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! :)

The North Rim and the Kaibab Plateau

Sorry it has been a while since I posted anything.  As I am doing a little catch up I thought some pictures from our camping trip 2 weekends ago would be appropriate.  We camped on forest serice land on the Kaibab Plateau and visited the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Aspen was a trooper and I hope that our next trip goes as smoothly with her! 

The trip was nice, but rainy.  Once we arrived at our chosen campsite our first hour was spent hanging out in the car waiting for the deluge to stop so that we could set up camp.

Fortunately we brought plenty of tarps.  Here is Jamie and Aspen hanging out next to our tent under the tarp shelter to stay dry.

However it didn't rain the whole time and we were even able to have a camp fire at night. As she grows Aspen's vision keeps getting better and better and she really enjoys looking around. I was curious what she would think of the fire, but alas she fell asleep during the whole time it was burning

Saturday we went to the North Rim and enjoyed the view!

This chunk of rock is called Angel's window and you can walk out on it. That is where I am in the photo above.

On Sunday we took a short walk to a vantage point on the Kaibab Plateau about 4 miles from our campsite.  That isn't technically the grand canyon in the distance, but rather another canyon that feeds into it.

Yellow paintbrush! I am used to see bright red/orange paintbrush.

2 months old!

As of Monday  (8/22) Aspen is two months old! On Tuesday we took her in for her 2 month doctor's appointment and to get her first shots.  I would love to tell you that she barely noticed her shots, but the truth is she screamed bloody murder.  However, our nurse was excellent and the whole thing (3 needle stabs, plus bandaid application) literally took less than 30 seconds.  Then there was approximately 5 seconds of silence while Aspen processed what had just happened, immediately followed by shrieking (sigh).  Poor baby girl! She was definitely fussy and slept a lot for the rest of the day, but seems to have decided that today is a new day and all is well with the world.

The doctor said she is looking great and her current stats fit beautifully on her growth line. Speaking of stats, here they are:

  Weight: 12 lbs 10 oz  (79%)

  Length: 23 inches (74%)

  Head Circumference: 15 inches (65%)

She continues to grow and do new things every day.  Often she will start doing something new but it takes us a moment to catch up and realize it.  For example, today I noticed that she was bringing her hands together and I think she was maybe doing it yesterday as well.  However, today she has been practicing it all day! It was only a week or two ago that she decided she didn't have to keep her hands clenched in fists all the time.  Now, when she isn't practicing bringing her hands together, you can watch her spend time slowly opening and closing her hands.  It is so cool to see the movements we take for granted in our own body slowly develop over time!

Lastly, she is smiling more and more, and definitely smiles at both Jamie and I.  She also "talks" to us sometimes.  In this video she is smiling at daddy and talking to him!

Things we all are learning.

Aspen is almost 8 weeks old and our pace up the steep learning curve has been rapid. It has to be as baby girl doesn't exactly come with a manual! (Unfortunately I suspect that this learning curve isn't one that flattens out, it just keeps going and going and going.)


Some things that various family members have learned in the past few weeks:

Aspen is learning to make more and more funny faces!

She is also smiling more and more...only capturing them on camera is more challenging than I thought.  I always get either the beginning or the end of the smile, but not the big gummy grin in the middl!

 Jamie and I are both getting better at eating while carrying Aspen in the sling or our arms...however we have NOT mastered how to eat without spilling! In this picture we discovered a stripe of coffee gelato glued to baby girl's face several hours AFTER Jamie was done eating it.  Oops!

We have also learned the very best way to soothe a cranky baby...naked time! Our little girl LOVES naked time.  You can also see from this pic that we have no worries about Aspen not eating enough.

(sorry, pic removed)

Aspen is becoming a pro at finding her hands and sucking on them.  She really enjoys a good hand nibble!

From Aspen:  Mom promises that she will update next week after my 2 month doctor's visit on Tuesday. Two months old already!  They will weigh me, measure my length, and then jab sharp needles into me. Fun, fun!  

For Daddy, Love Aspen

Hi Daddy! I hope you are having fun in Alaska! I made Mommy and Grandma take some pictures with Grandma's cell phone so you could see how much I've grown in the last week.  (Some of the pictures are blurry because, well, because it's a cellphone and you have the good camera.)

Here I am napping in one of my favorite jumpers (thanks Aunt Becky!)

In this one I am having naked time in Grandma's lap.  I tried to poop on her, but she had me sitting in  a diaper so my plot was foiled.  Boy do I sure love naked time though!

Speaking of pooping I just wanted to remind you that my "I'm pooping" face is still the same!

Here is me and mommy hiking in the woods.

Here is Grandma.  It is blurry because momma is cell phone illiterate (sigh).

I still really love baths!

But mostly I miss you and can't wait to see you on saturday. Until then I am going to be a mad baby!

Love, Aspen