Disney World Hangover

Emily picked up a little bug our last day in Disney, which made the travel day home quite unpleasant.  Unfortunately, she continued to have a snotty nose and a cough after we got home.  Dad came down with the flu a few days later, Mom came down with a cold a few days after that, and Kara finally developed a barking cough a few days after that.
Emily seems to be fine now, but the rest of us are still fighting the cold.  Good fun!

Emily's birthday was the weekend after we got back from Disney.  It was a little subdued since we were all a little sick, but we still got a cake, of course!  It's kind of hard to believe Emily is 3 years old already!

We got 2 separate heavy snow storms later in the month.  We got about a foot on March 18th, which happened to coincide with Kara coming down with the cold.  She wasn't too sick to go out and play, though.  The weather warmed up right after that and all the snow had melted by the time the second storm came in on March 23rd.  The second storm came in fast and furious, and we had 21" of snow on the ground by that afternoon.  It was Kara's spring break, so she didn't get a snow day, but that would have been her third one this year.  Crazy!

Unfortunately, the second snow didn't melt quite as quickly as the first snow, so we had to do our Easter egg dyeing and Easter egg hunt inside.  It's not quite as fun as outside, but the girls still enjoyed it!  Emily knew what was going on and jumped right in searching for the eggs (stopping to open up each one as soon as she found it).  Later in the day, we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Easter dinner.

Emily is starting to develop into an annoying younger sibling (Tyler's words).  She routinely does things these days purely to bother Kara.  She's also developing a bit of a rebellious steak.  She enjoys running away and slamming doors when Mom and Dad are trying to get her to do something (like get dressed).  She's landed herself in time out a few times.  Fortunately, she continues to loves hugs and cuddles and is still very empathetic and sweet.....80% of the time!

Kara is loving school and all the learning and friendships that go along with it.  In fact, when we got back from WDW, Kara said she enjoyed the trip but wished she hadn't missed a week of school! :O  Her written stories are getting more nuanced these days, and she's started story-boarding a motion picture involving unicorn superheros.  There are also 3-D paper mock-ups involved.  She has requested a videocamera, so stay tuned.  She's a hoot!

Link to pictures

Easter 2015

Easter in Colorado is usually a toss up as to whether you'll be celebrating in snow or in the sun.  Fortunately, the weather was great this year, so we got to do a lot of egg searching (perhaps a little too much egg hunting?), even though Easter fell a little early in the spring this year.

We got the day of Easter started off right by doing an egg hunt in the backyard.  Kara immediately went running off to look for eggs, but Emily took a more leisurely approach to egg hunting.  She opened her first egg and was pretty good with that.  We had to prompt her a bit to keep searching for eggs before Kara got them all!  Later in the morning, while Mommy, Kara, and Emily talked to Mimi and Uncle Trey on a Skype call, Dad went down the street to help hide eggs for a neighborhood egg hunt.  The girls had a great time with that one, running around with the kids and sneaking candy.  They were both crashing a bit from the sugar rush once we came home for lunch.

After lunch and quiet time, we headed down to Aunt Amy's house to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa S. for another egg hunt and Easter dinner.  After our third Easter egg hunt of the day, the girls had enough candy to last them for years!

Link to pictures

Spring 2014

The Colorado weather is doing its typical spring thing where it teases you with beautiful, sunny weather and then shifts back to cold and snow.

Easter was fun this year.  We started off the day with an Easter egg hunt in the backyard.  Kara immediately found her first egg and popped it open (there was a Peep inside) and got the day off to a sugar-filled start.  Emily was more interested in the birds and watching Kara run around than anything else.  Later in the afternoon, we headed over to Aunt Amy's house for another egg hunt and dinner.  Emily was kind of getting the egg hunt thing by the end.  There's always next year!

Emily is cutting her third tooth (for what seems like the fifth time), so she hasn't been sleeping very well recently.  She's also battling about her 100th cold of the season, which is fun.  Emily is starting to talk more recently.  She now says "dog", "bye bye", "Mama", and "baby".  She also developed quite a few hand signals to communicate her wishes to Mommy and Daddy.  She is also developing a very bothersome habit of throwing food (which is something Kara never did).  Most of the time she just drops her food or sippy cup off the side of her high chair, but occasionally she flings food pretty far.  We're hoping she grows out of that one soon.

