Sunday, December 12, 2010

November/December 2010 Catch Up

* We got snow about a week before Thanksgiving. So far it has been a really mild winter and I'm grateful for it! The snow hasn't stuck around for long but my girls did get all bundled out to play with the little bit of snow left in the playhouse one day.




* Chloe loves baths. She hears the bath water running and she takes off and tries to get in. One day I turned the tub on and went to grab a towel before putting Chloe in the tub. I came back in less than a minute later and she was in the tub fulling clothed!



* We decorated for Christmas. Had a bit of a fiasco with the real tree that we picked up - it toppled over when we were trying to decorate and almost took out Eliza. After a new (heavier) tree stand and Rob working on it, it's been secure every since. It's pretty dried out already even though I've been watering every day. I'm convinced that this state is even drier than Arizona.....




* Chloe continues to be my little class clown. She does anything and everything to get attention. No matter what barriers I put in her way - she figures out a way to climb. It's getting out of hand! But she makes us laugh and is adorable so I guess I can overlook just how BUSY she keeps me each and every day. In addition to being a tornado of destruction! And my favorite picture of when I went into my room to get dressed and closed my door and opened it to find her sleeping right outside my door.... guess she was tired.






* Chloe and Eliza have been a lot more loving to each other and playing really well together. It's so fun for me as a mom to watch them! And I'm still on the hunt for a picture of both of them where they are both smiling and looking at the camera..... One of these days.


Thanksgiving 2010

I'm already thinking one of my New Year's Resolutions will be to update my blog a little more often! I'm really behind and it's definitely not for lack of being busy.

We had a VERY full house for Thanksgiving this year! Rob's parents and grandma drove up from Arizona, Uncle Tysen came with his girlfriend Jen and one of her daughter's Bree, Uncle Kory and Uncle Trent drove in from Utah/Idaho, and Uncle Kevin also came from Utah. In addition, Grandpa Snow White and Grandma Debbie were with us for half the time (and the other half in nearby Castle Rock with Debbie's daughter's family). Thank goodness our house is twice the size as the one in Arizona but it was still tight quarters! Lots of fun though. I didn't take as many pictures as I probably should have - I guess that thought was lost in some of the chaos. :)

On Wednesday we headed out with those who had arrived and went to the Olympic Training Facility that is in Colorado Springs. It was freezing cold but I love anything and everything about the Olympics and it was interesting to hear about all the training that they do and the athletes lives that live at that training facility. I forgot my camera this day though so I'll have to put pictures up when I get them from Rob's mom or my brothers.

On Thursday we actually didn't do our Thanksgiving dinner - instead we just snacked a lot, watched a lot of football and prepared for the next day. Eliza went with Grandma Bodine to see "Tangled" that night and Rob went with his dad to see a movie. The rest of us stayed at home and played games.

Friday we had our big Thanksgiving feast. Everything turned out great and we had tons of dessert at the end. Again - forgot to take pictures!

Some of us took a trip out to Garden of the Gods to walk around. It was freezing and the parking lot was really far away but we still tried to enjoy the beauty! We finished off the day by watching more and more and more football and mixing it up with some games in between. Tysen and Bree love to play games and we were introduced to some fun new ones that we'll try out again at Christmas!


Saturday morning Rob's parents and grandma had to leave to drive home. So those that were still there went out to the Air Force Academy and took a tour. They have a beautiful chapel and we even saw some wildlife out there (deer and a giant coyote).








Sunday - the Uncles all packed up early and left for the drive home since a big storm was supposed to hit. I think Trent spent 17 hours on the road that day getting back to Idaho! I had to speak in church that day (Rob got out of it with a Missionary homecoming that the Bishop had forgotten about) and I'm very glad that is over.

Sunday night Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Snow White decided to brave decorating a gingerbread house with Eliza. She loved it although the house had some major structural problems for some reason and kept falling apart!






Monday, Grandma Debbie went back up to Castle Rock and Grandpa Snow White went shopping with the girls and helped us get prepared for the snow with a few supplies. We haven't seen any snow since the week before Thanksgiving but I think we are a little more ready now if it decides to come!

By Tuesday after Thanksgiving all of our visitors and left and I had to attempt to recover. Since that time period, we have all had the stomach flu (some of us twice!) and rounds of colds. I guess we had too much fun or something! Hoping we're healthy for a while now.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

November Update

So the weather was in the 70's on Monday and we enjoyed a fabulous playgroup with some ladies and kids from the ward. Good thing we took advantage of the sun since today the high was 29 degrees but it really felt like 19 with the wind! BRR! I'm very grateful that we have a gas fireplace and a furnace that heats the house.

