Springtime in the rockies

This spring brought about many opportunities for fun and loads of changes! We had a visit with my parents around the time of Luci's birthday, Sprout House for spring break, riding a bike with no training wheels, Easter egg hunts, the end of Pre-school and a trip to Grand Lake, CO.  As always, we were surrounded by much love and wonderful experiences.

Luci's last day of Pre-school was a bittersweet moment for all of us. We love Blue Mountain Montessori and would have loved for her to stay but the price of full time Kindergarten at BMM is just out of our budget. We feel excited about her next chapter and definitely are excited about having a 14 yr old babysitter for the summer~

Princess Anna and a birthday celebration

February marks a great time of year for us. Nana and Papa visit and we celebrate the "Goose" with a  birthday celebration. She is very much a princess herself and loves to celebrate with other royalty.  This year was no different although the theme was inspired by a little something called Frozen.....perhaps you've heard of it?

If you are like most households of small children you have no doubt spent hours belting out "Let it go" or a favorite of ours, is "For the first time in forever" the duet version! No room for self consciousness here, you just have to grab the nearest remote control or whatever can double as a microphone and join in the song. Pickelicious and I had a serious routine for a few months each night where we didn't read any stories, but rather we acted out these two songs. Exactly like they are in the movie.  We did get to take turns being Anna and Elsa.

I really like going overboard in the party planning and decorations. Maybe it is because I need a creative outlet or maybe it is because I am so influenced by my surroundings...whatever the case, I LOVED transforming our little house into a winter wonderland. My little Princess Anna, really enjoyed herself and her friends had fun too! It is so hard to believe that 5 years have passed since this incredible gift came into our lives. 

Stories with Anna

Games with Anna

before the madness

The food display

no sugar food..haha

One happy little Pickelicious

A January like no other...

January started off with our return back to Co from our family visit for the holidays. We were happy to home and enjoying some of the snow. And then my phone rang.

I was sitting at my desk on Monday January 13th when I received a call that you never want to receive. A friend of mine from California called to share the news about our friends daughter suddenly passing the day before. In an instant, I couldn't breath as I choked on my tears and my heart was ripped out of my chest thinking of the pain of my dear friend M.  We shared our wedding planning- getting married 1 day apart; announcing our "early" pregnancies at the same time; we shared our baby registry and all our up's and downs of being pregnant. Our daughters were born a week apart, we had our first playdate after the hospital with them, and we had our final playdate with them the day before we moved away. How could this be? How could something so awful happen to a family that had so much love to give and are wonderful parents? I am sure my friends will wonder this for the rest of the their lives and I don't mean to make their grief in anyway about me. We share in their grief and feel that loss every day when we see our beautiful daughter. 

I was able to fly to So Cal to be there for the services which were beautiful and gut wrenching. I wanted to be near my friends and to support in any way I could. There was no cause determined for the reason for the death and that was very hard- not knowing. The news would come a few months later that little B had passed because of an infection had attacked her little heart. 1 in more than 1 million die from this. This was truly unbelievable. 

I returned home and it took me a good few months before I didn't shed a tear at least once a day thinking of their family and the hard road in from of them. If my sweat pea has so much as a sniffle I'm ready to trek over to Children's hospital. I think I will be that way forever. Forever changed. 

I have to say, we have lived away from OC so I didn't really know the little girl that B had become.... she was barely 2 when we left but the stories I heard and how the family described her is no surprise. You could see that twinkle in her eye when she was little and I see that twinkle now when looking up at the stars shining in the sky. 

She will be missed by so many ~ more than words can say. 

Holidays 2013

So it would appear that I am good for update about 1 time a year. That is so crazy because I actually spend the better part of my days sitting at my home office desk in front of two computers all day. It has been a super busy year so here I am in August sitting down to do some updates for the year.

I want to start with looking back at our holiday break with my family in Santa Rosa. As usual we spent about a week in town visiting with the family.  There was something different in the air this year as I knew it would probably be our last holiday with my dear grandpa with us.

Grandpa has been mentally and physically deteriorating the last year and we saw a pretty steady decline in 2013. He has a hard time remembering anything happening in his daily life but can still remember the war (WWII) like it was yesterday. This year, I really wanted to make sure we spent enough time with him that I could leave in January to go back to CO knowing that he knew I loved him and how much my life has been enriched by him being a huge part of it.  I made sure to bring Luci with me to visit my grandparents every day. We would spend an hour or so just talking and being together.  Luci really seemed to take to Grandpapa (she always has)... as she would sit right next to him and hold his hand and talk to him. He would smile, pat her hand and say things like "well isn't she a cute little thing" & "I sure love you". I'm not entirely sure he actually knew who she was but he knew he loved her and he told her often.

I was really looking forward to Christmas Eve & Day as this year would really be the year when Luci was excited about Santa coming and not afraid that "some big man comes into our house while we are sleeping"... that didn't sit well last year.  We had so much fun wrapping presents and getting the cookies and carrots ready for Santa and his reindeer. We set up our camera to capture that jolly guy in the action and the girls were blown away in the morning when we showed them the video of Santa bringing their presents during the night!

From here, things went a little downhill. The flu made a nasty appearance. One by one, people started vomiting. The worst was Isa vomiting all over Luci while they were asleep in bed. Luci didn't even wake up until I had to pick her up and put her in a shower to get everything off of her. It was awful. Poor Isa, was so sick and felt terrible about throwing up all over.  We were able to relocate Luci & Isa into separate spots, get everyone cleaned up and back to sleep. The only two people who didn't get sick were Luci and me! We were so lucky.

