The Long Winter

We knew when we moved back to Iowa from Denver that we would be wimps about the winter weather, but these last few months have been brutal! Even people who have lived in Iowa for years admitted that this was an especially bad winter. We are very, very glad the cold seems to be behind us. We spent January, February, and March trying to find things to do inside. We attended several Hawkeye basketball games and even got to take Jack to a few. He loved watching both the basketball players and Herky. And Lydia usually stayed home with Grandma Jane or Grandma Janet, who didn't seem to mind missing the basketball game to spend more time with this precious face.

In January we got a visit from Uncle Jimmy for a late Christmas celebration. He brought matching "California" shoes for Teagan, Jack, and himself. Now if we could only get back out to California to wear them on the beach together.

In February we spent a weekend away at Honey Creek Resort near Lake Rathbun. The main attraction in the winter is the indoor water park, and it was a perfect place to spend a couple nights. Jack had a blast, and Lydia loved the water too. She is already warming to it better than Jack did, so it will be fun to get her in the pool this summer as much as possible.

A Merry Christmas to all!

Thankfully the winter weather has almost left us, but here are a few pictures to bring back some holiday memories. We got to see all of our family and spend lots of time with each other too since neither of us was working!

Fast Forward

Why, hello there! It's been a while! We had quite the busy 2013, and our lack of blog posts shows it. Since I will never get around to writing more detailed posts about the second half of 2013, here's a fast forward post to catch us up.

In July we took our first road trip as a family of four to Iowa. It went remarkably well. We gave Jack our old digital camera to keep him busy during the drive, and he filled the entire memory card in less than 12 hours! We had a lot of pictures like this:

And this:

But our budding photographer ended up with a few good ones:

After celebrating the 4th of July in Iowa City, we continued our road trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where we celebrated the wedding of our good family friends Travis and Marie Olsen. Then we returned to Iowa City for another week to see as many friends and family members as we could.

I went back to work in August. As you can see, the kids were skeptical that we could figure out how to function as a family of four with two working parents:

But we managed, and we even made it up to the mountains for Lydia's first hike.

We also made it to several Rockies games.

And at some point in there, Lydia found her feet!

Before we knew it, it was football season again.

Jack joined a munchkin soccer league, which was great entertainment on our Saturday mornings.

We returned to Anderson Farms this year to pick out pumpkins on a beautiful fall day.

By November, we knew we were moving back to Iowa. The next six weeks were a whirlwind of getting the house ready to put on the market, Thanksgiving, finishing up our jobs, and packing! We were lucky enough to escape for a wonderful weekend in Keystone over Thanksgiving, and we got to enjoy many of our favorite Denver activities one more time before leaving in December. It was very bittersweet, but we are so happy to be home. We celebrated Christmas with both sets of grandparents, and the kids have enough toys to entertain them for years to come!

Now that 2014 has begun, we have settled into somewhat of a rhythm. Jeff started his new job in the outpatient orthopedics department at the University of Iowa Hospital & Clinics just before the end of 2013. He is enjoying the challenge of a different patient population, and he really loves being back at the university. The kids started day care a few weeks ago and are adapting really well. They have each had their tough days but nothing that we hadn't expected. We are living with my parents until we find a house, which we hope to do in the next month or two. Just in the past week we have seen more houses come on the market, and we are hopeful that we'll find a good fit soon. I have loved having the past two months off work. It has been a luxury to take this time to get us moved and settled as much as possible. But my time off is coming to an end . . . next week I will start my new job as associate counsel at the University of Northern Iowa. I will be working on campus for two days a week, working from home for another two days, and then have one day off a week. It is a fantastic opportunity to not only work for a great school but also stay in higher education.

It's been a crazy six months, and we are looking forward to a slow and boring 2014! Thanks for sticking with us on this long post. Here's to a healthy and happy new year!

Happy Father's Day!

We celebrated Father's Day with our first "hike" with two kids. We walked a mile-ish loop around Lake Evergreen, which is just west of Denver in the foothills. It was a beautiful day and a great park. Jack walked, ran, rode his bike, and rode in the double BOB, while Liddy rode in the stroller or in the carrier. Needless to say we made multiple stops for position changes! It was probably the slowest mile I've ever walked, but it was lovely. We left the park just as the clouds rolled in and made it to a restaurant just in time to watch the thunderstorm from inside. We finished the day watching golf, putting the kids to bed early, and having a drink while watching basketball.

 

 

 

In other news, Lydia is starting to smile a little bit and she tries to make some cooing sounds. She's still eating and sleeping well. Last night she slept 8 hours straight! Unfortunately we didn't go to bed when she did, but it's still a fantastic development.

We had a great conference with Jack's teachers last week. The plan is to move him up to preschool in late summer/early fall. Some of his friends have already moved up, but there isn't room for Jack yet. They also felt that giving him a few months to adjust to the new baby would be beneficial. His language and what I call his pre-reading skills are developing well. They said that he is a really good leader in the classroom, always helping other kids and the teachers. That fits with how he acts at home and makes us very proud parents! He's also shown an interest in music lately--singing and memorizing lots of songs and playing the piano on his own. The challenge now is to cultivate all of these interests without overdoing it!

We can't wait to get both of our kiddos back to Iowa to show them off and let them gets lots of loving from Grandmas and Grandpas! Hope to see many of you when we're back!

Eating, sleeping and other bodily functions

Happy June! We are settling into life as a family of 4, and everyone's doing pretty well. Lydia is eating, sleeping, pooping, and spitting up, which seems to be kind of boring to Jack, but it's exactly what she should be doing! She seems a little more alert with each awake period, and she seems to be more aware of her surroundings. She continues to sleep and eat well--up to about five or six hours between feedings at night.

 

Jack is still a stellar big brother. It is amazing to us how much he dotes on Lydia. When he comes in the door after being gone, he immediately looks for her and runs to her to tell he where he was and what he was doing. A few days ago he woke up in the early morning, noticed that she wasn't in her crib because I was feeding her in the other room, and cried out, "I need my baby! Where did my baby go?" We've been trying to give him as much attention as possible, especially when we had family here to help out. On Friday we took him miniature golfing, and we had a blast. He was quite a putter, even beating Jeff and I on a few holes!

 

 

 



 

 

We finished up our month of visitors with a weekend visit from the Flemings. Grandpa Randy and Scott and Connor visited for Memorial Day while Grandma Jane got to stay for a whole week! It was such a blessing to have the whole family together. This was the first time that both Connor and Jack were old enough to talk to each other and really play with each other. It was really precious to see them become good buds and share their toys.

 

 

 

 

 

With Grandma Jane leaving on Sunday, we're now on our own! So far, so good as of day 2. We are so grateful for such generous grandparents to give up their vacation time to do our laundry, cook us meals, change dirty diapers, entertain our kids, and let us go out for date nights. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Up next: a trip to Iowa next month. We can't wait for Lydia to meet all of her friends and family in the Midwest!