Cookies on the Deck

When Sue and Larry came out for their ski trip in March, Sue brought homemade sugar cookies. The kids LOVE them. They live in our freezer, and only come out for very special occasions. On Monday evening after the zoo, Chris took Emily sock and shoe shopping, in hopes of finding socks and shoes she would be willing to wear. I knew they were going to get some sort os special treat, so I brought Addie and Elizabeth out to the back deck and gave them each a CeeCee cookie. They were so excited!

Did you know there's a certain order in which a sugar cookie should be eaten? First you take off all the toppings!

A neighbor gave Elizabeth this big kid bike last summer. It lives on our back deck, and sometimes she climbs up on it and pretends to ride. She's so excited to be a big kid!

This was our cookie-eating view. Not bad! :)

Beauty in the Sky

On October 11th, Emily looked outside and announced that we all needed to see the sunset. We sure did, it was absolutely amazing. The brightness of the colors mingled with the crisp fall air and the song of the crickets to create an absolutely magical landscape. While Chris and Elizabeth finished up dinner, the big girls humored me with some poses in front of this fantastic backdrop. Their smiles turned to total silliness which had us all belly-laughing. What joy!

PS, I named these photos October Sunset, and when uploading them to the blog, some year-old pictures popped up that had the exact same name. I looked those up and found that a year ago it was still Emily who brought our attention to the sky. Click here for a little flashback. 

An Evening with Dee Dee

Elizabeth spent the last few days in June in the hospital with pneumonia. It was incredibly scary, and it was awful to see her feeling so miserable. 

The silver lining is that she and I got to spend a few one-on-one days together at home after we got home from the hospital. Chris and the big girls took the scheduled flight to Michigan, but Elizabeth and I postponed travel for a few days to make sure she was healthy.

We spent the first evening with Dee Dee, and Elizabeth just soaked up all the attention and beamed.

Seriously cute little ham

Mmmmm, fresh summer fruits blended with ice and vodka. Not bad.

Trying DeeDee's sugar-rim

She had some raspberries with dinner. Can you tell?

Seriously hamming it up

Elizabeth showed DeeDee her newest trick of laying her head back in the tub

Is there anything more darling than a child's wet eyelashes?

Mowing the yard at sunset

A Gorgeous Colorado Sunset

The other night, the girls were playing out on the deck while we finished up the dinner dishes inside. Emily came bounding in, telling us to come look at the sky. She is my sky watcher, always noticing the colors of the sunsets, the shape and color of the clouds in the sky, whether a moon is present - during the day or evening, and what shape it is. She predicts rain often when she sees dark clouds, and usually her predictions are correct. She loves puffy white clouds, and likes looking for shapes in the clouds. I love this about her, because I feel like sometimes we all get so busy, it's hard to remember to look up and appreciate the beauty that is constantly looking down on us. I love that she is always reminding me to look up.

Beautiful girl with her beautiful sunset

Elizabeth kept pointing at the sky, saying "touch touch" She wants to touch everything new and beautiful.

Elsa gloves, they're nearly always on

Have you looked up today?