Weekend Fun!

It's been a little while since we've done a post and we've done some fun things the past two weekends, so I thought it would be fun to put up some pictures. Two weekends ago, we had fun playing games on Friday night with our friends the Hreinson's and the Palmer's. On Saturday morning I was giving Kathryn a bath which has become difficult lately because she wants to grab anything in her reach. This can be a problem at bath time since she can reach the faucet. :) Anyway, I asked Drew to come help me and this was his solution...

In case you can't tell, that is his sweatband around her. It actually worked pretty well :)

That afternoon we went to look at some apartments because we are wanting to save some money. We had seen an ad for our apartment complex offering much lower rent, so we decided to check on that, too. To make a long story short, we signed a new lease for an apartment in our complex just like the one we're in now, minus the newer carpet, countertops, and paint, for $230 less than we're paying right now. We couldn't believe it and feel really blessed that we could do that. We're also very happy our apartment search is over. That evening, we went with our friends Deborah and Jaran to Boulder to try out a burger place that one of Drew's co-workers suggested. It is called Larkburger and they take pride in using all natural ingredients and eco-friendly packaging. Their cups are made from corn and their utensils are made from potatoes-so they're called spudware :) (Of course it all looks normal, but it's cool to think about what it's made of.) Anyways, the burgers were really good and they also have delicious garlic fries and shakes. YUM! It was definitely worth the trip.
After we ate, to make the trip even more worth it, we decided to take a leisurely drive through the mountains. It was really pretty and we even saw some wild animals...at least Deborah thought we did...until we found out the "wolves" she thought she saw were actually dogs :) But that's okay. On our drive, we passed through this tiny town called Nederland-population 1,394.
There was a sign on the side of the road advertising a movie showing of "Knowing" at their community center.It was about 10 minutes before it started, so we decided to go in and see it. The movie was pretty good...at least until the aliens came in, but that's okay. It was fun to go to a movie again and especially in such a unique place. It reminded me of all the small towns in Iowa. Kathryn did really well during the movie too. It's always fun to do something spontaneous.

This past weekend, we went to the Park Meadows Mall for a date. They had a traveling exhibit there about the Titanic which was really cool to walk through. It was amazing to see all of the things they've been able to recover from the site where the Titanic sank. They had things like cuff links, money, a bathroom faucet, a mirror, clothes, bags, and a bunch of things that were made out of paper or cardboard. We couldn't believe that all of that had lasted for so long under water, especially the paper things. At the beginning of the exhibit we were each given a boarding pass with a passenger's name on it. Then at the end we saw if our person had survived or not. I was a first class passenger from Europe and Drew was a third class passenger from SCRANTON, PA (If you watch the Office, you'll know why that is so cool!) :) He didn't survive, but I did. It kind of reminded me of the movie Titanic. Anways, it was cool too because they took our picture...
After we looked at the exhibit we ate at a burger place at the mall. It was pretty good and they had amazing sweet potato fries--Yum!

Then on Saturday, we went downtown to participate in the MS (multiple sclerosis) walk. Drew's mom and my cousin have MS and so did my uncle, so we wanted to go support the cause. Unfortunately the website had some bad information and we got stuck waiting for 45 minutes in a high school parking lot for a shuttle to come pick us up. We finally made it over there as the walk was ending but we still had fun walking around and checking out the booths.
That night we made truffles! It was fun, pretty easy, and they turned out so good! We did 4 different flavors-plain chocolate, raspberry, orange, and almond butter. We're already excited to make them again!
Well, if you actually read that whole thing, I am impressed. Maybe we'll bring you some truffles the next time we make them :)

