Cousin Kai

March 30th, 2008

Judtih & Kai came over for dinner the other day. He is about 6 months old, and he is a big boy, he is about the same size as Alicia, and he has 4 big chomper front teeth that he proudly showed off. Adrianna had been asking when she could see her cousin Kai, so we invited them over now that Judith has moved back to the Springs. Thanks for the visit, we love seeing the little ones grow up.

First Soccer Match

We played our first soccer match yesterday, and it was a huge success!! The kids braved the frigid temperatures and had a great time. I was amazed at how everything seemed to click for them once we had a lined field, uniforms, and a referee. I had a great time running around and cheering everyone on. I have to say everyone including Adrianna gave it their best effort and played hard even when it started to get dark. I am looking forward to more games, and everyone is welcome to come watch us play! Give us a call for the details.

Easter Sunday

We had a very nice Easter Sunday. Grandpa Fedele joined us for a ham dinner, Grandma Fedele was visiting her mom for spring break. Adrianna helped me make rolls, Alicia raided the pantry and found some of her food jars, and she loved snuggling up with Grandpa. Sarah prepared an increadible diiner and we all had a very good time visiting. The girls enjoyed their Easter baskets full of goodies. Adrianna got a bunch of soccer things, including soccer ball eggs filled with chocolates. Sarah also made some amazing peanut butter chocolate eggs, yum-yum! Make sure to get a tall glass of milk with those.

New Playroom Floor

Over Easter weekend I started the task of replacing the flooring on the main floor. Grandpa Fedele came over to help and after a day of hard work, most of it figuring out what we were doing, we ended up with a beautiful floor in the girls' play room. It was a good start to several weekends of work. The results once we finish everything else should be amazing!

Alicia loves the new floor!

Start! Heart Walk

As part of a work fundraiser for the American Heart Association I am participating in the Start! Heart Walk in Colorado Springs on June 7th. I have made a personal goal to improve my own health for myself and my family, especially my daughters and I thought this would be a fun way to help build awareness to heart disease. If you would like to help me in my effort to raise funds for the American Heart Association you can click on the link below to donate funds online. All funds I raise will be matched by ingersoll Rand!

Thanks, and here's to everyone's good health!!!

Click Here to Donate

Soccer Girl

Soccer starts next week for Adrianna. I have volunteered to be the coach for her team, so we will see what I am getting into. We went out this weekend to buy some equipment (shoes, shin guards, etc.) We got this ball and Alicia was very interested. She crawled after it throughout the house, it was very cute. We are looking forward to a fun spring soccer season. I will post pictures of Adrianna soon.

Real Snowball Fight!

Friday, March 14th, 2008

I worked from home this past Friday due to the several inches of snow that fell early in the morning. When Adrianna woke up to the beautiful white covering she almost immediately challenged me to a snowball fight. I took her up on it later once it stopped snowing. The snow was perfect for snowballs, as it was very wet. We had a great time throwing snow at each other, and then at mommy! Alicia had to watch from the window, pretty soon they will all be ganging up against me! I can't wait!!!

Abuelos visita

March 1st, 2008

The Abuelos and Aunt Cristina came over to visit with my parents this past weekend. They were in town for Barrett's (my newest nephew) blessing. We had a great time visiting, the girls were especially adorable. We enjoyed a steak dinner, and some brownie bites for dessert. As you can tell from the pictures Alicia put on quite the show in eating the brownie bite. We are so glad that Adrianna and Alicia get to interract with their Great Grandparents. Thank you so much Cristina for driving out here, it was wonderful to see you and we hope to make it out to Utah soon.

We've moved!

A month has gone by since I last posted, it has been a hectic month but we have weathered the storm and we are getting settled in our new home. Moving out was a lot more work than we expected, but we were able to get the old house cleared out, cleaned and the renters moved in. And though we are still unpacking the boxes we love our new house and the space it has given us.

The girls love the extra play area, and Adrianna loves to play in her new fort. I should have pictures of it up soon. Thank you to everyone who helped us clean both houses, and who helped us move. Our home teachers really outdid themselves with all the help they gave us during the move. I look forward to being able to return the favor!

Packing Up

We have been very busy packing up the house to move. Adrianna is very excited for the new house. She is constantly asking if her things, and everything else, will go to the new house. Sometimes the biggest challenge is entertaining the girls while Sarah and I pack up different things. Adrianna was the biggest help this day when she decided to tie up Alicia's exersaucer to her Nemo car and pull her around the family room. Alicia loved the attention and they both had a blast. The only bad part is we had to pause what we were doing to enjoy the fun and take some pictures. Just a week and a few days left until we can move in!

On the move!

January 23rd, 2008

Alicia is 8 months as of yesterday and she decided that it was time to start crawling. She likes to go for books and toys, the trick is getting her sister to not bring what she is after right to her. She is so cute to watch, she will start to get frustrated when she cant get to what she wants. I guess we will get to enjoy a whole new level of baby proofing in the new house.

New House!!!

