Christmas 2013

Christmas was a ton of fun this year. I have a feeling Christmas is going to get a little more fun every year as the girls get older!

Kara learned the words to many a Christmas carol, including: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Joy to the World, and Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.  It's all very cute.  Kara really got into the Christmas spirit this year. Multiple times she exclaimed, "It's exactly what I've always wanted!" after opening a gift. In particular she seems to really enjoy her sleeping bag (she crammed all her stuffed animals in there and dragged it around for the next several days), her camera (it took her about 5 minutes to figure out it had video games), and a large book of Garfield comics she looks through every day.

Emily also enjoyed her gifts. She really likes to cruise around with her new walker. For the most part, however, she likes to play with Kara's toys!

The weekend before Christmas was also very exciting. Kara and Emily went to meet Santa. This was the first year Kara sat still long enough to tell Santa exactly what she wanted (Despicable Me). Emily did great as well. She sat there for about 30 seconds (long enough to get a decent picture) before deciding Santa was a little scary. Also that weekend, Kara went to her first movie at a theater. She and Mommy went to go see Frozen. Kara seemed to really enjoy it and is excited to go see another movie! If that wasn't enough, Kara and Dad went to the rock gym to try out rock climbing. Kara did great! She climbed up and down the wall for almost an hour until she figured out that it was a lot of fun to "fall" and let the auto-belay rope lower her back down. We'll have to try that again sometime.

Link to pictures

Mobile Baby, Part II

Here are some pictures of our baby-on-the-move.  Emily will still sit and play when the mood strikes (or when Kara is entertaining her with shenanigans), but for the most part she's in motion.  She's gotten quite steady on her feet and good at "cruising", but still needs a spot when climbing the stairs.  Actually, she hasn't fallen, but she makes Mommy nervous!  Emily is very good at bending down and getting up, crawling then sitting, and spinning around on her tush (very cute).  She can actually squat without holding on to something, but can't fully stand unassisted.

We're very proud of our little sweetheart!  Kara is also enjoying Emily more as she's getting older.  Emily enjoys playing with Kara's toys, and she thinks her older sister is HILARIOUS.

In the past few weeks, Emily has started giving kisses. Lovely, sloppy, sweet baby kisses. :)  Mommy and Daddy aren't sure how they got such a sweet baby, but we sure are enjoying her!

Link to pictures

Kara's 4th Birthday

Kara had her first real birthday party this year.  It was at Mountain Kids Gym, where the kids got to run around and play on obstacle courses, rope swings, trampolines, and a foam pit for two hours.  It was a hit!  The kids had a great time, and there was minimal work for Mommy and Daddy.  Win, win!

We also had family over on her actual birthday (during the week) with cake and her favorite foods - pizza and soy beans!

At Kara's 4-year check-up, the doctor referred to her as a "perfect specimen."  She weighed in at 35 pounds (50th percentile) and measured up at 39 3/4" (50th percentile).  She also has better than 20/20 vision.  We'll see how long that lasts with her genes!  We're keeping our fingers crossed. :)

It's hard to believe it's been 4 years since Kara joined us.  We can hardly remember life without her!

Link to pictures

 

The Passing of GG

Sadly, GG K. passed away on the morning of Thursday, November 14th, 2013. She was just about 2 weeks short of her 81st birthday (or, as she would say, she was going to be 49 with 32 years of experience). She had checked into the hospital the previous Friday complaining of chest pains. The doctors did some tests and determined that she had some pretty significant blockages in her arteries. They put in two stents on Saturday, but couldn't get a stent in the artery with the most blockage (she had a 99% blockage of her left subclavian). Grandma decided that she wanted to put in the last stent in the hopes that it would alleviate some of the chronic pain she had been experiencing. The procedure, however, was not successful. The doctors found that the plaque in her arteries was too hard and they were unable to place the stent. Grandma never really recovered from the second procedure. She was disoriented and confused when Daddy went to visit her Wednesday afternoon. She's in a better place now.

Fortunately, Daddy had been able to take both girls down to visit GG recently. She loved the girls. The last thing GG said to Daddy was, "Take care of those girls." I certainly intend to.

Link to GG blog posts

Link to pictures of GG.

Fall 2013 Professional Pictures

During November, we met up with Esther from BlueThistlePhotography to get some pictures of our family as the girls get older. It's getting trickier to get 4 people to all be looking in the same direction and smiling at the same time, particularly when you have a hyper 4-year old and a slightly grumpy 9-month old.  In the end, though, we got some pretty good pictures of the family.  Enjoy!