Easter Weekend

We had a really fun weekend celebrating Easter. On Friday night, we "tie-dyed" our Easter eggs (thanks to Drew's sister's cooking blog-www.ourbestbites.com) with some friends using silk ties and scarves we got from The Arc (thriftstore). It was really fun and they turned out pretty well. Here are the ones we brought home...
And this was our favorite...
Then on Saturday afternoon, Drew's aunt had an Easter party at her house. She had a lot of fun activities including a dyed egg contest (I don't know how we didn't win with our cool eggs) :), an Easter egg hunt, and a delicious dinner. Kathryn woke up from her nap just in time to find an egg.
It was fun to hang out with everyone there and Kathryn and Caleb (her 2nd cousin who was born the day before her) had a lot of fun together. Even though he's bigger than her, she didn't let him pick on her :)
On Sunday, the Easter bunny came (yes, not until after church, but he DID come). Kathryn had fun exploring her basket and we had fun taking pictures of her in her Easter outfits.
It was fun to celebrate Easter, and good to remember the reason for it. We are thankful for our Savior and for the sacrifice he made for us so that we can be forgiven of our sins and be resurrected one day. We hope you all had a great Easter as well.

HAPPY EASTER!

Skiing at Copper Mountain

Last Thursday Drew and I finally went skiing for the first time since we moved to Colorado. We got a 2-for-1 pass so it was hard to resist. We got lucky with perfect skiing weather which was nice since Drew had to plan his day off a couple of weeks in advance. It was between snow storms, so it was a little overcast with some fresh snow on the ground. Unfortunately I ended up with the worst sunburn I've ever had on my face because I forgot to put on sunscreen. (I apologize to those of you who saw me that night-it was not a pretty sight!) We had a lot of fun, though, and it was great to be back on the slopes. We hadn't gone skiing together for 2 years since I was pregnant last year, so it was fun to go together again. Here are some pictures...

G-Jonny

My oldest brother, Jon, died two years ago today. He was only 37 and his death was very sudden. I’ve been thinking about him a lot and wanted to post a few pictures and write a little about him. He was 12 years older than me, but I’ve always looked up to him and admired him for many reasons and I have a lot of good memories with him. He was a very genuine and sincere person and always tried to live life to the fullest. Whenever I think of him, I think of how happy he always was and how accepting he was of everyone. He found happiness in some of the simplest things of life and radiated it to everyone around him. He was a great husband and father and made sure his family new he loved them not only by telling them, but showing them. He always made me feel important and was interested in what was going on in my life. While I was on my mission he took the time at least twice a month to respond to my weekly e-mails. When Drew and I got married, Jon and his family couldn’t come, but he still called that morning to congratulate us and see how everything was going. And now I can see hints of him in different expressions Kathryn makes. I miss him a lot and sometimes still find it hard to believe he is gone. But I love him and am so thankful for what he taught me and for the example he left of loving life. When I remember him, I want to be a better person.

Jon and his wife, Sanni

Jon and his family

The summer after Jon died, I got to babysit their two sons, Samuel and Christian. They are such sweet boys and I loved my time with them...

Samuel and Christian

Snow Day!

We had an awesome snow storm here on Thursday. Drew came home from work early so we took Kathryn out to play in the snow. It hasn't snowed very much here this winter and we had never taken her out when it had, so we were excited for her to experience it. She seemed kind of confused and very cold, but had fun. So here are some pictures of us and our little snow angel...
Since we found out how much Kathryn likes exersaucers when we were in Dallas, we started to look for one for her. I found one on Craig's List that is almost brand new and was pretty cheap, so she has been having a lot of fun in it. She gets so excited in it, it was hard to get a picture of her that wasn't blurry. Here's about the best I could do...
We also took Kathryn in to get weighed on Friday and she had gained a pound since last Tuesday, so it looks like her new diet is working :) Yea!

