hello horse

we drove up to Heber to see the Fall colors a few weeks ago. we were a little disappointed that the colors were past their prime, but we did find this beautiful horse! we stopped and visited with him, Cora fed him my apple core, which she dropped as he reached out with his big lips (see pictures of this below...try to find the apple falling). i love how the horse was a good sport and seemed to pose for the pictures like he had done this many times before for passers-by like us!

9 months

11-11-11
our baby is 9 months old!
what better way to celebrate than playing in the washing machine... ALL CLEAN!

at 9 months, Cora is:

-starting to crawl (a week ago she crawled 3 steps, but hasn't wanted to since!)
-taking 2 naps a day
-still nursing 5 times a day
-eating solids (her favorites are bananas, pears, sweet potatoes,squash, yogurt)
-picking up food with her little fingers and feeding herself
-drinking from a sippy cup
-sleeping 7 hours stretches at night
-smiling all the time
-giggling at peek-a-boo
-waving bye-bye
-a chatter box (no specific words yet, just mama and dada and a bunch of gibberish)
-getting lots more hair, especially on the sides and top, not so much the back yet!
-enjoying rough and tumble play with dad
-loving sitting and playing with toys all around her
-standing on her own while holding onto the coffee table

we love our big girl.
every day we are in awe at how much we love her and how much she blesses our lives.

1st halloween

Cora is 8+ months now, so she will not remember this Halloween, but Geoff and I will never forget this one because it was our first one as PARENTS!

i couldn't wait to have Cora wear her lady bug costume (borrowed from my sister), so naturally she wore it all day, including our trip to Costco... which totally paid off because people got a kick out of her!

we took advantage of a random person's front yard decorations while out trick-or-treating and had a little photo shoot. it is so hard to get Cora to smile for pictures though, oh well! she is still so adorable. i love that she was checking out the tombstone (above) and then decided it wouldn't be hard to knock down (below).

we did our trick-or-treating with Cameron and Brittany. they have a great neighborhood for it and it was so fun seeing their boys dressed as Bert and Ernie!by the end of the night Cora was just done, Ernie's face was rubbing off, and surprisingly Bert was in a great mood (see picture above). luckily her dad was a lumberjack for Halloween and had a huge flannel shirt on to keep her warm and happy until Bert and Ernie were done knocking doors!there was something so fulfilling about watching our daughter participate in this crazy holiday we celebrate, even though she has no choice in the matter yet of what she will be for Halloween or didn't collect a bag full of candy... and i think this is because this is a kids holiday and i am no longer a kid, so i was able to enjoy it through her! i can't wait until we can talk up Halloween to her and ask her what she wants to be and watch her run to the next door to say "TRICK OR TREAT!"... what joy that will be when she gets it.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN.
hope you enjoyed our little LADY BUG.