Noah's 1st Birthday Party

Noah had a fun little First Birthday party with our families at my parent's house a couple weekends ago. We had puppy cupcakes, and lots of snacky things including chocolate popcorn, fruit kebabs, crescent wrapped mini dogs, bacon wrapped chicken, mini caramel apples, and mozzarella dip. Noah wasn't too into the gifts, but his brothers and cousins were more than happy to help! (Don't mind the fact that most of these photos are of Noah eating... it's kind of one of his favorite things.)

Noah is One!

Can't believe our baby is ONE! Really. It does fly by just so quickly. It feels like just yesterday that we arrived back in Colorado and were preparing for Noah's arrival. Noah has been a wonderful addition to our family. He's silly, sweet, spunky, and 100% lovable. Noah is sporting 8 teeth these days, took his very first steps a couple weeks ago (crazy considering big brothers didn't walk until 16 and 17 months old.) His favorite thing to say right now is "woof," which is usually how he greets us too. :) He loves his blanket, Duplos, blocks, puzzles (mostly throwing the pieces around,) and getting into almost everything! We love our sweet "Nomah" and he LOVES his big brothers!

For Noah's birthday evening we had Buffalo Wild Wings (YES!) and brownies. His big brothers gifted him with an old school popper- which he loves, and we thought it only appropriate to give him a stuffed doggy (which sadly hasn't been as big of a hit.) In a couple weeks we will have a First Birthday celebration with our families in Denver- post to come!

Noah's First BIRTH-day!

Christian is Five

So much to say about our firstborn boy! I can't believe he is already 5! It's amazing to think how fast the time has flown, but also such a sweet reminder that these years do pass quickly and that we need to treasure the small moments with our little ones! Christian is a kind-hearted, giving, affectionate, and lovable boy. He loves to play outside, set traps, pretend to fish and make "houses," dig in the dirt, and find earthworms. He also loves collections of things, and you will find cars lined up in his room, LEGO creations scattered about, as well as bits of paper, glued collages, and lots of "treasures" in his closet. He is still our little artiste and loves to draw pictures of his family and monsters, write letters, cut, glue, etc. Christian loves to explore, create, and hang out with Daddy! He is especially sweet to his younger brothers, giving lots of hugs, kisses, and attention to the littlest R baby. He started karate with Steve over a month ago, and is loving it! He is also attending Pre-K (yes, another year- he missed the cutoff for kindergarten by 2 days) on Tuesdays and Thursdays...he seems to enjoy it more this year. With another move this December and more changes to come, we look forward to seeing how Christian changes and grows this upcoming year! We love you Buddy!

At his well-check up in August Christian weighed 43.5 pounds putting him in the 71st percentile for weight, and was 43 inches tall, putting him in the 55th percentile for height.

"First Day of Pre-K!" He preferred his sign over mine. ;)

Nana came up on Christian's birthday to celebrate this big 5 year old!

Summertime Part 2

It's so crazy to think that Summer has come and gone. We had the best summer. Steve worked a little on his thesis, but mostly we had a lot of freedom to come and go and enjoy Colorado, Fort Collins, and family! We made a point to be intentional this Summer, so I created a Summer Bucket List so that we wouldn't forget to do things that we meant to do last Summer. Steve was really good about making sure to get stuff checked off the list, although there were still a few things we missed that will go on our Fall Bucket List and next Summer's. So what the remaining of our Summer looked like was a lot of fishing (for Steve and Christian,) an additional camping adventure with Lucas added to the mix, evening walks, playing at the park, several visits to Highlands Ranch and Castle Rock, a Rockie's Game, a trip to Vail with Steve's family, farmer's markets and festivals, hiking at Horsetooth Falls, a trip with my family to Glenwood Springs, a day trip to Estes Park, ice cream (both homemade and from TCBY and Dairy Queen,) and lots of barbecuing! Basically a blissful Summer!

Summertime Part 1