Yesterday Lydia went to watch her Daddy play flag football!

We only stayed about 20 minutes because it was cold and Lydia already has a stuffy nose. Didn't want to push it. (It's just a little cold - no fever or flu around here!) Hopefully next week the weather will be better and we can watch both of Daddy's games.

"Daddy, I'm real sorry to hear that you scraped your face and elbow while diving for a pass... but I'M COLD! Take me home!" (But congrats on catching the long pass, Daddy!)

Look at what we did today! SO CUTE

Well, this is my fourth post for the day! I'm making up for lost time, I guess. Here are a few of Lydia's latest tricks on video!

She likes to turn around in circles. It cracks us up because her eyes cross.

She likes to watch her shadow. Pretty fascinating!

She likes to walk backwards! I don't have this one on video yet. She just started doing that this week and it is so funny.

Jibberish! She's still not talking, but there's a lot of jibberish. She is definitely using the sounds "ma ma ma ma" and "da da da da" more than she used to, and usually it's when she's upset, so we're thinking this might be on purpose now! Good job, sweetie pie!

Today Lydia went to her friend Gracie's 2nd birthday party! We had fun! There were a lot of kids there of all ages. Anytime Lydia is around other kids she becomes so curious. She just walked around and around and around, observing everyone and occasionally joining in the fun. Gracie has an AWESOME playroom that Lydia really liked. I was busy making sure she wasn't getting into things she shouldn't so I didn't take any pictures. I'm quite sure Gracie's Mommy took a ton though, so we'll see those later. When we got home I had Lydia try on my t-shirt for the Komen Dallas Race for the Cure, which is coming up on October 17th. Isn't she so super cute? This will be Lydia's second Komen Race. She participated in the Plano one when she was about 7 weeks old. We missed that one this year, so now we'll do the Dallas event.

Last week Lydia's Grammy bought her a new chair! She is so good at finding a good deal on cute things. Lydia loves her new chair and likes to pounce on it like it's just a big pillow! She doesn't sit still in it long enough to say, chill and watch a movie with Mommy and Daddy, but maybe some day down the road.

I FINALLY completed Lydia's first year baby book! I used a website called blurb.com and was able to create a beautiful hardbound book using all of the entries from this blog, as well as many additional photos and stories. It turned out great! The book represents her first year, from birth to 12 months. I better start on her year 2 book now since we're half way through it already!

The front cover

The back:

The cover is a wraparound photo.

Here's a video preview of the book... (overkill, but I worked really hard on this thing!)

September 4th was Oliver's 35th birthday! I planned a special surprise for him - a secret I had to keep until September 18th! Some of you know that Oliver is a HUGE fan of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. They built a new stadium a few years ago, and they won the World Series in 2006, but he hasn't been there to see a game in years! Thus the surprise. I booked flights, a hotel, and researched tickets (which Oliver's Dad bought for us!) and didn't tell him what was up until we were in the car headed to the airport! I packed his bag (including his Cardinals gear) and we dropped Lydia off at my parent's place for an overnight (thanks Mom and Dad!). Shortly thereafter I revealed the secret. He was so excited! Our seats were great, and our hotel in walking distance to the stadium. While we were in town we were able to tour the area where he used to live and went to high school, etc. The next day we ate at Albert Pujols' restaurant outside of St. Louis. Everything went so well, and we had a great time. The game was fantastic - good weather, great fans, and the Cards won the game with a homerun in the bottom of the ninth! (Cubs rivalry!)

Meanwhile, back at home, Lydia had her first overnight away without Mommy and Daddy. She did great! She had so much fun with her grandparents and didn't even know we were gone.

Did you know today is Grandparents Day? (Ok, so there's a chance this is a manufactured holiday - probably Hallmark or someone else in the retail card industry dreamed it up just to give us another reason to purchase cards, but hey... why wouldn't we want to celebrate Lydia's grandparents?! They're wonderful! Lydia couldn't be with her grandparents today, but she signed a nice card for them! Lydia has the best grandparents EVER! She is so blessed! HAPPY GRANDPARENTS DAY!

Ok, so the card is slightly bent and crinkled. Here's why. She loves her grandparents so much, she got giddy and grabbed the card from me!

She got a little distracted during the photo shoot, but her greeting was from the heart nonetheless!

