New "Ellis" babies

I have always felt a huge blessing in my life to be an aunt to 11 special nieces and nephews. This year my joy keeps continuing by be being blessed with 2 new babies. I see the joy also in their grandparent's faces. 

Hope Voth is growing and changing every day. Georgann thought she even changed while they stayed with them this week. She is beautiful and a great baby!

Yesterday the Ellis family was blessed with another grandson Watson...he is a good looker too!! 

I feel blessed that my sisters have always let me share in their children's lives, now I am doubly blessed with their grandchildren!  Thanks for loving me, Aunt Cindy

Going to Work

The other day Cole was going to work with Marc. They had to run soil samples over to the lab in Dodge. 

Cole got all dressed for "work" with his boots and then ran back to his room as they were walking out the door and came back with a hat - just like daddy. 

Cole loves his daddy and daddy loves him!

Big Brother Cole

Big brother Cole sharing his toys and taking care of his little sister. So fun to watch!

Elsy Clothes

I love putting Hope in outfits I remember Elsy wearing!

Thankful for sharing clothes!

New Monitor

We were able to purchase a new video baby monitor with two cameras so we can see both kids simultaneously (or in succession) with the extra money received from the shower (that we didn't spend on the stroller). 

Marc got it set up the other day. It's been so nice as we have been spending more and more time downstairs. 

Hope is currently in our room next to our bed. She's growing up and waking up less and less in the night. Eventually, we plan to put her in Cole's room. 

Dad Goes to Denver

Marc went to Denver this past week for two nights for a meeting and brought back chocolate treats for both Cole and me. Yum!

(This is a caramel apple...healthier, right?)

It was my first solo nights with two kids and we survived! But we were glad to have daddy back. 

Hayride Tradition

On Friday night our sublette ladies bible study went on a hayride around town to see the Christmas lights. It was a fun time. Second year in a row - it's a tradition!

Here is Cole with his friend sterling on the hay. 

It's always fun to hang out with each other with our husbands and kids. I am so thankful for these ladies and the community we have.  Makes it easier to be so far away from my family!

Smiling Hope

A smiling Hope!

Mary & Janet Visit

Mary and Janet were able to stop by on their way home from Texas a few weeks ago. It meant a lot that they took the time to come. They were so helpful and thoughtful. We had lunch together and invited Carrie Collier (see "nice day picnic" post) to join us. 

Hope was asleep most of the time, but they did sneak in a little holding time. 

Cole really took to Mary, which was so fun to see! I guess she speaks his language. 

I'm glad they came!

C & C Came to Visit

Cindy and Charlotte came to visit when Hope was three weeks old. I don't know if I can adequately express how much help they were! It was wonderful!

They helped us rearrange our new furniture, reorganize our basement, take all the toys downstairs to the finished basement, took Cole on little trips around town to the park and library and rec center. They brought meals (and left meals) and let me get out of the house to go to my nitelites meeting. They cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and left the house tidier than they found it. It was so nice to have them here! What servant hearts!

And, of course, they loved on and took care of the kids well too. 

They helped us prep for and execute our first walk in the double stroller. Success! To the park and the post office. 

Here is our new set up upstairs. No tv and no big toy box. Seems roomier and a little less cluttered. 

Tree Hunting

What do you do when you want a real Christmas tree but no trees grow in your area?

Tree hunting southwest Kansas style:

Home Depot did us well, for another year. I'm grateful Marc puts up with and appeases my childhood desire for a real tree. 

I only put about 30% of our ornaments on because Cole lose interest and I kept thinking, for every one I put on it's one I have to take off. I hate taking down Christmas! The tree is cute and a good size for our space. 

Crackers for Everyone

I came around the corner from making breakfast to find Cole feeding the farmer and the cow. Crackers for everyone!

Some Fun Visitors

Mary - our former cleaning lady, that we became friends with, wanted to come by and meet Hope. She brought a gift for Cole too. Nice. 

Our friends Anna and Nathan came over with their son Benjamin, born two weeks before Hope. 

Some of Cole's best friends, Sterling and Savannah. They LOVE "Dana's baby", as the youngest, Savannah says. 

Hope's got everyone excited!

New Daddy

The sign of a new daddy: sleeping baby on his chest, examining my first pumped breastmilk "haul"

What a good daddy!

Pictures of Hope

I haven't been very good about getting pictures of Hope. Honestly, she sleeps a lot, which I'm not complaining about, and when she is awake she is usually eating or I am busy with other things. But here are a few recent pics. 

She started smiling this week!

Angel baby...

Her first Christmas party (with the nitelites)

Satisfied with "mama milk" - a great feeling for both of us. 

Multi-tasking

What do you do on a morning when daddy needs a lunch made and Hope needs help going to sleep? Pull out the baby carrier and multi-task! 

Everyone is happy and taken care of!

So grateful for my friends' foresight to get me this ergo carrier when Cole was born. I never would've thought to ask for one myself.  

Nice Day Picnic

Yesterday was our last nice day before the crazy snow storm weather came in today, so i made sure to take advantage of it! We walked to the post office and grocery store (and I made a huge discovery - my double stroller can fit in their doors!!! This was huge! It means I don't have to get the kids out of the stroller to go inside these places. Huge!!) and found Lunchables on sale, so we bought two and headed off to the park for a picnic. 

On the way to the park (the furthest one from our house, I might add), we got a flat tire in the stroller from a sticker puncture. Marc was down in Turpin pulling soil samples, the Voth's had left that morning for Olathe, and a few of my other friends were busy - but we needed a ride home! So, I called my new friend Carrie Collier* who has a lunch break and some freedom with her son at daycare while she works. 

She was more than willing to come rescue us from the park - but not before cole and I had a fun time running around the park together. Cole even went down the super tall slide he had been afraid to go down before!

Al put some green goop in the tires of my single stroller a while back to help with the seemingly constant flat tires. I'll ask him to do that for this one too when he returns. 

*Have you heard about this? Mary and Janet's friend David from Odessa, his daughter has moved to sublette. SUBLETTE of all places!! Mary got us connected. I really enjoy her. We always have a good time together and easy conversation. I just told her that it was unfortunate that she moved here right before Hope was born because I haven't been near as welcoming as I'd like to be (I remember the loneliness of being new to town all too well). She understands my dilemma - having a 7 month old herself.  

New Glasses

Grandma Ellis sent Cole some cool glasses to use to look at the tree lights.  He didn't waste any time trying them out. 

So fun to get mail!

Sidenote: notice all the little toys and Legos scattered about. Cole has really grown and changed in his play just in the past few weeks. He is playing on his own for longer, playing pretend and acting things out with his guys and building with the Legos. It's really fun to watch! Hope you get to see him do it sometime!

Our Baking Day

Let's blog! These posts won't be in order, but that's ok. I thought for a while that maybe I would just post things on the Burrichter Family Facebook page but then I got apprehensive that I was posting too much (which I know is silly but it stopped me from sharing). 

So, here we are today, while you all were having your glorious baking day (it looked so fun! I was sad to miss), we cut out some store bought sugar cookies after nap*.

The next best thing, right? Oh, and I don't have any Christmas cookie cutters so it was hearts and bunnies (which I think Charlotte gave me for my wedding).

*As a sidenote: it happens often these days that Cole and Hope will nap at the same time, at least for a bit. At first I was sleeping then too because I thought I was supposed to (and I think it was good that I did) but lately I've been using it to get the house back in order and I like that too. It makes me feel better the rest of the day. And, for some reason, I'm really not that tired - a lot less tired than I remember being when Cole was Hope's age. Not sure why.