Happy Father's Day, John!

Jeffrey's picture of him and Daddy holding hands.  Daddy has a "big, giant head" to quote Jeffrey.

(would not hold still of course)

and don't forget Baby Charlotte!!!

Uncle Phil and Aunt Stel

Phil and Stel came down so Phil could sign a lease on his new apartment.  Mostly we just hung around the house and Arabelle and Jeffrey LOVED rough-housing and playing outside with them.  Saturday was a really nice day for me--we had a family lunch, played with the kids, Charlotte and I took a nap in the afternoon, and then Phil and Stel watched the kids so John and I could go on a date to the Cafe Rio that just opened up in Fort Collins.  On Sunday afternoon we all went to the duck pond, where there were no ducks but there was a muskrat eating a piece of bread that had been left for the non-existent ducks.  Then we had a spaghetti dinner and the chocolate cheesecake that Stella had made.  Stella is so useful for making extravagant desserts!

Aunt Stella was Arabelle's preferred person this trip.  Mostly Arabelle liked to make Stella carry her for a long long time.  I guess Arabelle realized that no one but a devoted relative that isn't around much would do such a thing, so she took advantage of it.  It was hard work for Stel since Arabelle has turned into quite the chubby toddler.

Phil said he hopes his babies are as cute as Charlotte, and I took this as the ultimate compliment, but assured him that his would be even cuter, of course :)

Jeffrey was so sad to see his aunt and uncle go. When he realized that both of them were about to leave, he made a point to go up to each of them and tell them politely, "But I don't want you to go, I want you to stay here."  It was so sweet since everything that comes out of Jeffrey's mouth is 100% sincere.  He will LOVE having his Uncle Phil living near by.  I am so excited for the close relationship they will be able to have!  It's almost hard to believe we have lucked into such an opportunity, since Phil could have wound up anywhere in the United States (or Canada probably).

Arabelle and John were exhausted from the activities. 

Charlotte @ 3 months

Exactly three months:

3 months 1 week:

3.5 months

More Random

this pic is from several weeks ago.  after taking off charlotte's sweater, john realized the two of them were dressed alike.

Arabelle made sure her bear had matching crocs, but she is still upset about something here.

Island Baby?

 At 2 and a couple months, Arabelle continues to have a knack with fashion accessories:

If I were more adept at photoshop, I would make a loin cloth for her.  As it is, it was too funny not to share although, as I have mentioned before, I still disapprove of naked children/baby pictures at any age.

Charlotte 2.5 months and Arabelle stabs tortillas

I walked into the kitchen and Arabelle said proudly, "Look, Mommy, I opened it!"

I agree it's terrifying.  I just have to second what mom says that kids must constantly have guardian angels intervening on their behalf.

2.5 months old

Dinosaur Exhibit!

Last Saturday, as a Mother's Day gift for me, John took the day off from working in the garage so that we could all go down to the "Discover Dinosaurs" exhibit in Denver. Michael and Brittney had invited us as they are more clued in to what fun things are going on in Denver.  It was (for us) way expensive at $50 for tickets for the whole family and then you tack on $25 for gas and that eats up our entertainment/restaurant budget for the entire month.  But since we've never done anything like this ever, I think it was well worth it for the memories we created for Jeffrey.  It was also nice to hang out with family and get the cousins together.

Jeffrey was very excited.  He had just finished a "dinosaur" unit at school.  He classified pretty much all the dinosaurs as either a "T-rex" or a "Velociraptor" (as these are the only two names he knows, evidently).

They gave Jeffrey a paper with a bunch of dinosaurs' pictures on it, and he kept trying to match them up.   I'm pretty sure he got them wrong each time, but it was still really cute.

Charlotte was remarkably good.

Several of the dinosaurs were "animatronic" and the kids could press buttons to make specific parts of them move.

I didn't notice that Arabelle had a particular interest in the dinosaurs, but she could tell we were somewhere "cool" and she definitely enjoyed herself.

Excavating dinosaur bones. There's Kaitlin in the blue shirt.

A Young Paleontologist.

This was advertised as an "excellent photo opportunity", but I'm not sure if I agree with that.

Another picture to take advantage of the "excellent photo op".

Arabelle really liked this blue dinosaur.

There were also some big blow up slides (like big blow up slides anywhere, but with large blow up dinosaurs attached) as well as a few small dinosaur rides that cost additional money.  We weren't planning to do these, but it turned out that Jeffrey was too short to do them anyway.  This made me think of the issue that Jeffrey will probably be 20 years old before he can ride any of the big kid rides at amusement parks, etc.  Let's just hope he gets there eventually.