High Five for Friday

1. We have officially wrapped up the Christmas season with our final two holiday parties with Brent's work.  We enjoyed a night at his boss' house and dinner at Somerby last Friday and dinner at Osaka last night with Brent's entire department.  Brent's been at Think Mutual Bank now for two and a half years and it has been such a wonderful place to work and he is surrounded by great people daily!
2. During the parties mentioned in #1, Nora and Luke hung out with Brent's family.  One evening at Troy & Audra's house and the other at our house with Papa and Grandma.  We are forever grateful for the generosity of our families and the opportunity to live so close to see them often.  My official #2 is that Nora is no longer crying at the sight of her family!!!  We went through a stretch of a few months of her getting upset when she saw or was held by Brent's parents, Troy, Bridget, and my mom.  We felt horrible that she was so moody with family, but she seems to have turned a corner!  
3. We booked an Alaskan cruise for our 10 year anniversary! Our anniversary isn't until July, and the trip isn't until September, but we're VERY excited!!!
4. Luke had a fun-filled week at school with a movie/stuffed animal party Monday afternoon and a field trip to Quarry Hill Nature Center Tuesday afternoon.  I just love that our kids are growing up in the same city we did and that we can reminisce about our excitement when we took the same field trips Luke is now taking:)  I also love the weeks that I get to help out in Luke's class.  Now that Nora's a bit older, I've gotten on a schedule of 2-3 times a month.  I love seeing the kids and their teacher interact and watching/helping them learn. 
5. Nora is getting very good at eating baby food.  Her digestion didn't do well with rice cereal, so we have switched her to fruits and vegetables and she's doing much better.  She really likes bananas and applesauce so far.  She's also tried green beans which didn't go over well plain, but she took them better when mixed with applesauce.  I'm planning to add pumpkin, sweet potato, pears, and carrots in the coming weeks.