Vegas!

Will I ever get caught up here? Maybe, maybe not. :)

Thursday, June 11, Jack's last day of school, was also the kick-off of my Vegas vacation with the girls. Everyone's flights were delayed in some way shape or form, but the first group of four met up at the airport and headed to our hotel - the Flamingo - Thursday evening.

This is all of us together on Day 2 - Friday (my birthday!) - at the Bellagio gardens. On top (left to right) is Carrielyn and Robin, and on the bottom (left to right) is me, Shawn, Kristi, and teeny tiny Amy in the front. :) (Side note - the girls in the back aren't that much TALLER than the rest... they are on a step).

Long story short. When pregnant with Jack, Rob and I had moved to Idaho and were there all by ourselves with no family, friends, or support system. And unfortunately, I had a TERRIBLE pregnancy and was just sick 24/7 for nine straight months. So getting out and meeting new people wasn't really an option. For support, I ended up finding an internet message board for women pregnant and expecting babies in April 2004. Mostly it was just a good source for me to find answers to those questions I might have asked my friends who had been through this before... but I didn't have any friends who had been through this before because I was the first of my close friends to get pregnant.

Well Jack was born on April 6, 2004, and after nine months of terrible pregnancy, we switched gears... I had my health back (so to speak - I did end up getting very sick and having my gall bladder removed - another long story)... but that misery was just replaced with that of a fussy baby who did NOT want to sleep. Again I found myself looking for support from this internet message board. A group of ladies (from all over the country - plus Canada!) on this message board kind of banded together and bonded over sleeplessness and our struggles to "teach" these little ones to sleep. We called ourselves the "Sleep Warriors" and would chat daily about the progress and regression our kids made in the sleep department. Days turned into weeks and months and ultimately years, and we have all kept in touch and gotten to know each other quite well and talk daily... about everything from family, to friends, to diet, to exercise, to recipes, to pet peeves, to discipline... everything under the sun. We've been through a 2nd round of children (and sleep problems) together. Some of us have met at various times over the years when in each others' neck of the woods. I met Amy in New Hampshire two and a half years ago when I was out east for my brother's wedding. We had never all been together though.

Thus was born the Vegas trip. Shawn thought it up, proposed it, we tossed around dates, the husbands all got on board, and next thing you know, six out of seven of us (Zoe in England could not make the trek) had our trips booked.

There you have it! Six ladies together in Vegas! Within an hour I'd say, it didn't feel like we'd never actually met in person before. We ate, walked, shopped, laughed, gambled (some more than others!), drank, laid out by the pool, and had an all around great time. What a cool birthday gift for me! (Or, according to Rob, my graduation present for surviving his schooling!)

Like my SHORT version of the story? Kind of a novel! Just imagine if I told you the LONG version! :)

So Vegas. June 11-14. Since I'm not a gambler, nor did I have the money available to shop, my big plan was to hang out by the pool. We made sure to pick a hotel with a decent pool area. On the cheap end of the hotel spectrum, that's the Flamingo. Which suited our needs perfectly! Of course lots of people had the same "plan" as us to the pool was packed (unless you got up at 6am and threw towels on some chairs then went back to bed). The first day we ended up just sitting on the edge of the pool with no chairs, and that worked out just fine. The second day only Shawn and I hit the pool, and it was even more crowded than the day before. At first we couldn't find a spot to sit AT ALL. Finally we found a tiny little peice of pavement on the edge of the pool, so we set up camp. No sooner did we sit down than some people across the pool from us started packing up to leave, so Shawn ran over and took over their spot - which just happened to be our spot the day before. Again, just as soon as we set up, some people sitting near us IN CHAIRS got my attention and asked if we wanted their chairs, they were leaving. Heck yes! So once again we moved, but we scored great seats and thus spent a lot more time at the pool that day than we originally planned! We were under a perfect shady tree, right on the edge of the water, not too hot of a day... bliss. (Shawn's feet are on the left, mine on the right). :)

There are a ton more stories I could tell from Vegas, but I'll leave it at that for now. I will post the REST of the pictures on Facebook. So if you want to see more, and we're not facebook friends, we should be. :)

The end of preschool...

