freddy swims too!

st. patrick's day, etc

laurel wore her green to school a few days before st. patrick's day.

it was such a gorgeous day, freddy and i decided to walk to pick up laurel at school. i hope we can do that a lot this spring...


pat and i ran a 5k downtown on st. patrick's day. the platings' were sweet to let our two munchkins hang out at their house.

laurel's new room decor that she got for her birthday. it took a while for mommy and daddy to put up all those stickers, but it sure is cute!

little boy is OBSESSED with balls

and just discovered the slide



not that obsessed with walking yet...



princess ballerina and farmer prince, according to laurel

this week

laurel's doing such a great job in swim lessons. i'm going to try to remember to take the good video camera next week. but here's a sneak peak:





we've been praying for our friend mindy to have a healthy baby boy and he's here! welcome to the world, McKinley Willard "Mick" Mitchell. we love you already. thank you Lord for this precious blessing!

springtime in colorado. absolutely beautiful. it's hard to be inside.


especially when you know it will probably snow again next week!!

ski day

last saturday we drove up to A-basin for the day for laurel's ski lesson.

freddy and i hung out while laurel and daddy skied



and no, freddy doesn't wear those carhart overalls every single day. almost, but not quite. :-)

who loves to ski??

spring fever

a backyard photo shoot...

a grand trip

laurel and freddy and i flew to texas on feb. 26th. we were so excited to see kissy and buddy

and i think they were a little happy to see us too!

we had a great lunch, afternoon, and night with them. freddy was still recovering and did such a good job with his breathing treatments.
the next day, freddy and i were supposed to fly to birmingham, but our flight got canceled. so we got to spend another night in colleyville!

on tuesday we made it to birmingham for abbi and pops to pick us up. barbara and caroline surprised us at the airport. it was so good to see them too!

freddy and i had a fabulous-but-oh-so-short visit in tupelo with abbi and pops.

meanwhile, laurel had a BLAST in texas with kissy and buddy. so much to do, so little time!

thank you, kissy, for all the special attention. your girl sure does love you! (and you too, kissy's husband...)

freddy LOVED being on the back deck in tupelo.

we even got to see cousins! thank you carley and richard for dinner. maury, lucy, rebecca, and celia - freddy loved hanging out with you!

freddy and i made it safely back to texas and then the next day we flew home to colorado. that leg of the trip was one of those "no way" travel days, but we made it! and we were so happy to see daddy in denver!



we had such a good week. we are certainly blessed and never want to take our incredible parents for granted. what a precious gift for our kids!! we sure missed daddy though and i have a sneaking suspicion he missed us, too...

february

what a beautiful morning! our view never ever gets old.


fashion show! laurel got to pick out clothes at target with the birthday money that meme sent. thank you meme!!!

my little valentines. we loved our pink heart shaped pancakes that morning. :-)

one day at preschool only 4 little girls showed up - the other 5 kids were home sick with croup :(
bottom left photo shows laurel's first tennis injury. (she loved that we called it a strawberry.) bottom right photo - my two BIG front-facing kiddos.

we went back up to the mountains for president's day weekend. we skied and stayed with our friends the kellstroms.

the weekend wore us out, as usual. here you see daddy and the kids updating the grandparents on facetime when we got home.

laurel did not get croup, but she brought it home to her brother. poor little fella! croup and a double ear infection. he was pitiful, but still sweet as can be!

saturday morning mommy date for a haircut and then ice cream at chick-fil-a

p and i celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary over dinner at the broadmoor. yummmmm!
what an incredible 7 years it has been. i love you, my dear friend!

FOUR!!!

laurel got to celebrate her birthday a couple of days early with her friends at preschool.

we love the shirt kissy sent!


that week, B sent the perfect princess and pirate tents, God sent about a foot of snow, and mommy did some more experimenting with high altitude baking!!

happy birthday girl. the morning of February 4th.

opening presents from mommy, daddy, and freddy

here's one of those long videos that only grandparents (and greatgrandmothers and great aunts) will want to watch:





the princess of honor


pirates!

princesses!

a houseful of friends. we love it!


a grilled cheese sandwich "bar" for the grown-ups. assemble your sandwich, take it to pat at the griddle in the kitchen. YUM!!

thank you, B, for the chocolate covered pretzels! they were definitely a hit, as always.
yes, i tried to dress up as the queen. :-)

the cupcakes were delicious, if i do say so myself...

the kids had a blast playing in the basement

a couple more videos:





happy happy happy birthday, laurel katherine rayner. i can't believe you're 4 years old. you bring us such joy. i love watching you grow and learn. i thank the Lord every single day for letting me be your mommy!

january

tennis lessons

lala LOVES dressing up!

ski trip. we got to see our friend russell

cutest grocery shoppers ever!