Link to pictures

Halloween 2013

Halloween was a blast this year. We got the festivities started by attending a pumpkin-carving party at a neighbor's house, which was a lot of fun. We tried to go to a pumpkin patch, but we didn't get there until late in the month. By that time, the pumpkin patch was very picked over, so we had to get our pumpkin at the grocery store. Trick-or-treating was a lot of fun this year. Kara dressed up as Spiderman, and Daddy took her out with some kids on our street. Emily was a little too young to enjoy the trick-or-treating, but maybe next year!

October, in general, was a busy month for us. We spent the first couple of weeks just getting ourselves settled after spending almost five months living in Florida. Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you looked at it), Daddy spent the entire month of October working from home since his office flooded in September, so he was around to help out a bit. Unfortunately, Mommy, Kara, and Emily were sick most of the month.  Kara got sick with croup after only 4 classes of preschool. She was down for the count for an entire week and even lost her voice (which was very odd from Kara who usually almost never stops talking). She still has a pretty nasty cough, but she feels fine.  Emily and Mommy both got pretty rough colds (but not as bad as Kara's croup). Daddy, however, was able to avoid the plague, so there was at least one person functioning.

Emily is making progress on crawling. She now army crawls pretty much anywhere she wants to go and can pull herself up to a standing position, but she hasn't quite figured out how to propel herself with her torso off the ground. There's a lot of coordination that goes into crawling! Emily is also developing quite a taste for solid foods. She really enjoys green beans and peaches, but her favorite is pears and apple cinnamon oatmeal.

Link to pictures

100th Blog Post Extravaganza

This is our 100th blog post!  Let the festivities begin!  Okay, maybe it won't be quite that exciting...

It's been quite an adventure since that day almost four years ago in November 2009 when Kara joined our lives.  Mommy and Daddy had a ton of fun with Kara, and then, in March 2013, Emily joined us.  Life, in general, has been hectic and busy since the girls joined us but so much more rewarding and exciting.  The holidays, in particular, have been much more exciting since then, especially Christmas and Halloween.

Thanks to all our loyal reader (yes, all five of you are appreciated).  It's been fun to share our times with the girls with all of you.  And thanks to everyone for suffering through Daddy's writing.  I'd like to say the writing will get better, but it probably won't.  We've had some great times!  Below is a slideshow of some of the best pictures from the blog. Here's to another exciting four years (and many more after that)!

Link to pictures

We're Home!

After almost five months of fun in the Florida sun, we have headed back home to Colorado.  The travel day was quite an adventure, which included waking up at 4 am, checking in 6 bags, getting 2 strollers and 2 girls through security, and keeping everyone sane for the 3 hour flight.  We are definitely glad to be home!

Kara has adjusted very well to being back home.  She started preschool on our second day home and has been enjoying that.  She also has enjoyed all her "new" toys, which are toys that we couldn't take with us.

Emily is on the verge of crawling.  She will get herself from a sitting position down into a crawling position.  From there, she can kind of lunge and propel herself a foot or so in any direction.  We will have to start baby-proofing the house soon...

Kara quotes:

"I have made quite a mess here" - while helping Mommy clean up some toys

"This dress will really impress my friends tomorrow." - Discussing with Mommy about what to wear to her first day of preschool the next day.

September Blur

The month of September just seemed to fly by.  We had a steady stream of visitors while we tried to get the most out of our last days in Florida.  It started the last week of August when Mimi and Uncle Trey came down to visit.  They spent a lot of time hitting the sites of Cape Canaveral with Kara.  The highlights included: a visit to Kennedy Space Center, kayaking in the Indian River with the manatees, checking out the dinosaur museum, a trip to Downtown Disney, and visiting Disney's Animal Kingdom (it was a busy week). Mommy and Daddy took advantage of the babysitters and spent the weekend at Universal Studios, which was a lot of fun (pictures).

On September 12th, Grandma and Grandpa S. came down from Colorado to visit us as well.  They took Kara to Jungle Adventures, Kennedy Space Center (which was pretty much Kara's favorite place to go down in Florida), and back to Downtown Disney.  Emily is still pretty shy around new people, but she warmed up to them after a couple of days.

Shortly after Grandma and Grandpa left, Mimi flew down to help get everybody packed up for the long trip back home.  Trey came down the following weekend with his girlfriend, Mary Beth.  Everyone except Daddy and Emily headed to Disney World for the last excitement of the summer.  Whew, I get tired just thinking about it all!

