We are so, so blessed to live in the land of the Rocky Mountains. Some of our dear friends from Los Alamos own a condo in Frisco and almost every year we’ve lived in CO we’ve been able to go up there for a little family getaway. This year we decided to go Halloween weekend and it was amazing. Our wonderful friends the Stroups went with us and we had SO much fun I never wanted it to end.

The condo is situated beautifully right by a river at the foot of a mountain and surrounded by woods. I bundled up multiple times to have coffee on the back porch taking in the view, and we taught Geneva how to play “pooh sticks” in the river, which was a tradition for my mom and me while I was growing up. <3 We also went exploring through the woods and had a pretty epic snowball fight.

It was my favorite CO weather – sunny and cold, which meant making a roaring fire every day. We introduced Geneva to the art of roasting marshmellows and the sugar rush of s’mores. She’s a fan.

Geneva was also introduced to Nutella on this trip. Also a fan!

There was just enough snow, and we managed to find a hill with enough snow to sled on! Geneva and Matthew weren’t the only ones who had a blast!

There was enough in the yard of the condo on the last day to make a snowman – a snowman who, by Geneva’s insistence, needed two heads. Silly girl.

It was a perfect trip (minus having a 3 day migraine) and I’m already craving our next one.

I am in no way a fan of Halloween, but when Geneva’s ballet class was having a costume day and party after class at the end of October I let her pick out one of her many dress up outfits and participate. She chose to be Snow White, and a lovely little princess she was indeed.

Before class, she gathered all her animals to her in the “forest” and sang them a song. I love this imagination stage!!!

All the parents were instructed to bring goodies to share for the party. I thought this meant baked goods to eat there, so Geneva and I had some girl time in the kitchen making little brownie cupcakes with sparkle frosting, but when it came time to eat all the other mothers had brought little bags full of halloween candy! So ironically even though we didn’t go trick or treating Geneva still managed to get a huge stash of candy this year. She wasn’t complaining!

Geneva’s beginner dance class with teacher Miss Christy:

Clara’s second month of life was pretty much awful. By the first month we had a good handle on her routine, personality, etc. and then she got her shots. Clara has been sick more of her life than not, nothing too major, but so sad for her. She was just getting over a cold when I took her in for her 2 month appt and to get her first shots (we had put them off until then). From that day for TWO WEEKS she was a different child. Upset, severe cold, would eat NO MORE than 2oz a feeding (she was eating 3-4oz per feeding before). No matter how hungry she was, even if it had been 4.5 hours since she’d eaten last she would still refuse to eat more than 2oz. This was awful because she wasn’t full enough to sleep well, so her three hour rotation schedule was shortened to 2 hours because she was hungry wouldn’t take long naps. AWFUL.  I am not looking for a blog argument about vaccinations, but I welcome your thoughts on if you think it is possible that the shots really could have caused such an extended change of behavior. I am seriously crying to God for wisdom on whether or not to keep immunizing Clara. I am still unsure if the shots are to blame for this 2 week change of behavior (she’s back to normal now), but I really can’t pinpoint anything else. sigh.

In other two month news, she still loves the swing and would rather be held than be on her own. She really recognizes Michael and Geneva and me and smiles when she sees us. Precious! She started holding her head up much better although she’s still not a fan of tummy time.

She began smiling, although until recently we hadn’t been able to capture a good smile on camera. She would be smiling at you and then as soon as the camera would come out…instant brow furrow, like this:

haha. But even though I can’t prove how much she smiled at two months, here’s a sweet shot to leave you with:

This pretty much summed up their relationship during Clara’s second month of life. haha.

Here are pictures from our annual fall trek up to Anderson Farms, our favorite fall festival and corn maze in the state. Every year they have the most amazing non-haunted corn mazes you’ve ever seen – this year there were three mazes, an eagle catching a fish, and a moose and a grizzly bear in a mountain forest. Amazing! We were joined this year by our friends Angela, Craig, Ashley, Josh, and Crystal and had a great time especially in our girls vs. guys race through the maze (in which we each claim our team to be the winner and the other deserving of disqualification ) Geneva had a grand time getting her face painted, riding the rides, picking out our pumpkin, and petting/feeding the animals. We look forward to next year!

