A Good Save

Enjoying a little pre-dip snack. 

Last summer, I bought one of those little kiddie pools for our dogs...foolishly thinking they might enjoy laying in the water on super hot days.  The first day I filled it up, Murphy walked through it once and Hannah was willing to try it out ONLY if I was sitting right next to it and coaxing her in.  Needless to say, it wasn't a big hit, and has since been sitting near our shed in the backyard gathering dust and debris.  

A few weeks ago, Caleb had apparently had enough of the dirty, bent up kiddie pool being by the shed because I came home to find it sitting on the curb by our trashcan. So, unbeknownst to my clutter-hating husband, I snuck it back into the garage before the trash guys came by, and with a little bending and cleaning, it has now become a great little deck pool for the girls.  Initially I thought we might be able to do some baths this way, but after one attempt at washing and shampooing the girls in the kiddie pool by myself (not an easy feat- particularly the rinsing of the hair) - I've since decided it makes far more sense to use the pool strictly for afternoon dips.  Although not QUITE as exciting as a trip to my Grandpa's pool, the girls definitely think it's a close second.

Harper doing a little splashing; Riley, shockingly, opting to crawl.

Two very different personalities...

At 7+ months it is becoming more and more apparent that we have two very different baby girls...

Harper's Likes:

Meeting new people
Smiling (and showing off her two bottom front teeth!)
Jumping in her doorway bouncy seat
Our pets (Murphy and Kaia in particular)
Wearing accessories including bows, hats, shoes and sunglasses
Sitting and playing quietly for long periods of time
Photo shoots
Swimming

Possibly the most photogenic baby in the world

Harper's Dislikes:

Prunes
Teething
Having her hair pulled by her sister
Being tackled and crawled on by said sister

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Riley's Likes:

Crawling
Pulling up on things
Knocking down the plastic gate intended to keep her confined and consequently, escaping
Crawling on her sister
Working in the "Command Center" (Caleb's name for this play station thing we have.)
Eating solids (she has yet to meet a food she doesn't like!)
Swimming

A rarity: leaving the bow on...for now

Riley's Dislikes:

Meeting new people
Smiling at new people
Wearing accessories including bows, hats, shoes and sunglasses (*clarification: she does enjoy chewing on these items)
Sitting for long periods of time and/or being confined
Photo shoots

7 month pic....

Family Visits!

We've had lots of grandparents in town over the past few weeks, and it's been so fun!  My mom was here for a little over two weeks, and in my quest to make our girls more and more transportable we spent a lot of time out and about with them.  We went shopping on more than one occasion, to the pool a few times and even made our very first trip to the Denver Zoo!  (I have to say, the girls seemed less than impressed with the animals, but did appear to enjoy just walking around and people watching...)   

We are certainly getting a lot of use out of these sun hats!

Clearly, I could have done a better job with sunscreen application.

Caleb's parents came to town the weekend after my mom left for an extended 'Cousin Reunion."  Even though their trip was short, it was fun seeing them as well (and showing off the girls at the reunion!)  We'll see them again in July, and then my mom and Mark come back into town in early August...lots of grandparent visits to look forward to during the upcoming months! :)

Water Babies

To get a break from the recent heat here in Denver, we've taken the girls out for a picnic and swimming at my grandpa's community pool a few times over the past few weeks, and they absolutely LOVE the water!  Huge smiles and giggles each time....we've definitely got some water babies in the making!

Riley kept her sunglasses on for approximately 30 seconds.

Almost the same fate for the hat....

This video was taken on my mom's phone, so the quality isn't so hot, but you can hear Harper's sweet little squeals of delight.... :)

The Girls' First Road Trip

Ok, so this trip happened about a month ago, but I am just now finding time to blog about it.  How in the world do other people do so well with keeping their blogs updated?!?!  In my defense, we were out of town the last week in May, and have had family in town for the past 3 weeks...hence, the recent blog neglect. 

Anyway, we took the girls on their first road trip to Cortez about a month ago (over Memorial Day week) to see Caleb's parents.  I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised at how well they did during the normally 7-8 hour road trip (which of course took a bit longer this time.)  We had a great time during our week long trip, with lots of good food, family time and relaxing.  Caleb and I even went up to Telluride for a night and stayed at the Peaks hotel, where he proposed almost 6 years ago (crazy!) while Harper and Riley had a slumber party with Grandma and Grandpa Stephens.  Here are a few pics from our trip...

I need to start uploading these through Picasa so I can figure out how to make collages on here instead of just uploading multiple pictures in random locations...  :)

Harper and Riley's First Cabin Trip!

Back in early May, we made our first trip to my Grandpa's cabin with the girls.  Unfortunately, the weather was a bit chilly, but that didn't stop us from taking a few walks and spending time bundled up outside...