Christmas in Bozeman...Part 1

Esme and I just returned from a wonderful Christmas week in Bozeman.  We loved playing with all the cousins and spending quality time with all the aunts and uncles and Grandma and Grandpa.  We had a wonderful time but we are exhausted....so I am doing a photo only post tonight to be followed by some video next week.  Merry Christmas everyone!

 Esme getting ready for our big trip!

 Esme and her cousins checking out the fun iPad games

 I went ice fishing for the first time...not too many fish where caught but it was a beautiful albeit cold day

 Esme at the toy store...she got that awesome sheriff's hat for christmas...thank's Auntie Karmen!

 We ventured into the woods to chop down our Christmas Tree...

 Esme was getting a little chilly by this point....mostly because she took off her hat and gloves

 We went with Grandma and some of the cousins to the Bozeman Children's Museum...it was very cool and only $5 bucks a head.

 Christmas morning...Esme scored big time with some great gifts from Santa!

Merry Early Christmas

A Trip to Bountiful

So Esme and I have been doing a lot of traveling lately.  A short day and a half after we returned from Bozeman we headed down to Utah for Thanksgiving.  Sadly Esme slept through the big Thanksgiving dinner so I didn't get any photos of her on the actual day but we did have a great trip.  In addition to seeing both sets of her grandparents on consecutive weekends, Esme also got to see her tummy momma and both of her great grandparents.  So that is what this post is about....let's call it a genealogy post so that it is not just random moments and pictures  :)

A Trip to Bozeman

This weekend Esme and I took a road trip to Bozeman.  We had a lot of fun spending some quality time with the Stovall's!  We had a great time and look forward to our next trip in December.  You should know that I heard the song on the video about 50 times on this drive as this was the only CD that Esme wanted to listen to....

Cadillac'in it...

Recently I was able to get a great deal on this little red deck chair for Esme.  I decided to put it inside because well...it rains here...a lot. I also thought it would be a great place for Esme to watch her shows.  As it turns out, Esme thought the same thing.  So this is now her second favorite spot to watch TV...first is  with Dad on the couch...at least that is what I choose to believe :)

Enjoy...

Halloween!

Esme's second Halloween was a huge success.  She got dressed up in a super cute Lamb costume, she ate lot's and lot's of candy, and she tried her best to figure out why, if she went up to a strangers door and rang the bell they would give her candy.  She also saw, for the first time in a while, the stars.  Normally we are not outside when it is dark.  That is mostly because it is raining and when it's raining it is tough to see the stars.  So it was fun to see her look up and say "wow".

 Jane was a Bumblebee and Esme was a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow

 Jane and Esme getting ready to tackle the night!

A weekend visit from some good friends

Esme and I were very lucky to have some visitors for the weekend.  Jeff, Katie, Mckenzie, Cameron, and Abby were wonderful house guests.  Esme loved to entertain us all and Stanley loved having a little girl to cuddle with.

As is tradition when someone visits we took a trip to downtown Seattle and I realized that this was the first time that Esme had been to the top of the space needle since she was in her tummy mamma's tummy!

Fun was had by all and we can't wait for the next visit!

 Esme is a little nervous that a fish might just fly out and get her!

 We had to take the picture above to honor the picture below!

   This was also Esme's first trip to the falls, she loved it!

Dinner with Esme...part 2

Life with Esme continue's to get more and more enjoyable.  Her little personality is showing itself a little bit more each day.  I was lucky to capture this little Esme Moment on film....enjoy!

Making Strides

On Sunday Esme, and I and most of the Krivanec family participated in the Making Strides against Breast Cancer walk in Bellevue. Paige, Esme and I participated in it last year because the Oncology office that Paige frequented participates in this walk and they invited us to join.  It is a pretty vigorous 5K walk through the streets of Bellevue.  Here a little video of Esme and Jane getting warmed up for the walk.

And a couple of photos from the event as well

Photo Shoot

Esme's wonderful Aunt Kay decided it was time for Esme to have a little photo shoot.  Here is the result....

               Top Five Cutest Kids ever with messy hair or without....of course I am a little biased

Day and Night and Afternoons at the Movies

Esme has reached that age where she can sit and watch an entire movie.  Not the Godfather mind you but something a little lighter like Tangled.  At first all she wanted to watch was Toy Story 3 but she has graduated now to Tangled and she would watch it all day every day if I let her.

