Happy Tessa (left) and Suspicious Tessa (right).
Tessa the ham.
Tessa the goober. She has this weird smile she does sometimes, and it really cracks me up. She wrinkles her nose, closes her eyes and smiles. It's hard to get a picture of her not looking cute, so I think the one on the left is pretty special!
I love Tessa. We're so lucky to have her in our family, what a fun little girl!
By the way, I did 3 posts today, so scroll down if you want to see them all.
Last night we were lucky enough to get tickets to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra perform here in Colorado at the beautiful Red Rocks amphitheater. It was their last stop on a 2 week tour. And they totally ROCKED! Here's our view from where we sat:
Pretty good right? If you look closely you can see downtown Denver just to the right of the green mountains. They sang some songs from the LDS hymn book but most of it was stuff I hadn't ever heard before including some classical stuff and folk songs from around the world. When they sang America the Beautiful I cried like a little girl, it was so beautiful. I got the chills several times when they really let it us have it. The last time they had come to Red Rocks was in 1984! What a great opportunity, I am glad we went.
Dan and I smiling because we had a good babysitter at home watching the kids.
We were all thrilled and surprised to see President Monson there! Sorry for the crappy picture, it's very cropped and pixilated, but it's HIM I swear. :)
I talked Dan into coming to the beach with us on Saturday. It's always more fun to do stuff with him around. For one reason I am less worried about one of the kids drowning or getting kidnapped (I know, I'm a basket of roses huh? sorry, just paranoid). But it's mostly because I have him to carry stuff! Just kidding, that's not it either, the reason we love having him come with us is because he's SO MUCH FUN!! Seriously, my girls are so lucky to have him for a father. He is crazy and imaginative. He'll do stuff I never think of, like take Sophie and throw her in the water. I cringe waiting for the tantrum, but no problem, she LOVES it! We all love him. Here are some pictures.
Dan's sad face because Sophie stomped on his castle.
Tessa fascinated by the sand in her hand.
Sophie and Tessa enjoying lunch.
They both zonked out on the walk back to the car.
I can't believe Tess is already 6 months old!! I swear I just barely delivered her. She is such a delight, I love her to pieces. She's still got a sweet easy-going personality. This month she got her first 2 teeth and learned how to roll over both ways. She is pretty good at getting around to toys she wants without crawling. She can angle her rolls in order to get were she wants to be. She is close to sitting on her own. She sits for awhile but eventually will do a nose dive or fall backwards. My favorite new tricks of hers is that she has the dexterity to now put her binky in her mouth, LOVE that! She loves to swim but cries every time I first put her in the bath. Tessa also loves solid food, she will eat rice cereal with just water and finishes every fruit or vegetable jar I open for her. It seems she can't ever get enough, I remember Sophie being the same way, never full. She sleeps through the night on occasion but still likes a snack around 2 in the morning. I should let her cry it out but it hasn't been worth the risk of her waking up Sophie, you mom's know what I'm talking about. In the middle of the night you don't care about principle, you just want to get back in bed AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! She can put herself asleep though, we lay her down awake a lot, it's just when she's too upset I go get her. Her nick names are chubba-wubba, chubbers, Tessa-messa, and baby rabies. Sophie has adopted the 2nd one, she calls her chubbers all the time.
Sophie loves her sister and is much more interested in her now that she can play a bit. If Tessa is upset then so is Sophie, she won't let me leave Tessa for a second! She will come screaming to me, "Baby cryin'!! Mom, baby Tessa cry!" Earlier this month, Sophie was driving me crazy because she would whine CONSTANTLY so I would tell her to stop crying and use her words. Sophie's whinning has improved, she can calm herself down and ask nicely. Sometimes when Tessa cries and it upsets Sophie and she'll yell at her to, "STOP cryin' Tessa, no cryin'!" My favorite is when Tessa is just in her diaper Sophie will play with her rolls. Soph just laughs and pinches the fat rolls on Tessa's back and says, "so cute, baby."
As you can see, Sophie's depth perception needs some help. What a crack up!
The pictures for this post are courtesy of this camera 
Mindy, Stephanie and myself on the archery range, we’re in the YW presidency together.
