Electric Safari at the Zoo

We took Preston to the zoo for the first time right after Christmas. They decorate the zoo with animated animals displays and lots and lots of lights. It's beautiful to see and we usually go every year. It was so much different to go as a family of 3. I was more excited about his reaction and loved watching him take it all in. For the first 30 minutes, he just stared at everything and didn't make a noise - very unlike him!! It was a wonderful night and not too cold which made the experience even better.

Preston got to ride his first carousel. He wasn't too sure of it at first, but I think he enjoyed it. This was our first time on it too - it went fast!! His favorites were seeing the giraffes and the stinky, loud hippos. We all had a good time and I can't wait to take him back to see all the other animals.

Christmas 2011

We all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas. It was pretty low key this year - not a lot of gifts or stress and lots of time spent with family eating way too much food. Santa was very good to Preston though. He had fun opening gifts and ripping the paper into confetti sized pieces. His favorite present was a plush rocking horse. He figured out quickly that if you press the ear, the horse makes galloping noises.

He's started doing a lot of new things lately. He does a 'happy dance' after he takes a bite of food. I didn't teach him that, but it's really cute! He's also learning how to dance. Right now, it's just a foot stomp, but he's got rhythm. Out of the blue, he started twirling around in circles. He spins really fast and will get dizzy and fall down. He knows where his nose is and instead of pointing to it, he'll inhale and exhale quickly. If you ask him to do 'muscles', he'll squeeze his hands and flex his arms - and he has a muscleman face to go with it. He's such a ham! And he just started saying 'hi'. It's usually when he sees one of our kitties. He'll wave and give a high pitched 'hi'!!

Happy New Year!

Feeties!!!

I love baby feet. I mean I really LOOOOVVVEEE baby feet! The little pudgy, rectangle, tiny, soft feet. And don't get me started on the little toes that look like corn niblits. I take his socks off all the time just to play with them, kiss them, squeeze them. I'll probably have to stop doing that when he becomes a teenager - lol!

Preston's first airplane ride!

Preston got to go on his first airplane ride earlier this month. My mama, Preston and I flew back to Iowa to visit family for a week. All of our family live in the same area and nobody has met Preston in person. He did pretty good on the flight. He cried some, but mostly wasn't too happy about having to sit on our laps. If he could have run around inside the plane, I think he would have been fine. We left Colorado in a blizzard and left Iowa in a snowstorm - we know how to pick our travel dates! We flew into Chicago and drove 3 1/2 hours to Iowa. It was nice to see a part of the country that I've never been to. We had a great visit and it was so nice to be around family. The week went by way too fast.

Both of my parents grew up in the same city so there's a lot of memories there. We took Preston to the cemetery where his 2 great-grandpas are buried, drove by his great-grandma's house (she died in 1999 and is buried in Pennsylvania), played at the park and fed the ducks and went to the Mississippi River to watch the barges go through the locks.

I thought this billboard outside of Chicago was pretty funny and very clever:

Halloween Penguin

Preston dressed up as a penguin for Halloween this year. I bought it it September and hoped he would be walking by Halloween so he could waddle in his costume - which he did!! He wore it all day as we drove around to visit Daddy and Grandma at work and then at night when we went trick-or-treating at the neighbor's houses. He was a good sport and didn't seem to mind wearing it - he wasn't too keen about the hat though, but it stayed on most of the time.

Preston's 1st Birthday Party

Preston celebrated his first birthday with friends and family. We had the party at our house and almost everyone that was invited showed up. It was so fun to share the special day with so many people. Several of Preston's little friends came and it was so neat to watch them all interact. They played very nicely together! I made monkey cupcakes and had a blast decorating the house.



Preston wasn't too thrilled with eating his cupcake. We all sang 'Happy Birthday' and had blow-outs which scared him. He wasn't too sure of getting his hands dirty and digging into the cupcake. I helped him out and assured him it was ok. He ate the whole thing and made a big mess just like he was supposed to.


He has recently learned how to blow kisses and when I ask him where his nose is, he grabs his ear. Guess we need to work on that ;) He loves to give kisses and hugs. He can be crying and if you ask him for a kiss, he'll stop crying, give you a kiss and then resume crying. It's quite cute! He climbed our stairs all the way to the top by himself for the first time yesterday. He's getting to be such a big boy! I have so much fun playing with him and I sometimes just stop to look at him and to take it all in that he's MINE! What a blessing :)

Preston is 1!

12 month picture. This was the best shot I could get - he was tired and hated the hat.

Birthday bath with Mohawk!

Preston turned 1 yesterday! Daddy took the day off so we enjoy the day as a family. We celebrated by taking him to the dr. for his on year check-up complete with shots (sorry buddy!). He got his first flu shot and several others. He's always done really good with shots so hopefully he doesn't have a reaction to any of these. It's been a wonderful first year and we're so blessed to have this little guy in our lives.

He's now walking really well and it's so fun to see him waddle around. He has now figured out how to crawl up the stairs, but hasn't figured out how to get down. He gets up a few steps, looks back and panics. He finally started clapping! I've tried teaching him how to do it for months and he would flap both arms, but couldn't clap them together. He just started doing it out of the blue about a week ago. He points at everything and says 'ssssssss'. Not sure what that means, but it's cute :) He loves to point at airplanes in the sky and kitties. He still only says 'mama', 'dada' and 'uh-oh' but mama is his favorite thing to say ♥ He tried pumpkin for the first time on his birthday and liked it and we're switching him from formula to whole milk. He noticed a difference so we're going to slowly wean him off the formula by mixing the two for a week or so. He drank that just fine.

His big birthday party is tomorrow so I'll post pictures from that soon.

Happy 1st Birthday to our
lil' pumpkin!

Colorado aspens

Last weekend, we drove up into the mountains to see the beautiful changing aspen trees. I love all the different colors - most are golden yellow, but some are orange and red. They are mixed in with the lime green aspens that haven't changed yet and the dark green evergreens. Makes for great pictures :)

We always stop at the mine pit on our way home to see the HUGE mining trucks.

Mini-vacation

(Double click on picture for a MUCH bigger view)

We recently had a weekend road trip for the beginning of Brandon's Fall school semester. My mama and I joined him and got to play while he was in class.

Here's a collage of our trip:

We went swimming, toured the Budweiser beer factory and ate at The Cheesecake Factory (which has now become a tradition).

Labor Day weekend

We had a fun 'Labor Free' weekend.

The city has a hot air balloon show every year and it's one of the only times I enjoy getting up before the sunrise. We went Saturday morning, but it was too windy and the balloons didn't lift off. We went again Sunday morning and the weather was perfect - coolish and not a cloud in the sky.


We headed out of town to take Preston on his first train ride. It's near the Royal Gorge Bridge which is the world's highest suspension bridge. I used to live close by and have been there a million times. Every family or friend that visited took a trip there. It's quite a breathtaking experience. I love trains and saw this one advertised (heavily!) on tv recently. I'd driven by, but never ridden this train. It's a scenic 3 mile trip that gives you a view of the bridge. The weather was cool and it was sunny and beautiful. Days like that you never want to end. Preston enjoyed the ride and so did we.



*You can click on the pictures for a larger image*