6 months

Last Saturday the 16th was Aleta's half birthday!  I can't believe 6 months have already gone by since she was born.  She has gotten SO big!

3 days old--first day at home

2 weeks

3 weeks

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months--I forgot to take a picture with the caterpillar this month, so these are her Easter photos.

5 months

And 6 months!!

I fed Aleta rice cereal for the first time last Saturday.  She didn't hate it, which was surprising.  Naomi absolutely hated rice cereal.  I tried everything I could think of to get her to eat it--mixing it with breastmilk, mixing it with different baby food fruits and vegetables, I tried the oatmeal kind and then the mixed fruit or banana kinds--nothing helped.  She wouldn't touch the stuff.

Aleta, on the other hand, loved it! She didn't eat a ton when she tried it for the first time on Saturday, but she was still getting used to it.  Every other time I've fed her, she has eaten every last bite of her cereal.  I keep accidentally making way more than I mean to, and she still she eats it all!

First bite!

Tasting it... thinking about it...

Happy girl!

I don't know what this face was... haha

Chips & Soda Dates

When Jacob & I first got married and we were living in our little apartment in Provo, we would often have what I now call "Chips & Soda Dates".  We'd buy a yummy bag of chips and some IBC Black Cherry soda (in the fun glass bottles!), and we'd watch a movie and snuggle while eating our snacks.  We didn't consider these nights "date nights" at the time, because we still occasionally had real dates.  But since we now have two children and no money for a babysitter or real date outings, we love our Chips & Soda date nights!  We redbox a fun movie or watch a couple episodes of a show on Hulu after the kids have gone to bed, do a little snuggling, and eat some yummies!  It's a nice way to spend some time together and relax without having to spend money we don't have!

A few more photos from the week...

Jess sent me a cd in the mail with the photos from her camera, so here are a few more photos of my week of fun with Jess:

Aleta, all ready to go!

Jess in the cave

Walk to Devil's Icebox

Naomi was trying on Jess's hat

Flat Branch Park

The last park I am blogging about from Jess's visit is Flat Branch Park, which was actually the first one we visited.  Jess's first full day here was Thursday, and my playgroup had planned to meet up at Flat Branch Park, which has a free sprayground area.  This was the first time this summer I had attempted to take Naomi to play at a sprayground, so I was still hopeful that she would have fun.  But of course, she wanted nothing to do with the sprayground.  In fact, as we were walking on the sidewalk toward it, Naomi started shaking.  I was walking a good 5 feet behind her, and I could see her hands start shaking as we got closer to the sprayground.  Poor girl... I have no idea why she is so afraid!

There was a small (very small) playground area at the park, but it was pretty lame.  Naomi maybe went down the slide twice, and then she was done.  We took a few pictures, walked around a bit, and that was that.  I will say this about the park though--it is one of the prettiest parks I've been to.

We rated it as follows:

Attractiveness-- 4.5 stars
(Flowers, the cool bridge, landscaping, gazebo, stream... it was really pretty!)

Ease/Safety--  4 stars
(Because the park was so tiny, it was pretty easy to keep an eye on Naomi and follow her around.  We didn't give it a 5 because of the stream--the sidewalk went right up to the stream, so it would be easy (and tempting) for kids to run into the stream and play, but there were signs by the edge warning people not to touch or play in the water because it was so full of bacteria.  So that definitely takes the safety rating down a little.)

Playground Equipment Variety-- 1 star
(As I said, the playground was tiny and pretty pathetic)

 Fun/Coolness Factor--  3 stars
(I think Jess & I originally decided to give it a 4, but I just don't think it deserves that high of a rating.  It does have the sprayground, which is cool, and the neat bridge, and a gazebo, but that's really it.)

Parking-- 1 star
(There was one teeny tiny parking lot, which was full when we got there.  The only other parking we could find was metered parking, because this park is downtown, just a block or two from the main downtown street.  I never have change, so we had to drive to a store to get change.  Then I wasted 3 quarters paying for parking... definitely not worth it.)

Composite Rating-- 2.7 stars

So... not the best park.  Although if you wanted somewhere to take some cute pictures or if you wanted to play at the spraygrounds, it would definitely be a good place to go!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Saturday June 9th was our third wedding anniversary!  I had planned a big steak dinner for our special anniversary dinner, but Jess & I had a busy day planned, so she treated us to Steak 'n Shake instead!  Jacob & I had really wanted her to experience Steak 'n Shake while she was here, and I think she liked it!

 

We were so full from Steak 'n Shake on Saturday that we never got around to eating the cake I had bought for our anniversary dessert.  So we had the cake after our Sunday dinner, and then Jess & I made the steak dinner on Tuesday, so Jacob and I got to drag our anniversary celebration over 3 different days.  I've decided that we should do that from now on for all of the special days--anniversaries, birthdays, other big holidays... everything is going to get a week-long celebration!

