Hawk in Yard

Today a juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk flew into our neighbor's tree with a squirrel in its mouth. You can see the tail of the squirrel hanging over a branch on the right side of the picture. The hawk seemed very comfortable with humans as we were really close and took multiple pictures. In all of my time as an amatuer bird-watcher I've never seen a raptor so at ease with humans. It ate some of the squirrel, cleaned its feathers, then flew away leaving the carcus in the tree. I assume it came back for it because its now gone.

Tarantula

Here I am holding a tarantula at the Butterfly Pavilion. We used to see these big fuzzy spiders after a good rain storm in Tucson.

Brent Nelson Fam at Butterfly Pavilion

In March, Brent came to visit from Lubbock, TX where he is in his first year of law school. He commented on my bio from the blog, and because it was pretty funny, I am posting a picture of him. Here was his comment: "Steph, I read your bio and thought I should let you know that making up history is not going to fly. You didn't live in Irvine, you survived. You didn't live in Utah, you coped. And, I won't acknowledge you live in Highlands Ranch until you get a place in Castle Pines and buy me a golf membership. "

Me and the Boys

My mom took this pic while she was visiting during Easter. We painted some cute animal plaques for Sammy's room while she was here, something I wouldn't have done otherwise.

Sammy

Samuel Owen Kjelstrom! He'll be one next week! Wow! Sammy is a calm, cuddly little guy. He hasn't learned to fend for himself yet against Jeffrey, but something tells me he's going to be bigger than his older brother. Sammy smiles lots too, likes to sit in your lap and read books or sing songs. He loves to eat! Favorites right now are cheese and bananas. Bath time is always an exciting time of day for him and Jeffrey. We love our Sam!

The little man of the house.

This is our Jeffrey! He's 3 as of Jan. 30th. He loves life! He has SOOO much energy and smiles and laughs a whole lot. Trains are about his favorite thing in the world. Its very easy to tell when he's excited because he grins super big then waves his arms up and down because he just can't contain himself. Jeffrey will often belt out primary songs or the "ABC" song. He also likes to sit on his little brother, read books with mommy, find grasshoppers or ladybugs in the yard, ride in the bike trailer, and of course watch lots of TV-mostly Go, Diego, Go and Blues Clues. Oh, and his new found love is Play-doh.

Baby cousins of 2006

Sammy, Adam and Danielle at Lindsey's wedding. Danielle is the oldest and ring leader of the group.

Our Family Photo-May 2006

This was the day of Sammy's blessing in Tucson, AZ. The day before, my sister Lindsey was married and so my whole family was together. We decided to invade my Uncle and Aunt's ward in Tucson (thanks Tom and Kathi!) to bless Sammy and my brother Mark's son Adam who are one week apart.

Intro

Here it is! Our first ever blog...so hip. A friend did this and I liked the idea, thought it would be a good way to keep in touch with all the family that isn't in Colorado, which is just about all of them. (So glad to have Katrina and Patrick near by!)

So the way I've seen most people do this is to introduce themselves to the world. John and I (Steph) have been married for 6 years. We have moved A LOT. After we got married we lived in Midvale, UT where I worked for Myriad Genetics while John commuted to UVSC. John finished his associate's degree so we decided on University of Arizona for his bachelors. We moved to Tucson in 8/01 and lived there almost 3 years. Many significant things happened there. I worked for Arizona Clinical Research Center doing clinical research in an oncology clinic-LOVED that job. John got his first job at an appraisal firm working for Steve Cole-a gurue of appraisal. So he got top notch training in his future career. We bought our first house in Tucson. Jeffrey was born Jan. 30, 2004, then John graduated in Finance in May of that same year. Then in July of 2004 we headed off to Irvine, CA where John worked for PriceWaterhouseCoopers in their golf valuation group. That was a great resume building job for him. Irvine was fun-Jeffrey and I enjoyed an annual pass to Disneyland where we hung out about once a week. But Southern Calif. is expensive plus John's group was being dissolved so after some thought and temple going we decided to move to Denver. Now we live in Highlands Ranch, John has a great job here doing commercial real estate appraisal. On April 25. 2006 we welcomed our second son Samuel or "Sammy".
There's a short history of our marriage-probably more than you wanted to know! So why'd you read it then? Okay, I know all you really want is some pics so I'll post some now...