Pots and Pans

Here's Zoe's new favorite game.

Visiting Alabama

After much trouble in DFW airport we finally made it to my parent's house in Alabama. We were supposed to fly out to Birmingham at 5:45 pm, but the flight was cancelled due to weather. Fortunately, my friends Tina and Sandy were able to come out to visit us and pass the time. We got onto the next flight, which was supposed to leave at 8:30. However, it was delayed an hour, so we didn't actually get to my parent's house until 1am. Poor Zoe had enough at that point. She was so sweet and wonderful in the terminal and fell asleep on the plane. But, she was too tired on the drive to the house and cried on and off the whole hour. What a mess! At least all our luggage made it. :)

Aislin and Zoe at the airport

While we're in Alabama we've celebrated Christmas early. My sister Natalie and her family have been here, so Zoe's enjoyed playing with 2 of her cousins. If you asked her what her favorite part of Christmas is she'd say the paper.

That's my sister Natalie and her daughter Charlie in the background.

We've also been able to visit my grandparents in North Alabama and a couple of my aunts and uncles. It's been a good visit so far, except Zoe has decided that she doesn't want to sleep through the night. Hopefully she'll start up again when we get home.

Zoe with my grandparents: Gigi and Granddaddy

What a night!

We had a scare around 10 last night. Zoe was in bed, we were playing with pictures on the computer, when all of the sudden our carbon monoxide detector in the basement started beeping. Matt tried to reset it, but it kept going off. So, we woke Zoe up and carried her across the street to the only people we know in the neighborhood. Fortunately they were still awake. We called the gas company and 1 1/2 hours later they showed up to look at the house. Nothing was leaking. Apparently we have a faulty detector. So, poor Zoe had her sleep messed up and woke up three times in the night after we got home. Needless to say, we were all tired this morning. On the bright side, we got to know our neighbors better. They're a very sweet couple with 2 little boys. Thanks John and Leslie for taking us in!

9 months old!

It's hard to believe that our baby is 9 months old. She had her doctor's appointment yesterday morning and checked out fine. She's 19 pounds and 29 inches long. She's in the 90th percentile for her height! Long and lean. I think she talked through the entire check-up, which makes it hard to ask my questions and get any information. :) She did better with her shots, too. I was able to get her to calm down a lot more quickly than normal, which means we weren't walking through the waiting room with a screaming child scaring all the other children waiting.

She's discovering a love for books. Yesterday she pulled all of her books off the shelf to look at them. I think she was occupied for a good 20 minutes. She loves sitting in our laps and looking at books. Her favorite right now is the Touch and Feel Puppy book. She drags it around with her. Puppy stuffed animals are her favorite right now too. They've see the entire house by being pushed around on the floor and carried on adventures. :)

Zoe loves her Daddy. She follows him around the house in the mornings and is making it quite hard for him to leave for work. When he comes home she practically jumps out of my arms to get to him. We have a picutre of the two of them together as the background on the computer. Whenever she sees it she gets really excited and waves at him and says "Daddy" over and over again. So sweet!

One year later...

Welcome to Utah!

It's hard to believe that we've been living in Utah for a year now. We went to the holiday party at church tonight, which is what we did exactly one year ago when we arrived here. We checked in to the hotel and went to the party with a bunch of people we didn't know and had a really good time. Now, a year later, we know their names, more about them and are glad to call them family.



This past year we've moved to a new state for a new job, bought a house, had a baby and found a new congregation to worship with. It has been stressful to say the least, and fulfilling as well. We're grateful for all that God has blessed us with. I wonder what excitement this next year holds for us. :)

Icy roads in Abilene, TX

Church Rock, southern Utah

It was a snowy, stormy evening when we left Fort Worth and we woke up to a snowy morning today. It snowed for several hours and we ended up with about 5 inches when it finally stopped. Matt took Zoe out in it for a few minutes before he shoveled the driveway. She still doesn't know what to think about it.

Aren't they sweet together? We left her with one of the teens from church tonight. I wish I had a video of her reaction when we came home. She was waving hysterically and giggling. It's so wonderful to be loved so much!

A happy Thanksgiving

We're home again! We made it back on Saturday night. It had snowed in Colorado, but apparently not much fell in Utah. Today however we got a couple of inches that actually stuck. It feels more like Christmas time with the snow and all the lights. The neighborhood looks pretty....at least most of it. :)

Our car buried in snow in Colorado.

The icicle that reached the ground!

We had 12 people (13 counting Zoe) for Thanksgiving. Way too much good food and lots of fun. Matt brought his Wii system so we enjoyed playing some video games together.

Matt's family has two yorkies. Zoar, the oldest, is fascintated with Zoe. She decided one night to observe Zoe's bath. I thought she just might jump in, but she didn't. Zoe loved the dogs. She even said "doggie". Honest, she did. Everytime they would bark she would giggle. I wish I had it on video.

