acquaintances, babbling, carpentry

-

the big fire has been 100% contained.  experts are saying they probably won't declare it officially out until december.  our friends have been allowed home.  monsoon season is now here.  we've already had more rain in july than we received in all of june.  hwy 24 experienced the first mudslide in the burn area & was closed for a bit last night.  most of the burn areas have had giant trenches built around them to help prevent mudslides from hitting homes the firefighters worked so hard to save.  (we think they really just wanted to make a mote around the west side of colorado springs).


this being said, we'd like to say our lives have returned to normal.  alas, summer tourism and fun guests have arrived.  last week, we had dinner parties with a new family from pennsylvania joining our church.  a friend came with them & wanted to meet people from our church.  she stayed with us for 2 nights.  we tried to be entertaining.  the 4th was probably a bummer since NO fireworks were allowed in the state of colorado, but we hosted a dinner party and watched crazy children chase each other around our yard.  we watched a knight's tale in our theater (yes, we've seen it a bunch but it's still funny).  we went to the zoo (m's camera battery was dead so no pics).  we sent our new acquaintance off to limon to meet more people and took a couple days to prepare for our next guests.

oh yeah, we also bought a "new" to us truck.



c wanted the $40,000 sports car.  we bought the truck.

grandma d showed up monday morning.  after "sleeping" on the train, monday was spent relaxing.  tuesday was spent at garden of the gods (yes, it survived the fire ---  it looks like the firefighters stopped the fire about a mile north of our beloved rock garden).  c had a blast and was completely exhausted tonight.




j's still been working on his treehouse (oops, i guess that's c's treehouse).  it's beautiful and the envy of our neighborhood.


this is what c has to say about life:


Popular posts from this blog

adventures in backrolls

-
Image
we spent the week recovering from m's tummy bug (when m goes down, everyone has to deal).  m never wants to get that bug again (especially not while c's still in diapers)!  we took it easy, and all are feeling better.  we hung around home, enjoyed some sunshine and a dusting of fresh snow. c got her 1st true lesson regarding newton's laws of motion and frictionless surfaces.  she had a great time until an overexcited dog bowled her over, which didn't really phase her much since she seems to want to go outside to play all the time now.  unfortunately, it's muddy now & m doesn't want to wash clothes after baby c crawls through the mud!  once she learns to walk, we'll be spending a lot more time outside. c's been busy perfecting her newest phrase, "uh-oh."  she greatly enjoys dropping everything simply so she can say it over and over again  we're trying to teach her that chucking things across the room doesn't really create an appr...
Read more

all by c's self

-
Image
c demonstrated (or attempted to show) her independence a lot this week.  she wanted to eat by herself despite not being able to wield silverware effectively.  she wanted to go up AND down the stairs by herself (which we're not quite ready to do --- she's still pretty wobbly and easily distracted so we're trying to give her a little more space with a 2 or 3 step head-start).  she figured out how to stand up on her own and stay standing without support.  she then discovered dancing & bouncing was more fun when not holding on to something (even if it did lead to a few extra falls). c discoverd the fun of a very old rocking horse. she discovered signing gets her things, but she seems to be a little confused on what they really mean 'cause she'll do "all done" directly followed by "eat"  while she's still eating.  she likes to do "all done"  while getting her diaper changed.  that hasn't really worked out for her though sin...
Read more

aryanne-back to-cora

-
Image
Aryanne Idril DeFilippo (4/11/14) Cora Luthien DeFilippo (12/4/2010) Arya Cora Arya Cora Arya Cora   After several false alarms, Aryanne graced us with her presence at 2:08 pm on Friday, April 11 of 2014.  We arrived at the hospital in time for m to get admitted and start pushing.  While labor with c was long and drawn out, labor with a was quick and brutal.  m preferred the latter.  48 hours later brought us all safely home.  little a has thus far been a smaller, slightly calmer version of c.  we can't wait for u to meet her.
Read more