Week One

Well Aaron and I made it through our first week of parenting 2 children. It's definitely been a tough week but also one we've been wanting to have for a long time! Isabelle is adjusting pretty well to having Olivia around-Izzy's naps are becoming more sparse, but it least Olivia naps lots to make up for it! So far Olivia has been having a pattern of a good-night, bad-night, good-night, bad, night, etc. Last night was another bad night, but she slept until almost 11 this morning giving Aaron and I a chance to make up for the 2+ hours lost of sleep in the middle of the night. Poor Izzy watched a couple movies while we caught up on our sleep.

I've had help from family, Christel, and ward members taking care of Izzy and bringing meals and cleaning, does that have to stop? Olivia is awesome, we love her very much!

After one week. She's now starting to have awake time-without eating!

The proud sisters!!!!!!!!

The4Nortons!

It's official!!! We are a 4-member family! Here a few pictures from our eventful weekend! Olivia Claire Norton is perfect and we are so excited to have her here with us. She arrived on Friday, September 18th at 5:45pm weighing 7 pounds 6 ounces and stretching out to 21 inches long.
On our way to the hospital for my scheduled induction. We made a pit-stop at Grandma's house to drop off Isabelle.

Olivia Claire and all her gorgeous dark hair. She looks ridiculously like Izzy did at birth, who knows what she'll look like in a week-they change daily!

Dad and Olivia. He did the "catching" again this time during delivery and was such a great support during all the contractions & progression to the big moment. Love you babe!

My swollen self and my sweet sleeping baby. She's such an angel and is a great nurser-such a relief! I can't say the same about Izzy so I was very nervous about what it would be like the 2nd time around!

Can you figure out Isabelle's opinion about the arrival of her baby sister? Just a tad bit obvious!!!! We are all elated!!! We hope she can meet you soon!

Changes in the air!

With the change in season & our family size, Isabelle is also going through lots of changes herself. A few weeks ago I blogged about her transitioning to a twin bed and being potty trained. She now gets to go to preschool twice a week for 3 hours. She also gets to go to a 1 hour dance class every week. All these changes will hopefully keep her happy(ier) with the new baby about to rock her world!!! The plan is for Olivia Claire to be induced this weekend, and the she has given me no indication that she plans to come any sooner-but you never know! This will probably be our last post as "the3nortons." We'll need to update our blog address at some point. For now, we'll be watching Utah beat Oregon via our hospital room! Your prayers are appreciated!
Isabelle-3 years old and ready for her first day of school at Childrens Discovery Preschool.

She refused to give us a big smile-typical 3 year old!

The happy family. Aaron had just gotten home a few minutes earlier from a night shift at the hospital, I am 39 weeks pregnant, and Isabelle is soooo ready for school!

At her school, they provide pick-up & drop-off service-they get her out of the car and put her right back in when I pick her up, making it painless for me, that'll be so nice in the snow!!!! Genius!

The first of many school pictures of her growing up. I thought I'd cry but they made it so quick I didn't have a chance. Now posting this and looking at my little girl gets me a little choked up-blame it on the pregnancy!!!! Sniff Sniff...

Good Times '09

Summer is nearing to an end. In my life that means a few things- 1. Aaron is going back to school soon, NOT!!! yay!!! 2. My studio Gazebo Recital is tomorrow, big event, hopefully a successful blog post will follow! 3. Our baby is due around the corner 4. Cooler weather ahead, yay! Here a few things that have been going on since my last post a week ago. I hope you're all enjoying these last few days of summer!
My older sister Emily (there's 3 siblings between us!) and her gorgeous family came for a visit this week to celebrate the marriage of my youngest sister. Can you tell we're related?

Isabelle got to know her North Carolinian-cousin Tristan. They are a year apart and he's a whole head taller than her, and I thought she was tall! They enjoyed running through the sprinklers together and running away from us.

