White Easter

It seems as though we're not always guaranteed a white Christmas here in Colorado, but the odds are quite good that we'll get a white Easter - and we did. Either way, it was too cold to wear the cute Easter "outfits" we had planned or to do some of the outdoor activities we had planned. But you know us, we had fun anyway! =)

Noah (and us!!!!) hit the motherlode this year with all the goodies he got in all 3 of his Easter baskets. He kept calling the eggs "ball-balls" so you KNOW he loved those! =)

Looking at the goods before church!

Our little family - Easter Sunday!

Our little man in his back-up Easter outfit. ;)

Digging in after church.

Another reason our (outside) easter egg hunt was cancelled..... (ha ha!)

EGG-tastic Family Fun Day

We got in the Easter spirit a little early today and took Noah on his first Easter egg hunt! (or to be politically correct, "Spring sphere" hunt. Yeah... ridiculous....) Some good friends of ours invited us to go with them and be a part of a massive Easter egg hunt that Way-Fm was sponsoring up in Denver! Over 8,000 eggs were put out! It was crazy as a zoo, but fun!

After the big hunt, we picked up some lunch and all went on a picnic here since it was a gorgeous day out. And then we went and found a a place to feed the ducks. Noah's first time. He LOVED it and didn't (surprisingly) try to eat any of the bread!

Such a fabulous day with such wonderful friends!!

Even the weekend got off to a great start! We left Noah with Mimi and went on a date last night. Dinner, movie, shopping. We went and saw Soul Surfer. It was such a neat movie and it REALLY made us miss Hawaii. ;) Already planning our next trip!

Earlier in the week, Jen went to JBF in the Springs (totally missed the Douglas County one last month). Last year she came home with everything on her list plus a few extra things. This year, she came home with everything BUT what was on her list. Maybe the Fall sale will prove to be more productive.

Tomorrow will be a day of napping and our traditional Sunday with the family. With a weekend like this, who wants the regular week to come?

Noah-licious (Part Two)

So we've been a little absent in "blog land" these days - as you might have noticed. One could say we've kinda been in a little bit of a funk - a lot going on too. Crazy busy. Nothing worthy enough to post on our blog though. So instead, we'll post some pictures of Noah and all his cuteness over the past few months. =)

Silly Face. =) "Bucket head." Brought home a cow hat from Chick-Fil-A!Being a ham.... or a cow? Playing outside at Mimi's. Wishing he had a riding buddy for the other seat. ;) First Happy Meal! (a.k.a. "smile box") Bestest bubbles in the world! Loves bubbles!

Noah!!! =) His spikey do after his bath. New silly face. Walking downtown Colorado Springs with Aunt Becca and Daddy. His new favorite - Jamba Juice. =) No comment..... ;) Chillin' in his wagon during a nightly walk. He LOVES his wagon!

Side note: Some have asked if Noah's talking yet. Oh YES! He's a little chatterbox - he says lots of words. Some of them don't totally make sense to us yet, but some of those that do include: please, thank you, mama, dada, casey, dog, up, down, ball-ball, binky, mimi, becca, bye-bye, hi, juice, etc. We just love it. He's so precious and more of a joy than we ever thought possible! =)

Look Alike?

(By Greg)

I've been wanting to put together a side-by-side like this for awhile and finally got around to doing it. These are just a handful of pictures where I think you can clearly see the resemblance...

Enjoy!

7-months old

9-months old

11-months old

"Please"

We're working on "please" and "thanks" with Noah right now. His Auntie Cheryl thinks it's SOOOOOOO cute, so she had to take a short video of him saying it one morning on her iPhone.

It was just too darn cute NOT to share with y'all! (Note: we had to throw his funny binky in there for even more of a laugh!) ;)

Happy viewing! =)

Ice Ice Baby

It's always fun to go new places and see things you've never seen before. Generally, it's just fun to be together as a family and go places - which is what we did this weekend. :)

Of course, though, what would a trip be like if a few curve balls were never thrown into it? ;)

So what was the fun thing we saw/did this weekend? We went to the Ice Festival up in Cripple Creek, Colorado! But before we tell you all about THAT, let's back up a bit and talk about the "adventure" this morning just trying to GET there. In a nutshell, within an hour or so of each other, fairly early in the morning, 2 phone calls were received - one letting us know of a near tragedy, and another one letting us know someone was being hospitalized. So we're thinking to ourselves: do we go on with our plans? Do we stay here? What should we do? We decided to go, try to have fun and forget our troubles for awhile.

