March 2015

First of all, yes, I know I've gotten pretty lazy with the titles.  I really need to pick up my game.  Be sure to check out the videos at the end!

Other than Emily's birthday, nothing terribly exciting happened in March.  Kara has continued her Tae Kwon Do lessons and will be testing for her yellow belt pretty soon.  Her reading has been improving as well.  We think she has memorized a ton of sight words,but still gets a little frustrated when she has to sound a word out.  She's getting pretty good though!

Emily has learned to count up to 5, consistently, though we've heard her count as high as 11.  One of Emily's favorite things is to race. She'll say, "ready set 1 2 go!"  Potty training is continuing.  Emily has figured out that the potty can be a very powerful tool in delaying bedtime.  Almost every day now, she'll say, "need potty" at some point during the night-time routine.  We want to encourage her to listen her body, so we'll get her down to the potty.  Most of the time she'll do something in the potty but is always very insistent she needs to do more when we try to wrap things up.  Emily has also learned the words "my" and "mine" and applies them to pretty much everything, even Kara's toys.  For the most part Kara is pretty okay with sharing her toys with Emily, but Emily has not learned the concept of sharing....

Near the end of the month, we got a visit from Mom's side of the family: Scot and Cassie (and their babies Amelia and Bryn), Brad and Maggie, and Uncle Randy and Aunt Tracey.  It had been a long time since we'd seen all of them.  Emily thought the babies were awesome.  She helped feed the babies, change a diaper, and pet the babies hair while saying "fuzzy".  Kara, on the other hand, was excited to have people to play with and spent most of the time playing ball with Brad and Maggie.

Kid Qutoes:
(playing a card game with Mommy)
Kara: "I got a 3-4-5."
Mom: "Kara, you're not supposed to tell us what cards you have."
Kara: "Oh, I was just kidding. I don't really have those cards."  She did.

"Oh boy!" Emily's new favorite expression.

"I conjured the toy behind your ear from thin air!" Kara explaining how she did a magic trick.

Link to pictures



Mom made chocolate chip cookies one day. They were a big hit. Here's what Emily had to say about them:


And here are Kara's thoughts:


Here's Kara showing some improvement in her Tae Kwon Do skills:


Emily has been practicing her tee ball skills (notice the hit right at the beginning of the video):

Halloween 2014

We got Halloween off on the right foot this year when we headed to Rock Creek Farm to pick our pumpkins in the middle of October.  There were a ton of great pumpkins to pick from!  Kara had a great time running through the pumpkin patches trying to find the perfect pumpkin.  Emily, however, wasn't impressed with the pumpkins and just kind of wandered around in a grumpy mood.  On the way out, Rock Creek Farms had set up some fun for the kids.  They had bouncy pumpkins, slides, a hay maze, and animals to look at.  Both girls loved bouncing in the bouncy pumpkins.  Not bad for some free entertainment.

The following weekend we headed to the Butterfly Pavilion for their annual Bug-A-Boo festivities. The girls, as always, had a great time there. They got to check out all the different bugs and decorate pumpkins.  Since we have an annual pass, it was also free.

One of the neighbors sets up an elaborate graveyard every year for Halloween.  We went there to check it out several days before Halloween (during the day, so it wasn't quite as creepy), and got a good video of Emily pretending to be scared (see below).

Halloween night was a lot of fun.  Kara dressed as Maleficent (the evil fairy from Sleeping Beauty), and Emily was a monkey.  We went back to check out the graveyard at night, which was a little spooky, but not too bad.  After that we met up with some neighbors to go Trick-or-Treating.  Daddy and Emily hit a couple of houses before heading home.  Mommy stayed with Kara to get some candy booty.  Kara cleaned up this year, almost filling her plastic pumpkin!  Until next year!

Link to pictures

Fall 2014

Happy fall, everyone! The girls had a very eventful fall.  We had so much going on, we had to split it into two blogs (see the other blog for Halloween).

The weather most of the month was quite mild with no snow at all.  That made for some good leaf fun!  There was also a fun visit to the Butterfly Pavilion with Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Amy.

Kara started the month with her last couple of soccer practices for the fall.  She's still not 100% clear on the rules (she thinks it more fun just to chase after people than to actually kick the ball), but it's a great way for her to burn off some energy.

