T-Ball and Blizzards

April was a pretty crazy month as far as the weather went.  It did the typical Colorado thing with flashes of warm weather followed by huge snow storms (our biggest storm dropped almost 2 feet of snow).  The girls and Dad were able to get out and make a pretty awesome snowman.

Kara joined a T-ball team this spring, which was her first organized team sport.  Dad volunteered to be an assistant coach (mostly just keeping the kids entertained while the head coach actually teaches the kids how to play).  Dad might be having more fun that Kara!  For Kara's Opening Day, the league put on quite a show that even Dinger (the Colorado Rockies' team mascot) attended.  So far, Kara's only had a couple of games (we had a couple of our games rained/snowed out due to bad weather),

Link to pictures

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

February 2016

Most of the month of February was spent in anticipation of our big trip to Disney, so we kept things pretty mellow.  Mom spent a lot of time making reservations and planning out the vacation with Mimi to make sure it went smooth.

Kara had her second snow day of the year (Dad had one all of high school) on February 2nd.

For Kara's 100th day of Kindergarten, all the kids dressed up as 100-year olds.  Kara get really into it with her shawl and hair net.  She made a pretty convincing old lady!

Link to pictures

Snow Day - No School!

Kara had her first snow day on December 15th.  It wasn't really that big of a snow storm (we ended up getting maybe 6-8 inches of snow), but the rate at which it was falling and the wind made for very dangerous driving conditions, which Dad experienced first hand on his drive into work.  Kara didn't do anything too exciting on her day off.  She and Emily played out in the snow and were greeted at the door with hot chocolate.  They also watched a movie and enjoyed watching the snow fall from the warmth of the house.

Dad sported a righteous goatee and mustache for a couple of weeks at the beginning of the month. Emily enjoyed Dad's "whiskers", but the general consensus was that Dad should never grow facial hair again.  I guess it's not a great look for everyone.

Kara is enjoying more and more advanced games and puzzles.  One day, she and Mom got out Scrabble and played a game.  Kara didn't follow the rules exactly, but she did spell real words and actually beat Mom in points.  She's also learned checkers, Uno (which is her favorite game), dominoes, and Dino Math Tracks.  In addition, Kara has been working on some pretty complicated puzzles lately.  She recently completed a 200-piece puzzle all by herself.  She tried a 300-piece puzzle but got a little frustrated after a while (there was a large black area with very few features to help figure out where the pieces went).

We converted Emily's bed to a toddler bed the first weekend of December.  We were a little concerned that it would mess up her sleep, and we'd hear her wandering around her room all night long.  So far, however, she hasn't figured out that she can get out of the bed when Mom and Dad aren't there, so we haven't heard her after bedtime.  In general, Emily is a very happy, sweet little girl; however, she is definitely into the terrible twos.  She is very quick to cry and scream at Mom and Dad if they don't do what she wants to do exactly when she wants it done.  Hopefully it's just a phase...

Link to pictures
 

Visit to Mimi and Papa's and other November Happenings

For Thanksgiving this year, we headed down to Alabama to spend the holiday with Mom's family: Mimi, Papa, GiGi, and Uncle Trey.  We also got to meet Uncle Trey's new girlfriend, Jacie.  It was a whirlwind visit.  We flew down on Sunday and flew out on Friday.  In between, we went out to a hibachi restaurant to celebrate Kara's birthday, visited the Montgomery Zoo, visited Great Grandpa H. (who recently moved to a retirement home in Montgomery), and enjoyed some excellent home-cooking from Mimi.  We were able to meet up with the McDonough family, while they we in town to visit their family.

We kept things pretty low key for November other than Kara's birthday and our visit to Alabama.  We got a decent snowstorm in the middle of the month, which the girls enjoyed playing in.

As soon as we got home (and got mostly unpacked), Kara had us take out all the Christmas decorations.  Kara had a great time putting up the tree and all the ornaments.  Emily had fun setting stuff up, but was much more interested in playing with some of the decorations.

