Zoo Lights

Sunday night we went to the zoo lights with my mom Audrey and her BOYFRIEND Zach, Sean and his girlfriend Christina and her daughter Ella. We had a wonderful time! Little cold but worth it!
They had ice sculptures-pretty cool!
The cute couple Zach and Audrey
I know this picture is hard to see my lens was fogging up inside the reptile and fish house, but I had to capture this moment. The two perfect bald heads! I love my family so much and love seeing them interact with my kids! Dylan and Kate love them so much!

Christmas Parties

Friday night Dylan's preschool had a wonderful Christmas Party for the entire family! They had food, tons of crafts, a show put on by the kids and of course Santa!
Kate did not quite know what to think about him! The lighting was non existence so I did not get any good photos of Dylan singing his heart out! The next day Marc and I took his parents to White Christmas at the Buell Theater for their Christmas present. We barely made it on time because I was back at the doctors for Kate's ears and it took forever!! That night Audrey came over and watched my kids so Marc and I could attend our white elephant party. It was tons of fun. We brought a Dukes of Hazard DVD (the original episodes of course) and some candy. We came home with the coolest winter hat and bingo dobbers.

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Ready?!

Ok so I have been a terrible blogger lately! I want this to be my journaling especially since I found a website that will turn your blogs into a book! http://www.blurb.com/create/book/blogbook

I am sure most of you know this but it was very exciting for me. Anyway it seems like almost every day I think oh I need to write about that in my blog. So you are going to get about a weeks worth of posts in one night! Pull up a chair relax and enjoy!

Mother Daughter Bond

This is my friend Brenda and her Daughter Linzie. They called me in a panic the other day wanting to do a Christmas card with a picture so off we went! It was a cold and sunny day, but I think we got a couple good ones! You guys are beautiful!

Dylan

So this morning Marc and I went to Dylan's Parent teacher conference. Dylan is excelling in everything! Marc kept asking his teacher Miss. Valerie what we could do at home to help him and she told us we were doing pretty good. I was curious if he was a disruptive student and she said he is obedient and very aware of his classmates and their needs. There are only two girls in his class and he enjoys making Erica laugh and is always talking about her! Dylan understands basic addition and is recognizing more letters every week. We are so proud of him and enjoy watching him love school and all his new experiences.

My tiny Girl

So on October 23 I took Kate to the Doctor for her nine month appointment. She weighed 16# 2.5 oz and was 26 1/2 in long. Her weight was in the 10% and length 20%. Her head circumference was 60%. She had only gained less than 1# since her last appointment on July 30th. (They like them to gain 3#) So on November 27th we were back at the doctor to see if she improved at all. Of course not! She is now borderline almost off the charts! (She falls between 10 and 5%, but only for height and weight)! So the doctor came in and went over with me all the fattening things I should be feeding her especially now that she is doing the army crawl and burning more calories. I am supposed to put syrup and butter on her blueberry pancakes, give her sausage, yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, avocados and I am to start introducing whole milk at 11 months. I am not very worried, she sure looks healthy and the doctor said she was just going to be one of those girls she doesn't like because she can eat anything and not gain a pound! So at the end of the appointment the doctor was giving her an exam and I mentioned that since about August she can not leave her ears alone and I told the other Dr. at her last appointment and he said he couldn't see anything. So she looked and said there was a ton of wax making it hard to see, so she got it out and guess what she found two full blown ear infections! That explains so much! The horrible nights of screaming and not being consolable! Now Kate is on an antibiotic and we will see in January how she is doing!

Christmas Tree

This is the one we chose for us, the one beneath is the one I chose for my mom.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We did! We went to the Schafers out in Elizabeth and had a wonderful time! The Saturday after Thanksgiving we all drove to Frasier (just through Winter park) to cut down our Charlie Brown tree. It was very cold but the sun was out and very little wind so not to bad. It is a perfect weekend to go because the site is not "officially" open so very little people.

Obsessions

So as a thank you my dear sweet Mollie gave me my obsession the other day. I have been making my dinners and at least once a week giving Mollie some so she might have some healthy meals instead of eating out all the time. SO the purees I decided to make were veggies we do not eat very much, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potato and butternut squash. I have not made a meal yet but I will let you know! What is my next obsession? Hmm I am going to have to think about that...