Kathryn's New Weight-Gain Diet

As you probably know, Kathryn is definitely on the petite side. We joke about having given her a complex because ever since we found out we were having a baby we've called her "Tiny". However, for a while we have been a little concerned about how small she is. She has always eaten regularly and well (at least we thought so) and has been developing normally in every other way, so we figured she was fine. She was only 11 lbs (3rd percentile) at her 4 month check-up but her doctor wasn't overly concerned about it, so we thought it was okay. Well, she had her 6 month check-up on Tuesday and had only gained 1 ounce since her 4 month check-up! I was really surprised because I thought she had gained at least some weight over the past two months. Needless to say, her doctor was surprised and concerned as well. She had me feed Kathryn there and then we weighed her again to see how much she ate. She only ate about 4 oz, so the doctor said she was probably just not getting enough to eat. But just to make sure nothing else was wrong, she sent us over to The Children's Hospital to get her blood and urine tested. This made for a rough day for Kathryn because she had already gotten 4 shots at the doctors office and then had to get poked 3 times in the heel to fill the 3 vials of blood they needed. She was quite a trooper though, and even smiled for a picture to show off her cool stickers the nurse at the hospital gave her.
Our doctor called back on Wednesday and told us that the tests came back normal so that was a relief. This meant that Kathryn's lack of weight gain is most likely because she's not getting enough to eat. I feel really bad because I've always thought she was eating well and enough (she usually stays on for 30 or 40 minutes) and she's always seemed satisfied when she's done, but I guess I'm not making enough milk. So I've started supplementing with formula at every other feeding and we'll go in sometime next week to check her weight again. She's been taking the bottles well, so hopefully we can plump her up in no time. If only we all could have this problem :)

Our trip to Texas!

A few months ago we found a great deal on plane tickets to Dallas, so we jumped on the chance to go visit family. My sister and her family just moved to Dallas and Drew's brother and his family live in Houston. Drew was able to stay for a week and then Kat and I came home a few days after him. We had a lot of fun and Kathryn enjoyed hanging out with her cousins. While we were in Dallas we went downtown with Sarah, Mark and Adriana for an afternoon. We had fun walking around and we also toured the 6th Floor Museum (where Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK from).
The next few days with them we had a lot of fun mini golfing, flying kites, going to a glass blowing shop, playing games, and just hanging out.

All of us at the botanical garden in Grapevine...also a great place to fly kites :)

Kathryn had a lot of fun with Adriana and they were fascinated by each other. They have a couple of matching outfits, so it was fun to dress them as twins...

While we were in Texas, Drew made sure that Kathryn didn't get out of practice with her great talent of balancing on his hand. She loves it and is really good at it (well I guess Drew gets a lot of the credit) :)

We spent a few days in Houston with Drew's brother and family. We got to see their 2 oldest boys, Clayton and Isaac, in their school program about Texas, for "Go Texas Day". Clayton sure knows how to shake his little booty in the chicken dance :) They also took us downtown to see the aquarium. It was really cool and fun to ride the train through the shark tunnel. They took us to dinner there as well. The food was so good, but eating seafood in an aquarium was a bit strange :)

Drew, Isaac, and Brigham in the sting ray tank

It was really fun to see all of them again. Kathryn and Clayton formed an instant bond which was really cute. He was so sweet with her and she loved anything he did to entertain her -especially peek-a-boo.

Kathryn and Clayton

Kathryn with Brigham, Clayton, and Isaac

While we were in Houston, my sister and her husband closed on their house. So after Drew went back to Colorado I helped them move in. It was fun to get to see their new house and Kathryn and Adriana loved having more time to play together. Adriana showed Kathryn the ropes on her exersaucer, which Kathryn absolutely loved.
My parents also came to help and it was really fun to get to see them again...
Kathryn did a great job with all of the traveling (until she threw up all over the place on the last leg of our flight home--I'm just glad no one was sitting next to us!) Here she is, as happy as can be, in Denver before we flew out.
It was a great vacation and so nice to have some warmer weather for most of the time we were there. I even got to come home to a clean apartment thanks to my sweet husband. :) Thank you, Sarah, Mark, Adriana, Nathan, Emily, Clayton, Isaac, and Brigham for the great time! We miss you!