Zoo and Cupcakes

Yesterday, the girls and I visited a cute little cupcake shop nestled in Denver's historic Park Hill. Our good friends joined us for some very delicious treats. We tried a variety of goodies...the red velvet cupcake being the favorite (I think I had one bite while Ella hurried to eat the rest).
We have heard a lot of great things about this bakery...home of the Denver Cupcake Truck.
WE LOVED IT.

After indulging in cupcakes, we took a trip to the Denver Zoo.
We were so excited to be able to spend the afternoon with the Westhoff kiddos.
Our kids get along so well, we love to get together.
We explored the Zoo all afternoon. We had so much fun!

December

This month has been delightful.
It has been full of sunny days, walks, visits to Santa, parties, family activities, bike rides, laughter, chocolate dipping, Christmas programs, hot chocolate, good friends, playing outside, cupcakes, movies, Christmas lights, projects, gingerbread houses, Christmas music, dates with Brad, and smiles from sweet little Ava.
I love this time of year and I am not ready to see it go!

Ella had a fun surprise from Santa-
She has been very busy cooking in her new little kitchen.

Little girls are so much fun!
I had a couple of sewing projects this year.
Leg warmers.
I wore them when I was their age(can't believe they are back). haha

And aprons for my 3 sweet kitchen helpers.

The girls were busy with their own Christmas projects.
This was their favorite.

They designed, frosted and decorated.

I was impressed. So cute.

• Happy Holidays!

The countdown begins.

The magical month of December is finally here!

SO EXCITED.

Our countdown is under the Christmas tree.

This morning the kiddos opened day #1.

Drum roll...

Sorry kids. The Nuggets tickets are for Mom and Dad. :)

You can eat the candy.

This week we have had "give thanks" cards taped up throughout our home. We decided that whenever we saw one of these colorful reminders, we would say something that we are thankful for or express thanks to someone (not always easy at our house). It was so cute to hear all of the wonderful things that our kids are thankful for. We have SO MUCH to be thankful for! I am extremely thankful for great friends, family and our Faith.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I am so excited to have the kids out of school for a few days. We have been decorating for Christmas while listening to Josh Groban's Ave Maria on repeat. Love it.
This morning we went out for crepes with my friend Celeste and her 3 adorable boys.

We have the best friends. It takes a village right? We have a great one.

Our girls with the darling Hutchison boys.

Loving the Holiday Season

Can't pass up a French bistro.
Crepes- superb!

P.S. I am thankful for delicious food. :)

Our little darling is 3 months old.
She is such a sweetheart!
WE ADORE HER.

Butterfly Pavilion

The Butterfly Pavilion is one of our favorite stops.
It is a lush tropical conservatory with over 1200 butterflies from rainforests all over the world.
It is so much fun, my girls absolutely love to explore and hunt for butterflies. The butterflies are so beautiful and fly right into your space, even land on you. It is quite an experience!

Outside of the conservatory, there are exhibit halls with all sorts of creepy crawlers.
And I mean C R E E P Y!
This month the featured guests are the Arachnids.
The star of the show... the TARANTULA.
Spiders make me nervous, very nervous. Especially big hairy ones!
My girls did not inherit my scare of spiders, they were totally enthralled. :)

Addison holding "Rosie the Tarantula"
She loved it and went back 4 times.
Brave girl.

Ella stuck in a spider's web.

Olivia- a very spooky tarantula.

YIKES! She is hilarious.

Denver Arts Week

Saturday was the kickoff to Denver's annual Arts Week. Arts Week celebrates Denver's arts and cultural scene with free museums, art walks, displays, discounted performing arts, and much more throughout the city. We spent the day at the Denver Art Museum.
A M A Z I N G!
Each gallery hosts a kids art area with so much for the kids to do and learn. We had such a fabulous day, we can not wait to go back!!

King Tut is currently visiting the museum, so there was so much to learn
about Egypt and Egyptology. It was so fascinating!