Geneva, Clara and I have all been fighting very bad colds these last two weeks. As Geneva said yesterday “all of Daddy’s girls are sick!” cute. It’s been overcast and raining here as well, which adds to the justification of making soup and spending a morning watching Hello, Dolly! Yes, there have been lots of pajama days going on around here, but they aren’t so bad when you’re sharing the couch with these two:

The turning of the aspen trees is one of our favorite things about living in this part of the world, and for better or worse (and believe me we had some of both this year), making the trek to see them each year is a favorite family tradition. We packed a picnic, but it was cold so we ended up eating inside the car on the side of the road. I should also add that this marks the occasion of Geneva’s first official Starbucks drink (a steamer). She was so proud. I’m very glad Michael convinced me to give the drive up the mountains a second try (after being too early 2 weeks ago). The aspens were wonderful and -praise God- we really did get some great family pictures. And after all, it’s tradition!!

yeah…she’s thrilled!

It was wonderful to have my Dad and Mary here this week. Clara was 6 weeks during their visit, and 3 years ago they had their first meeting with Geneva when she was 7 weeks. Its fun to get those same pictures 3 years apart.

Mary and Geneva in 2007

Mary and Clara in 2010

Opa and his girls 2007

Opa and his girls 2010

Dad and Mary also took a mini vacation while there were here and had some really great experiences that we are looking forward to checking out sometime:

They stayed at a cute Bed & Breakfast in an old Victorian home

went to multiple local dinosaur museums

checked out an amazingly well preserved fossil site, here is Dad with some fossilized tree stumps

and checked out the local geology at the Royal Gorge

We enjoyed having them with us and are looking forward to Christmastime when they come back!

Next time you come to the Springs to visit us, we will probably take you to Serenity Springs Wildlife Center. It’s pretty much the coolest place we’ve visited since we’ve lived here. Forty minutes to the east of Colorado Springs, Serenity Springs is a sort of retirement home and rescue center for ‘non-domestic felines’ and is home to over 120 exotic large cats. For $10 you can tour their property and meet about 40 of the residents almost face to face. Seriously, you’re only 2-3 feet away from these amazing animals and it is just incredible to learn each cat’s story and to see the cats interact with the staff. We took my dad and his wife Mary there on their trip last weekend to see us and meet Clara and we all had a great time.

The coolest part was a rare opportunity that Geneva had to get to pet, hold and get her picture taken with a 6 week old baby tiger!! Unfortunately the only picture we have of that is not digital, so you will have to wait to see it until we get a scanner. It was a pretty incredible experience for her for sure – the tiger was crying and crying and clawing and crawling everywhere and Geneva was so brave!!

Here are some other highlights of our trip to Serenity Springs:

We dedicated our Clara to the Lord at our church last Sunday.

It was a very special time, and we were so grateful that my dad and Mary could be here to join with us. Our pastor exhorted us that it was much more than dedicating our baby to our God, but truly a time to dedicate our family and parenting to Him and to ask this body of believers to join with us in raising our children in love and truth and righteousness and godly wisdom. We are so thankful to be under such godly authority, and so thankful to be part of a body of believers who welcome godly accountability and who have a passion to see all of our children come to know Jesus the Messiah and grow in Him.

Geneva started taking ballet lessons this week!!

It’s through a local Christian dance studio and we’ve been really pleased with them so far. There are many places for a 3.5 year old to take ballet, one even within walking distance from our house, but we were shocked at how varied the approaches could be! Ballet is an extremely disciplined art, so I guess that explains why it is normal to find 75 minute long classes for 3 year olds that give you demerits if you are ever out of dress code, or if your hair is not properly secured in a bun with a ‘bun kit.’ But for an introduction to dancing, I wanted to give my active child something a little more…fun? Jillian’s School of Dance offers that fun, and that’s why we’re there. Plus it is a very reasonable $8 a class, which makes the October-May commitment easier to handle.