Mommy and Mimi bravely drove the girls back to Alabama in one day (Tuesday, Sept 24th).  The trip went fairly smoothly other than a couple meltdowns from Kara and frequent diaper changes and feedings for Emily.  Unfortunately, Mommy and Emily came down with colds as soon as they got to Mimi and Papa's house, so they were fairly miserable.  Daddy arrived on Saturday to get everyone ready for the last push home (more on that the next post).

Emily is doing great these days.  She can sit on her own and really seems to enjoy exploring things by herself (she'll just sit there and play with some rubber blocks for 15 minutes or more), which Mommy and Daddy are excited about.  She sleeps from about 6:30-6:30 most nights, though she occasionally will wake up at 4 am, and takes 2-3 naps per day (usually at 9 am, noon, and 3 pm).  Emily is going through a phase of stranger anxiety.  In general, she seems to prefer to just hang out at home and take things easy, so that's what we do with her whenever we can.

Kara has gotten pretty good at entertaining herself, which is really good since Mommy and Daddy have to spend a lot of time taking care of Emily.  Kara has developed quite an affinity for comic books.  In particular, she seems to really enjoy Spider Man.  She'll sit an read comic books to herself for long stretches of time.  Kara has become quite an artist.  I'll post some of her pictures in a blog soon!

Link to pictures
 

Florida Heat

It's been a struggle every day to keep Kara entertained and Emily comfortable.  It's been quite warm this whole month (low to mid-90's for a high, every day) with no real cool-down at night.  The heat and the lack of visitors has led to a fairly boring month.  We went to Kennedy Space Center a few times (we have season passes, so it's cheap entertainment), and that's about it.  Kara and Daddy did get to watch a Delta IV rocket launch, which was pretty cool (see video below - sorry it's a little shaky, Kara was on Daddy's shoulders and wouldn't sit still!).

Kara Quote:
- (A sign that Kara has watched a bit too much TV this month) "Go to dot com disney junior backslash Spiderman for more information."

Happy Baby!

During July, Mimi and Papa came down for a weekend.  We hit Kennedy Space Center.  Kara enjoyed the space center as much the second time as she did the first.  Now she talks about rockets blasting off and crew capsules all the time.  In addition to the space center, there was an Atlas V launch, which is the rocket Daddy used to work on, while Mimi and Papa were visiting.

Emily is getting very strong these days.  She has figured out how to roll from her back to her front.  This was giving her some trouble at night, but she's now figured out how to sleep on her stomach.  Emily has recently started sitting up by herself.  She was unsteady for the first day, but can now sit up, play and reach for things.  Pretty cool!  She's sleeping very well these days.  Bedtime is around 6:30-7:00 at night, and she stays asleep until almost 7:00 am every day.  She loves it when Mommy and Daddy read her books.  In particular, she seems to enjoy Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and Goodnight Moon.  In general, Emily is a very happy, quiet baby.

Kara is enjoying her time down at the beach.  She just wrapped up the fourth (and final) session of Sports Camp.  Kara had a ton of fun playing soccer, tennis, hockey, lacrosse, and just running around!  Mommy will certainly miss it!  Kara's also improving a lot with her swimming.  She can tool all around the pool while wearing her vest (check out the video of her butterfly!).  We're hoping to get her in some swim lessons this fall when we get back home.

On a not-so-good note, Emily is in the middle of her first cold.  Everyone has it, but this is her first time being sick.  So far, she's being a big trooper and trying to sleep it off.  Yay, Emily!

And some Kara quotes that Mommy reminds herself of when Kara is screaming her head off.....

To Mommy: "I love to stay in your hugs!"
                    "I love you.  We are the best of friends.  When I grow up, we'll REALLY be best friends!"

Link to pictures

Mid-Summer Visitors

The last week of June and the first week of July were kept busy with visitors to our condo. On June 28th, Grandma and Grandpa S. flew in from Colorado. They hadn't seen Emily since she was about 6 weeks old, so they were very excited to see how much bigger she'd gotten. While they were here, we went to check out the Brevard Zoo. Kara enjoyed feeding the giraffe and checking out the alligators.  Another day, Grandma and Grandpa took Kara to SeaWorld. She had a blast watching the sea lion and orca whale shows. We also hit the beach (of course) and went swimming in the pool. While they were here, Grandma had her birthday. We took her to port side restaurant called Grills. Kara made sure to tell the waitress that it was Grandma's birthday and that she needed some cake. :-)

