1-31, Snowy Day

I'm not sure how many posts I'll have entitled "Snowy Day" while we live in Colorado, but I'm sure that title is going to become redundant.  The post titles usually correspond to how I organize my photo files, so "Snowy Day" again it is.  We saw this storm coming-- 2 back to back within 24 hours.  I prepared Nikolas not to get his hopes up for a day off of school.  He was mildly disappointed there was only a 'snow delay', but it's more than he's gotten for most of the winter so he took it in stride.  There's just something about a snowy day-- a change in mood-- I love it.  There's a little more excitement, a little more contentment, a little change in routine.  Yesterday was one of those days.  The kids woke up in great moods and I was able to capture some nice moments between the two of them.  (Notice neither are wearing a Broncos or Seahawks jersey-- Steelers all the way in the Krauss Haus-- what did I tell you?!)  In addition to the photos, I got a couple of 'cute' videos.  I always laugh when the 'boys' come in and say "I didn't know you were taking pictures (or videos) of us!"  Yep-- never let down your guard when I'm around.....or even when I'm not.  LOL......

"Mama-- what are they doing?"  Us girls inside watching the boys work outside. 

Our neighbor offered to give Nikolas a ride closer to the bus stop.  They decided to get a little more plowing done while they waited.  Nik's already to go with backpack on and all. (How cute is that?!)

Daddy's off to work.  Nik's off to school.  Just me and mommy again!

1-25, Denver Date Day

Yes, you read correctly-- Sven and I went on a DATE-- together and without kids!!  How about that?!    We prefer to pay a babysitter to watch the kids when they're actually awake (who wouldn't?!?!), so we went on a wonderful, 6-hour excursion to the 16th Street Mall in Denver.  We had no idea where to go when we pulled out of the driveway, but that is where we ended up.  As much as I love living where we do, I'm trying to convince myself that I like Denver.  I don't dislike Denver, but I don't know if it will ever compare to NYC or Seattle (my favorite cities).  (Ok, it can honestly never compare to Manhattan, so that's a pretty lofty ambition.)  Sven and I have discussed this at length, and the conclusion is this:  there's no water....no bay, no sound, no inlet, no nothing.  For the past 21 years, I have lived within 30 minutes of a coastline (if not actually on the water itself).  Even though the mountains of Montana were my normal, apparently my new normal requires a large body of water.  I have yet to find that thing about Denver that I absolutely love.  I know what I love about Colorado, just not Denver in particular.  In all fairness, we have actually spent very little time in the city, so I need to at least give it a fighting chance.  But, even if it never does compare to other places I've lived and loved, I have no doubt that given a choice this is where we'd continue to call home.  

Anyway, Sven and I had a great time reconnecting with time by ourselves.  We had Starbucks, did a lot of walking, visited the infamous Tattered Cover Bookstore (I bought a fantastic photography book that was coincidentally written by a Littleton photographer), and had a delicious Mongolian BBQ dinner.  Who knew 6 hours could go by so fast?  But I must say, it sure was nice to get the opportunity to miss the kids.  Let's hope we can keep our babysitter on hand for awhile longer (it only took a senior in college majoring in electrical engineering to warrant that warm, fuzzy 'they'll be ok without us' feeling....ha!).  Here are a few shots from our day:

By the way, we're torn between who we should cheer for on Superbowl Sunday:  the Broncos or the Seahawks.....tough call!  I'm sure everyone in my house will be wearing their Steelers jerseys anyway!  LOL......

1-24, Our Crazy Kids

It's been pretty quiet on the home-front lately.  Not much to report.  Other than the kids being a little goofy, there's not much else going on.  So, in honor of Emalie's favorite book ("the silly book"), I thought I would share these few videos and photos with you.  The videos are of Emalie riding her tricycle (complete with helmet and backpack ensemble) around our kitchen.  I don't know where she came up with this, but she likes to pretend her trike is a horse galloping off.  I have tried repeatedly to get a good video of her bouncing away on her bike without much success.  These two are the best I could do come up with so far.  The photos, well, they are pretty self-explanatory.  I'd say Nik's takes the cake for this round.  Can you believe he doesn't mind posing for photos like THIS?!  Kids!!