Alyssa's first day of Kindergarten!

We have a Kindergartener! Alyssa started school last Monday. She was very excited about her first day. Nate and I got to go with her for the first day and we explored the school, put supplies away and got to know her teacher and classmates. She was so cute in her little uniform. The Saturday before school started we found out she got into the school right by our house! It is so nice to be able to walk her to school everyday. She has a few friends already and when I ask her how her day was she says, "Great!". The only bummer is she didn't even make it through the first week without getting sick. Thursday she was home with the stomach flu, and it sounds like a lot of the rest of the class too. Hopefully we can stay healthy this year!

Our last days of summer

Nate took a few days off right before school started so we could do a few fun things. Of course, I don't have many pictures of the stuff we did, but there are a few.

We finally made it to the fountain at America the Beautiful

Little goofballs:)

We said goodbye to Julie, Zoe and Amy. We had such a great summer with them. I'm so glad they were here all summer! Not many pictures though:( They did a lot more than play on the iPhone, but that was fun too.

Mason started loving the 'big boy' swing and yells "higher, higher" when we push him :)

We went to Denver a couple times and went to the Children's museum and Casa Bonita. We found this great indoor waterpark in Arvada that the kids loved! They have some big water slides, several pools, a kids play area, hots tubs, warm up pools etc. It was $6 or $7 dollars for adults and Mason and Carly were free. Pretty good deal. The best thing was they allowed adults to go down the water slides with the kids. In our experience Alyssa is usually to small and can't go. Mason even got to try it!

We also went apple picking last weekend. I thought it was fun, but it was kinda hot and the kids only thought it was cool for a little bit. We got some good apples and a few blackberries though!

My sweet little kiddos, three in a row

Pagosa Springs 2012

Carly {4 months}

Carly is 4 months old! I love this age. Most people say that 3 months is kind of the turning point from the newborn phase and things get easier. For me its 4 months. By 4 months I feel like I have it more together, we have a more predictable routine and baby is happier. Carly has been a great baby, but over the past couple weeks she has been more content, has a more predictable schedule, naps better, likes the car a whole lot better(even sleeps!), found her hands, likes toys and traveled like a champ. I have been enjoying her so much!

The one thing that has been a bit frustrating is her eating. She has been a finnicky nurser since she was about 6 weeks old. She sometimes just won't nurse, gets frustrated and cries. Because she wasn't eating well my milk supply really dropped, so I started pumping to increase it. I was supplementing too beacause she wasn't getting enough and finally took a bottle, probably because she was starving. Now she definitely prefers the bottle most of the time. She will nurse when she is sleepy, ie. the middle of the night or after a nap, but otherwise I have to pump and give her a bottle. I don't know how people pump exclusively for a whole year! It's so time consuming and I don't know how long I'll be able to keep it up. My goal is at least 6 months, but we'll see.

Such a happy girl! We love her smile:)

A few pics

Carly having fun in the jumperoo.

The Walker family over for a get together. GG Walker and Aunt Cheryl came for a visit.

Carly Susanna's namesake.

One day we were looking for Mason and couldn't find him. After calling for him a couple times we hear "her!" from upstairs. Nate went up and found him playing with his cars on the widow sill with his hand in his pocket :)

Mason is such a sweet little boy. He is fiesty, determined, onery, silly, intense, and so cute! He loves people so passionately that at times it's overwhelming, especially for kids that are smaller than he is. He just can't keep his hands off people. At first it was very frustrating to me, I'm always telling him to stopping touching, hugging, sometimes pushing or laying on top of someone. But I've realized, that while he needs to learn to control himself, it's his way of loving people. The loving can quickly turn into being to rough, but I feel like I'm understanding this little guy a bit better.

What a ham!