maracas

She sure loved it when Joe gave these to her to play with!!

Nora all over the place!!

Ginger is pretty indifferent to her at the moment but she usually gets up and walks away and then Nora goes after her again!

Late Thanksgiving

I felt bad that Joe had to spend Thanksgiving by himself with Ginger, and that all he got to eat was mac and cheese. So I decided to make him a Thanksgiving dinner the Sunday after I got here. It took a ton of work, but was fun! I spent almost all day Saturday and Sunday making stuff. I made homemade stuffing from this recipe and this yummy chicken. I even made apple pie- what a lucky guy Joe is :-) 

This is the best chicken/turkey ever!

Nora slept through the whole thing which was something to be Thankful for !

Joe's Recap: Moving to NM & Settling in

I'm not a blogger so forgive me is this turns out terrible.  I just thought I'd share what's been going on in our lives from a little different perspective.

Professional Movers:
So we've never hired movers before and had no idea what to expect.  Savanna's new job paid moving expenses so we figured it'd be stupid not to.  The first problem was that our initial delivery window was 4 to 14 days from loading.  We'd been planning to drive together in the Subaru just after Thanksgiving.  Savanna's employer had moved her start date back a little so she could spend the holiday with family since we were moving so far away.  But starting a new job and moving into a new place with a baby and none of our stuff but what fit in the car with Savanna and I, Nora, and the dog sounded like a nightmare.  The solution was to move our loading date up to November 16th and I would drive with the dog to meet the movers while Savanna and Nora stayed with Mom & Dad Bryant. Then they would fly to Silver City after Thanksgiving.

The movers told us they'd pack us on the 15th and load the truck on the 16th.  Imagine our surprise when the guys show up early on the 15th with a truck.  We scurried like crazy to get all the things we needed to survive the next week or two with no stuff as the movers packed and loaded our stuff.  We cleaned the house with the help of some very nice ladies from church and camped out on the living room floor.

The Drive:

I had hoped to be able to leave for NM after Thanksgiving, but the movers told us that the expected unload date was the 20th, so on the morning of the 16th Savanna, Nora, Ginger and I loaded all our luggage, sleeping bags, etc. into the car.  Poor Ginger had to ride to Idaho Falls in the back between two sleeping bags and Nora was boxed in by suitcases.  I dropped Savanna and Nora off in Idaho Falls and drove on to Payson, UT where I stayed with my uncle Bob and aunt Louise.  5pm traffic in SLC drove home that I'd been living in a very small town for too long.  

The next day I drove to Kanab, UT where my cousins work for a huge animal rescue facility.  Maybe you've seen Dogtown on TV.  That's the place.  I caught the corners of Bryce and Zion National parks along the way.  Beautiful drive.  I wish I'd stopped to take pictures.  At the Best Friends Animal Society, I met with Keeley and decided to stay the night with her and Alex instead of driving another hour to where I planned to stay the night.  Took Ginger for a hike and took lots of pictures while I waited for Keeley and Alex to get off work.

The next morning I left around 9:30am and got to Silver City around 8pm.  I drove across the Glenn Canyon Dam which is the beginning of the Grand Canyon and through lots of reservations in AZ and up through a pass into NM that must have been around 9,000 feet.  Beautiful pine forests.

The movers showed up on the 20th as expected.  I spent the next 6 days unpacking stuff and taking Ginger for a hike.  There is a sweet trail system about 5 minutes from our house in the Gila National Forest.

Savanna's Return:

Savanna was supposed to get here on the 26th, but her flight was delayed in SLC and so she missed her flight from Albuquerque to Silver City and had to stay in a hotel that night.  Delta was kind enough to pay for her room, but we were both really bummed out.  I was especially missing her and Nora after spending Thanksgiving alone.  Well, I had the dog, but she's not much for conversation.

The next morning, I drove 30 minutes to the smallest airport I've ever seen to pick Savanna and Nora up.  It turns out that they were the only passengers on the plane.  It was a joyous reunion.  Nora had grown and changed quite a bit in the week and a half since I'd seen her last.

Home in Silver City:

Nora learned to crawl and sit up by herself while they were in Idaho Falls.  It blows my mind how many places she gets to and things she gets into now.  Ginger will never get any peace, Nora chases her around the living room (at a slow crawl) and tries to put her ears or tail in her mouth.  Ginger just patiently bears it and looks up at me like, "save me, please"?

