Happy 7th Birthday Ellie!

For her birthday this year, Ellie chose a Family Fun Day over a party, so we had a whole day of fun, planned by Ellie!  We saw a movie, had nails painted, ate out at Root Down (her favorite restaurant), shopped for a new outfit, and had birthday cake at home.

 Such a big girl! 

So much fun!

Merry Christmas!

Stationery Card

View the entire collection of cards.

The Nutcracker 2013

One of our favorite Christmas traditions!

Our seats were a *tad* far from the stage this year, but I think we've seen the Nutcracker 6 times, so we survived :) 

The Colorado Ballet put on a beautiful show, although I think the girls thought riding the Light Rail downtown was a close 2nd!

Luke Turns One!

We decided on a farm theme for Luke's first birthday party since he loves to watch the chickens in the backyard and one of his favorite toys is a miniature tractor :)

His cake had a bunch of farm animals and a tractor pulling "hay" (shredded wheat)

Blowing out the candle!

I loved this little farmer because he looked just like Luke and his bald head!

Smashing his cake!

Opening presents! 

Here's a video I made of his first year:

My Baby is One!

And He's Off!

Luke (finally!) learned to walk during Thanksgiving weekend last year.  He was about 14 months old and had been so close for SO long.

It never gets old watching a baby take their first steps!!

Happy 5th Birthday, Campbell!

For her 5th birthday Campbell decided to have a "Family Fun Day" in lieu of a party (can I just say, *so* much better than a party).  We got nails painted, saw a movie, went to Build-a-Bear, had mac-n-cheese for dinner, and just pretty much spent the whole day doing things that Campbell wanted to do.

That night she got to open presents and blow out her candles!

How can my little Baby C be so big!?!?

Happy Halloween 2013

Last year for Halloween we trick or treated (on a freezing night) with a "Peakcock Fairy", Pocahontas, and a Fox!

Happy 4th (In October)

Just trying to catch up on the blog here and thought I'd post some pictures from the Fourth this past summer.  Our neighborhood does a cute little parade where the kids decorate their bikes/strollers/wagons/etc and make a 1 mile loop that ends with some patriotic music and breakfast.  It's really fun and I sort of like to pretend, for the day, that we live in that neighborhood from The Sandlot (remember that scene where the huge dog runs through the block party and destroys everything?  I'm not sure why, but that just seems so Americana to me and I love it :))

Luke and Grayson (with minimal decorations.. the girls hoarded everything but one flag!)

Ready to ride.

Campbell decided to take a different parade route than the rest of us and scared me about half to death.  There were so many kids on their bikes and I lost track of her, thinking she was with Ellie.  When Ellie crossed the finish line, there was no Campbell.  After a little bit of a panicky search, she came cruising around the corner.  Apparently she followed someone else on a bike who went up another block before turning around.  She didn't even realize that she had been lost.  That girl.  She marches to her own beat.

Later that night went downtown for some fireworks.... Luke was very impressed.

We were also super-excited to have our good friends Laura and Shaun in town for the weekend.  They brought with them several kids from their church and after leaving our house, headed to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for a mission trip.

The End of the First Year of School

Well, since it's now the start of the next school year, it's only natural that I post photos and an update from last year.  I'm failing miserably at my 2-post-per-month goal, please forgive me.

As the school year wound down there were lots of activities to mark the occasion.  At the end of the year we had a big party with our whole CC community and the kids got to dress up as a character (of their choice) from history which we had studied during the year as part of our Timeline.  The girls chose to dress as a family from the Cherokee Trail of Tears (pleasant, huh?), so that's just what we did.

Even Luke got in on the action via papoose.  

We celebrated Easter with good friends and family, however, it took me until a week later on a visit to Grangran and Papa's to actually get a decent photo of the kids.

 Luke went to Bible class for the first time, with limited success.  Now, however, I am proud to report that he happily enjoys the whole 45 minutes.  Many thanks to his wonderful teacher who is so sweet to him and continues to welcome him every week despite the occasional tears.

We took a late-srping hike at Red Rocks and thank goodness we packed our coats, because the weather went from sunny and brisk to cloudy and blustery in less than an hour.  While we were there a violinist was practicing in the amphitheater and it was so beautiful echoing through the canyons.  We hated to leave, but it started snowing, so we had to get out of there.

We officially became backyard chicken owners and have thoroughly enjoyed our daily fresh eggs!

Here's the coop Daniel and my mom built, copied from the crazy expensive one that Williams Sonoma sells.  

We started with 4 hens, Lucy, Ethel, Thelma Lou, and Aunt Bea.  Unfortunately Aunt Bea met an untimely death due to the neighbor's dog, so we added two younger hens the following month and they are just starting to lay this week.

While visiting Grangran and Papa in April, we went to DisneyWorld for a day and the girls had the best time!

They met all kinds of characters and got autographs, rode the rides, saw the night parade and some shows.  All in all, it was an exhausting, but super fun day.

 Gaston was hilarious... he kept bragging about himself and talking about his hair.  When they finished their little meeting, he told the girl, "The pleasure was all yours, Ladies!"

Lukester met his Uncle Jerry and Mawmaw for the first time

As usual, Mawmaw has the touch when it comes to getting fussy babies to sleep!