Seven Years!!

 Seven years ago today I became Mrs. Scott Guptill.

It's been quite an adventure, these past seven years.

This is the first time we've spent our anniversary apart,
which isn't bad for how much he travels.

In case you missed anything in the past seven years, here's a recap...

 We met in Florida


We dated


We had fun together


We dated some more


We decided to get married


We got married


We kept having fun together


We moved to Monterey


We had a baby (Matthew) 


We moved again...to Okinawa


and had another baby (Anna)


Scott deployed to Afghanistan


Scott came back, safe and sound


We moved again to Colorado this time
 

Scott broke his leg


We had another baby (Grant)

We kept having fun together...but there were more of us


We had another baby (John)

Scott deployed to Afghanistan again...

 ...and now you are all caught up :)

Things have changed a lot in seven years.
We have been blessed with these four beautiful children

Outgoing and kind Matthew (5 1/2)

Smart and sassy Anna (4)

 Happy and rambunctious Mr. Grant (18 months)

 and sweet, smiling John (2 1/2 months)

And some things have stayed the same.

We're still having fun together.

 Happy Anniversary Mr. Scott Guptill

Why Little Boys Need a Father

Reason # 76:

Grant found these dress up shoes of Anna's and wanted to try them on.  I thought it was kind of cute, plus he got mad when I tried to take them away, so I let it go...and took pictures.   Please forgive me Grant...and Scott.  At least he was wearing a very boyish robot shirt at the time.  :)

He thought it was a little tricky getting the shoes on, but eventually figured them out.  Standing up was tricky too, but he persevered.

But walking was another story.  I happened to get a picture just before he slipped in the shoes.  Heels are hard to walk in...especially for first timers...or 18 month old boys.  He didn't want to wear the shoes anymore after that.  This sort of thing would never happen on Scott's watch.   

Whisper voice:  Sorry Scott!!

Snowy Pike's Peak

While my dad was in town we took the cog railway up to Pike's Peak.  We went early hoping to beat the weather.  It was cold and clear when we got up and cold and snowing about an hour later when we started coming down.  We didn't spend a lot of time walking around outside 'cause it was so cold, but we still got great views from the train.  And it was kind of fun and cozy going down in the snow.  When we got down to Colorado Springs again it wasn't snowing...just a little rain.  We got to see a lot of nice fall colors though.  Pretty.  I didn't get a lot of pictures.  My camera is broken and I also had my hands pretty full.  My mom let us borrow her camera again to take a few pictures of us heading back down the mountain.  Here are John and I on the trip back down.  He was a good little traveler.  I like his little hat.

 

Matthew and Anna were also good!

And here's Grant with Grandpa.  Grant had to go boneless a few times when I made him come in from the cold.  Poor Grant.  He just wanted to run and run.  But I think he had fun too.

And wore himself out.  He wasn't the only one who got tired.

It takes a lot to get up to 14,114 feet.  ;)

The Tea Party That Wouldn't End

Anna had a tea party birthday party this year.  The party was a great success and Anna has been throwing impromptu tea parties for anyone she can find ever since.  Sometimes her tactics are a little aggressive, especially for a tea party.  She likes everything to be done just so and the party is not over until Anna says it's over.  A few weeks ago I attended one of these parties and Anna told me I couldn't leave or she would make her "angry face."  Eventually she let me leave.

So, while my dad and brother were in town, and sitting at the same table one afternoon, Anna saw a target of opportunity and "invited" them to be a part of her tea party.  They were good sports about it.  Here's Anna enjoying some of her orange juice/pretend tea.

Grant and Matthew never want to be left out of a big boy event...and since Grandpa and John were there, they thought they should be a part of it too.  Grant really wanted some tea of his own, but I dumped it out when he wasn't looking.  Too scary!  He insisted on having his cup on the little green plate with a spoon in it, just like Anna's.  :)

Anna served some Halloween cookies...well, she actually crumbled them into one of her tea pots and passed that around I think.  Luckily there were still plenty of intact cookies to go around.

Everyone was a good sport about the spontaneous tea party.  Eventually Anna decided the tea party was over and that her tea party hostages were free to go (she didn't even have to use her angry face!)...but not before they all did some kind of cheer.  Here she is having everyone put their hands in for the cheer.  That Anna throws the best tea parties!

A Visit to Garden of the Gods

While my Dad was in town, my brother John came out for a few days from California.  The kids had a few days off school so we all went to Garden of the Gods one morning.  It was a quick trip but about all our crew can handle probably.  Here are my parents with Anna, Matthew and Grant.  Johnny was in the stroller for most of our trip...or maybe he was in the baby carrier with me.  I can't remember anymore.  :)  Anyway, he's not in any of these pictures.

Getting ready for our little hike

My brother, John with the kids.

 Dad getting some pictures

 John and Grant with some nice scenery in the background

 Grant hiding in a little crevice

 And Matthew and Grant together

 We found some cool rocks to climb on that (I think) had been off limits before.

 Lots of fun!

 Matthew wanted to climb everywhere

 See!

Aaah.  Colorado.

A Visit from Grandpa

 

My mom has been here helping us almost continuously since John was born, which leaves my dad all alone back in Rhode Island.  My dad came out to visit us all in Colorado for a week.  We were excited to have him visit.  Here he is holding John.  My dad has blue eyes and so does John (at least for now) so they have that bond.  :)  Here is John meeting Grandpa Keeler.

 A little smile?

 And all the kids crowding around!

These other pictures don't have a lot to do with Grandpa's visit, but happened during our week.  :)  Here is Grant trying to wipe John's face after he spit up.  Grant is a nice helper, but still has to be closely monitored around John.

Here are the kids after family night having teeny tiny ice cream sundaes...a recurring family night treat at our house.

 And my mom with Johnny.  John is making a funny face. :)

 And here's Scott.  We've been able to skype with him a once or twice a week so that's nice!
Wow, my computer looks really dirty.

John had his two month check up this week.  He is up to 13 lbs 10 ozs - about 95th percentile for weight.  Good growing Johnny!!  He had to get a bunch of shots at this visit and got a little bit of a fever in the afternoon.  He was feeling pretty miserable later that afternoon.  He cried and cried and wouldn't eat so we ended up swaddling him up  to help him take a rest.

 He felt better after he got a little rest.

Anyway, it was fun having Grandpa come visit.  More pictures of our week to come!

Halloween Fun

We've been doing a lot of Fall and Halloween activities this year.  I don't have pictures of everything, but here are a few.  This is Matthew and Anna making paper plate spider webs.  They had a choice of colors but they both wanted pink.  :)  Matthew was wearing one of the costumes from the dress up box.

 We made some pipe cleaner spiders to live in the webs.

And we had a fun time decorating pumpkin shaped cookies too.  In the past I have made sugar cookies from scratch but this time I bought pumpkin shaped cookies.  The kids had lots of fun decorating.  Nobody really wanted to eat the cookies once they were decorated.  Too much sugar even for the kids, but the decorating part was fun.

 Here is some of their cookie art work.

 And a little more

 Here's Anna working on another cookie

 And Grant tried eating some of the sprinkles off the top

Anna licked some of the black frosting off the top and ended up with black lips and teeth.  Here she is only kind of black toothed.