Summer is drawing to an end

We have had an amazing summer and it is now coming to a close. I like the change in seasons and activities. We are ready in this household! The nights and mornings are getting so cold- I love it.
 School starts on Monday for the twins and Ella. They are very excited! I am serving on the PTO board this year as Vice President and I am excited to get into the school year and start working! We had our first PTO meeting the other night. I love that I can get so involved as a parent and spend so much time with the people who my girls are with many hours in a day. And the girls LOVE to see me in their school- its so important to them! Then Elijah starts on the 27th of August.
Here are a few (or should I say many) Instagram pics from the last few weeks..  Littleton's Carousel of Music, date night, and the Lutz girls ballet recital... such fun times!

Mt. Falcon Hiking Birthday Party

 This past Saturday our family was invited to celebrate Maddie's 8th birthday with a hike to Mt. Falcon.

I just LOVE living in CO so close to the mountains which have some great hiking! 

The trail was easy and beautiful.

 All the girls brought an animal to hike along with them:) 

 Lijah and I checking out some cool rocks.

 The shelter where we had the picnic birthday lunch was SUPER cool- it hung out over a cliff and the view of the mountains was amazing! Further up the mountain, there was a great overlook where you could see downtown!

It was a fun afternoon celebrating a GREAT friend! 

Sterne Park

 I love finding new parks and a friend from church told us about Sterne Park in Littleton- its tucked away on some side streets and it is AWESOME! It has a huge lake, a little river and lots of minnows and ducks! There is a playground and a pavilion and lots of shade which is a plus.

 My kids played for hours trying to catch minnows in their test tubes and they amazingly succeeded! 

 Love the little trail along the river bed.. fun exploration!

Mustache or Bow? Jen and Josh's Reveal Party

Josh and Jennifer are welcoming their first child into the world in December.

 They thoughtfully invited us to the BIG reveal party to find out ...

Mustache or Bow? 

 Our families guesses...

  {Team BOW}

 {Team Mustache}

The excited parents! Split vote

 They gave an envelope from the ultra sound tech to a bakery 

so it was pretty exciting to find out with them! 

Congrats to Josh and Jennifer on their little boy! 

CottonTail

 The Gomez fam is on to their 6th pet, I believe. 

(all other previous pets either died or were sold) 

Its a bunny and has been the best pet so far! 

He lets the kids carry him around all over the place and play with him.

They are in love!

They clean up after him and he is not messy at all- he actually is liter pan trained. sweet! 

I built him this sweet cage to keep indoors. 

I have a feeling CottonTail will be with us for a while.

Welcome to the world, Natalia!

Natalia Adelaida Honstein 

Born 7.30.2012 

6 lbs 14 oz. 

19 and a half in.

What a privilege it was to meet our new little niece today. 

Matt and Tina welcomed her into the world last night.

She is the prettiest little baby girl with lots of dark hair! 

 Our children talk of little else but their new little baby cousin!