I realize I'm going to need to find some creative outlets for these cold winter months! Today we've already played dress up, played with blocks and watched a movie along with the grocery shopping that made me freeze on the short walk between the car and the store.

The girls had a well visit on Monday. We found out that Chloe had her first ear infection (make that DOUBLE ear infections). Poor thing! I had no idea until the doctor asked me if she had been fussy lately. She had been but she was also breaking in 4 more teeth in the last couple of weeks so I didn't think much about it (she has 12 teeth already! And likes to randomly come up and bite me - not so fun!). Now that she has been on antibiotics for a few days she is soo much happier although she can still throw a mean temper tantrum if she doesn't get her way.

Chloe's almost 13 months stats:

Weight: 20.1 lbs (25%)
Height: 29 inches (36%)
Head: 17 (25%)

So she's pretty much on the smaller side! I thought everyone kept telling me she was small because she runs around so well for her age but apparently she isn't as big as I thought she was. It's about time for us to move her into the next size of car seat!

Ellie's stats:

Weight: 36 pounds (70%)
Height: 39 1/2 inches (63%)

Both girls are pretty healthy although Chloe is going to start on a preventative medicine for her lungs. Her pediatrician specializes in asthma and after looking over Chloe's health records and her 3 hospital visits in the last few months for breathing problems - wants to be proactive and avoid her going to the hospital in this state and cold winter. Not thrilled to be doing breathing treatments every morning and night though when she hates them!

The girls have been playing really well together and it's fun to see! I even managed to catch half way decent pictures of the two of them together (just ignore Ellie's bangs that need to be cut):




And then for comparison... I realized the other day that I had a picture of both Ellie
and Chloe wearing the exact same outfit at the same age. I can see some similarities but the biggest difference is with the forehead and skin color! Chloe definitely takes after my side of the family with her skin color.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Halloween 2010

Oh how I love the Halloween season! Even though I wasn't quite as into it this year as I have been in the past (due to moving at the beginning of the month)...we still managed to fit in tons of fun stuff.

The middle of last week we had our ward's Truck or Treat party. Eliza was Sleeping Beauty this year and she has worn this costume almost nonstop since it arrived in the mail last week! I didn't feel like going on a hunt or fitting in the budget for a new costume for Chloe so she got to be a pink butterfly since we had it from Ellie wearing it as a baby. Anyway - back to our new ward's Halloween party. They had a chili and brownie cook off, face painting, carnival games, a costume parade and of course the trunk or treat! I was impressed that Chloe willingly kept most of her costume on during the party.




On Saturday we decided to carve our pumpkins that we got from the pumpkin patch/farm last week. Rob didn't want to participate so I got stuck doing most of the work and let's be honest - I'm not a great pumpkin carver! Eliza just stuck lights in her pumpkin. Next year we're going to get the Mr. Potato Head pumpkin attachments.





We finished off our celebrations by going over to some neighbors/ward members house for dinner and then a quick round of trick or treating in the neighborhood. It has been amazing weather - everyone told us to expect snow by Halloween but we've been enjoying 70 degree temps during the day. And tonight it was only in the 50's for trick or treating - not too bad! Rob and Chloe stayed home since Chloe has a cold and was in no mood or condition to be outside. I tried to get her and Ellie together for a picture and you can see the tears rolling down her face. Poor thing! Hopefully she feels better soon. (First picture is how happy she was earlier this week). And ONE of these days I will get a picture of my girls with both of them looking at the camera and smiling. One Day!!


Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Hiking & Pumpkin Patch

We took advantage of a beautiful Saturday a few weeks ago and decided to go on a little family hike at nearby Garden of the Gods. Such a beautiful place! Although the sun was out - it was really windy. I think so far this is my only major complaint about this place - there seems to be tons of wind in Colorado Springs.

Anyway - it was a beautiful hike/walk and we went to the nearby visitors center afterwards.





And then last Saturday we decided to go to Wishing Star Farm to their pumpkin patch. They had a little bullet train for kids to ride on, buckets full of dried corn, giant tires to climb on, a 100 ft gorge slide, a petting farm, and of course pumpkins to pick! While it was fun - it was SUPER windy and that translated into us being really cold. We hurried through the activities, grabbed our pumpkins and hightailed it out of there. I had the girls in matching outfits but you can't tell since we had to put jackets on fast! And of course trying to get a picture of the two girls both looking at me and smiling is nearly impossible.







And then just for fun - Chloe is having a hard time getting used to our crazy schedule lately: