4 months old!

Last Saturday Aspen turned four months old. FOUR MONTHS OLD...crazy! She is practically a wizened old woman! :) At her four month appointment we discovered she is a whopping 15 lbs. and 10 oz. (that is 75 percentile for weight). Her height, ahem, is more in the 50th percentile mark. That's right, we have one chunky monkey!

She is so much more interactive now then she was 2 months ago. She laughs, smiles up a storm, and started to discover her toes!

Last weekend we were also able to go up to mountain to try and get some pictures of Aspen in the aspens.  By "we" I mean myself, Aspen, and our good friend Angela who took all of these pictures (Jamie was out of town).  There are some great photos here, thanks Ang!

There are also a whole of funny face photos because it is not like Aspen exactly sits still for the photo shoot. Here are three of my favs!

(I really love this one because Aspen purses her lips like this all the time! I think she does it when she is concentrating.)

(A baby sneer?)

(I am DONE taking photos, do you hear me?!?)

I love our baby girl so much and feel so blessed to have her in my life!

Swim time!

It turns out that Aspen is a fan of the water...yeah! This works out nicely because her mommy and daddy are also big fans of playing in water. We had the opportunity for some pool time this weekend and boy was it fun!

Aspen all ready in her duck and bug suit.

The fam!

 Scoping out the scene!

Hey, what's this stuff?

Oooh, water is fun!

What happened next unfortunately didn't make it on camera. Aspen went from gently exploring the water to beating it with her fists.  In other words, she learned to splash, and boy did she like it! Notice how in all these photo's here hair is dry? Yeah, that didn't last long.  However, this wasn't joyful, giggling, splashing. No, this was the kind of splashing that takes concentration. It was intense and purposeful. She pursed her lips, furrowed her brow, and went to town (kind of like the expression in the above picture).  I thought she would cry when she got it all over her face. Instead, she pursed her lips more, furrowed her eyebrows more, and whacked the water even harder. 

Splash! Splash! Splash!

Baby legs!

Leg warmers on adults? Meh.

But leg warmers on babies? 

A-DORABLE!

Bonus feature pics:

Hanging out with mommy

Like father, like daughter! 

(this picture completely cracks me up)

October 2

This Sunday Jamie and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. We headed out to Mormon Lake

Lodge (where we got married last year) for breakfast and then went on a hike.  It was a truly lovely day! Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the hubbub of life and sometimes Jamie and I stress out about where we will be next. (Can we get jobs? Can we find somewhere we like to live? Will we have to commute to work? Will we ever be able to have chickens? Scratch that, will we ever be able to actually own a house?!? Aaagh, the list can go on and on.) This is why moments like last Sunday, where we ground ourselves and re-center are so important.  As I said to Jamie while hiking, "honey, as long as I have you, her, and can do this, I can be happy anywhere!" ("her" being Aspen and "this" being outside in the wild woolly world).  Speaking of a wild and woolly world, our wedding anniversary hike gifted us with some unexpected treasures.  Specifically, a ton of delicious mushrooms and a sighting of this AWESOME tarantula!

(sorry mom, I should have warned you there was going to be a spider picture)

I also spent a lot of time on Sunday thinking nostalgically about our wedding and how much fun we had.  I loved our wedding!  (Which is pretty hilarious since prior to having to plan it I had really never thought much about weddings at all.)

October 2, 2010

Lastly, I couldn't help to think about where our life is now and how different (wonderfully, beautifully) it is.  The last year has wrought many changes, and I wouldn't have it any other way!

October 2, 2011

Of course this wouldn't be a proper blog post without an Aspen montage.  So without any further ado:

We spent last weekend visiting family in Washington state, it was such a great trip! Unfortunately, I forgot to break out my camera for most of the trip so I am short on pictures.  Most of the pics below I stole from mom and are from a family get together on Saturday. I promise I will have a content blog later in the week...but for now pictures!

Cousins! The top row is my siblings and cousins from my mom's side of the family, the bottom row (plus Aspen) are my brother's and cousins kiddos.

Four generations! Mom and dad are above me, and both grandma's on either side.  (Maternal grandma on the left and paternal grandma on the right)

Mom, Aspen, and nephew!

Dad, Aspen, and Jamie's torso.

My wonderful siblings!

Hiking in the woods!

Hiking in the woods...baby and mushrooms and man, oh my! :)