Nice Hair!

Nora's head teacher at Prince of Peace sent me this cute picture last week. Nice hair Nora!

The Pumpkin Express

Last Sunday afternoon we had a great time at The Pumpkin Express with Nora and her Prince of Peace buddies. Thanks Lori for the great idea of going there! We had a great time! Jordan and her parents, Mark and Gayla, picked us up and we headed to the large metropolis of Argyle, Texas. It's actually really beautiful out there!

About 6 of Nora and Jordan's friends from school and their parents met us out there and what fun we had! We all rode on a great train that took us all around the property. They we headed into the field for lots of playtime. Nora had fun riding in the wagon, running around, dancing, going down the slide, playing in the little house, and playing in the bouncy house. She is fearless!

Baby Blog Addict

I am so excited that my friend Jennifer mentioned me on their great website, Baby Blog Addict. She liked my post from Cooking on Clover Lane. Be sure to check out BBA!
http://www.babyblogaddict.com/

Thanks Jennifer! Be sure to keep me updated on that baby!

Super Cute Dress

Thanks Grandma for the super cute and very girly dress that you made for Miss New. She wore it to church for the first time today and we thought that she looked just precious in it. Can you believe that we actually had a bow that matched?!? Meredith was really proud!

Great Recipe Blog

I was blog-hopping last night (oh the exciting life I lead!) and came across this fun recipe blog from a fellow momma. I love it because she has great, simply recipes that sound yummy. The best part - some even go in the crock pot! I printed out a few to try this week. I am sure that Mr. Newman will be glad to eat something different than our usual fare!

If you are looking for some easy meals, check out Cooking on Clover Lane!
http://cookingoncloverlane.blogspot.com/

U2

Mark and I were so pumped when our friends, Team Riss, invited us to go to the U2 concert with them. How fun is that? And on a school night too! On Monday night, we headed to the new Cowboys stadium for this amazing concert and we just had the best time. It was all of our first time to visit the new stadium, so that was cool in itself. Plus, Mark and I had never seen U2 before, so that was completely amazing as well. In fact, I don't think the Team had ever seen them either, so it was a night of firsts for all of us!

Mark and the Team Captain could give you a complete rundown of every song, so see them for more details. I have to say that one of the most memorable parts of the night was when Bono sang Amazing Grace. It totally give me the duck bumps!

Thanks again Team Riss!

P.S. Thanks to Lisa for hooking us up with a fabulous parking pass!

Outside the Stadium

In our seats with Team Riss's head cheerleader, Emily

The Rissmillers and the Newmans (sorry about the eyes, Mark!)

The one and only Bono

The stage from our seats

The Croup

Nora had her first (and hopefully only!) bout with the Croup last week. Poor baby! I thought that she had the flu, but a visit to Dr. B proved otherwise. We had a few rough nights, but made it through. Mark and I may actually be caught up in the sleep department again. It was fun to have Nora home with me for a few days. We played and she slept a lot. Guess a girl has to sleep during the day to make up for lack of sleep at night!

By Friday Nora was feeling better. Prince of Peace was actually closed for an in-service day, so Jordan (her bestie!) came and spent most of the day with us. Let me tell you, those girls were funny! They were super sweet to each other one minute and fighting over the same toy the next! Guess that is just how it goes. They had a great time sitting at Nora's little table eating snacks and playing with crayons. For some reason, Nora likes to just organize her crayons and not really draw with them... Anyway, they had a great time playing together and then they both took long naps. Yippee for that!

Two Hayrides in Two Weekends!

I've decided that Halloween season is tons of fun when you have a little kiddo! Two Saturdays ago, we had a fun fall outing with our Sunday School class and all of the cutie pie kids. Cory's (of Cory and Stephanie) parents hosted us at their land north of Dallas. We had a fun time playing games, going for a hayride, eating great food (Eric - you are the man! for grilling all of those hot dogs and brats in the rain!), playing and visiting with everyone. We had a great time in spite of the rain.

Family picture on the hayride

This past Saturday we had another fun time at the Big Orange Pumpkin Patch celebrating Blake & Emma's birthdays. How fun is it that both of the Coleman's girls have birthdays in October?!? Despite the cold weather (craziness yet again in Dallas!), we had a great time. Nora even fed the animals! It was so funny. She was a little afraid at first, but then got pretty brave. You'll have to check out her expression in the pictures below. Super cute!

Why do Mommy and Daddy make me pose all of the time?

Birthday girl, Emma!

