Visit from Wisconsin Walkers

We had a visit from Mark's cousin Darcie and her family from Wisconsin this past week. Darcie's husband Dan was participating in a woodworking class outside of Fort Collins, so they decided to fly the whole family in for a visit. It was a blast and it so fun to have them staying with us.

Ella with Darcie's girls Sadie and Kenzie.

We took everyone to Evergreen for the day, it was the closest we could get to the mountains without having to drive over and hour. We did a walk around Evergreen lake and then headed to Beau Jos Pizza for lunch. Yummy!

Ella just loved having Kenzie in town, like the big sister she never had.

A family visit wouldn't be complete without cousin tubbing time.

Charlie = 1 year!

It has been almost a month since Charlie's 1st birthday and I am just getting around to posting about it. LOL! I guess that is my life these days. I cannot seem to catch up!

I cannot believe my little Charlie boy is ONE! It feels like I just had him! He certainly has grown a lot over the past year. Our latest developments... Charlie has 4 teeth- two on bottom that arrived at about 10.5 months and two on top that arrived a couple days after his 1st birthday. Charlie is still moving around a ton- crawling like a madman all over the place, up and down the stairs like a champ, walking along furniture, standing up on his own and he has even taken a few tentative steps when prompted by us. No real walking yet- but its coming soon!

Charlie's verbal development is coming along quickly as well. He is finally starting to TRY to communicate with us. There have been so many times that we swear we hear him say things... but then its still hard to tell. Words we are pretty sure we have heard... Ella, Mama, Dada, Doggie, Woof, Uh oh, All done, Car, Ball. And I'm sure I will have more to add to the list. It seems like he tries to say something new every day. When all else fails, he likes to SCREAM a at the top of his lungs to get our attention. We just love when he does that.

Charlie's 1 year doc appt went great.

Charlie's 1 year stats:

Weight: 23lbs 10oz (60%)

Height: 31in (80%)

Head: 19.25in (97%)

Check out Charlie's 1 year pictures, Lindsay did an awesome job, as always, and you can see some of the pictures on her blog here.

Charlie's Birthday party was a big success! We decided to keep it small this year (I learned my lesson from years past) and had a small 4th of July BBQ with a few neighbors and both sets of grandparents.

Our day started bright and early with the annual neighborhood bike parade. Mark and my Dad took the kids so that Gigi and I could go to yoga and then meet them there. It was fun to be a spectator and get some pics of the kids with Granddaddy and Dad.

We went straight from the parade to the pool and then in the afternoon was the birthday party.

We really enjoying hanging out in the backyard (on our new patio) and enjoying the holiday and Charlie's birthday. It was a long day for Charlie and he had a little meltdown during cake time.

I think he enjoyed sitting on his cake more than he enjoyed eating it.

All in all it was a wonderful day with friends and family.

Also over the 4th of July weekend, we went with Granddaddy and Gigi and the kids to the Colorado Rockies game to see the fireworks. It was Charlie's 1st fireworks show (and 2nd Rockies game). Granddaddy got us some great seats only a few rows back from the field! Wow!

And finally- on July 5th, Charlie's actual birthday, we invited all our friends to meet us at Crescent Park for one of the neighborhood free summer concerts. We had dessert in honor of Charlie and everyone pulled out their picnic blankets for a relaxing evening. It was a great weekend and thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate Charlie's big day.

Charlie's 1st haircut

We went to get Charlie's first haircut on July 1st- just in time for his first birthday and our family photos. He did so well. No crying or anything. And Ella was happy to help him eat his lollipop when it was all over.

Here is a picture of him BEFORE-

DURING-

AND AFTER-

Summertime!

WELCOME SUMMER! Summer is definitely my favorite time of year. We love Colorado, but I always tell Mark that if we have to move, it better be to a warm weather climate!

We have been enjoying the pool, summer concerts in the park, our new backyard and hanging out in the front yard with all our great neighbors. We love being outside and we especially love that the kids sleep so well after a long day at the pool.

One of our favorite things to do is BBQ and eat on the back patio. Here are a few pics from dinner earlier this week.

Charlie = 11 months!

Happy 11 months to Charlie!

Is it possible that time moves faster the closer your baby gets to 1 year? I feel like time went fast when Ella was a baby, but WOW it has REALLY flown by this time. (Do I say this in every post? I think I do!)

