Festivities

Putting the star on the tree with Daddy's help.


Gingerbread house. Ad was mainly interested in eating the frosting.


I kept telling her to smile and she got sick of it and started being silly. This looks just like my brother Jake. : )

Meeting baby Autumn

Family Portraits

I know every mother thinks their kid is a genius. I am no exception. Isn't this cute? Ad wrote the names all by herself. We didn't even tell her how to spell them.

Baby Autumn

Brad and May welcomed their little girl to the world today! She is just the most beautiful little thing. She weighed 5 lbs 14 oz. Momma had to have a c section, but everyone is doing great! Yay for new little people!!

Halloween

Oh, I love this girl.

Oh Colorado.

Can't you wait until after Halloween?

Horsetooth

I know I say this all the time, but I just love where we live. Tonight we went climbing near Horsetooth reservoir. It is ten minuets from our house. And Target is five minuets the other way. What more could a girl ask for?


This little section is called the Torture Chamber. You have to climb it upside down. I couldn't do it.


But Karl took this photo of me that makes it look like I was really high in the air, so I could feel better about not being able to climb upside down. : )

I'm a goat

We are driving home from climbing and Addison is complaining that her foot got dirty. I suggest that she take a bath when we get home.

She doesn't like that idea. "Mom, you are a goat and you can't talk."

14ers

This weekend Brad and I climbed some 14ers (peaks over 14,000 feet high). We picked Gray's Peak and Torrey's Peak. The hike was about 4.5 miles with about 3,000 feet of altitude gain. Here is a view of the approach.

And here is proof that we made it.

Looking from Torrey's Peak to Gray's Peak.

On top of Gray's Peak. Now we just have to make it back down.

We go out to eat. Addison wants something pink to drink, so I order her some cranberry juice.

"Hey Ad, how's your cranberry juice?"

She looks at me like I'm insane. "Mom! There are no crayons in this juice!"

Shiner

Table + 3 ft tall person + running = OUCH.

Haircut

When Ad was about 6 months old she had this long section of hair on the crown of her head. We called it her rooster tail. Sometimes it would lay down and look like a comb over. So I finally chopped it off. Technically, that was her first haircut. But I haven't cut it at all since then.

It has been looking a little scraggly at the bottom, so I decided it was time to get her a trim. I love her long hair and it pretty much looks the same as it did just a bit more cleaned up. Mostly, I was just so proud of how she sat so still in the chair and looked so cute with her little cape on.

School Girl

Addison started preschool last week. I was only a tad bit sentimental about dropping her off the first day. And no- I didn't cry. I am so excited for her! She has been telling us for months, "I am going to school by myself and you guys can't come with me." She is so ready!

I love her teacher and the school. I feel really lucky that we got her in to the school that we did. She has made lots of new friends and is really enjoying it. She was disturbed by the fact that there is blue water in the potties at school. Her teacher had to find one without the blue soap for her to use. But hopefully she will adjust to that soon. : )

Addison

So Addison has been crazy about books lately. If there is enough light when we put her to bed, she will stay up for hours just looking at all her books and trying to read them. And when I say hours, I'm not exaggerating. She stayed up until 1 am the other night. Her bedtime is 8:30. She isn't really reading yet, but she memorizes what we say and then "reads" it back to us.

So we got this book from the library a week ago. She has the entire thing memorized. And I can't help but laugh when her little voice says things like, "Passe is French for over." and "Pink is putrid."

Here is a video of her "reading" Purplicious.

Rockies Game & RMNP

Most of my family came up to play before we all got really busy. We went to a Rockies game which was fun even though we lost. This is the lovely Sarah demonstrating the proper way for a lady to eat an extra long loaded hot dog. There is a video of it too, if you are somehow interested in that. Just click the more photos link on the right. She is so cute, even when she is trying hard not to be. : )




The next day we went to Rocky Mountain National Park. Yes, this was the third weekend in a row for Karl and I. Hey, we got a year pass and we are going to get our money's worth! Plus, it's just amazing and there is so much to see. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. This is at Alluvial falls.


And now it's back to work. And pre-school. And work.

Summer of Fun

This week marked the end of our crazy and fun summer. We moved to a new state, got a dog, stayed up way loo late almost every night, drove 1000 miles round trip to go to Nat's wedding, and spent the weekends in the Rocky Mountains. Last weekend was our last little adventure before I started my new job and my Mom came to stay with us for the school year. Addison starts pre-school on Monday too! It seems like everything is happening all at once.

First, some pictures from Nat's Wedding:


I just love Nat's look in this. She is so beautiful and I am so happy she found a good guy.

This one just makes me laugh. Nat hates tomatoes. And this is Kelly trying to feed her one. If you know Nat, you know that this is a typical "are you kidding me?" face.



Addison was taking advantage of the fact that she could reach all the food for once.

Our family.

Just love this one of my beautiful Kim and Addie and my sweet brother Jake. Don't you just wanna squeeze them all?

All the sisters. As my grandma would say, "How's that for a stack of beautiful girls?" LOVE these ladies!

Princess Story Time

This little cupcake shop is right by our house. About once a month, they have a lady come dressed like a princess and she reads a story to the kids and they all get a cupcake. So I took Ad today. And she was crazy about it. Can it get any more girlie that that?

Chocolate dipped strawberry cupcake. Yum! She eats the frosting, I eat the rest.

She let all the kids take a picture with her and before we left Addi ran up to her and gave her a big hug. Sweet.

Rocky Mountain National Park

This place is only an hour from our house. I know I am spoiled, but I wish it were a bit closer so we could go there on weeknights. It is absolutely amazing, and the pictures really don't do it justice. We bought a year pass, so if anyone wants to come visit (hint, hint) we can all cram in one car and go for free! This is where we will be spending the majority of our weekends the rest of the summer hopefully.

I'm too lazy to post pictures here right now, so just click on the link to the right to see them.

Morgana

Last weekend we went to Utah for my sister Natalie's Wedding. I am so happy that she found a great guy! I hope to post some pictures from the wedding soon. It was a long trip and we unexpectedly ended up with a new member of the family. Karl's parents had Susie's dog at their house. Susie got Morgana as a puppy before she passed away. For some reason, when Karl and I went to visit his parents we were both really drawn to her. They don't really have the time to devote to her that they wanted, so it was decided that we would take her. And I am so glad we did. She is a very good girl, great with Addison and obedient (although still needs a bit of training). My biggest complaint is that she wants to play fetch ALL the time. If you want to pet her or otherwise play with her you have to hide her toys. 

If you are wondering about the name, Susie picked it. This is what wikipedia has to say: Morgan le Fay, alternatively known as Morgane, Morgaine, Morgana and other variants, is a powerful sorceress and antagonist of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere in the Arthurin legend.  If you knew Susie, this is very much her style.  : ) We are so happy to have her puppy!

4th of July weekend

We hiked up to Grey Rock on Friday with Brand and May. It was a lot of fun, but at the end of almost six miles we were ready to done. Addison did much better than anticipated. She switched between the backpack and walking and had a lot of fun climbing rocks and jumping off the smaller ones. She also kept saying, "We are just out in the world!"

We made it! Now to just get back down.

It was cold and rainy on the 4th so we watched fireworks from the car on top of Horsetooth ridge. As you can see, Ad enjoyed herself.

So I got these earrings a while ago, but I wore them to church for the first time today. Addison was fascinated.

"What are you looking at Addie?"

"Your earrings"

"Do you like them?"

"They look like candy."