Laurel's First Birthday!

With much anticipation and excitement Laurel turned one. It is so crazy to Chris and I how much she has grown and how much she understands and KNOWS.  She is walking and beginning to talk her favorite word is still HI. This is ok with us because I am sure once she starts she will not stop. She is a little too much like her mom. She says HI all the time, mostly when she want us to pay attention or she want so give us a kiss. She is adorable and we are having a great time and looking forward to her toddler years.

Pre-election and other random photos

You can tell who we voted for in our house. We had a election celebration at our house with some friends and Laurel was showing her pride. Unfortunately, winter is already on its way; we have already had two dustings of snow. The snow did not stop us we went on a lovely hike with our friends Stacy, Eric and their 6 week old baby Orion.
Laurel continues to be very active and INDEPENDENT..she is feeding herself or should I say trying to feed herself. Most of the food goes straight to the floor and here is a picture of her cruising with her new wooden walker cart. She is getting to be so efficient.

Laurel's first Halloween.

Happy Halloween! Our little sweet pea is growing up. My mom bought her this adorable outfit when she was born and I never thought she would fit in it, but the reality is it was too small.
I thought Laurel would love carving pumpkins-mostly just playing in the goopy strings and seeds, but that was not the case. She got this repulsive look on her face and started shaking her head no no no. So that was the end of that. However, she did try to sneak some candy.
Please note in the pictures, THAT IS NOT OUR trashy LARGE BLOW UP GHOST thing. It was our neighbors, but Laurel was obsessed with it.

Girls weekend in Santa Fe and Wende and Lila's trip to the REZ

Fall Trip to Rachel's Wedding

Here are a few photos from my friend Rachel's wedding weekend in Boulder. We had a lovely weekend spending time with our friends in Boulder. It was a quick trip, but we made it to Munson's farm where we picked flowers for Rachel's wedding and we got to play in the pumpkin field. It was a perfect fall day. We picked flowers for the wedding and Laurel got to explore in the pumpkin patch and even ate some dirt.

Laurel the Explorer

Here is a little insight to what our days are like around our home. Never a dull or calm moment. Here is Laurel climbing into the fridge, her she is escaping from yet another diaper change for naked baby time- with one sock on, and crawling into the dishwasher is so much fun and washing machine is so mesmerizing and last but not least eating rocks outside while playing

More midwest pictures

We also went to visit our dear friends the Berman's who are living in Indianapolis. It was a quick trip but it was really nice to meet the newest addition to their family; little Lily Berman. She is so sweet and I cannot believe that Laurel was ever that little.

Our family trip to the midwest.

Chris had some time off in the middle of September so we decided to head to Chicago for a week. Chris' mother lives in Madrid, but was going to be in Chicago for a few weeks. So decided to meet Maria in Chicago and Laurel was finally able to meet her Grandma Maria.
We rented a great apartment and we toured the whole city. Laurel went to her first zoo-The Lincoln Park zoo, she went on her first cab ride, she ate Indian food and had sushi with us twice and she even ate grass when we went to Millennium Park. We had a wonderful time in the city getting together with old Med school friends and meeting their new kiddos. But mostly we enjoyed spending time with Maria.

Family time and playing around

Here are a few random pictures of Laurel playing at home with her toys and exploring with water play. There are also a few pictures of our family weekend trip to Albuquerque. It was a big weekend we traded in the Passat wagon and we now own a Hyundai Santa Fe. I never thought I would own a Hyundai but it is really nice and handles the crappy Rez roads really well. On our trip to ABQ Laurel tried some new foods. She had sushi or I should say she ate the rice and the nori and she also tried BBQ, her dad's favorite.

Visiting Grand Junction Colorado

Over Labor day weekend we took a trip to Grand Junction to visit our friends CJ and Susan. We had a wonderful time visiting them. They are both in love with Laurel and CJ can really make her laugh. Thanks for hosting such a fun weekend for us all.

Pajama time

Here we are being silly with her pajamas bright and early in the morning. I apologize for my morning bedhead and sleepy look, but she is happy and ready to get on with the day.