Road Trippin' to Arizona!

Hello all! Maya, Wyatt, and myself will be driving out to Arizona for some visit time, and for Autumn's baby shower! Here is our tentative schedule of events. If you'd like to squeeze some visit time in here, please let me know so I can make it official!

Friday, April 20th - Leave Colorado Springs at 3am. Drive to Albuquerque for breakfast @9am. Get back on the road by 10am. Arrive in Prescott around 4pm-ish. Collapse from exhaustion and toss the kids at Granny.

Saturday, April 21st - Go shopping for last-minute baby shower stuff with Mom. Hanna, do you guys want to watch the kids? Mom & Dad (Ristig)? That would be helpful.

Sunday, April 22nd - Wake up bright and early, and head up to the Grand Canyon with all the baby shower food/decorations in tow. Baby shower from 10-2pm. Clean up, and spend a bit of time enjoying the canyon with the kids. Maybe hang around and have dinner with Dan and Autumn, then head back to Prescott.

Monday, April 23rd - Load up the kids bright and early, and drive down to Phoenix. Crash at Dad's house. My plans fro the next two days depend completely on my Dad's schedule. He said he'd get it to me as soon as he gets it in the next day or two. I'll post it when I have it! Karaoke is in order for either Monday or Tuesday night, though!

Tuesday, April 24th - Hang out with friends/ family. Spend another night in Phoenix at Dad's.

Wednesday, April 25th - Wake up bright and early and drive back to Prescott. Have an early dinner at Oliva's? Streets of New York? It would be nice to get the whole family together for a meal. Those are always good fun!

Thursday, April 26th - Wake up at 4am, and hit the road! Stop in Albuquerque to eat at 10ish. Hit the road again at 11am. Home by 5pm, with any luck. If anyone has a wild hair to drive home with me, you are more than welcome to join me. The drive would be so much more pleasant with an extra body in the car. Particularly one that isn't whining to get out of their car seat! :)

Happy 2012!!

We spent our New Year's Eve at a new friend's house. Our friends Tom and Erin had a little shindig at their house, and we brought the kids. They have three kids of their own, including a little girl about Maya's age. We played Apples to Apples, drank champagne, and chit-chatted the night away. The kids stayed downstairs for the most part, playing with toys and watching TV. Maya had a blast!

Maya stayed up until 12:30 when we drove home!! Wyatt passed out in his little pack & play at around 10pm. It was a fun night, and I look forward to spending lots more time with all our new friends in Colorado.


I made a couple resolutions. First, I want to make homemade meals more often.Pete usually cooks on the weekends, so I pledged to make two completely home-made meals per week. That means nothing from a box or frozen bag. All fresh, and made from scratch! I also want to eat more veggies and less meat.

My second resolution is to teach Maya her lower-case letters, her numbers, some commonly used sight words, and her months. I got a freebee calendar that I cut up, and we're going to hang it on her bedroom wall today. That way, she can have a better grasp on the abstract concept of time. She just couldn't understand why it was taking so long for Christmas to come, so we're going to do a little countdown to important holidays like her birthday and Easter.

Pete didn't make any resolutions. At least, no that I'm aware of. Party pooper!! ;)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

December in Review

This month, we had a permanent house guest! Santa sent a scout elf to our house to watch over Maya and Wyatt, and report back to Santa on the status of their behavior. He also brought us a book, which instructed us to give him a name. After going through a long list of names, Maya finally chose the name Gus. I was pushing for Elfred, but she wasn't having it! Every night, Gus used his Christmas magic to fly back to the North Pole where he reported to Santa, and then played with his other elf friends. The next morning, he flew back to our house, and would find a new place to sit and watch the kids. It was our job each morning to find him! On Christmas Eve, Gus flew back to the North Pole with Santa. We sure do miss him, and hope he comes back next year!!



Maya got to visit Santa at the mall. We were lucky enough to be there on the same day he was visiting, and the line wasn't even that long! Maya told him about the red bike she wanted, but he already knew she wanted it. Gus told him!


Since the weather was getting kinda chilly, and Maya's hats were getting snug, I decided to pop for the cutest hat in all existence for her! I saw it at a consignment store, and used almost all my trade to buy it. Totally worth it! She looks like a little rainbow gnome. Cutest. Hat. Ever. I took some pictures of the kids, and one ended up being to main photo on our holiday card.



On December 5th, we drove up to the Denver Waldorf Academy to check out their Winter Festival. I'm part of a group of parents here in town working to open a Waldorf Charter School, and I wanted to go to a Waldorf school to check it out. We sure did get a taste of winter, that's for sure! It was DUMPING snow on us all the way there. I'm glad we went, though, because that school was awesome! Maya had lots of fun doing the crafts they had set up and playing in the indoor gym. She also went in to a room just for kids, and got me a Christmas present! I had to wait until Christmas, but loved my new bracelet she picked out. It was super cute!



I also had my birthday! I turned the big 3-3, and Pete made me a delicious meat cake. We had a lovely dinner, followed by going out to see The Muppet Movie. It was an awesome day!



A couple days before Christmas, we got a BUNCH of snow. We'd bought a little sled this summer at a yard sale, so we cracked that puppy out and took Maya sledding down our hill. The cars were nice enough to pack down the powder, so the hill was nice and slick. We also made a little snowman who Maya named Happy. Maya wanted to make snow angels, but once she laid down in the snow and realized how deep it was, she changed her mind.








Christmas morning was so fun this year! I was sad we couldn't be with family, but I was really excited that Maya could anticipate and enjoy Christmas morning. Plus, I went overboard for Pete this year, and I knew he was going to have an awesome morning! He got four D&D books, two funny t-shirts, a bow tie, and a shotgun! Thanks and much gratitude go out to Ken for helping me make the shotgun a reality! You are awesome!! Of all the gifts Maya got, I'd say she liked her tea set, tricycle, and Rapunzel the best. My favorite gift was the little bracelet Maya gave me. I also scored some pretty sweet moccasin slippers I'd been coveting, and LOTS of chocolate. :)

November in Review

In early November, Maya, Wyatt, and I were all still in Prescott. We visited with Nana and Papa, played on the swings in their back yard, and went to Oliva's for some pollo fundito. Yum!








We spent another couple days in Prescott. The kids got to visit with their cousins and Aunt Hanna while I did homework, and had fun playing at Grammy's house and with their Uncle B.O. Wyatt scored a handsome scarf his cousin Emily made for him, and Maya got her nails done at the salon with Grammy!


















When we got to Phoenix, we spent some time at Grumpa and Grandma T's house, then went to visit cousins and Aunt Amy at her house. Maya had lots of fun playing in her garden and bunny, and Wyatt liked giving footie high-fives with his Aunt Amy!

















We spent the next couple weeks just hanging out and visiting with local friends. We skipped doing a Thanksgiving feast this year, which is so unlike me! Instead, we got an early start on Christmas shopping. I went Black Friday shopping alone, and scored lots of great deals. I found a Target close by that is kinda tucked back a ways. It was awesome not standing in a 50-foot line!