January 12th

Let's just pretend that it is January 12th and I just got back from an awesome 3 week winter excursion and I wasted no time in posting about our adventures. Seriously, I just want to document our fun Christmas vacation and get caught up on my blogging/personal history. I don't expect anyone to be interested a month and a half later!

For Christmas and New Years we were able to travel up to Colorado to spend time with our families. Mike took a 1/2 day on the day we left so that we could break up the drive into two days. Annabelle is a great traveler, but we weren't sure how Asa would do in the car for such a long drive. What we learned is that he is great during the day - but hates being in his car seat at night. Lesson learned.

In true Mike fashion, Mike woke up before dawn the first day we were in town to take advantage of some new landscapes to photograph. Mike and his dad went down to Rainbow Falls, or Graffiti Falls down in Manitou Springs. I thought it sounded gross, but the pictures turned out strangely beautiful when you have the stark contrast between God's creation and man's. The picture below shows more of the bridge than the waterfall, but I liked the lines, and you get the idea.

One of my favorite things about being in Colorado this year was time with cousins. Jessi and her family were able to meet Asa for the first time and Annabelle really loved playing with Annica, Eli and Jeremiah. At the Sherwood house we prepared for Christmas by decorating sugar cookies, I think a couple made it to Santa. On Christmas eve the Sherwoods had the McKeans over and the cousins put on a great production of the Christmas story for us after our meal (yes I know we are spoiled). Annabelle and Annica both wanted to be Mary and the angel. So we compromised and they did the program twice! I guess I don't have pictures of that but it was pretty cute as they repeated the scriptures, sang 'Angels We Have Heard on High' and pretended that the adults of the family were the donkey, inn keeper, shepherds and so on.

With the McKeans we arrived to late to do the candy making, but we did our part to help clean up. We took the kiddies to the mall to meet Santa. Of course the boys had no idea what was going on but I think that Santa looked like the real deal! Doesn't Annabelle look excited?

Another great part of Christmas this year was getting to meet Clara, my brother's fiance. They weren't engaged until later in January but she was sweet enough to fly out to spend Christmas with us. We are excited for them to be married in April.

We had a white Christmas this year and there was plenty of snow left after Christmas that we were able to go out back and enjoy some sledding. These kids not only rode down the hill on sleds but were pulled around behind the tractor in a sled. Papa Zeke pulled them around and around for a long time while the kids dipped their mittens in the snow and ate the snow off. We crammed Asa into this little snowsuit and he enjoyed watching everyone for the first few minutes, then took a nap in the sunshine.

For New Years Eve Annabelle and my mom came up with having a "Number 10" party. We made ten layer dip, sundaes with ten toppings, we tried to play 10 different games. Annabelle kicked off the night with having us play 10 rounds of hide and seek. My brothers and Dad lit some fireworks, some exploded high in the sky and others we are lucky didn't catch anything on fire.

My brother Adam and his wife love sparklers, so while they were out with the sparklers and Mike was taking pictures, I enjoyed snuggling the babies until they fell asleep. I loved it.

Another highlight from the trip was a ski/snowboard trip with the McKeans. Annabelle took ski lessons and learned to do pizza and french fries. Pizza is snow plow and french fries is straight skis. She ended up having a great time, despite being apprehensive at first. Take a look at the last runs from the day:

It was a great time. I loved spending time with family, having a beautiful white Christmas, laughing with our families, watching the kids play together, eating yummy treats, sleeping in, schooling my brothers in Tetris, and watching Jake dress like a robot to go clear the drive way. Okay, that last one was just so I could work this ridiculous picture into my post.

25 and yes I'm alive

For some reason I haven't been able to make posting much of a priority these days. Almost every evening I think I'll sit down and update my blog . . . but somehow something else comes up. So . . . here is a list of the 25 things I SHOULD have posted by now:

1) Annabelle caught her first fish, with my dad in Colorado.

2) Asa started eating foods. His favorite so far is sweet potatoes.

3) The kids dressed up as bugs for Halloween this year. Well I guess technically a spider isn't a bug, but you get the idea.

4) Asa started sitting up really well and passing toys from on hand to another.

