elsie and I have transitioned my office down to the masterbedroom – she hasn’t learn to type yet, but we will be working on that next week.

This weekend we had two visitors … Grandpa Kevin and Aunt Chloe. Grandpa was here for Elsie’s birth but went home while Grammie Doula stayed for a couple weeks – he flew in on Friday to spend the weekend and… Continue Reading →

Our first dinner out with Elsie was to celebrate Aunt Amy’s birthday. It was a success – with only a quick feeding between dinner and dessert.

In the cutest little onesie from Meara and Jarret that says it all!

Today we had our first visit with Dr. Kamon, our pediatrician. Elsie was up to 7lbs 4oz (up from her birth weight at 7lbs) – she is a little piglet and they are very happy with this weight gain. Before… Continue Reading →

taking after julie…

The Moby Wrap Rocks!! Elsie stays snug as a bug while dad eats dinner.

We have been calling my mom “Grammie Doula” – she is cooking, picking up and of course snuggling the baby whenever she can. Here are some of her masterpieces … Home made mac and cheese – Yum! Apple Pie –… Continue Reading →

Lola has been doing great with Elsie – but we can tell that she is a bit jealous. She steals little things – pacifiers, sockies – but very deliberately so that we catch her. We found her snuggled in the… Continue Reading →

what a kissable smudgekin ….

We decided to go with the Orbit Baby Infant Travel System and we are extremely happy with it. The system has a car seat that fits on a stroller base or a car seat base (pretty standard). The nice part… Continue Reading →

Mark is great at most things – especially bringing me tea and breakfast in bed. He is patient and extremely nurturing with me so I expected he would be great with Elsie – but I misjudged him – he isn’t… Continue Reading →

My mom is staying with us for a couple of weeks to help with Elsie. She has been taking Lola for walks, making meals (yes family she is actually cooking!) but her number one job is holding the baby. Here… Continue Reading →

Yes its hard to be a baby! That little pout will get her whatever she wants!

My doula Lisa told me I needed to drink a beer a day to help my milk come in … its a tough job, but I think I might just be the one to do it! While in the hospital… Continue Reading →

After an additional day of photo therapy they let us out of the hospital – yes they just let us walk out with a baby, they, in fact, escorted us out the door. We snuggled the little bundle up in… Continue Reading →

We were hoping to be discharged from the hospital today but Elsie’s biliruben count (jaundice) came in high and she needed some phototherapy. They wanted her to be as naked as possible and snuggle under a bed of lights. She… Continue Reading →

The last few days is the epitome of a blogworthy event. The birth of our first child, our daughter Elsie Lane is one of those things that completely resets you. All this while I had been cautiously optimistic that I… Continue Reading →

I haven’t done a Lola update in a while – because it has been quite a road with our little terrorizer! Last October it was recommended that we see a dog behaviorist and start some new training afterLola was exhibiting… Continue Reading →

Well, last thursday I was officially considered “Full Term” which means the baby could come any time … and I think we are READY!! (I have grown quite a belly) This weekend I walked 18 holes of golf hoping to… Continue Reading →

Today I was supposed to fly out for my last trip to mountain view before baby sladden arrives – sadly after my doctors appointment yesterday I was grounded. I have been having pre-term labor contractions and my doctor is playing… Continue Reading →

Mark and I have made a big push to get ready for the arrival of our munchkin. Here are a few photos of the progress in the nursery. We (well I) decided to dive right in and make the room… Continue Reading →

On Saturday we headed to the Denver Zoo with the Spruill’s. This was our first outing to the zoo and I was pretty impressed. It was one of our first days of spring like weather – almost 50 degrees. Sophie… Continue Reading →

I wanted to put up some follow up photos to our first big blizzard – We did have to cancel our trip to england. DIA was closed for 48 hours and our first confirmed seats out of Colorado weren’t until… Continue Reading →

yup, its still coming down. Here is the great wall of snow in front of our house. We didn’t even have to shovel it that way, all drift. here is mount sladden that started accumulating in our back yard… Mount… Continue Reading →

This morning I woke up to find that Nine News decided to preemt the today show to bring us details of the giant storm that has hit Colorado. We were supposed to fly out to London today and were up… Continue Reading →

When we left our intrepid decorators, they had completed the wiring and installation of the cans and spot light and painting the room. The next step in the grand project is the installation of built in book cases. For this… Continue Reading →

For those of you who have visited our home, you might have been unimpressed by the first two rooms in our house designated as the library and formal dining room. Part of the problem with moving into a house with… Continue Reading →

…BABY!! Yes, its true the Sladden family is growing and yesterday we found out we will be having a girl. We are due april 12th and so far all is looking good. We had a big ultrasound yesterday where they… Continue Reading →

This is an exiciting week for the sladdens… Today Mandy has officially become a Googler and later this week Mark will officially become an HP’er. In May I joined Jotspot along with many of my X-mercury coworkers – in the… Continue Reading →

Yes, after a mere 28 years in this country and 19 years with a green card, I finally made it legal and became a citizen. Some of you may know that I’ve been going through this process for a couple… Continue Reading →

The weather man says rain, I say snow… Big flakes are falling, but not sticking to the ground. Our Ski resorts are also open (not much base yet). Its just freezing so not too cold… yet!

We have been busy doing some home improvement over the last couple of weekends, one project was to install a counter top in the laundry room. Before we had our Washer, Dryer and Lola’s crate side by side – it… Continue Reading →

Today is the cricket’s (a.k.a. “boots”) day and she is getting ready to party tonight. Coming from the south, she’s a connoisseur of rye whiskey… something she enjoys on occasion with our mighty man cat Crenshaw.

So I finally got my oath ceremony rescheduled after a 7 month delay… they really operate on long time frames over there at the INS/TSA/DHS. The whole process of becoming a citizen (from being a permanent resident, which takes a… Continue Reading →

Well its only been a few days since we have started Lola’s new training regime and I thought it was time for an update. There are two main things we are working on Learn to Earn and Tether Training. Learn… Continue Reading →

Pammy played the accordian in highschool! While preparing for the estate sale we found many accordians and Pammy gave us quick show. Enjoy this quick video I snapped!

Last week we had two new additions to our extended families… On Tuesday, September 26th Nicholas Scott was born at 11:37 pm. Scott and Julie were in San Diego for the birth. We have waited for Nicholas for so long… Continue Reading →