Fall Fun

Andrew and Lucy at TinyTown

TinyTown Library

We rarely go a full night without one of them snuggling 

12th Anniversary

Book of Mormon for our big anniversary date

She's a Kindergartner!

Posing in front of the red door Grandpa painted

Meeting Elsa and Anna at the school carnival

At the Great American Beer Festival

Seattle!

I just read online that they have recently sandblasted the gum wall.  Glad we got to see it.  Actually it was really gross.

Scotty!

Lindsey, Scott, Brian and Me

Brrrr!

Original Starbucks

Aunt Amber's quick visit

In front of the Nightmare Before Christmas Pumpkin statue

Love downtown Littleton this time of year!

Lucy strutting after scoring her 3rd goal in one game!

Rainbows!

Cooper and Toy Cooper

Pumpkin Patch of course

Lucy loves carving pumpkins-Margot says "meh"

At School

Lucy and her classmates in the school parade

Same day we had the Dragon Dash-Lucy crossing the finish line

3rd place girl!!!

Nana's Halloween party

Our Little Dutch Girls

Lucy loved the find the candy in the powered sugar game at the Flemings' Halloween party

This one's a keeper

Lucy at school with her name cupcake

Scored some great presents-loves her new keyboard

Getting make-up done at her makeover birthday party

Lucy and Brooklyn (a bestie) all gussied up

The Party Gang-
Bottom row-Destinee, Gracie
Middle row-Brooklyn, Sofie, Amelia
Lucy!
(barely pictured-Margot)

The Cake

Happy 6th Birthday

Photo Slideshow

Click on the Photo Slideshow link to see the slideshow our photographer put together with pictures from our photo shoot in October.

Crystal Update-Started my second year at East Elementary.  I'm still teaching ELD (English Language Development) and co-teaching exclusively in Kindergarten which means lots of time with Lucy!  Most of my free time is gobbled up with the girls' stuff (okay, Lucy's stuff, Margot doesn't do much as far as organized stuff yet).  We traveled to Seattle at the beginning of October to visit my BFF from high school, Scott, and his wife Lindsey.  They are expecting their first baby in December so we wanted to go visit before that happened.  I loved Seattle so much!  It's my kind of city for sure.  We went to the Pike's Place Market, out to eat at some great places, traveled up the space  needle and enjoyed our time at their adorable house.  It was gorgeous and sunny the whole time. A super big thank you to Judy and Fred for watching the girls! My 37th birthday was great.  We celebrated with brunch at Snooze and then homemade pizza on the day before.

Brian Update-He joined a bowling league this fall and gets to bowl every Monday night which he's loving.  He is super pumped about the Hawkeyes being 11-0 of course.  Not much else to report on his end.  Just living the dream as he says!

Lucy Update-Lucy started Kindergarten in Ms. Vander Velde's class.  She loves recess, lunch, PE, music and art.  And she says she loves the times when mommy comes to teach in her room.  Despite only claiming to enjoy the fun stuff she is doing great with reading and math and gets to do an extra enrichment reading group at the end of the day.  Despite losing 2 pairs of scissors, her lunch stick and more glue sticks than you can ever imagine she usually completes her work (usually).
She did awesome on her soccer team-the Rainbows.  They started the season loosing every game but were winners by the end and Lucy started scoring goals about midseason and never stopped to look back.
She just moved up to Intermediate in gymnastics which she loves, loves, loves.  She still loves swimming lessons on Friday nights, too.  She got a clean bill of health on her 6 year check up and is in the 11th percentile for height and 30th for weight (41 pounds).  Doctor warned her that Margot will probably overtake her in height one of these days.


Margot Update-Sweet Margot is doing fantastic as a 2 1/2 year old.  She loves going to Nana's, coloring, dancing, loving on her baby dolls and playing in the snow.  She had a fever that lasted a few days early in November but other than that she's been really healthy.  She went along to Lucy's doctor appointment so we found out she weighs 27 pounds and is in the 78% for height and 25% for weight. She doesn't mind tagging along to Lucy's stuff and has been a huge trooper.Both girls live for Saturday night movie nights.

Cooper Update-He's old.  He had a growth removed earlier this fall and we found out it was cancerous but the vet felt good that they got it all when it was removed.  I'm hoping he doesn't know he's going to be boarded for 10 days at Christmas.  Poor guy.

Be on the lookout for the Reid Family Christmas card featuring pictures from our photo shoot!

Goodbye Summer

Mornings with Daddy are the best

More birthdays at Chuck E. Cheese.  We can't seem to stay away.

Face painting at school.  A rainbow unicorn, not at all girly. 

Margot loves to taunt Cooper. 

The pose

Chinese dresses from Grandma Ellsmore-all the way from China!

You come for the baseball.   I come for the cotton candy. 

Backyard fun

Happy Father's Day!

Happy 4th of July!

Relay race

Margot and Austin

Chariton pool

What cute cousins!

She wasn't too sure about the waterfall action. 

But she loved just sitting and relaxing in the water!

Aunt and nieces

Playing around at Eden's playground

We are part Dutch after all

Awesome trip to Pella

Cousins playing

Glenwood Springs motel pool

Bunny cakes

Riding the gondola to the top of the mountain

The view from the caves 

Ice Cream!!

We hiked to beautiful Hanging Lake!  

The chipmunk was almost a stow-away with us

This hike was a straight one mile climb up

Because this bench was pretty and our girls are cute

Bubble solution is delicious

Highland Square

Margot called this train "the silly Thomas"

I say it every year but this year I truly mean it.  We had a great summer that went way, way too fast. I do think it was the perfect summer.  Lots of family, lots of friends, lots of fun.  We had visits from Grandma and Grandpa Ellsmore (not one, not two but three days of Cardinal games).  We also had a visit from the Smiths for the 4th.   They were so much help while we were crazy enough to through our 4th of July party with 30 plus guests.

The girls and I had fun on our 10 day trip to Iowa, which is quite possibly Lucy's favorite place on Earth.  She loved spending time with Cousin Eden and swimming daily at the pool.  A big thank you to Aunt Amber for taking the girls most days while I was away or home with napping Margot.  Our trip to Pella was quaint.  The girls liked walking the canals and seeing the windmills.  And of course the treats from Jaarsma Bakery.

A huge summer highlight was our family trip to Glenwood Springs.  We finally decided we could venture out on a real vacation with both girls.  Despite the lack of sleep (motels and Margot just don't quite gel yet) we couldn't have had a better trip.  Day one we spent at the Glenwood Springs Adventure park, AKA old timey Colorado-y amusement park for kids.  Lucy is a giant dare devil with zero fear.  She rode the alpine slide multiple times full throttle with Daddy.  Meanwhile Margot and I enjoyed the sandbox.  Lucy also rode a zipline and roller coaster.  Margot and I were still in the sandbox.  Even though Margot couldn't ride much I think she had a blast, especially when we got ice cream.

Day two was breakfast out, pool time at the hotel, a hike to gorgeous Hanging Lake and then dinner at the brewery for Brian's 41st.  Oh and more ice cream.  The ride home was about 5 hours long though due to traffic but it's always nice to remind us why we don't drive to Iowa.

In two days I'm back to work and in a week and a half Lucy will start Kindergarten.  It's all a blur but I know my future blog posts will be full of more great memories.