Ania 6 month and Alina 2 year pictures

I can't believe Ania is 6 months old now! We took her to get her 6 month old pictures today, and Alina to get her 2 year old pictures. Ania did very well.

Don't blink, or you will miss the ONLY picture of Alina where she was not screaming (or clinging onto either me or Jay) during the inside photo shoot.

Not my favorite family photo... but there's always next time.

Very blue eyes

Alina has a matching dress... I was really hoping to get some of both of them in their dresses. Alina was having none of that. So here is Ania.

Finally we took them to a park to try to get some pictures of Alina. They are much better than what we got inside...

And... the outtakes.

I'm so mean... even Ania looks mad at me... but I really wanted the pictures! Oh well, I guess you don't get everything you want. :(

FBI Citizens' Academy: SWAT

I enlisted in the FBI Citizens' Academy. It's fun. It is at CREST Training where they have a mini town used for training law enforcement. Last night the SWAT team arrived.

And at the bank there was a robbery!

Help arrives!

They set off a bomb on the opposite side of the building. So you attention is distracted. But what they were doing is a SILENT entry through another door. They used a tool called a rabbit that has 3000 pounds of pressure (if I remember correctly) and they open the door silently and sneak in a scare the bejeezus out of you.

During such an event they will place snipers around the crime. The snipers set up shop and use tools to hide themselves behind windows in buildings around the area. They set up a curtain to hide behind made of mesh and PVC pipe. Then they cut a hole in the mesh. It is set up a few feet behind the window and is dark so you cannot see it from a distance.


There were also snipers hiding in trees. After the exercise we were supposed to find them. I did not see them until they came out of hiding.

He is holding a gun.

Sesame Street Live

In preparation for the big event, both girls dressed in Elmo outfits. Alina hardly fits into this anymore, but I squeezed her in it because she has nothing with Elmo in her current size (yet). Plus it was snowing out, so this was appropriate.

She insisted on wearing the hood up.

Happy baby

Even bigger smile! Is there anything cuter than that!?

I have a few pictures from the actual event, but they were taken with a different camera, and I cannot find the memory card reader for my computer at the moment, so I will post those later.

Post S.S.L. bath. Ania digs her thumb. Even in the bath.

I do have a similar picture with her eyes closed, but in this one I didn't ask her to smile, she just did it. Therefore the open eyes.

Vittoria's First Sleepover

Vittoria had her first sleep over last weekend. It was a big success. We had pigs in a blanket (she ate almost a whole hot dog), dye Easter Eggs (she watched) and watched Robin Hood (she did exactly as Katie had thought she would). Maybe not the BEST activities for a one year old, but I think she had fun. The only minor snafu was the next morning when Vittoria and I were loading the car and I forgot the keys in the house! Locked outside with a baby! Luckily Katie and Mary were still inside and Katie opened the door for us and let us in.

Springtime in Breckenridge

Well, the Rockies have had a Springtime Snow Storm..... We got about 18-20" of snow after all the settling, and I think Denver got about as much.....It pretty much snowed constantly for two days. It's supposed to be sunny for the next week....... YEA!!!!!!



This picture is straight out our front door....

Alina is a star!

Would you believe one of these 2 photos won us 4 tickets to Sesame Street Live!?

I entered a contest put on by www.momslikeme.com (which is affiliated with 9 News) last week to try to win tickets, but after uploading my photos for the grouchiest kid contest, I decided I probably wouldn't win. I really thought Alina would like it, though, so I bought tickets. Well to my great surprise, today when I checked my spam email account that I used to sign up, I found I had many messages from them trying to tell me to come pick up my tickets (as well as one asking permission to put the picture(s) on the news... but I missed the boat on that one - darnit!). We didn't win first place, but we were runners up. How exciting!

So even though I already bought tickets, I decided I needed to drive through the terrible weather today to 9 News to pick up my tickets so that someone else could go as well. Here are some pictures of the tickets. :)

Here are some pictures of Ania from tonight. She is sure getting big!

In case anyone is curious, Alina still thinks "smile" means "close your eyes". I tried and tried to teach her what it really means. I say "No, Alina - THIS is smile" and I point to my cheeks while I'm smiling... so now occasionally when she "smiles" she closes her eyes and points to her cheeks. Ha! :)

Here is a big smile on Easter morning. In case you are wondering about the outfit, I asked her which dress she wanted to wear, and she pointed to the CU jacket. In the end, I did convince her to put a dress on under the jacket, but the jacket was what she really wanted to wear.