Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Back to Sunflower Farm

Sunflower Farm closes its gates for the season on the last day of October, so at the very end of the month, we squeezed in a second visit with our friends Gretchen, Lyndi, and Miles. We just love this place, and will look forward to going back next year.

King Goat


Hiding Places


Dueling Turkeys


Two Princesses in their Magical Carriage 


Me and my favorite two and a half year olds


Peek!


Baby Chicks


Emily got to witness a barn cat catching and eating a mouse. Crunch crunch crunch!


Back to the corn house. 


Yep, Addie got to eat an apple in the corn house. She didn't contract any diseases.


A little bigger on this second trip, Elizabeth got to get out of the stroller a little more to do her own exploring.


Elizabeth watches Addie feed the goats.


Gretchen and Miles

Addie, Lyndi and Emily


Giant Lego Blocks, now these are cool!


Time for another pony ride! This time, the girls each got their own ride, and they rode all on their own!!


Cowgirl in training Emily




Cowgirl in training Addie





One of the very most exciting things to do at Sunflower Farm (next to riding ponies, of course) is the zipline!

Monday, December 16, 2013

November Fun

November was a busy, fun month for us. Here are a few of the fun things we did...

Painting! Many works of art were created during this painting session.



MumMums! Last month, Elizabeth was still content to munch on a MumMum for a snack. Now that she's tasted more solid foods, MumMums are a bit bland for her taste.


Riding Bikes! These bikes have been sitting in our garage for over a year. They were a hand-me-down gift from another twin family. Lately, Addie has been really into watching big kids ride bikes, and when she noticed that there were bikes in our garage, she started requesting a ride daily. Finally one weekend, we took the bikes down and rode around the back yard. Addie and Emily were so incredibly excited to ride their bikes. 

Elizabeth had a great time watching her sisters ride.



Addison is a bottomless pit these days, constantly asking for food. She'll come into the kitchen shouting, "EAT!" and when I tell her it isn't time for breakfast/lunch/dinner yet, she'll start jiggling the handle on the pantry saying "SNACK!" Within the last couple months, she learned to open the door to the pantry, and would go in and root around the bottom two shelves. I rearranged the food so that the bars and snacks were up a bit higher because she was getting in the habit of helping herself to a granola bar, either biting through the wrapper and spreading bar crumbs all over the kitchen or running up to me with a bar in her hand shouting, "BAR!" After Halloween, I bought myself some candy corn and had it stashed on the very top shelf, sure that it would be safe there. I was wrong...


Three girls in the tub!


We had some great warm weather in November, and started going on daily walks around the neighborhood. Elizabeth is big enough to ride in an umbrella stroller now, and when the girls saw that I was bringing their baby sister in an umbrella stroller, they decided they needed to start walking with strollers too. We had a little stroller walk scheduled into our daily routine for awhile there.
 


We made "Bottle Babies" from The Out of Sync Child Has Fun, a book Addie's speech therapist recommended for us.  The girls got to choose what color their bottle baby would be (naturally, Addie chose blue and Emily chose pink) and then they got to put googly eyes, sequins, seashells, buttons, and glitter in their bottles. I topped them off with a little mineral oil and sealed the tops shut with plumbers tape. They've had a good time carrying their babies around the house, pushing them in their baby strollers and grocery cart, and Elizabeth has had a fun time crawling to the bottles and rolling them while she studies the contents.
 


Really, what month would be complete without some good dress-up play?


Elizabeth got ahold of my sunglasses, and Addie showed her how to put them on.


And then showed Elizabeth what they look like on her. 


We had a picnic in the backyard.


We spent some time at EB Rains with Bree, Enslea, and Judah.


We spent some time up in Fort Collins with the Rices. Wendy and I got some amazing coffee at the Little Bird Bakeshop, and then all of us girls had did some great Old Town shopping while Dale was at school.


We had a visit from Jennica, Kaia, and Teeny Baby Boy Emmons ;)

Kaia's getting ready to be a big sister!

We spent lots of time with DeeDee, our number one all time favorite babysitter! Thanks for all the time you devote to this family, DeeDee!!


Elizabeth started standing to play. She still needs to be propped up (doesn't pull herself up yet) but she really enjoys being on her feet.