We have wonderful news, our offer was accepted and we will be closing on a new house for Valentines Day! Here is a picture of the new house:


Floorplan:
The new house is just up the road about a mile from our current home, so we will still be in the same church ward, and it is pretty much the same neighboorhood. The new house has 3100 square feet and should give us plenty of room to spread out as the girls grow up. It even has a fort in the backyard for them to enjoy. We have a crazy month ahead of us but it will be great fun.

CC Tigers Hockey

 

My work did a Customer Service Appreciation event and gave us tickets to a Colorado College Tigers hockey game. We decided to take the girls even though t made for a pretty late night, the game started at 7:30 p.m. The girls did great, and though she was tired Alicia stayed awake through the whole game. She didn't want to miss any of the excitement. We sat in the general admission area with all of the CC students so it made for a pretty roudy night, but it was a lot of fun, and it has given another sport for Adrianna to ask if she can play. "We go play hockey daddy"!!

Lil' Techie

Alicia couldn't resist the temptation to play on the computer. Aparently she is quite adeptat it, because in just a few seconds she figured out how to rotate the desktop 180 degrees so it was upside down. I guess it is more fun to use the computer that way! I had to do a little digging to revert it back to normal. Of course, Sarah was right there with the camera to catch her in the act!

"Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam"

Adrianna moved up to the Sunbeam class in Primary this year. Sunday was her first time in class, and we are proud to say she did great! She was reluctant at first as she wanted to stay with me in my class and the 10 year old boys, but she reluctantly joined the younger kids in sharing time, where Sarah sat with her for a little bit. It is amazing to see your little girl growing up in so many ways.

Sitting Up

 

Alicia has begun to sit up on her own lately. She is starting to do this in her crib and it is very cute. She rolls onto her belly and then she backs up into the railing and pushes herself into a sitting position with her back against the railing. She can then move about a bit by scooting as she pleases. Pretty soon she will be pulling herself up to peer over the railing.

Family get-together

December 29th, 2007

To finish off our Christmas week we got together with my family at my parents house. Judith and Kai came up from Blanca, Kurt came down from Steamboat, and Tamera and Crew came down from Denver. We enjoyed seeing Kai as he has grown considerably, and it was nice to visit with everyone, we even managed a game of Settlers of Catan which David won. Thank you Mom & Dad for coordinating everyone and for having us over. Here's to a growing family in 2008!

Adrianna did such a great job holding her sister and her cousin Kai!


Cousins with their Tio David!


Kurt and his "A" nieces!

Tio y Tia Visit

December 27th, 2007

We managed to keep our Christmas week busy with something almost every night. Thursday we enjoyed having Tio David y Tia Vanessa over for the evening. The girls loved visiting, snuggling & wrestling, with their aunt and uncle. We enjoyed catching up and it was a nice evening, thanks for stopping by!

Boxing Day

December 26th, 2007

The day after Christmas we went over to the Fedele's for dinner. We enjoyed a very nice dinner, then we opened their presents. Yes, the girls are spoiled!! Thank you very much for the wonderful gifts!

Christmas Day

Sarah had a blast taking pictures of the girls on Christmas morning. After we opened the gifts we enjoyed a quick visit from Sarah's cousin Bobby, and some Holiday French toast for breakfast. The rest of the day we spent playing with the various toys and relaxing, we also watched the movie Joseph got "Pirates of the Carribean, At Worlds End."

The Simplest Toys

Sometimes the simplest things make the best toys. For Christmas Sarah got me a new Inflatable mattress for camping. This mattress is two twin size beds that join together to make a king or double up and even become a couch. Becuase they fold together they can be set up to make a perfect fort. Adrianna had a great time crawling through the fort, and she even stopped to let her sister try and to take a picture with all three of my girls.

Christmas Eve Dancing

Adrianna loves to dance! Usually when she comes downstairs in the morning her first statements are "I want to eat..." and/or "I want to dance." We have been playing a variety of Christmas music on the stereo downstairs so on Christmas eve after breakfast we put in some music and I couldn't help but dance with Adrianna. I soon realized that she has way more energy than I do, (and she is in better shape) as I had to stop halfway through the song and she just kept dancing. It was well worth the loss of breath to enjoy some fun Christmas eve dancing.

Stickers

After a doctors visit, Adrianna was given several stickers which she absolutely loves. In an effort to share them with her sister she adorned her sister with most of them. Alicia didn't mind the attention and actually went some time with these well placed stickers on her forehead, a few on her arms and some on her legs.

Oh, the joys of being a younger sibling (trust me I know!)

Snowball Fight!!!

This is our vicarious snowball fight for everyone to enjoy!

First Snow 2007

December 8th, 2007

I enjoyed playing in the snow with the girls, though there wasn't much snow at first it did accumulate later (after we went back in). Adrianna loves playing in the snow, it makes some of her toys like the roller coaster and the slide a little more exciting. Alicia bore with the cold and being bundled up for a few minutes but she soon did not want to put up with any more picture taking. Anyway here are some pics of our cuties all bundled up in the snow.

Christmas Dresses

 

December 16th, 2007

Here are Adrianna and Alicia all dressed up for Christmas.