This brings up a conundrum for me as a parent.  I never wanted to be one of those parents that let's the TV babysit/raise their child yet I can see why it is so appealing.  When the show is on I can actually get some things done around the house!  And I must admit that watching her watch the show is kind of cute.  She is too young to get he jokes but she smiles and dances and makes faces along with the story line.  So my compromise on this issue is to try my best to watch it with her so that we are together, having some quality bonding time, luckily Esme is a great snuggler...even though you would never guess it from this video.

Esme at the Children's Museum

A few weeks ago Esme and I decided to take a trip down to the children's museum.  It was a lot of fun and Esme had a great time.  She especially loved spending time in the big Semi-Truck that they had and the smaller car that was outside the museum.  For some reason she love's to get behind the wheel of any car that she can find...could that spell trouble later on in life?  We will have to wait and see...

Nana and Esme

A week or two ago my mother came up to stay with Esme and I for a week.  As you can tell by the video this was pre-haircut.  One night while she was here I came home to find this scene.  It struck me for a couple of reasons.  One, I find it very meaningful when Esme bonds with the people that I love.  It means that she loves them and in return she is getting some of the same love that I receive from those individuals.

Two, when your child interacts with your parents it is hard not to see a glimpse of your own childhood, the part that you can't remember but can now see replayed in person.  It is kind of like a little time machine that takes you back to your own youth.

And three, I am the youngest in my family.  My mother was 40 years old when she had me and because of this I have grown up with the worry that my children wouldn't know her the way that I knew her.  I was worried that she would be gone before they could have an interaction such as this one.  Of course Esme probably won't remember this little story time moment when she is 30 but she will be able to watch it and she will always know that her Nana loves her.

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

It felt pretty weird to be in Seattle for Labor Day Weekend.  It has been several years since I was at home and not on the Big Horn River in Montana.  But since we weren't able to go fishing, Esme and I tried to make the most of our time.  Next year we will be on the river again for sure!  So here are some of our highlights.

Since we couldn't be on the Big Horn catching fish I decided that we should do that next best thing, go see some fish.  On Saturday, Kay, Jane, Esme and I all went down to the Seattle waterfront to check out the aquarium.  Esme loves' fish.  She always stops on the pages in our books that have pictures of fishes.

We had a nice Sunday relaxing then today we went and washed the car. This is Esme waiting patiently for our turn.  She was giving the pink bear hugs and lightly tapping it on the back, which I thought was very cute.

Then we went swimming, Esme loves the water!

And we finished the day at a BBQ with friends were Esme ran around like a mad woman with all the kids....sorry, I didn't snap any pictures of that.

All in all it was a pretty good Labor Day Weekend!

Esme Speak's

Esme is beginning to stretch her little vocal chords.  She is doing a very good job of letting me know what she wants with her actions and she is also working hard on being able to communicate with her voice.  Of course, I think she is the most brilliant child ever but that may be a little personal bias.

Esme at the Pool

The title is more exciting than the video actually is...I have been meaning to get more video of Esme at the pool but we live in Seattle so our sunshine is limited.  Anyway, I wanted to get this up before the summer is over...

A visit from Faith and Esme rides a bike!

Last week we were very fortunate to get a visit from my wonderful niece Faith.  She was up here all week and took great care of Esme.  We even got out for a couple of walks!  Thanks Faith!

Then the other night we were at our good friend's having dinner and chatting and Esme took it upon herself to get her helmet on and try to ride this bike!  She is quite the overachiever since you can tell from the video that the helmet is still a little too heavy, let alone the bike.

Esme Helps out Around the House

Esme has become quite the helper.  She is always willing to clean up after herself and she always wants to help her dad clean up.  And I am not being sarcastic, she really is a great cleaner.  Here's the proof.

An oldie but a goodie

So, I was looking back through some of my pictures and decided that I had to post these ones.  They are from a few months ago but I thought the last one was too funny not to post.  On our walks we usually pass a little wooden bridge.  One day Esme decided that she wanted to start climbing on it and these photo's ensued...

This the one I had to put in.  I was busy getting great photo's for the blog while Esme was busy taking a little tumble...no baby's were injured in the making of this post :)