Red Velvet Cake... yummy.

Us eating dinner... I'm pretty sure Naomi took this picture.
And that's sparkling grape juice.  Don't worry.  :)

This wasn't part of our anniversary celebration... I just added it cuz she's cute.  And I was going to photoshop that little booger out of her nose, but then I thought, "nah!" :)

Shelter Gardens

Shelter Insurance, which is just around the corner from where we live, has a gorgeous gardens area on their property where you can go, for free, to walk around, have picnics, take pictures, etc.  I've wanted to go for a while, so I made Jess go with me when she was here!  It was gorgeous... I really want to go with Jacob for a picnic sometime (if we can find a friend willing to watch our kids for free... haha).

I liked that tree top left... I thought it was cool looking.

What is that thing in the top right?  I have no idea.

You can go inside that little schoolhouse, too.

 

Cosmo Park

Cosmo Park is the biggest park in Columbia.  And, lucky for us, it's just 5 minutes away from where we live now.  It's got a few playgrounds, one of which is HUGE, and then a ton of other stuff.  In fact, I think I'm just going to copy & paste the list from the website because it's so big:

7 picnic pavilions
Telephones at park entrance, soccer concession, Antimi Shelter, Rainbow concession, L.A.Nickell Clubhouse
Antimi Sports Complex - 4 lighted fields - 250' fences, 2 lighted fields - 200' fences, 2 T-ball fields - 110' fences
Cosmo Fitness Trail
Bear Creek Nature Area (leash-free area for dogs)
Cosmo Nature Trail
Columbia Skate Park
Bear Creek Trail Trailhead Access
2 - Fishing lakes (Nickell Lake and Antimi Lake - see map)
4 - Football fields
2 - Football/Lacrosse fields
12 - Horseshoe pits (lighted)
L.A. Nickell Golf Course - 18 holes
L.A. Nickell Clubhouse
Off-leash area for dogs
Steinberg Playground
2 - Playgrounds (1 at Rainbow Softball Complex, 1 near Nickell Shelter)
Rainbow Softball Center - 6 fields
Rhett's Run Mountain Bike Trail
Remote Control Car Track
Roller Hockey Rink
19 - Soccer fields
8 - Tennis courts (lighted)
7 - Volleyball courts (6-sand, 1-grass)
5 - Restrooms (open April 15 to October 15; Nickell/Lamb restroom open year round)

Yeah, it's huge... 533 acres... definitely one of the coolest parks I've ever been to. 

Jess & I really only spent time at the big playground. Based on our time there & the extra information from the website, this is how we rated Cosmo Park:

Attractiveness-- 3 stars
(It was pretty, but nothing fantastic or really special.  But it's such a huge park that I wouldn't expect them to have awesome landscaping over every inch of the park.)

Ease/Safety--1.5 stars
(This rating was mostly based on the big playground, because that's where I spend my time with the girls.  Because the playground is so huge and has so many different levels, separated by slides and stairs and ladders, it is nearly impossible to keep an eye on your kids, especially if you are pushing a stroller.  With a stroller, you can't even get to all of the levels, so I mostly avoid Cosmo park unless I am only taking Naomi or someone else is coming with me.)

Playground Equipment Variety--  5 stars
(I think if any playground deserves a 5, Cosmo Park does!)

This is a picture of the huge playground... you can't see some of it because of the trees, but it's still a cool pic.  I took this from the Columbia Parks & Rec website, here.

Fun/Coolness Factor--  4.5 stars
(The only thing that I can think of that Cosmo Park is lacking is some kind of water--there is no pool or lake or sprayground like at some of the other parks, so I feel like it can't quite get a 5.  It doesn't have everything.)

Parking--  4 stars
(They have lots of parking spread out throughout the park, but I couldn't give it a 5--the park is just too busy and too popular.  I won't even go to this park on the weekends because it's complete insanity.  The one and only Saturday I tried to go with Naomi, they actually had people directing traffic as you turned into the park.  I went around the roundabout and drove right back out again.  That kind of craziness just isn't worth it to me just to play at a playground.)

Composite Rating-- 3.6 stars

For such an awesome park, I feel like it should have a higher rating, but the low ease/safety score really brought down its average.

And finally, here are some of our photos from when Jess & I took the girls!

Aleta was exhausted & fell asleep in the stroller pretty quickly.

Naomi absolutely loves the swings.  90% of our time at the park is usually spent on the swings.

Some of the playground equipment...

This part is cool--it's like a deck area with a few different slides & some other toys, and then the deck area goes along other parts of the playground as well.

More of the playground equipment.

Knocking on the little "window"

Really long slides... Naomi loves these, but I get too tired to run up those stairs a million times.