Catching Up

Whew!  We are home sweet home after 5 weeks and 7,400 miles of traveling.

I've fallen down on my blog posts the past few days as we took four days to drive from Michigan to Rifle and arrived home at midnight on Tuesday night -- or is it Wednesday morning.  I guess midnight is AM, so we got home at midnight Wednesday morning.

Now we're trying to get back in the swing of life at home and we're trying to get our ducks in a row, preparing for a new school year.

There are many blog posts I want to share about over the summer including Tracey Ann's six month update, thoughts on nursing, Tracey Ann's first boat ride, seeing friends across the country, favorite parts of Tracey Ann's current age, and fun times with Grammy and Papa -- these will be coming in the next weeks.

For today, I want to share a couple of my favorite pictures from this summer:

She Survived...

In Michigan, while visiting my parents, it was survival of the fittest, and Tracey Ann survived.

She conquored a number of contraptions that are now illegal/outlawed/not child safe, including but not limited to:

An old-fashioned crib, where the rail goes up and down...

An old-fashioned walker...

An old-fashioned baby swing...

 And old-fashioned swimming toys

Worth Remembering

As Hubby and I worked to pack our bags and our car to head home to Colorado from Michigan, my dad played with Tracey Ann.

I forever want to remember the beautiful picture of my six month old daughter happily cooing as my 81-year-old father played with her on the ground.

She lay on his chest, he helped her roll over, he helped her reach for toys, he supported her sitting up, he made up fun songs, and she chattered back at him.

Eventually I heard less and less chatter from the area where they were playing.  I eventually walked over to check on them, and my baby girl was sound asleep, and her Papa was singing quietly holding her little foot -- just like, when I was a little girl, he would hold my foot while I fell asleep.

I am such a blessed mother... and daughter.

1000 Words - 6 Months

1000 Words - 6 Months

 ** This change was made possible by breast milk

Tracey Ann -- Six Month Pictures

Our precious baby, Tracey Ann turns six months of age tomorrow -- which is NUTS!

All the cliches are true -- we can't remember life before her, but it feels like just yesterday that we brought her home.

We were incredibly fortunate to have some family pictures taken out at the Grand Haven pier on the shores of Lake Michigan.  These were so special to Chris and me because we were married in West Michigan and we had some wedding pictures taken on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Here are some of our favorite six month pictures:

Feel Beautiful

There is a thread circulating through facebook of "post five pictures that make you feel beautiful."

I started by compiling about a dozen pictures from over the years where I felt most beautiful... then I created a few collages and spend some time (probably way too much time) actually choosing which collage, and the pictures therein, made me feel the most beautiful.

It was an interesting project for me... I was able to pinpoint the several years when I felt the most beautiful, and then try to determine why that was, and what I could do to try to regain those feelings.

There are people who make me feel beautiful -- my wonderful husband, for one... but I hope to begin implementing some steps in my life to get back to a place where I, myself, feel more beautiful on a regular basis.

Here was the winning collage:

And here was the collection of pictures that made me feel beautiful.