I wish I had a photo of Oakley smiling but this is the best I can do right now :) Good thing he's cute when he cries!

Well the first few months of this baby's life have been packed full of issues, the poor thing! All have been minor, which I'm so grateful for; I just can't figure this little guy out. Aspen was the ideal baby: she slept through the night pretty quickly, she ate every 4 hours (even during the day), and she was pretty much happy all the time. So when Oakley is upset about something, it's hard for me to know if its normal or if there's really something wrong. We found out he has a milk protein allergy, so that's helped to make him happier, thank goodness. The regular crying fits every night have stopped, but he still has random ones a couple times a week.

On the up side, he still finds plenty of opportunities to smile, and his legs, oh his legs! I just want to chomp them up. He's just about doubled his weight in 2 months, and while it's not easy on my back I really prefer him chubby. Overall I absolutely love having a little boy in my life, something I wasn't sure I would feel. I just didn't know if we would connect the same way Aspen and I did. But I fell for him so fast and it's been wonderful!

I can't believe I'm writing this post, but here it is. My little sister Demri has been on an LDS mission in Santiago, Chile for the past 18 months and is coming home on Sunday! I'm so excited to see her and to get to catch up (in Spanish) on the last year-and-a-half of her life. I'm very proud of her and the amazing person she's become. She has been a very hard-working, self evaluating missionary, and has really grown to love the Chilean people.

Two days ago Demri called me from Chile. My dad and stepmom are out there for the week, since her last day of work was last Sunday. We were able to talk for a while, which was wonderful, especially since the last time we talked was over a year ago. Time flies though, and now she's coming home. Can't wait!

The week of New Years we went up to Tamarack Resort for a little R&R...which included skiing, if you can count that as rest or relaxation! We took Aspen up for her first ski lesson, and Eric having been a ski instructor in the past made things pretty easy for me. I just observed as Eric did his thing. Here's Aspen and her daddy on the lift, which was her favorite part of the trip.
She had really great balance, but fell a couple times. Here she is making snow angels, which she did every time she fell. Hey, when life gives you lemons...right? I was proud of her little spirit!
Well she lasted about 20 minutes but it was fun to have her up there with us. The best part was seeing Eric glow as he taught his little girl his favorite sport!

Aspen couldn't get enough of Frosty this year. I'm sure we watched the movie and listened to the song about 30+ times, so now we both have the movie completely memorized. There was a house down the street that had a huge blown-up Frosty in the front yard which we had to drive by every night for Aspen. Last night we drove by the house on the way home and Aspen saw that their Frosty was deflated on their lawn. "Frosty's dead, Dad!" she said. Then she paused. "Poor Frosty...." All in all she took it really well!