lovin' the locks

we decided it was time to finally get mercy's hair cut. the mullet has been with us long enough. so the other day, we went to a kids' salon i've been hearing a lot about in the mommy circuit. it's called lollilocks. i must say, we were not disappointed. not by the service, and not by mercy, who held perfectly still for her stylist. too cute. the whole thing. just too cute. here's our little girl...who's growing up so fast.

i came home from coffee with my dear friend julie the other day to find this scene.

oh, the adventures i miss out on when i'm away...

come on, now. you two are fabulous.

the snow is here

it's a winter wonderland here in boulder...and in vail, where we got to spend a few days while andy represented nau at snow daze. we had a great time while andy got the word out about nau. mercy started galloping (or "gallopooping," as she calls it) a lot while we were there. why not?

the fam

the girls

e & me

andy & mercy whoop it up in the nighttime snowfall during a snowboarding rail jam.

this is actually in boulder. we sledded with john, meggan, and ben. (thanks for the photo, meg!)

random photo of mercy and her buddies: groovy, baby, and bear.
mercy and baby have both just gotten their hair done.

no words can describe the level of cuteness i see here.

fun in phoenix

the girls and i got to visit phoenix last month in honor of my grandma (the one and only lill schwertfager!) who passed away october 12, 2007. while we were at aunt june and penny's, we celebrated grandma and my mom (i can't believe she's been gone over nine years now...what an incredible reality she has, living in the full presence of her Savior) with good conversation, yummy Thanksgiving food, and, of course, dancing to some of mom and grandma's favorite grooves. we also got to spend time with uncle bruce and aunt paula, which was so special. here's the photo lowdown:

splashing in an outdoor pool in november! unbeatable!

aunt amy and eden

mercy gets some digital camera instruction from uncle chris.

suzy and penny share a litte eden time.

ryan can't hold back the laughter.

the girls! from left: daphne (the pug), penny, suzy, aunt june, mercy, amy, me, eden, and carrie

cuddling with aunt june

love that dan and carrie.

does it get any sweeter? i don't think so.

umm...adorable.

eden bonds with uncle bruce.

so happy together

yum...pickles with aunt paula!

mercy and aunt carrie check out their work.

mercy can't get enough.

m & e watch the game with the boys.

we love our neighbors

garret and aubrey are very special to us. we're blessed by their friendship and the way they love our kids. it's so fun that they live in the apartment right below us! here are some recent shots of g & a hanging out with m & e.

here and nau

i can't believe i'm just now posting this, but if you haven't done it yet, please check out andy's place of employment. the store is called nau (pronounced "now"). the clothes they sell "blur the line between urban and outdoor," as andy would say. not only are the clothes cool, but nau is also making pretty significant environmental and humanitarian efforts in the way they run their business. it's been awesome to see andy connect with nau and jump on board with their philosophy of business and design. and it doesn't hurt that he looks fantastic in their clothes. personally, i'm in love with the loooong sleeves on their shirts and jackets. hop on over to nau.com and see what andy lives and breathes every day.

j max

eden has a little buddy and his name is joshua max. he is just eight days older than her and belongs to the lovely karin and mark stroessler. yesterday at music class, karin snapped a few great pictures of the wee ones. here's one of them. thanks, karin! (and thank you, dannah, for eden's sweet outfit.)

feeling groovy at music class.

karin and i with eden and joshua the day after eden was born.

and the dads: andy and mark.

fall brilliance

one time, back in huntington, my family went for a drive on a really pretty fall day. dad caught some footage of the fall leaves as well as the three rather spirited (to put it politely) girls in the backseat. he later added the words "fall brilliance" in a spectacular ancient 80's-computer-style font to the beginning of the video. almost twenty years later, my little family and i captured some "fall brilliance" of our own with our digital camera and soon-to-be-outdated video camera. (someday i'll get around to editing and posting some zenz family videos...someday.) it was a beautiful day with my andy, mercy (25 months) & eden (almost 12 weeks) and i wanted to share it.

mercy's been working on her monkey bar skills.

doing what they love to do.