Happy Valentine's Day!

For Valentine's Day this year, Rob and I had Moroccan food last Saturday at Maatam Fez in Denver. They had pretty good food, 5-courses for one price and you got to take off your shoes and sit on pillows on the floor and eat only with your hands, so the cultural traditions were fun. They also had a belly dancer who was going around giving lessons to those who were willing to try. It was interesting, just not an atmosphere that's conducive to talking or as romantic as some date nights we've gone on. Still, we appreciate the opportunity to get away together for any stretch.

We also got a ski day in at Copper on Monday the week before, which was awesome! The mountains have been getting a ton of snow lately, so the conditions were great and going on a weekday, we didn't have to deal with skier traffic or lift lines, so we got a lot of runs in. It was our first ski day in two years, since I was pregnant with Ethan last season, and it came back to us pretty quickly. Our second run of the day, I accidentally led us down a black run with moguls, which was tough on a snowboard, but I did pretty well and think my husband was actually enjoying them. It snowed all day and we found powder pockets, even at the end of the day, so it ranks up there as one of my favorite ski days.

Family News

Ethan trying to climb out of his carseat

Ethan has been more vocal lately, especially with the Ba-ba-bas and the Ma-ma-mas. It's just adorable when he tries to sing loudly too. No teeth for Ethan yet, but we sometimes think he's teething (it's hard to tell with such a happy baby!) Ashleigh has been good too, she had her last swim lesson on Wednesday and starts gymnastics at the rec center a week from Monday. Rob and I also get to go skiing together on Monday, and hopefully we won't have a repeat of the Crested Butte fiasco with a winter storm scheduled to hit Sunday evening. We'll still try to go, I think, as we haven't gone yet this season and my mother-in-law is also taking a vacation day on Monday to watch the kids, so babysitting is taken care of. We are so looking forward to it!




I never thought a washer and dryer could bring me such joy, but they do! Rob and his brother Jon moved the washer and dryer from the basement to the main floor last weekend (Ashleigh helped too with her toy drill) and with the money my dad gave us for Christmas, we were able to buy a new dryer that dries the clothes in half the time as the old one, giving me the gift of time (thanks, Dad!). It's also much less energy carrying clothes up and down one story now, rather than down to the basement and back (so thanks also Rob and Jon!)

Daddy's Lil Helper

So the family news I titled this blog after isn't just what we've been up to, but is actually pretty serious. My brother came over on Tuesday and told me that he and his wife have decided to get a divorce, and I can't stop thinking about what that means for us and them. For one, I'm really going to miss his wife as she is a wonderful person and has always been great with our kids. Thankfully, they don't have any kids themselves, but I will miss her and the fact that family gatherings will never be the same again. I'm really sad about the situation and don't think the kids or I will even get to say good-bye to her. They have their reasons that I won't elaborate on here, but I'm praying and hoping they can work things out and salvage what's left of their marriage.

Firsts for Ashleigh

Ashleigh starting out on skates with Mommy and Rob's sister, Tina

Ashleigh with my brother, Steve, and Tina

Taking a break on the ice

In the last two weeks, Ashleigh has had several firsts. I took her ice skating for the first time with my brother and sister-in-law, who just so happens to be taking figure skating classes and was an excellent teacher. Ashleigh went three times around the rink holding our hands, before deciding she wanted to go home, but I was proud she lasted that long. I imagine that's hard having unsure footing in the first place, then balancing on two blades on a sheet of ice.

Ashleigh's First Swim Lesson with her teacher, Paige

She also started swim lessons last week. She had been in a parent-tot swim lesson with us, but this is the first time in a lesson with just the teacher and us observing. She's doing great and getting more comfortable with the water. One lesson we learned with Ashleigh that we won't repeat with Ethan is to build trust in the water and not dunk them or float them on their back before they're ready. Her teacher is great with that, but with Rob and I both being excellent swimmers on our high school swim teams, I think we were overly excited to teach Ashleigh how to swim.