5) I made homemade pumpkin pie again this year. Except I used pie pumpkins. Never again. The shells were really really hard to cut through. Next year I'll grab a jack-o-lantern before they sell out.

6) We closed on a house. Whoo-hoo! We are officially homeowners.

7) The weather finally started cooling down here. I am really looking forward to the next couple of months of playing outside and going for walks. Asa seems to like stroller rides a lot.

8) Annabelle got school pictures taken. She looks adorable. I am launched into feeling closer to 30 than 20. Which is technically true as well!

9) We painted the first level of our house, I really wanted to do the upstairs as well, but we closed a week later than I thought, so I had to prioritize . . .

10) I started having fun walking through home improvement stores. A strange new experience.

11) My mom, Nona, Jake and my Dad came to help us with the move. Their trip involved sleeping on air mattresses in our hot apartment, listening to my neighbors party, my kids cry at night, catching our colds and then waking up to scrub our new house (which unfortunately was pretty dirty). We could have never done it without them. Seriously, I think I would have had some kind of break down. They saved me. Thank you.

12) We skipped the traditional Thanksgiving meal this year, as we had moved into the house the day before and went out for Mexican. Oops! It doesn't mean we weren't grateful, just tired.

13) Asa now has two toofers. He cut his firth tooth on Thanksgiving Day. Super cute, but also very sharp. Ouch!

14) We started cleaning up the backyard. I think it will be fun. I asked Santa for a hedge trimmer thing this year. Yes, power tools!

15) We started cleaning out the garage. I have tons of baby girl clothes that someone left in there. Any takers? They are in really good condition.

16) I like our new ward.

17) I miss our old ward too.

18) We bought a crib. Sounds like odd timing right? Well Asa didn't seem to like sleeping in the pack and play. We never had a crib for Annabelle. Sorry no pictures yet, but it is just a regular crib, just use your imagination :)

19) We decided to forgo a Christmas tree this year (hey, don't judge, we already skipped out on Thanksgiving) and I bought a really pretty garland that we hung our favorite ornaments on. Yeah, no pictures of that yet either. . .

20) Asa wants to crawl. So far he is up on his hands and knees a lot and then melts down to the ground. I can't blame him, the chub was over 19 lbs and his 6 month check up. It might take a while to build up the muscles he'll need.

21) I decided I wanted to decorate our living room with aqua, burnt orange and a nicer than lime green. Doesn't sounds as good typed up, maybe once I actually get some decorating done I'll put up some pictures of it. What do you think of that color scheme?

22) Annabelle made a gingerbread house at school. Mike took off of work for a little while to go help her. She loved it. And I love that she lets me snitch candy off of it.

23) I have made 2 types of fudge, cream puffs, chocolate ginger bread cookies, cornmeal sandwich cookies and a cheese ball so far this month. And Mike has been making dinner! Ha ha, I guess sometimes I just have to prioritize.

24) I might be ready for Christmas, maybe. The last 3 weeks have really flown. I can't believe Christmas is really this week. How wonderful!

25) Merry Christmas friend and family! (or whoever might still be looking at this poor neglected blog!) I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas :)

Can't Sleep? Need a two minute Babysitter?

Let Annabelle read you a book (wink wink).

Photos

For anyone who is interested, my dad, my siblings and I are trying to get better at photography, so we started a photo blog. We use it to show our photos to each other because it is easier than emailing them around. so enjoy it if you would like!

Mike's Colorado Photos

Here are my favorite nature/landscape pictures that Mike took on our trip to Colorado earlier this month:

The first several photos are from an ice storm that hit so early in the year that most of the trees still had green leaves, there were flowers in bloom and vegetables on the vine in the garden. For a day or two everything was covered in ice as if nature had forgotten that it was still mid-autumn and not yet winter. The beauty and frigid temperatures didn't last long however and the sun came out, the ice melted and autumn resumed.

I was surprised that the delicate structure of both the flower and the spiderwebs held up against the weight of all the ice.

In many places it was easy to see which direction the wind was blowing because the ice engulfed only one side of the plants.

A day later and 2 hours away Mike went camping with Alma (his best friend) and my dad.

