We had the best time today (July 8th) at the Cherry Creek Arts festival. Amelia created and we saw a lot of art. Amelia also got to report the weather. Too funny. She happened to be wearing a hat the same color as the green screen so parts of her head in the pic of the tv are missing or are actually the clouds of the tornado that she is reporting on. It was funny she said..."There's a tornado Mike. Run away".

Our other fav of the festival were the Australian sway pole artists.

The first picture is of Lauren at Congress Park swimming pool.
Here we are at the Children's Museum. Soooo much stuff to do. Quite possibly now one of my most favorite places to go.

We went to the Denver Zoo and they had a little class on the food chain. Amelia decided to go for the mall hair...I mean Bison.

Blast from the past. Circa 1982 stylish attire my mother gave to me and I now made Amelia wear, but only in the house. Luckily for Amelia she was in China and this jumper was in the US during the time where she actually could wear it comfortably.

Amelia proudly displays her tea set that she earned by filling her flower through doing good things.

A long time ago in a land far far away called China. Amelia gave birth to the term "Girlo". Actually someone somewhere probably has said it before, however it was new to us. Since that time (when she just turned 2) she has said it. I think my brothers and their wives thought it was funny. My sister-in-law, Christine, who is very talented and a natural at setting trends through her designs at Target and now as a private consultant, bridged the gap between 'funny word' and fashion. She made shirts with "Girlo" on them. Now all of the grandgirls have them and my other sister-in-law wears one (I'm actually jealous and would like to subtley suggest that maybe that could be a birthday gift for me...). I would not be surprised if this became the next 'must have', because they are so cute.

Wow we are pretty pathetic posters. Here are some new pics. And officially we will be moving into our new apartment on June 5th in Denver. Chris is already there and we will follow at the end of May. The pictures are of Amelia and Lauren of course, but the one with Amelia in the park is with her cousin, Wesley.

Amelia and I made a snowman and then she wanted him to have hair so we put sticks in there for hair. Then she wanted to make him a dog so we quickly put together a dog who walks with stick legs and a stick leash. Then 6 days later the snowman developed a really bad case of bending hinges (Amelia and I decided that that was the best way to describe the problem). A couple of days later his body fell apart and unfortunately I don't have a pic of Amelia jumping on the balls of snow, but conceptually it was funny and I'm glad she wasn't sad that he was melting.

Then the next of the pic is of our Valentine's Day dinner with a heart-shaped Papa Murphey's pizza, which Amelia loved! The pics after that are at her preschool Valentine's Day party. Her cousin Wesley is the boy next to her in the above right picture. They sure had a great time.

Here are some new pics. Lauren is nearly 5 months in the picture above. Amelia is playing around in her Grandpa Archibald's boots. And lastly Amelia is sledding in the back yard. I have so much fun watching her because if she's not careful she'll run into the trees and I know that it isn't really nice, but it looks hilarious when you see the sled smack the tree trunk. Of course she is not hurt at all since she's far enough back on the sled. Anyway is that some sort of sadistic ideology or what? What kind of mom am I that I think that's hilarious? I guess I don't feel bad enough that I still think it's funny.

Grandma Archibald and Lauren on New Years Day...she's three months old (on Dec. 25th).

Interesting tidbit...at Lauren's 2 month appt she weighed a pound more than Amelia did at her 2 month appt. Proof of what we had suspected that Lauren is indeed chunkier in still a good, non-Maury Povich show, way.

Amelia received a baking kit (which included a recipe, two aprons, and cookie cutters) for Christmas from her Uncle Kent and Aunt Christine. So we made cookies with the recipe and wore our matching aprons that came in the kit. Amelia had a lot of fun. Then we had a party and drank sparkling apple cider with our cookies.

Christmas Eve at The Willfords

Amelia and her cousins Wesley (sitting next to her) and Timmy to the right.

Grandma Willford's game of "Don't Eat Santa" where the kids picked a color while a person was absent and then allowed to come back in and they had to eat the m & m's until they found the color that we had picked. Of course the grandkids loved this game best of all.

Christmas Time Pics:

Is it Amelia or Santa? She loved that.

The next pic is of Grandma A holding Lauren at the church Christmas Party.

The last pic is of Amelia singing in the sing along at the same party. She found herself right at home next to Grandpa A (the emcee for the night) up at the mic.

Lauren's Blessing Day
Her dress and bonnet were made by my (Sarah) mother. She did an amazing job and if anyone would like to find out more about that pattern etc. just e-mail her at robcarar@cableone.net. All I can say is that it looks difficult and she says it is not that hard at all. Sure mother.

Trick or Treating in Old Town and then we had Trunk or Treat with the Stake. Amelia had had just about enough and was sitting in Grandpa Archibald's car to warm up while she ate her candy. Poor Grandpa was left out in the cold handing out candy. He also had no time to dress up so he felt a bit out of place. It's okay Grandpa they'll still take the candy :)

Lastly is the photo of Amelia with her cousin Wesley (or should we say the scarecrow) on the bean bag at their Aunt Amy's place. Those two had a lot of fun and of course a couple of disagreements. :)

Halloween

Amelia is standing next to her pumpkin that she picked out from Grandpa Willford's garden. What a pumpkin. We later did the dinner in a pumpkin and it was of course excellent. Here is a pic of Amelia's preschool. The teachers for the day were dressed as witches of course and made a cauldron of treats for the kids. The kids loved it.

My mother was holding Lauren at Rupp's and it was just so cute so we took a picture.

Here's Amelia with Great Grandma Evans at Rupp's Diner in Blackfoot, Idaho.

For Family Home Evening Amelia gave the lesson and it was on why families are important. So ask Amelia when you get a chance what she thinks about families. She drew a picture and everything. Needless to say it was a very short lesson, but sweet.

Amelia and her cousin Wesley at their Aunt Katie's soccer game, which she won!!!