The Lovely Boulder

First off, our pretty Amelia is 4 months old now. Too fast! I went back and watched video from when she was 4 weeks old. She was so skinny and wrinkly, love it.

So what's new with her?

• She got a new color on her monkey toes.

• She still spends most of her time in this position. When she rolls over all the way it will be the success of weeks and weeks of hard work.

• She smiles at people, not cameras. That takes a quick camera action on my part. The second she sees the camera come up, her face goes stone cold. I caught a little smirk here.

• She keeps her head in line with her body when I pull her up into a sitting position.
• She has become increasingly dependent on her binky. She used to never need it, went to sleep perfectly without it. Now she is Maggie Simpson with that bink in her mouth every second. (That Simpson reference is for you, Juan, Maggie's the baby, right?).
• She loves her giraffe. It moves its head as it plays Twinkle Twinkle.
• She scratches at things. Like a cat.
• She doesn't talk as much as she used to. That darn binky.

Now onto our weekend. We spent all day Saturday in Boulder.

We ate at Foolish Craig's Cafe, known for their crepes. This is my breakfast crepe. Delish.

And the dessert. Are you kidding me? The breakfast crepe was good, this dessert crepe, To Die For. We've got 4 weeks left in Denver. I may drive an hour to Boulder each week just for this.

We walked Pearl Street. We went to the kite store and the candy store. There were street performers. We caught a magic show and this guy above. He juggles torches and knives. Pretty sweet. Street performers, candy shop, doesn't it sound like a charming place?

We headed over to Chautauqua park. Absolutely gorgeous, right by the mountains. Here is our try at a family picture. I like it-Juan's concentrating on taking the pic, Amelia is in la la land. We just sat on a blanket and talked and played with our girl. It was a perfect saturday really.

And to end with my FAVORITE picture yet. Dad and Millie. Take a look at that smile.

Visitors!

Click on pictures to see them bigger.

My parents came in for the holiday weekend. Juan and I loved playing host and also loved hanging out in their air-conditioned hotel, our place has no a/c here in Denver, seriously?

Here are thousands of pictures summing up our trip:

• Molly Brown House - my mother had us watch The Unsinkable Molly Brown the night before. Super cheesy musical, Juan napped during it. I loved it.
• Performing Arts Center where we got pictures with the BEST sculpture ever "Dancers", they are the 2 gigantic skinny unisex people holding hands. And there is a song playing on loop: "Let's Dance". Seriously my favorite part of Denver so far. They just look so happy.
• Denver Convention Center where we saw the Blue Bear
• State Capitol with it's Gold top
• 16th Street Mall and eating at Maggiano's
• And Washington park for a photo shoot in front of the pond. Beautiful park, we'll be going back.

Amelia went swimming for the first time at the hotel. We have a pool here at our place, but I've been too lazy to get all dressed and sun-block on just to leave after 1 minute if she didn't like it. But... we have a swimmer on our hands. Or shall I say she takes an indifference to it. She made a few faces getting used to the water temp, then she just chilled. Didn't matter to her if she was in water or not, she just acted normal. Cute girl.

• Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs
• United States Air Force Academy, Cadet Chapel
• Texas Roadhouse yumminess. We had our first fried pickles, and they were pretty good!

It was such a nice visit and we got a lot in. On Sunday we spent an hour driving around in the rain looking for a place to watch fireworks from our covered car. We had no luck and then as we were walking into the hotel we heard the booms and there were fireworks right outside the door. Perfect view, and we huddled under the overhang to stay dry. It was meant to be, Juan got to see his fireworks.

Happy Birthday to Him

Juan is 26 today!

We've officially known each other 10 years now.

We met 1 day before his 16th birthday. I left youth conference a few days early. I remember begging my friend Miriam to get a picture of him so I could do the 15-year-old girl thing and carry around a picture of a guy I hardly knew. I had a major crush on him.

We had our first kiss exactly 8 years ago, on his 18th birthday.

This is a special time of year for us.

I'm loving this time we have in Denver to be in our own little cocoon of our 3-person family. It is so much fun to be here, knowing virtually nobody, and exploring together. Juan works so hard for our family. I love him.

