Enjoying the Sunshine and the Lord's Creation

Just about everyday we play outside. The girls love to be outside and I love getting a good dose of vitamin D. They play really well together and they fight just like sisters do.

And everyday, several times a day, geese fly over head. They are very loud and the girls love to watch them. I have no idea how long they will be here, if they fly south when the winter gets heavy or if the climate here is easy enough for them. But it's a beautiful sound to hear them honk at one another. Speaking of sounds, it is SO quite here!!! I had no idea how loud the city was when we lived there... but now that we live here the outdoors are silent... the nosiest thing all day long are the geese (and probably my laughing/screaming/crying kids playing). It has taken me several weeks to get used to the quite and actually sleep well at night.

Then there is this guy... he got a brand new life when we moved here. Since about two years ago he was relegated to being strictly an outside dog. I couldn't handle to small children and a hyper active dog in 1000 sq ft of living space, so he got the boot to the back yard. But, since moving here in winter he had no time to develop a winter coat (not that he ever even has in Dallas). So, we decided to let him back into our lives and live inside. He is actually doing wonderfully! He's like a whole new dog... it's like he knows what might happen to him again and therefore acts in a completely different way then the dog I used to know. I am totally in love with him and love getting to know him all over again. The two issues we have are taking food from the girls and getting too hyper when guest come over... but I can handle those issues. :)

Ryland-Rue (or Ry-Toasty)

I can't believe she will be turning 4 in January! It seems like such a short time ago we were freaking out at the fact that we were having a baby and everything in our life was changing. I was quitting work, Kyle was stopping seminary to start working full-time and we were becoming a family of 3. Now, I can't imagine life without her.

She is such a sweet spirit. She is gentle, playful, loving, thoughtful, and imaginative all wrapped up in one. Although, don't let her fool you... she is very smart and very manipulative... she keeps me on my toes and always catches me when I slip-up or forget to hold her accountable. She is also moody, but most of the time she is just wrapped up in her imagination world that she forgets the rest of us aren't always playing.

She really has the sweetest disposition... several times a day she tells me she loves me, just because. She is always in tune to me and how I am feeling... which I never expected from my 3 year old. I can imagine her as a teacher, a counselor, a nurse (she has always said she wants to be a doctor), or some sort of caregiver because of how she is so in-tune to others.

She is also a rule-follower which makes her the quintessential big sister... something I'm sure we will work on for the rest of her childhood. ;)

I am totally in love with this little one!  

Brenley-Boo

Someone decided to not take a nap today. Not only did she not want to nap, she was extremely hyper. So... after two hours of trying to get her to sleep, I gave up and we went outside while Ryland napped peacefully. This little bugger is really the joke-ster of our house. She is constantly cracking jokes and making all of us laugh. She is strong-willed and tests every boundary, but then makes me laugh so hard that she usually gets off pretty easy. Kyle and I have so much fun talking about what she will be like when she gets older, there are so many wonderful qualities about her personality, I almost can't wait. 

She played outside for a good 45 minutes before I got out the camera and her favorite thing of all to play with... rocks. She collects them, makes them her babies or eggs and hides them everywhere.   

The cold/dry air of Colorado is drying all of us out, but her face is getting it the worst and putting any kind of cream on it makes her scream. :( So... we will just hope it heals before winters end I guess.   

She is saying "cheese" here in her LOUDest voice possible. This girl has only one volume, LOUD. All the time and with ever emotion, she is loud! 

Our dog just pooped across the yard and she proceeded to tell me how stinky it was. ;)

Saturday Morning.

Playing in the backyard in our PJs. :)

Day trip.

Today we decided to see a little more of the Western Slope. We traveled south about 45 minutes to the beautiful town of Ouray, CO. It really is picture perfect, nestled between two mountains and has the cutest storybook type houses. I'm sure this will become one of our many favorite day adventures, but today we just spent the morning walking around and then headed home for the girls naps. Here are some pictures of the day:

This scene is just about 10 minutes south of Montrose... I still can't believe I live this close to some of the most beautiful mountains in the country!

We stopped at Box Canyon Falls to get a peak at the water falls coming down the mountain. The park was closed to cars, and I didn't feel up to walking/hiking in the snow so we settled for the bridge just in front of the park.

To give you a little perspective we were VERY high above the water and I could not get myself to walk out where my entire family is... yes... I was a complete chicken!  

I couldn't even take the pictures anymore... so Kyle took some. ;)

We stopped for lunch at a cute little sandwich shop.

The wind was quite chilly, but don't worry Nini... they were just about to jump in the warm car. :)

Our fun morning... come visit us and I promise to take you here!

BIG move and SNOW!!!

Last week we moved, we had very short notice to get out here... but could not pass up the opportunity. After much prayer, we felt this was the best option for our family and we moved to Montrose, CO. It's a small town (19,000 people) and Kyle has been hired to manage the Wells Fargo on Main Street. One week in and I'm really liking it... I can see so many good things for our family here. At minimum Kyle will be home 12+ hours more a week, which is such a blessing for us! 

I will use this blog again, so keep all our loved ones updated on the happenings of our growing family, so I'm sure I will post more about the move later. For now, I wanted to share a few pictures from yesterday... our first Colorado snow!!! The girls had such fun playing! 

Coming back...

I have been feeling like coming back to this blog for quite sometime now... I think I will do it. We have a lot of things happening in our life right now; good things, hard things, new things, many things...

So I'm jumping back in and will be joining the blogging world yet again. :) I have missed you.

Dance.

Happy Friday, hope you dance a little this weekend. :-)

Love a Little.

Wishing you a weekend filled with love and laughter. :-)

Bath Time Silliness.

 

I take my camera into our bathroom a lot… the lighting is surprisingly great in there and the kids are still enough to get some funny faces. Here was our bath time fun today. :)

Oh and why are we having bath time in the middle of the day… well… dry erase markers and mommy thinking she had a few minutes to put the dishes away… always promises bath time in the middle of the day! ;-)

Fashion.

   

 

I had the opportunity to do a fashion shoot last weekend! It was a little crazy, a lot of hair and make-up, and really a lot of fun. I never pictured myself in this industry, but it was less intimidating then I thought. I learned a lot and this will definitely go down as one of the craziest days I’ve ever had… but isn’t she gorgeous!?! She was really great to work with and gave me some great exposure. :)  

Spring is in the air.

It was so warm here today, and although I should have been inside doing some much needed de-cluttering… we choose to play in the warmth instead. :)

Giggles.

Having fun on our dinning room table so that I can have fun editing them during naptime… I will say they were bribed with valentines candies… Except for Brenley who actually was not feeling well here and had a temp of 99… she is an amazingly sweet sick one. :)