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Thursday, November 15, 2012

Prairie Play time! And a note about returning to work

 Yesterday it was in the 50's and sunny after I brought Sophia home for school, so I wrapped Kaia up in the Moby wrap and us 3 girls went racing out into the prairie in front of our house!
 Soph loves rolling around in the long grass!

 We decided to hop in the car and drive a mile up the road to an official prairie trailhead, as the sun was setting
 Sophia had grandpa's binoculars along and used them every once in a while to look for deer and coyotes :)

 Sophia likes taking pictures :)
We love the prairie! A sidenote for those of you who are wondering: I returned to work today and it went really really well! Kaia slept until 8 for daddy and had 2 bottles (of mommy's milk of course!) and slept all morning... Travis wore her in the sling and was able to get Sophia off to school with time to spare! I think he feels like superdad! I was greeted at work with hugs and kisses and jumped right into a big project... it felt awesome! Today I was blessed with having my cake and eating it too :)

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

First Snows!

 
We got snowed on yesterday! Okay we also had some snow while we were moving, but things were too crazy for snow pictures, so this is counting as our first snow this year :)
 As compared to 2011's first snow!
 2010
 2009
And 2008 :)

Photo Dump Part 2!

 As promised, a gazillion more photos! Here are some more baby faces :)
 In this one you can just barely see a dimple... Kaia has really big dimples!



Love those "over the shoulder faces" :)
 We were so thrilled that Kaia got to meet our Alaska friends, "Baby Levi" (who's now 3)
 And "Auntie Kari!"
 More sister snuggles :) There's a lot of that going on! Sophia is still fabulous with Kaia

 Tummy time...

 Some "Moby faces." The Moby Wrap is a long cloth that I use to tie Kaia to me... such a basic, genius concept. She spends HOURS in the wrap every day. It saved our butts when we were packing for the move!


 Story time :)

Travis chaperoned Sophia's school trip to NDSU's dairy barn at the end of Oct and took these pics!
 Travis said there are some facts about the dairy industry (see the adorable calf in the tiny hut above!) that should make us seriously consider veganism. We talk about it a lot... but haven't taken that step yet. Maybe some day!




 At least NDSU's dairy barn seems pretty awesome! There are worse places to be a dairy cow

 LOTS of sister snuggles!

 Another Moby face


 There's one of those dimples!

 Laundry :) Of course Kaia loves laying on clothes fresh out of the dryer! Baby bliss!
 Tummy time!
 First bottle! Kaia is taking the bottle well, which is great since I'm going back to work on Thursday. Kaia is six weeks old tomorrow the 14th!

 A lot of times Kaia will chill on Sophia's bed very nicely after we do the pre-sleep snuggle, which buys me time to do things like brush my teeth. I take advantage of every "break!" The pic above was one of the last snuggles in Sophia's Moorhead room.
 Somehow, in the midst of frantic packing, we managed to build a volcano with Sophia. We have tried REALLY hard to give Sophia an exciting and happy life during all of this crazy stuff!




 Check out the mess on the breakfast bar! We made this volcano 5 days before we moved!

 On Oct 27 AND 28 we all went to birthday parties for Sophia's classmates at Chuck E Cheese. These pics are from Elly's birthday on the 27th.


 This is the Moby wrap!
 Moving day: Oct 31st. Sophia's grandparents came down to Moorhead in the morning and helped us finish loading our stuff. We filled a 20 foot "pod," a 3-horse trailer, and an 8 foot U-Haul trailer. Wow. After loading everything Travis and I went and signed our house away. Then Travis went to work and I went back to Sophia's school with Carmen and Ralph and we enjoyed Sophia's class Halloween party! Sophia was a fairy...
 And Kaia was a baby dinosaur!

 After the Halloween party I drove with Sophia up to Grand Forks and we joined her cousins for Trick or Treating!




 Trick or treating at Great Grandma Mary's :)

 Grandma Mary holding Kaia and the next littlest cousin, 4 month old Hudson

 We weren't closing on our new house until Nov 2 So I lived in Grand Forks with the girls for 2 days, which gave us another chance to visit Grandma Mary on the 1st :)
 Here we are at the closing! Sophia was very busy with her own paperwork at the table. She drew a book about realtors :)
 Our new house key!

 
 Enjoying our first fire!

 Travis and Sophia exploring our horse pasture :) We have 10 acres just 20 minutes from the city! Yay!
 Sister snuggles in Sophia's new room
 A view of the prairie through our picture window (and the screened porch)
 It's hard to see, but there's a pheasant in this pic, between the trees! We have two boy pheasants and a girl pheasant nesting in the back yard. We also watched a bald eagle fly around our pasture yesterday, and today we enjoyed watching the pheasants AND 2 bunnies nibble on seeds that Sophia and I tossed in the backyard. Last night Sophia and I looked at the stars for the first time... they are so beautiful. I missed all those stars! We have a stunning night sky! (And it looks like the sun is rising to the west, but that's really just Fargo/Moorhead) :)
The sun setting behind our pasture. It's a pretty special place!
Margie greeting Kaia out at the boarding stable this week... hopefully she will be done healing soon and we'll be able to have her in the pasture in our own backyard!