halloween preview

i'll have to post more on our halloween weekend later. we had a spooky weekend (read: lots of fun). marianne loved being a lion, carving pumpkins, wearing her costume, and trick-o-treating. i was so excited because she actually climbed up porch stairs, went up to the doors and roared for candy...and said 'thank you' (the roaring and thank yous took some prompting, mind you, but i was one proud momma). what fun!

goober

in the bath or at the zoo?

ham and cheese

tonight she wanted to sit in her stroller. not for a walk. just to lounge and watch monday night football. i'm not even exaggerating. she sat quietly in the stroller for 15 minutes watching the game before i finally made her go take a bath.

take a hike

labor day jerry had to work so marianne and i went for a hike - it was a spectacular day: sunny and warm with a breeze. ashamed to admit that it was marianne's first hike...we definitely need to do more of it. she had so much fun pointing at all the trees/rocks/plants/clouds, begging me to hop the whole way, and roaring like a (mountain) lion.

and, of course, per usual i took all the photos of us. i'm getting pretty good at disguising that it's the "one-arm snapshot".

trailhead.

a water break.

back on the go, just past "our summit"/half-way mark and she's starting to ask for milk. it got a little hairy for a few minutes but, as you might have guessed, she lived without until we were able to make it back down to our milk supply at the car.

in her milk-less frustration, she kept pulling off her sun hat and it's not easy to get it back on her at that angle.

over our shoulder, is the magnificent view from a lookout on the way down.

full on view. i'm no ansel.

a bonus photo of marianne wearing a headband. the only thing i can do to tame the mane. good timing that she's "into" lions right now (read: she loves to ROAR)...i think maybe she'll be a lion for halloween. her hair is perfect for it!

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!"