Our farewell to the Schofield family before their cross-country journey back to Chapel Hill, NC. We are already planning a trip next summer to visit them, we loved spending time with them!

My 6 siblings and I, all dressed up for Melissa's wedding dinner on the eve of her marriage. We aren't quite in age order, but can you figure out the age order? We all have complex's about looking younger than our age, There's 7 of us, the age order from L to R is: 3rd, 1st, 5th, 4th, 7th, 6th, 2nd. Now here's another question, can you name them all?

Our new addition to our driveway. Our 2006 Honda Pilot EX-L. Soon to be Norton-ized with Utah Ute paraphernalia make no mistake. My favorite parts are the sunroof and the leather-nice!

Saying good-bye to our dear friend, our 1998 Isuzu Rodeo. We've had it since 2004 and put about 35,000 miles on it-oh no, I'm starting to sound like my Dad. Anyway, we put an ad on KSL.com at 3am for it, and it sold to the buyer that called at 8am. Yay for free classifieds!

A brief shot of my friend Kailee and I, both pregnant with our toddlers. Kailee delivered a few days after this a beautiful baby boy, unfortunately, I still have a few weeks left!

A side shot of our bellies-and Harper at the bottom stealing the show!

The final weeks...

I'm 35 weeks pregnant, the countdown is getting smaller and smaller. Life with one child-sweet Isabelle Grace is going so well right now. I couldn't be more grateful for such a great child. Isabelle and I have conversations all day long, she helps me with chores since "Olivia Claire is getting bigger in Mommy's tummy" as she says. Bending over is essentially non-existent, you can expect me to grimace every time I drop something. Sleeping is ok right now, baby likes to kick around for about 30 minutes when I first lie down but I sleep soundly through the night. Isabelle has adjusted well to her new twin bed and will still even take naps in it (YAY!). Having her potty-trained has made life so nice. She's super idependent about remembering to go on her own without reminders from me and she's always excited to share the news of what she left in the potty. :) She can't wait for preschool and asks about it daily. She'll start about the same time I have our baby in September.

I've done some nesting in preparation for our baby. Her room is ready to go, I've bought a handful of newborn diapers, of course not nearly enough. I've washed and folded all of my newborn clothes from Isabelle and and can't wait to have something so little to hold again. I often find myself rocking in the glider chair thinking about the weeks ahead with the many hours that will be spent in that chair with our new little bundle.

Aaron loves his job as an RN at Primary Children's. He successfully passed the NCLEX exam a couple weeks ago and is a huge load of relief for him and I. He has enjoyed not having any studies looming over his head and the ability to have true days off without those studies on the "to-do" list. I am grateful that he has a stable job right now that he enjoys and it is bringing joy to the families he helps in their critical care time of need.

I know this is more of a journal entry, but it is needed for me to remember these precious few weeks when life is harmonious and with balance. As my sister recently mentioned in her facebook status, life is surprisingly stable, dare I say it? Knock on wood!

Let the countdown continue...tick tock tick tock!

We (she) did it!!!!

"We did it, we did it, we did it, Hooray! Lo Hacimos, we did it!!! (dadadada) "
Ok, I'm singing to a well-known Dora tune around our house, but the point is, ISABELLE IS POTTY-TRAINED! According to Aaron she's potty-training but to me she's potty-trained, be your own judge. All I can say is I haven't changed a diaper in a week and it's a great change of pace. She's mastered various thrones-public and private. I won't get into too much detail, yes there have been accidents, but she's well on her way!!! Yay for Izzy! Now I need to start stocking up on newborn diapers!

Smile of triumph!!!

Izzy and her potty-training chart, she's over half-way done with it now, almost there!!! Again, I promise her hair looks decent every day, but the camera comes out and this is always what she looks like-rag-a-muffin!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday to Isabelle!

