Welcome to the world, little one.

For those of you not lucky enough to have met him yet, I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of our family.  This adorable - and incredibly sweet - little guy is our nephew, Kellan Thomas Murphy.

How badly do you want to cuddle this kid?!

That's a yawn, not a scream.

He was happy hanging with his Uncle Andy, but I'm pretty sure I'm his favorite.  Just sayin'.

Though Kellan was definitely the highlight, our trip to Iowa held several other gems as well.  One of the best was watching Braydon and Ava thoroughly enjoy each other's company.  I had trouble getting a lot of pictures because, well, 2 year olds are really freakin' fast, but here's a few of them chasing bubbles together at the park.

I love that they got to spend some quality time together.  It's such a shame they don't get to do it more often.

Another one of my favorite moments was a walk Ava took with Grandma Pat.  It was a slow meander down a quiet street, punctuated with frequent stops to pick dandelions.  Ava thinks dandelions are beautiful, and Grandma was more than happy to indulge her. 

She was so proud of her little bouquet.

Our trip was over too fast, but it was so wonderful to see everyone. 



Don't hate me 'cuz I'm cuter than you.

I'm not sure where she's planning to go, but I'll bet all the cool kids will be there.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho...

It's off to dig she goes...

If Ava's career as a dancer/actor/singer/artist/chef/World's-Cutest-Diva doesn't work out, I think she has a promising future in archeology ahead of her.  We took an early-spring trip to the botanic gardens last week, and she spent the first half hour doing this:

And the rest of the time playing with this adorable little girl.  Ava spends so much time hanging out with boys, I was a little worried she might try to wrestle the poor thing to the ground.  My worries turned out to be completely unfounded however, and I was delighted to watch them hold hands, giggle, and run side-by-side back and forth across the bridge. 





I love all the boys in Ava's life, but it was a sweet treat to watch her, for just a moment, be a little girl.

Winter Break

Winter in Denver didn't exactly come in like a lion this year, which has offered us more than the usual number of beautiful days to shed our coats and head outdoors.  Today was one of those days, and Ava and I were not about to let it pass us by unnoticed. 

We decided to dust off the old swingset and slide...

And Ava thought we should shovel the last of the snow.

We get out whenever we can, because this is what happens when we can't get outside...

This was Ava getting herself ready to go to the gym.

Spring better get here quick!

"Come on Baby, let's read."

I'm not always fortunate enough to have a camera nearby when something wonderful happens.  Sometimes those moments happen so quickly that I'm forced to imprint them on my mind, hoping that down the road I'll somehow be able to recall that instant exactly as it was.  Today I got lucky.

As Ava and I lounged on her new "Big Girl Bed", she pulled Baby close, picked up a book and said, "Come on Baby, let's read."  She read each book softly, stopping here and there to offer a kiss or a snuggle.  As I snapped away, all I could think was I'm so glad I'm here to see this.

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We have a new favorite game in the Lundstrom house.  You might know it as "Hide-and-Seek"; around these parts it's called "Find-The-Mama/Daddy".  Here's how it goes down:  First, Ava begins to count; she usually stops anywhere between 10 and 14.  You have no way of actually knowing when the counting will end, but you know that it will start while Ava's eyes are open and looking right at you.  This typically leaves whoever is hiding about 4 seconds to run and dive behind whatever happens to be out of her line of sight.  You know the game is over when she forgets to look for you.

Come on, you know you want to play too.

Winter Wonderful

Life in the winter time around here tends to slow down a bit.  We do our best to keep busy, but whether we like it or not, we are - more often than not - stuck indoors.  But as you might have guessed, we aren't the types to let a little snow and cold keep us from a good time.  Here are a few pics and videos of how Ava spends the blustery days of winter. (Some of these were taken with my phone so the quality is a little sub-par, but still pretty cute.)  Enjoy.

Tumbling is once again in full swing.  Always a hit with Ava, and more than a little entertaining for the parents.

The Museum of Nature and Science provides weekly doses of entertainment.  This first video is Ava doing a little impromptu dancing in the Discovery Zone.

The second video is what happens when I speak a little too soon.  The magic goes down at the 30 second mark.

 

Fortunately for me there's plenty to do at the museum that doesn't involve any danger of getting smacked in the face with a musical instrument.  There's block building...

 Piano playing...

And animals to gaze at.  (Most of whom aren't quite as, shall we say, animated as little Goldy here, but Ava has no idea what the term taxidermy means, and I'm not about to fill her in at the ripe old age of 2.)

Now you might think that things get boring on the days we're stuck at home, but boy would you be wrong. There are bubbles to blow...

Cookies to bake (and sample)...

Horses to tame...

Trampolines to bounce on, and bikes to ride...

And there's always something that needs fixing.

Add all of this to legos, play-doh, dolls, art projects, hide-and-seek, and the occasional rousing round of "Chase the Dog Around With a Big Stick While Laughing Like a Crazy Person" and I don't know how we have any time to sleep!

Hope your winter has been as warm and wonderful as ours.

Balloons on the Ceiling

I wish the title of this post were some kind of beautiful metaphor about motherhood; some profound observation about raising children.  But the truth is, there's a balloon on our ceiling.  The life span of this particular balloon was bound to be a short one in the hands of our two-year old, but it somehow made it out of Monkey Bizness, through the parking lot, into the car, and back home to our living room.  Score 1 for the balloon.  But thanks to 20 foot ceilings, we have now been faced (twice) with the rather daunting task of rescuing our little latex friend and returning it to its rightful owner. 

Andy's trying to "sweep" it over to the stairs for me.  This was Us vs The Balloon, Round 1.

I'll give you one guess whose winning this litte war.  It isn't us.

As the result of some unpleasant weather we've been stuck in the house quite a bit lately, and entertainment around here is getting a little thin.  You can only have so many tea parties and bake so many batches of cookies before you start looking for amusement anywhere you can get it.  Hence, this...

This is her "eat your heart out, supermodels" shy face.

It was her idea.  I swear.

Summer better get here quick.  We really need to get out more.