Flashback Friday

At 25 weeks with Sam in April 2005 (just 5 weeks before he was born).
I forgot how little I was when he was born!

At about 32 weeks with Ollie in Nov 2007

At 32 weeks with Baby #3, Sept 2009.

Let the Nesting Begin!

Whew! Stage I complete. We have finished the remodel on what was our guest bedroom and is now the boys' new bedroom. Our house was built in the 1920's and this room was added on in recent years by a previous owner. It had a set of french doors that went out to the backyard and another door that went out to the driveway. The room has its own bathroom, which is nice, but the only closet for the room was a tiny one in the bathroom. Also it had a large set of windows on one wall. This room is on the back of our house (the west side) and gets a lot of afternoon sun, so it was hard to keep it cool. Needless to say, not only was it not a very functional room, but definitely not for a kids room. So, we made a few changes.

We completely removed the french doors and walled that in. We walled in where the other exterior door was and made that area a closet. We removed the large set of windows and replaced them with 2 smaller ones. Lastly, we removed the carpet, added wood, a ceiling fan and a fresh coat of paint. Along with some new furniture, the room is complete. There is even more room than I anticipated! It never ceases to amaze me how rooms look bigger once you move the furniture in than they do when they are empty. The boys love their new space.

Now we have approximately 2 months to get the nursery (boys' old room) ready for Baby Girl Norris. Yes, we do have a name, but we always like to keep it to ourselves until the big day. We will post pictures of the finished product on the nursery when its done.



I forgot to take a before pictures, so this is actually from right after we bought the house. It was the only one could find.



After, same view. The room was empty for a few weeks while we waited for furniture and the boys loved playing (and yelling) in here. Ollie loved the echoes and sweeping.



New closet, sorry I forgot to flip this before posting it.


Since we would like to keep Ollie in a crib as long as possible, we borrowed this crib from our friend Ann and kept our crib in the nursery. Thanks Ann!!




Between the closet, new dressers and new shelving unit, we have a lot more storage space.

Nashville Reunion

Every two years my extended family gets together somewhere for a destination family reunion which gives us a chance to visit w/ aunts, uncles, cousins, and new cousins that otherwise we probably would never get to see. This year Nashville was selected as the destination. We braved the 12 hour car trip (in one day both ways) and made our way there. The trip was fun, but not without issues. The first morning we were there Sam was acting like he did not feel well and then began dry heaving. He is physically unable to vomit due to the surgery he had for reflux as a baby. So he and Tony stayed at the hotel most of the day where he then proceeded to have diarrhea all day :) Ollie and I went to the zoo for the afternoon and then they were able to join us for dinner that evening. The next day Sam was feeling better and we played at Bicentennial Park and then had a picnic lunch there with the whole family. Sat afternoon we took a river boat ride on the Cumberland river. It began raining half-way through, but there was plenty of covering and a country band playing on board. The weather was cool, very enjoyable. That evening we ate at the Aquarium restaurant. The next day, Sunday, Sam was complaining of his feet hurting and refused to walk, at all. I mean he insisted we carry him 2 ft if he had to go that far. We could not figure out what was going on and this was not like him. So, ultimately we decided to head home a day early. There wasn't much left to do anyway and we definitely did not want to be carrying him around all day. The next day he was fine, who knows :) I have posted a bunch of pics on this one, just realized there aren't any of Sam. He wasn't real into having his picture taken, he was either sick or busy.


Ollie at the Zoo

The Loveless cafe, Tony's favorite part of the trip. According to Martha Stewart this place has the best biscuits she has ever tasted. I must agree they were pretty good.

Bicentennial park. This is actually the capital building looking up from the park. Sam insisted on climbing up all the steps to get up here, I think Tony said there were 150 steps. If you look to the far right in the middle of the picture you can see Tony and Sam.

Ollie was fearless with these fountains

He definitely played hard that morning

The Music City Queen

This was our group minus one family who left early that morning.

Summer Catch Up

Well, I continue to be a lazy blogger. But that is mainly because I am so busy with work and kids and also our computer is not located in a very central area of the house. But enough about my excuses.

We have had a fun, busy summer...and of course HOT!!! I don't think we'll ever get used to this heat. Anyway our weekends have been filled with swimming and playing outside (when we can bear it). Sam and Ollie have been introduced to snow cones which makes a nice treat on a hot day.

As most of you know, we have taken our house off the market and started a "small" remodeling project to prepare for Baby #3. We are making some changes to what was our guest bedroom and will be moving Sam and Ollie in there and turning their current room into a proper nursery for a girl. We are full swing into the remodel and hope to have it completed by the end of this week. I have ordered some new furniture for the boys and as soon as we can get it all set up, they will move in. Then Tony can start stripping and repainting the boys current dressers for the baby. I really do have the best husband! This new arrival has really created a long honey-do list and he's been a champ. In the past few weeks, he has put up solar screens & curtains in all the upstairs windows, installed 2 ceiling fans, and installed 2 programmable thermostats. We are slowly getting there. I will post pics of the new room(s) soon.

Also, I realized that with the addition of another kiddo I should come up with a new name for our blog. Any suggestions???

The boys enjoying our "fancy" new pool

Ollie is still happy-go-lucky, but starting to get a little mischievous

...but still a cuddler

Tony's new do. This is the shortest I have seen his hair in the 13 years I've known him.

Sweating it out at the FW Cats game

Ollie had a hard time making it through the game and then wasn't too thrilled with the post-game fireworks

Sam trying to empty our friends pool on July 4th

Anyone have a good swing coach?

Trying to take advantage of the shade at the Trinity Park duck pond. I thought Ollie was going to give this goose a kiss, too bad we were busy rescuing him instead of snapping a pic.

We had to keep a close eye on this one, so no one ended up taking a dip.

It's a ...

Of course we are excited. Its going to be an adjustment, but a welcomed one. Sam got to go with us for the sonogram, so that was really special. He has been really into Peter Pan lately and he was very concerned about having 2 girls in the house. "How will I decide who will play Wendy when we play Peter Pan?" We finally determined that Mommy could still be Wendy and the baby can be Tinkerbell.

I've been a bad, bad blogger...

Well, its been a while to say the least. One reason I have not been posting is that my digital camera was not working and we kinda drug our feet on getting a new one, but I am happy to say we have purchased a new camera so we can continue chronicling these boys' lives. Things have been a little crazy around the Norris household over the past few months including some major new developments.

First of all, after 14 months, Ollie finally started walking...and climbing. That boy climbs on everything! He is often found standing on top of the boys little table (which is next to our kitchen counter) leaning on to the kitchen counter. Of course, he looks very proud. He is also on a seefood diet. If he sees food, no matter what it is or who is eating it, he wants it and he wants it now. Last night we ordered pizza and I set it on the counter and turned to do something. I turned back around and Ollie was standing on his little table trying to get the pizza box open! I'm telling you he's crazy, but so sweet!!

And Sam is good too. Becoming very independent. And he loves to draw! His latest facination is drawing Mickey Mouse and the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He's getting pretty good at it too. He will turn 4 in a few weeks and is looking forward to his birthday party.

Well onto our news...

In the past two months, we have found out that we are expecting our third child in October. (That's right, 3!!!) And we also put our house on the market. We would like to have more room, but if it doesn't sell in a few months we will stay and do some remodeling. It has been a little nuts trying to keep the house presentable for showings with two little rugrats running around! And I have been feeling pretty queasy and tired most of the time, but its getting better.

Well, I think that about sums it up! :) Here are some recent pics of the boys from my new camera.