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!