Happy 1st Birthday

Happy Birthday banners, balloons, presents, cupcakes, food, family, friends, and baby sitters filled our home this past weekend as we celebrated Jade's 1st birthday. I can't believe our little 7lb 14oz bundle of joy is now a crawling, "waking," babbling one year old! We couldn't be more in love with our little girl or more excited to see what the next year has in store for us. She truly has been the best addition to our lives. Things have certainly changed around our house in 1 year too.   Lazy nights/weekends of laying on our comfortable couches TV and movie watching no longer exists. We can't just randomly choose to go out with friends, we have plan and find a baby sitter.  If it wasn't for DVR, I would never see any of "my" TV shows. Our DVD's are no longer alphabetized, in fact we are lucky to have all of them in the DVD stand. All kitchen drawers at Jade's level are an unorganized mess. Our bathroom doors are kept closed so Jade can't "play" in the water or show us all the amazing things she finds in the garbage. Just in-case we forget to close the bathroom door, our garbage cans now sit on top of our toilets and the toilet lids are always shut.  Our blocks that we had in the basement that used to say UND SIOUX now say something along the lines of UN SI  X. Where are the missing blocks? Your guess is as good as ours. We've searched the house and they are no where to be found. There are little finger marks all over the bottom of the TV screen because Jade thinks it's cool that she can turn the TV on and off. We are lucky that she hasn't changed the language on our phone or ordered anything on the TV yet, as she LOVES electronics. The sliding door to the deck is full of drool, along with the full length mirror in our bedroom. Even when our house is "picked up" and clean, it still looks messy because of the explosion of baby paraphernalia. These are just a few examples of what has changed over the last 12 months. I'm sure the next 12 will bring even more change and we are excited to continue to watch Jade change and grow. Here are a few pictures of the birthday girl...enjoy!

The rocking chair Daddy got her. She gets into it all by herself!

Her baby sitter got her a drum set. So far she hasn't been too bad with the noise, but I'm sure that'll change!

"It's my party and I'll cry if I want to..."

I would like to take credit for her CUTE birthday outfit too! She had the skirt from the wedding she was in in September, I found the leggings online, and I made her shirt!

And She's Off....

Our tummy's are still full and the pounds have been packed on thanks to a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. We enjoyed a 4 day weekend out at the "Noland Ranch." The new and improved "ranch" was the host to it's first, of I'm sure many, Thanksgiving dinners. We enjoyed food, drinks, stories, and hunting with Nate's parents, his brother Lee and his fiance, and his Uncle Mark and Aunt Barb. Hunting was unfortunately unsuccessful for all of us, although Nate put up a good fight as he was out driving the minimum maintenance roads of 2L much of the weekend. I was even able to get away for a night cruise. We saw a handful of deer, but either not for long enough to get a shot off, on posted land, or 300+ yards away. As they say... better luck next year! Here is a family photo of Jade's first Thanksgiving!

Sunday morning we were all ready to head home. Our little girl seemed a bit homesick, I was ready to decorate for Christmas, and I think Nate was just sick of unsuccessful hunting and wanted to watch some football. Jade was busy walking her walker up and down the hallway as she often does when she decided to ditch the walker and try walking all by herself! Nate was sitting on the floor ready to catch her fall, but she didn't need Daddy's help and walked all the way across the living room to Mommy who was on the couch! I'll have to admit...this brought a tear to my eyes. I don't know if it's because my little girl is getting so big already or because I was so proud of her. Probably a little of both I guess. Here are a couple video's of my BABY walking! She is so interested in the camera that it's hard for me to get good video, but here is what I managed to capture. 

She still isn't "cruising" after figuring out she can walk on her own, but I'm sure we're not far from her being EVERYWHERE! She's growing up so fast, but it's so much fun too. She has such a personality!

Kitchen Utensil Cake

Every once in a while I try to be crafty/creative and it actually turns out.  My soon to be sister in law was having a bridal shower so I thought I would try and make a utensil cake. On a side note, my soon to be sister-in-law will be the second Jenna Noland in the same family! Weird I know! I had seen a few pictures, on where else but Pinterest, and thought I was up for the challenge.  I read how a couple other people created their cakes and eventually came up with a way that worked out great for me. So here's what I did and what you'll need.