We had a little apple-themed fun. We cut a couple old mushy apples up, did some apple stamping, and then made applesauce!
 



Back in October, our favorite big kid neighbor, Berlin, who has given us some great hand-me-downs, gave us a Sesame Street nightgown. Addie immediately laid claim to the nightgown, and she wears it almost every night, unless it is in the wash, in which case she usually cries.

Elizabeth doesn't take a bottle often, but she surprised us in November with the skill of holding the bottle all on her own.

We had a bit of snow in November, and the girls loved getting all bundled up to go outside. The first day it snowed, Berlin came down to borrow a couple eggs, and she brought with her a pair of boots (to trade). The boots are three sizes too big for Addie, but she loves clomping around in them. I had found one pair of snowboots at a consignment sale a few months ago (Emily is very happy with these boots as they are PINK), and had been waiting to buy a second pair. I'm glad I waited, because when we get something from Berlin, there's no stopping Addie from wearing it.
 Elizabeth did not enjoy purees for long, and started eating lots of finger foods last month. She also learned the art of smearing food in her hair during meals.

Emily came down one morning with what I thought was blueberries smeared all over her face. As she came closer, I realized it had actually been a nighttime bloody nose, and I asked her to pose with the finger culprit.

The girls have been picking out their own clothes almost every day lately. Addie started picking her clothes all on her own, and always looks for something with blue. The best days are right after laundry has been done and there's a blue shirt to match with blue pants. She'll usually hunt through the sock drawer to find blue socks, too. One day she actually picked out blue undies too, so she was very literally blue from head to toe. Emily isn't as insistent on picking out her own clothes, but if she's in the mood to, she'll pick something completely pink. We own more pink than blue, so Emily is able to be pink head to toe even when we're getting close to the end of the laundry cycle. This picture was taken mid-laundry cycle, so Em had plenty of pink but Addie had to settle for her ballerina shirt (which she loves even though it's lacking blue), with her blue and purple striped pants.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Ho Ho Ho!

Sorry folks, this one just can't wait to be published in order. The girls got to visit with Santa this weekend at our Twins' Christmas party. What fun!

 
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Feeling Proud of My Dad

All my life, whenever anyone has asked me what my dad does for a living, it's been easiest to just answer, "He's a minister." But that answer is almost always followed by, "Oh, what church?" which is a harder question to answer.

I try to describe Saint James Urban, and I usually do so by describing the building. An old two story house in Downtown Denver. The second floor is the church, small, maybe 15 people most Sundays. Most people can wrap their minds around a church, even a small one. Most people have, at some point in their lives, gone to church, so there's a mental picture they can refer to when they hear the words "church" and "minister." So the second story of that house, even though it is very unconventional, is relatively easy to describe.

The main floor is The Network, a place for homeless people to gather, have coffee, play chess, get in out of the cold, have a conversation. People almost always ask, "So is it like a shelter?" to which I answer, "No, nobody sleeps there." But that's not exactly true, because there are a few guys who live there, and if they weren't living at Network, they'd probably be homeless. There are bathrooms, where folks can get themselves cleaned up. There are tables where people can sit down, take a load off, have a cup of coffee.

When I was young, walking through Network made my eyes burn and my throat squeeze shut because of the thick fog of cigarette smoke in the air. I remember the smell of coffee penetrating through that smoke. I remember a pile of books, lots of chess boards, tons of plants, a wall decorated entirely with portraits of Jesus. I remember dingy down coats with gnarled hands poking out of the sleeves, toothless grins, matted hair.

My grandma always volunteered for the Tuesday morning shift. The guys called her Mom and she'd give out peanut butter jelly sandwiches and haircuts. She officially retired a few years ago, but still goes in for an occasional Tuesday. Most of those guys are just looking for someone to listen, and I suppose my Grandma has been able to lend an ear.

 I can use these words to try to describe St. James and Network, but recently a video was made about Network that gives that visual I've always tried so hard to get across to people when they've asked, "What does your dad do?" I cried when I first saw the video. It's touching for sure, but it also feels a bit like a relief, like I finally have an answer to that question I've been asked all my life.



Network Coffeehouse from Wade Yamaguchi on Vimeo.