Let's see...Zoe has 4 teeth now (2 on top and 2 on bottom), ,is pulling up to standing like a pro and sometimes even lets go for a few seconds, and is into everything. She figured out how to open cabinet doors and drawers at Nana and Papa's house. We put up the Christmas tree this week and had to pull her away from it tonight. I hope it isn't too hard of a battle over the next few weeks. I'm sure she'll want to get into presents as we add them.

Zoe and I are flying out to Alabama in a week and a half to visit my parents. Look out Memaw and Poppy!

Click here to see the rest of our pictures from Thanksgiving.

An overdue update

Well, we're in Colorado for the week. It's always harder to keep everyone update when we're away from the house. And of course, we left the cord to download the pictures in Utah, so pictures will follow when we get home next week. Zoe did well on our drive out. What would take people without children 8 hours took us 10. We were able to stop every couple of hours to take a break, which made all the difference. If you ever think about driving through Wyoming, don't. It's the most desolate place I've been.

We're at Matt's parent's house, and as always we're surrounded by lots of people. Zoe's done well considering her world it mostly just me and Matt. It's taken her a little while to get warmed up to people, but if you'll read her a story she'll be happy. We went up to Estes Park on Monday to walk around and do some shopping. There's this really cool stuffed animal shop that looks like Noah's ark. We got Zoe a few stuffed animals that she's truly enjoying playing with (as are her Aunt's and Uncles). :)

We got several inches of snow last night. It was only 28 degrees today. Brrrrrrr! Zoe went out with Papa to get the newspaper and stuck her hand in the snow. I think we'll take her out in it tomorrow afternoon to get a longer experience.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Lot's of people and food! Hope everyone has a great holiday!

New Skills

Zoe has developed a few new talents. She's able to pull herself up to standing and is even creeping a little around furniture. The child is fearless. Sometimes she lets go and lunges towards us. She's fallen a few times, but it doesn't seem to stop her. She's even figured out how to get herself down. What talent!

And then there's this:

She's so funny!

Story Time

We didn't make it to story time today sadly. Zoe's got a cold, so she's been super clingy and grumpy. I didn't think she'd enjoy herself, nor would I, so we skipped it. My friend Anna sent me some pictures of last week's outing, so I'll share those. It was Halloween, so some of the kids dressed up. I liked this story time, though it's the only one I've been to so I have nothing to compare it to. The girl read a few books and they listened to some music and at the end, before the art project, she had the kids lie down on the rug while she played a slow song and blew bubbles on then. Zoe really liked that. At the end we drew pictures on construction paper with chalk. Maybe we can make it next week.

The Living Planet

For today's adventure I took Zoe to the Living Planet aquarium with my friend Anna and her two boys. Matt's out of town on a business trip for the week, so I've been looking for ways to get out of the house and have adult contact. We had fun looking at all the fish once we got there. Zoe however screamed for the entire 45 minute drive down. At least she slept most of the way home. They have a neat section where you can touch different animals. Zoe wasn't that adventurous, so she stuck with the dead sea star. I touched a sea urchin and sea cucumber and a live sea star. I wasn't quite brave enough to touch the horseshoe crab. :)

Zoe with the sea star

Anna, Titus and Justus touching sea life

Anna and Titus with the sting rays

If you want to see the rest of the photos from our trip click on the Family Photos link.

Our next adventure: Story Time

Fun in parenting

OK, so what's the fun of being a parent if you can't enjoy introducing new things to your children. Zoe has taken to ice water. She loves to drink it from Mommy's cup, and coincidentally has learned how to drink out of her own sippy cup now. This week we've had a few new flavors added to the mix: Lemon and caramel apples. No, I did not let her eat the caramel. I was eating an apple and she decided she wanted some. So, she scooted herself over to me and sat in front of me and let me know she wanted some. I let her lick my apple, which she loved. She couldn't get a bite with the 3 teeth she has, but it won't be long. The lemon was given to her to play with at the restaurant on Sunday. She only took one lick of that and then threw it on the floor.

Happy Halloween!

As you can see, Zoe had fun for her first Halloween. We didn't go trick-or-treating this year, but probably will next year. The neighborhood gets together in our common area and creates a sort of candy parade for the kids. They even had hot chocolate set up if you got cold. We were late this year because our baby duck took a late nap, so we have tons of candy left over. We only had one group of kids come to the house that we know of. We were gone to Bible class until 8:30, so they might have stopped by.

The night before we started a new family tradition of carving the pumpkin. This year Matt cleaned out the guts and I got to do the design. Zoe of course wanted to be in on the action. She pulled herself up to standing so she could get a better look. She still isn't crawling in the normal fashion, only pulling herself by her arms. She's moved on to pulling herself up and taking tiny steps around things.

More adventures to come! Hope you all had a great Halloween!

Getting started

Well, I've decided to do a blog instead of sending out mass emails to my friends. This way I can update our lives daily, weekly, whenever, and no one has to read it unless they want to. Most of the contents will probably address our lovely daughter and the new cute things she can do. So, check back for more pictures and stories.