On Thursday, July 4th, Patrick, Akila, and Amara (who was born 13 days after Emily) headed down from Atlanta for a visit. While they were here, we all headed to Kennedy Space Center to check out the new Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit.  Daddy thought that was pretty cool, but Kara really enjoyed the movie on the Space Station development. She leaned over to Daddy at least twice and said, "I want to go to space." Maybe someday, Kara. On Saturday, we all headed down to the beach to check it out. Emily seemed to really enjoy putting her feet in the ocean, but Amara seemed to enjoy just hanging on the beach more. Both Emily and Amara are awesome babies (obviously), but it was interesting to see the similarities and differences between the two. It was great to see our family and friends!

Link to pictures from Grandma and Grandpa's visit

Link to pictures from Patrick, Akila, and Amara's visit

Terrible Two's? More like Trying Three's!

The Terrible Two's were a breeze compared to the Trying Three's (trademark pending).  Kara is constantly testing her boundaries. Whether it's seeing how many times she can get out of her room after we've put her down or waking Daddy up at 2 am to find her stuffed animal, Kara seems to always be pushing Mommy and Daddy to the limits (and occasionally past them).  Of course, she can also be the sweetest little girl sometimes, giving Mommy and Daddy hugs and kisses or cleaning up after herself without being asked.  Ah, the joys of the three-year-old.  Hopefully this is just a phase, and she'll grow out of it tomorrow.  It could happen, right?

Emily is doing great.  Getting bigger and stronger all the time.  She weighed in at 11 lbs, 2 oz at her 3-month check-up (up almost 3 pounds from her 2-month appointment).  She stares at Kara most of the day, entranced in what her big sister is doing.  She doesn't have as much hair as Kara, but she kinda has the same hair style.  Emily is not much of a fan of tummy time, which has resulted in a fairly flat head.

Overall, life is pretty good down in Florida. Lots of beach time and pool time (and sunscreen).  It is getting to be a little hot (low 90's most days), but at least there's a pretty good breeze from the ocean.

Kara Quotes:
Kara - "Daddy, you and I are best friends."

Mommy - "Kara, please clean up your toys."
Kara - "Sure thing, babe."

Link to pictures

More Florida Summer Fun

We have been keeping ourselves very busy down here in Florida.  We made it down to the beach one day as a family (Emily's not a big fan of the sun and heat).  We also made it out to EPCOT one last time before the summer crowds start (which was a surprise visit for Kara).  Here's how the talk went on the drive into the park:

Mommy - Kara, do you see the sign in front of us? [it was the entrance sign for Disney World]
Kara - It's a sign for Disney World!  Are we going to Disney World?
Mommy - You'll have to wait and see.
Kara, talking to herself - I think we're going to Disney World.  We seem to be following the signs.  It would be fun to go to Disney World, and I think we're going.  But Mommy says she doesn't know where we're going.  I hope it's Disney World!
Mommy - Kara, do you see what's in front of us? [it was EPCOT]
Kara - EPCOT! (throwing her hands up in triumph)

Kara is getting adjusted to her new surroundings.  We signed her up for a sports camp, so on Tuesday and Thursday mornings she runs around playing soccer with other kids.  She seems to have a great time with that.  Kara has also taken to putting on productions for Mommy during the day at the condo.  In one show Kara was pretending to be a dinosaur.  When Mommy was pretending to be scared, Kara replied, "It's just make-believe, nothing's going to happen to you."  And then later said, "It's all controlled, don't worry."  Sometimes she will pretend to be the animals and act out their parts.  Other times she will be the ring master - "Introducing Cecil the Dolphin and Cecil the Octopus" (for some reason she seems to like the name Cecil).

Emily is becoming a very talkative and happy baby.  She often times will chat up the caterpillar toy on her bouncy seat.  She's also taken to giggling while playing with Mommy and Daddy.  She is getting stronger all the time.  She rolled over for the first time at 11 weeks old.  She also can stand on her legs (with lots of support from either Mommy or Daddy).  It really is amazing how fast they grow!

Speaking of babies, congratulations to Justin, Heather, and Sean on your newest addition!  We cannot wait to meet Robin.

Link to pictures

Summer Vacation!