Ballet Recital

December 15th, 2007

Adrianna has been doing Ballet for the past two months. We haven't been too sure if she was really into it because at the practices she was easily distracted and she didn't really like being told how to dance. Anyway, we think it really clicked for her when she got to perform on stage. She gave her best effort to follow the dance routine. They did two routines a ballet routine to the Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Suite Marzipan track, and a tap routine where the girls were dressed as rag dolls. Here are a few pictures:

 

 

 

Kurt and his nieces

 

November 18th, 2007

We went over to Grandma & Grandpa Terry's to give my father a priesthood blessing. Uncle Kurt and Zane, Tamera and Kyla were over as well. Here is a cute picture of Kurt and his nieces.

Christmas Flaps

December 14th, 2007

Alicia is pretty excited about Christmas. Sarah found this cute outfit that someone gave us and she couldn't resist dressing her in it. Alicia loves to flap her arms when she is sitting up, it is very cute. We are pretty sure it is part of the Penguin DNA that she inherited from Sarah.

All packed up and ready to go!

November, 24th 2007

After a few wonderful days in Tucson we packed up the car in order to head back home. Alicia was so tired that when I set her down in the booster seat to pack up the cooler she crashed, and crashed hard. To be that flexible and relaxed must be a wonderful thing.

On our way back we stopped in Phoenix where we were able to spend some time with Adrianna's first adoptive family. They live in Arizona now, and we had a wonderful time visiting with them and seeing how their children have grown. Adrianna had a lot of fun playing with the kids. We love them dearly and are so glad we have been able to remain in touch.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving trip, the weather was great, the company & hospitality was excellent, and the food was delicious, what more could you want.

Check out our elf family!

This is something fun for the holidays, enjoy!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1442259733

Great Grandparent's Williams

November 23rd, 2007

The day after Thanksgiving we went to visit my Gradparents on my Father's side, the William's. They have not had the opportunity to meet either Adrianna or Alicia. It took us a while to get in to see them because everyone wanted to see little Alicia. We had a very nice visit, though it was short, the girls got to meet their great grandparents. It was wonderful to be able to spend some time with them.

Slight blogging delay

Though I have not posted to the blog in a while, we have been busy as ever. I will try to get caught up this weekend so I will be posting some of our activities since Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving at the Montoyas

We made a trip to Arizona for Thanksgiving where we spent most of the weekend with Sarah's uncle and his family (the Montoya's). We had a wonderful time, and enjoyed some amazing food. We enjoyed wonderful 70 degree weather, we even enjoyed a fire outside with a vwonderful view of the city. The day after Thanksgiving we got to enjoy some soccer and we also made a visit to my grandparents (see the post above). In all it was a fun packed weekend. Thank you Montoya family for your hospitality!!

Bye, Bye Swensons

Our good friends the Swensons moved to Albuquerque, we had them over the night before they left town to say goodbye. Sarah made one of her signature penguin cakes for the occasion. Adrianna has enjoyed playing with their children Tyler and Ashlyn. We will certaintly miss them!

Great Grandma Belen

We visited with Adrianna and Alicia's great grandmother Belen this week. She was in town visiting Sarah's aunt and so we got to visit and introduce her to Alicia, whom she hadn't met yet. It was a nice visit and we were glad to get some pictures of the girls and their great grandmother.

Backyard Playground

We recently had our backyard redone. We never put sprinklers back there and with the drought and Mulder our grass was pretty ugly back there. It is a small yard so we decided to make it a playground for the girls and we filled the whole thing with playground mulch. Now Adrianna can enjoy her play sets and we can reclaim our deck.

A day in the life of Alicia Lynn

Alicia has got it very rough, at 5 months going on 6 months, she has a lot to do. Here is a glimpse of what a typical day in her life may entail.

• Breakfast - usually an early morning bottle between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. depending on when she chooses to wake up.
• Bath time - usually with her sister, but sometimes on her own.
• Play time - swinging, riding the roller coaster, toys, etc..
• Lunch - After a bottle mixed with Rice cereal, Alicia enjoys a variety of entertainment provided by her big sister Adrianna.
• Nap Time - Alicia sneeks a nap whenever she gets a chance. In her high chair, in the car seat, anywhere.
• Dinner & Bed Time - Yet another bottle, afterwhich Alicia enjoys a variety of mashed cuisine (yams, sweet potatoes, rice cereal, apples, pears, peaches, peas, prunes, etc.) Alicia ends her night with some relaxing time with mommy and daddy before a night of beauty sleep.

Halloween Costumes

 

 

Here are two last pictures of the girls in their Halloween Costumes, they are just so cute in them! Adrianna loves her Pooh outfit, and I must say Alicia is pretty happy as a penguin. Adrianna wore the Pooh costume to preschool on Halloween day, she said she was a scarry Pooh bear! Alicia was especially cute when she would kick and move her arms, it really looked like she was flapping her little wings. We had a wonderful Halloween, and we are now looking forward to the rest of the year and the upcoming holidays.