Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

This year we went to Gran Pear and Danma's house for a turkey dinner on Christmas eve. It was a perfect evening! We even broke out the 100-year old bottle of burbon. Olive was yet again dressed to the nines. She had a red flower dress and three-piece knit set that all hark back to 1977. Kate's mom has pictures of Kate wearing the same pieces. Olive did have some stiff competition from her father, who is rocking some serious Christmas flair (see group photo).

Christmas morning was dreamy. Cousin Annie, Molly, and Robin walked in the door of our house at 7:45am sing christmas carols and bearing gifts. We hung out in our PJs and opened gifts and ate our favorite Christmas treats (fruit bread, Sara Lee coffee cake, eggs, bacon, and bloody marys) into the early afternoon. Olive of course got some amazing gifts and is very lucky to have so many generous and wonderful people in her life.

Merry Christmas!

Photo with Santa

Swimmer!

30 minutes at the pool=3 hour nap=very happy parents

Robin's B-Day!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we celebrated Robin's birthday. Again, Molly hosted the party at her house and everything was yummy! I can't tell you how happy we are to have Robin join the family. Many of Robin's friends were also in attendance, including Will and Christine and their new baby Lincoln. Lincoln is a cute little dude - he's just about half Olive's age and the same weight.

Turkey Day

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my sister's house. The food was amazing - pomegranate corn salad, grilled turkeys, artichoke and parmesan stuffing.... Olive was dressed for the occasion in a hand-knitted, margarine-colored dress that her cousin Annabelle purchased from a southside (Chicago) craft fair. It has been a really special year for family and we are thankful for many things including good health, our perfect little girl, my sister and Robin's engagement, and my cousin Annabelle move to Denver.

Florida!

We apologize that this is our first post of the month. We spent the first three weeks of November in Marco Island, Florida. It was a magical trip! We had lazy mornings hanging out with little Olive, who now responds to us with coos and giggles. We went for a daily walks on the beach while Olive mostly napped in the Baby Bjorn. We cooked some great meals and just enjoyed being with each other.

In the past few weeks Olive has transformed from infant to baby. She holds her head up, wants to stand (assisted), enjoys books, and playing with toys. She's beginning to roll from her stomach to back as well. We are having a ball with her!

BOO!!!

Just cute

Kate 1, Justin Timberstash 0

All hail Scott Cutler who came up with the "Justin Timberstash" moniker for my beloved husband. The nickname can be credited with the demise of Bob's moustache. While Bob maintained that "Dad's have moustaches," Kate is very thankful that this Dad no longer rocks a stach. Attached is a goodbye shot Bob took of the stach.

So quickly the seasons change

I can't believe all the snow!!! We've had about 20" or more (we're housebound so it's difficult to say) in the last day and a half.

Snow Day

model baby

She smiles (and we melt)!

I think we are getting better at this......

I probably shouldn't get too confident, right? We had a great weekend with Ollie - picnicked at Chatfield State Park, took a long walk at Stanley Lake, visited Alexa and Dave's new house, and spent time at my sister's. I think we might be starting to get the hang of this parenting thing, which was not as easy as we might have thought (our little treasure was born with some lungs).

Randall Family Visit

The Kansas City and Grand Lake Randalls converged on Denver to meet Ollie. Miss Ollie greeted Tim and Marilou wrapped in a shirt that has been passed back and forth between the Grand Lake Randalls and the Iowa Randalls for over ten years. Everyone had a great laugh!

Visit from Great Aunt Barb

Olive had a visit from Great Aunt Barb, who spoiled her with gifts! Bob and Kate enjoyed a late lunch and coffee with Barb before she headed back to Estes Park.

Slow morning

Olive meets the Fairbanks

We had a wonderful visit with Annie, Laurie, Louis, Jenny, Paul, Max, Alex and Erik! Kate's Mom put together an amazing dinner on Thursday night (thanks Mom!). Kate and Olive had a fun day on Friday hanging poolside with the cousins. Jenny's boys were endless entertainment! Bob took over baby duty that evening and Kate went out for her first margarita in over ten months - what a perfect day!!

Back to work

After two wonderful weeks at home, Bob returned to work last week. He had Monday and Tuesday off this week. Unfortunately, we spent the last few days at home with the flu.

Warning: heart-stealer

Botanic Gardens

We had our first major outing last week, to the Denver Botanic Gardens. The afternoon was cool and cloudy, and the gardens were perfectly dreamy and quiet. It'll be a while before Olive enjoys the gardens as much as we do (if ever), but this is a special place for us and we like to go there often. When it threatened rain, we ducked into the cafe for Olive's first latte.

Bathtime

Olive had her first bath, but didn't particularly care for it.

She liked getting cuddled afterward much more.

Fierce!

Hillary came over for Olive's newborn photo session yesterday. She kept telling Olive to "use her eyes" and "lengthen her neck," but Olive had her own ideas of what would make a winning shot.
Just kidding about the Tyra-isms -- Hillary was wonderfully patient as Olive cried and squirmed and was generally uncooperative. We'll post a link when the photos are available, but check out Hillary's website of maternity & baby photos: hwheatphotography.com.
p.s. Olive crapped in Kate's hand!

Happy at home.

On our first night home, we were exhausted and ate one of the quiches that Zeke and Judy sent us. We've had two walks so far, one on our second night home with Olive in Alex's pram, and then another this morning with Olive in the wrap that Xanthe sent us. We stuck to the shady side of the street, and Olive hit up her first garage sale and scored a new book!

Heading home, with cute outfit and range of emotions.