Look a Like?

When Ella was born, John and I both thought she looked exactly like Jake.  Their stats were pretty much the same as well (her's at 7 lbs, 19 inches, Jake's at 7 lbs 3 ozs, 19 inches).  After looking back at Jake's pictures, there are definitely a lot of similarities, but of course some differences too.  Here are some pictures of both to compare...



Jake a few minutes old



Ella a few minutes old




Jake a few hours old




Ella a few hours old




Jake day 1




Ella day 1




Jake unwrapped




Ella unwrapped




Jake going home

Ella going home




Jake resting on mom's chest (day 5)




Ella resting on mom's chest (day 5)




Jake's scowl




Ella's scowl



Welcome Ella Rose!

Ella Rose was born one day before her due date on November 17th at 1:11 PM.  She weighed 7 lbs even and was 19 inches long.  She is such a joy, a perfect little angel.  We are all so happy she's here!

Ella Rose - just a few hours old

sweet baby girl

Jake meets Ella Rose

Jake and Trent with Baby Sister

So happy she's here!

Jake getting to know his baby sister

Making Room for Baby

Here are a few pictures of the nursery...




view from the door

 



view from the closet

 



view from the window

 

Time for School!

Trent is back in school this week.  He was so excited to go back.  We went to the school to meet his new teacher the Thursday before he started.  She is new to the school this year and so very nice.  He was so excited to start the first day.  We had a slight snafu when he rode the bus home on the first day.  It was his first time riding home (he rode to school all year last year, but never back home because he was in AM kindergarten).  When the bus came to drop off all the neighborhood kids, I watched them all get off one by one.... then the door closed and the bus took off - NO TRENT!  Of course I panicked.  After some kind words from a neighbor I frantically called the school holding back tears.  They quickly determined that he got on the bus and had just missed our stop.  They radioed to the bus which promptly brought him back to our stop.  He was a little worried, but relieved when they brought him back.  On day two, the process went much smoother.  I don't think he'll miss his stop again :)!

I Heart Summer in Colorado

This weekend we took a quick trip to Copper Mountain.  John's company was one of the premier sponsors for the Children's Hospital Courage Classic bike ride and fund raiser.  We had a great time together riding the ski lift, hiking, shopping and playing in the bumper boats.  The weather was beautiful (my favorite time of year to enjoy the mountains!).  The boys were very exhausted after the fun filled day and turned in early (which meant some down time for mom and dad relaxing in the condo).  On the way home, we got in some back-to-school shopping at the Outlet Mall in Silverthorn.  Great fun-filled weekend and yet one more weekend avoiding the looming "to do list".  School starts in 6 days and the weather will be changing before we know it, so there will be plenty of time for the "to do's" I think!

Trent and John riding the ski lift up

Family pic at the top

Little mountain man

Mommy and Jake taking a break

Trent and Jake

View from the ski lift

Dad and Jake on the bumper boat

Trent on the bumper boat

It's About Time You Should Meet...

For those of you who have not yet heard, we're baking another little turkey. This time, SHE is due 10 days before her big brother's birthday (November 18). We are so excited to grow our family some more and we can't wait to meet her. Things are so much different the second time around - the time is passing so quickly and there is so much to do yet! Trent and Jake are both very excited (of course they don't have any idea what they are in for :)) John and I are well aware however, so we're enjoying our last few months' sleep before the big day!!

Jamaican Us Crazy... So We Went to Jamaica

Many of you know that we've had a crazy/busy/emotional year in 2009, so John and I decided to take a last-minute trip in February to Jamaica. If you have never been there, you should definitely add it to your list. There was not one thing we did not like about it (people, food, weather, resort, etc - all amazing!). Not to mention that we got to get away from the bitter Colorado cold spell and into 80 degree weather (exactly what the Dr. ordered!) We picked Jamaica because, although it does have some cool things to see, we really just wanted to relax and stay on the resort and really DO NOTHING (something we have not done in a very long time). Luckilly, John and I are the perfect pair and both enjoyed doing nothing but laying at the pool/beach, eating, sleeping and reading! We were also very lucky to have a great nanny here at home watching the boys - they adore her and had so much fun while we were gone (I don't think they even missed us!) Here are some pictures of our trip!

(a view from our balcony)

(a view of the Mountains behind our resort)

(John relaxing on the beach!)

(Leslie on the beach)

(a view of the resort at sun set)

(going out for dinner at the resort)

I Can Hardly Contain Myself!

My latest obsession... Organizing (everything)! I don't know if it's because of the New Year, because of the mountain of new toys we acquired for Christmas, or maybe it's all of the advertisements bombarding me. Regardless, I can't get enough!

The toy room closet!

(before)


(after)

A new bookshelf for the boys!



New shelves in the garage!



Coat and boot racks in the garage!


(masterminded by moi, installed by John)

The list goes on and on, but that's all we could manage to do over the weekend! Up next, my closet (yikes!)

One Giant Leap for my Little Man

Jake is officially a big boy now! Last night, Jake agreed to give up his passy to the passy fairy in exchange for a big boy present. Now, we've been talking up this magical night for many months now; we originally were planning the big event for September, but as you know our life got a little complicated in September! Jake was a little aprehensive about the whole idea the closer we got to actually doing it. "But, I want to sleep with my blankie AND passy tonight mommy!" But, after a lot of touting the BIG BOY PRESENT that is going to be so super duper cool, etc, Jake reluctantly put the passy's in the bag. Now, for those of you who don't know the passy fairy, she typically likes for you to leave your passys in a bag outside on a tree. However, given that there is about a foot of snow in our front and back yards, we let Jake decide where to leave the passys! After a little bit of thought, Jake decided we should hang them on the Christmas tree :)





This morning, Jake found the Big Boy BIKE that the passy fairy left for him by the Christmas tree. Well, actually Trent (our early riser) found it and promptly reported it back to Jake! Jake was so excited to have a big boy bike!



So, how did it go the first night without passy!? Well, due to the New Year festivities the night before, we had one VERY tired little boy who (and this has never happened before) fell asleep during the reading of the bed time story! So, going to bed without passy was not even an issue (as he was already asleep when he went to bed). So I guess we shall see tonight how it will be for him. I think he'll do ok - we'll just need to remind him about his new bike!