11 Mile Canyon

We drove up to 11 Mile Canyon this past Saturday. We were supposed to camp but it hit below freezing the night before so we decided to pass. We visited The Donut Mill on the way up and then spent a few hours at the river. It is so beautiful there. Playing with sand toys and Grandma.
Fishing with Daddy. We will have to get her a pink pole for Christmas I think.
Can you see where Jasmine ate the toys off the exersaucer:) She chewed all the stuffed toys up. Jasmine is Taylor's parents dog.
Hiking with Grandpa.

Bagels Blogging Bossiness

I made homemade bagels this morning. Yum-O. I made 8. There are 3 left. Katie had 1/2 of 1. I have been using the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day and really like it. I want to try some of their Heathy recipes because I think a lot of the recipes I have tried taste similar.

I am trying to blog more. I like getting my thoughts out there and feeling all interactive and productive. Blogging can tend to be such a braggy thing. "look at me - I make homemade bagels, and craft and am wonder-woman!" Which though true in some areas, does not mean in all areas. Thought in the interest of being real and honest I would show some of the other side:)

And this is a good day! The food on his tray has been there since lunch.

Not a fan of the chores that are uber-repetative!

I have one very bossy daughter. She gets it from one of her parents. Any guesses which one? She likes to tell Levi what to do. Put things in his face and say "no, Levi." She loves to tell Mommy what to do and when and where. Someday it will serve her well. Right?

Waiting...

Life has felt a little incomplete lately...



Taylor and I have been missing something...



It comes in a small package...






Should come in the mail tomorrow! Think we can fit season 3 in before #4 starts? I might need to get a few more tubs of ice-cream.

Balloons

We started checking off the fall list this weekend by going to the Balloon Classic. I was worrying about being late,but we ended up seeing tons of balloons, para-gliders and parachutists. Katie has been looking forward to this for weeks! She was running around pointing saying,"Wow! That's amazing!" She loved it and we are looking forward to making this a family tradition.

The Fall List

September 1st and we just got back from the pool. It is hot out and probably will be for another month or so...but it still feels like the beginning of fall. We made a "summer-list" of things we wanted to do. Almost everything got checked off and now it is time for the "fall-list." Here is the list for the next 3 months!

• Make homemade potato soup the first time it snows.
• Watch the balloons take off at the park.
• Make a 2nd turkey so we actually have lots of Thanksgiving leftovers.
• Go up to the mountains to see the aspens change color.
• Bronco Sunday with all the snacky fixin's.
• Work out 3 times per week.
• Date night to Denver (maybe to Cavalia??? hint hint Taylor)
• Collect leaves with Katie and make some fall crafts.
• Go see Harry Potter 7 in the theater!
• Continue slashing the grocery budget - the goal is by half!
• Go to Montague's for tea.
• Make lefse for Thanksgiving...freeze some for Christmas.
• Carve a pumpkin.
• Visit the apple orchard.

Now to start checking things off. I love fall. It is possibly my favorite season. I love curling up with a blanket and tea while it is chilly outside. I love dressing my kids up for Halloween. And Thanksgiving is such a great mix of food and family. A new season always gives my motivation a burst. And all my shows are coming back on TV! Chuck, Survivor, Parenthood and Glee. I have tried to cut back some but I do love these shows. Taylor watches all of them with me except for Glee. We save them up for Tuesday or Thursday night since Taylor has class Monday and Wednesdays. I'm happy just thinking about the fun to come. Happy Fall!

My cute kids and some challenging books.

Katie's Aunt Emmie works at a gym so Katie got to tag along with her. I told her she was going to swing on the bars and she talked about the "granola bars" all morning. She had a blast! I love this girl in pig-tails:)Look at the smile on that boy. He makes my heart melt. I had to take about 10 pictures to even get a smile this good from Katie. She was being ornery and dunking her head in the water. And trying to steal Levi's toys.

He is pulling up on everything! And putting any little thing he can find in his mouth. He is still very wobbly and is falling over a lot! I think that is just the boy part that I am going to have to get used to.