Dang it, I'm going to cry just thinking about the last two days of preschool. Deep breath, trying to compose myself......

After school almost every day (well, every NICE day) we play on the school playground for a little while, or at longest until the big kids come outside for their recess. Not only was this a great time for the boys to run around and play with the other kids, but it was a great chance for me to get to know the other kids in the class, their siblings, parents and even some grandparents. One of those kids is Kendra. It's been so fun watching the relationship between Jack and Kendra develop and change over the course of the school year, especially the past few months. Kendra has always loved Jack and chased him and asked for hugs and tried to play with him. Jack would run away and yell "NOOOOO" to the hugs. Then he started to come around and he'd give Kendra a hug when she asked. Then he'd run around with her or chase her. Then came the yelling goodbye and the "Oh Kendra is leaving Mommy! I need to go give her a hug!" The two of them are so cute. When Jack calls, Kendra runs away from her girl friends and goes to him. Jack does the same when she calls for him. Last week after their usual chase and hug routine, Jack asked her if she wanted a kiss. She, of course, said yes! So he gave her a little peck on the mouth. Afterwards they were both so embarrassed. Jack told me he kissed Kendra because "they have love." The next day Kendra's grandma told me that Kendra decided she's going to marry Jack (but also that she got in trouble with her mommy for kissing a boy at school!). In any case the two are super adorable, so Kendra's Nana and I had the kids pose together for a picture before the end of school. We also traded info so that maybe the lovebirds can have a playdate over the summer sometime. :)

Thursday was Jack's last day of preschool. Oh boy... it's so hard to believe that this two year journey has already come to a close. It was a VERY emotional morning. (Not helped at all by the fact that I was leaving later in the day for my first solo trip since having kids, and also learned earlier in the morning of the passing of my best friend Castara's father). As I mentioned in a blog post earlier this year, Jack's first year of preschool was not an entirely positive experience. I ended that school year worried that he wouldn't be ready for kindergarten and that perhaps there was something socially or developmentally wrong with him. This school year was a completely different experience. Whereas last year it felt like he didn't really fit in in his class or connect with his teachers, this year Jack just jumped right in, made friends, connected with his teachers, and just generally made a great impression of everyone. His teachers has loved him, as have many of the parents of other classmates and the kids themselves. And we have truly loved all of them as well. He truly blossomed under the love and guidance of a wonderful preschool staff and I am honestly, eternally grateful.

All that said, the last day of school was a day I was not looking forward to. I've found myself wishing and hoping that I could just package up the group of people we've spent the past 10 months with and bring them with us next year to kindergarten. Since that can't happen, we had to say goodbye. I wasn't the only one who had tissue on hand. I think we all felt so blessed to be a part of such an awesome group. I thought I was holding together okay until I saw Ms. Joyce, Jack's main teacher, crying. Then I basically lost it - and I'm not, as a rule, a big crier. A couple of the other parents spotted me and shook their heads as if to say "Nooo! If you start I'll start!" And so it went. I very easily could have dissolved into sobs, but managed to pull myself together and say those difficult goodbyes. I will NEVER forget this year. Jack was not at his home school for preschool this year so we had a bit of a drive (10-15 mins) every morning and at first I was resentful and annoyed by this inconvenience. But looking back, I would be inconvenienced over and over again if it would guarantee such an amazing experience and group of teachers and kids and parents in school years to come. Ms. Joyce, Ms. Heidi, Ms. Padma, Ms. Stephanie, Ms. Sarah, Ms. Barbara, and Ms. Megan - we will miss you all so much - and thank you for EVERYTHING!

(Okay, another deep breath, I will NOT cry again!)

Man oh man

So behind. So much to tell. So much has happened. So much to share.

