They Had The Right Stuff!!

Last night Me, Elizabeth, Heather, Shannon and Maria went to the New Kids on the Block concert!! While a few of our fellow fab fans were not with us....you were all in our thoughts!
I have to say, I was excited all day about the concert. But was apprehensive too. I kept thinking, "What if this show isn't any good?" and "What if they sing our favorite songs and they're just not how I remember them?"

All for naught! NKOTB is back! As the lights dimmed and the music started, the screen above the stage was flashing N....K...O...T....B, I leaned over to Elizabeth and said...."This isn't happening." She laughed and said, "I know! I feel like I'm ten years old!" It's hard to explain how surreal the whole experience was. As they finally made their way on stage it was crazy.....I couldn't help but think back 16 or 17 years ago when I was on the lawn at Fiddler's Green (no sponsor's name) losing my mind, and my voice, over these same five boys. Men now. And very good looking men at that!

One of my favorite parts was when Donnie was just passing time with the crowd while the guys did a quick change in the back, and he was walking up the stairs just kind of babbling about whatever and the all of a sudden says, "No more games is about positivity...." and the crowd went wild!" It was awesome...I hadn't even thought about them singing that song...but they did and it was awesome!
However, I thought the best song of the night was Step By Step. It was one of their encore songs and it really really took me back. They did the same dance, and Jordan even mimicked playing the fiddle. Again...awesome!

It was also really fun to see these guys now that we are all older. They really were a bunch of goof balls. Joey especially. They just seemed to be having so much fun up there. Except Jon....who was almost painful to watch sometimes.

Not only did the boys from Boston deliver on their oldies, but we all were pretty impressed with their new music. I will be purchasing the album this weekend! And so it begins alllll over again!
I was never really a fan of their first number one hit I'll Be Lovin' You Forever, but last night, as Jordan belted out the ballad, I thought that the title of the song could be no truer than last night--all of those screaming 30+ year old women (and a few of their husbands) still "Lovin" Donnie, Danny, Jonathan, Jordan, and Joe!

Here's to Hangin' Tough for 20 more years!

Okay, on to other news.
Ella can sit up by herself now!

And she also has two teeth on the bottom. I forgot to put that in my last post. She got them a few weeks ago. She's been doing really well. There was few times last weekend where she was pretty upset, but it's always hard to tell whether their gums hurt or whether they are just having a bad day. But she really likes to chew on her baby spoon so I give her that if she seems kind of fussy for no reason. Other than that though, she's a trooper.

She also had her 6 month check up last week. She is 17.8 lbs, and 27 in. long. The doc thought at first that we would need to be moving Ella into the next size car seat because most car seats for infants only hold them until they are 29in. But actually when she read the side of our seat it goes up to 32in!. So I can hold off a bit longer on buying the new seat. We must have had subconcious inklings that our child would be long.

She also had to get 4 shots. Ugh! I hate that. But again, she was a trooper. She cried for all the sticks but was calming down by the time the nurse was putting on the band-aids, and by the time I picked her up, she had found her thumb and was happy again.

Here's some more pics of her.

This is Jenn and Francis' tea leaf plant that they left with me when they moved to Hawaii. I just wanted to post a pic of it for them to see. I thought for sure I would kill it, but I'm pretty proud of myself. It's really doing well! I'm going to put it up on a table in this room so that all of it can get the sunlight that it seems to love.

And these last few picks are of Koa and Venessa's and Bar-El's dog To-Ku(sp?) The name is pronounced "toe-coo". Anyway, this huge mammoth of a dog is still a puppy. If I remember correctly she is about six months old now. She's way bigger than Koa! But they love to play together so that's really nice.

That's it for now. I'll hopefully have some time this weekend to get those pics of our other mountain climb this past summer.

So Much Time and So Little To Tell...

Strike That...Reverse It.

Once again, time has gotten away from me. I suppose if I didn't go to bed the same time that Ella does, then I would be able to keep up with the blog a little bit more, but really, when it comes to sleep....I try to get all I can!

So since we last "visited", Ella had a new friend! Connor is doing well. Still the tiniest thing ever...compared to Ella!

Ella is now eating rice cereal everyday at the babysitter's house, and on the weekends I try to add in some bananas or pears. It's a whole learning experience for both of us, so sometimes I get frustrated, but for the most part she's too dang cute to stay mad at! She really likes to just play with the spoon, so I've taken to using two spoons-- she can play with one and when she opens her mouth to chew on that one, I stick the one with food on it in her mouth! It's a whole ordeal. It's kinda crazy.

Look Mom, I can do it myself!



Muuuuaahhh!

What? That stuff was supposed to go IN my mouth??

Ella has also started to get up on all fours and rock back and forth. She gets around pretty well by army crawling, but soon enough she will be all over the real thing.


By the way...I turned six months old when these pictures of me were taken! And the next day Barack Obama will be elected President of the United States of America!!




Halloween was lots of fun this year. We actually got trick-or-treaters so that was cool. A few weeks before Halloween we visited Nick's Farmer's Market to pick out pumpkins. And the next weekend we took Blake and Ella to Heritage Square and rode some rides and painted some pumpkins.
On Halloween night my parents and Heather, Andrew, Connor, Shannon, and Elizabeth came over for a night of Scrabble and and tag teaming the trick-or treaters! (One person had to hold Koa back and the other had to hand out the candy!)