Ethan sitting up with his buddy Aiden

Ethan has started eating Cheerios this week and is getting about half of them from the tray to his mouth now. He's also started this shriek/yelling thing for attention, or maybe he's just plain happy. We're not sure. But he does do it when we're sitting down to eat, or after his food is gone and he wants more. Guess he's just learning how to communicate with us using the tools he's got.

Happy New Year 2008!

Ashleigh (3) and her friend, Abby (4)

OH NO! Ashleigh got eaten by a fish!

Ashleigh and Abby playing dress-up and tap dancing at the Children's Museum

My dear friend, Ann, with Ethan (6 months)

We had a quiet New Year's Eve. Stayed home, ordered pizza, watched a movie, played some games, and had a few mixed drinks. Little known fact: Rob attended bartending school during his senior year at Mines as a fall back career and for fun too, but that knowledge does come in handy when making drinks at home. We made Cosmopolitans as I had never had any drink close to a martini and usually prefer wine and beer to mixed drinks. Ashleigh's favorite part of the evening was playing Sequence with mommy and daddy. Rob also made her a special apple-cranberry drink and we let her stay up as late as she wanted (which was around 10, when she started getting cranky.) Thankfully, we are all well again with the exception of Ethan's minor cough.

We also got to spend some time with our friends from Seattle, Ann, Josh, and their 4 year old daughter, Abby, who were in town for Christmas. We took the girls to the World of Wonder Children's Museum in Lafayette (where her mom lives). There was a lot to do there, including a pirate ship and reading pirate stories, an Egyptian machines exhibit, a music room, a wind room, a pretend bank, store, playhouse, sandbox, and a dress-up and dance area. We also had them over to our house for an early dinner, went out for some girl time coffee, and celebrated Abby's birthday together too. On a side note, there was a great turn out from Rob's family on Christmas Eve, his grandma from Riverton, his parents, his two brothers, and sister.

Rob's Extended Family on Christmas Eve

White Christmas

Our house on the morning after Christmas after Rob shoveled the driveway

We had a White Christmas this year, maybe a little too white. It was the biggest Christmas Day snowfall on record for Denver. The drifts in our driveway were about 2' high!

Typically on holidays, we cram in visits with both families since both of our families are in town. However, with the 6" of snow that came within two hours on Christmas morning and the fact that Ethan, Ashleigh, and I were all getting over colds, we opted out of the drive to the Springs. I missed seeing my family, but we did make it over to my dad's for a little while and that trip of 2 miles took 45 minutes, round-trip, with lots of sliding on icy roads, so you can see why we made the decision not to drive the 80 miles to my sister's in Colorado Springs. After coming back home to get the truck, we did make it to my in-laws' house in Elizabeth and it was nice spending the day in one place since it snowed all day.

Other than being sick, Ethan's first Christmas was wonderful! He loved the paper and bows more than the actual gifts inside, but had lots of help from his big sister in opening presents. We gave Ashleigh a rocking horse that neighs and gallops when you push his ear, which she just loves! Ethan got an activity triangle play toy and holds onto it tightly when big sister is around. It's only a matter of time before he'll be stronger than she is and taking toys away from her.

Dressed up for church on Christmas Eve

Ethan sitting up, just before falling over again!

Ethan and Ashleigh hanging Christmas stockings

Ashleigh's new Rocking Horse

Ethan and Daddy on Christmas morning

We also started Ethan on solid foods two weeks ago and so far, he has had rice cereal, oatmeal, applesauce, and squash. His favorite is oatmeal with applesauce and a little cinnamon. I'm also making my own baby food, going off of advice from several friends who have done it with their kids. Extra special moment last week when Ethan said his first ma-ma when we were out Christmas shopping and he was getting hungry and annoyed that I wasn't stopping everything to feed him. Since he was looking right at me, I count it as his first word. We'll work on the da-das next now!