Packing. Last day of preschool. Tears. Packing. Best friend's dad passes away. More tears. Finish packing. Hit the airport. Vegas baby. Meeting the girls - from Michigan, Boston, Oklahoma, Seattle and Texas. Pool. Birthday. 31! Shops. Cheesecake. Balloon hats. Gambling. Walking. Eating. Sun. Music. Jokes. Laughter. Then goodbyes. No tears this time, just happy memories of a fantastic weekend with great friends. Home sweet home. Non-stop stories from the boys. Catching up with the best friend. Tears again. Sleep sweet sleep. BED SWEET BED! Memorial service. Sob-fest. Cranky kiddos. Physically and emotionally drained.

Ready to hit the sack again. Just wanted you to know I didn't fall of the face of the earth. Lots of pictures to sort through and I'll post and do some catch up as I go. Lots of good, but a hefty share of sad too. At this point I'd just ask for prayers for my best friend Castara and her family, they have a tough road ahead of them.

With that, good night. Keep an eye out for the massive catch up to come! :)

Treasure

At school, one of Jack's teachers, Ms. Heidi, will ocassionally sprinkle some little gemstones or bags of confetti around the playground for recess, and send the kids on a "treasure hunt." The first time she did this was way back in October I think, and Jack still regularly comes home with pockets full of treasure. She did it again recently, thus re-igniting the boys' interest in treasure hunting. On nice days we play on the playground after school and Brayden gets in on the treasure hunting, too. Over the course of the year we've collected two small plastic bags full of treasure which the boys play with regularly.

Caught up on pictures... end of school picnic!

Yesterday was Jack's end of the school year picnic at a cool park in Aurora. Unfortunately, it was kind of a windy and slightly gloomy and cool day, so it wasn't the BEST time. We still enjoyed oursevles though. Jack got to play with all his school buddies, and we got pictures with his teachers and girlfriend. (That's a whole other story!) One of the features of this park was a water fountain area for playing in. Most of the MOMS agreed that it was too cold for playing in the water, but the kids were not deterred! I told Jack and Brayden that if they wanted to play in the water, that was the last thing we'd be doing, then we'd head home. I knew they'd be freezing their tails off and would need to get into the hot (from the sun) car to warm up. Well they were good with that, and had a fantastic time playing in the water for quite awhile, until the cold caught up with them. We can't wait to go back on a warmer day!

Catching up part 2... baseball and candy crafts

I'm cheating this week. Well, last week. I did not get any pictures on Sunday. Well I did, but they are just so not that great at all. Our Sunday got a little hectic when our neighborhood was basically under a tornado watch when a funnel cloud was spotted just a few blocks from us. It did not touch down as near to us as it was spotted, but it did do some major damage at the mall not far from our house (5-10 min drive). Because of the weather, we opted to stay home from the birthday party we were supposed to attend that afternoon (our godson Kadin, my best friend's son). I had intended to get a picture at that party... alas, I did not. And the pictures I took at the baby shower earlier in the day did not turn out very well. So there you have it. I'm going to cheat. Two pictures from Saturday. So sue me. :)

Saturday morning was Jack's first baseball practice. We're signed up for a summer kinder-league, 4-6 year olds. Jack has been sooooooo excited. His best bud Jaxon (and his sister Ashlee) is on the team too, as are 20 other kiddos. It was pretty much chaos, a lot of little kids having a hard time following directions... but mostly it was a lot of fun! Jack had a great time. When I asked him what his favorite part was, he said batting. So in honor of his favorite part, here's Jack up to bat. Check out that follow through!!! :)

Later in the day Saturday we had an open house potluck BBQ at our house to celebrate Rob's graduation with our families (and a couple of close friends). A few weeks back I saw someone post a link to a recipe on their facebook page for these adorable little graduation caps made of reese's peanut butter cups and square chocolates. She was going to make them for her son's preschool graduation. Well I just had to make them too! They turned out super cute, and were super yummy too! I'd like to say they were super easy to make... well let's just say, the steps were easy, but it was a time-consuming process. So worth it though. I wish I had better backdrops for photographing this kind of thing... and that my up close photos of these bad boys turned out better! A side note - our little party was great! We enjoyed spending time with everyone, playing with all the kiddos, and eating yummy food! And of course celebrating Rob's graduation and his birthday! :)