Ingredients:
Kitchen towels (the towels I bought came in a pack of 4)
Utensils of your choice
Ribbon
Pins
An empty coffee/hot chocolate tin

I washed out a tin of hot chocolate and used this to wrap the first towel around. I kept it folded the way that it was folded when I bought it. I stuck a couple pins in it to hold it around the container (the grey towel in the picture). Then I took another towel and without unfolding it the way that it came folded it in half the long way one more time. I wrapped this around the first towel (grey towel) and pinned it. The pin wasn't holding all the material great, so I quickly tied ribbon around it to hold it all in place.

For the top tiers of the "cake," I rolled up one towel like a sleeping bag as tight as I could (all white towel). Then I wrapped another towel around that (black towel) and tied it with ribbon.

I did have to take the tags off a few of the utensils and the towels to make this so I just threw them inside the hot chocolate tin in case the bride-to-be needed to return them. I then shoved one end of the top tier I just made into the canister part of the hot chocolate tin. From there I finished it off with the utensils I bought. I also cut out a piece of cardboard to use as a base and wrapped it in black and white striped wrapping paper I had. I hot glued this part to the bottom of the hot chocolate tin for the finished product.

I didn't realize how hard it is to give directions...hope it makes sense and that the pictures help if you decide to give this a try yourself.

Mess Maker...

I finally have some time for a quick post! I've been busy with football play-offs, hunting season, cleaning house, etc!

I know and understand that this is a developmental thing that probably most, if not all, infants go through, but would seriously like to know what the fascination of pulling things off tables, emptying book cases, completely cleaning out drawers, etc. is. I leave a room for what seems like just seconds and return to find that Jade has completely emptied a drawer of clothes, cleaned out our food cabinet in the kitchen, and/or pulled every book off the shelves. I ask her what she's doing and she just looks at me and smiles as if she knows she's making a mess for me to clean up! This new found skill she has does however come in handy while unloading the dishwasher and folding laundry. Yes, I do make sure things like knives and pizza cutters are out of reach or taken out of the dishwasher immediately before I let Jade help me with the dishes. She stands at the dishwasher and hands me the clean dishes one by one so I can put them away. If I don't put them away fast enough for her, she drops whatever is in her hand and grabs the next closest dish. When we do laundry, she is really good at taking things out of the dryer and putting them in. It's fun to watch her concentrate on a task that is so mindless and simple to us.

I think my Mom has the same or similar pictures of me doing the exact same things...

She looks so sweet and innocent...

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving! I hope to get another post in over the long weekend so stay tuned.

Happy Spooky and Scary Halloween!

Happy belated Halloween! It was Jade's 1st Halloween, and I have to say she was the cutest kid I saw last night! I saw a lot of cute kids out trick or treating and many pictures posted on facebook, but I still think my little elephant was the cutest ;). The best part of her costume was her little tail that "wiggled when she walked and wiggled when she talked"...ok, so not when she talked, but that's how the song goes. Anyway, it wiggled when she would walk/crawl around it was funny to say the least. I'm going to try to insert a video...let's see if it works....

I was able to leave work early to pick Jade up from the baby sitter and take her "trick or treating." I took her to come co-workers/friends houses in Moorhead before bringing her home. When Jade and I got home, we put her in her little Harley wagon and took her to some of the neighbors houses. Then we came back to the house to trick or treat via skype with Grandma Noland and Grandma and Grandpa Elgin! Technology is awesome! I'm glad the Grandparents were able to get to see her in her costume! Here are a few more pics of our little elephant. 

The whole costume...

 Up close and personal...

 The backside...

Sioux pride!

At 10 months old, we finally took Jade to her first Sioux event. I know they aren't supposed to be called the Fighting Sioux anymore, and that they are just to be known as The University of North Dakota but....GO SIOUX!!! We started the day at "the shack" and got a visit from Great Grandma and Grandpa Elgin. My Grandma was so excited to see Jade! She just watched Jade and giggled the whole time. It's so fun to see that!

Then it was off to Grand Forks for some tailgating and football! Jade did awesome as we walked around tailgating talking to family and friends. Once inside, she enjoyed people watching and even got a nap in! I couldn't believe how quick she fell asleep with all the noise and people around. I had her in our Baby Bjorn carrier and it worked great! She slept through the entire 1st quarter and into the 2nd. Jade and I shared some dip n' dots and stayed through most of the 3rd quarter before Nate and decided we should take our little one home (to Fargo). The Sioux won in our first appearance as a family of 3 with a score of 40-34. I unfortunately didn't get pictures from inside the Alerus. It's hard enough carrying a 20lb baby, let alone a purse or diaper bag and my pockets were already stuffed with mittens, hats, a nuk, money, and keys.

