Before and After

"Wow! I didn't realizeI looked that crappy."
-Andy Dunn, After a haircut and trim

I love the fact that my girl squeals with joy every time we go to Starbucks...we start them early at the Dunn household.

four weeks.

Quinn is four weeks old today. We have been blessed with the sweetest, most laid back baby we could have ever imagined, and with two wild women running around my house, we loving his relaxed spirit. We are slowly starting to find the new normal with three kids. The girls are absolutely taken by Quinn. He gets lots of kisses and is watched very closely by two sets of big sister eyes. We have indeed been blessed.
The last year was hard. Being pregnant is not something I do very well, but for as bad as it was, it is so much better now. Since Quinn's birth, I have felt like I had just returned from a very long, tiring trip and that I can get back to my life again. You know the feeling when you have just gotten home and you are able to unpack and wash away the exhaustion and you are just excited to get back to your normal life? That's what it feels like now. I am ready to get back to life where I can spend time with family and friends and create and just have joy in the utterly normal aspects of having a young family. I will look at 2009 as one the hardest and best years - hard from just everything my family went through with my being pregnant and best because we welcomed two children into our hearts.

Botanic Gardens at Chatfield

One Year

Today marks the one year anniversary when we were blessed with Brecken. This day, last year, we would have been getting off the plane in Ethiopia and going to the care center to meet our daughter. I can't believe that a year has gone by. Brecken has grown into a sweet, spunky toddler. I was looking at pictures of our time in Ethiopia the other day and I was blown away with how much she has changed and grown. At nineteen months old, Brecken is adventurous and independent. She wants to do everything on her own. She loves to read and laugh. She is also just discovering her new role as "big sister"...she is very generous with kisses when it comes to her baby brother. We have been so blessed with our sweet daughter...we could not imagine our life without her.

Quinn arrived a little over a week ago and we are completely smitten.

Still Pregnant.

Need I say more?

Haven't really felt like blogging...let's just say I'll start again after Christmas and after Quinn arrives. For now, Merry Christmas.

100 Miles

100 miles is not a great distance...especially when you think about the average distance food travels to get to our dinner table, a whopping 1,500-2,500 miles. The 100 Mile Challenge is a show that has been running on Planet Green for the last few weeks. Six families from Canada signed up to only eat food that has traveled 100 miles or less, from farm to table, for 100 days. The families were inspired by Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon, the authors of Plenty, a memoir about the authors experience of the 100 mile diet for one year.
We have also been inspired by the show and the book as well and hope that next summer we can do our own 100 mile challenge. We have been searching the web finding locally grown food. We have found many resources for just about everything we will need...of course, there are a few items (salt, for one) that we have not been able to find. Besides discovering locally grown food within 100 miles, I am hoping that we will also discover a new way of eating and a healthier understanding of where food comes from. We are planning on growing some of our food in our garden, joining a CSA, and hopefully getting some chickens. I have also been researching foraging for food in Colorado. The possibilities of new tastes are very exciting.