More from our trip to Dillon, Colorado! I haven't collected pictures from anyone else yet; maybe once we share pics I'll have even more fun to show you! I know Kelly took a ton. Thank you to my Dad and Mom and to my Uncle Jim and Aunt Martha for hosting all of us on this trip! They planned this great family reunion to get all of the kids together, and paid for it all, too. We appreciate you planning dedicated time for the family, and for the great location, too!

Who was there?

My parents (Sandy and Dan Kreutz)

My Dad's brother and wife (Jim and Martha Kreutz)

My sister and her fam (Kelly, Joshua and Liam Underwood)

My 3 fabulous cousins and their families:

Julie (Kreutz) and Ross King, and their boys Kolby and Oliver (that's right!)

Sara (Kreutz) and Giles Conway, and their boys George and Spencer

Emily (Kreutz) and TJ Maxfield, and their daughter Casey and son Robby

And the 3 of us!

The set up was great. We had 3 condos in a shared courtyard, each with a fabulous view and perfect accommodations inside. Jim and Martha own one of them, and they made arrangements for the other two. It was great because we could all hop from condo to condo easily for various meals or activities. It was perfect.



Lydia was an angel on the airplane both coming and going. Absolutely perfect!

The first morning...

The view from the living room of our condo...

Does she look a bit grumpy to you? She was! Off and on the first couple of days. We still aren't sure if it was her new molars or the new environment and noise or the missed sleep or just a new toddler attitude or what! Anyway, she cheered up tremendously later but there were a few major cry fests at the beginning of this trip!

I'll have to get the pictures my sister took of Lydia playing with the other kids. She loved them, and they were very sweet to her. I think Robby was her biggest fan. He's almost 3 and a DOLL! He was so sweet to Lydia. There were hugs and everything!

Blurry, but cute. Lydia played with her shadow a LOT on this trip. See it on the wall there? So did she!

I just love her in feety jammies...thus the many pictures of this ensem'.

We took a ride on the gondola! Up, up and up some more! When we reached the top, we hung out awhile to enjoy teh view and to let the kids play. Then we had lunch before heading back down. It was fun. Everyone went except for Grammy and Lydia. Thanks Grammy for taking good care of Lydia so we could go ride the gondola without worrying about her schedule and stuff! Here's Oliver and I with Lydia's Poppy!

HIKING! It was a mild hike for most of us, but Oliver had 30 extra pounds on his back! (Really he was fine, of course.) My cousin Emily lent us her baby hiking backpack. Lydia loved it! She loved the fresh air, the bounce of his step, the fact that she was attached to Daddy, the sounds outside... all of it!

Videos...

From left... Me, my Uncle Jim (Dad's bro), my 3 cousins Julie, Sara and Emily, and Oliver. Lydia got cut off - she's on Oliver's back of course!

On Tuesday morning Oliver and I walked down to a cute breakfast place near the lake and enjoyed a yummy scenic meal (sans Lydia - thanks Grammy!)

Unfortunately Lydia got a little sunburn the second day. We tried to prevent it, I promise! I suppose 9200 feet elevation and delicate baby skin are just not a good mix no matter how much sunscreen you put on (TRY to put on that is... it's no easy task) and no matter how cute the sun hat is...

Lydia liked to walk around the big sun room at Martha and Jim's condo!

Everyone went on a pontoon boat one day and had lunch and fished and played. I stayed back because Lydia was having a rough morning. It just didn't seem like a good idea to take her and miss her nap and all when she was already "iffy". Plus, have you heard my story about the boat on my honeymoon a few years ago? Extreme motion-sickness. It wasn't pretty. So, it was probably for the best.

We also played tennis a couple of times, watched the CSU-CU football game (most of the CO family attended one school or the other so it was a great game for them), had an awesome private catered dinner one night, great conversation every day, good wine, good food, awesome family! Oliver got along great with all of the guys, and it was nice for we girls to reconnect again as well. It was nice reunion-ing!

Here's a fun video Oliver took at the Denver Airport yesterday. We took turns following her around so she could walk a lot before the flight. I didn't know he took this video until I uploaded everything to the computer today. Cute surprise!

I'm going to try to add a couple more videos, but it takes awhile for each one to load and the day is winding down... Maybe tomorrow. All in all the long Labor Day family-focused weekend was great, and I didn't even mind too much going to work today after the good break!