The One About Thanksgiving

We had such a great Thanksgiving this year.  Really.  Just when you think certain holidays can't get any better, they do. =)  This year we had Jen's family over and Greg smoked his first turkey (after letting it brine for 4 days using Jen's Papa's famous recipe). This was probably THE best turkey we've ever had.  Ever. We're thinking we may have to do this again before next year.  ;)  After eating till we were beyond stuffed (Emma even got to have a lot of the food, so that was fun!), we spent the day relaxing, playing, eating some more and just enjoying being together. The cousins sure had a fun time together, too!  It's always such a treat to see them interact and play together.

After the holiday craziness, we headed up to Estes Park to our usual cabin by the river and spent a few days just getting away and slowing down for a bit.  

Alone time in front of the fire after the kiddos went to bed.  We could have fallen asleep there!

Isn't our view from the cabin just breathtaking?

While we were there, a certain little someone decided it would be a great time to let us know that she can climb up the stairs.  So up she went.  All 14 of them!

A certain little someone also loves to shop.  She thinks the little shops downtown Estes are great.  =)

Greg and Noah went on a little hike one morning and explored the rocks and etc across the street from the cabin.  Not sure who had more fun.  ;)

That's it for now!  Now we head into the fun Christmas craziness!  =)

7 Months Old!

It's been a super fun month with Emma.  We've said it before, but seriously, we just can't seem to get enough of this sweet baby girl!!!!  She's just growing and advancing so much these days. If we blink, we may miss something.  She's so much fun to stare at, kiss, hold, snuggle with, be around..... she's just so scrumptious!

This past month:
* She's been pulling up to stand!!!!! She gets up quite quickly now and stands there all proud. You can tell she feels like big stuff - and will probably be standing alone and walking before we even know it.  She tries to let go and hold on with just one hand.  Sometimes that works better than others.  ;)
* She's so so so so so SO happy!!!!!  And we thought Noah was a happy baby..... ;)  We love how just by looking at her, she smiles!
* She's super friendly and strangers don't seem to bother her - yet.
* She is LOUDLY chatty.  Oh.my.goodness. this girl is loud!  We need to teach her to use her "inside voice." ;)
* She's graduated to a highchair now and is learning to feed herself (and doing quite well!)  She has not turned down or seemed to dislike any of her homemade baby food.  So far she's not picky and will eat (lots of) anything!  We've even started giving her some Cheerios - a new favorite.  :)
* She loves water and loves drinking from a sippy cup!
* We just bought our FIRST box of diapers for her.  Yes, FIRST.  Her baby showers blessed her/us well!
* The whole "never wake a sleeping baby" thing doesn't seem to apply to her.  She ALWAYS wakes up in a good mood and stays that way (and stays on schedule!) on the rare occasion that we have to wake her up. (total opposite from her brother!)
* She's still sleeping from 7:15/7:30pm to about 7:30/8:00am!  (When she's ready to get up, she either just lays there and stares around, plays quietly in her crib, or talks LOUDLY to let us know she's awake.)  We sure have been blessed with some good sleepers!
* Her and her brother seem to be the best of friends. We pray that stays that way.
* We are still amazed at how easy and good she is!!!  Who'd of thought we'd have TWO easy/good kids (since everyone told us we probably wouldn't have two like that)?!?!

It's been a busy month, so here's the best we could do - some good camera pics mixed in with our phone pics:

Halloween 2014

Our Halloween "festivities" this year were super fun!  It was a bit chilly out, but our Ninjago Ninja (Lloyd to be exact) and our little fat pumpkin didn't seem to mind at all!  On Friday we did the safe trick-or-treat in downtown Monument with friends and then went and had dinner together after.  Nothing crazy, but that's how we roll (plus, staying up super late and trying to do everything Halloween related with two littles just isn't possible these days).

 

On Saturday, we had our church fall festival and did some "trunk-or-treating" until the sun was pretty much down, we couldn't see one another, our fingers and noses were nice and frozen and Noah's bucket was full of candy.  ;)  Halloween isn't our most favorite holiday, but doing little things like these make it more fun and a little less "ugh" for us.  :)