I have been in Young Womens for almost 2 years now and really wanted to go to camp this year. It took a couple months of pumping extra breast milk, and a plane ticket for my mother (she came to watch my girls) to get me up for one day... but I am glad I went. I love my girls, they are so great! It is refreshing to see youth who are trying to do what's right and who care for each other. They go out of their way to make everyone feel included in a way I don't think I ever did. It's inspirational. Watching them gives me so much confidence in the future.
Here are the 1st years we were incharge of.
Ironically the 1 night I was there was the night it rained... and hailed. Our tent held up and none of my stuff got wet, more than I can say for some of the girls :(! I was disappointed that we couldn't have our testimony meeting (my personal favorite of camp) due to the storm. The poor stake president was trying to speak to us in a pavilion during the storm, it was a disaster. The tarps put up as walls around us provided us protection from the storm but made a lot of NOISE.
These are “my” girls from our ward during the storm.
I got home Friday at noon and we packed in as much fun with Grandma as humanly possible! After a quick shower we were off to the zoo. Grandma took Sophie on her first carousel ride, she was in heaven! While waiting for her turn to ride, Soph danced in line, the operator liked her so much she let Tessa and I join her for a free ride. Sophie also thought the penguins were being very silly swimming and scratching their tummies.
We drove straight from the zoo to pick up Dan from work to catch a movie. We saw, UP!. Great movie. We told Sophie we were going to see a movie on a BIG TV. She thought that sounded pretty cool. She was ok during the movie. Just a little restless towards the end and wandered around the almost empty theatre. The best part was when she saw old man Carl she kept saying, "Big nose, WOW! Look at that, big nose!" I laughed my head off, what a funny girl. Tessa was mesmerized the screen for awhile and then just played with toys.
After the movie we went to Chili’s where my mom treated us to dinner, she said it was for Dan’s birthday… a bit of a stretch since his bday isn’t for another month. But we really appreciate it!! It was really yummy. I think mom had a good time, even though she’s not smiling in the picture. By the way, I think waitresses should have to take a photo class, since they take so many pictures.
The next morning we went to Paul’s birthday party and then took Grandma to the airport. The party was a lot of fun, Sophie enjoyed playing on the playground, blowing bubbles, making a balloon monster, blowing the party favor, eating cake, punching the punch balloon, AND hitting the pinata! Phew, Susan you out did yourself! The pinata was funny, Soph watched a few kids hit it and when the stick was offered to her she ran away crying. She was saying, “no thank you, hit fish.” and asking to swing. I pushed her for a minute and then told her about the candy inside the fish, convicing her to go back. She did eventually hit it. I think it’s that she’s just been hyper sensitive to people being hurt lately, and seeing Nemo get whacked was too much! But she liked it when he was pulled up and down and definitely enjoyed the candy afterwards.
Thanks again mom for coming out to Denver, it was a pure delight to have you around. Thank you so much for letting me borrow your camera, it has been so nice. Sophie and Tessa really love their Grandma and miss you too!
Sophie pooped in her pull-up today. I was so sad, it had been a week and a half since she's done that. Upon reflection, it's not so bad. She's still headed in the right direction! I haven't pushed her at all, she just asks to sit on the potty throughout the day. Even though I grow impatient singing her songs in the bathroom a couple hours a day, I'm glad she's making an effort. Here's hoping she keeps at it!
It’s the strangest thing to be driving down the freeway, pass by a huge bus station, bums and all and then, at the next light, you can turn right into a state park! I think it’s so funny we have a reservoir right outside of downtown Denver where you can hike, camp, and see wildlife. But it is very convient! Last week I went with some friends to the beach there. We parked at the bus station and walked in (FREE). We just stayed for a few hours. It was a lot of fun. Once again, I thank my wonderful friends Leslie and Net for taking pictures and sharing them with the camera-less.
Me and my girls walking back to the shade. Notice my wet shorts from saving Sophie.
Good news, they can fix my camera! For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, my camera broke suddenly a couple weeks ago, mid picture. The repair shop called me this week, it will cost us around $170 to get it repaired and take about 2 weeks. I am relieved that we aren't trying to scrape together money to buy a camera right now. Hopefully after this repair (turned out to be the submirror) my camera will hold up for another year or two. By that time Dan will be graduated and hopefully have a real job! This has been a HUGE stress for me because I am just lost without my camera. I take pictures a few times a week and have missed it terribly. It's not something I can just go without for very long! Am I sick? What can't you live without?