And of course Miss Amelia always deserves a spot in the post. Here is what she is up to lately, I call it the 3/4 rollover. She is so close!

That big head of hers. She can't quite bring it over.

This Stay-at-Home-Mom Thing

I have to admit, the first day I did this job, I had a pit in my stomach the whole time. What do we do all day? Does she really fuss every time I'm not sitting right next to her? I didn't know about it. My dream job, was it really just a dream and not as good as I imagined?

3 weeks in now.

I put her down to sleep and if I hear her in there talking, I don't want to miss out on it so I have to go get her and let her fall asleep next to me and Juan in bed. Bad habit, I know!

Today we danced and danced to Justin Bieber. She smiled so big as I moved her legs or her arms all over the place. Or I'd pick her up and twirl around the apartment.

She loves sitting on my lap facing outwards, and will twist her head around to look up at me.

This is the rest of my life, can you believe it? I still tear up every day about how much I'm grateful for her. The other night she turned to me as Juan was getting her ready for bed and she spit out her bink and just started talking and talking to me. I cried. She is our girl. We made her. The Lord blessed us with her. We have a responsibility to raise her in the gospel and to be a responsible and considerate human being.

Heck yeah I love this gig.

The Lecture

Here she is mid-lecture last night. She gives me a straight arm with a tight fist lately. I am taking it as a gesture of love from her. It's adorable.

And here is video of what she had to say. This is actually very mellow of her.

After such a tiring speech, she slept a full 10 hours. She woke up looking like she got the sleep of her life.

She's 3 Months

This girl has some attitude and I am loving it! Each night she talks and talks and talks, and it is with attitude. She is telling me what I can do better for the next day I guess.

Thank you for all the tummy time tips by the way, Amelia has suddenly become Wonder Woman. I tried a few times with her tummy on the boppy and she held her head up! And now she just has to always see what is going on, she keeps her head up when we try to rest it on our shoulders. Her curiosity is motivating her!

We were at the mall and out and about all day Saturday and she was not having it. I tried to get her to smile and she would just give me this look like, who do you think you're dealing with here? She wouldn't even eat all day until she finally gave in out of starvation. We are working on flexibility with her. Stubborn girl.

It seems like she's been with us forever. 3 months. Time is going too fast and yet so slowly at the same time. Love this girl.

Provo to Denver

The last week has been a whirlwind.

Wednesday: My last day of work.

No more time cut short with this little girl.

Thursday: We cleaned and moved clear out of our beloved apartment in Provo. Pictures unrelated, but cute.

This is what Amelia looks like without all her hair. She was not happy with the cap.

Busting out of her bassinet. She is getting so big.

Look at those gorgeous brown eyes.

Thursday we also said good bye to family and friends.

H&T and kids with Amelia.

Friday: Our big road trip. Estimated 8 hours with no stops. Juan was determined to get there in the 8 hours. Yeah right, not with a 3 month old. She was so good the first 5 hour stretch, slept the whole time. Then we stopped for 1 hour, she was just having so much fun laying out and kicking and stretching. The last 2 hours of the trip she was a fussy girl, but calmed down once we put kid music on. She just sat and listened, so cute.

Saturday and Sunday were spent unpacking, organizing our new home, and getting to know the area.

Monday: The day we've all been waiting for. My first day as a stay-at-home mom, Juan's first day at his internship. I should have gotten a picture of Juan, he looks so good in his work clothes.

Tuesday: We hosted my sister Crystal and her husband and little boy. We spent the day hanging out downtown Denver.

Amelia prepared for the day. Sunhat check, sunblock check, summer blanket check. I love how she's holding her blanket in this picture.

We hit up 16th street mall and ate at Hard Rock Cafe.

Denver State Capitol

Denver Convention Center and the Blue Bear.

Cutie sitting by mom in the back seat.

And today: We are back to hanging out. We had to borrow the swing, pack n play, and stroller from our friend Alyson in Denver for the summer. Everything else we fit in our car, packed it to the brim. Thank you Alyson, you're a lifesaver.

And Millie still is not holding up her head. Not even trying. To her defense, her head is big, in the 90th percentile. Any suggestions on getting this girl to try some head lifts?