Dentist Sketch - The Carol Burnett Show

My dad emailed this to me the other day and it made me giggle! You will have to mute my music so you can hear it-sorry I need to figure out how to turn it off!

Laughter

My friend Tiffany blew into town this weekend for another friends surprise party and kindly made time for the rest of us, even though it was short I laughed sooooo hard I had tears running down my face! Tiff has a magical way of telling stories that I can repeat and never get the same response that she does! Doesn't it feel so good to just laugh!? I miss you lots Tiff and thanks for filling my laugh quota for the month! Please Keep in touch! Don't I have beautiful friends? From left Brenda, Tiff and myself. Mollie was the wonderful photographer and we were at Katrinas house celebrating her birthday! Looking back on the evening I wish I would of pulled out my camers while we were all laughing and enjoying each others company-next time huh? Thank you all for the wonderful evening without children!

beautiful friends

My friend Jill who has given me a few opportunities to photograph baby Hailee called the other day and wanted a cute Christmas card picture. They are such a beautiful family and so well behaved! The weather was perfect for pictures, overcast and a little chilly. It is finally starting to feel like fall here in Denver!

Family Pictures

So I added a family picture from my friends Stacie's blog. She took our pictures The beginning of October if you would like to view them go here: http://staciesmith.instaproofs.com or go to my friends and click on Stacie's name for her blog. Beautiful pictures! Hopefully one day I can be as good as she is! Thank you Stacie I looooove them!!!!! Can't wait to show them off!

Zoo

We always get a zoo pass and use to go every week- I have not been so good since I have had Kate, so on Friday we went with the Yates and Taylors. The kids had tons of fun- we shut the place down!

A new baby giraffe born on October 25th?
Baby Lilly- I think she is so pretty!
Kate hanging out in her stroller- she was so happy Aunt Wendy was with us because she will carry her!

Snuggle

So I have to share something that Dylan said this morning. I was in the shower and Marc had just gotten out when Dylan came in the bathroom and said, "um Dad no one is in mom's bed to snuggle with me!" So sweet! I love that it is mom's bed! SO of course Marc stopped everything and went and laid back down with him- he is a sucker when it comes to cuddling! Dylan loves to snuggle with everyone and is always giving Kate lots of loves! This picture is when Kate was 3 months old. Dylan had heaved her up to hold her and she was enjoying it! He is a wonderful big brother!

Whew!

I can not express clearly enough how happy I am that it is a new week! Last week was very crazy especially the end! I love Halloween and want my kids to have lots of fun with their friends and activities so on Tuesday we had a bunch of girls and their kids over from the ward for a little party-thankfully the weather was the gorgeous so we had fun playing outside. A lot of the kids are younger than Dylan so we had a little "experiment" with green sherbet and sprite. It makes a very frothy bubbly yummy drink! And for a project each kid made their own dirt. You layer vanilla pudding mixed with cool whip, crushed oreos, chocolate pudding mixed with cool whip, crushed oreo and top with a gummy worm! It is so good.
Wednesday Dylan had his party at school and we brought the little hot dogs rolled up in dough with almond slivers to make it look like toe nails. After school we went to the Rocky Mtn. Arsenal to learn about owls and got to dissect an owl pellet. It was very cool! That evening people came over and we went trick or treating. I think this is the first year in a long time that it was not snowing or raining.
Now for the stressful part- I had super Saturday on Saturday and had a lot of things I needed to do for it (of course)! And to top it off at 5 pm on Thursday I looked at Dylan and he was covered in hives from his head to his toes! I am not a panicky mom but I panicked! My little Dyl has never been to the doctor for anything except his well checks- but they just said to give him benadryl every 6 hours and to watch him. When he woke up Saturday morning they were gone. My Super Saturday went fairly smoothly, have I mentioned how wonderful my husband is? Well he is!! He watched these kids all day Saturday ordered us dinner that night because of course I came home exhausted! And Sunday afternoon he had them again because I went out to lunch with two wonderful friends to celebrate my birthday. Monday I cleaned my house top to bottom and did tons of laundry so now I feel in control again, for now?!