So on the road we go....finally....up to Woodland Park, Colorado to have breakfast. Guess what "fun" happened on the drive up? Noah got car sick going through the pass....and it wasn't just a "little" sick either, it was a "lotta" sick. Never saw it coming. Never saw so much vomit in our lives - and it got everywhere. Luckily, we brought along a change of clothes and a Wal-Mart just so happened to be nearby. So we pulled over, got him, his carseat, the car and Greg mostly cleaned up, went into Wally and bought him an extra outfit, some blankets, and a few extra sacks just in case it happened again. Then we debated, yet again, whether to press on or to just go home. (sigh.....) Noah seemed to be doing fine in Wal-Mart, so we pressed on. Now, if you remember, we generally stop for breakfast at The Donut Mill, but this time we wanted to do something different and try The Hungry Bear. Yup, it was pretty darn good! We let Noah run around outside while we waited for our food so he could get some fresh air and stabilize his equilibrium a little bit. Once we saw him running around laughing and having a good time (and ate quite a bit of a mild breakfast too!) we knew he'd be OK, so we pressed on.

So anyhow, the Ice Festival.... we thought we'd never make it. ;) It was such a neat experience. We're glad we went - never seen anything like that before in our life. They even had an ice slide! It was neat watching the guys make the ice sculptures with chainsaws and fire torches. Noah wasn't too fond of the ice sculptures for some reason - they absolutely terrified him. Not sure what was up with that. Maybe it was his hard morning and the fact that he was exhausted. (note the binky in the pictures - the binky that he's only allowed to have at bedtime - we made an exception today)

Before we left the little gambling city, we each decided to throw a few bucks in the slots. Sadly enough, we have no big winning news to report. Usually we do - Greg ALWAYS has THE best luck! :)

If you've never been to the CCIF, and you live in Colorado, and you're looking for a fun, inexpensive, family outing, you should go next year! Minus all the initial setbacks and car sickness. ;)

At The Hungry Bear. Noah blinked. ;)

Here we are! Our favorite sculpture.Getting to watch the action. This one was fun too. =) Watching all the action. The ice slide! Not sure what caption to type here.... ;) =) How Noah wanted to see the festival - walking. NOT being carried around like a "baby."

Feelin' The Love

Happy Valentine's Day!

We celebrated over the course of a few days - and had fun doing it too! =)

Friday, when Jen got home from work, she was surprised with flowers from her brother. Aren't they gorgeous!?!?
Sunday afternoon, for lunch after church, we had to get the heart-shaped pizzas that Papa Murphy's promotes every year during Valentine's week. It's one of our favorite places to get pizza. Isn't it fun? =)

Sunday afternoon, Mom Kelly had little Valentine's gifts for the adult kids. She put them in cute little bags and the goodies inside were SO much fun! =)
Sunday night, Greg took Jen out to a surprise dinner up in Littleton, CO. Ever heard of the Opus Restaurant? It was a lot of fun and the food was pretty darn good. (Not to mention it's one of Denver's best restaurants in the 5280 Magazine!) Here is what our 3rd course (out of 6) looked like:
Monday morning and early afternoon, Noah was with Mimi while Jen was at work. He started off the day and surprised her with flowers.....

Then she made him a fun Valentine's breakfast (here's part of it....)
And then it was her turn to give him his present! "It's a pillow, it's a pet, it's a pillow pet!" He was SO incredibly happy to get it - always wanted one when we went to the store. Now he finally has a doggie one that he fondly refers to as "Bah."

Later that night, we made a Valentine's cake. Cheesy, but fun. Noah got to help make the cake, but as you can see in the picture above, he was getting sleepy and had to go to bed before actually having any of the cake. Maybe tomorrow..... ;)

Noah also surprised Mommy and Daddy during different parts of the day and gave them cards/gifts. He sure was in the giving/loving spirit today. =)

Hope you all had as wonderful of a Valentine's day as we did these past few days! =)