Catching up part 1... the Master and movie night

Last Thursday Rob participated in (and I attended, with my mom and his parents) his graduate hooding ceremony. At this ceremony, all of the Master's candidates at the Daniels College of Business (at the University of Denver) received their masters hoods (to wear with their cap and gown during the graduation ceremony to follow the next day... and all graduation ceremonies they ever participate in from here on out). It was kind of long and drawn out, but it was still cool and exciting for Rob to get his hood. Before and after the ceremony, I took some pictures of him - corporate head shots was the idea. Got some good ones, some funny ones, and this is our favorite "serious" one. Congrats Hunny! And since this is several days after the fact, and today just HAPPENS to be your birthday too... happy birthday Hunny!


Our family has also developed a new tradition... Friday night movie night. I'm not sure what the boys like more... the movies, or the fact that we let them have lollipops. We've rented a few movies we'd never seen before (by rent, I mean, checked out from the library), and we've watched old favorites too. Pretty much doesn't matter what we watch, they want to change into their jammies, have lollipops, and watch a movie. And maybe they'll get through half of the movie before losing interest, but they want to do it every week anyway. Usually Rob and I sit and watch with them, but last week I got wrapped up in sweeping/hosing out our garage, so I missed the movie. Which is okay. Because it was Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas... which we've seen a million times before. :)

I'm still here... barely....

So I've disappeared for a few days because we have been CRAZY BUSY! I fear I may end up disappearing for the next week... till after my Vegas vacation! Yes that's right... me and the girls are heading to Vegas on Thursday with no hubbies and no kids till Sunday! Can't wait! I have pictures from the past several days... Rob's Master's hooding ceremony, movie night, Jack's first baseball practice, Rob's graduation party................ but I have zero energy to work on them. So this is all you're gonna get for today! Now that I have a few minutes to sit down and go through them all, I'm going to get them all sorted out, cleaned up, and empty my camera in anticipation of the big girl's weekend! Between now and then, I need to get through Jack's last week of school, figure out something cheap and simple but meaningful to do for his teachers, do his end of school picnic, pack for the trip, celebrate Rob's birthday tomorrow, and all that fun stuff! I promise to catch up when I can. :)

Adventures in painting and firetrucks

Yesterday Jack brought home a painting from school, which he painted for Rob for Father's day. So he hid the picture as soon as he got home to save for Daddy's special day. Of course, when Brayden learned of the special painting and especially HIDING the special painting, HE needed to paint Daddy a secret Father's Day picture, too. Now waiting till after naptime to paint this picture was nearly unbearable... in fact he basically didn't nap in anticipation of painting later. So here's the little man painting his secret picture for Daddy. He had a little bit of a harder time with the secret hiding part though... he gave it to Daddy as soon as he was home from work. :)

This morning at the grocery store, there happened to be two firemen in line behind us. And after riding the horse and leisurely making our way out, the firemen were right behind us again as we hit the parking lot, and had to stop for Brayden to stare at the firetruck. Lucky Brayden... one of the firemen invited him to come check out the firetruck even closer. Brayden was just beside himself - shy and excited! Then the firemen let him "drive" the firetruck! A little boy's dream! Thanks to my new big purse, I had my camera with me... and when I said to the firemen that I DID have my camera, would they mind if I snapped a photo... they got a good laugh at the monster I whipped out of my purse. :) The captain also had me climb up and took a picture of me with Brayden. It was great! The sad part of the whole thing being that I hadn't changed the white balance on my camera from the pictures I was taking last night, so all the pictures turned out blue. ACK! I put in some photoshop practice to try and get the blue out and this is the best I could do with my limited experience! Better... but still not great.