Ella-so much fun to dress up.

Olivia and Ella on their way to the next gallery.

The best piece of art in the entire museum. :)

H A L L O W E E N

A very tired pink princess, a silly angel and a sweet little witch.

Happy Halloween!
We had such a great Halloween weekend!
We were all over the city at different
Halloween events and activities.
We ended the weekend with good friends
at a delicious dinner and Halloween party. YUM.


Little Ava-cheeks so fun to kiss!

Ella and Ava

I absolutely love my mornings with Ella and Ava. It has been so much fun to have time with the two of them while Addison and Olivia are at school. Ella is a little mom and is so great with Ava! She is darling! This morning we met up with some of the girls from my running group for a morning run. Ella filled the stroller with toys and took very good care of sweet little Ava. It was a beautiful morning-the girls loved it and so did I.

Pumpkins

So, we took a trip to the Farmer's Market and each picked out our favorite pumpkin. We love to do our annual glitter pumpkins, and this year we tried to mod podge a few as well. I think that our little Ella could mod podge all day. She thought it was a lot of fun to make a mess...and we did! My kids loved this project and I loved how they turned out. They were SO easy and last through Thanksgiving!

Here is our sweet little pumpkin.

She is growing up so fast!
She is such an easy baby. We love her so much!

Pumpkin Festival

On Saturday, our family spent the day at the Denver Botanic Garden - Chatfield Nature Preserve. Chatfield was hosting Denver's annual Pumpkin Festival. The festivities included a pumpkin patch, corn maze, pony rides, wagon rides, games, crafts, face painting, art exhibits, bands and so much more. We enjoyed every minute of it. Love this time of year!

Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent:

4 Cups hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup Washing Soda
1/2 Cup Borax
8 T Tang drink mix (to brighten and crisp colors)

-Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over
medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.


-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing 
soda, Tang and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top
 with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.


-To make it easy to use, pour it in to an old laundry detergent container.


-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once 
soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.


-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 5 gallons.


-Top Load Machine- 1/4 Cup per load (Approx. 320 loads)


-Front Load Machines- 1/8 Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

Each 5 gallon mixture costs just about 2 dollars...under a penny per load. Hooray!

Berry Patch Farm

This week we took a delightful little trip to a berry patch farm. We spent the morning with friends picking raspberries. The kids worked so hard picking and eating and eating some more. It was such a beautiful day and so much fun!

The berry pickers.

Ella-hard at work!

Addison and Olivia

We picked enough raspberries for
3 jars of raspberry jam and

raspberry mousse for dessert- DELISH!

Ballet

Addison and Olivia started ballet this week at their new dance studio. They love their new studio that allows them to be in the same class (so much easier for me). Their first class was so much fun, they loved it. I had to snap a few pictures of them dancing around on our front yard. They like to show off their moves. They keep Brad and I very entertained. So darling.

Nederland Carousel

Last weekend, we experienced the "Carousel of Happiness", located in the heart of Nederland, Colorado. Nederland is nestled in Boulder Canyon along the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway. This 1910 carousel features 36 whimsical, hand carved animals turning to the music of a 1913 Wurlitzer band organ. Each animal is carved out of basswood and decorated with acrylic paint. It took the wood carver over 22 years to finish! The carousel is fascinating, unique and absolutely adorable! Our girls went round and round, trying out most of the animals. They loved it and can not wait to go back!

Ella riding her favorite...the peacock.

Addison riding her favorite...
the moose with little birds on his antlers.

Olivia riding her favorite...the kitten.

This weekend was very special.

Saturday,
Addison was baptized and confirmed a member of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
She has been looking forward to this day for a while...
it was perfect.

Our family after the baptism.

Sunday morning,

our little Ava was blessed at church.

She is almost 4 weeks old, we absolutely adore her.

Thanks to our awesome parents who came

to share this weekend with us.

We were so happy that you were here, we love you so much!