weekend in the mountains

we were in keystone this past weekend for an overnight stay. jerry had company meetings saturday afternoon and a company bbq that night.

marianne and i had lunch on a patio overlooking keystone lake with our very good friend, brianna, while the guys were in the meeting. brian + brianna often keep marianne for us. she ADORES them and we feel so blessed to have them here. they are our family away from family!

after lunch marianne and i took a stroll along the lake before nap time.

spotted an ant and was emphatically saying "bug"

just about the only photos i get with my baby are self-shot so i always have goober smiles. oh well - everyone's looking at her anyway, right?

poser (ugh, that hair. i mean, will it ever grow out?)

hand-in-hand with dada and brian. marianne thinks brian is hilarious and she follows him around doing everything that he does.

shortly after dinner, we discovered there was a bounce house at the bbq. marianne and i recently had a playdate with some new friends. her friends, twin 3-year old boys, have a mini bounce house instead of a swing set which they had aired up for the playdate. the three of them had an absolute ball jumping and bouncing all afternoon (pictures to come) and marianne actually held her own with both older boys—even after getting body slammed twice. must be all that time at daycare in a classroom full of boys, i guess. at any rate she loved it and when she saw the bounce house this past weekend, we couldn't get her in there fast enough.

she ran, tumbled, flopped, jumped, bounced, tripped, and skipped all over this thing. she has really been working hard at her jumping skills lately. she bends at the knees and pumps her arms, yelling 'jum, jum, jum' (read: jump, jump, jump) and then launches forward one. foot. at. a. time. so she hasn't really gotten air yet, when attempting a jump from a standstill but she actually did get off the bounce house floor a few times.

a down pour ensued shortly after we finally pulled her out of the bounce house. brrrrrrrrr...we were stuck under a tent until it let up enough to make a run for the car. luckily there were entertainers making animal balloons. one of marianne's other FAVORITE things. balloons.

of course she was pretty worn out (from all of the jumping) and tired from the long day so she practically had to force herself to play with the balloons.

she actually popped this yellow balloon on the rocks. i thought she might lose it but she just sulked for a few minutes.

from the shutter

:: laflen | lesh wedding reception ::

caught climbing and couldn't be stopped.

tammy, dale, jill, jerry

chasing peyton

being chased by peyton

grooms-to-be

:: nana + papa's ::

blue eyes so deep and so pure

kissing cousins

i'll have a little of that, thank you.

:: at home ::

momma's little helper. she does just about anything you ask her to—laundry, putting away dishes and toys, vacuuming, and now swiffering (i think dada actually put her up to this)

the shirt says it all.

after church. even george is behaving.

loves to brusha, brusha, brusha with her new toothbrush from the dentist! (nice blow-dry dada)

:: vegas ::

:: welcome olivia ::

zach, olivia, nikki

i love how zach is looking at olivia in this photo - so sweet

:: prius'ed ::

a special thank you to mom + dad for setting us up in the meanest ride to ever hit I-44

full social calendar

as a family, we've all been very busy this summer. even marianne's social calendar has been particularly full. a couple of weekends ago she brunched with her friend, felix. they are besties at "school" and felix is the wild man that is part responsible for inspiring marianne's progressions into crawling, walking, running, and—I suspect—her interest in trucks as well. felix was kind enough to host the playdate in his backyard. complete with pool and tonka trucks. they had a lot of fun and both took 3-hour naps that afternoon.

they had so much fun slurping pool water from those shovels.

secrets, secrets.

today marianne and i went to the zoo with my friend, nicole, and her two boys—gunnar and micah. somehow i didn't manage to get a photo of all of them which is really too bad because they are the most gorgeous little boys. gunnar's favorite was the giraffes. marianne liked the lions and tigers. and micah (just 11 mos) was ecstatic to share a cheerios snack with marianne. they were grinning at each other from across their strollers. so adorable.

okay, so it looks like marianne is hamming it up for the camera but she was actually demonstrating how the monkey behind her was sleeping. we saw a sleeping bear shortly before and momma tilted her head and snored—marianne thought this was a riot and mimicked. and she did it again, unprompted, when we came upon the sleeping monkey.

