Santa

Santa came to visit Sara's day care.  All the kids got to meet Santa and sit in his lap to tell them what they want for Christmas.  As you might imagine the bigger kids were the most excited and swarmed Santa.  The babies on the other hand were not so sure about this Santa guy.

Sara who normally loves everyone and cries about nothing was not so sure about sitting in Santa's lap. They captured one of her looking less upset but personally I prefer the classic kid screaming in Santa's lap photo. It feels very traditional.  Santa gave Sara a small stuffed penguin from the North Pole.  The dogs have already claimed it as their gift.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving.  Grandma Susu, Grandpa Greg, Aunt Madeline and her boyfriend Zach, Robin (Ellis Cousin), Great Aunt AJ, and Great Grandma Donna all came up to Idaho to spend the holiday with us.  We rented a beautiful cabin is Cascade, ID not too far from the lake.  We have Susan's organizational skills to thank for such a well planned trip and Grandma Donna for leading the way on all our delicious foods.  We just had a great time all together.
Grandma Donna even stayed home with Sara and our dogs so the rest of us could take off to enjoy an afternoon at the hot springs.  I sure do love hot springs.

Grandma Donna and Sara play together

Sara was one happy baby the whole week.  Who wouldn't be with 9 adults to tend to your every need and desire

Aunt AJ and Sara

Sara and Moxie cuddle

Everyone (minus AJ who took the photo) at the cabin.  yes it was named "Rustic Luxury"

First Foods

Sara started to eating solid foods a few weeks ago.  At first she was not very interested in food and hated most things we let her try.  She even shuddered in disgust after trying avocados. Just in time for Thanksgiving, Sara decided that food in fact was delicious and is now loving eating regular meals.  She eats lunch at day care and eats dinner when she gets home.  She is still mostly getting her food from milk but starting to eat more and more. 

Her favorite food is squash and apples. 

She also enjoys kale, apple, banana

She often gives us big smiles at meal time

She hasn't totally mastered eating though and is still working on what is food and what is not. :)

Yaya and Grandpa Visit

I'm several weeks late but in late October Yaya and Grandpa John and their 4 dogs came to visit for a few days.  We had a nice few days together.  Sara was much more crabby and needy than normal so while we wish they got to visit with the usually happy Sara, Ellis and I were grateful to have extra hands around.  Plus grandparents think your great no matter what.

 We think Sara might have fussy because she was teething.  She enjoyed some time sucking on the cool granite

Grandpa and Sara spent several hours reading her new cloth book.  She love that book.  Thanks Yaya

All 6 dogs made themselves quite at home. 

The dog cousins enjoyed some chase and started a mini landslide on the hike

We enjoyed a beautiful fall walk with all the changing leaves

 Sara and Mom

Grandpa and Sara switched hats for the hike.  What a grandpa won't do for the amusement of a grandkid

Bath time

And since I'm so late, one photo from Halloween.  Sara was a Strawberry. 

Fall

I haven't been very good at updating the blog lately so this post will be a bit of a catch up of the last month.  So here goes...

Sara hung out with her buddy Johnny who was born in August but is almost the same size.

 

Sara discovered the fun of toys.  Her cousin Caroline sent her this one as she loved it too.

 

Sara watched some football

 

and ate some wings and drank beer...oh wait just milk

 

Sara got a new Colorado sweatshirt so she could support the right team and not wear that embarrassing Oregon State hat anymore

 

Sara learned to roll over and now uses it to roll across the room. Moxie is her tummy time coach and often lies down with her

 

We took some naps

 

We went with our friends to the fall fest and grabbed a few photos of Sara and Rex.  For a 2 year old and a 5 month old they were pretty cooperative

 

 Sara learned to read...ok just learned to flip the pages of her favorite cloth book

 

 

Sara got a new clothes to prepared for winter.  She is ready to be a snow bunny

 

And of course we took lots of family walks. Its really fall her now

Baby Adventures

We have had quite a few baby adventures in the past few weeks. We have really been enjoying the end of summer with its much more reasonable weather.