Recent quotes:
11/15: "I like Kara. Her my best friend." -Emily

11/15: "I love spending time with you, Dad." -Emily

Kara to Mom: "Do you know who the real Santa is? Because I do, and I'm looking at her and him (gesturing towards Dad)"

Link to November happenings pictures

Link to Shorter visit pictures

February 2015

A couple decent snow storms late in the month rolled through, dumping almost 2 feet of snow over two weeks, which was quite a contrast with the first half of the month with record high temperatures.  It made for some good snow fun and some warm weather for playing outside!

Kara has been really improving with her reading skills.  She's been reading through some of our books at home (we mostly figured she'd just memorized the words); however, she really impressed Mom when she picked up a book at the library (Pete the Cat at the Beach) and read through it all by herself!  Kara has started Tae Kwon Do lessons.  She seems to enjoy it and is catching on quickly (see the videos).  It's great fun!  On the less fun side, however, Kara got her first cavity.  None of us are excited about that...

Emily has been continuing her swim lessons every Saturday.  She loves getting in the water and playing. Emily is speaking in 2-3 word sentences and impresses us every once in a while with a new word or phrase ("one more book").  She has started counting and frequently counts to 2 (as in "1 2 ears" or "1 2 eyes").  She knows the words for higher numbers, but she doesn't understand the concepts yet.  Emily has regressed a bit with potty training.  She's fighting Mom and Dad when they try to remind her she should use the potty.  Although, she has been getting better about feeling she needs to go and letting us know (usually after she's already peed in her pull-up).  Ah, fun times!

Cousin Cassie and her husband Scot welcomed their twin babies (Bryn Oliver and Amelia Rose) in January.  Kara and Emily got to meet their second cousins early in February, though they were more interested in playing with the toys than they were in the newborn babies.

Kid Quotes:
- Kara loves making up jokes and songs.  Here's a joke:  Kara:  "What do you call a hairless monkey?  A cold monkey!  hahaha"
- Kara: "Thank goodness Valentine's Day only comes once a year." Why? "Because of all the work I have to do to make my Valentine's card box!"
- Kara: "Gah, I talk as much as Papa.  I'm turning into Papa!"
- "Emily do!" Emily's favorite saying.
- "Step stool!" Emily usually demands to have the step stool, so that she can help out with things in the kitchen.
- "One more time."  Emily is always asking for just one more...
- "Love you"  ahhh, Emily now says these words.  With a sweet look and a hug, Mommy just melts!

Link to pictures

Mimi and Papa's Snowy, Frigid Visit

In addition to the 6-8 inches of snow we got Christmas night, we were also treated to another couple of inches followed by an arctic blast (the high was 4°F one day) a couple days later.  We had plans while Mimi and Papa were visiting (the Denver Aquarium, the Butterfly Pavilion, or maybe the Denver Museum), but with the snow and the cold, the roads were just a little too dangerous for unnecessary driving.  The girls started to get a little wild after a few days of being cooped up inside (see the videos).

Kara has started to really get into games.  She has learned Uno and must have played it 100 times with Mimi and Papa along with Operation, Trouble, and Let's Go Fishin'.  She's also showing an interest in more complicated card games.  Maybe she'll be able to get into the annual Christmas family card games next year!

In other news, Emily has found her scream.  She will often scream at us if Kara does something she doesn't like or if we won't give her something she wants.  Oh, it's gonna be fun with TWO screaming girls...

Link to pictures

Christmas 2014

We got the Christmas season kicked off the day after Thanksgiving by putting up the tree and the decorations.  Emily had a good time looking at the decorations and enjoyed putting the star on top of the tree.  Kara particularly enjoyed putting decorations on the tree.  She even made quite a few decorations to add to the tree (see the pictures)!

A couple of weeks before Christmas, the city puts on a Dessert with Santa event for all the little kids.  Both girls enjoyed snacking on cookies and sipping on hot chocolate.  Eventually, we made our way up to talk with Santa himself.  Kara asked Santa for an electric toothbrush with Ariel on it that played music.  She was very specific. :-)  Emily didn't know quite what to think of Santa, but she knew she didn't want to sit on his lap and wouldn't let go of Dad when he tried to put her down.  Maybe next year.

