Fun Valley 2010

We spent the first full week in July at Fun Valley Resort in South Fork, Colorado with Brandon's family from Texas. It was a great week of visiting, fishing, and relaxing by the Rio Grand River. Here are some pictures from our trip. (Amber, I still need the pictures from the Great Sand Dunes).
















We had a great time and already have reservations for next summer.

3, 8, and 16 Months Old

Well since I last posted, all three Cone babies hit another milestone.

Madison is now 16 months old and is full of energy. She loves to give her "cheeser" face to anyone who askes, especially if they have a camera. She is talking more now, we have even heard a few sentences.

Aiden is 8 months old. He is army crawling everywhere and is trying to keep up with his cousin Madison. He is also very interested in his little cousin Emma. He is a very happy baby and is loving being able to move on his own.

Emma Lea is already 3 months old. She is growing like a weed and getting bigger every day. She is working on learning to roll over, and has already accomplished the tummy to back roll several times.

Here are some pictures of the three babies in action:

Madi loves to give hugs, and Aiden is learning this trick too. Yesterday, he was "kissing"Emma, but it looked more like he was trying to eat her head. :)


I tried to get a picture of my girls together while they were dressed alike. Here are my attempts...





I guess a 16 month old just doesn't want to sit still. :)

Madison usually gets to share her bath with someone. Some nights it is Aiden, and other nights it is Emma. Here is their first bath together.

Madison decided to wash her baby sister...it was precious.

Emma is still an awesome baby. Here she is asleep under her floor gym after she played herself to sleep.

She loves her floor gym and will lay under it forever talking and playing with the toys.

If our lives weren't crazy enough as it is, we adopted a barn cat and her five kittens. They are ready to go to their new homes, as soon as we find homes, but it has been fun to have them in our bathroom. Anyone need a kitten? They are sure cute.

Our Flood

On June 22nd, we had a small flash flood in Gillette. We got a lot of rain all at once and it formed a river in our back yard...right through the pole barn Brandon is in the process of building.




Brandon was quite frustrated when he had to re-do all of the dirt work since the storm washed away a lot of the sand he hauled in. Bummer.

By the way...no new progress to report on the pole barn. Hopefully we can get it finished by the time school starts...but I am not holding my breath. :)

Ready to go

Well I promised myself that I would post again before we leave on our camping trip. However, I don't have any new pictures to add...so here is the promise of lots of pictures when we return from our 10 day trip to southern Colorado.

By the way, I am amazed at how much stuff we are taking for our 10 day adventure...and how much stuff we have for these girls. :)

Our packing list includes: clothes for each girl (both warm weather and cold weather as we will be camping in the mountains so that is a grand total of 24 outfits each plus pajamas, socks, and shoes)...blankets (swaddling, receiving, warm and cool)...swim wear...towels, washcloths, bathing supplies...travel swing, floor gym, bouncy chair...two pack-n-plays, sheets, blankets...diapers (and when I say diapers I mean two boxes worth)...books, toys, dolly, blankey...snacks...and that is just for the girls!

I am hopeful that the girls will be great travelers. I am a little nervous about Emma, she doesn't really like the car seat, especially if she is hungry or wet. Hopefully she can manage to go a couple of hours in between each stop. Otherwise our 10 hour trip will be more like 12-14 hours...maybe we should have gone half way today.

We are sure excited to see all of Brandon's extended family for a week of camping in the mountains, and then a few days of visiting my side of the family. It will be great to get to introduce Emma to her family and show off how much Madi has changed in a year. Well I suppose I should be working on last minute details, I promise to post lots of pictures from our trip when we return.

Well-Baby Check Ups

Madison and Emma had their 15 month and 2 month well baby visits in the past week. Here are their stats:

Madison
24 lbs (75th percentile)
30 inches tall (50th percentile)

Emma Lea
11 lbs 3 oz (75th percentile)
22.5 inches long (50th percentile)

Both babies are healthy and developing right on track!

