Shanti's Birthday

Yesterday we celebrated Shanti's birthday! The girls & I got up before he woke up & surprised him with egg sandwiches for breakfast. Then we used one of Shanti's gift cards and ate at the Olive Garden for dinner (it was nice just the 4 of us!). Today Shanti continued the celebration and went snowboarding at Breckenridge with a work friend.
Shanti didn't want a cake, so we made some birthday cookies instead (honey whole wheat oatmeal raisin). Happy Birthday, Shanti!

Shilah shaking it up!

Below is a video of Shilah dancing to Rusted Root. She loves to make up dances! You would think she's had some training in tribal dancing, but this is all impromptu!

Kids Say the Cutest Things: I raised my eyebrows at Shilah the other day, and she noticed a few wrinkles on my forehead. She asked what they were and I told her they were wrinkles. She then asked me if I was a grandma :-)

Publish Post

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a very nice Thanksgiving with Gabe, Andrea, Emory and Lily!
We got to see Lily in action with her new crawling skills!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Shanti today! Here he is playing peek-a-boo with his niece.

Gabe made some yummy mashed potatoes & rolls, and I made a garbanzo loaf, sweet potato balls, and apple pie. We are thankful to have family nearby to celebrate with!
The kids had fun with a little dance party after dinner. Here's Shilah showing her moves...
Emory & Serena had fun playing together, as always! They had so much fun that they didn't even stop for dinner.
Kissing cousins!

The 3 Dog Stooges

We're watching dogs from 2 different sets of friends. We've watched them before, but never at the same time! They get along great, and love to wrestle & play. Yasu is on the left, and Bella is on the right. Cosmo is quite the ladies dog with a girl on each side!

Just hanging out

Shilah & Serena have been playing really well together. They love to play with their animal figures & divide them into mommies, babies, & daddies.

Shanti's work... and an 80's flashback

Last week Shanti traveled to Phoenix where he attended the Greenbuild conference. Al Gore was the keynote speaker & Sheryl Crow performed- cool! Shanti also gave a presentation on the work being done in Greensburg, Kansas. Here is a link to an article on this:
http://www.greensburggreentown.org/home/2009/11/16/greensburg-at-greenbuild.html

In another project, Shanti chaired a committee that produced a Small Hospitals and Healthcare Facilities Guide to make them more energy efficient. Here is a link to a press release on that:
http://www.ashrae.org/pressroom/detail/17359
Way to go, daddy!

In a completely unrelated topic, below is a video of Shilah dancing to (and singing) "Shake Your Love." Yes, I admit I used to be a Debbie Gibson fan back in the day.

Field Trip

Last week Shilah went on a school field trip to Luke's Farm in a nearby mountain town named Evergreen. I had a friend watch Serena so I could chaperone. It was a lot of fun! Shilah really enjoyed the bus ride, along with seeing the farm animals and going on a tractor train ride.

Growing Up Fast

I may be thought of as a "stay-at-home" mom, but I sure don't feel like I stay at home very often! Many days we are on the run to Jazzercise, playgroup, school, and/or story time. It's nice to be busy, but it can be a challenge sometimes! Here's a little update...
Serena has been more interested in potty training, and goes "pee pee on the potty" occasionally. She also loves playing with animal figures & stuffed animals, and she pretends that one is a daddy, one is a mommy, and one is a baby. Very cute! Shilah has been fascinated by how old people are (especially little girls), and even pretends that she is another age (always an older age of course). She continues to ask about how words are spelled, and loves to try to spell things on her own by sounding out words. Shanti has joined a co-ed volleyball league, in between his work travels. We are proud of him trying to make the world a greener place! And I continue to be VERY busy with owning my Jazzercise classes and teaching 5-6 times per week; I also joined a book club so I actually have deadlines to get things read (much needed). We are a busy, yet happy, family!

Cute Cat Pictures...

Westy hugging Serena's puppyWesty in the tub
Roo napping in the laundry
Westy in the play tunnel
And a nice sunrise...

Emory's Birthday Party!

While Grandma Evie was in town we also got to celebrate Emory's 3rd birthday! We had lots of fun playing with trains, paints, and conducting a cool science experiment with Aunt Andrea. Our friends Maggie & Alex also took part in the fun.
Emory's cake was served in a dump truck- cool!


Shilah with cousin Tiffany...
Serena after a long day of partying...

Halloween Fun

Friday night we went to "Trunk or Treat" at the elementary school, where kids go car to car trick-or-treating. This is a yearly tradition in our town since many of the neighborhoods are on a mountain and have houses with steep driveways. Great idea!
After trunk or treating, there was a "barn dance" in the gym of the elementary school. Shilah had fun with her friend Sadie and ran around with a bunch of her other friends as well. There was live bluegrass music, and we all had a great time!
On Halloween, I taught Jazzercise in a team-taught class with my other instructors. Here we are dressed as the Spice Girls: Sporty, Ginger, Posh (me), Baby, & Scary. Our class manager surprised us and dressed as our agent. It was a lot of fun! Last night, Shilah & Serena dressed up again and went to a few neighbor's houses to trick or treat and say hi.