3 months

Dear Emma-girl,
Where did this month go? I cannot believe you are already another month older. I love discovering more and more of your little personality. You are starting to "talk" much more and are full of smiles.

This was another busy month. We've been busy working in the garden, canning jams, being outside, and traveling. We headed to Glenwood Springs to visit with family. You got to meet your great grandfather, Papa, and hang out with your cousin, Jackson, along with the rest of the family. We laughed a lot! You are such a great little traveler. You slept and cooed most of the way there and back. I hope I am as lucky traveling with you by plane since we are headed to New York in a few days.

At 3 months:

~you are starting to laugh at people
~you wake up once a night (usually around 4)
~you always roll onto your back when we put you on your stomach
~you love to be in our baby sling carrier, and usually fall asleep (which helps with watering the garden and greenhouse...you just come along!)
~you put up with a lot from your brother who is constantly giving you kisses, bringing you your "fire" (pacifier), and wanting to hold you
~you follow people around the room with your eyes
~you hold your head up like crazy
~you love being on the changing table and will smile everytime we lay you on it
~you love being outside (which is a good thing because we spend most of our days out there)

We have gone to cut firewood a couple times. I love to snuggle with you on our big patchwork quilt, the wind blowing through the aspens and the sun shining through the leaves, dancing shadows over you. You love to watch the leaves and listen to the birds. You are so alert when we are outside.

Emma, you are so precious. From your bright eyes, balding head:), and perfect little feet, we just can't seem to get enough of you. You make our lives so much sweeter. We love you!

xoxo,
mommy

the big 3-0!

Yesterday we celebrated ryan's 30th birthday. It was a beautiful day! We started the day with biscuits and gravy. Then we hiked at San Isabel Lake.

Then we four-wheeled a couple trails and had a picnic lunch.

The birthday boy with the kiddos:

We had some family over for dinner to end the day. Happy Birthday sweetie!

this morning

Hey sweet emma girl! Mason's still alseep and daddy's fishing so this morning it's just you and me. I am reminded of how precious you are. I love our quiet times together when big brother is asleep. Because we both know that when he's awake, it's definitely not quiet! :) We're busy playing trains, tractors, cars, play-doh, painting, or fixing things. I know you will be doing the same things before long But, for now...this morning...we're just hanging out. You and me.

birthday boy

We had so much fun celebrating with family and friends on Saturday.
Mason was really into opening his presents. And not only did he open the presents, he wanted to open each toy before he went on to the next present. Good thing grandpa had his pocketknife for all that crazy packaging!

Mason's classic opening presents face.

He loved having everyone sing to him.

He blew out one candle in the middle of the song. He had a little trouble with the second one:)He sure loved being the center of attention.Then he asked for a spoon. Who eats a cupcake with a spoon??

It was wonderful to visit with friends and family. This is one of my favorite pictures of the kiddos with the grandparents.
Horray for birthday parties!

little chainsaw

This morning we headed out to cut some firewood. Mason brought his chainsaw, bob the builder hat, and tractor. He spent the whole morning watching daddy and helping with his own little chainsaw.


It was pretty hard to get him to leave daddy when it was time for the trees to fall. So, I told him we needed to get the wrench from the truck to fix his chainsaw. Then he had to fix the tires.But it was only a matter of time before he wanted to head back up the hill to "work with daddy." Emma and I followed, enjoying being outdoors.Ryan was a good sport and let mason "fix" his chainsaw too.

Emma pretty much slept through all the wood gathering. And she missed out on mason and I dipping our feet in the creek too. She did wake up and give us plenty of smiles during our picnic lunch though.
<

two.

Two years old! Happy birthday little man.

Here you are exactly one year ago:
You have changed so much in one year. I never knew that having a boy would be so much fun. You spend most of your days playing outside or following daddy around being his little "helper." You are pretty much always covered in dirt and I wouldn't have it any other way because you are just so happy to be playing outside.You want to carry everything for daddy. Luckily, he's very patient and doesn't mind if everything takes him twice as long.You're getting very good with the tape measure and the hammer!
You constantly amaze us with all you are learning. You have a huge vocabulary. I can't even begin to count all the words that you know. You are starting to talk in complete sentences too.

You know all your colors and a handful of shapes. You can count to ten and you recognize 0, 1, and 2. You are starting to learn the letters in your name. You know several animal sounds.

You take one really good nap in the afternoon. I love your going to bed routine. We always pray (which you call "amen", then you lay down in the crib with your two stuffed cows (named Cow and Moose), and ask for blankets by name. You usually layer two or three blankets on.

Speaking of praying, when we all sit down at the table you always ask for "amen". We hold hands, but the cutest thing is that you always want to hold your spoon in my hand and your cup or plate in daddy's hand while we pray.

We ended your special day with a scoop of ice cream. You blew out your candles before we even finished singing to you:)

It was good to the last drop!

Happy Birthday Mason!!

java

It's been a rough weekend. We had to put our dog, java, down today. I took her to the vet on Friday for what I thought was a sore on her foot. It turns out that it was cancer. The tumor had burst through the skin and after further examination it seemed to have already spread to her lymph nodes too. It was not an easy decision, but we knew it was the right thing so she wouldn't be in any more pain. We have had her most of our married life (we celebrated 7 years on Sunday!). She was our hiking buddy, our camping companion, and a loving, loyal dog.
There's not much more to say, so I'll share a few of our favorite pictures:
We miss you java girl!

park day

Yesterday I met my best friend, mindy, for lunch. Then we took the kiddos to the park. We snapped a few pictures of them on the swings before we were busy helping them climb all over the equipment and go down the slide over and over again (which was pretty amusing with minnz being almost 5 months pregnant and me carrying emma:)


Mason finally enjoys the swings. Last summer he was terrified of them.Little livvie is so cute. She has the best smile!And emma pretty much slept through the whole thing, wind and all.

Can't wait until we can get together again.