Our New Place

After finding out in Sept that our apartment rent would be going up significantly if we renewed our lease, we started looking around at other options. We found the perfect place, an older rent house with twice as much space for less than what our renewed monthly rent would be at our apartment. After much prayer and thought we put in an application and after being approved we promptly paid the deposit and signed our new lease. Three weeks later on Oct 1st we officially moved in and now a little over two weeks later everything is finally in place and all the pictures hung and we are just loving our new place. So now for a picture tour:

Here's the front door:



The Kitchen/Dining area:





Hallway:



Master Bedroom:



Oliver's room:





Owen's room:





Downstairs:





Play Area:



Living Room:





Music Room:



Office/sewing room:



And here is a video tour by Nathan and Oliver:

New Adventures Part 2

This past weekend Rachel's family came to visit, all the way from Henderson, TX. We took a drive to Colorado Springs to visit Garden of the gods park.



Rachel snapped a lot of pictures while Nathan took video.





And Benj used his tripod and self timer to capture all of us for group pictures.





Papa Doc and Nana enjoyed walking together and pointing out interesting landmarks.





Kevin and I posed in front of the Siamese twins rock formation and you can glimpse Pikes Peak behind us in the distance.



Meanwhile Nathan climbed around exploring...



and soon found a cool spot to try out for a break from the sun!!



Oliver tried out his rock climbing skills, always careful to hold tight to Nana's hand.





Later while the guys played disc golf, Oliver ran around a playground and had fun with Nana while Rachel rested in the shade.





And after all the excitement Oliver and Nathan promptly fell asleep on the ride home.

New Adventures Part 1

Nathan's family came to visit and really enjoyed a break from the hot temps of Oklahoma. We enjoyed treating them with special home cooked meals.



It turned out to be an exciting weekend with new adventures, the biggest one being a drive up to Mt. Evans, on the highest paved road in North America. The road up the mountain is steep at times, but not a bad drive and the views just spectacular.





Mountain goats roamed freely and we had fun chasing them for pictures and videos.





Oliver had a rough time in the car but once at the top he calmed down and enjoyed hiking with Granddaddy and Grandma.





Even though it's August, on top of Mt Evans it hardly ever gets above 40 degrees so we all donned coats and hats. Thursday morning around 11am the clouds were definitely rolling in since it usually rains in the afternoons.



Nathan and I drove up again even earlier Sat morning around 8am and it felt even colder with pretty intense winds. But the sky was clear and it was a beautiful morning to be on top of the world.

Children's Museum

This morning we enjoyed a special treat as we met up with friends and received free passes to the Children's Museum. Oliver had a great time and here are some of the activities the museum offers:

A Bubble Room



Train Room



A tool room where you could build projects using recycled materials.



A supermarket-Oliver had a ball putting groceries in his cart and then loading them into a shopping bag.





Next a big room with caves and tunnels.





Painting-another one of Oliver's favorites and he even willingly put on his smock and hung it back up when he was finished.



And a big dance floor in front of a wall mirror with dress up clothes. Oliver wasn't too interested in the clothes but he enjoyed walking around in tap shoes.



Oliver also enjoyed climbing into a fire truck and had a great time with his friends. I'm so grateful to have other mom's to hang out with during the week and playmates for Oliver.

Summer Fun

Summer is now in full swing and just in the past few weeks we've had to start using the AC to keep the apartment cool, but it's not bad with days in the low 90's.

We've been enjoying going to birthday parties and Oliver, who is usually highly skeptical of new foods, loves trying cake and cupcakes and ice cream!!





He's also starting to interact more with other toddlers and enjoying new activities such as blowing bubbles,



playing in a bouncy house,



and chasing animals.





Since I only work part time at the daycare, most of my days are free and Oliver and I have been enjoying nearby parks, especially one that has a train to ride...



and a creek that flows through the park that's perfect for wading and keeping cool in the summer heat.



In other family news, Nathan received a new video camera for Father's Day that's he's been super excited about.



Now he takes video anytime we're out and about!!



And last but not least is news about our upcoming 2nd child!! We had the 20 week ultrasound and everything looked good and IT'S A BOY!!!





Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July!!