moving!

Can anyone guess where to? (No fair Melissa, you guys already know.)

Lori


 




 

Norah vs. iPhone

Norah has become addicted to watching movies and playing games on our iPhones. It has gotten to the point that we are having to limit her time with the phone otherwise she would be on it day and night. She has even start speaking the word "phone", ok right now it sounds more like "thone" but she is VERY close. The problem we are running into is that Norah knows that if she verbalizes the sentence, "I want phone." that she will almost always get it because we are trying to encourage her language use. She has us right where she wants us!

Lori

Two Year Milestone

    On March 9th Norah had been with us for two whole years! In just two short years she has: * Had to leave behind EVERYTHING she knew. * Go through the culture shock of a new place. * Get a whole new family for at least the 3rd time in her short life. * Learn a new language. (Sign). * Get two cochlear implants. * Start learning to speak. * See enough specialists to choke a horse. and so on and so on...... Through all of this she has been, for the most part a REALLY happy little girl.Amazing! She still does not stop. She goes from dawn till she face plants late at night. She is starting to speak some of her limited oral vocabulary very clearly. Her signing has surpassed mine. She is slowly becoming a Daddy's girl. She loves her brother, Nana and Popi. Her favorite food is anything sweet, mashed potatoes run a close second followed by vanilla yogurt. She has also developed a wicked sense of humor and loves to tease us and make jokes and tell us that we are "funny". I really can't remember what life without her was like anymore. Don't think I want to either. We also want to remember that our good fortune of having Norah in our family is only possible because someone had to give her up. Norah also had to go through some very traumatic years pretty much on her own. We have so many questions that we want to ask her about her life before us. I only hope that when and if she is willing to share that with us that she will find some comfort in having landed in our little circus of a family. Lori

Flower girl Norah

Once again Norah cracks me up with the things she does and why she dose them. I just knew that she wanted to be walked down from the top step by her escort. She did not disappoint. After all it is just not the same to be walked down the isle from the bottom step.

Norah gets a birth certificate.

We won a top blog cochlear Implant award

LicensedPracticeNurse.com

Thank you to whoever recommended us for this.

Zoo Trip

After going to the Nature Center we all went to the zoo. By the look of that line to get in we were not the only people happy to see a sunny day.

He is LOVIN' the sun too.

I don't know wether to think this is cute or sad. He looked kind of sad to me, dragging his blankets across the ground all depressed like.

The gorilla would stand in the corner by the observation glass and wait quietly till he was ready then he would run by the window and smack at whoevers face was closest. All in good fun but I'm sure if he could have gotten out someone would have gotten the beat down for disturbing his privacy. Probably the kid that kept taunting him. I was on this side of the glass and wanted to smack him.

Norah's favorite animal in the whole world. Well, that and penguins.

Two of Norah's favorite animals.

The first time we brought Norah to the bird enclosure she was beside herself and would not get down and could not get out of there fast enough. This time it took me and Boo both to keep her corraled.

New penguin exhibit was not open yet so Norah had to settle for a picture of her as a penguin.

Anyone seen Dr. Blowhole? (10 points if you know who that is).

No.....I do not think we will be coming back again. We were not impressed. Yes, we go about once a year but it always leaves us kind of sad. There have been improvements made to the habitats but there is still much lacking. This time there were also other concerns: over flowing bathrooms, no water fountains that worked, areas roped off that made the children's area look like a crime scene. Even the vending machines to get a drink at were turned off and almost all of the concession stands closed. It seems as though the city of Little Rock would rather spend it's money on making more golf courses and updating it's sports facilities than put some time and money into the zoo. This also goes for our libraries but that's another post all together. This has seemed to be the case for a while. Our zoo here even lost it's accreditation for a time. Makes me want to hide under my blanket in shame.......kind of like the orangutan.

Nature Center

Glen, Norah, Bebe (baby doll), and Boo

Norah showing off the sign for deer.

There was an entire display of artwork at the nature center. All of it was beautiful, this one particularly caught my eye because of the strong orange/brown colors on the front duck. Gorgeous!

This poor guy looks like he has had a ROUGH night!

These huge ugly turtles actually live in the waters around here! Glen used to catch them every once in a while when he would go catfishing. They would go after his bait. Needless to say he would just cut his line because you do not want to go into this things mouth after a hook. You would loose a finger, possibly an entire hand. They are MEAN too and they hiss!

Nasty! I really do not like snakes.

Who is that handsome young man?

Beaver! Hahahahahah! (Sorry, my sense of humor is the same as a 13 year old boy).

The nature center is free, my favorite word. Well ok, not "free" because I did pay for it with my taxes I guess but they did a good job on it so it was well worth it.