On December 23rd, Mimi and Papa flew in from Alabama.  They spent Christmas Eve making gingerbread cookies and generally preparing for the Christmas festivities.

Christmas day started early this year.  Daddy suspects Kara was listening by her door for any little noise because she popped out as soon as Dad stepped out of bed.  She did go back to her room but kept popping out.  Eventually, Dad went and sat with Kara in her room (we didn't want her to wake up Emily since it was going to be such a busy day) until about 7.  Once we let her out, she quickly ran downstairs to check out what Santa brought her.  She was excited that she got an electric toothbrush, but she was a little disappointed it didn't play any music.  We made Kara wait on the rest of the presents, though.

Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Amy, and Cousin Jennifer showed up around 8:15 and brought another carload of gifts.  Kara was really into opening presents this year.  She had a great time sorting the presents into piles and would have torn them all open if we hadn't made her wait.  Emily, on the other hand, understood what was going on, but she wasn't too interested.  Mom and Dad started to feel bad after a while since she just wanted to play with her new presents, and we were just handing her presents to open. In the end, Emily just decided she was done and walked away, which was okay. Emily's favorite new gift was a Curious George stuffed animal, which she carried around with her the rest of the day.

In the afternoon, the snow started to fall, so we did have a white Christmas in Colorado. The snow came down pretty quick, so Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Amy, and Cousin Jennifer had to leave right after dinner (without eating any dessert).  Of course, they did take plenty of dessert with them.

A very merry Christmas was had by all.  Until next year!

Link to pictures

May 2014

May was a very busy month. Between Kara's first year of preschool coming to an end, Mother's Day, a trip to the circus, and lots of playing, it felt like we were always doing something.

The weather for May was pretty nice for the most part. The weekend before Mother's Day, we got out the sprinklers because it was so hot. For Mother's Day, however, we were treated to a rare May snowstorm. Only about 2-3 inches stuck to the ground, but it was a very wet snow. Perfect for a snowman!

Kara's year of preschool came to an end. Her class had a family picnic for her last day and treated all the parents to a song. All the kids are going to be coming back for the next year, so that'll be fun!

Kara and Daddy went to the circus.  It was Kara's first circus experience, but she definitely knew what to get. She started off with some cotton candy before getting a hot dog and washing it all down with a snow cone. So much junk food! Kara liked the elephants, tigers, and the tumblers, but her favorite act was the man shooting out of the cannon.  She just kept looking at Daddy while he was getting the cannon ready and saying, "I think he's going to shoot out of there! I can't believe it!"

Emily is officially a toddler and full of mischief. She gets pretty clingy when she's tired or hungry, but she is often toddling around the house trying to keep up with Kara! The girls are starting to play together, which is very nice. Emily finally cut her two top teeth and it now up to 4. She has also been working on talking. She mostly relies on the old point and grunt method of communication but occasionally throws in words like da (dog), bur (bird), Biggo (Bingo, the name of her favorite stuffed dog), aada (all done), baba (baby), peeka (Peek-a-boo), boo (boo!).

Kid quotes:
"great. u took the chicken." - text message Emily sent from Mommy's phone to Daddy.  We're still not sure how she pulled that one off.

"Oooooh, nice!" - Kara when Daddy showed her a picture of the Dream Chaser, Daddy's new project.

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.

First Steps

Emily is now officially a walker.  Emily has been standing on her own, bending down and picking things up while standing, and cruising very confidently for a while now.  But she took her first independent steps on February 6th, taking two steps walking to Mommy (Daddy, of course, was on a business trip in Florida).  She held steady taking two to three steps for about two weeks, though Daddy didn't really consider two steps walking.  On February 21st, Mommy decided to work a bit with Emily to build up her confidence to take more steps.  It was mostly fruitless until Emily spotted her sippy cup about 3 feet away and decided to walk to it, taking about 10 steps on the way!  Emily was very proud to show Daddy when he got home from work that afternoon!  At the time Emily was holding a snack container of cereal in one hand.  Mommy thinks the feeling of holding on to something may have given her the confidence to walk without furniture.  Who knows?