They enjoyed the luxuries of staying in the Sherwood TeePee. They stayed warm and of course took advantage of the scenery.

The Triple Crown

'The Triple Crown' as my dad refers to it, has become a family holiday. Traditionally our family and my parents get together to celebrate the birthdays of my mom, Annabelle and I. We three share a birthday and it has made celebrating really fun. This year we got together in Colorado.

Traditionally we have cheesecake, which is my all time favorite favorite. My mom enjoys trying out different recipes. Which has worked out every year with the exception of my 7th or 8th grade year when she tried a recipe with gelatin in it. I had some friends from school over and my mom began to serve the cake. By the time we all had a piece in our hands and she headed back into the kitchen the cake reached room temperature and began to melt, leaving little clumps of gelatin that looked like boogers as the only solid on the plate. Upon reaching the kitchen to eat her own piece of cake my mom noticed the mishap and ran back into the party. My friends were sitting there politely trying to scoop up the delicious tasting mess with their forks. They insisted that the cake tasted great but we have laughed about that cake ever since.

Last year I went with a store bought cake as I was hosting the triple crown. I had bought a chocolate cheesecake from this particular store before and it was so delicious that I was sure that the fact that it was store bought could easily be overlooked. When I went to the store to buy one however, they did not have the chocolate version. I bought a plain and raspberry cheesecake instead. Of course they tasted like cardboard and I am determined to bake my own cheesecakes from now on.

This year my mom found another recipe that included gelatin. We excitedly agreed that THIS was to be the year that we conquered the booger gelatin cake. As my mom sat down the night before our birthday to read the recipe she realized that it had eggs in it even though the cake was never baked, only refrigerated. Grossed out we all opted for an oldie but a goodie: Cheesecake with chocolate ganache topping! The topping tastes like the inside of a chocolate truffle and my mom describes it as "wicked good"! Jealous?

Besides cake the birthday bash was fun. Annabelle wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese's and so we made sure to go. Annabelle had requested of my mom that she have a "king, queen, princess, castle, pony, unicorn, rainbow" birthday cake. My mom did her best and found a cake with a rainbow and three princesses. Annabelle was satisfied. Our friends Alma & Nicole met us at Chuck E. Cheese as well. Their little Jagger and Annabelle enjoyed the arcade and the pizza.

Another memorable circumstance of this year's celebration was the INSANE cold front that hit Colorado right before we got there. Who would have guessed that we would have had snow and sooo much ice on our birthdays?

Mike got up early one morning and took some beautiful pictures of what autumn looks like when frost comes early. We'll post those along with some of our other favorite landscape pictures from the trip soon.

Fat and Happy

Our Asa is four months old! He still has his happy little disposition. He has learned to fuss but pretty much only does so when he is hungry or tired, which is understandable. He is tickelish. He loves it when we sing to him, especially Annabelle. She is so animated that he gets really excited. He giggles and coos when we talk to him. He loves sitting with us at the dinner table. He'll squawk at us while he watches us eat. He loves kicking and splashing in the tub. He can roll over and is getting sturdier at sitting up. He is at the stage where is wants to put everything in his mouth. If I leave a burp cloth on his lap I'll look over to see him shoving it into his face trying to get a good taste of it. I am convinced that is how he learned to roll over, he was really just trying to get a taste of the floor. He is still pretty snugly which I appreciate.

Asa's most striking feature is his blue eyes. People always seem to comment what a bright blue color his eyes are. I hope the color is here to stay. His dark hair is disappearing for the most part (with the exception of at the nape of his neck). And there is a lot of blonde hair coming in underneath. It is still too fine and light to really capture in a picture but I'm sure in the next few months it will be more visible. Other than that he is just a happy little chub.
We went to his 4 month check-up today. He weighs 17 and half lbs. and is 27.5 inches long. That places him in the 90 and 95 percentiles. I'm allowed to start him on solid foods at this age, but don't feel any real rush to. We'll see, I think he would enjoy it.



Most people say he looks a lot like Mike. I have a hard time seeing features in my own kids. A friend told her husband she thought he looked exactly like Mike and his response was "Yeah, except with less hair, and shorter and fatter." Who knows but I love both of my blue-eyed boys!