White Christmas in Colorado

We journeyed to Colorado for Christmas.

Where we saw:

Andrew, Paige, and Peter:



Taggart and Danielle:

And, of course, Mom and Dad:


We got to Colorado early enough that I was able to help prepare the house for the holiday festivities. I made cookies, wrapped presents, and helped my mom make tarts.

The boys enjoyed their sit-n-play piano, hanging out with grandma and grandpa, and checking out each other.




Beckett and Nate showed off their baby tricks.

On Christmas Eve Beckett opened his first present. Yum. Wrapping Paper.

On Christmas Morning:

Dad made breakfast.

Mom put out the stockings.

And the boys posed in their Christmas pajamas.

Apparently all that Beckett or Andrew really wanted for Christmas was this packaged nerd's rope.

But we gave them other presents anyway.


On Christmas night we ate dinner and played games with the Danahers, and Sean treated us to Avatar in 3-D on the 26th.

Beckett did pretty well on the car ride there and back. However, he struggled a little with the time change, the pack-n-play, and sharing a room with his parents. We were really tired for some of those days.

Little B also gave himself a present--one bottom tooth. Happy First Christmas, Beckett.

Hanging Out at Home

Reading a book.

Eating a book.

Toes.

Checking out the cat.

Already into technology.

Zephyr wanted in on the photo-shoot. This angle make her look enormous.

Thanks for checking us out.

A Good Read

The other day I peeked in on Beckett during his nap to find this:

Looks like he's already falling asleep while reading.

Thanks again to Jen and the Hinze kids for passing these books along to us. Beckett loves them and plays with them everyday.

New Food

I fed Little B some cereal for the first time a couple days ago. He was not sure what to think about the experience.

But he did think the camera was pretty cool.

Time to Pull out Your Christmas Sweater

Black Friday

Some people go shopping on Black Friday. We went to the zoo. I am not at all sorry about our choice. The weather on Friday was fabulous, and with very few beautiful days left before winter sets in, we decided to make the most of it by heading to the KC Zoo. When we didn't make it to the zoo until 1 pm we feared most of the animals would be snoozing, but yesterday turned out to be our best visit to the KC Zoo yet. Everyone was awake and active.

We saw the sea lion show and then headed to Australia because we love the kangaroo exhibit.

We almost skipped Asia in favor of Africa, and that would have been a mistake. The red panda was pacing; the tigers were growling; the monkeys were hopping around (no surprise there), and the baby orangutan was hanging with his mom.

The baby orangutan is super cute. This is a pretty crummy picture because of the reflection from the glass, but notice how the little guy is sucking his thumb.

Well, apparently Beckett thought that was a good idea because this is what he looked like when we peaked into the stroller on our way out of Asia.

Next we checked out the new Tropics building on our way to Africa where our good luck continued. All the African animals were also busy and active.

We always love watching the hippos.

We hung out at the chimpanzee exhibit long enough to see the baby chimp make an appearance.

Even the Serval was up.

Nate said that yesterday's lions were the best he'd ever seen.

And, we always feel super lucky when we get to see the cheetahs awake and aware.

We stopped to see the elephants on our way out.

Here's Little B's reaction to the afternoon.

Getting Big

Life is so much more fun for Beckett now that he can grab his toys.

He's pretty pleased with his progress on his tummy as well.

Here Beckett looks like such a big kid in his flying tigers t-shirt and cargo pants. (Don't be fooled those pants are size 0-3 months.)

B is really starting to enjoy reading books. Seeing as I'm both an avid reader and an art historian, it doesn't matter to me whether it's the story or the pictures that interest him.

In this last picture Beckett does his best to look his age.

Leaves

Costumes

Halloween started early out here. We had a little neighborhood trunk or treat the weekend before Halloween. The Hinze kids had the good fortune of being in town at just the right moment to score some early sugar. They looked majorly cute.

Beckett had issues with his costume. Back in August when I was visiting Colorado we bought Beckett a skeleton costume. But come October 31st, it no longer fit. So we squeezed the baby into the outfit for a few pictures, and then regrouped.

We went to a couple of other stores looking for a bigger skeleton or a cute costume and left empty handed. Enter: Jen Hinze. She brought us a darling giraffe costume from Texas. And, as we know, Beckett loves his African mammals, so the giraffe was a perfect choice.

At our ward's Halloween party Beckett found a fellow safari animal. Here's Beckett and Benji as a giraffe and a lion. Benji's grandma made his amazing costume.

On Halloween we passed out candy to all the kids in our new neighborhood. I also made a pumpkin and sweet potato soup that could become a Halloween tradition.


After a while Beckett had to take a snooze to recover from all the excitement of the evening.

Little B was a pretty cute baby giraffe.