Thankful For Walking

(caution: please do not look in the back of our closet)

Welp. She is now officially a walker. She picked Thanksgiving weekend to showcase her skills. And let me tell you, she is proud of herself. When she gets all the way to a landmark/destination, she catches your eye and gets this knowing smirk on her face. It's adorable. Of course, right before we got the camera out (the reason we got it out in the first place), she was flapping her arms and clapping her hands when she noticed herself in the mirror. Again, very proud of that walking baby in the closet!

We had a wonderful holiday with friends in Southern Oregon. Unfortunately, we did not get any family photos! I know! It is preposterous! But Adam did manage to snag a few pictures of Noella with our friends Dave (who hosted us all) and Clarissa. They can be our stand-ins.

We are all very thankful for such wonderful friends who make the holidays still seem very special and warm, even when we have to be away from our family. We are also very thankful for our family, whom we cannot wait to share our baby girl with this Christmas season. And, last but not least, we are truly thankful for Noella Josephine Holt - who has enriched our lives beyond anything we thought possible. Happy Holidays to all!

No Jo's First Snow

It dumped snow on us today, so Noella, I (and Dean Martin) stayed in and got into the holiday spirit. Yes, it's not even Thanksgiving yet and you can hear Christmas music on the video. So sue me!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Oregon Holts!

Cross Crusading Family

Most of you probably think we are nuts. We are.... kind of. We have taken our baby and dog with us on most sundays this fall in the rainy mud to ride our bikes, only to get every shred of belongings covered in yuckiness. Let's resort to one of last year's photos:

This isn't even that bad........ 

Adam and I shuffle our dependents while the other races. Adam begins the day with a 9:40 AM start up. Noella, Zeb and I cheer our hardest for him.

Then, he cleans up as best as possible and we all spend (too long) wasting time until my race. We  usually eat lunch, hang out in the car, visit with friends there and cross our fingers that it doesn't rain. We'll watch some of the other races taking place in between ours too.

Our favorite in between race activity: eating and/or playing in the front seat. 

The "stuff"

My start time is 2:10 PM. Noella usually crashes during most of this time, while Daddy and Zeb cheer me on.

It is insanity, I'll agree. But it is something out of the ordinary that is good for our bodies, minds and souls AND we can do it as a family.

Can't wait until next sunday!

Trick or Treat!

There was a fast black cat on the loose in downtown Hood River and in our condo's complex this past Halloween. We could barely get it to stand still long enough to get its photo.

This was how she was able to carry her pumpkin around :) 

The kitty cat and her dog sidekick. 

Noella enjoyed "trick or treating" in downtown Hood River sunday evening. She kept pointing to all the lights with her mouth open signing "light" (one of the new words in her vocabulary). It's so funny what is amazing to little ones when there is so much excitement and stimulation around them. She kept reaching for the parking meters. Once she could touch one, she just kept smiling and patting it like "this is rrrrrreally cool" :) She wasn't even that fazed when the 8 teenagers in head to toe skin suits of different colors ran by us singing some song at the top of her lungs, but those parking meters.... nothing better!

Someone should have told me how hard it was to try and draw whiskers and a nose on a 10 month old (who turned 10 months on Halloween, thank you very much). Did I tell you she learned to say "kitty" on this VERY day. Of course a kitty is anything with fur and four legs (or an owl). 

"More" and "All Done"

Video evidence of Noella's comprehension and use of the signs "more" and "all done". I am a speech-language pathologist by trade, so you understand my pride for her possession of these skills.

Old Friends With a New Game

Zeb has, for a long time, truly enjoyed sticks. Every walk we take him on, he usually finds a stick. And if it's really good, he'll haul it home with him. We have quite the collection in our "yard". Noella has been observing him coveting his sticks, and therefore, wants them. If she sees it, she goes for it. It drives Zeb bonkers, but he lets her have it every once in a while. Sometimes he makes her crawl in circles for it. It gave me a laugh today.  Behold, the play by play: 

Zeb tries to move away.

"Hey, wait a minute, I want that"

"Don't mind if I do"

"Got it"

"Oh Zeb... is THIS what you want?"

Zeb goes in for the steal.

"Ha ha! Got it back!"

Maybe I should have just posted the video.

Noella and the Great Pumpkin!

We finally made it to the pumpkin patch. NoJo LOVED every second of it. I had a feeling she would, as she's been obsessing over the one white grocery store pumpkin I purchased a few weeks ago. We dressed her in her halloween kitty sweatshirt and headed outdoors for an afternoon full of sunshine, leaves, pumpkins, apples, pears, carmel and milkshakes!

I want this pumpkin! 

Oooh, and this one....

And these two as well...

And this one...

Noella could have crawled around the patch all day and climbed on every pumpkin if we had let her.  But, she made it across most of the area I'd say....

 Meow!

Purrrrr!  

Adam busted out the guitar that evening that we got home from all of our fall excitement. Noella watches in awe while daddy plays her a tune.

That is almost as good as my pear...

Apparently she thinks she can learn guitar by osmosis. 

Now that we have all of our pumpkin patch treasures, all that's left is to carve them. I'm sure the wee one will be ecstatic to see the jack-o-lanterns. I don't know how she couldn't, as she squeals with sheer delight anytime we walk by anything remotely colorful. I thought she was going to hyperventilate when we saw a bunch of balloons during one outing. She cried when it was time to go back in the car away from the balloons. 

It is so funny what a difference a few weeks makes for babies this age. I swear she went from baby to toddler over night. She is all personality, excitement and fun these days (not to mention "assertive" and "strong-willed"). She is also getting extremely communicative. We've been signing "more" to her when she's eating b/c she's always wanting "MORE". Just a few weeks ago something clicked and now she's signing for "more" of everything. She's starting to get "all done" as well. And the facial expressions! Priceless.  I need to get documentation of all of these "latests". Don't fear, I will get there.

Fall is absolutely glorious out here. Crisp, cool mornings. Warm, sunshine-y afternoons. Leaves turning.  The fall harvest crops are overflowing the farms around here. We'll be getting our share of apples and pears this week so Noella can have some homemade sauce!

Kisses from the Great Northwest!