Pioneer Day

Hello everyone!  I hope all are doing great!  Things have been a little crazy here this past week, but mostly with non-picture type stuff, so this post will probably be a little on the short side.

On Monday we celebrated Pioneer day!  We have a tradition of making butter the old fashion way, shaking it in precisely manufactured, spill-proof, snap together tupperware, to celebrate.  Brooke helped with the shaking this year, and the butter turned out grand!  I don't know when the last time you shook cream into butter, but it takes several minutes and it is tiring on your arms!  This naturally led to a conversation about how different life is now compared to back then, and about how much harder it was to basically do everything!  Needless to say, I appreciate machine stirred/whipped/made butter!  #savethearms

Monica started getting sick again over the weekend and into the start of the week.  We thought it was pregnancy kicking back into high gear.  Then one day she asked me to come home from work because she was having really bad lower back pain, and so we thought she might have kidney stones, or kidney-itis.  We called the doctor and subsequently went in and it doesn't appear to be kidney stones and we got medicine, so not as bad as we feared.  In fact, other then the pills making her nauseous she's feeling better.

One night I threw out the idea of going out to our favorite local Mexican restaurant, Casa Mariachi, and it stuck.  We all had a good time, though Brooke did have to request a replacement high chair because her first one had broken buckles (not a joke, I put her in and the first thing she said was "buckle!" and when we found out it was broken she wanted out).

Yesterday Monica and Brooke took off to San Diego for her family's vacation, so it's just been me and Blue Jelly.  She's been pretty good company so far and didn't attack me in my sleep last night.  We were also able to clean up almost the whole house yesterday too!  Go Jelly!

Today in church we talked about having strong families and strong marriages.  The quote was shared “No other success can compensate for failure in the home.”   I have heard this before, but it really struck me today as over the past week one of my co-workers was talking to me about wishing she could spend more time with her kids, but "that's the life of a working woman."  By no means am I trying to discourage anyone from working, but it was interesting to see how the gospel could benefit her life, and how she was feeling a longing to spend more time with her kids.  I am so grateful for the Gospel, and the guidance we receive from leaders that help us to manage and prioritize our lives.  I am grateful for my family, and that we are sealed together for eternity.  I know that we can live together for all of time with those we love.  I know that if we strive to have a Christ-centered home filled with love and learning that we will not have failure in our homes, though trials and challenges may arise.  I share this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Harding Family Vacation

Hello all!  We had a great week heading out to Steam Boat for my family vacation!  We drove out Wednesday night after work, and I believe made it about the same time as everyone else!  The first night was basically just dinner, card games, some chatting and bed.

Thursday morning we went for a hike to Fish Creek Falls.  We headed up there to take family pictures.  Monica and I got one of our family while we were there as well.  I haven't seen the full family picture yet, but if I remember I'll put one up next week!

Quick back track story.  So on Friday night last week there was a thunder storm, and some lightning really close to our house.  The thunder was really loud, and definitely sounded like it hit something.  Well, when I was out on my run on Monday morning I found at least one thing that was hit.  This tree!  The two halves of the trunk are bigger around than I am!  It smelled burnt around the tree, but fortunately a real fire didn't start!

Also, to continue the quick aside, Brooke has started doing yoga!  Or at least this one pose.

And the cat sometimes tries to sneak Brooke's food.  So far we've always realized it was the cat in the chair and not Brooke!

I forgot I had those pictures in here (and Facebook posts the first picture, so I have to select carefully), but now back to hiking to the falls.  We grabbed a picture while we were on our way up!  So many of Brooke's older cousins wanted to help her get around.  She definitely didn't have a shortage of help if she wanted to do anything!  It was nice to have so many helpful hands, especially since Brooke was willing!

Here is the view from the overlook.  You can see the falls in there if you look hard enough.  You might have to cross your eyes like one of those 3-D pictures... at least that helps me.

On Friday morning we went go walk around the botanical gardens.  You had to walk through a small park to get to the gardens, and we stopped to take a few pictures here as well.  We got a few family shots, and one was all of the kids running toward the camera.... well, all but the youngest, Brooke included.  A little late for the picture I got Brooke to run to me!

The gardens were great!  They even had a children's section which included this tepee made of hops!

There were lots of nice little nature trails throughout to stop and take pictures on.

And Brooke even found a frog to ride!  She's training hard to become a world class Gub!

There was even a little rock bridge to cross!  She almost fell in on the last step, but I snatched her just in time!

That night we had smores around the campfire.  I made Brooke a perfect, golden brown marshmallow!

She loved it!

