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"a portrait of my daughter, once a week, every week, in 2013."

Everdeen Kate: Fall is in the air and you have been loving taking a wagon ride in the late afternoon.  You even love pushing the wagon through the grass showing us your mighty strength and how independent you are. 

   

 Linking up with Jodi :)

{37/52}

"a portrait of my daughter, once a week, every week, in 2013."

Everdeen Kate: Lately you wave your hands wildly and whine if you don't quite get what you want...this time it was being able to chew off of a giant turkey leg. We gladly obliged :)

   

 Linking up with Jodi :)

...and then the floods came

Oh my goodness.  We prayed for rain and rain we got.

Our poor state is under water.

The amount of rain we've gotten in the past few days is record breaking and has no where to go but into our cities. Mountain areas have been hit hard...especially where the fires had been this summer.

There have been some evacuations in our city but we are safe and sound. My poor brother-in-law has been bailing water from their window wells for the past few days trying to prevent their basement from flooding :(  

Today they cancelled school...Colorado weather can be so unpredictable.  First a heat day and a week later no school due to flooding. 

This is in Lyons, CO where Martin and I got married

East Denver

The rain is suppose to let up today...but we could see more heavy rain next week.  So for now, we are staying nice and dry inside and thankful that we are safe.

{pictures via}

...and then the rain came

finally.

Last night it started to rain.  

We've been overheating here in our neck of the woods.  Long hot days with no relief in sight.  Nineteen first graders and 90+ degree classrooms don't really jive well together.  Every morning we keep our classroom doors open to let in the cooler morning air, but by lunch time we all have sweat dripping down our legs and the kids are chugging their water bottles.  Everyone is a little cranky and sharing our things and using nice words has been hard when we're baking in a brick oven.  We even had our first heat day-- no school because it was too hot.  We've never heard of such a thing! 

 But now we can turn the fans off and sleep under the sheets again.  There is a hint of fall in the air and summer seems to be disappearing quickly before us.  This is the September weather that we're used to. 

 Ahhhh...there's nothing like the sound of rain pitter pattering against the window pane as you drift off to sleep :) 

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Everdeen Kate: You are one!  My heart is so full and still in awe that you are my precious little girl.  We are thankful every minute of everyday for you! 

{31/52}   

Everdeen Kate: You were reading for what seemed like hours.  

{32/52}

Everdeen Kate: We decided to take you to enjoy your very first TCBY :)  You weren't too interested in the frozen yogurt, but you were entranced by the changing neon sign! 

   

   

{33/52}

Everdeen Kate: You love exploring Grandpa and Nana's house!  

   

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Everdeen Kate: Telling bunny little secrets.  

{35/52}

   Everdeen Kate: What better way to practice your new walking skills then at the splash park! 

   

 Linking up with Jodi :)

   

la la lu

If you've been reading along with me for a while you may have picked up on the fact that we love music in our home! :) Music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember and has been the reason for and a part of many life changing events in my family's lives. If I had never played the violin, I never would have met my husband in the high school orchestra.  My twin sister met her husband while playing the piano in her college dorm. 

So you see, we believe in the power of music :)

Since the moment Everdeen was a tiny speck inside me, she has been exposed to music.  She would hear my singing and piano playing all day long in my Kindergarten class, hear her daddy playing his favorite Dylan songs on the guitar, and the obligatory prenatal Mozart blasting through the headphones stretched across my belly. 

When I was pregnant, I came across the song La la Lu that Darling sings in Lady and the Tramp. I have always thought that was such a beautiful lullaby and knew I wanted to sing it to my little girl. I would sing the lullaby any chance I got...on my way to work or in the shower...any time when it was just me and her.  On the night Everdeen was born, I remember holding my new, tiny, pink baby awkwardly in my arms...so carefully, like she might break. I was feeling overwhelmed being a new mother and had gotten very comfortable with having my baby safely inside of me. I looked over and saw Martin snoozing away on the fold out couch and the nurses had finally left us alone for a while. It was just Everdeen and I. I stroked her wrinkled fingers and held her close to my chest. I quietly began to sing our lullaby, realizing that nothing had really changed.  That the little one who had been in my belly was the same little one who I was finally getting to hold.  We already knew each other.  All she needed to hear was my voice...our song.

We want Everdeen to love music...except maybe the head banging screaming bands ;) I want her to use music to express herself, to help her heal when she feels sad, to help her celebrate, to become a daily soundtrack of her life. 

A couple weeks ago we brought home a piano (very much a dream come true!).  I love watching Everdeen stand on her tiny tip toes and play the keys.  I love coming home from work and releasing all the stress from the day through the music I play. Maybe someday music will take my sweet Everdeen on an incredible journey or allow her to meet someone special. Maybe it will put her in the right place at the right time like it did for me eleven years ago.   

{36/52}

"a portrait of my daughter, once a week, every week, in 2013."

Everdeen Kate: The neighborhood pool closed for the season on Labor Day signaling the end of carefree summer days.  It was a little bittersweet as this will probably be the last time we ever get to swim here.  Your Nana and Grandpa are moving out of the neighborhood your aunties and I were raised in.  I'm glad you got to experience the same baby pool I swam in as a toddler :) It's nice how some things never seem to change and are there waiting for you, untouched, years later. 

   

 Linking up with Jodi :)