Daddy got a new job at the beginning of May.  There was one catch/perk, though.  The job includes a six-month temporary assignment to work for NASA at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and they wanted Daddy there ASAP.  So, we packed up the family and headed down to Florida to spend some time on the beach.  We've been pretty busy since we got down here. We have hit the beach several times, Daddy and Kara got to watch a launch from the beach, Daddy got to visit the space shuttle launch pad and mobile launcher, and we all hit Disney World for a day with Mimi and Uncle Trey. Not a bad start to the summer!

Emily is getting a little bigger and stronger all the time.  She recently started pulling her head up during tummy time. She also can stand up while holding onto someone's hands.  In general, she's a very happy baby, always smiling and cooing at Mommy and Daddy.  She's also sleeping really well.  She'll get in a couple hour-long naps (plus a few other cat naps) every day and will sleep almost 8 hours straight at night.

Anyone want to visit us down in Florida?  We're only an hour away from Disney World, SeaWorld, and Universal Studios!

Link to pictures

And Daddy got to see another launch one evening.

Emily is 6 weeks old!

The last 6 weeks have been a bit of a blur.  Mimi came out shortly after Emily was born and helped out a lot.  Papa also came out for a week early this month.  They were here to experience some of this great Colorado weather we get during the spring - we got two large snow storms while they were here (one with about a foot of snow, another with 6 inches).  Hopefully the weather starts warming up soon!

Emily is doing great these days.  She does what babies do - eat, poop, sleep, and cry.  Mommy and Daddy are just trying to survive day to day.  She does flash us beautiful smiles often, so that's pretty great.  Also, there was something that will live forever in family lore as the Projectile Poo Incident.  Daddy is still a little gun-shy about changing diapers.  He may never recover...

Kara's doing fine adjusting to being a big sister.  She seems to act out a bit more to get attention, but we're hoping it will pass.  One day while Papa was here, he and Daddy headed down to the Children's Museum in Denver with Kara.  Kara had a great time exploring all the exhibits they had there.  Also, Mimi and Papa got Kara a tricycle for Easter.  Kara has been having a great time cruising around the neighborhood with her sweet wheels!

Link to pictures

Emily's First Professional Photos!

On Emily's 4th week birthday (April 4th), we had Esther from BlueThistlePhotography come over and take some pictures of Emily (the rest of us joined in the fun while she was here). We were hoping to get some sweet sleeping baby pictures, but Emily would just not cooperate with us.  In the end, we got some pretty good pictures, though. Enjoy!

Link to pictures

Easter 2013

Easter this year as quite the affair.  We had a full house with Mimi, Grandma S., Grandpa S., Aunt Amy, GG K, Cousin Jennifer, and her boyfriend J (and of course Mommy, Daddy, Kara, and Emily) coming over for Easter dinner!  Luckily, it was a beautiful spring day in Colorado, so we were able to hang out in the backyard.  Kara had a great time looking for eggs (she had an egg hunt in the morning and another in the afternoon).  Kara and Emily both cleaned up with presents and candy!  Emily, of course, was a little too small for the candy, so Kara volunteered to eat hers.

Emily is doing quite well these days.  She's getting a little bigger every day.  Some of her newborn clothes are starting to get a little tight on her.  It's amazing how fast babies grow!

And congratulations to our friends Patrick and Akila and their latest addition, Amara.  You guys are in for quite a ride, but a ton of fun!

Link to pictures

Baby Days (and Nights)

So far life with our newest addition is going pretty smoothly.  She's sleeping pretty well (at least for a newborn).  Mommy and Daddy were better prepared this time about the sleep deprivation, so it doesn't seem so bad.  Kara's adjusting to Emily's presence pretty well.  About once a day or so, she'll have a little melt down, but we're hoping that will subside as the weather gets better and we can get out more.

Mimi came out to help the Wednesday after Emily was born (March 13th).  She's been taking the first night shift (and helping out a lot around the house) while Daddy takes the late night/early morning shift.  Mommy, of course, is always on call. :-)

Link to pictures

Welcome to the World, Emily Rose!

Well, our little girl finally decided to join the world!  And she was only 9 days late, early compared to the 12 days late standard set by Big Sister Kara.  However, she may have stayed in there just as long if the doctors hadn't induced when they did.

The induction was scheduled for Friday, March 8th since the doctors tend to get a little concerned if the second baby is more than a week overdue.  We were told to report to the maternity ward at 7:30 am to get the ball rolling; however, we got a call at 6:00 am that morning telling us the maternity ward was overflowing and to check back later in the day (there was a blizzard forecast for Saturday and the change in weather often causes labor in women - unfortunately Mommy was not so lucky!).  We got a call around noon to show up at 2 in the afternoon.  We finally got the ball rolling at 3:45, and boy did that ball roll!  Within 3.5 hours, Mommy was ready to push.  Emily joined the world at 7:35 pm that night, weighing in at 7 lb, 4 oz and 20 inches long.

