That’s what they call people who aren’t green thumbs, right? Yeah, I’ve finally come to the realization that gardening just isn’t my thing. I was woefully aware of this yesterday when I noticed my neighbors - from either side of our house mind you - in my pathetic garden pulling weeds. They decided to give my garden a fighting chance since I wasn’t doing it! Chris and Julie said they didn’t mind, that the weed-pulling was actually therapeutic and stress relieving. Let’s just say they relieved A LOT of stress yesterday! I guess I was a little ambitous thinking I could do a garden this summer. Taking care of Nora doesn’t give me much free time. I do have some potted flowers on the front porch and thankfully have just enough time to water those!

Nora is 7 weeks old… she’s still a bit fussy in the evenings but not as bad as she was a couple of weeks ago. She has started to smile at us and we can hear a coo from her every now and then. It’s nice to hear something other than crying!

Molly goes to her first dental appointment tomorrow and Doug is taking her to her first swimming lesson tomorrow night. Should be a big day for her! She’s a non-stop talker and reminds me of my sister Amanda. And best of all, she says mommy is her best friend!

~ Erin

Update: Tonight Daddy was Molly’s best friend. Strange how fast these things change.

Our fridge is stocked to the brim with leftovers from this past weekend… Erin’s family came out for a mini-reunion of sorts to celebrate her dad’s 60th birthday and Nora’s baptism.  The weather was perfect and we had a lot of food, hence the blog title!

We were fortunate to have Steph and our one-year-old nephew Xavier come out a few days earlier to help prepare for the Robbins onslaught.  It was fun watching Molly and Xavier interact and we can’t wait until Nora is that age!  Steph made a delicious french toast souffle for breakfast on Sunday morning, and we’ve posted her recipe here.  Steph also created a very cool photo slideshow for Dad featuring pictures from his past that we will try to post soon.

Erin’s brother Nick was on leave from his mission in Kyrsikstan (sp?) and he, Karla and the girls drove from Washington state to come out for a visit… Molly had a blast playing dress-up with her cousins and I hope Ava, Laina and Dani had just as much fun as she did! 

Doug’s sister Chris was also able to join us for Nora’s baptism on Sunday, so we had a full house for lunch!

Doug’s recent actions reminded me of one of my favorite movie lines from Dumb and Dumber, after Lloyd trades in the dog van for a moped:

Just when I thought you couldn’t get any dumber, you go and do something like this… and totally redeem yourself!

In the previous post, I dissed Doug for his poor clothes-matching skills… but then I found this super awesome onesie sitting on the table when I came home today:

Totally redeemed!

We’re having some technical difficulty posting pictures into our photo gallery, but looks like I can embed images into our blog posts, so here we go! Here are some pictures of Nora at 1 month old, along with Doug’s attempt at dressing Molly…

Note from Doug: In all fairness, Erin asked Molly to make a scared face before she took the picture. But yeah, that was an ugly outfit. Who bought those clothes anyway….ERIN?

Response from Erin: I do not buy ugly kids’ clothes… but certain combinations can be disastrous, as seen in the image above.  Doug is now officially banned from dressing the children without my supervision!

It’s time for another update… I noticed we hadn’t posted for a while!  Sorry the headline isn’t very catchy this time; blame it on my sleep deprivation.  Nora is almost a month old and is a great baby - most of the time.  She has been having what I would call “colic-like episodes” just about every day, usually in the early evenings.  She tries to eat, but gets all upset and seems to be having digestive pains.  Doug and I are not good at coping with the inconsolable crying, but we’re doing our best.  The crying doesn’t seem to affect Molly too much, thank goodness.  Hopefully Nora will start feeling better soon… we tried “gripe water” and that seems to be helping a little bit.  We also swaddle her up and place her in a side-to-side swing (thanks, Steph!) and eventually falls to sleep.

When Nora IS napping during the day, I’ve been watching episodes of Arrested Development and The Tudors from my Netflix DVDs.  And of course, I’m always trying to catch up on sleep but it’s hard for me to catnap during the day once I’m up and awake.  Nora still gets up 2-3 times at night, so hopefully that will improve in the weeks ahead.  It’s been several months since I’ve slept through the night, but at least I can sleep on my stomach again…

We’re expecting my whole side of the family over 4th of July weekend as we celebrate Nora’s baptism and my dad’s 60th birthday… should be fun!  I just hope the weather cooperates and that Nora is more on a schedule, but I think those things are out of my control! 

Molly has a new friend at preschool - another boy (surprise, surprise) named A.J.  She talks about him ALL THE TIME and I thought her world would come crashing down when he was home sick last Friday.  Alas, he is back at school now and they’re always playing together in the sandbox when I come to pick her up! 

I think Nora is about to wake up soon, so I better get going…

~ Erin

Father’s Day came a bit early for me when my present arrived. Molly and Nora sure do know there dad! They got me a wireless, talking bbq/oven thermometer. Way cool! Grilling just went high-tech for the Campbells.

So as I’m playing (aka learning) with my newest gadget I’m cycling through the different settings and the first thing I hit was the doneness button when it said in a pleasant voice…”Well Done.” I proceeded to hit the meat button when it said “Turkey.” So, there you have it…Well done, turkey!

Special thanks to Erin for taking care of the purchasing aspect of the gift.

~Doug

We took Nora in for her two week check-up today and we’re proud to report that she is getting bigger and growing almost as fast as the grass in our yard! Each time we have an appointment with Molly and Nora’s pediatrician, she charts their height and weight and then tells us which percentile they fall into. When Molly was a baby, she was really big and always seemed to fall into the 99th percentile for her age. I guess we got used to that, because we were a little shocked to hear that Nora fell into the 50th percentile based on her birth weight and height. But we’re happy to report that Nora is moving up in the world… at today’s visit she measured in the 70th percentile. Woo-hoo!

Check out new photos I added to our June album:

Molly’s grandma and grandpa decided to take her to the zoo for a visit last week. I took some video of that and compiled another video. Enjoy…

Click the picture to view the video

Coincidentally we’ll be going to the zoo again today for a birthday party for the Trimbles.

~Doug

We have a Jo staying at our house this week to help out while I recover… it’s my mom, Peggy Jo! She’s been a big help giving Molly lots of attention and helping out around the house while I feed Nora and try to get some rest. Doug was very impressed by her thorough vacuuming yesterday and ma did most of the dirty work helping me pot some flowers for the front porch today. Not sure how we’ll get things done once she leaves…

So far, Nora is a good kid. Sleeps for a good 2-3 hours at a stretch and likes to eat (she gets that from Doug). Thankfully she doesn’t cry too much and she loves to be held. Such a cute little snuggle bunny! Molly is adjusting pretty well and always wants to see the baby when she comes home from preschool. She’s been sneaking down and sleeping in our bed at night because of all the thunderstorms we’ve been having, so it’s been a little crowded in our bedroom lately! (Good thing I let Doug talk me in to getting a king-size bed a few months ago!)

I uploaded photos of Nora’s arrival and first few days in our May album and June album, so check those out if you’re interested. We recommend using the “view slideshow” feature on the left-hand toolbar. Doug will be posting video from a recent zoo excursion soon!

~ Erin

Just wanted to post a few more pics that we thought you might enjoy!