July 7, 2009: Isabelle Grace is 3 years old! She is quite the 3 year old. She is a great communicator, very friendly is even the strangest stranger, loving and very helpful and beautiful inside and out. Unfortunately every time I get the camera out her hair is in shambles, but I promise, I do it every morning!!! Here is some highlights from her special birthday!!!
3 candles on her Birthday Waffle for breakfast! She blew them out like a champ!

Sharing her birthday cupcakes with our wonderful house-helper, Christel Bryell. Christel said they were delicious and Isabelle and I enjoyed making them together and putting sprinkles on top!

Enjoying the mini-merry-go-round at Chuck-E-Cheese. She probably rode this over 20 times, constantly switching horses while turning round and round. She also gave each horse lots of love, hugs, and kisses. We hosed her down with sanitizer afterwards!!!!

A cute birthday shot with Dad at Chuck-E-Cheese. We had a great night and Isabelle truley was a birthday princess as her shirt proudly displays!!!

Thanks to a winning ticket for a silent auction and some birthday money from Grandma Norton, Isabelle now enjoys her fancy new peddle-less bicycle. She runs on it then lifts her feet and balances and coasts down our street like a pro. She was very adament that she have a "hat" to go with her bike. Of course Dora was the character of choice for that one.

With the soon arrival of baby #2, Isabelle got a new room this month as well. She has never tried to crawl out of her crib up to this point but the crib will be used for the baby. Isabelle is now enjoying being a big girl in her adorable new bed with matching night stand and mirrored dresser.

I found cute coordinates at TJ Maxx with the bedding-window valances and a stepping stool also. I had a few pieces already with this color scheme and we painted the room green last year when we moved in. It was fun to finally put the room together with what I had imagined a year ago with the green paint!

Summer Stuff and Granite Creek camping

June was nice with lots of rain, but July has brought the heat!!!! We are staying inside a lot but when we're outside, the kiddie pool is always Izzy's toy of choice. She loves swimming in any body of water!!! Now I just wish it was big enough for me!

Not the most flattering family photo (note to self, NEVER take a photo of myself at 7 months pregnant, camping, in a swimming suit, then post it on my blog)....during our camping trip to Granite Creek, WY. We camped with Grandma & Grandpa Kunz, and the Burt Family. We missed those in our family who couldn't come, but we made the best of the gorgeous natural Granite Hot Springs-again, Izzy had died and gone to heaven swimming circles around with her life-jacket/arm floaties.

Here's Izzy trying to chop some firewood with Uncle Kim and the cousins, gotta love her camping hair!

Enjoying family time by the fire with Amanda-her favorite cousin/babysitter!

A very sad good-bye happened to our family in July. Our wonderful friends, the amazing VanOrden family moved cross-country and they are sorely missed already. They have been one of Izzy's 2nd families for the past 3 years spending time at their home every week while I taught violin lessons. I also taught 2 of their 4 children lessons and am soooo sad to see them go. Jenny and crew, we love and miss you!

A Mastered Bedroom

My last post in June was the start of our master bedroom project. Now I have the finished product (except closet doors) to reveal. Yay! The process has been very exciting, especially for me since our new bedroom has room on either side of the bed-no more doing an ab-crunch to turn my alarm off!!! Not the easiest thing to do at 7 months pregnant!
Back half/south portion of the room-for bed/nighstands.

Front half/north portion of the room, for our closet and dressers.

Looking to the room and seeing the north portion divided from the south portion by a partial wall.

With our furniture!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!

We're still debating on what kind of closet doors to get-any advice? We love our new retreat!

Mastering a Bedroom

Aaron and I are excited to have some help transforming our bedroom downstairs to a master bedroom. Our current situation has our room upstairs and this room has been used for Aaron's "study." With his studies in the background now, it will now be used for our room with the arrival of our baby girl coming in the fall!!! We are excited to be creating the only double closet in our home, yipee!!

The wall on the right has to stay in the middle of the room due to a weight-barring (sp?) post at the end of it. We decided to make the most of it and prep it to install a LCD tv we can watch from our bed!