(videos when I can figure out why there's and upload error)

The weather here has been beautiful.  Mid to low 60's every day and high 30's at night.  Savanna got here on Tuesday and still didn't have her NM hygiene license and was really stressed about it.  It came in the mail Wednesday afternoon and she started work on Friday.  She spend most of the day yesterday preparing me a belated Thanksgiving feast for today.  I'm so excited for the food, but more than anything, I'm thankful to have my family together again.  If you got through all this, give yourself a gold star for patience with my epic rambling tale.  Greeting from New Mexico.  -Joe

What we've been up to

Swimming at the hotel in Silver City

 Sometimes creating posts in Blogger drives me crazy! I can't get it to do what I want. Oh well! Our daughter is obviously very cute and she knows it too. It is pretty funny to watch her around lots of people. She will stare at people and smile until she gets their attention and if they don't notice her she screams or laughs loud until they do and then she pulls her big smile out to get all the adoration. What a silly girl! I took her in to get the rest of her shots today and she weighed about 16 pounds. She only cried for a second on the second shot.  We're working on getting all our stuff together for the big move. We're a bit stressed out since we are supposed to have packers coming Thursday and loading Friday but we don't even know for sure if they have a driver yet or when they will be in Silver City with our stuff! Oh and today was crazy because we had an unexpected vet trip - ginger tore her claw off - What an expensive mutt! Anyway - here's to smooth sailing from here!

Getting to know Cousin Phoebe in Kimberly

Mom is holding another baby - I'm not so sure about that

Getting ready for her first haircut! Look at that wild hair! Dad looks scared for her - He's had Grandma's haircuts before!

Here we go...!

Grandma is good at chasing babies head's around!

All done...Let's put a huge flower on your head!

Hanging out with Grandpa...

And eating his tie...yum yum!

Nora's 1st Halloween

Little Nora got to dress up as a little monkey for Halloween this year and little monkey she is! It is a little early but we had our ward party tonight and probably won't really do anything on the actual day. So here's some pics of the star of the show!

Two little monkeys!

Grandma Johnston

We are so glad that Nora got to meet her Great Grandma Johnston who passed away today. She was an awesome lady and will be missed!

Nora and Grandma Johnston April 29th, 2012

Phoebe Grace

Nora has a girl cousin! I'm glad she won't be the only girl in the family! Phoebe Grace Hunt was born September 1st. She weighed 8 lbs 4 ounces and was 20 inches long. We just happened to be in Kimberly for labor day and got to see her! She was born healthy and at home! Congratulations Brandon and Julie! 

Couldn't get this to turn  - sorry! Look at all that hair - none of her brothers had hair like this!

Phoebe on her birth day  - Nora almost 5 months

comparing feet size. Phoebe has really long toes and fingers!

uh oh! Too small!

I made this cute sunhat for Nora supposedly size 3-6 months and when it was finished it was too small! Here it is on her anyway! I bought new material to make her a bigger size so when that's finished I will post on here!

I just can't get over how cute she is!

4 month pics

My cousin Casey took these awesome pictures for me. I think they turned out great!

She does look a little disgusted by this situation....

Katie made the cute tutu she's in!

Reprive from the smoke!

We went to the hills to get out of the smoke for a while the other day and stopped at Sharkey hot springs on the way back. It was Nora's first time swimming and she got to wear the little suit Katie and Adam brought back from New Zealand! She had fun!

Mom, Why are you taking a picture of me?

Whatever, I'm going to eat Dad's knuckles!

When we stopped at the hot springs it was a pleasant surprise because they had fixed it up quite a bit. It is so much cleaner than when we were there last - no more algae, and they added a nice fence and some benches. I'm excited to go back again sometime!

1st food!

Nora's first attempt at food - rice cereal. I can't believe how big she is getting! Already 4 months old and getting to be so much fun! We'll find out all her stats on Monday at her Dr. appt. 

 

 Everyone says that she looks just like her daddy. One thing's for sure - she has his hair right now. It sticks straight up all the time and is so darn cute! I love this little girl so much! 

Oh - Katie and Abby - I hope these updates satisfy you for a while because I'm not sure I'll get around to posting again any time soon!

Family Reunion

We went to Idaho Falls in July for a family reunion. It was the annual Bowcutt reunion and was held at Ririe Reservoir this year. Nora got to be with all her family and of course everyone couldn't get enough of her. Katie took a bunch more pictures than I did so Here is the link to her post of the weekend. 

Having fun with Grandpa Bryant

with Great Grandpa Stucki in "the cabin"

with Aunt Deanna

Great Grandma Stucki