Carrots, Colds and Temporary Good Byes

It's a sad evening tonight- tomorrow Buddy and the Grand Po-Ba will be heading back to their homeland of rainy Kentucky after spending a wonderful two-months in sunny Idaho. We will miss them an awful lot, but luckily they will be coming back in June for a couple months again! 

Cora and I didn't have to say our goodbyes quite yet though because tomorrow we will all caravan down to Laramie together where they will then continue on to Kentucky and Cora and I will go down to Fort Collins to visit Nana and Pops, Cindy, Terry, Laura, Michael, and Marisa and Mike! Nat (who is currently in Europe again for work) will fly in to meet us. I can't wait for Cora to meet Mike and the Beahms and I'm so excited to see my family! I just hope the car drive goes okay ...

Before this past week slips away, below are some photo documenting this week's adventures. It was a big week because Cora ate her first solid food- some organic carrots, which she hated at first, but I think it was our mistake to give it to her during her witching hour. I let her try some again later in the week and she did much better, she just made some funny faces and spit most of it down her chin and onto her clean clothes.  

Cora also got her first cold (and so did I, and I hope mine was worse because it was pretty gnarly). Being sick and taking care of a sick little one while Nat was gone was hard. The night was the hardest because I couldn't take NyQuil or anything because I had to get up every few hours to take care of my needy little bug. I don't know how single mommas do it .... 

We are both on the mend though (I hope!) and are ready for some down time at Nana and Pops.

We also took Cora to (I think her first?) outdoor concert at River Run of Willie Nelson's son. She did great and loved all the attention from half the town! It makes me so excited for summer when we can take her out and about to all the fun things this Valley has going on in the summer.  

Okay, off to bed to rest up for our big adventure tomorrow! 

Hanging Out.

Hanging out and showing off her arms.

Hanging out on the raft.

Hanging out at the concert with Dad.

Hanging out at the restaurant with Dad.

Hanging out in her "To-Go" box.

Hanging out with Mom.

Hanging out naked.

"The Machine" is hanging out before it goes away forever.

"I will NOT show you my new teeth!"

Hanging out with Po-Ba.

"Okay, here are my new teeth!"

So tired ....

Age: 18 weeks 

Height: 23 inches

Weight: 10 lbs 4 ounces (can you believe it!?!)

Life's been busy with work and life and Cora is getting her second tooth (front bottom right, she got her front bottom left a couple weeks ago) and we are NOT sleeping much.  I will try to write more next week (when hopefully I'm not such a zombie), but here are some fun photos for the time being.

Happy Saturday Morning

Helping Dad mount mom's skis

Riding Tanner

Hanging with Grand Po-Ba

Trying out mom's work chair!

And here are a few videos!

Cutting Teeth & Hitting the Slopes

Happy Four Months Cora Azalea!!  Amazing how the focal point of my life has drastically shifted and now revolves around a 9 1/2 pound adorable little creature. What a crazy four months it's been, and yet, I can barely remember life without her now.

This past weekend we packed the family up and headed to Utah for Cora's first "Spring Break Lalapalooza."  SB2013 (based this year out of the SLC Mormon 'Princess Bellagio' Compound) was quite a treat, and was Cora's first real get away besides two trips to see the doc in Boise and one five hour adventure to Target in Twin.  What fun we all had!  Skiing some fantastic runs, participating in some superb lodge lounging (Webb and Cora killed it in the lodges and took turns hanging out with the moms and the dads), to hot tubbing and hanging out with some of the most hilariously superb folks around the country, was quite delightful.  We were lucky to have had a chance to ski a few powder runs on Sunday and we were even luckier to have been a part of another SB tradition.

Coming back to our reality of work on Monday was a huge bummer, but we muddled through it and last night Nat and I were pleasantly introduced to the fun and excitement of teething.  I think we both slept about a good hour while poor Cora fussed about her new beautiful front bottom left tooth that graced us with it's presence over the weekend.  I am embracing the chronic sleep deprivation!!!

Pretty Little Snow Leopard Twins

Our daughters are guaranteed to hate us when they grow up! 

(This awesomeness deserved its very own post) 

Bobbing Along

Plunging back into the insanity of work, combined with the stress of searching for Cora care in April and trying to find time to hang out with my family and visit with Kathryn and her ADORABLE little Clara (who were awesome and visited us last week!), these past couple of weeks have been really tough to find balance. I feel like I'm barely bobbing along trying to stay afloat and I'm just exhausted!  I'm sad too because I don't feel like I get to spend as much quality time with my little midget, but we are all doing our best and Nat and his parents are helping out as much as possible too, thank goodness.  

Continuing in our path of chaos, this weekend we are going to SLC for a ski getaway with a bunch of friends and I can't be more excited!  While Nat has circumnavigated the world multiple times since Cora popped out, I've only ventured as far as Boise and Twin Falls so I'm dying to get away, find some fresh powder and enjoy some good laughs with an amazing group of people!  Cora is going to be so stoked for her first ski weekend and she'll get to meet a new boyfriend for the first time, Mr. Webb Bristow!!

Since I've written last, Miss Cora recently weighed in at 9'12 and is 23 inches long! She's still in the 1% of smallness, but she's growing at the correct rate, so we are not worried anymore.  She just might be tall and skinny her whole life, until she discovers cheese, wine and bread, that is :) Because she is getting a terrible skin rash from her leads, last night Cora spent her first night cordless since before we hooked her up to The Machine way back in November.  I don't think I slept much at all and was up constantly poking her to make sure she was still breathing.  I know she is probably just fine and is old enough and strong enough not to choke on her tongue anymore while she sleeps, but not having her on The Machine kind of freaks me out.  I'm hoping it will get easier ....

Last weekend Kathryn and little Clara (who is almost two and is so, so cute and good) came to visit and we had so much fun!! It was quite a trip for a two-year-old but I think she had a really fun time swimming at the Y and running around playing with Tanner and the baby.  I LOVED seeing Kathryn, and really wish we lived closer! 

Here are a few fun photos from the last couple of weeks:

      

(She's pissed she has a bow on her head! Ha!)