social activities aside, marianne is learning that it's practically a full time job just keeping up with the house. she has been a BIG help with the laundry. she helps me load/unload the washer and dryer and she pushes the basket (full or empty) between the hampers in the bedrooms and the utility room. here she is pushing the clean crib sheets into her room so that i can make up her bed.

i love this video...it's so hilarious the laughs i get from the impromptu recordings. i like to call this one "oh, just screw it!"

more portraits

i thought i would share a few more of my favorite photos from marianne's 1-yr photo shoot with denise chambers:

i was so excited about shooting marianne with the oversized balloon but jer was mortified because of the attention it drew from people in the park. and of course he was delegated the task of retrieving and retiring the balloon from the car as needed—as you can tell, he's not thrilled with the assignment.

from the shutter

i'm so behind but wanted to post a few quick photos. i just realized that the camera has been saddeningly absent from my hand for the last few months so I barely have any photos from the summer...i will have to remedy that with what's left of it!

dada is always the one to give her the treats.

we were headed out for a run and this is where marianne wanted to ride. she climbed in there herself and when i took her out, she climbed right back in.

summer fun'in

marianne is doing all sorts of new and fun things in the toddler room. she can wash her own hands, throw away trash lifting and lowering the lid of the trash can, nap on a cot, and ride a pedal-less trike:

how stinkin' cute, right? her teachers emailed us this photo lask week and it completely made my day. she also now says "mine". wonderful! and she's still working on growing that hair and cutting her third molar.

we finally made it to our first swim class last saturday. she is so cute in the water and already has a strong kick. she didn't even cry when they had me dunk her fully under.

the "t" word

i guess there's no avoiding it now. last week marianne graduated from the infant room at daycare and started in her new classroom - the toddler room. i've had a pretty hard time with this transition. i had become so accustomed to our routine of the infant room and loved everything about it. mostly because her teachers in that room were so amazing and put my "going back to work" worries at ease almost immediately. they loved her from day one and she took to them so quickly. and i guess the the other part of it was that she was so young that she didn't know the difference. really this transition has been easy for her - she loves the new classroom and teachers and seems to be thriving on all of the new activities, schedule, and environment. i know my struggle has more to do with the effects that this change has on me than it does on her but it doesn't help that she's at the stage where she reaches for me when i drop her off and cries when i walk out the door. it rips me up. today i almost cried - which would have been only the THIRD time i would have cried after dropping her off since she started at day care: the first being day one (a given) and the second was a few weeks ago when her A.M. teacher was on vacation and she had a meltdown when i had to drop her off in a different room one morning (hers was a confused and hurt cry and i couldn't even make it out of the building before breaking down. i had to run into the daycare bathroom to dry my tears). i know it will become the usual routine soon and i won't even notice anymore but, darn it, i feel like my baby is practically all grown up.

here's some highlights of marianne at 15 months:

• she can feed herself with a spoon
• she makes associations...when she sees the lotion bottle she rubs her palms together and says "rub rub"
• she shakes her head when her answer to a question is "no"
• she (sometimes) correctly responds with a "yeshhh" (read: yes) when you ask if she poopied in her diaper
• she follows directions - will sit down to drink her milk when asked to
• she LOVES to be outside and will patiently sit to have sunscreen applied
• she hugs her stuffed animals, dolly and pets
• she thinks it's so much fun to bounce
• she runs away when it's time to get dressed, get a diaper change or get in the carseat
• she's a big fan of cheese, bananas, cheerios, rice krispies, black beans, peas, quesadillas
• she will "cheers" you...tinking her cup to your cup
• she says "momma" much more often now
• she is into pull-toys, trucks, ducks, books and swings
• she laughs a lot and has become a jabberbox overnight
• her hair is finally starting to grow and is at an awkward, fluffy, sticky-outy stage
• she gives hugs sparingly and has only doled out two kisses (both to momma)
• this saturday will be our last day of the spring session of music classes with her friend desmond and our first day of parent-tot swimming classes for the summer with her friends ryan and hannah

her last day of "school" in her infant classroom:

her first day of "school" in the toddler classroom:

(only five days later but, is it just me or, doesn't she look older/bigger?)