St. Patty's Day

We could always count on our friends Matt & Tiffany Hall to throw a St. Patty's Day party.  They did still throw their party this year but unfortunately we don't live by them anymore so I carried on the tradition.  We had some new friends over and celebrated they way they do, with Ruben Sandwiches.  They were good, not as good as Tiff's, maybe I'll have to get the low down on how she does it for next years party.  

Kiersten has adapted a eyes closed smile for most of the pictures these days. 

Nathan helped me make Cake Pops, can you tell he was excited to finally eat it?

Me and my girl

 A perfect shot of her new smile

 Love this boy

 Family pic

 Daddy's with the kids

My Babies

A few pictures of my babies

Sharing a snack off the floor

 Nathan's first snowman, thank you daddy!

 Nathan is obsessed with his train conductor costume, that's Kevin under the blanket

 Morning snuggles

Red Rocks Amphitheatre

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of checking out a here cool place about 30 minutes from our home in Parker.  It's called Red Rocks Amphitheater. (http://www.redrocksonline.com) It's this semi man made Amphitheater built into this awesome rock formation.  They have concerts there throughout the year (can't wait to go to one) and people are working out there on all the off days. It's a really neat at beautiful place. 

Kiersten is ONE!

When we planned our first visit out to CA, we decided to plan it over Kiersten's first birthday.  It worked out perfectly because Brooke (Kiersten's cousin) turned 3 two days before so we had a dual birthday party.  I'm wondering if this may become a tradition.  It was really fun!  Thank you to everyone who took the time to make it to her party, it was so great to have you there!

The first year with Kiersten has been such a gift.  We were blessed with a perfect little baby.  She took naps easily and slept through the night from a early age. After having a terrible sleeper with Nathan during his first year, this was a GREAT blessing!  She has such a fun spirit and is happy almost always.  Her torticollis has gotten better.  It's not gone yet and she's still in therapy, but it's SO much better and we are so grateful for that.   She has been on the move since she was 5 months old and she started walking right before she turned 11 months.  She is so fast now.  She is a go-getter and a wanderer, so much different then her brother.  She loves her freedom to roam anywhere. She loves her daddy and runs to him as soon as she hears the door open after work each day, it's so sweet.  She loves her mommy too and manages to hang on my legs each night and whine as I try to make dinner.  She says Da for Daddy, Ma for Mommy, and Ba for Ball, but it is quickly sounding more like ball each day.  I think she is going to be a little athlete.  I just cannot wait to watch her grow into the person that God created her to be.

The party was a cupcake theme and it turned out so cute!  Here are some pictures from her party.

Kiersten's first 12 months

 Kim and David heated their pool for the party, it was so fun to swim outside in February! It's the little things now that we live in CO. 

 The cupcake station was a hit!  The kids loved decorating their own cupcakes. 

 Hard at working making their treat

Nathan enjoying his treat

Some party guests (cousins) enjoying their lunch.  Kim made a great spread and mom made breadsticks for 4 days!  Haha!

My cousin Jon's son McCade, who's six weeks older then Kiersten. 

 Sydney holding Kiersten.  Kiersten loved her hugs. 

 A snack before the party for Kiersten

 I'm very upset that I didn't do a better job getting pictures of Kiersten with all her relatives.  We did get a few though.  Aunt Kelly and Uncle Tom

 Uncle Kyle

 Grandpa and Grandma Evans

 Nathan and Aunt Grace

 Kiersten LOVES the water.  

CAKE TIME!

 Can't believe our baby is one!

 She liked it.

 This one cracks me up!

We finally made it in the pool.  I think Nathan and Kevin were in there for 2 hours. 

Made it back to CA

After a long 3 months in Colorado we finally made it back to CA for our first visit. It was a great time with my family and our friends who we have missed so much.  

We stayed in Pasadena for 3 days and then headed down to San Clemente for what was supposed to be about 15 hours and turned into a few days.  There was the biggest snow storm of the winter since we moved to Parker and we missed it.  The bonus was we were able to stay in CA for a whole extra day and enjoy the beautiful weather that came with it.

Pasadena was a GREAT time.  We stayed at Kim's house and the kids did great sleeping and being portable during the trip.  

