Aspen meets St. Nick

Last week we took Claire and Aspen for a visit to Santa. He had a real beard which Claire promptly noticed.

Aspen did not cry, but she was a bit unsure of Santa and she did not smile at him. She still enjoyed herself, she was just not going to share a smile....

The other day I asked Claire to stay in the bathroom with Aspen for a minute so I could go get Aspen's clothes....this is what I came back to...At first Claire got in to help Aspen get a toy, but then she got her arms a bit wet and then she decided she might as well get the rest of herself wet! Aspen thought it was fun.

Well, that is all for now, just a quick post, but I wanted to get the Santa photo on here!

Happy Thanksgiving !

Happy thanksgiving to you all!! This was Aspen's first and she was delighted to eat turkey and a whole lot more! We flew to Utah to visit family for the holiday and had a great time.

We ate Thanksgiving dinner with Brenda's numerous family members. We managed to get a family photo, you can barely see Aspen sitting halfway up on an Uncle's lap and Claire is sitting behind Brenda and David.

Claire was so happy to spend lots of time with her cousins. I got some cute photos of Claire and Aspen with their girls cousins on David's side.

I captured some cute photos of Aspen playing with Brenda's 3 brothers: at the piano, with her brother's dog and with one who kindly offered to carry Aspen while we were shopping.

We also got to go skiing several days while we were in Utah and had a fabulous time. One day we went with one of David's brothers and his wife and another day we took one of Claire's cousins and taught her how to ski.

Here is a video of Claire skiing that Brenda took while on skis as well. We really had a fantastic time skiing. Claire kept trying to convince Brenda to strap Aspen to Brenda's back and carry her while we skiied as she saw someone else doing that. Brenda was not thrilled about the potential of Aspen getting hurt, so we let her stay in playing with her Aunt Natalie inside. We'll start teaching Aspen to ski when she is 3 like we did with Claire. Here is a photo of Claire skiing down the mountain!!

Aspen is now 10 months old and she is getting busier by the moment! She just cut her first set of molars, she now has 8 teeth and she still likes to chew on everything. She is almost 18 pounds, and she has dropped down into the 25 % for weight for babies her age and height. She is 28 inches tall - which puts her in the 80% for babies her age!! She can climb the stairs quite well, but has not figured out how to get down... here are some cute photos of her.

Here is a funny story about Aspen. Often when I feed her in her high chair, I take off all her clothes except her diaper as she is so messy. Shortly after Halloween one day I fed her, and when she was done, I set heron the floor in the kitchen for a couple minutes while I was washing off the tray as it was so sticky...She managed to open the pantry door and found Claire's plastic pumpkin with candy in it and knocked it onto the floor. I heard the noise so I turned to look. I let her play with the contents that spilled as the candy was all individually wrapped and she liked the noise it would make when she'd pick it up. So I turned back to the sink to finish washing the tray. A minute later I hear Aspen making happy sounds like "MMMM", so I turn to look, and she had managed to get the wrapper off a lolipop!! She was quite enjoying her find! It was too funny, so I grabbed the camera quick before I took away her lolipop. You can see the end of the stick in her little hand.

Here is a cute photo of Claire and Aspen playing in the beautiful maple tree in our front yard, it's just the perfect size for little kids to climb in without giving mom a heart attack.

Claire has been busy this fall with a year round swim team. She is really enjoying it and earning lots of ribbons. Claire is such an awesome big sister, she loves little Aspen so much. She has nicknamed her "Pip" which is somehow short for "little sis". She begged us to let her take Pip for a stroll the other day even though it was so cold!! So we did and we all had fun!

Claire does not let me recycle the baby food glass jars, she likes to paint them and use them for her many "projects" she is always inventing.

Here are a couple photos of Claire playing with Aspen, which Aspen loves!This fall we also got to visit some friends in Colorado

and we got to take Claire downtown with us one night to see the Broadway musicial called "Wicked", we all enjoyed it so much, especially Claire.

That is it for now, but I'll post again soon with some Christmas photos. We wish all our friends and family an enjoyable, memorable, safe holiday season!!

Fall Activities and Adventures

Every fall we visit a pumpkin patch to choose a pumpkin to take home. This year was extra fun with baby Apsen in tow.Claire tried pulling her around in a wagon, but she just wanted to crawl around, she liked all the hay. It was lots of fun to play there and enjoy the beautiful weather.Claire used her own money to buy Aspen a tiny baby pumpkin, whuch Aspen promptly put in her mouth!