I honestly think I am enjoying motherhood even more with two kids. It's sweet watching them entertain each other and also a huge help to me! Charlie is so lucky to have a built in playmate! Even though it is hectic and stressful at times, I am also much more comfortable with my abilities and my instincts and, of course, WAY more laid back this time around. With Ella, I followed all the rules and waited until she was exactly one year before letting her try chocolate, peanut butter, berries, whole milk, etc. With Charlie its a whole different story. One of his favorite things to eat now is PB&J, we are already trying to transition him over to regular milk and I really don't restrict him from eating anything unless its a possible choking hazard.

Charlie is changing so fast that its hard to keep up. His first two teeth started poking through at about 10.5 months and I'm sure more will be following soon. He is still moving around a lot, crawling so fast that I think walking will actually be easier.... he pulls up to stand, walks along furniture, and uses a little walker to walk around the room. He hardly wants to be held anymore because there is so many things he wants to do! He also has dropped down to just two bottles a day, one in the morning when he wakes up and one when he wakes up from his afternoon nap.

So far no talking yet... he babbles baba, dada and uh uh and we think he is trying to say "Ella" and "uh oh" and "up" but nothing for sure yet. He is light years ahead of where he was a month ago before he had his surgery but still a little delayed in the speaking department.

Here's a couple teeth shots... if you look really close you can see his bottom two chompers coming in....

Ella's last day of school

We really enjoyed having Ella in "school" two days a week this past year. Her teachers, Ms. Laura and Ms. Ashley, were awesome and we will really miss them next year. It's hard to believe how much Ella has learned at school this year. She started off the year spelling her name "E-L-A" and now not only does she spell it correctly, but she can write it too! Ella knows all her letters and shapes and is learning her numbers. She has started to decipher between shades of colors (ie. light pink vs dark pink). She loves to sing songs, paint, play on the playground, and she talks about her friends from school all the time.

Here is a pic of Ella's first day this past fall... she has changed so much!

Charlie = 10 months!

Charlie turned 10 months last week on May 5th- cinco de mayo. Unfortunately we couldn't let him partake in the margaritas because he had surgery that day. :) After a couple rough days, Charlie recovered from his surgery and is back to our happy little guy. The doctor tells us that he may get a little worse before he gets better because of the scar tissue from the cut under his tongue, but for now all is going great.

Charlie has had a big month. He is crawling all over the place and can now make it up the stairs with no problem and is even learning how to scoot back down the backwards. He has also learned to "walk" with his walker toy and along furniture in the house.

Perhaps Charlie's biggest milestone this month was that he FINALLY started talking. A week to the day after his tongue surgery Charlie said "Dada". Since then he has been babbling more each day and adding lots more sounds to his repertoire. We are so glad we made the decision to have the surgery!

Tongue Tied No More!

Just got back from a VERY early morning surgery with Charlie and everything went great. We left for the surgery center at 5:45am (ugh) and were taken back for pre-op at around 7am. Charlie was a great sport considering that he hadn't eaten or drank anything since 6pm last night. He was flirting with the nurses and being such a ham until he finally dozed off at about 7:45am. Just in time... they came to take him back to the OR at 8am. It was a little emotional for Mom, but Charlie was a good sport. He went right to the doctor and they said he didn't even make a peep while they put him under. The procedure was FAST. They were out to get us 10 minutes later! Charlie's procedure was done and he was already waiting for us in recovery!

Charlie was pretty upset and disoriented when we went back to see him, but he calmed down as soon as we gave him a bottle. We were home by 9am! He is upstairs resting now but I will try to post some more pics later today.

Nashville Rock n Roll Half Marathon

Right on the heels of our trip to KC, jet-setter that I am, I headed back out of town to Nashville to run the Rock and Roll half marathon with my dear friend Tara and her husband. I had a blast and ran my best half marathon ever with a time of 2:03:42.

Side note- Tara is opening her own store TOMORROW in Florida. It's a cute little boutique on the beach called Teely's. You can check it out by clicking here. (Please "like" their facebook page!)

Easter 2011

Mark had business in Kansas City the week of Easter, so we grabbed the opportunity to join him on the trip and spend time with our family and friends.

Ella & Gigi made a beautiful Easter lamb cake together

And we also dyed Easter eggs! What fun!

We received wonderful Easter baskets left by the bunny himself.

The we headed over to my parents country club for a Easter egg hunt complete with petting zoo and an odd looking Easter bunny.

Ella kept saying that he didn't look like "her" bunny and she refused to sit on his lap. I don't blame her.

We had a blast at the hunt and Ella went home with lots of loot! She generously shared her eggs with Charlie.

And we hit up the club one more time in the morning before we left town for a delicious Easter brunch. We all ate too much except for Charlie, who slept through the whole thing. :)