What a week!

The past few days have been filled with a lot of fun and joy.


1. OUR HOUSE SOLD!!! We are officially not homeowners in Florida anymore and are so grateful for that. We will probably stay with Andrew's parents for a few more months in order to save some money (the house sold but we didn't get much of our money out of it) but it is fun to be a buyer in this kind of market instead of a seller!


2. On Wednesday morning, Andrew and I along with his sister Alli and her husband Chris embarked on a 24 hour adventure in the Chick-fil-A parking lot. Let me explain. When new stores open, Chick-fil-A gives out 52 combo meals (food for a year) to the first 100 people in the store. You are allowed to start lining up 24 hours before the store opens, so that is what we did. We were the first ones there!


The crowd for the first 4-5 hours, was pretty sparce and the wireless internet was not working so Chris and Andrew left to go to a nearby coffee shop so that they could get some work done. Alli and I however, did not leave that parking lot for 25 hours (you are not even allowed to your car). We had a nice little set up - a 4 person tent, some camping chairs and we even got a tv brought out to us in the evening so that Chris could watch his beloved Phillies win the World Series.


Chick-fil-A fed us a chicken sandwich for lunch, chicken strips for dinner, late night chicken nuggets, brownies and ice dreams and then in the morning we got to march through the store and collect our winnings. It was a great time by all.


I have a few more pictures on our camera but it got mixed in with Alli and Chris' stuff so we will have to wait until the next time we see them to get it. Here is a great picture of our set up that Chris took on his cell phone though.

And if you are wondering, Malia spent the day with Andrew's mom and came and visited us two times which was great.

Etsy Shop

I just realized today that I never wrote about etsy. Over the last couple of weeks I was inspired by one of my college girlfriends, Abby, to open up a little craft shop on etsy.com and I invited my sister, Beth, to join me. It has provided a great creative outlet for me while I am home with Malia.

The site is www.ChrissyandBeth.etsy.com

What I have posted on etsy is just a sampling of what we can make. Colors, fabrics, and designs can easily change depending on what you want. And we can make some coordinating items (like to go with a onesie) if you are interested.

Thanks for looking!

Hike #2

Yesterday, we ventured out to Castlewood Canyon to take advantage of the 70 degree weather (it was very cold here mid-week).

Malia enjoyed the hike but I think she probably enjoyed eating after the hike more.

Pops carried Malia for over half of the hike (and took this picture while doing it).

Family photo.

Malia was really digging these cheese crackers.

I love how it takes two hands to eat sometimes.

Those chipmunk cheeks are full of food.

First Family Hike

Last week Andrew and I ventured to R.E.I. (a very dangerous store) and purchased a hiking backpack for Malia to ride in. Then on Saturday afternoon we headed over to Red Rocks with Alli and Chris to try it out.

It was a beautiful hike and Malia did really well in her new pack. We are definitely ready to do it again. I wonder how many more hikes we can get in before winter really sets in here - hopefully at least one more (we are supposed to get snow tonight but I am skeptical).

Family photo.

The newlyweds.

A glimpse of what we were hiking.

Uncle Chris was very nice and took over carrying Malia on the second (uphill) part of the hike.

Malia gets beat up...

... at church of all places. On Wednesday nights Andrew and I help out with AWANA. Malia was in the nursery last Wednesday night and when I went to go pick her up I saw that her face had been scratched. I was embarrassed because I knew that her fingernails were long and I thought she had done it to herself (I had been trying for a few days to cut them but she always squirms away).

I was surprised (and weirdly relieved) when the nursery workers told me that she was actually scratched by another girl. And the amazing part to me was that she didn't even cry. Here are some pictures showing the scratch which starts on her eyelid and then goes down below her eye (I had to document how tough she is!)

Teeth and Sippy Cup

The other night at dinner, Andrew captured this shot of Malia where you can kind of see her two teeth on the bottom. Ok maybe you wouldn't know they were there unless I pointed it out but it is the closest thing we have to a picture of her teeth showing right now. Plus I love her smile in this picture.

And here she is knawing on her sippy cup (I think it feels good on her teeth). She has surprised me in the past week at how well she can lift the cup and drink from it - for awhile I was wondering what you do if your child doesn't drink from a sippy cup - I mean she couldn't have bottles for the rest of her life.

Fall Festival

Yesterday we went to a fall festival. Unfortunately we didn't get to stay very long because it started raining but Malia did get to pet a few animals and play in a sandbox full of feed corn.

Here are some pictures.

Petting the cow.

Getting licked by the goat.

Slowly getting into the corn.


Quickly warms up to the idea of the corn and is completely unfazed when her dad and pops bury her entire bottom half in the corn.

Mobile and exploring

The other night, Malia took what we are calling her first steps. She was standing holding onto an ottoman and then took a few steps and landed on the couch. She is still a ways from tottling around on her own, but she is definitely getting more and more confidence to try.

Not only is she trying to walk but she is also crawling around more to explore. Here are a few pictures.

She loves going over to this old trunk and feeling the leather and metal. We had to put pillows by it, otherwise she would hit her head every time she went by it.

She crawled over to her highchair and pulled herself up.

The Great Outdoors

Malia has been a little fussy the last few days while getting her 2nd tooth. When nothing else can console her, you take her outside and she is happy as a clam. Here are a few pictures of her exploring.

She likes the wood chips. (Of course they go in her mouth).

Climbing over the rocks. (Her behind looks so big because her diaper was extremely wet at this point.)

This is the other sweater that my mom knit her. Coming in handy in this cooler weather. I should also note that while she won't keep a hat on regularly for more than 2 seconds, once she was outside and realized it helped keep her warm, she left it alone.

Boxes, boxes are so fun

While cleaning out the basement (in efforts to make room for our stuff), Emmie (Andrew's mom) came across an empty wardrobe box. It was on its way to the garage to be recycled when it made about a 24 hour stop in the hallway so that Malia could have a tunnel to play in. Which brings to mind a question I frequently ask myself - why do we buy kids toys?

And yes that is Pops (Andrew's dad) on the other end of the tunnel still in his work clothes. He came home from work and immediately joined in the fun.

The Meltdown

Sometimes Malia just isn't happy. Like any good mother, I captured her melting down in this series of photos.

Pretty content.

Not happy.

Really not happy.

Falling over because she is so unhappy.