Nora Bethy gets funnier and more delightful with every passing day. We literally cannot get enough of her, and she packs so much personality in every single expression and word. She is crazy smart… like, I’m not bragging about it, we’re literally terrified of how smart she is.

Here’s a handful of her latest quips that have just slayed us (recorded here basically because I forgot to write in her baby journal after about 9 months… whoops). There are SO many, every single day.

David recently got a new smoker (Merry Early Christmas, guy!), and NB refers to it as “Daddy’s robot.” He has been doing a lot of catering work and has a table set up in the garage to stage everything he needs. Upon seeing it set up for the first time:
NB: “Oh! Dere’s a table! Daddy eat dinner wif robot!”
Calling to me from the playroom where she had climbed into a basket of stuffed animals, laid down, and pretended to get stuck while fake crying:
NB: “Oh no! NorBeff cwying!! Mommy come get you! NorBeff fall down in bakset.”
Me: “Do you want me to help get you out?”
NB: “Noooooo. NorBeff cwying.” NB is currently very into Veggie Tales at the moment, and she likes the Sweet Pea Beauty episode, particularly.
NB: “Watch Pwincess Doody, okay? Yeah! Okay! Pwincess Doody! Pwincess Doody!”
We went to visit David while preparing for a catering event. He was smoking turkeys and gave her a little bite of one.
NB: “Ooooh!! I WIKE dat!! Yummy, yummy!!!” She has been liking to close herself into rooms to play alone and will instruct “Mommy go’way,” very sweetly. This morning she was playing in our downstairs bathroom with the door shut. I went in to check on her.
NB: “NorBeff SWEEPING!!” while wildly waving around a wet toilet brush… that she had scrubbed all over the bathroom after dipping it in the toilet. Perfect little helper.

We’ve had a good slew of meals around here lately, as well! Below is a little look at what’s been on our plates.

White Bean Cassoulet – a cool weather favorite around here and SO easy!
Creamy Ham + Potato Soup – this was my first time making this, but it definitely won’t be my last. I added some grated smoked gouda at the end… because why not?
Spatchcocked Whole Chicken – I haven’t tried this flavor combo yet, but it looked delicious, and we adore a smoked whole chicken on the grill.
Chicken Paprika – another of my very favorites!
Maple Chipotle Pork + Cheesy Polenta – I made this for the first time yesterday and was pleasantly surprised with how tasty it was. The pork was super easy to throw in the crockpot, and I grabbed a tube of prepared polenta and cooked it with chicken broth to make it creamy and then added in ricotta and parmesan.
Drunken Thai Noodles – Another first time recipe that was a major winner. We love, love, love Thai, and these noodles are going to be a great addition to our rotation. I used chicken and shrimp in ours along with brown rice noodles.