Daddy At Home Day

Tuesdays will officially be my day "off" from Chick-fil-A so that Emily can go to class. Therefore, I get to be home with the kids all day, enjoying all the wonderful things that come along with parenting a 19-month-old boy and a 3-month-old girl. Hopefully on these days I will have a few minutes to blog a little, especially since our blogging hasn't been quite up to speed recently.

Cole started out today day by eating a great breakfast. A couple hours later, he threw it all up, right onto the Pooh Bear that Stephen and Amy got for Cole when he was still a fetus. We'll throw it into the wash to see if it can be salvaged.

We have all been getting over various illnesses in the past few weeks, most recently a 24-hour bug that spread throughout the family, including Mimi (Emily's mom) who was here for 9 days to help with the kids while I worked and Emily took a 2-week intensive class.

Speaking of class, Emily didn't allow taking 9 credits and having a baby mid-semester deter her from getting a 4.0 this fall. We celebrated with pizza and Emily's favorite candies.

Gwen is 3 months old now and it turning into quite the lovely young lady. She isn't quite sleeping all the way through the night, but she's getting close and takes pretty good naps throughout the day. She is still a little fussy and prefers being held, but we force her to the ground once in a while for some tummy time and to give our arms a break.

Here is a video, taken today, of Gwen playing and smiling.

We are headed to Florida next Wednesday for a fun-filled adventure featuring Stephen & Emily's wedding, Chris & Colleen's Baby Shower, a Trip to Clearwater, a visit from Steve & Lindsay, and showing off Gwen to many people that haven't met her yet, including Grandma Joanne who is flying in from Arizona! I am sure a blog will be in order to summarize the trip once we get back, so check back in a couple of weeks!

Lots of Visitors!!!

After leaving Florida, we never thought that we would live in a place that so many of our friends would ever want to visit. Fortunately, we were wrong. In our first year in Colorado it seems that we have had more friends come visit us here than in Florida.

Stephen, our good friend from our Doulos days, was in town and came over for lunch one day.

The crazy Bridgman Family (another Doulos connection) stopped in to say HELLO on their roadtrip.

They warm our hearts.

Som and Jessica were at Trail West (Young Life's family camp) on assignment for a few weeks, so we drove over (with Drew & Natalie Hill) and spent a day with them. I had spent a total of 9 weeks volunteering at Trail West when I was in college, so it was great to get back after 8 years. It was fun getting to play a round of frisbee golf, something I had done hundreds of times during my summers at Trail West.

Finally, just last week Rob & Erica Marshall (Doulos connection) were in town and we went to breakfast with them. We met at a place in Littleton called "Toast", which Emily has wanted to go to since we moved here. It was great getting to catch up with our friends and getting to try out a bunch of Toast's award-winning pancakes. Yum!

Cole and Rob apparently got the memo on wearing yellow shirts and blue-plaid shorts. Well done, boys.

Visitors Galore!

The last month and a half we have been blessed with visits from many friends and family. Here's a rundown of the who, when, and what.

Ryan Asdourian and his girlfriend Leslie flew in from Seattle for a weekend of skiing. We skied Vail on a Friday, then Beaver Creek on Saturday and Sunday. Thanks to Asdo's mom, we got a great discounted rate to stay at the Ritz, which was quite the experience. It was so much fun to hit the slopes and hang out in the hotel. Emily was so awesome as she stayed in with Cole while we were skiing -- such a great wife, friend, and mommy!

Stephen and Amy Hobson were in town for some skiing of their own and stopped by to join us for dinner on Valentine's Day! It was great to catch up with them and for Amy to finally meet Cole.

Our good friend Shanon was in town from the mountains with her son, Truett, so they joined us for dinner. It was a blast watching Cole and Truett play and interact with each other. Tracie just moved to Denver and so she joined us for dinner as well :) She is now one of Cole's biggest fans!Finally, we just had a visit from my brother Rex, his wife Ashely, and their girls Paige (3) and Alexia (2). They flew out for a whole week and stayed with their friends about 20 minutes from us. We went over there for dinner one night, then they came over to our place a couple times for dinner. Rex and I also spent a day skiing at Copper Mountain. The girls even got a chance to see some snow and throw some snowballs. It's so fun when the cousins have a chance to get together. Thanks for coming out to see us!!!

If you want to see more pictures from the past couple months, click on these links to see more pictures on Facebook: February 2009 & March 2009

Stay-At-Home Dad Report

Emily has been in school for three weeks now and we are beginning to fall into a routine. On most days Emily is either at class or reading in the library, which leaves me and Cole with plenty of male-bonding time. Cole is currently eating on a 3-hour schedule during the day, and does a pretty good job of having "awake time" and taking necessary naps in-between his feedings. He usually doesn't like to sleep very long, but his naps tend to vary between 30 minutes and 2 hours. Maybe some day he'll be more consistent, but that day doesn't seem to be very near.

To fill-up our days, Cole spends a lot of time playing by himself after he eats for 30-60 minutes. We rotate where he "plays" between the playpen, the bouncy seat, his playmat, his stroller, and just laying on the floor. When he starts to fuss, we'll go interact with him, read him books, watch a Baby Einstein video, take him for a walk, or watch reruns of The Office (his favorite - he loves Michael Scott).

Here is a video from one of our walks:

We have been blessed to see some of our good friends since arriving in Denver. Here are the pics to prove it:

Stephen & Cole

Emily & Cole, Shanon & Truett

Ryan, Cole, & Asdo
Sarah & Cole
Jed, Cole, & Ryan