For our family vacation/reunion we also all got a backpack with the theme, "Return and Receive."  The backpacks were great, and I didn't really think about all the hiking we would be doing so it was awesome to have something to put our water and snacks in!  Brooke loves to wear hers around, and sometimes we even put blankie in it most of the way so she can carry it, but still have it hang down in front of her to hold.

On Saturday morning before we left some of the kids built a huge cup pyramid!  Just look at that thing!

And while we were there Brooke worked really hard to become a world class pianist.  A few more vacations and her first symphony will be complete!

When we got back on Saturday we ended up needing to go to the store, and while there we saw a kite on sale for really cheap.  Well, I took Brooke to the part today to fly it, and it turned out the weather was perfect!  It was a great amount of wind, and we got the kite all the way to the end of the string.  Brooke held the kite once, but the wind pulled it out of her hands, and she wouldn't take it any more after that... but I still had fun!  Also, the kite is Moana, because we got Brooke the Moana sound track and now it's her favorite thing ever!  We might have to get her the Frozen sound track in the near future too!

I think that's about everything from this week.  I hope everyone is doing well!

2nd Baby!! (and Naadam and a Harry Potter party)

Baby 2 is on the way!  The baby should be here in January, technically due on the 16th.  Here is a picture of the baby from our first ultrasound!

We don't know the gender yet, not for another month and a half or so.  Brooke is super excited though!  Hopefully she'll handle it well.  It was a little rough for her the first few days after we got the cat since she didn't get all of our attention, so hopefully that will be good preparation for having a new sibling in the mix!

This past week we were invited to a Harry Potter party by our friends' (Katie and David) roommate.  It was very well done and we had a lot of fun.  Everyone was in a house, and we all got a wand when we got there.  If you ever left your wand behind you lost house points (poor Katie... she forgot her wand a bunch).  We played games and had a trivia contest, and unfortunately Gryffindor barely snuck  past us Slytherins for the win... :( (I was Slytherin with David, Monica was a Gryffindor).

One of the games we played was to make owls.  Brooke got to judge which ones were the best, and after she sat on a chair with all her new pals!

There were some extra wands so Brooke got one too!  She enjoyed casting spells and dueling (if you held out your want she'd smack it with hers over and over) all night long.  She was practically the life of the party.

We of course dressed up for the party!  We even scored big bonus points for looking so good!  Brooke dressed up as a cat (Crookshanks) with ears and a tail even!

The next day we went to the Melting Pot because they have a really good deal going on this month, and it just so happens that Katie and David wanted to go too!  We really don't seem them often enough, so it was great to get to see them 2 days in a row!

Brooke has lately started to love being wrapped in her blankie.  She'll hand it to you and say "wrap, wrap, WRAP!!"  Then I wrap her up as tight as I can and she tries to run off, but her legs cant move too far...  It's so funny because she can't bend over very well either, but she loves to be wrapped up!

Naadam was also this past week.  Naadam is a Mongolian holiday to celebrate the 3 manly sports.  To celebrate we made huushuur!  Here is the dough rolled out.

And here we are frying them up!

And finally time to eat!  In the past we've gone traditional, but we decided to make it more our own this year and made taco huushuur!  They were really good too!

And for dessert we had peach pie huushuur with glaze!  They were super delicious!

Brooke has still been working on feeding herself.  She's getting better and actually doesn't need help at all for some meals.  But these meals typically end up looking like this!  At least she's still trying and learning.

Monica took Brooke to the pool one day when I was at work.  Monica typically will not put sunscreen on her legs to try to help them tan up.  Brooke was sitting on the seat between Monica's legs while Monica put sunscreen on her.  Apparently Brooke spent this time touching Monica's legs, and transferring her sunscreen over!  This is how Monica's legs ended up looking that night!!

Well, it has been quite the week!  We had a lot of fun, and are excited for the new year and all it will bring for us!  I hope you all are doing fantastic as well.

Princess Blue Jelly

Hello everyone!  Great news!  We named our cat, or I should say, Brooke named our cat!  Whenever we asked Brooke what we should name the cat she always said blue.  After a day or two she started to say jelly as well, so we did the only logical thing and combined them together and bought a jar of blueberry jam! (but seriously, the cat IS named Blue Jelly.)

So... In spite of a lot happening this week I somehow managed to not take pictures.  I do have some good videos of Brooke though.  So on the 4th of July Brooke and I headed out for a morning run together.  Then we went to the ward breakfast.  It was a lot of fun, and a lot of people came!  After the breakfast we went swimming at the pool.  I feel this is more forgivable as I don't have a water proof camera, but I missed pictures here as well.  After all that we were quite tired and relaxed at home.  That night we watched the Denver Outlaws (pro lacrosse) game on TV.  Brooke was already in bed so we didn't head out to a fireworks show, but the firework ban in our county didn't stop our neighbors from putting on a show.  There were fireworks a plenty going off all around us.  It was a very full and fun day!  Sorry I forgot pictures...