I have been reading a lot of books lately. I call it my drug of choice. My recent selections have included Crazy Love by Francis Chan, and Relentless by David Platt. They were top-sellers on the Amazon Christian books list so I added them to my "to-read" list. (Do you have a Goodreads.com account? I am an addict.) I started with Crazy Love and from the first few pages almost didn't want to read it. It is one of those books that challenges what you believe and isn't content to just challenge your perceptions...it has to challenge you to change the way you live. Well, I did finish reading Crazy Love and am still reading Relentless. I am hearing God tell me to follow and pursue him whole-heartedly. I am taking time to listen to what he is saying and am trying to discern what action he would have me take and actually take it. God has given me examples in my friends and family of what it looks like to act on the leading of God. My pastor at church is challenging us to live in community. This following God thing is hard. I can't do it on my own strength. Which is exciting. And scary. Keep me in your prayers as God continues to challenge and grow my relationship with him.

Pulling Up!

This little munchkin is almost 8 months old.

In 8 months I think I can count on 1 hand the number of nights I have slept all the way through.

I think it is a combination of me giving in way easier than I did with Katie, him being sick several times, and a second strong-willed little personality.

I took him to the Dr. yesterday to make sure he wasn't sick. Clear ears - and 5 teeth that are really close to coming in.

The verdict...load him up with food and give him tylenol before bed. Ok. First night=up twice. We'll see how tonight goes.

Some other things he is very particular about:

pureed foods - hates rice cereal, and will eat 2-3 spoonfuls of anything else. He will eat a ton of food if I let him feed himself. So, now we are onto finger foods such as bananas, avocado, cooked apple, cheerios, cheese, and anything else I can get mushy enough for him.
It is a mess. I don't care.

being on his tummy - I can get maybe a minute out of him. He can roll, clap, wave, sit and even pull to standing! But will not get on his knees or tummy. I can see him being one of those kids with the really weird crawl. We shall see...

Katie taking his toys - This is pretty normal I think. He falls to pieces when she grabs toys from him. Which is often. The shriek that comes from him is pathetic. I can see him screaming to get her in trouble in the future.

his pacifier - he will only use these horrible looney-tunes hologram pacifiers. Heaven forbid we ever lose one. We have only two. The other one is purple. If that won't get you called a she I don't know what will.

He also has the best giggles. Loves to watch his sister play. Was a super-camping baby. And, so far, still loves Mommy the best.
Somebody loved the rodeo. This made me deliriously happy. I have visions of us riding our horses together...when she actually came close to a horse she wouldn't touch it...but hopefully she will grow out of that. Sitting up!

We really need to get this kid some boy toys.

Home-made Twilight shirts. Please do not even attempt to sway me to Team Edward. Taylor says he wouldn't want Katie dating either of those freaks...

In other Andrews news:

Taylor is still working on his Master's. And will be for a while. He has had the past 2 weeks off and we have spent each night watching Chuck and eating ice cream. Oh man, Blue Bunny homemade chocolate is a. ma. zing. Like brownie batter that you can eat a bowlful without feeling sick. And I normally really don't like chocolate ice cream.

Katie is potty-trained. No diapers at all!!! Woohoo. She did pee in her sleeping bag at 1:30am while we were camping...more on camping later. She continues to be a prolific talker. Her sense of humor is really developing and she loves to repetatively do things that make us laugh. Like fake cry, make silly faces, and scare Levi. She is very independent and loves to tell me to go somewhere else because she is doing something. Ex: "no Mommy, you go downstairs so I can put on lips."

Levi you got the run-down on.

I am staying home and, as usual, learning contentment in these baby and toddler stages. I love it and it drives me stir-crazy at the same time. I am learning to be content with my amazing common life. Loving my kids, husband, God, family and friends. My house is messy. My unfinished projects are piling up. The dog has shed so much I don't know how he has any hair left. I have cut my grocery budget almost in half! And I hear little feet kicking the wall upstairs, so my time here is done. Hopefully I'll get those camping pics up soon. However, most days it comes down to things like this or a shower and the shower usually wins.