Louis and I got a day on our own to see some friends wine tasting! We drove a few hours and met up with Natalie and AP and had an awesome time.

After this crazy week, we flew home to Colorado to settle back into the snowy winter and to prepare for Luci's upcoming birthday.

the boys celebrating Pliny 

Louis's own trail

The view from my parents is always amazing

Claire I mean Sophie our elf (Maybe a new name this year)

Sleeping sweeties

cousins

2nd cousins

Lagunitas

good friends

Gigi and Grandpapa

Princess Party and a Snow Storm

Goodness... where do I begin? The last week of February was our little munchkin's 4th birthday. How the years have flown by! It seems like only yesterday we were reading the test in disbelief! Since the "little pickel" (Luci's pet name) is a dress up fanatic it seemed only appropriate to host a Princess Party!

Princess Belle was the chosen one and I had a great time reading pinterest for all things Belle. I had just been laid off from Apple therefore I had the whole week free to shop, and make the decorations.  My mom came into town and contributed her design skills to putting this all together.

The day of the party was a massive snow storm. In fact, we weren't sure Belle could make it but what a trooper she was. Rode in her horse drawn carriage miles and miles to be here. We were so glad she did.



Happy Birthday Goodies



 

Royal faire



Princess Cake Pops!

 

Cupcakes!!!





Meeting Princess Belle and receiving an Enchanted Rose



Face Painting



 

Ring around the Rosie



One Happy Birthday Girl!

Coming up next.... Letter to Luci

Sicky...

Is there anything sadder than a little sick kid? Really I am not cool and collected during sick times. I have to admit to constant temperature checking and hovering.  Poor little munchkin woke up with a fever yesterday of 103! Out of the blue.  We spent the day hanging around, getting fluids down and generally chilling out. She We had a rough night! Up from 1:30- 4 am. Little girly was wide awake chatting away and wanting me to lay in bed with her. I refuse to bring her into our bed- not going to open that door for as long as possible- so there I was laying with her. We had to change pj's since she was so hot and sweaty- so sad the little munchkin.

Finally at 4 am she fell back to sleep! Phew. Of course I still woke up as usual at 7- damn internal alarm clark. She seems in good spirits today but still kicking around that fever! Boo.

A little cat nap on mama's shoulder

2012 Fall - Winter Round Up

I always have the best intention of writing something on a regular basis and then life happens and several months pass before I sit down again to share. I was thinking about how I could do it differently, to ensure I capture all these precious moments. I think I will try to literally mark it on my iCal for Monday mornings to take 15 mins to write about the prior week. Seems to be an easy adjustment to make. I have a little catching up to do so here goes........

Since the fall when Luci started school, it seems like we've had so much happening. She took about 6 weeks to adjust to life outside the home and then she clicked! She LOVES her school and has made some very close friends in Lucy and Morgan. She has flourished. She is becoming quite the speed demon on her skut bike (balance bike) and I completely attribute this to her exposure to other children. She is coming out of her shell and isn't afraid to try new things. She is still but most accounts very similar to me in terms of her demeanor... meaning she isn't going to do anything too crazy but she has an adventurous yet cautious spirit. She really enjoys her time with Daddy and they have their special things that they do together.

Halloween was super fun and beautiful outside! We had Minnie Mouse for a 3rd year! I have to say she does make a cute Minnie but I can't wait for a new costume! We have become quite the entertainers here and we hosted a pre-party at our place. Had some dinner and then headed out for the trick or treating. It was not a very busy evening, we had weeks before had a pretty tragic event locally involving a little girl so I think people stayed home.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our next door neighbors K, P and C. The girls put on dancing and singing shows and they managed to skip most of the meal and find the hidden cupcakes in the kitchen before we knew they had. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful family next to us. In fact, we have several wonderful families all within walking distance. Lots of little girls in this neighborhood.

We went to CA for the Christmas holidays and got to see my extended family. My parents and brother/niece have been out to visit but we hadn't seen my grandparents, aunt and cousins in an entire year. Luci had such a great time playing with the cousins and this was the first year she really got into the story of Santa... (kinda). We celebrated my upcoming 40th with dinner at John Ash and Luci stayed with GG and Grandpapa. She had so much fun with them and GG said she spent a lot of time holding Grandpapa's hand and just being with him. I hope one day she will remember these times with her great grandparents! Such a rarity these days. I have some sweet photos of them together.  Luci tried ice-skaing in December both in Boulder and at the Charles Schultz ice arena in Santa Rosa. The place in Boulder is like out of a movie. Outside under lights and so sweet. Luci did great. She did better when she was skating by herself! I can't wait to take her and her friend Claire again. After 9 days of mostly rain, we came back to CO and enjoyed some snow!

I really love it here in Colorado. We all do. The weather, the people and the lifestyle are really wonderful.  Luci went sledding for the first time which I can say isn't her favorite activity. In her defense she was just getting over the stomach flu so poor little trouper hung in as best she could. We made it two runs before I chimed in with my own case of the flu... right there on the side of the road. Luci responded in her cute voice "mommy you have the same sicky as me"! Fun times. I will say it was a wonderful weekend at "the cabin" in Grand Lake with our friends- just the girls. Hopefully next time we will be healthy and may even try out skiing. That is a good catch up for now. I have pictures below. Next up... the BIG bday.

official school picture

Luci doing some work

her balance bike

Halloween at the Erie Trunk or Treat

Sledding with Emma

Beautiful view from our friends cabin at Grand Lake

hugs for cousin Isadora

GG and Grandpapa

Holiday family pic

ciao for now. xoxo