Noelle and I had on similar sweaters and jeans today, so it was a perfect day for mommy daughter pictures. Here is one of our favorites. I know some people don't agree, but I think there's nothing cuter than a little baby dressed in clothes that an older child or adult would wear. I mean come on, my baby girl in a turtleneck sweater? To die for!

I'm constantly amazed at the innate ability that certain children have to remain nonchalant in the face of uncomfortable circumstances. Take Noelle for example...she's got a stomach bug that's causing her to throw up a lot, have diarrhea and which also prevents her from eating more than a bite of two of food at a time.

Through this whole ordeal though she's been utterly cheerful, playful and more loving than you could expect. She's even been resting her head on our shoulders when we hold her (which she usually doesn't do). Of course that just makes us love her even more.

She always has a huge smile on her face which amazes everyone, strangers and family alike. It's in fact one of the best things about my day, walking into the living room where she plays and seeing her look at me and smile that "daddy!" smile which I know is just for me. It's times like this I just have to marvel at the resilience of chilren.

I wanted to leave you with this quote from The Choir's "When she sees me"

She never minds the weather
She likes the flashes of light
I say "Love, beware black skies"
She's not afraid of winter
Or thunderous nights
She follows rainbows in my eyes

Listen how fast my little girl's heart beats
When she sees me
Listen how fast my little girl's heart beats
When she sees me

So we spent this weekend in Chicago for my 5 year college reunion. We had a great time. We caught up with a lot of friends, spent time with family, and just generally enjoyed ourselves. It's always great to have an opportunity to show off our daughter, and she hams it up.

Today we flew home after lunch, and after we arrived at the airport we took part in a long comedy of errors that led to the picture you see to the right. We were borrowing my parents' car from the airport (they went out of town), and after we parked we wanted to take some pictures of Noelle in the car to make them feel bad for not being there. Haha. Anyway, so we took the pictures, got her set up in her stroller, and headed toward the terminal. That's when I looked down and realized we didn't have our suitcase. We had left it in the trunk of the car, and the keys were under the floor mat inside the car.

We thought of just buying all new stuff, or waiting until my parents' flight got in at 7 PM, but decided to try asking security to help. They were able to pick the lock after a little bit of work, and we got the suitcase out of the trunk. Phew.

By that point, we were late to check in our baggage and were told that it might not get onto our flight but would come on the next one. GREAT! (Fortunately, we found out after we arrived, it did make it on so all was good.) We rushed to our gate, knowing that even though we were running late, both of us had to go to the bathroom and Noelle really needed to be changed.

Andy went first, then took Noelle to the family bathroom to change her. This is when we discovered she had leaked through her clothes. It has been so long since she's done that, we've not been as strict about keeping a change of clothes in her bag. We used the extra clothes we had in there this weekend to change her after church this morning. I freaked out for a second, then went to the bathroom myself before I went in to help Andy.

Her clothes were wrecked, and apparently we also had no wipes in the diaper bag. WHAT! So we created our own with toilet paper and paper towels, and stuffed her nasty clothes in a plastic bag. Now, what to have her wear? We had a jacket in her bag, so we decided on that and a diaper. Hence the picture.

We made it home, and had a good laugh about our crazy afternoon. It was an amusing end to a really fun weekend.

She has four teeth now. 3 on top, 1 on the bottom. They all came in at pretty much the same time! No more gummy smile, but this one's pretty cute, too.

Just a little reminder, that if you're reading this before the polls close, there's still time for you to get out and exercise your constitutional right to vote for the people who represent you.

I know that some of you might choose not to vote for various reasons, and I respect your right to make that choice. I feel, though, that choosing not to vote is a cop-out. Let me list the reasons you might not vote:
+ I don't like any of the candidates
+ I don't care enough about the issues
+ My vote won't count
In my opinion though, there is never a good reason not to vote.

So get out there and vote, or let other people decide your life for you.

Happy Halloween from our little monster!

We spent Halloween evening with friends eating chili and watching the kids have a good time and eat too much candy. Even Noelle ate a Pez off the floor. Yum! Then we followed the big kids around while they went Trick or Treating on their street. I think Noelle was mostly oblivious to what was going on, but she looked cute! Someone we came across thought I was holding a stuffed animal.

Next year she'll enjoy the festivities more, but it was fun to dress her up!