Geneva did very well, especially for her first day. I was relieved, since we were coming into the class a few weeks behind. The instructor said that “based on how quickly she caught on, she shows lots of promise.” That’s always nice to hear. Way to go, Geneva! The studio has an ‘observation room’ with a one way window so we can watch the girls but they can’t see us. She’s one of the tallest three girls in the class of twelve, so she’s easy to spot. She’s already asked 4 times today when it was going to be Monday again so she could go to ballet. Who knows if she’ll keep it up long term, but it is a true delight to her heart right now. Can’t wait til her first recital!!

Getting to know this sweet girl has been really exciting.

She’s doing well and very healthy, in the 50th percentile for head, height, and weight for one month (Geneva was tall, large head, and average weight).  She is a sensitive baby, and if I had to guess I’m thinking she’ll be more of a home-body/less adventurous and more introverted than her sister. We’ll wait and see if that’s true…:)

If you’ve read The Secrets of the Baby Whisperer (my favorite baby book!!) Clara falls into the “touchy baby” category (well, maybe touchy mixed with some ‘textbook.’ As an aside, Geneva was an textbook/angel baby). I’ve been really thankful to have the wisdom in this book to help me understand Clara. She’s such a good baby, but I know without understanding her “way of being in the world” these first few weeks would have been much more difficult. From Baby Whisperer:

For an ultrasensitive baby like [Clara] the world is an endless array of sensory challenges. She blinks or turns her head away from bright light. She often gets fussy after a number of people have held her, or after outings. She’ll play on her own for a few minutes, but she needs reassurance that someone she knows well – mom or dad – is close by. She likes to suck a lot. At nap time and at night, [Clara] often has difficulty falling asleep. Touchy babies like her easily get off schedule, because their systems are so fragile. And extra long nap, a skipped meal, an unexpected visitor, a trip, a change in formula, any of these things can throw [Clara] for a loop. When you have a touchy baby, the quicker you learn her cues and cries, the simpler like is. These babies love structure and predictability – no hidden surprises, thank you. When she wakes up in the morning she needs immediate attention or shes starts crying. She smiles when prompted but sometimes starts to cry within minutes of smiling. She seems to often feel insecure in her own bed, (and would MUCH rather be held.) The comment that best describes [Clara] is that ‘she’s a delicate little thing.’

This pretty much sums it up. She gets overstimulated very easily, so yes, schedule is important to Clara. Falling asleep and staying asleep has been her biggest challenge, which is characteristic of a ‘touchy baby’ who, like the book says, “fusses a bit and seems to be drifting off, but then keeps waking up.” She really doesn’t cry that much, just when she’s tired, hungry, or overstimulated and esp. when she’s overtired (look out, buddy!) The hardest thing initially was that she doesn’t seem to give off “sleep cues” like most babies (rubbing eyes, turning head away from anything stimulating, yawning). She’ll just all of a sudden be overtired and start screaming like some wild cat. So we just have to watch the clock and know that if she’s been awake about an hour to an hour and a half, it’s time to preemptively strike and swaddle her up and start putting her to sleep. She is still waking up twice a night to eat, so she’s still in a bassinet in our room. Her best sleep is between 8pm and 1am (ironic that that’s just after Geneva goes to bed? haha).

Kidding aside, Geneva has adjusted amazingly well to Clara, much better than Michael or I thought possible. (Thank you to whoever prayed for that!) She loves to hold her and help us feed her or burp her and will run to give her a paci if she’s fussing. (Of course other times, she’ll just yell “MOM, you’re baby’s crying!” ha!) We also bought Geneva a changing table and accessories for her bitty baby dolls Cate and Rachel for her ‘big sister’ present from Clara, which she uses every day as she mimics me in everything I’m doing and saying to Clara. It’s really, really sweet. Geneva tells us every day “I love my baby sister.” As do we all, Geneva, as do we all. <3