I am afraid that Madi is starting to work on her next set of teeth. She currently has 12 teeth and has started the new routine of brushing her teeth before bed...which goes ok most nights...and other nights I give in and just let her do it herself...independent little kid!

Madison Marie is 15 Months!

I am amazed at how fast our little girl is growing up. She is already 15 months old, and acting more like she is 2 years!

She has started to use her imagination, which is so cool to watch. The other day, she was playing with her doll. Wrapping her up in a blanket, laying the doll in the doll bed, carrying her around. At the same time, she would pick something up from the coffee table, and bring it to her dad to hold. Then she would come back and get it. We still have no idea what she was moving around, but we were glad to witness her development.

Madison loves being outside. She wants to be outside all day long...and gets upset if we go back inside before she is ready. Her walking skills have improved so that she is comfortable walking on uneven surfaces.

Last week we were playing outside. She saw my mom's dogs in their yard across the street. She decided that she wanted to go visit the dogs, so she did. Mom and I watched from my driveway as she walked, by herself, to her Grammy's yard to visit. Her Aunt Jenni called me to tell me my daughter was running away...she couldn't see us watching her.

Stairs are Madison's next personal goal. She has the going up part down. She can fly up the staircase at her Grammy and Granddad Cone's house. She has even started to try and walk up the stairs, alternating legs, like an adult. We still are working on the going down part, although she did tackle the single stair at my parents' house last night without too much trouble.

Madison is a happy child. She laughs, talks, giggles and screams all day long as she is running from one place to another. We laugh that the only time she is still is when she is sleeping.

Madison loves her sister. She likes to be touching her, or rocking her swing, or bringing her a blanket. Emma is really starting to notice her sister too. Last night Emma was in her swing at Brandon's parents' house. Madison was trying to give her toys and setting them down in Emma's lap. I was surprised to see Emma just smiling at Madi instead of getting upset as I expected. I hope they are great friends as they grow up together.

Madison's vocabulary expands every day. Here are some of the new words we have heard her say in the past couple of weeks: ice, night-night, ball. Mama, Dada and dog are her favorite words to say, and she says them a lot!

2 Months Old!

Hard to believe that Emma is already two months old. She fits in quite nicely in our little family, and I can't imagine life without her.

She is really starting to smile and coo. I think I even heard her giggle this week while she was waiting to nurse.

She is an awesome baby. She sleeps through the night about 2-3 nights a week, and the most we have ever gotten up in the night is twice. (I know I am spoiled!)

Here is the current progress on the pole barn. I think now we are waiting for concrete. We will be concreting the front half of the pole barn to serve as a shop/additional garage space. Brandon is out of town this week at a conference and so no new progress since Saturday when they sheeted the roof.

I have to share these photos, although at 15 Madison might kill me for it. This is how she woke up from her nap the other day.


Even after smoothing out her hair it was everywhere. I ended up pulling it back in a pony tail so she didn't look too crazy.

Cousin Aiden is now big enough to sit in the bathtub. So now Madison and Aiden can take baths together every now and then. Here is a picture from their first bath.

Last night during our co-ed bath, Madison decided she was going to clean Aiden. She was washing his face with the wash cloth. It was pretty cute.

I suppose that is all for now. I am officially on Summer Vacation, and loving every minute. I hopefully will be able to get more frequent posts done now that I am home. :)

Lots of Pictures of the Cone Kids

Aiden and Emma in the wagon. They both seemed to enjoy being outside.



Madison loving on her sissy,

and her cousin.

All three playing together, it lasted only a few minutes before I had to rescue Emma from her sister.

Amber and I held a photo shoot to try and capture a good picture of the three kiddos. Here are some of our attempts. It was a little crazy trying to get a 14 month old, 6 month old and 1 month old to all pose at the same time, without trying to pull the hair, ears, clothes of the baby next to them.







The last one is my favorite. They are all at least looking in the same direction.

We had a great Memorial Day weekend. The weather was awesome. We planted flowers, built a fire pit, and worked in the house. It was a nice break. We have three more days of school before summer break. I can hardly wait. :)