Alssa 5 Months

Time is flying...my baby is growing way too fast. She is now five months old and cute as ever. She weighed 18lb at four months, and that baby fat is so adorable on her. She still has dark hair, but it is lighter than at birth. She loves to move around and can roll both ways very easily now. She laughs and smiles so wide. The kids enjoy making her laugh and will do all sorts of tricks and noises to encourage it. She likes to play (or rather eat) toys and cannot sleep without her pacy. She still spits up occasionally, but Mom has learned to not drink as much dairy products to lessen the spit up. Alyssa is growing and developing just as she should, we feel very fortunate to have her sweet spirit in our home.

The las picture is of Grandma and Alyssa. We had a nice, out of the blue, visit from Grandma this past week. She was able to fly in and stay for a couple of days. It was so wonderful to have her here and to spend time with her. The kids played games with Grandma daily and Grandma helped with homework, meals, dishes, and getting kids to and from various destinations. We love our Grandparents and any chance we get to see them. Alyssa was a bit hesitant of Grandma the first day she came, but quickly warmed right up to her.

Halloween

Halloween is always a fun holiday. A time to dress up, get gooey in pumpkin, eat lots of candy, and have fun with friends, family, and neighbors. It is a nice start to the cold of fall and winter. This year we were actually in Denver on Halloween. The kids had a five day weekend so we decided to spend some family time in Denver. Our motel was great, it had an indoor swimming pool that the kids spent a lot of time in. They served both dinner and breakfast (full buffet) every day. Just the motel itself was a vacation. We also went to a really fun park that had a tree house play area, a huge boulder to climb, a big slide going down the hill, and lots of tunnels and bridges to play on. It even had a neat stage area. The kids had a blast. We had lunch at Casa Banitas a family Mexican restaurant that has a huge pool with divers that entertain during dinner. A fun weekend. We didn't even bring our costumes because we celebrated Friday night at our church Halloween Party.

The kids had a blast with games and trick or treating around the classrooms. We didn't get very very good pictures, but these give you an idea of our costumes and fun. We also made our traditional Halloween Gingerbread house. This is a fun tradition that we enjoy, and a good way to use all that candy! We usually all end up with black fingers and faces from the black frosting. I think our Gingerbread houses usually end up looking pretty spooky so it is better to display them for Halloween rather than Christmas!

Breckenridge

We had the opportunity to go to Breckenridge at the end of the summer. Jeff had some convention to attend and we decided to bring the whole family. It was so beautiful with the fall colors. We were able to hike around the mountains up on the ski resort. Our kids love being outside and exploring. They were so fun to watch as they found and "discovered" all sorts of interesting things. It was nice to have a quiet, relaxed weekend were we could just spend time together without distractions.