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

Fall Visit from Mimi

Mimi came to visit us at the end of September (yes, we know we're getting this out late... but we figured it was better than never!).  She came to visit for ten days, but the time just flew by.  We went apple picking Ya Ya Orchard, just west of Longmont.  It was a lot of fun, but the trees were pretty small and more or less picked over (the season was very early this year due to the hot, dry summer we had here in Colorado).  We did get to pick some apples and they had some animals to feed (a couple of horses and donkeys).  Mommy shared a caramel apple with Kara, and Daddy and Kara even took a hay ride around the whole orchard!  It wasn't as much fun as Sky Top Orchard in Flat Rock, NC, however, which we highly recommend to our friends down South!

Another highlight of Mimi's visit was a trip up to Rocky Mountain National Park to see the elk.  Mommy and Daddy were a little worried that we were going to head all the way up there and then not be able to find any elk.  Well, we should not have been worried.  We drove past a large herd hanging out at a high school just south of Estes Park, before we even got into the park!  From there, we were able to find quite a few elk.  It was an exciting adventure for all of us (we included some pictures in the slideshow, but here's a link to all of our Rocky Mountain National Park pictures).

In baby news, we had our 20-week ultrasound last week.  The baby looks great!  10 toes and 10 fingers!  the big news out of the ultrasound is that Mommy and Daddy have decided not to find out the baby's gender until he/she is born.  We figured, how many times in your adult life do you actually get surprises?

Link to pictures

Expecting Baby #2!

We are happy to announce that Kara will soon be a big sister! Baby #2 is scheduled to join our family on February 25th, 2013!  Kara is very excited for the new addition.

In other news, Kara is becoming more independent. She has started her first non-parent class.  For two days a week, she spends an hour playing games and singing songs at a class called Twoodles at the local Rec Center.  She's also started her first non-parent swim class, which is going really well so far.

Bedtime has become quite the ordeal lately.  For about a year there, Mommy or Daddy would read Kara a book or two and lay her down, and that would be the last we'd hear from her all night.  Well, these days, we still read the book, but now we have to sing her songs and then Kara will come out of her room about 5 times before she finally settles down.  Mommy and Daddy are hoping she grows out of this phase soon!

Kara Quotes:
- "Good night, go sleep in your bed and I'll sleep in mine.  Dream about being a bat flying in the nighttime sky.  Bye-bye!"  8/20/12

And she's come up with a lot of variations on the "Dream about..." theme
"Dream about cookies!"
"Dream about working!"
"Dream about making cupcakes for Santa!"
"Dream about butterflies!"

A Month of Firsts

Our July and August have blurred together in several fun outings and lots of home improvement.

Mommy and Kara went to the Boulder County Fair with some friends at the beginning of August.  It was Kara's first visit to a county fair.  Everyone had a great time visiting all the different farm animals.  The cows were especially docile for the little girls.  Kara also had her first pony ride!  Check out the video to see how she did. :)

Kara also had her first haircut and her first visit to the dentist!  She watched Mommy get her haircut first, then was very excited to get it done herself.  She even insisted on getting a shampoo just like Mommy.  Kara did equally well at the dentist's office.  She loved the chair and the cherry toothpaste, but her favorite part was the video they showed her of dogs going to the dentist before her visit.  She told Daddy all about it that evening.

On the home front, we had new windows installed.  So far we're very happy with them, and they'll definitely be a great addition this winter.  Daddy and Grandpa S. also tore down a wall and an attached deck.  Good times!

Kara will be starting her first classes without parent participation in September.  We'll let you know how that goes!

Some recent Kara Quotes:

"Daddy, you have Kara in your eyes" - looking at her reflection in Daddy's eyes one morning.

"I dreamed about eating cookies today.... Dreams about cookies are good!"

"I am going to draw a picture of you and me!"

"I love you, Mommy" (Mom: "I love you too, Kara")  "I know.  I am in your heart."

Link to pictures




And here's a video of Kara's first pony ride:

Breckenridge 2012

For the 4th of July this year, we headed to Breckenridge in the mountains with Grandma and Grandpa S. Unfortunately, due to the dry weather and wildfires around Colorado, the fireworks were cancelled in Breckenridge, but we had lots of fun doing other things.  On the morning of the 4th, we headed to downtown Breckenridge for the parade.  Kara really enjoyed watching all the cars go by and got really excited once she realized they were throwing candy.  She didn't get much, but she had fun anyway.  After the parade, we stopped at a face painter.  Mommy and Daddy were very surprised that Kara stayed still long enough to get some stars on her face and on her arm. Of course, right after that we headed back to the hotel, and Kara insisted on going to the pool where her stars were promptly washed off.

Speaking of swimming, Kara is starting to get very confident in the water (a little too confident for Daddy's tastes...).  When she's wearing her vest, she can actually kind of move around in the pool.  Not bad for a 2-1/2 year old!

Other than parades and swimming, we had fun going for some hikes and just hanging out in downtown Breckenridge.  Looking forward to next year!

Link to pictures