Me, Blake, and Peter at Nick's

Big punkins....



Lil' punkins.

This guy was handing out hot cider.....Even though he was a stutue Blake opted to stay out of this photo!
Getting ready to show off the cosutmes at Heritage Square

Painting pumpkins
I'm a corn husk people....not a caterpillar!

Mr. Connor was a police officer....
he must have had a long shift!

It's been a long month! So much has and is happening, I'm sure I have forgotten to update you on everything. And with Thanksgiving and Christmas right around the corner, it only looks to get even more hectic! This year my goal is to actually send Christmas cards. I should probably start on that now!

Hope everyone is doing well. I will try to be in touch more often.

A New Friend!

On October 10th Connor James was born. Here's a few photos.
I'll let the proud new parents give all the details.

So sweet! E.J & C. J.

Our New Hobby

A few weeks before I returned to work from maternity leave Peter and I decided we would like to start climbing fourteeners. So we did.

Grays Peak - Elevation 14,270 feet

Grays peak is to the left. Torreys Peak is to the right. It is common for most climbers to do a combination climb and do both peaks in one day. Being our first 14'er there was no way I was attempting to do both! But we will certainly go back and tackle Torreys someday.

This is a close-up of Torreys

A close-up of the saddleback between the two peaks

Water break!

Pup and the proud dog mom

Colorado Columbine


Getting closer... The peak is not the one in this picture. You actual follow a switchback and start a particulary steep incline to the top of Grays.

We're at the top! This is a view down the backside of the mountain. You really realize how small and perhaps insignificant we tiny little humans are!

Grays is one of the most popular fourteeners to climb. Can you tell! This is the top. And this is not showing any of the people behind me.

A view of Torreys from the top of Grays

All three of us- Elevation 14,270 feet!!!!

We climbed Mt. Sherman in August. I will post those pics tomorrow night.

We're Online!!!

Can you hardly believe it!? Okay, it took us an extra long time to get the internet, but it has finally happened! So we're back.
I know all of you are dying for photos of Ella so that's pretty much all I will post right now.
But I do have tons to update you on so I'll try to get some more pics posted throughout the week.
Since June (which was my last post), we have moved, we have climbed two 14'ers, Peter has started a new job, and we have grown quite a big baby! Needless to say it has been crazy busy. But we are all hanging in there and doing well.
Ella's last appointment was last Friday. It was her four month appointment. She weighs 16lbs! She is in the 90th percentile for height (26in) and weight. Doc says she looks great and is really strong for her age. She has been rolling over for about two months so she is really good at holding up her head. She is very inquisitive and watches everyone that comes and goes. Including the dog. She loves Koa! She makes her giggle. It's so cute.
She has also taken to sucking her thumb which is pretty much the cutest thing I have ever seen. It actually works out quite handy at night when she needs to self-sooth....then I don't have to get up! She won't even take a pacifier anymore.
For the most part she is a pretty easy going baby. I think she gets tummy issues every now and again and that can make her pretty fussy, but otherwise she's wonderful!
On September 15th Peter started his new job at MMS. Don't ask me what it stands for...I always forget. It's something about minerals. Basically he is doing the same thing he did for the state government (auditing oil and gas companies) , but now he is working for the federal government. It's a little bit further away from home, but he can pick his own schedule and he gets every other Friday off, so that's nice.....for him.
Our new house is wonderful! The closing process was just that...a process. A few days before we were supposed to close we found out that they would be unable to transfer the title to us due to the fact that a percentage of the home was in a trust and the owner did not have a personal representative deed for that portion. We were being told that it would have to go through probate and that that would take a month.
I found all of this out the week Peter happened to be out of town on business. So I was alone with the dog and baby trying to figure out what the heck to do about the house. Meanwhile my parents had already given their landlord notice, so someone was gonna end up homeless! Or at least that's how I felt.
In the end, closing ended up getting delayed a little over two weeks. Peter and I drew up an agreement with the owner that we could move in early. So we moved in a week later than we had anticipated. The only downside to that was that it was last minute and we were unable to find movers. So we recruited our friends with trucks and muscles to come and help. It was a rough weekend, but we got it all done!
Since then we have settled in pretty quickly. There are a few lingering boxes (mine) that need to be unpacked, but that's about it. We have to furnish a dining room and a living room that we didn't have before so we are having to prioritize and decide what are necessities and what can wait.
Before we had made the decision to move, Peter had worried that we wouldn't be able to make a new house feel like home, the way our townhouse did. But we both agree that it really didn't take long at all for us to feel at home. We are really comfortable with our decision and feel like this place was meant to be ours. Here's to many exciting years in our new home!
Okay, here are pics that everyone has been waiting for.
Peter, Koa, and I climbed two 14'ers as well but I will post pics of those climbs later this week.

GO BRONCOS!!

Could you get this dog away from me??

What?

I'm four months old!

The first time I rolled over!
Ain't she cute!

I don't think Koa could possibly get any closer. Of course, now where am I supposed to sleep??

I snuck her in this chair at Babies R Us and took a pic!

Help! She pinned me!

Taylor asked Francis if she could have a baby.

Maddie was very good with Ella Bella.

Told ya she's cute.

This was back at the end of June....look how tiny! Auntie Heather will have one of these soon!

Okay, we already covered that I'm cute. Are we done now?