Daddy and Emily took advantage of the extra time Daddy had by going to the rec center on Fridays to swim.  Emily is very fearless.  She'll climb out of the pool and jump off the side, whether Daddy is ready or not!  Emily has also figured out running and jumping, mostly.  She can now run at a pretty good clip (she can't quite keep up with Kara yet, but she's working on it), and she has also figured out how to jump, kinda (check out the videos below).  She is also becoming much more opinionated.  We're in the phase now where she knows what she wants, but doesn't really know enough words to communicate what she wants.  Ah, good fun.

Link to pictures

Visit from Mimi - August 2014

Mimi came out to Colorado to visit us the last part of August.  We all had a great time catching up and the girls loved having an extra playmate!

Some of the highlights of the visit included a trip to the Boulder farmers' market, the Butterfly Pavilion, and the Denver Zoo.

Kara and Emily both really seem to enjoy looking at the bugs and butterflies at the Butterfly Pavilion.  Emily especially got a kick out of the Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches....ew.  And this was her first trip to the Denver Zoo, though she has been to the Cheyenne Mountain (Colorado Springs) and the Brevard Zoo (Melbourne, FL).

The girls also enjoyed just spending time with Mimi.  They all had a good time blowing bubbles, playing with scooters and striders (Emily got a new strider while Mimi was visiting), and, of course, splashing in puddles in the backyard! :)

Kid Quotes:
"Despite being called Flying Squirrels, they don't actually fly.  They just glide."  Tell us more, Professor Kara.

Link to pictures

Summer 2014 Visit from Mimi and Papa

We had a nice visit with Mimi and Papa the last week of May.  Kara really enjoyed the extra attention (of course), and Emily warmed up to them very quickly this time around.  By mid-week Mimi (and sometimes Papa), was getting giggles and big belly laughs out of Emily.

The weather was a little hot, but we still managed to get out to the park a few times and play in the backyard everyday.  This was made extra special with the addition of a jump rocket the grandparents brought (see pics).

We also took the girls to Dinosaur Ridge one morning.  It's an area where you can check out dinosaur tracks on the side of a mountain (and a few fossils).  Kara enjoyed the tour, while Emily loved the plaster dinosaurs in front of the visitors center.

At the end of the week, Papa, Mommy, and Kara went to visit Daddy for family day at work.  There was ice cream, which was a huge hit with Kara!  Daddy also arranged for a simulator tour for Dream Chaser.  Kara's favorite part was one of Daddy's coworkers who has his cubical completely decked out with Hello Kitty! decoration.  Daddy also took Papa on a factory tour, but couldn't check out the Dream Chaser spacecraft since it is currently being overhauled.  Oh, well, next time!

We ended the visit with a trip to the Butterfly Pavilion.  Kara's favorite part was holding Rosie the Tarantula, but she also enjoying looking at all the cool bugs and butterflies. Kara was quite disappointed, however, that she couldn't get a butterfly to land on her.  Meanwhile, Emily treated us with saying her first word, or, at least, the first word that sounded exactly like it was supposed to.  She was watching the bees in the beehive and shouted "Bee!"  Other than the bees, she also enjoyed walking up and down the stairs and watching the butterflies.  We had so much fun that we got season passes, so let us know if anybody wants to hit the Butterfly Pavilion with us!

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

Visit from Mimi and Uncle Trey

I don't know where the time went, but August seems to have flown by!  On August 10th, Mimi (aka Grandma H.) and Uncle Trey and  flew in for a visit from Alabama.  Uncle Trey regaled us all with stories of the adventures he had during his year in South Africa, and Mimi had some cool gifts for Kara from her recent trip to Africa.

Mimi and Uncle Trey were hoping to escape the heat of Alabama, but unfortunately they were treated to record August heat in Colorado.  We were able to have some exciting times, though.  One day, we went to the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster. Kara had a great time looking at all the bugs and butterflies.  We also got out to the Farmer's Market in Boulder a couple of times.  And Uncle Trey was a big fan of our local Thai restaurant (he went three times during his two week visit).

Unfortunately, Daddy had to go to Denmark on a business trip, so he missed most of their visit.  But Mimi and Uncle Trey kept Mommy company and helped look after Kara while he was gone, so it all worked out!

First half of the month


Second half of the month