Here are a couple shot of Jade in her Sioux attire:

On a side note...the student section at UND football sucks! There was a crowd of us Alumn standing together taking a walk down memory lane of how there was always a rush of students through the doors once they were open so you could get seats in the front row. If you were too slow through the doors or wanted to continue to tailgate, you were stuck sitting all the way at the top of the Alerus Center. The "old" student section was full of green and white, some in plain t-shirts while others were decked out in wigs, hats, paint, etc. That no longer exists and it's sad! The "new" student section is less than rowdy, dressed in black, and is maybe 30 rows deep. As a student now, you could tailgate the whole time and still walk in and find a good seat. Come on you UND students...show a little pride!

To Smell or Not...

To all you unfortunate people like myself, I've found a cure for the baked in under arm smell on your clothes.

Have you ever gone into your closet and put on what you thought was a clean shirt and notice a slight stench coming from you? Unfortunately it has happened to me all too often. I've even had to throw away perfectly good clothes because I thought they were ruined. I washed them numerous times and, tried to spray and wash the smell out of the pits and they still stunk. I wish I could change the fact that I sweat no matter what, but it's just not that easy.

My cure...white vinegar. I can't take credit for it, I found it on Pinterest...but it works! I put vinegar in a spray bottle, spray the pits of my shirts, let them soak for a few minutes and throw them in the washer and wash like normal. I don't dry the clothes that collect the "smell" anymore either, so I'm not sure if that makes any difference or not. So, there you have it...say goodbye to being the smelly girl!

The quickest 10 months

Well, here goes nothing. I'm not really sure where to begin with this blogging thing, but I'm going to give it a try. As a newlywed of 3 years and a mom of a 10 month old, I for whatever reason thought my life was interesting enough to write about. My biggest hope with this blog is to keep family and friends up to date in our busy lives and share stories about the wonderful changes Jade is providing in our life. I also want to be able to share quick and easy recipe's and an occasional craft/DIY project I've had success with.

So, for starters I'll give a quick recap of the last 10 months of our lives b/c that's the most exciting. Jade Nicole greeted us 10 days before her due date and 8 days before Christmas. She was born December 17, 2011 at 1:53AM. She was 7lbs 14oz and 20 inches long and I don't think I would have wanted her much bigger.

The first few nights/weeks were a whirlwind, but now at 10 months couldn't be more excited and happy with the way our lives were forever changed.

Jade at her 3 week photo shoot. She is obviously thrilled to be there!

At 3 months old she was sleeping through the night for the most part; she officially became a child of God and was baptized, and started gaining those lovely marshmallow arms that everyone loves!

At 6 months she started this goofy face and we got our first set of family pictures taken. I loved the outdoor/natural light photo shoot! Jade was awesome and we got some really great photo's! At 10 months now, she still occasionally makes this face. I already think she loves to make people laugh, so if you laugh at it she'll keep making it!

9 months old and into electronics! I got the camera out this day to take a picture of whatever she was doing and she decided to stop what she was doing to come check out the camera. This is her crawling over to come see what I'm doing. She always wants to be a part of the action!

On September 15, Jade was in her first wedding. She was the flower girl in my Uncle's wedding in Beulah, ND. My Uncle, who is a big Harley fan, made this wagon for her to be pulled down the aisle in. She did an awesome job that day considering she was around a ton of people she didn't know.

And here she sits at almost 10 months old in one of my old dresses. I know she's my little girl, but doesn't she look like a doll in this picture! At 10 months old Jade has 4 teeth, is crawling everywhere, pulls herself to a stand on anything she can grab a hold of, will stand on her own until she figures out what she's doing and either drops to the floor or grabs you to hang onto, dances to the music on her toys and TV, and is starting to really talk up a storm making noises I can't even make. We are starting to try "real" food now too...today's experiment...spaghetti-O's. That was a bust! She took 3 bites and wanted no more!

That was the quickest recap of the last 10 months of our lives. I would be here all day if I stopped to share every story along the way, but needed a place to start. So there you have it...a start to my blog world. Enjoy!