Last night we spent last night making our own Christmas tree decorations. (We have only a handful of real decorations). It was pretty fun. I thought the decorations would be cheesy and silly on our tree, but I think it looks cute. :) Raine was super excited because she got to use scissors and glue! A very big treat for her, she feels so deprived not getting to use scissors that whenever she has a chances that's all she wants to do. :) Raine was in charge of hanging the decorations on the tree, which she really enjoyed. Grami Tami gave us a nice tree, it is actually our first tree bigger than 2 ft tall. And it already has a pile of presents under it for Raine from Grami Tami. We also made super chocolate cookies for Dan's work cookie bake off. Raine loves to bake (she thinks everything requires a cup of butter, cup of sugar and a mixer). She loves licking the beaters more than eating the cookies.

Raine Reading

Raine loves to read to Jasper (the boy I nanny for now) and I. Here she is reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear. Usually she just reads the pictures and makes up a story, but there are a few books she remembers the words to pretty well. :D

Raine was going to do some signing in this video but once I turned on the camera she decided to talk about dinosaurs.

Halloween Fun

We had a great Halloween and hope all of you did as well!! We went to the Children's Museum and the Aquarium for their Halloween events and then trick or treating to a few houses on our street. Raine had a blast! She really got the hang of things this year. She said "Trick or Treat" at most of the houses and kept pointing out houses to ask if we could trick or treat them.

Raine and I did the trick or treating pretty early so that we could come home and hand out candy. It was our first year that we had trick or treaters. I bought 6 bags of candy and we ran out around 6:30pm! I felt bad that we had to turn out the lights so early, I guess I shouldn't have been so generous with early in the evening (I was giving kids one of every kind of candy). :)

Happy Halloween!!

It has been a little while since our last post... sorry. We were so happy to have the chance to go to Utah for Heith and Haiden's birthday party! We had so much fun and loved spending time with everyone! I will post photos of that later (they are on Dan's laptop).

Last night Raine and Dan carved our pumpkin from Grammy Tami's house. They had a lot of fun, it was super cute to watch. :D Raine keeps telling me that the pumpkin is a girl, named Pumpkin (NOT JACK! as Dan had been calling it) and it is hers! She was so funny, she didn't want to touch the slime at first but soon enough she was playing in it. Raine designed the face of our pumpkin this year. Dan asked her what she thought he should look like and she drew a big circle with big circle eyes and a big happy smile.

Vacation Utah

Raine and I are having fun with Grammy Tami and everyone in Utah right now, Dan had to stay in Denver and start his new job. We really miss him and wish he was here with us! We have been to a carnival, played in the creek, to Gardner Village, to a brand new temple, the children's museum, a parade, the Air Force museum and lots of fun things. Raine LOVED the carnival! She rode everything like such a brave girl! Her favorite was the dragon roller coaster, which I don't have any pictures of yet because they are on my phone. Aunt Kuki won a little kitty cat for her, I think she has named him Freakado after her real kitty. She climbed a tree, rode a horse and hugged a goat at Gardner Village. Oh, and she was licked by a lamb. She wasn't too impressed with the parade because she wasn't quick enough to get any of the candy tossed our way. But she thought the airplanes were pretty cool.

As we toured the temple she was so good and asked lots of questions (about the chandeliers and things of that nature), she wanted to sit on every chair in the temple and ride the "alligator" (elevator). I think her favorite part was the beautiful "swimming pool". She was very worried because she wasn't wearing her swimming suit and she really wanted to get in! When we got to the sealing room she wallered all over the altar and when the speakers asked us to take a silent moment to reflect and absorb all that we had seen and learned she said, "neigh-ha" (yep, that is a donkey noise)! At least she wasn't throwing a fit, right?

She had a great time at the children's museum I think we could have spent a week there and she wouldn't have been ready to go! She loved playing with the castle that had horses and fairy figurines. She flew the fairies around on horses for quite a while. They had some really cute houses from all over the world to see fun different cultural things. She also got to milk a cow, feed a pig and a lamb a bottle and ride a wooden horse.

Life in Denver...

We went to the park for National Get Outdoors day and they had so many fun things for Raine to do. She hula hooped (well, she tried, the hoop was just a bit big), she learned how to put out a camp fire, made a bead bracelet that is UV activated to remind us to put on sunscreen and as you can see she climbed a rock wall. I was so proud of her, she was so brave. She really wanted to climb the wall and so she braved getting into the harness and getting hooked up to the ropes and lines and gave it a good try. She got scared once she was all hooked up, mostly I think because she is so tiny the line was pulling her up faster than she could climb. We'll have to try it again soon. :)

We gave our little Freakado to Grandma Nina and Aunt Barb. We weren't sure what our living situation would be in the coming months so we thought it best to give him a proper home. Plus, it was becoming clear that Raine is not ready for a small pet. She was a little rough with him. Something I find very strange because she never picks on Mo. So, Freakado is happily spoiled and we still get to see him every now and again.
In other news, Dan got a new job! He will be testing software and things similar to what he was doing in Phoenix. We are super excited about this opportunity, it seems that he will have opportunity for growth in this company which wasn't really available in Phoenix. So, we are going to be staying in Denver and not moving to Utah like we previously thought.

I have already quit my yoga teaching jobs and I believe they have filled my spot. So, I am looking forward to exploring Denver with Raine. Maybe we will do swimming lessons again. I think I will wait until we know where we will be living until I start yoga job hunting again. (The house we are living in is still for sale, so who knows when we will have to move). That way I can get teaching jobs close to where we live and not all over the city like I have been doing.

We have also been going to the aquarium whenever we get a chance. My mom got a membership, so we get to go free whenever we want. You are looking in the adorable face of a little Ray. These guys are Raine's favorite part (because you get to pet them!). The first few times she was really timid and wouldn't touch them with out help, but I took her last night and she was nearly jumping in there with them!

We are looking forward to the family campout for 4th of July. It will be Raine's first time camping! I hope it doesn't rain the whole time!

New Family Member

We have a new member of the family... I know some of you may be hoping for a new baby, but it is just a kitty.
We went to Alamosa for Mother's Day and Grandma Trisha gave Raine a cute little kitten. Raine named her new friend Freakado. I'm not sure on the spelling, but that's what she calls him.

We hope all of you had a wonderful Mother's Day! I am truly blessed to be Raine's mother! And I am so grateful to have all of you in my life! We are sending our love to all of you!