Mimi and Uncle Trey visited the first week of February (to help out during the aforementioned business trip by Daddy).  They got to do some fun stuff while they were here!  One day, Kara, Mommy, and Mimi met up with Grandma S. and Aunt Amy to have afternoon tea at the Huckleberry.  Daddy and Uncle Trey took Kara sledding, which was a blast!  Mimi and Uncle Trey were also treated to an arctic blast.  The high one day was 4 deg F!

Emily is regressing a bit with night-time sleep.  She has been consistently waking up in the middle of the night (usually between 2 and 4 am) for no better reason than to say hi to Mommy and Daddy.  Emily is weaning herself off the bottle. It wasn't too long ago that she'd be drinking 24 ounces a day, but now she barely will drink 15.  It's great that she's adapting well to eating adult food, but she still need her calories!  Daddy is very excited that the end of bottle cleaning is near!

Kara has become very artistic lately.  She is constantly drawing pictures and telling stories.  She particularly likes to pretend that she's on a boat with Fifi.  Mommy had her first parent-teach conference with Kara's preschool teachers.  Her teachers used the terms "big personality" and "high energy" multiple times to describe Kara in class.  Mommy and Daddy are just glad they're not the only ones who think that.  They also said she is very engaged, tells great, relevant stories and loves playing and talking to everyone.  Ms. Larissa said Kara was telling a story about what was at the end of her beanstalk and she said "there was snow in the castle and I BURST WITH EXCITEMENT to make a snowman!"  So Kara can sum up her own general state of emotion pretty well. :)

Kara's thoughtful quote of the month:
"Emily's family job is pooping." - After trying to explain to Kara that everyone in the family has jobs to help around the house (Kara clearing her plate spurred the conversation).

Link to pictures

Growing Girls!

For the most part, January was a fairly uneventful month.  The girls, however, continue to grow and get a little more mature every day.

Emily is teething finally.  She got her first tooth around the 15th of January, which was promptly followed by her second about a week later.  Also, Emily is getting very confident with standing.  She can cruise all around and will stand on her own for almost a minute at a go.

Kara is getting quite inventive these days.  One day, she decided that she needed to write some poetry for Mommy and Daddy.  A couple of our favorites are below.

Kara Quotes:
"I didn't dream last night.  I just watched picture videos."

Kara's Poetry
Turkey
This is my turkey
His hair is so brown
But when I tell him it's time to eat,
He picks up the grain that
I use to slop the pigs

My Lion
His claws are so short
But when it's Christmas day
He wraps up all my presents
'Cause he thinks they're his

Link to pictures

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

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

Christmas 2012

Christmas here in Colorado was very merry this year!  It snowed a couple inches Christmas Eve, so it was a white one too!

The festivities started on the 23rd when Mommy was surprised to find Mimi and Papa H. walking through the door!  Daddy (and everyone else in the family) managed to keep their trip a secret, so that was quite a shocking/happy gift that Mommy received.  Kara was also very surprised to see them and asked if the baby was coming too - Mommy kept telling her that she wouldn't see Mimi again until the baby came...guess she has a pretty good memory these days!

Grandma S., Grandpa S., Aunt Amy, and GG K. came on Christmas morning to spend day the with Kara.  Most of the morning was spent watching Kara tear through her presents and trying to stop her from opening everyone else's gifts!  There were a couple of breaks taken to eat breakfast and play a new game here and there.  Kara got board games (Hi Ho Cherry-O was her favorite), books, DVDs, jewelry, and even a LeapPad!

Santa brought the jack-in-the-box that Kara wanted so badly, and she did play with it happily for the morning.  Then she decided she didn't like it and that it was scary.  Sigh...  Kara also got a turtle that projects stars on her ceiling at night.  She's in love with it.  Now if only she'd go to sleep with the turtle in her room....

We also had a couple friends join us for the afternoon and dinner that night.  Kara really enjoyed all the extra playmates that day. Our little house was full and hopefully everyone had a good time.  We sure did!

Link to pictures

Halloween 2012

October and November have just been a blur. October was filled with visits to pumpkin patches, snow, and Halloween activities. Hopefully we can write more in the November post with details about our trip to Disney!

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