Family Photos

Thanks to Shelly Coulter for taking these beautiful pictures of our family on a very cold morning (14 degrees, felt like -1). We were on the University of Wyoming campus, a place that is very special for us. You can see the library in the background in many of the photos.

Oh, Christmas Tree

We set up our Christmas tree today, and Nora is enchanted.

She was also quite festively dressed for church today.

Eleven months

Still not too sure about standing up.

Nora: 11 months old on November 28th
Favorite foods: clementines, French toast with soy nog and cinnamon, crackers
Signs: all done, more, milk, food
Tricks: army crawling, blowing kisses, clapping hands, playing peek-a-boo
Favorite things: books (especially touch-and-feel), bath time, the kitty, seeing new people, sippy cup
Least favorite things: nap time, puffy coat, carseat

And a few more pictures:

Prunes for breakfast -- yummy!

It took a little while to learn to crawl forward instead of just backward. . .

Sippy cup is a big hit. Also sometimes a big mess.

Bath time!

Thanksgiving

We visited Idaho for Thanksgiving, and even though Nora was a little bit sick we had a good time seeing family and farm animals and eating a yummy dinner.

Pigs!

Calves!

Horses!

Nora tried a few foods for Thanksgiving dinner. She was not a fan of cranberry sauce.

Mike and my brothers grew mustaches for No-Shave November.

I didn't get any pictures of Nora with her cousins -- I guess I was just having fun watching them -- but she had a really good time playing with Clancy and with Seth. And we got to meet tiny little Baby Graham, who is seven weeks old.

Library conference in Las Vegas

Mike and Nora joined me for a library conference in Las Vegas in the middle of November and we got to see some of our family members while we were there. Fun! We visited my cousin Celia and saw a couple of her kiddos (they live in Henderson) and we drove up to St. George and saw Grandma & Grandpa Brough and Brian & Kim Brough and their kids. One of my favorite things was seeing the Brough kids interact with Nora--they were all so cute together! Nora looooved it when Adler let her touch his spiky hair. It made her giggle.

We went to Ethel M.'s Chocolate Factory and enjoyed a factory tour, some chocolates, and the cactus garden that is all decorated for Christmas. It was so strange to me to see Christmas decorations when we were out and about in 70 degree weather.

More cacti

Nora acknowledges her fans

Don't let this pouty face fool you--she was totally into the family gathering.

Adler's hair!

Grandma & Grandpa Brough have this awesome 100-year-old high chair that all the kids get their photo taken in. Nora was hamming it up.

This is the Lied Library on the UNLV campus, where the library conference was held.

And here I am giving my presentation.

Hawaii Library Association

I've done a lot of traveling over the past four years, since I became a professional librarian. Conferences and training events have taken me to lots of places, and this past week I went to Hawaii! I was an invited speaker at the Hawaii Library Association conference, and it was fantastic.

I stayed at the gorgeous Disney Aulani resort:

View from my room's balcony

Here's my updated "States I've Visited" map. I've still got 20 left to visit, but I'm thrilled to have added Hawaii to the places I've been!

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Halloween

On Halloween, Nora dressed up like a ladybug after school and we visited my co-workers in the library, walked through Safe Treat in the student union to say hello to some friends, then visited Mike's co-workers in Knight Hall. This all happened from about 4-5pm. Then on our way home we stopped at Nora's teacher's house to say hello. Everyone loved Nora's costume, and sparkly shoes, and adorable smile. By the time we got home, the little ladybug was so exhausted--she was in bed and asleep before 7pm. What an exciting holiday!

(We had about 10 trick or treaters at our house, after Nora went to bed.)
Before Halloween, Nora explored a pumpkin. We did not carve a face on it, but we did make pumpkin cookies and pumpkin soup!