Want your child to love you? Buy a play set

Ok, I am kidding.  I am pretty sure Adriana loved us before.  About 90% sure.  :)

We decided to take the plunge and invest in a play set.   I have wanted to put one in for a while but Rob has been reluctant.  Highlands Ranch doesn't offer the most spacious of back yards and I think he thought we would have zero room for anything else.  But I finally convinced him we would still in fact have some grass to play soccer or run.

One of my main reasons for wanting one is that our child loves the park, loves to climb and loves to swing.  We go to the park a lot, but sometimes it would be nice if she could do these things and I could still get some laundry done.  Plus, they are just fun and great entertainment.  

Since we are not handy people (and I didn't want to take the last bit of sanity Rob is hanging onto), we had the company install it for us.  So worth it.  They were done in 4 hours.

Adriana watched them out the window for about 3 of those 4 hours.  She was so excited.  She would announce, about every 3 minutes, what progress was made.  And finally when the time came, she went outside and I am not sure, but I think there were tears of joy in her eyes.  She would go test it out and run back and give me a huge hug and tell me she loved me.  I think I got about 10 big hugs an hour that first day.  

It has already proved to be a great investment.  

Swinging with Grandpa 

Great Grandmas

Grandma Tumble Bug, Adriana and Grandma Mary

Adriana is very fortunate that she is growing up knowing her Great Grandmas. These ladies are a huge part of my life and have been since I was little.

We saw my Grandma Smith (aka Grandma Tumble Bug as Adriana has nicknamed her) multiple times a week and she stayed with us a lot when we were kids. She is so funny and crazy (in a good way). My friends growing up loved her. My friends now love her. She is one of the greatest ladies I know. And has become Adriana's favorite. She lives in Cheyenne but comes and stays with us a lot. She is 94, and a spitfire. Her and Adriana have a special bond. I am thankful for her everyda.

My Grandma Mary turned 100 this year. She is quiet and kind and especially in the last few months Adriana has gotten to spend a lot of time with her. Her and my grandpa (who is 93) live in Denver and we are lucky that they are still part of our lives.

Adriana turns 4 (2 months ago)

Very happy birthday girl

Table of Adriana and 12 of her closest friends

Awesome cake pops and cake

Parachute time!

Celebration with Mommy, Daddy, Grandma and Oscar

Day of her birthday

So I realized I left out Adriana's birthday from this year. Oops. And if I knew how to go back in and put it in I would. Or we can just re celebrate it now, a couple months later.

Adriana turned 4 at the end of December, and as with every year, it turned into a 2 week affair. With having our birthday around Christmas, it makes the timelines of parties, school celebrations and all that always long before or long after her actual birthday. Something that is probably going to annoy her as she gets older. She got to take treats to school and celebrate with her classmates about 2 weeks before her birthday. We actually had a little party with just us, my Grandma and our friend Oscar, the night of her birthday at our house. Then a week after her birthday, we had her friend birthday party, followed by a celebration with our families at our house afterwards. There was no shortage in spoiling around here.

It was all a lot of fun. Adriana had her birthday party at a local gymnastics place where she and her friends got to do tricks, play parachute and jump in the foam pit. It ended with popcorn and yummy cake pops, and it was a success. One of her friends asks me every few weeks if she can have her party at the same place. I think that is the highest compliment a 4 year old can give.

After this party all our family came to our house for dinner and Adriana lpayed for about 8 hours running around non stop that day. I am surprised she stayed upright. By the end of the night she was so tired she couldn't even function.

So far the age of 4 has treated Adriana well. We started off with her first ever ear infection. Double ear infections. Followed by another bout with double ear infections and strep last week. We have had some firsts. First ear infections, first time with strep, first time with croup. But none of it keeps her down for long. She still goes to preschool, gymnastics and we have added in swim lessons. We have an activity every day of the week. It seems like a lot but she really enjoys it and is mad that I don't have her in ballet and soccer. She seems to never want to stop. During Christmas break we put her in a 3 day gymnastics camp and she loved it. I think if she could go to gymnastics every day, she would be a happy girl. She wears both Rob and I out. We need to get her brother home so she can run him around. :)

The New Room is Complete!

At the beginning of the year we started the process of room rearranging to get ready for Hugo t come home. He will not be home for a while but since many things are not in our control, we decided to work on something that was. We painted the exercise room and moved Rob's office down to the main floor. We then began turning the old office into Adriana's new room. We let her be a big part of the process. Picking out paint, helping paint, picking out furniture and decor. Truly it was a lot of fun.