Here are some snapshots of Aspen. She just had so much fun!

Claire decided she wanted to be a "Pumpkin Queen" for Halloween (don't ask me to explain how 8 year old girls come up with these ideas...) and Aspen would be her "costume accessory", a little pumpkin. Come Halloween night, Claire was so excited to walk around with baby sister - the pumpkin, (she was afterall, Claire's costume accessory). We made it to about 4 houses before Aspen was falling asleep in Claire's arms. So David and Aspen went home to greet trick-or-treaters and let Aspen rest her tired little pumpkin body, and Claire and I hit the streets, minus her 'piece de resistance', much to Claire's dismay. She quickly perked up though when her bag started filling with candy.

One Saturday Brenda and David went with some friends on an adventure - hiking, climbing and flying through the forests in Georgia (a belated birthday gift for Brenda). Here is a video of our wild, crazy and fun day!

We also got to go to Miami for a weekend, all 4 of us. David had some work there and we went along for some fun. Claire got her hair braided and got to have fun on a trampoline. And of course we spent time at the beach and at the pool. It was a fun weekend getaway!

Farewell to Grandpa

Just a few hours before our wonderful day on Oct 3rd, Brenda's paternal Grandfather, age 94, passed away. We were not entirely surprised as Grandma had died just 5 months earlier, and he was so lonely without her. Here are some photos taken with Grandpa and Grandma last year.

The timing of Grandpa's death was particularly hard for Brenda's Dad, as he was in town visiting us and thus was not there with his father when he died. It appears Grandpa died from injuries sustained from accidentally falling out of his recliner chair. Dad spent several hours almost every single day the past 2 years visiting Grandpa, so I am sure Grandpa was keenly aware of Dad's love, care and concern for him. Grandma and Grandpa both flew out to be with us 8 years ago when we had Claire sealed to us, and he was excited for us for our day with Aspen. So after our wonderful weekend with our dear family and friends, we all 4 flew off to Utah for Grandpa's funeral.

It took 2 days from the day Grandpa fell until he died, and the day after his fall, he said to the nurse attending to him, "I think I am a dying man, what do I have to do to get a piece of apple pie and some vanilla ice cream?" So off the nurse went, happy to try accomodate what was to be his final request. She went to the cafeteria to ask the chef if there was any apple pie by chance. The chef just that morning had decided to bake some pies, and had to decide between making apple or cherry and had decided on apple, so out of the oven came some hot, fresh apple pies! The nurse, quite delighted, ran back up to Grandpa to bring him his request. Grandpa was so grateful and he enjoyed his final piece of pie! He finished the pie and ice cream, thanked the nurse for helping him, and then he turned to the wall and waited, as if he expected to pass away right at that moment. It was only a few hours before he began to slip into sleep and his vital signs began dropping rapidly and within a few more hours he was gone. He was surrounded by 4 of his 5 children, and by Brenda's oldest brother representing Brenda's father. They all said what a sweet experience it was to be there. An Uncle later likened it to birth, that we don't know exactly when it will happen, how long it will take, or whether it will be painful. But it is part of the beautiful, amazing circle of life, and we were all blessed by the man that slipped peacefully away at that moment.

It was really good to be with family again, despite the circumstances. The funeral service itself was beautiful and peaceful. Brenda's Dad gave the eulogy for his father, and it was heartwarming to be reminded of what a wonderful man he was and of all the good he accomplished in his life time and the legacy he and Grandma left behind.

It was a freezing cold day, so the grave side service was short, but wonderful. At the graveside Brenda's brother Orrin the 3rd (named after Grandpa) played Taps on his trumpet.

Grandpa was honored with a flag ceremony by some representatives of the US Armed Forces,

and then they gave the flag to Brenda's Dad with a final salute.

Here is a photo of Brenda's Dad and oldest brother, both named after Grandpa.

Here is Claire at Grandpa's graveside with Brenda's sister Natalie. When we were making plans to go to Grandpa's funeral, Claire had to make a decision if she wanted to go to the funeral, or stay home with David so they could attend a Daddy-Daughter dance that was scheduled for the same weekend. She thought about it for a bit and then told us that although she was really looking forward to the dance with Daddy, she knew it was more important to go and be with family. She is go grown up for age 8.

We all enjoyed being able to spend unexpected time with siblings, cousins, parents and Grandparents.