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

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.

Emily's 1st Birthday!

Emily had her first birthday, and we celebrated by all getting sick.  When we say sick, we don't mean a little sniffle, we mean a nasty stomach bug that will take you down!  Emily got the party started by waking up on Friday covered in vomit.  Mommy and Daddy thought maybe Emily had just eaten something that hadn't agreed with her.  We were wrong. On Saturday, Emily's birthday, Mom started to feel sick around noon, and Kara started throwing up shortly thereafter. Daddy was able to hold it together through Saturday, doing load after load of laundry to keep everyone with clean clothes and bedsheets.  Daddy couldn't hold out forever, though, and fell victim Sunday.  Fortunately, Mommy was starting to feel a little better by that time and was able to keep everything together.  Fun times, huh?

The following weekend, we did a re-do on Emily's birthday.  Grandma and Grandpa came up, and we called Mimi and Papa on the iPad.  Emily really enjoyed her cake.  She didn't know quite what to do with her wrapped presents, but she eventually figured out how to tear the paper (not quite fast enough for Kara, though).

Emily has now mastered walking.  She can move pretty quick these days.  She has also been working on her communication.  She can usually convey what she wants through grunting and pointing, and we think she might be close to saying her first words.  She's said something that sounds a lot like "baby" (while looking at her Baby Beluga CD case) and "here you go" (when sharing her toys).  It's amazing how fast they grow up!

Link to pictures

Emily Walking

Emily is now an expert walker.  Just in the last couple of days she has gotten a new confidence and will walk 10+ steps routinely, even walking across rooms without any prompting.  We recently got one of her walks on video.  What a big girl! :-)

Link to video