christmas cards!

Umm yeah. We got the christmas cards done this year!! I'm so proud of us. Instead of waiting on the snow (which gets less and less each year... weird. what could cause that to happen?!)...we took a family photo in front of a wintry tree, sans the snow. It was far from grand, but nonetheless completed. And, sure our little sweets looks like a frigid little boy bird. But whatever, her name is Cora... blatantly on the card for our distant relatives to see, seeing how I sucked at sending out birth announcements. Designing cards/gifts/paper items- one of my top favorite things to do, but alas sometimes something has to give in a busy life I suppose. Next kid I'll do better, and maybe next year I'll even throw a bow in her hair! Or maybe we'll do something real crazy and wrangle our dogs in the photo too. Oh, next year.

So these cards I made on adobe photoshop- our picture, a few turquoise words... then uploaded to Costco as a blank greeting card...simple. 50 cards, 50 envelopes...done in 1 day. Can't beat that. Want to see two years ago?! Same thing, but I used Costco's template. This year I thought I could pull off doing our own thing. I just love sending out cards christmas cards and receiving them... seeing what long lost cousins look like these days, being thought of during the holidays- just a blast.

Cora-the christmas present helper.

And you better believe my not-cheap-canon camera has blue paint on it. And I like it even better now.

Shhh....we are also working on christmas presents over here. So. much. fun. I love christmas. And do you even know matt asks for christmas music to be played in the morning (unheard of)... I think Cora is helping along our giddy christmas spirit. I can't really tell you about the projects right now, but in January I'll show you the cute photos... in addition to the one above...where she also looks like a little boy. Hmm. Why do I like turquoise/blue so much?! Perhaps I should reconsider her color choices...but her big blue eyes look soooo good in it. Big ol' dilemma.

eight months.

our little 8 month nose-scruncher

Wow. Time flies when you're having a good time (we know this because the first two months felt like a year). Eight months how did that happen?!

I am memorizing her sweet little 17lb self, resting on my body, climbing all over my legs, using my shirt to grab onto when she stands up, her little fingers grasping for my hands to help her "walk" to bridge the gap to the next piece of furniture in the room. I LOVE HER. Seriously, with every cell in my body, she makes us so happy. Do you know what we do at night, when she heads to bed...we scroll through photos of her, we miss her. Sappy. I know. We can't contain it.  She is exhaustingly unbelievably amazing.

What you've been up to this past 7 going on 8 months....

• nose scrunching! it's your favorite. you scrunch at everything. sometimes you include a little sniffing noise. maybe you just think everything in your world is gross and stinky...but its adorable.
• you like to share! You share your toys, for us to gnaw on them (so sweet to think of us)... or share your food with us or the dogs. The dogs aren't so good at sharing however.
• you walk along furniture and can sit down when you're done walking. stand-sit-stand-sit... all day long... never gets old.
• you crawl quickly or run around in your walker to follow us around the house. you have backing up and turning around down to a T, its like you're maneuvering a tiny car- arm across the back of the seat to see where you're going. When you hit something you look over the side of the tray to see just what exactly is holding you up. so cute.
• you love outlets, cords, cardboard, paper, trash... pretty much anything you're not supposed to play with...you are magically drawn to it and must put it in your mouth. 
• you like to eat our food... meat, baby cookies, bread, veggies. You drink milk and water from our glasses. We are considering transitioning to bite size food so that you can feed yourself. You are snacking so well on your little kid puffs and cookies, perhaps it's time to progress.
• second nap is a struggle, sometimes you win... sometimes we do- even though it doesn't feel like winning when you cry and cry your little head off.
• your little blonde whispies are getting longer now and thick! We use sweet little bows and headbands to keep your bangs out of your eyes. So far you tolerate it...and you even look like a girl!

so sad.

I have been struggling whether or not to post this... because I have been trying to avoid the thoughts, the news, facebook...but I have been so sad by the awful school shooting. What is the world coming to? Why do kids ever have to die? I hope I never ever have to go through that pain of loosing my child. Never ever. NEVER EVER. And to make things worse this past week every one of my patients has had the news on ...so I have to hold back (sometimes not successfully) tears each and every time I enter all of my patients rooms. My heart hurts when I think of what happened. So I decided that perhaps it would be grand if not a single kid died ... like ever. So next year on the news around this time they can report... hey look at you shnazzy america...our kid-mortality rate was zero! Way to go america, then I can be proud to be an american. But alas, I went into work and a kid was killed way too young again, in Boise. Damnit.

a christmas tree and hot springs.

 

Yup, you read it right... our uber fun winter combo, perhaps a new tradition... cutting down a christmas tree in the idaho wilderness.... then taking a swim in the silver creek plunge hot springs. 

Oh my gosh....INCREDIBLE.

Cora couldn't stop laughing and smiling in the hot springs. So much fun.

 

...here cora, hold the axe sheath for dad.

 

Matt would like you to see this crazy picture... him scaling the side of a mountain for our christmas tree...when we found "the one"...
 

 

But he wanted me to crop out the road. Less impressive right?! Sorry matt, Cora and I still think you're amazing.
 

 

Anyways, we wanted a tree to put in our out-cropped window seat, so we were looking for a half-a-tree.  One with branches only on one side. This way it is out of reach of sweet, grabby-crawling babe. Well, we found it!

 

It was raining, foggy, cold... so dreamy. Cora loved all of it, what a trooper.

 

Then we drove a bit further to a pool-type hot springs that was just fresh mountain water, maybe 102 degrees, and no sulfur smells! We were the only ones swimming around. Usually the road is closed to get up there in the winter with all of the snow, but thanks to global warming...we had open roads for our hot spring fun!

 

We did the blow-in-the-face and dunk baby thing, super fun. She didn't even take on any water! Then just swam around for about a 1/2 hour. We didn't want to leave that's for sure.

 

So we  got home, decorated our charlie-brown-esq tree, and now we are a little closer to the holiday spirit.  I just need to stop dreaming about the hot springs, wishing they were in our backyard.