Kara recently gave a presentation to her preschool classes about herself.  Mommy was able to get video of the presentation (see the videos below). Part 1 is pretty short, but Part 2 is quite long.  Fair warning.

We also did an overhaul on the backyard.  The grass mostly died last summer while we were in Florida, despite Lu's and Grandma and Grandpa's best efforts.  We hired a company to put in a new side fence, level the yard, lay sod, and install a sprinkler system.  Now we just have to upkeep!  Both girls have been enjoying playing in the grass.

Some other big news is that Daddy got a new job.  He is now working for Sierra Nevada on the Dream Chaser propulsion system.  The job is much closer to home (it's about a 10 minute commute) and doesn't require any travelling.  Let's hope the project is a success!

Kara quotes:
Mommy's hair is just black. That's not a cloud of bats, it's just Mommy's hair.

There's a boiling pot of dead skeletons in the principal's office.  You do not want to go there!

Kara plays make believe and tells stories almost non-stop these days.  A particularly interesting one started off with "a boy is reading a bedtime story with three, no, ten chapters.  It starts with a girl named Kara drawing a picture...." then she sat down and started drawing.  She continued to narrate what she was doing around the house as the chapters in the book, for quite some time.  It was pretty neat to watch!

Link to pictures






 And here is a link to our landscaping project 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

The Chatterbox

We haven't been great about taking pictures recently, but we have a few good ones of Easter and the crazy weather we've been having!

No, the pictures aren't out of order...We had a few record high's the weekend before Easter, which prompted us to get out the sprinkler and water table...then Monday it was cold and dreary and Tues it snowed! It was odd, but Kara didn't seem fazed. :)

Kara and Mommy went on an Easter egg hunt with friends on Sat, then two at home on Sun. She had a blast finding the eggs and twirling around in her dress. She had lots of fun with G.G. K. and Grandma and Grandpa S. Who doesn't love being the center of attention? Not Kara!

Kara is really getting into her talking groove. She amazes us on a daily basis with her language skills. She must be listening to us, on some level...

Kara often says, "I don't know the word" when she's searching for the right word. A recent example went down like this:
Kara: I want some cereal
Mommy: Would you like some Cheerios?
K: No, I want the one... I don't know the word.
M: Bran flakes? Cheerios?

K: No, the ones with the soft things.
M: Marshmallows?
K: Yes! Marshmallows! I want those!

Other Kara quotes:

"Mommy, I am your friend" (April 8th)

to Mommy - "We will always be friends" and "We are best friends" - both spontaneous after taking my hand for a walk - :O (April 18th)

"It's a pretend turtle. It's not a real turtle." - after an egg from Grandma and Grandpa S. "hatched"

"Why is that so funny?" and "What is so funny?" Deadpan with questioning hands in the air, as some older children where shouting and laughing at the playground - hilarious!


Link to pictures

Easter 2011

When we woke up on Easter morning, we found that the Easter Bunny had left several eggs for Kara in our front yard.  We still haven't figured out who left the eggs, but we have a prime suspect.  Kara had fun finding all the eggs and was really excited when she figured out there was stuff in the eggs.

We went to Aunt Amy's house for Easter dinner.  Grandma and Grandpa S. met us there as well as GG K and Great Grandma S.  Kara enjoyed playing in the backyard and all the attention.  Every holiday with Kara gets more and more fun.

Kara has figured out how to say no, and she is not afraid to use it! We think it might have become her favorite word. Here's how a typical request from Mommy or Daddy will go these days:
     - Kara, it's time to eat. - No.
     - Kara, it's time to go home. - No.
     - Kara, do you want more water? - No.
Mommy and Daddy are not looking forward to the terrible two's!

Kara is learning new words every day.  She recently learned "walk" and is always very excited to walk to the park (Mommy and Daddy have to be very careful with that word).  She's becoming very vocal and is pretty good at making her thoughts known.

Link to pictures




And here are some pictures that Heather and Justin took during our outing in Montgomery.

Easter and Carrots

Kara is continuing to explore new solid foods. She seems to enjoy bananas and carrots. She is getting better at eating solids every day. We think she might have even swallowed some last time. :)

This past Sunday was Easter. We went over to the neighbor's house for Easter dinner. Kara wore her pretty little dress that Ms. Heather sent to her (see the pictures).  She was the most popular person there!  People were lining up to hold and play with her, and Mommy and Daddy got several babysitting offers.

She is such a pretty little girl.  See the pictures