Some recent pictures (and videos on Dropshots) of V. While we were in Flagstaff the first week of January, she started to crawl. Well within a week or so of that milestone, she started pulling herself into a standing position on anything that will stay still long enough. Now she is testing her balance skills by letting go of her support and standing on her own. She lasted as long as it takes us to count to 5 but she is getting better and better every day.

We've also introduced the word "no" to her. Now that she's self-propelled, she loves, just LOVES the dog's chew toys. We are repeatedly telling her those Kongs are not hers, but apparently that idea hasn't sunk in yet. You should see the fit she pitches when we take them away from her!

Reminds me of a Kewpie doll

We call this her Devil Smile. She wrinkles her nose and gives a huge open-mouthed smile.

My happy happy girl!

J.E.B. and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary this past weekend by deciding to go for a hot air balloon ride Saturday morning. We went to the hot air balloon festival our first Thanksgiving here when my parents were visiting and ever since then, the idea of going for a ride has stuck with us. We tried to get a group of people together last spring, but when I called to make reservations and told them I was 8 months pregnant, they told me no. So we put the idea on hold.

Neither of us remember which of us had the brilliant idea to do it for our anniversary, but we had a great time. We opted for the sunrise ride (we had a choice of either sunrise or sunset) and had to meet the pilot at 0700. I had originally had a babysitter coming from 6-10pm Saturday night and felt a little bad when I called her to see if we could change it to 6-10am Saturday instead. She was great though and showed up at 0600 ready to deal with a somewhat dazed, half-asleep V (she's not exactly a morning person. Must get it from me!)

So at 0700, in the dark, we met up with the other four passengers and the pilot and is ground crew. We had to drive a bit to get to a good take-off spot and actually while we were waiting, the sun rose with us still on the ground. Not a big deal though.

They finally got the balloon set up and off we went. At one point we were zipping along at a whopping 10 miles per hour! We were up for about an hour-ish total and reached 2000 feet I think he said. It was a gorgeous day with almost no clouds and sunny. It was definitely cool in the morning (I had a beanie on my head and my hoodie pulled up plus the jacket zipped up!) but it warmed up once we were in the air.

I thought I was going to feel a little freaked out about the height and not feel secure but it was very smooth and very calming actually. We just moseyed along, going higher then coming back down and taking in the scenery. I did feel a little nervous as we were about to land though. Since the only real steering in the balloon is up or down we were kind of at the whim of the wind where we landed. We ended up landing "close" to the pilots first choice of spots which was nice. However we scared the crap out of some older guy who parked his truck near the canals and was cooking up breakfast on a portable stove. I think he was one of the canal workers. Anyway, we started to descend and ended up being blown right over his truck. So close that I had to look the other direction since I was sure we were going to graze the cab roof! He even started motioning us to the side, as if we could just push a lever and turn left or right. We actually landed just a few yards from him...his breakfast sure did smell delicious!

It was a great anniversary celebration albeit and early one. But we remedied that by taking a nap that afternoon when V was asleep for her afternoon nap! Ahh, what partiers we are!

Our week up in Flagstaff was great and we're already thinking about other timeshare locations for future vacations.

V learned to crawl while we were there. She had been inching around the house for a few days and during our stay in Flagstaff, she started to crawl a bit. Well fast-forward a week and you will find V zipping all over the house on hands and knees. I can't get over just how fast she has improved her crawling abilities...in just a matter of days! She's also trying to pull herself up into a standing position. What happened to my cute, sedentary baby?! Believe it or not, I haven't nabbed a video of her crawling around though. Surprising really, what with how many videos I've taken in just this month alone (at least 20, maybe more!!)

She had a doc appt this past week to check her weight. Apparently at her 6-month check up she was smaller than the doc wanted so she had us come back in a month to see how V was doing. I guess she is doing well! Little Miss Piggy gained a pound and a half in just a month getting her up to 15lbs ! I guess breast milk, formula and baby food are working!

She hung out here playing with the clothes basket for about 5 minutes. Man, she was cute!

This is her new smile. She is definitely becoming a ham!

Flagstaff Part 3 -- Grand Canyon

Since we were only about 78 miles from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon we took one day and drove there to check it out. I was there when I was seven but didn't remember anything beyond being terrified to go up to the railing to see since it was such a long way down. And that was in the summer. None of us had been to it during the winter and seeing the Grand Canyon with snow on it was even better than seeing it in the summer in my opinion. For one thing, it wasn't as packed with tourists, which was nice. But it was great to see it with the snow since so many of the Grand Canyon pictures are taken in spring or summer.