Brooke has been a champ about brushing her teeth lately.  She loves to brush in the morning (by herself) with me while I'm getting ready for work, and sometimes at night she gets so excited she sings!

Brooke has also started working on walking up and down the stairs, but she always needs to hold a hand!  She's even started to use the railing on the side of the stairs to pull her up as she climbs!

As Brooke has grown she's also become a great helper.  She loves to help load and unload the dishwasher and put away toys.  She's even started teaching the cat to help!  Thanks Blue Jelly, but... maybe go play somewhere else!

Yesterday was such a day!  I woke up and ran 8 miles.  When I finished it was time to put a ceiling fan in Brooke's room before it got too hot!  I had to go up into the attic to do it, and I did get in there early enough and it was still chilly, so that was nice at least.  It's really nice to have it, it keeps Brooke's room much cooler!

After I put in the fan I got a short moment of respite to shower, promptly followed by putting up our new house numbers!  Just as I was finishing a USPS delivery truck pulled up...

With our TV wall mount!  We wanted to mount our TV in the front room because if it ever fell off it has a 4 to 5 foot fall to the floor, and that's quite dangerous!  So we got a wall mount that could reach out from the wall, so the TV still looks like it's just sitting on it's shelf, but really it's mounted to the wall now!

After all that hard work I finally got a reward!  We all went out to the Bagel Stop for brunch!  Brooke is crazy about bagels, and even knows them by name.  She was so excited we couldn't get her to sit still and get ready!  It was great!  I got a breakfast sandwich bagel, but I think Brookes bagel with cream cheese was better, so now I know for next time!

By the time we got home I was exhausted!  I guess I did a bunch that morning... Anyway, Brooke and I found a fun game to play while at home!

I think that sums up this weeks activities.  We had a great week, but I unfortunately forgot to get my phone out and record it!  I hope everyone has a great week!

High Adventure

Hello all!  This week was high adventure for the boys in our ward.  I couldn't get work off for the whole camp, but what I attended was great.  I also lucked out, cause work scheduled their 4th of July party on Friday, and I had to be back for work that day too!

For high adventure we went down to the Great Sand Dunes in southern Colorado.  The first day was a half day of travel, followed by some sledding on the dunes.  The sleds didn't work out very well though...  They have sleds for rent somewhere there, and their sleds seem to work great.  I'm not sure what's going on in this picture, but I think everyone still had fun hiking the dunes, and especially running down them.

And here's a shot of the dunes.  The boys went up to the top of that peak, and we followed to here.  As long as you can see 'em, right?

On Thursday morning we had a visitor in our camp site.  Thankfully it was not a bear!  A deer came over to see what it could scrounge up from our dinner the night before.  The ironic part is that we didn't even use the table it is licking...

Thursday we went out mountain biking.  I had a lot of fun, so of course everyone did!  I think I was probably the worst bike rider there, at least at the start.  I haven't ridden a bike in a long time!  Fortunately my assistant, Troy, had a bike and couldn't make it on the trip.  Even more fortunate is that his bike is really nice!  Possibly less fortunate is that I took it for possibly the maiden voyage, so if I messed anything up he'll know...

While on the trail we found this deer hoof.  It was on the way back, and was an excellent marker of the fact we went the wrong way!  Our trail split off just before here.  It really helped as a marker as I sent a text to the rest of the people coming to let them know, and I'm pretty sure every single person rode up to the deer hoof and knew to turn around.  Thanks deer.

As mentioned before, Friday was SEAKRs 4th of July party!  It was great.  They had food, a band, and glow sticks and leis for the kids.  Brooke was so happy she just couldn't stop dancing!  I think it will be even better as Brooke gets older as they have a children's bike parade with decorations for the bikes!

Luckily there was plenty of grass to play in!  Brooke loves to run away from me when I say "I'm gonna get you!"  So I was chasing her all around and then I'd catch her and pick her up and flip her upside down.  It was a lot of fun.  We stayed till around 7, which was still well past Brooke's bed time.  We sadly didn't make it until 9:30 when the fire work show happened.

We finished up a box of diapers, which logically means that Brooke got a new room.

She loves to sit in boxes.  I don't know what she thinks about while she's in there, but if she's happy, we're all happy!

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a wonderful week!