I got home from Estes Park Sunday, made dinner for the family, unpacked, and went to bed. The next morning I got up, ate breakfast and packed for Estes Park. Let me explain. When my mom reserved the condo she did it for a whole week, well it turned out that no one in the family (but me) could stay for that long. So they wouldn't go to waste, I decided to invite a bunch of moms up for a girls retreat Monday through Wednesday. I was exhausted after having been away from home for the weekend but didn't want to miss out on this opportunity. How many times do you get a chance to go on vacation with your friends?!?!!
Monday we all got up there at different times but once several of us were there we hit the main street shops. We were quite the spectacle in the small town in such a big group with so many kids. I think I was told, "Wow, you ladies have your hands full!" three times. I think every shop we passed was just praying we wouldn't come in. :)
The first night after we got all 17 kids to bed (that's right; we had 17 kids in 6 bedrooms, it was crazy) we sat around, talked, and did our nails. I love staying up late being goofy and talking, I don't think it gets any better than that. Can you guess which foot is mine? (hint: my sisters call them my snake feet.)
Tuesday we ignored the rain and packed up for a hike. Everything was so clean and pretty from the rain. The kids loved the puddles on the trail and we were all fighting to keep their shoes dry, I think that overall, the kids won. Here's the only shot we got with all 26 of us.
Left to right: Kathrine, Emily, Monae, Max, Susan, Paul, Kaleb, Ellana, Tracy, Harrison, Lilly, Mia, Liz, Brandt, Sophie, Mason, Me, Tessa, Ty, Brinley, Net, Leslie, Grayden, Trynity, Lauren, and Marie.
Sophie was at her wits end, and wouldn't smile for the camera. She's at this lovely stage were anytime I ask her to do something or just ask her a question she starts to cry and says "NO thank you!" Do you love my hide-a-baby? It's like being pregnant all over again. I know I'm hot.
Brinley, Lily, Sophie and Ty.
After Sprauge Lake some us went back to put our kids down for naps while the more gun-hoe mothers did another hike. I had planned to go for a run while my girls were napping but ended up taking a nap myself and then eating a large bowl of ice cream... pretty good trade off right? Oh well, that's what vacation is for I guess.
That night a few of us went out to eat at a local place called the Big Horn Restaurant. We sat all the toddlers on a separate table so we could all talk, it worked really well! And the kids did pretty good, Sophie ate well, competition always helps. :) Sorry no pictures of that. Then we went home and had a DANCE PARTY for the kids. Thanks Tracy for planning it and to Monae for providing the tunes. We had a fog machine and a few princess wands with lights in them. Sophie was in heaven!
And so was Monae...
That night we stayed up and watched Bill Cosby, Himself it's a movie of his standup comedy. If you haven't seen it YOU SHOULD. I love love LOVE that movie, he's so hilarious.
Thanks to everyone for coming up and for sharing their pictures. It was so hard for me to go up there without a camera, I miss mine SO SO SO badly but I'm glad I still had a few to use for a post. I had such a fun time with these ladies. I am fortunate to have such great friends and it was such a wonderful opportunity to spend a little extra time together. Also a very big THANK YOU to my mom and dad for letting us go up and use the condos, I love you!
DISCLAIMER: If you were wondering why I seem to be wearing the same shirt and hat in every picture, let me explain. That's the only long sleeve shirt I brought, no jacket, because when I was up there with my family it was warm. We even went swimming a couple times. But the 2nd time it was COLD. And the hat well... remember how I was talking about taking a vacation?
CAMERA UPDATE: I know, you're all so worried about my lack of camera right? (say yes) Well, I dropped it off at a camera shop on Friday to get a repair estimate and... I'm still waiting for them to call me back. Ok, so that wasn't much of an update but.... whatever. I have been doing a lot of online shopping to see what's out there in case we need to get a new one and I must say this camera along with the awesome 18-200mm IS lens makes me salivate. Anyone want to spot me $1600? I'm totally kidding. No, but seriously...
