On Thanksgiving (3 days ago) I remembered last Thanksgiving (2008). I was less than 2 weeks away from giving birth to Silver Dawn. It's been almost a year that we've had her happy spirit in our home. What an absolute JOY she is to us. It was a special time to have a new baby in our home last year thinking about Christ as a baby and celebrating his birth.
River is SO sweet with her, always calling her "little sweetie" or "sweetie pie". They hug and will play really well together. Now that Silver can walk -- Yes! Can you imagine, she's REALLY walking at less than 1 year old! -- they play ring around the rosies together. Daddy is Silver's best friend! She loves to be in his arms, or sitting right by him.
Both of our girls are very healthy. A good sleeper too! I am a firm believer in schedules! She is really good about taking a nap at 10:30 and again at 1:30. We've also started getting her to bed at 8. This is a huge improvement, we used to not get them into bed very early, and it is so nice to have a couple of hours at night to re-group. Being in the office so much, River didn't have a schedule, so it's been nice to be able to develop a routine that we can stick to. River also takes her nap at 1:30. She always tells me that she's not tired. She doesn't have to sleep. Just one hour of quiet time. I set the timer for 1 hour. Sometimes she reads for 45 minutes, and then takes her hour nap!Here's a video of River walking. This movie was taken a couple of weeks ago now. She is so solid on her feet. People are amazed at how little she is and how well she walks. She can stand straight up and walk. She walked all the way down the hall at church today. She gets so proud of herself - she knows when she accomplishes great things and breaks out into a huge smile and laughs. At first she would take a step or two and be so happy that she would fall down laughing.
Silver also climbs! We take off the couch cushion on one side. She climbs on the cushion, then on the couch, and up to the cushion ontop of the couch.
The girls (all 3 of us) love to be around Daddy. He is a girl magnet! Wherever he sits down, there is at least one if not all of us sitting by him. River's reading the "For the Strength of Youth" pamphlet. Lately this has been her favorite book. She makes up stories and turns the pages. She licks all 3 fingers - her thumb, pointer and middle fingers to turn the pages. Silver loves waving, but she's only got one wave in her, better be watching the first time!
Silver crawls REALLY fast! She's such a great crawler. But her sheer determination won over crawling. Walking is now her preferred way of travel.
Video of Silver blowing on her rice! She loves to blow on her food. She also claps, waves and also does indian war whoops - watch the video, you'll get what I mean.
Last movie of the day: Happy Girl!!!
I feel like Reminiscing today. Colt been in the insurance business for 4 years. 4 years and 4 office moves later, here's a brief summary:
Here's an interior shot of our office. It was barely wide enough for Colt's desk. I actually have a desk just behind Colt's. I was his secretary, and this first year was pretty stressful trying to make it all work and start a book of business from scratch. I got pregnant September 2005, which was a step of faith for us, because we didn't know if I'd get morning sick or not. Thankfully we were very blessed, and pregnancies for me are great!! In fact, I feel better than at any other time when I'm pregnant. I would knock doors pregnant trying to get business. My goal was to not come back every day to the office until I found someone. River was born in June of 06 and came to work with me after about 3 weeks. While it was small, it was very comfortable, and we made it homey, people said there was a really nice feeling there. It was a high stress year, but not anything I'd ever change because we work together well.
August '06 we moved right next door to our 2nd office. This one was quite a bit bigger. We still had the problems of heating and cooling - it was so cold in there in winters, and SO hot in the summers. But, it was a nice location, we were central to the bank, newspaper office, hospital, school, library and post office. There was a lot of traffic back and forth. 
Colt had by this time made a name for himself in the community and a accountant wanted to office with him. After much deliberation, we moved to this building on the 2nd floor: A very professional atmosphere. Colt during this 3rd year started focusing on helping people with Retirement. Saving and growing their money and knowing how to preserve wealth for the future generations. Colt is very good at what he does, and has a personal approach that I think has made him so successful. He builds relationships with people easily and he does what is in their best interest. 
The crew completely gutted the building and remodeled it with a very nice central reception area and 3 nice offices. Colt has one, and now shares the office with 2 accountants. This is our best office yet! Professional atmosphere, and great location, next to the grocery store and gas company.
A photo we had Kin snap one day of us. Little did we know this was to be the picture used for multiple ads and all sorts of things with Colt's picture on it.
I loved being Colt's secretary!
We couldn't have done what we did without help. We have an Amazing secretary that handles most everything. We also had a lot of help from John and his secretary while going for the bonus. Here's a golf game after we hit our bonus.
River in the office. Can I tell you what a relief it is just to stay home and take care of kids instead of take care of a kid at the office while nursing and typing with one hand? Or handling the phones and a crying kid? I look back at it, and it just makes me tired to think about what we did. But that's the funny thing about things like this: They help you see that you have the energy required for the task at hand. The fun thing about it was that we were all together all day every day. River got to crawl down the hall and see Dad, and we got to have lunches and dinner together every day.
Office baby - We love having a fish tank at the office
MAIL TIME!!
Colt's office was the one you see in the back right. I think it actually helped us sell more insurance to be a family business. I thought it would hurt business to have a wife and kid there all the time, but I think it really helped us. People would stop by the office to see River.
River would sit at the door and would love to wave to the kids when they walked home from the elementary school across the street.
When there was something I had to get done without a crying baby, Colt would walk River up the street so I could have a few minutes. This is a picture of him coming back with her outside the front window.
Notice the pile of papers in the background. Half of my time must have been putting everything back the way it was. We tried not to have anything in her reach. They weren't important papers, just blank forums. No wonder she loves paper and coloring now.
My front desk: River would sit at this chair and put her feet up on the desk for me to tickle them. I can't imagine working with kids at home. It broke my heart to leave River for those 6 months. I left her with Colt's sister, so I new she was in good hands. It was SO hard to leave her and not be around her while she growing so fast.