The first day we hung out at my mom's house and had IN-N-OUT for dinner (YUM!). 

Sydney LOVES Kiersten and would hold her all the time.  Kiersten loved it too!

The second day was Brooke's birthday and what a fun day that was.  We went to Griffith park and Nathan rode his first horse and rode a train, then we had TOPS for lunch (YUM again), and later we went to the Americana in Glendale which we had never been to before.  It was a really pretty place and Nathan LOVED it.  There is this great water feature in the middle that he really enjoyed.  We ate at Cheesecake Factory which is always delicious.  Nathan and Kiersten loved the mac n' cheese and ate it all.  Let me tell you it was a huge serving!  After dinner we walked around and rode the trolley.  For those of you that know Nathan anything that resembles a train makes him one happy boy.  

Our first morning at Kim's (Brooke's B-day)

Aunt Kim bought Nathan his first Chai (milk and 1 pump of Chai I think)

 Grandma love

 Nathan on his horse

 Fun at Griffith Park

 Playing with Brooke at Cheesecake Factory

Americana

 Missing Abbey in this picture

The third day we went to DISNEYLAND!  Nathan had been talking about it since we moved to Parker and we finally made it.  It was a fun and long day.  A big bummer was Small World was closed. Nathan loves that ride but I was really looking forward to talking Kiersten on it.  It was a great day spent with family and we were even able to meet up with a few friends.  The biggest bummer was I hardly took any pictures. 

Kevin and Kiersten waiting for Nemo

 Nemo ride, Nathan wasn't a fan.  He said "Mr. Shark so scary"

Carousel - K loved it!  Abbey loved it more, she couldn't stop crying when she had to get off.

 K playing with her buddy Sydney.  Sydney made her smile so much! 

 Tea Cups

 Jenn and Jill came for a visit (the boys came later)

 Nathan ate this whole Churro. 

The forth day was Kiersten's birthday which I will post on later.  

On the evening of Kierstens birthday we headed down to our friends Matt & Tiffany Hall's in San Clemente.  We wanted to spend time with them, see our friends the next morning and our home which we miss dearly.  

The next morning we woke up to a few text messages from my mom and my friend Hallie asking if we were going to make it home because of the storm.  To our surprise our flight was canceled and we got to stay a very welcome extra day!   We spent the first day in San Clemente doing some of our favorite things.  We went to Surfin Doughnuts with our friends and their kids.  Then we headed to the beach trail to walk and take Nathan to his favorite spot to throw rocks.  It was such a beautiful day!  We ended up going to the Irvine Spectrum  that night with friends and my sister Kim, mom and my two nieces Brooke and Sydney.  We were so happy to see them again when we thought we had already said goodbye the day before.  

Ryden was so sweet with Kiersten!

Kiersten is such a beach babe!  I was so happy to have her back in the sand

 Our little group on the beach trail

 The kids loved this spot.  There were a lot of rocks being thrown

 Such a beautiful day!

 Throwing rocks

 SO HAPPY! LOVED HAVING MY BOY BACK IN SAN CLEMENTE!

 Sweet girl slept for a long time at the beach

 Climbing his favorite stairs with daddy

 Such a beautiful day

 More sand! 

 We love this park! 

 This is sweet and sad at the same time.  Nathan just laid on the ground because it was "warm".  Love this picture of the kids. 

 Love these little legs.  I don't get to see them enough in Colorado.  Summer is almost here! 

 Fun with Tiff

 The boys playing baseball

The girls at the spectrum

 Brooke and her boyfriend, Ryden. Too cute! 

 Love this girl and she loved her Wahoos

 Carousel fun

 Nathan's first "coffee" (hot chocolate)

Our last day in SC we went to another place we like for breakfast (SC Cafe), went back to the park by the beach, walked to the pier, did the beach trail again, drove by our old house, walked through the tunnel by our old house, and played with our friends.  What a great trip it was and I'm so grateful to be able to spend such a special time with our family and our friends.  It was weird being back and it being "vacation" not home.  

Thank you to everyone who made our trip so special and to all my friends that I couldn't see I just wanted to say that I'm sorry.  Please believe me I wanted to see you all.  I'm trying to figure out what that's possible when I am only there for a few days.  I love you guys! 

Rach