"Tickle Me Orion"

So, the kids are having a rough day, make it a rough week since thier Daddy is in Ohio until Friday, and O has an ear infection and is teething. Since they are not feeling up to par today, I thought I'd post something that makes me smile... laughing babies. I filmed this a couple weeks ago, I LOVE Orion's belly laugh! Any time I need a pick me up, I watch a video like this. :) There is no music for this post, since you have to hear the laughter. :) I dare you not to smile. ;)

side note... while waiting for this video to upload Orion and I spun around in the computer chair, he thought that was GREAT fun! SO we did have some fun today. :)

We are fam-i-ly... I've got all my cousins with me!!!

Maybe not all her cousins, but our trip rocked for Leilani because she got to play with her oldest cousin Isabella for a WEEK! Our family spent a week in Snowmass, Colorado with Russell's parents, his brother's and one of his nieces. It was gorgeous!! We did a lot of sightseeing, lots of mountains and trees, and hung out with the fam! Leilani doesn't get to spend much time with her cousins on her daddy's side, even though they only live in the Arboretum. We see them maybe once a week (when the inlaws are in town) and only for a couple hours. So it was wonderful for our kiddos to have some bonding time with their cousin Isabella (5 and 1/2 years old), their uncles and their Abuela and Grandpa Jim. I know that Leilani and Isabella's relationship will be forever changed by this vacation, that's a great thing! Their other cousin Amelia (almost 2) stayed home with her mama this trip. Orion had a good time trying to keep everybody on their toes.. eating anything related to electricity he could find, plugs, outlets, cameras, laptops, cell phones, whatever. Lets just say a 1962 ski chalet is not built to be baby proofed. The altitude made him sleepy, but he had a great time watching the girls. :) Here's some photos of the kiddos...

At the Aspen playground.. wheeee!!

Wearing Daddy's hat, on the bus to The Maroon Bells

Gettin' some love from Papa, top of Mt. Aspen

Isabella and Leilani in the wildflowers

Spin Art

How cool is this... I found this link to this idea via a many blogs for salad spinner / spin art. It is awesome. My sweet, and fabulous friend Tanya bought me this salad spinner yesterday at my favorite Goodwill store, and I had to try it out right away. Leilani loved helping me squeeze the paint in and then turn the crank, and ... TA DA!!! Spin Art! Way cool! Tanya and I are going to host an O'mama playdate devoted just to this neato idea!!

Hangin' with the C-man!

Tuesday, Leilani and Orion got to hang out with the totally awesome C-man for a morning while his mommy had an appointment. They had so much fun!!! Leilani has decided that C is her new beau and won't stop "calling" him on her cell phone, too cute! They wanted to jump on my couch, so I piled all of the cushions and pillows on the floor and let them jump from stools. They had a blast. They even let Orion play (around them), how sweet. Hope C-man can come play again soon!!

I wondered what the world looks like from Orion's perspective. :)

Playdates galore!

We have had two wonderful playdates already this week with our lovely O'mama ladies and kiddos. The first was at Andrea's house, "float your boat" was the theme de jour. It was so laid back, it was wonderful! Even though Leilani did not get in the water, she had a great time drinking the floats Andrea made (sparkling water and sorbet, yummy). Orion was spending his morning eating grass and playing with little baby Mia's toys, delightful! ALL of the pics were taken by the beautiful mama Tanya, Thank you Tanya!

The second was The "Pollack Art Playdate". The kids (and moms...) splatter painted a huge canvas, it was awesome! What a great idea! Leilani even got into it. I love this photo that Tanya took of Leilani's friend Z's back. Who is the canvas??

Say Cheese!

Stock cartoon

Today we had the beautiful and uber-talented Bonnie Berry take our extended family photos. Russell's entire fam lives here and we get together every Sunday for dinner. So we needed shots of the entire family, now that we have what will probably be our last baby in the family and Russell's parents are not getting any younger. My inlaws have a great house, but terrible lighting for photos, but I am sure Bonnie got some great shots regardless of the light. Leilani took a while to warm up since she is a bit camera shy, but she did fairly well all considering.
When we got home, Russ took her clothes off to get ready for bath. She jumped up onto the couch in her diaper, bent over, head on the couch... butt in the air (facing me of course) and yells out "MOMMY! TAKE MY PICTURE!" Where is my camera when I really need it?! That gave us a good laugh!
I have no pictures from this holiday weekend to share... I might get some from family.. I'll add later!