The First Snow

I know my last post was about the kids playing amoungst the leaves in the beautiful fall weather ... but just a few short days later Colorado received its First Snow! The kids were extactic. They couldn't put their snow gear on more quickly. They spent the afternoon playing together, throwing snowballs, making snowmen, trying to build a fort and making snow angels. I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised that they spent over an hour outside! After all, it does take about 20 minutes getting them ready for it.

Here's Catherine all bundled up for "winter" fun:
Jonathan ran outside to start building his snow fort


Abby was adorable- as always. She stood at the door "yelling" at them the entire time. I think she wanted to go outside too... but that will come in time. :-)

Now, all of our leaves are on the ground- we are just waiting for them to dry off a bit so that we can rake them up and jump in the HUGE piles they will make!

Leaves falling off the trees means...

... fun in the leaves! There have been a minascule amount of leaves falling from our trees the past few days and the kids have been dying to rake them up and play in them. So, the other day I got out the rake, dusted it off from last year and spent all of about 4 minutes raking up the tiny amount of leaves that had drifted to the grass. It was a small pile of leaves, to say the least, but the kids played with them for about an hour. It was cute!

Zoo!

Gosh, it's been awhile since I've posted anything... not sure I have a good excuse for that. :-)

Fall has been absolutely beautiful here (except that it snowed yesterday- more on that at a later post). So, one fine afternoon we decided to take the kiddos to the zoo. It had been awhile since I'd gone and even longer since Chris had. It was great to go as a family! All of the animals seemed to be out and active- which made the trip even more exciting!

(In the recent past, Chris has taken notice that there aren't too many pictures with me in them- so he really worked hard at taking some with me in them.)

One of our first stops was to see the Stilt Leg Foxes... but to no avail, they were no where to be seen. But, we had fun searching. Abby enjoyed just hanging out in the Ergo pack for the trip.

The leopard was out and pacing around quite a bit. We hadn't seen him before. We all had fun watching him for quite some time.

The giraffes were inside. It was great seeing them all up close and personal!

The sea lions were also actively swimming:

I found out this trip, that Chris's favorite animal at the zoo is the sea lion

We also took a peek at the snakes:

Although, we didn't get a pic of the anaconda he was pretty impressive. I had never seen one before... he was 35 feet long!

The sea turtle is always fun, but I do feel bad for him as he is in such a small, confined space.

Our last stop, right before it started down pouring was at the polar bear exhibit, though I think he was sleeping if I remember correctly:

The kids are watching me right now post all these pictures and they are asking when we can go back to the zoo... we really did have a great time!

Camping!

Chris decided this past weekend to take Jonathan and Catherine camping for a night. (It was Catherine's first time.) Looking at the pictures and hearing the kids tell stories of their adventures it seems as if everyone had a grand time! They roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for a couple of hours- though, the kids didn't actually like eating the marshmallows or smores... whose kids are they anyway?? It was also humorous to hear that they wanted to be sleeping in the tent by 7:30- because they were so excited to sleep in a tent! Originally, they wanted to go to sleep at 6:30, but Chris talked them into staying up later! So, poor Chris had to go to bed too at 7:30. If it wasn't for the fact that the blow-up mattress had a hole in it, he would have gotten a very long and good night's sleep. ha ha

Then, the next morning they went fishing. No fish were caught, but a good time was had.

Catherine's First Day

Catherine is also starting "school." We enrolled her in a Parent's Day Out Program at the same preschool Jonathan is attending. She's going on Mondays and Fridays at the same time as Jonathan. (So, yes, I will only have one little kiddo for 2 1/2 hours twice a week!! YEAH!)

I'm impressed, thus far, as that there is a great little cirricuulum for the year. It seems as if some of the things she will be learning about are: God's love, creation, kindness, forgiveness and prayer. I'm also looking forward to her getting out to meet other kiddos and getting some interaction with another "superior," other than me during the day. :-)

This is her first day:She was more than excited! And, she wanted to stand in the exact spot Jonathan did for his picture.

Since, the first day of Jonathan's school was rainy I didn't get an in front of the school shot; so, I did on Catherine's. I tried to get a decent one, but...

She's crawling!

At 7:30 on Wednesday evening, Abby crawled for the first time! YEAH!

How could I not post these?

I know I'm partial... but Abby is just the cutest, happiest little girl!