Elizabeth's first week home was busy, busy, busy! From Lucy's many Battle of the Books meets, to Jon working and then leaving for Chicago, to lots more winter snow, I guess this is just a preview of what life is like with all these little rascals running around...
My mom has become quite the quilter in her empty-nesting days. She's sewn quilts for all of my babies, and each one of them is a special treasure and keepsake.
Here are Elizabeth's special quilts that Grandma Joanie worked on this summer and fall-- I think they turned out absolutely adorable! I love the princess and the frog applique, and the little birds are so sweet! Someday I'll have a house big enough to hang them, ha, ha. Thanks Grandma Joanie!
Also at home waiting for us in the mailbox was this AWESOME package from my friend Nicole who makes newborn hats and sets and sells them online as a little side business. I just about died over how cute they were, and how absolutely precious each one was! The top picture is the "Hermione" set made especially for Elizabeth-- and made Lucy almost cry when she saw it. And the Snowman set is just perfect for our little January baby!! I can't wait to get some pictures with these keepsakes!!
Elizabeth showing off her sweet little owl hat. See that almost grin?? She likes it too.
Lucy has been involved with her school's Battle of the Books this fall and winter, where specially selected kids from each grade (Lucy is the only one from her class) read and become an "expert" on three different books off of a list put out by the Parker public library. Then they battle other 3rd/4th grade teams by answering trivia about the various books. Usually the battles all take place before school, but their final battle took place after school, and parents were invited to attend. With me laid up at home, my mom was Lucy's cheering squad and got to see this final battle.
Here are the two teams battling it out and answering the trivia questions. They try to get as many points as possible by answering their questions correctly, as well as "stealing" the other team's if they answer incorrectly. Apparently Lucy's team crushed the other teams and had the most points-- and WON! Go "Lightning Rebels!" (their team name).
Thursday night I was feeling good, and the baby was doing great so we decided to take our first official outing. We headed to dinner at Crave for burgers and shakes, and Jon met us from work since the restaurant is in Castle Rock. Yum!
Zach is always game for burgers and fries! The baby slept the entire time, so it was a pretty easy first outing.
As I mentioned before, Lucy's team won the Wednesday night battle (along with another team who had the next highest amount of points), so then they had to battle that team for the school championship for their grade, and they WON again!! School champions!!
Here they are before the match. They battled in front of the whole school, so Lucy was pretty nervous beforehand. This time Dad and Grandma got to go watch. Now they will advance to the City Finals, where they battle 3rd/4th grade teams from different schools all over Parker. The battles take place at the library and will last the whole month of February, to then determine who goes on to win for the city. Pretty exciting stuff!
Sunday morning since we have 1 p.m. church my mom made Valentine sugar cookies with the kids-- well, just Leah since poor Lucy and Zach had come down with the cold that had slowly been working its way through the family. No fun having TWO sick kids and a brand new baby in the house! Leah of course was in heaven because not only were they pink with sprinkles, they were delicious.
Here they are, and now they're gone... They only lasted about 2 days and I think Leah snuck as many as she could whenever I was nursing. Smart girl!
Jon signed up last fall for a Dental Implant course in Chicago, which was pretty dicey when you think about it, considering how close it did come to the baby being born. But at the time it was just something that needed to be scheduled one way or another! He'd been looking at dates for over a year, and felt like it was a really important step in his professional development. A huge snowstorm (Winter Storm Kayla to be exact) decided to blow in right as he was set to come home Sunday night, and I was panicking that he'd get stuck in Chicago for 3 days as the storm raged here in Colorado. Thankfully, and what was surely an answer to prayers, my mom changed her flight and made it to Boise Sunday night while Jon made it back to Denver at about the same time, and I didn't get stuck with a newborn, sick kids, and 10 feet of snow all by myself. Phew!
Sure enough, the storm lasted about two days-- dumping most of the snow overnight Monday to Tuesday and resulting in school being cancelled yet again! The kids definitely weren't complaining! I think we had at least 1 1/2 to 2 feet of fresh, powdery snow. Jon took Leah sledding and she was THRILLED!
Meanwhile Elizabeth took a long winters' nap....
Lots of snow to welcome the month of February, as well as this little Colorado baby. I don't dare say it because I know I'll jinx us-- but I can't help but wish that maybe, just maybe this is our last big winter snowstorm for the year. Ha ha. Hopefully spring is on its way at last!