This will be the wall we put our bed/nightstands against. We added about 30" to the width of this wall which will fit our bed/nightstands perfectly! We are so excited to be able to have room to walk around our bed again. We have been crammed inside a small bedroom since we moved here with my side against a wall and Aaron's side against a doorway-alarm clocks have been very far away, we are going to be hitting snooze a lot more often in our new room!

Stay tuned for more pictures as the progress continues this week-sheet rock, mudding, carpet, paint, and hopefully we can move our furniture down here before the baby comes and get her room ready!

Amy...the full-time working Mom, for this week itleast!

Amy Norton, UT – Amy has been part of the Suzuki Method since age five. She has studied music with Doralee Madsen, Jack Ashton, Chris Takeda, Lynette Stewart, & Gerald Elias. Growing up in a Suzuki home, she was inspired to pursue a BM in Violin Performance from the University Of Utah School Of Music. Amy has SAA Teacher Certification from many amazing teacher trainers. Her string pedagogy has been influenced by Pat D’Ercole, Teri Einfeldt, Judy Bossuat, Linda Fiore, Barbara Barber, Ed Kreitman, Carrie Reuning-Hummel, and many other pioneers of the Suzuki Method. Beginning in 2000, Amy has managed her violin studio of 30+ students. She resides in Salt Lake City with her husband and young family.

Ok I realize this is a little tooting of my own horn but I'm so excited to be a part of the violin faculty for ISSI. Their website is www.intermountainsuzukistringinstitute.com. I get to be amongst some of the greatest Suzuki Method teachers in the country for a week and it always invigorates me for the next year. Every year I attend this institute I am reminded of the unique world of Suzuki that I am a part of. We all share the same goals of Dr. Suzuki's mission to "nurture by love." We all share our teaching ideas like a free flowing faucet of ideas, never holding back or crediting them to ourselves. Each year I make new friends and colleagues and I can't wait for this year! For more information about the Suzuki Association of America, visit www.suzukiassociation.org or visit this inspiring video hot off the press- http://suzukiassociation.org/news/3879/

Go Suzuki!

Twinkle Trio

Here is a quick clip of Isabelle and her friends with their rendition of Princess Twinkle! Enjoy!

Spring Activities

Isabelle is so excited to have a baby sister!!!!! We talk about it a lot and she likes to demonstrate on her tummy how she's "growing bigger!" like Mommy. Of course I don't have any documentation in this post about my growing girth, but I'm sure you can all picture what I look like! Here's some more of Izzy this spring and what we've been up to! Bring on the summer!!!!!

"Mom, do I really have to practice?"......a sign of years to come!

The Cherry On top!

Aaron had a great graduation from the U's Nursing School. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day with family to support him and gorgeous weather. My morning sickness has subsided and all of us were able to celebrate such an exciting day! Yay for Aaron! We're also feeling very very blessed since he has a position as a full-time RN in the Primary Children's ICU. Many of his co-graduates are still looking for jobs, so we feel very watched over that he is employed! Enjoy the photos!

Aaron with all of his nursing buddies that made up the testosterone in their graduating class!

Aaron on the top row, with his perma-smile!

Aaron's amazingly supportive family who flew/drove to support him. Not pictured is also his brother Eric and his family who drove in, as well as his older brother Marlon. We love you all!

Our growing family, in this photo I'm 20 weeks, now I'm 26 weeks along with a BABY GIRL!!!

Aaron and his happy parents!

Aaron and his happy in-laws!

Dreaming about the future of no more care-plans and studying!

The Twins, 2 peas in a pod when they are together. We're crossing our fingers that Adam will move back to SLC in the fall!

Isabelle and her 2 cousins, Madie & Katelin. They were all so cuddly in the fleece PJ's!

Izzy demonstrating how to get a hawk to land on your arm during the Hogle Zoo's bird show!

Izzy, Katelin and Aunt Becky keeping their eyes up for birds flying above!

Izzy and Logan, 2 cousins that loved to get into mischief together!