Boise has a hot air balloon fest that we woke up early to go see.  It was amazing how many people got up before dawn to go watch.  It made me really glad to live in such a family friendly city.

Ellis and Sara at the balloons.  Sara looks a bit overwhelmed. 

Sara had a chance to go to her first birthday party.  Her buddy, Rex, turned two.  Sara was a little crabby at the party, perhaps because we made her wear the silly hat. Ellis is making a sad face since she was crabby.

One of my favorite things to do as a kid was to go to the pool.  Sara and I went to the pool twice earlier this summer so I wanted to go one last time before it got cold.

Sara in her yellow polka dot bikini

We have been asking Sara what she wants to be when she grows up.  Currently she is practicing to be a dancer.  We haven't had the heart to tell her she will be way too tall for that. 

Both Ellis and I love to be outdoors and to camp.  Its always been a big part of our summers so we decided we needed to go camping at least once this summer.  So we crossed our fingers and headed into the mountains for some camping with Sara.  We went to one of our favorite car camping spots which is just a few hundred feet from a hot springs in the river.  Overall, we had a great time. Sara had a few breakdowns at night but nothing too out of the ordinary.  I think camping with a 4 month old is probably a lot easier than a mobile 1 year old. 

One advantage of nursing and camping is you don't need to bring food for baby. 

Sara and I getting in touch with nature, nursing on stumps and rocks 

no camping trip is complete without a very dirty child...

 ... or one sleeping peacefully in a sleeping bag

 Sara enjoying the evening by the fire. She had to wear a hood to avoid the bugs.

Back Home

We traveled back home a few weekends ago for a friends wedding.  It was also a great chance to see everyone and introduce them to Sara. I did a terrible job of taking photos... again. I guess we were having too much fun to think about photos

We were a little nervous about how Sara would do with the plane but as usual with new things she just went with the flow.  I don't think she made a peep the whole flight.

Friday night we enjoyed an evening with Grandma Susan and our friends came over for a little while to meet Sara.  Saturday morning Jackie and Ben hosted a lunch so we could see their apartment and we could all spend some more time together.  Laurie was able to come up and meet Sara which was so great.

Jackie and Sara cuddling

Saturday night Ellis and I headed off to our friend, Melissa's, wedding.  Grandma Susan agreed to watch Sara for the night so Ellis and I enjoyed our first real night out alone.  We had a great time...some of us (me) might have had too good of a time. 

Sunday afternoon we headed up to Grandma John and Yaya's house.  It was exciting because it was the first chance that the cousins would meet.  Caroline was born 12 days after Sara so it was so much fun to watch them together.  I think they will have a lot of fun together when they get older, and likely cause a lot of mischief.  

As usually with trips home, they are never long enough and you never feel you get enough time with everyone but we were grateful for our time back home. 

3 months old

To help adjust to day care and work Great Grandma Donna came out for a week.  It was great as it allowed Sara to continue to just go to day care for 1/2 days while I went back to work full-time.  Sara had 3 weeks of 1/2 days and started to go full days this week.  Sara continues to do well in day care but this is not a huge surprise as she is a very mellow and adaptable baby.  Generally if she is feed she is happy.
When Grandma Donna was in town we enjoyed a picnic with Ellis work one night.  We accidentally all ended up in somewhat coordinating outfits.  We also enjoyed a night out at one of the new restaurants in town which was fun.

Mostly we stayed home and spent time together and got used to getting up in the morning to go to day care. Grandma Donna is so great with Sara.  They spent hours together just talking and playing.  We caught this picture of them talking and smiling together. 

Sara also turned 3 months old.  Here are a few photos from her 3 month photo shoot. 

I also had to include this picture because if Sara is ever fussy one thing that almost always works is to put her outside on the deck.  I'm not sure if its the heat or being outside but it makes her happy.  So while we cook  or eat in the evening Sara often hangs out on deck.  Don't worry the kitchen and the deck are connected for those wondering. :) I'm starting to worry about winter.