She moved into her new room in the middle of January but we finally got the last picture we ordered on backorder tonight. So I feel that now it is complete. I am not sure if it is Adriana's dream room, but it definitely is mine. ;)

We are taking a break but soon will start turning Adriana's old room into Hugo's. Rob is sick of painting so I am giving him a little break.

Snow Day!

Bundled up and ready to go

Snow dog

Digging in the snow

On the Sled! That alone is a victory

Throwing a snow ball at Daddy

Daddy retaliating

The creation of Steve

Daddy, Clyde, Steve and Adriana

So a couple weeks ago we got our first big snow that canceled school. It is really the first big snow of this year and the first time this season we could actually get Adriana out to enjoy it. I am pretty sure she gets a little of my distaste for being cold and I am not a lover of cold, wet, snow type activities. I am working on it so she will too, but she is a lot like me in too many ways.

We got her bundled up and headed out. She was really excited to make a snow tunnel. Her and Rob worked on that and we also talked her into trying to sled in our front yard. It doesn't make a big hill, but since the sled incident of 2011, we just wanted to get her to try. (we took her sledding last year and she freaked and refused to even sit on sled. We came home about 10 min after we left. No sledding occurred but a lot of crying and screaming did, it was traumatic for all of us). She actually got on the sled and really enjoyed the ride. So there is hope!

Later that day Rob and Adriana worked on a snowman. He was short, had a strawberry nose that fell off and was replaced with a carrot and edamame mouth. His name was Steve. He was awesome.

Christmas 2011

Christmas Eve cookie making for Santa

Her new apron

Thank you Santa!

She wrapped this present all by herself for Daddy. She was very proud.

Thank you Cousin Maddie for feeding the Raiders fire in this house. :)

This year we had a really fun holiday season. Adriana was very much into all of it and it made the holiday more fun and magical.

Firley, our Elf on the Shelf, visited each day and every morning she woke up early just to look for him. We enjoyed a lot of Christmas movies, times with friends and families and a lot of time discussing Santa and his trip to our house. Lots of holiday crafts and far too many yummy holiday treats.

Adriana is definitely beginning to understand and buy into the commercialism and marketing of Christmas.. I am not sure how to truly combat that as it is everywhere. And Rob and I are big gift givers and love to buy for the holidays. We talked a lot about what Christmas really means and I am thankful for preschool for teaching the story of baby Jesus as it kept her asking questions and kept the true meaning of the season in our discussions and minds. We also had many discussions about giving at holiday time and that it isn't just about presents. It is about time with family and giving to others. There was a lot of talk about her brother and where he lives and how we are very fortunate to have the house we have and able to have the things we do. Did it all sink in? I am not sure but we shall see and won't stop trying. Hopefully we planted a seed.

This year Adriana asked Santa for a pet hair salon. Not a dollhouse, a truck or even a Wii like a normal child. She went with pet hair salon. Very random and kind of a hard order to fill as I am not sure they have ever built one in Santa's workshop (nor found one on amazon.com which is what I am sure modern day elves do). But Santa is pretty resourceful and brought Adriana a toy vanity and while at first she was not sure of it, she quickly learned that she can not only do her pet's hair with it, but her own and her dolls. It was a success!

We truly did have a great Christmas this year. We had a hard time as Hugo is not yet home with us and we feel that huge piece missing. We feel it daily but the holidays seem so much harder. Time with family and making memories just feels off when one of the biggest pieces of us is missing. We hope it is the last Christmas we have to endure this. But are thankful that Adriana had a great holiday and we were able to give that to her.

The Year We Were No Longer Afraid of Santa

While Rob and I were in Haiti, my sister took Adriana to see Santa at her office. He comes there every year and it is such a great setting to see him in. It isn't the busy, chaotic nightmare that seeing the mall Santa is. We love it!

I was really sad not to go this year, especially since in year's past Adriana has been less than a fan of sitting with the fat man in a red suit. But this year she was so excited. And apparently just went right up to him and sat on his lap. We wrote a letter to Santa before I left and she gave it to him and had quite a discussion.

Yesterday we were in Petco to get something for the fish and they had Santa there for people to get their pet's pictures taken with him, and she went right up to him and sat in his lap. Rob and I were in shock.

She is growing up so fast. And this year, Christmas is already so much fun. She has changed so much over the past couple months and some of her fears have seemed to go away. Even though we don't see daily changes, like we did when she was a baby, there is definite changes subtly coming. It is a joy to watch and we are lucky to be the parents of such an amazing, caring, happy kid.