We took so many pictures knowing full well that none of them would come close to capturing the beauty and awe of it all. We both agreed that we could stay there and just stare at it for hours. The size of it was, is, just amazing. So gorgeous. So cool!!

We snow-suited the babes up and packed them into the strollers. The path was cleared pretty well, or at least the snow was packed down so we didn't have to worry about getting stuck in the snow. The kids did really well and while we were only out and about for roughly an hour, they were quiet, happy and looking around. All good things, I think!

We decided to follow Desert View Drive on the way back home as it follows the canyon with a number of scenic views and still would get us back onto the road we wanted to get back to Flagstaff. The road was a bit icy and snowy/slushy but it was definitely worth it for the scenic views. We even saw a Puma Crossing road sign at one point, but didn't stop as hitting the brakes on an icy road with traffic behind you just for a picture of a road sign didn't seem prudent to either of us! Although I did some digging on Google and came up with a similar sign for you all to enjoy! I do love seeing the different creature crossing road signs!

V did great on the trip as a whole, but understandably about 40ish minutes from Flagstaff she started to lose her cool. We figured this would happen and I was already sitting in the back seat to waiting to act as "entertainment" so we could all keep some sanity. V, of course, loved this and we had a great time in the back while J.E.B. drove us home. I posted a video of the raspberries she kept blowing at me. Too funny!

Flagstaff Part 2 -- Snow Shoeing

We went to the Flagstaff Nordic Center one day and rented snowshoes. For some reason I had it in my head that the snowshoes we'd be getting would be the kind you see in old pictures, you know, the wooden ones with rope lattice. Almost look like tennis rackets. Nope, not the case. These were fancy-dancy snowshoes and a simple clip and snap and BAM! You're ready to go!

Jed and J.E.B. took the babies while Molly and I took the packs (not that either of us expected to do a diaper change in the snow, but you never can be too prepared!). I'm not sure how long the trek was, I think it was about a mile loop. Both Mikey and V did great, although toward the end they did get tired of it all. I think V got a little chilly since she seemed to lesser her tantrum once she was bundled up in J.E.B.'s coat again (he'd unzipped it when he started to sweat!)

We followed the snowshoe trail but J.E.B. felt that was too easy so he walked next to us off the path in the unbroken snow. I followed him for a bit, generally trying to step in his steps as that was easier, but always ended up going back to the path!

What a fun experience!

The Dads and their kiddos!





I loved walking through The Woods near my house in CT when I was younger. This (kind of) reminded me of it, although there was no Bear Pit! :)

Jed and Mikey, who is looking too cool for words with his nifty sunglasses!

Action shot of Molly

The cross country skiing trail is in the foreground and the show shoe trail winds into the woods at the left

J.E.B. had V and himself all bundled up but soon realized that trekking through snow carrying a 14lbs baby is bound to make you hot. About 10 minutes into the walk the beanie and gloves came off and the jacket was unzipped!

Too cute!

(since we took a lotta pictures, I'm going to break our trip into a few posts. Be sure to check out the video link. I uploaded a ton of videos from the past two weeks. I've been a little camera-happy!)

Flagstaff Part 1 -- Meteor Crater

We went to Flagstaff, AZ for a week right after New Years with some friends who also have a 6-month-old baby.We hadn't used the timeshare yet nor had been to Flagstaff before. It had been a while since we'd been in snow and seen mountains covered with the white stuff so we were excited about this trip for a number of reasons.

It took us about 6 hours to drive up there and it was a pretty easy drive. And very pretty. The timeshare "room" we had was really a tri-level condo of sorts. One bedroom on the bottom floor, one on the middle floor (also where the front door was) and the top floor was the kitchen/dining/living area. It was really nice; a perfect setup for two small families.

On the top floor looking into the living area. I'm standing with me back against the deck doors. The fireplace is just to the right off camera

Ahh, what a great sight to see!

standing on the top floor deck.

About a half hour drive away there is a big crater formed from a meteor which hit the Earth about 50,000 years ago. Its called Meteor Crater ..... appropriately named, I think! Anyway, we headed out there with Jed (Molly stayed home with Mikey since the poor little guy got sick the first few days we were there). It was really incredible! I don't remember the exact figures for how big it was, but it was large!

I thought it was pretty cool to see the flat, flat ground, the winding road and the great big snow-covered mountain in the back!

V was obsessed (still is actually) with the tag on the zipper of my fleece pull-over