This looks like fun, but I am not too sure about feeding that big 'ole cow...

I decided that I will be brave and feed that "Moo" Cow...

Did I really just do that?!? That was fun, I think!

Family Reunion Weekend

Mark, Nora and I flew to Birmingham at the end of September for a long weekend with the families. Mom's family actually had a reunion, so it was the perfect excuse to get away for 5 days! Mom picked us up and the airport, then we headed north to Ft. Payne. Our first stop was to see Mamaw at the nursing home. It was good to see her, but it's still so sad. She was in really good spirits, so that was good. Children were not allowed to go into the home due to the flu outbreak, so one of the nurses wheeled her out onto the back patio. We met Jeff, Jennifer, Maxwell and Annah there, so all of the Powell great-grand kids got to see Mamaw, so that made her happy.

After picking up some groceries, we headed up the mountain to Aunt Lynne and Uncle John's cabin. What fun! We just love it up there and are so appreciative of them always sharing it with us! The cousins had a fun time playing and the adults had a great time catching up! My Uncle David came up for dinner and later Aunt Lynne and Uncle John came up for a visit.

The next day proved to be wet and rainy. So much for taking a hike! Mom and I headed back to Ft. Payne to see Mamaw and to organize a bit in her house. It's so sad to see the house so empty and in disrepair. I am going to attempt to always remember it the way it appeared to me in my childhood. I have wonderful memories of great times with Mamaw, Papa and the entire family there.

While we were gone, Jeff and Maxwell took Mark and Nora on a tour of the mountain. Mark had never seen our old family farm and the falls, so he had a great time. Maxwell liked sitting next to Nora, talking to her and attempting to hold her hand. So sweet! My cousin, Ben, and his girlfriend showed up after lunch and we all had a lazy afternoon at the cabin. Early that night, we headed back to town to my cousin Diane's house for the festivities. We had a nice time, but found out that we had missed seeing lots of family that had been there earlier in the day. The joys of nap time! Oh well, we still had a good time. Nora and Annah wore their matching Halloween dresses that Grandma made and everyone thought that they looked precious. That is a good thing, considering that Nora was a wild woman! She had not been feeling well the entire trip and suddenly perked up and ran all over the place. Mark and I had to tag team her! Nora thought it was hysterical, of course!

After cleaning up on Sunday and a family lunch, we met Buddy and Matt on the way to Chattanooga. It was so sad to leave Mom after such a quick weekend, but we wanted to make sure and see the Newman clan too! So, we transferred everything over to Buddy's car and headed to see Grammy, Stephanie and the boys!

Bath time! Nora and Annah

Change that to All Cousin Bath Time!

Nora, Maxwell and Annah

Annah and Jennifer

The family portrait

We arrived just in time for Nora to play with her sweet cousins. She jumped right into the fun and had a great time with them! They had a great time just playing together, playing the piano, eating dinner and giving love and hugs. Matt, Steph and the boys had to head back home on Sunday night, but we feel so blessed that they made a special trip to see us. It meant so much to us that they would drive up and see our family. On a funny note, they Newman boy family got to see Miss Nora New in all of her glory. She threw an absolute fit (probably the worst one ever - thus far!) because we were going to feed her dessert (i.e. a potential mess) instead of letting her sit at the big table with her cousins. She would have none of that and we finally relented and gave in. Sorry for the mess, Grammy!

We had a good time visiting with Grammy, Buddy, Uncle Dave and Aunt Sissy. We took Nora to the Blue and Yellow Park, one of her big sister's favorite parks back in the day! We also had fun walking around the mall and playing in the indoor play yard and stopping at the TN Vol Store to get Nora a Vol sippy cup and Daddy a t-shirt . (I was OK with that since Auburn beat TN the next weekend! Sorry Mark! War Eagle!) After a nap back home, we went out to eat and gave Nora a chance to work on charming everyone that she saw. We thought that these two ladies were going to take her home!

Thanks for a fun weekend Grammy and Buddy and for taking us back to Birmingham to catch our flight. We had a great time!

Nora tackling Jesse

Getting in on all the fun with Jesse and Seth!

Nora eating with her big boy cousins - Jesse, Seth and Luke

Playing the piano with Seth

The Boy Newmans with Grammy and Buddy!

The babies with Grammy - Nora and Aaron

How sweet is this? Nora giving Aaron a hug!

Swinging at the Blue and Yellow Park

Sliding with Buddy and Daddy

Hanging out with Buddy and Grammy

The Newman family!