Laurel playing around.

Laurel playing around in her handcrafted water table. She enjoys filling up measuring cups and dumping them on to the floor or drinking water from the tub. YUM.
She is very busy and loves to entertain herself by going into the pantry and collecting cans to stack. Laurel likes to stack them up as high as she can.

Random adventures and playing around

Laurel continues to keep us very busy and extremely happy. She is walking and starting to talk and imitates anything we do. It is amazing how quickly time really does fly. I ran a half marathon last week in Phoenix and she was right there walking around as I finished.
She has also been super busy playing at home and getting into everything. She loves to play in her pretend kitchen. She enjoys taking boxes and cans from our pantry and putting them into her own kitchen. Hours of entertainment I tell you!

More for the love of snow..

It was really cold and snowy outside, but Laurel insisted that we play in the snow. So I brought the snow into her! She is really digging it or should I say eating it.

Playing in the snow...Laurel loves the snow.

Here we are with some of our friends from the Rez. We took a little day trip up to Narbona pass which is about 20 miles from our house. There is wonderful snow which offers us lots of skiing and sledding. We took some snacks and had a great time.

more Christmas pictures....

More holiday photos and fun in Madison.

The long Christmas adventure

Our Christmas adventure began very early in the month of December. My parents were visiting for Laurel's first birthday and then we drove back 3 days and 1200 miles in a car with my parents to the Midwest..sounds terrible with a one year old, right. Surprisingly it was not so bad, we had a great time playing, singing and listening to music as the flat scenery of the Midwest flashed past us. We did make a stop at a Target in Kansas to get some fun play toys for Laurel. This made the time go by a little faster. She was a real trooper. It was a memorable experience.
We arrived in Madison on the 7th of December and were there until the 30th. It was a lot of family time, but it will be something we will treasure forever. We are so lucky to have a family we could actually spend 4 weeks with. It will be a very memorable holiday season and I am so blessed my mom, dad and family could spend so much time with Laurel.

Unfortunately, a few days later Laurel got sick with a horrible reaction rash to the MMR shot she had at her 12 month appointment. That put a little damper on the beginning of our trip in Madison. (note the 3rd picture) She was miserable; she was covered in bright red bumps with a high fever and LOTS of screaming. The poor little thing. I felt awful for her. It last for about 4 days and then she was feeling much better and was ready for Christmas. But mostly ready for her Daddy to join us in Madison. Chris came to Madison on the 19th and was able to stay for an entire week. This was a nice treat for all of us. We had some live in babysitters which meant we were able to go shopping, out for dinner and we even had a grown-up dinner with siblings.

Christmas was nice and quiet this year. We did not have to do any running around on Christmas day. We opened presents, ate a delicious dinner and enjoyed our family being together. Laurel loved opening presents with much thanks to her amazing older cousins Isabella and Cate. They had a great time playing and laughing together. Man did she tear into those presents, it did not take her long to figure out the game. It was really fun to watch her light up. Laurel had a wonderful first "real" Christmas.

Laurel's Birthday Kitchen

For Laurel's first birthday my dad, mom and Chris built her a handmade play kitchen. It came totally equip with knobs that turn, a variety of kitchen utensils and lots of play food. So far she is loving it and I know as she grows it will become a favorite. There was a lot of love and detail put into this kitchen by her grandparents. It is an amazing gift that Laurel will have for many years to come. She will enjoy countless hours of imaginative play. Thanks MOM, DAD and Chris well done.