Big Sister Kara is really enjoying her new role.  She's getting really good at getting herself dressed in the morning.  She still ends up with mismatched clothes and the occasional inside-out shirt, but who doesn't have that happen?  She also decided she's too old for The Lion King songs and instead prefers Poison's Every Rose Has Its Thorn.  I think we're in for quite a ride with our two girls!

Kara Quotes:
Grandma: "Kara, what do you think of your new sister?"
Kara: "Beautiful"

A neighbor brought by dinner with cupcakes for dessert.
Kara: "Are cupcakes junk food?"
Mommy: "Yes, but it's okay to eat them occasionally."
Kara: "Cupcakes are (pause) fantastic!"

Link to pictures

Calm Before the Storm

Mommy and Daddy have been spending a lot of time with Kara recently.  The highlight was the Royal Ball.  Kara dressed up as a princess and Daddy got dressed up to go dance and drink punch.  Kara had a blast!  Another day, we went up to Nederland to check out the Carousel of Happiness, which Kara thought was pretty cool.  In addition, we've been getting a lot of snow recently, so Daddy and Kara have been getting out and playing.

Kara is getting exciting about having her baby brother or sister join us.  We got out the Pack-N-Play last weekend, and Kara spent the rest of the day putting her stuffed animals to sleep in there.  She also renamed Fifi to Fifi Human Baby and practiced putting diapers on him.

The baby has decided not to come on its own, so Mommy and Daddy will be reporting to the hospital at 7:30 am tomorrow to try and induce labor.  Hopefully we will have pictures to share of our little one soon!

Link to pictures

Let's Play Pretend!

Kara loves playing pretend.  Kara especially loves to re-enact scenes from her favorite movies (Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp, Beauty and the Beast, and Lion King).  Mommy and Daddy have both taken their turns as the Beast, Prince Charming, the Evil Stepsisters, the Tramp, and Gaston.  She also likes to pretend to be a pirate and go on adventures (see video below), or pretend that she's playing with monsters.  It's always fun to see what she'll come up with.

Our little girl is not always so sweet, though.  Bedtime and naptime have become challenges as Kara continues to push boundaries and Mommy's buttons.  Kara likes to come out of her room repeatedly after we tuck her in.  She always wakes up in the middle of the night to ask silly questions (like, "What do doors do?").  Mommy and Daddy are hoping this is a short-lived phase...

We are happy to say that Kara has grown out of her peanut allergy.  She passed her blood test early in January and then passed the Peanut Challenge (sitting at the allergists office for three hours while she eats peanuts) later in the month.  Daddy is very excited that he gets to share peanut butter sandwiches with his little girl!

In baby news, Mommy's belly continues to grow.  Mommy and Daddy have gotten the nursery all ready for the baby who is due to join us on February 27th.  Kara is very excited to become a big sister!

Kara's latest sayings:
"How does the baby get out of Mommy?" Uh, how do we explain this to a 3-year old?

"I put the Grinch there because I thought he would do a wonderful job."  Said while playing ball with Daddy after putting the Grinch in front of the goal.

"This is a map of our territory and the path to the Candy Castle."  Kara explaining the game board for Candy Land.

"Daddy's shoes are humongous!  That's like gigantic Mommy!"  Just surprising Mommy with her use of words.

Link to pictures

Mimi and Papa's Visit to Chilly Colorado

Mimi and Papa stayed in Colorado for about a week after Christmas.  Unfortunately for them, a cold front followed the snow storm we got on Christmas.  The high temperature for most days was about 20° F (-6° C), and it was below freezing the whole time.  With all the cold weather, it was a bit challenging to find fun things to do with Kara.  Much of the time was spent playing with the new Christmas toys and watching new movies (and enjoying the classics like Beauty and the Beast).  One day, we even convinced Mimi to go play outside in the snow.  Kara, Mimi, and Papa had fun making a snow mound (the snow was too dry for a snowman) and snow angels.

The big outing for the week was Mimi and Papa taking Kara for a visit to the Butterfly Pavilion.  Kara had a great time holding Rosie the Tarantula as well as checking out the butterflies and climbing in the activity area.

All in all, it was a great (and cold) visit from Mimi and Papa.

Link to pictures