Getting ready!!

Bubble box

James's visit at Lee Martinez Farms ..

This weekend we met jasmin and James, Lilja's birthparents, for her birthtday visit..James is in Fort Collins so we first visited our great friends, Kelli, Brad and their three kids, Cole, Kade and carson, who just moved out there. Lilja ahd a blast with the boys and we with our friends!! We miss you guys!! We met James at a petting zoo called Lee Martinez Farm.. right up Lilja's alley.Then we met Jasmin at the children's museum in Denver the next day. Pretty busy weekend, and Lilja was spent after it all, but I think she really had a great time. Thanks guys for meeting us again. Lilja is so lucky to have such supportive birthparents, and we cherish our relationship with you. Thanks again!!

Ofcourse it snowed on the way up.. it always does on this birthday weekend!!... even when we are three weeks early!!

waiting for James...

at the farm, a little chilly, but so excited!!

very intent to pump some water  out of there

James was pretty sweet, helping Lilja feed the goats..

now she will do it all by herself!!

Hmmm, that look!!! now we know who she got that from...

a whooping 31 pounder!! yeah, now we can get a new carseat!!

Get ready!!!

Oh How I wish I had Lilja's energy and her love for life.. she can find fun in even little leaves..

Then we met Jasmin the next day at the Children's museum .. What a cool place.. lots of fun and interesting things.. Our favorite?? the bubbles, before Lilja got some in her eys :(  Funny again to see this picture of Lilja and jasmin right next to eachother.. Where does she get those pretty curls??

The also was a grocery store, where daddy was the cashier..

and an art area.. Still she uses both left and right hands.. interesting...

And Lilja's favorite.. a veterinatian office.. so cute.. to top it off, Jasmin bought her  vet office as a present, complete with kennels and little animals.. That was the best coincidence..and Lilja plays with it all the time!!!!



Saying goodbye.. such a silly girl..






What a whirlwind weekend.. ready to be a home for a little while, and getting spoiled by Oma and Opa ! Me!! Oh, I guess, Lilja!!

pumpkin carving!!

This year we were pretty early with carving our pumpkins.. actually too early!!

she got right in there. 

the heart one is for daddy, the jack-o-lantern is Mommy's and the ghost one is Lilja's . They were so pretty displayed on the porch.. however...

guess who was waiting on the side of our house??

yep caught him right in the act.. look behind him.. and guess which one he ate first.. Let's just say, Lilja was pretty upset..

she was so mad.. she said to Aran:" daddy go hunt all of them , so we can eat their yummy meat.."

Ok, just a cute one ;)

the Fall is here!!

We decided to take a little ride Beaver Meadows to see the colors we thought were there.. Well, no sigar.. however the walk was wonderful and the view was beautiful.. that's all we can ask for, right?

Lilja was a little grumpy the first part of the walk, luckily she snapped out of it pretty fast

balancing her body!!

It was kind of pretty.. the trees seemed to , or be done, or have no leaves at all but I think the bark of the aspen is already pretty.

our attempt for a x-mas card picture.. i might have my parents be the photographer.. this is cute, but not quite.

I love how Lilja just adores her daddy!!

really adores him!!!

just talking about the view.. the older she gets, the more fun your conversations get.. real conversations.. in toddler world ;)

OK the pigtails are back.. I loved her shorter hair, but really missed the versatility of her little pigtails, so finally her hair is long enough. Lilja was all excited too..  

Oh that smile is going to get me in trouble, or her?

we ended up at downtown Bayfield for some pizza and a little playground time to run the pizza off..

Lilja loves to swing

and loves to run!!

I love the new upgrade on my phone, because I can hold down the button and make 10 photos in a row.. thus these very cute photos..I bet this is the new favorite of my dad..

I think I have the exact same photo last year.. she is getting so big!!

Our first fire of the season

It will be very chilly tonight so we lite our first fire of the season.. actually Lilja did.. she really LOVES fire!! please note the adorable pigtails!! Yes, her hair is long enough again . I loved her short little cut, but I have missed these cute pigtails.. Lilja did too!!

Gopher heaven

Just a disclaimer.. this might be disturbing for some of you.. don't hate us because we are... sick of gophers.. Lilja had followed Aran to the gopher trap, not knowing there was a dead gopher in it.. So I stumbled on Aran explaining to Lilja the biology of a gopher.. by the time I got the camera she was comfortably holding the gopher and shaking it up and down.. we did feel we wanted to share this sweet little girl's thought of keeping him.. so sweet. She checks every day to see if there will be another one.. To our avail none are joining this gopher to gopher heaven ..yet.

last weekend

We finally had some time to visit Aran's best friend Matt and his family in Delta this weekend. Matt and Jacci were wonderful hosts and even got a babysitter for some "adult" time out ;) Eleanor (8) and Alice (5) were great friends to Lilja. They held her hand going everywhere and shared their toys so sweetly.. Lilja now is into those little squinkies!! she played with them all weekend!! Thanks Alice.. those are the littlest toys ever!!! We even got to see the girls play soccer.. and let me say to you .. I was impressed.. especially with Eleanor's level of playing and the coaching style of Matt!! Great job!!

our drive to Delta was beautiful.. the colors are not completely out yet, but snow is already on the mountains.. Wow!!

Beautiful!! the picture did not do the colors justice, plus it was a photo out of the window.. Do you think Aran stops the car on a road trip???



the three girls excited for roasted marshmellows!!



so excited for marshmellows!!!

Eleanor is a great reader and read to Lilja every night..

Eleanor's soccer game .. Hot chocolate , bundled up because it was a little chilly at first and nice camp chairs.. Go Eleanor.. go!!

Eleanor is on the left with the pig tails.. she was amazing.. so fun to see such team work.. And Matt was their coach.. very incouraging and up beat!! great job!!

did not get a picture of Alice on the soccer field, but we ended up swimming after a nap... yes, even Lilja took one.. here is the little mermaid

And our little mermaid.. she loves the water!!

matt took this photo as sometimes Lilja's smiles do not cooperate when i want to take a picture.. For Matt?? Huge smile!!! with lots of marshmello on her face :)
Thanks guys, we had a great time.. So glad the girls love eachother so much ;)

Take two

Take a couple of deep breaths