The coat hallway

Every morning when we get to school, the first thing the kids do is head for the coat hallway to hang up their coats and jackets. Their class is in a temp building, and the hallway is a small little path between the two classrooms in the building, which has been converted in a coat room. It's tight and crazy and full of kids and parents all of the time! I try and stay out if I can, but today we were one of the first to school so getting in and snapping a picture was easier than anticipated!

Week 22 Layout

At least once a week I think to myself while working on this project.... do I have the week right? Do I have the DAY NUMBER RIGHT? I am just certain I'm going to end the year with like 387 days because I inadvertantly skipped a ton... or like 350 because I kept re-using "Day 142" or smoething random like that... what an editing nightmare that would be! :)

Anyway here is this week's layout. Click to see slightly bigger, but still un-readable. :)

Credits: Kit is Spring Mini-kit by kevinandamanda.com; Template by Simply Yin; Font is Apple Garamond

Weekend catch up!

So clearly things have been a bit nutty here, so I've been absent. Didn't stop taking pix though, so it's catch up time!

FRIDAY: Rob finished his part-time career as a graduate student with his last class on Wednesday. To celebrate, my mom came over to babysit and he and I went out on a date! We actually have TIME for that now (no more studying!)... not that we can afford it, but we have TIME! :) So we went to our favorite place the Rio for drinks, then went and played some mini-golf next door, and went back to the Rio for dinner. And it was a good thing we had those drinks before mini-golf because it was the LAMEST MINI GOLF COURSE EVER! Oh my goodness. There were no features, obstacles, or anything else of interest. Just some small hills and fake sand traps. That said, we were both still way over par. The course did, however, have a sign to direct us to the next hole... ya know, just in case we got lost or something. All in all we had a great night, and of course are so happy that Rob is done with school!!!

SATURDAY: Our boys NEVER sleep in. They are generally up sometime in the 6 o'clock hour every morning, sometimes early, rarely later. So imagine our surprise when at 8:30am on Saturday morning we woke to find the boys were both still in bed. Sleeping. Granted, Jack woke up at 5:00am needing help finding his stuffed dogs, and Brayden woke up at that time too, then came into bed to cuddle with me for a few minutes at 6:00am. And after that we assumed they'd gone downstairs to watch TV. But in fact, Brayden went BACK to bed and BACK to sleep after this little visit. Rob got up at 8:30 feeling guilty for leaving them alone downstairs for so long, and woke me up when he discovered they were still asleep. So I went to look in on them too, and that woke Jack up - but oh well! It was still a nice lie-in. Then Rob ultimately woke Brayden up at 9:30am. But not before I snapped some pictures of the pooped out cutie. It was bliss!

SUNDAY: Today was a mostly low key day filled with a lot of cleaning by me, and playing by all the boys. Then late in the afternoon we decided to take a walk over to the school down the road and play on the playground with our neighbor Marcelo and his mom. Rob was trying to get Brayden to climb this climbing wall, but I thought it was probably a little too steep for him. Well, he proved me wrong and zipped right up without a second thought. Little monkey.

"Maybe on Monday"

On the drive to school this morning I asked Jack, "Can I take a picture of you at school today?" His response? "Maybe on Monday." Ummm... okay. So now what? My whole plan here is to document school for the next two weeks. So I snap a photo of the stoplight we are stopped at - just in case. After all, we get stopped at this same light EVERY DAY, it's a part of our lives. We can't forget those snowy winter days when the sensor doesn't work right and we get stranded at that light for multiple changes when the green arrow just never comes. "Why is it broken Mommy?" "Uhhh... I don't know... so I guess we're going to run it!" Yeah, we have a relationship with this light.

But alas, I managed to sneak a few pictures on our way into the classroom, and then snagged one IN the classroom. If Jack knew I took this, he'd probably be mad. One of the teachers asked me what was the "deal" with this camera I am carrying around. What - do no other parents take pictures? I tried to explain but she didn't "get" it. (Specifically the project 365 part). Anyway. Every morning as part of their routine of settling into the classroom, the kids trace their name on a laminated piece of paper. Practicing handwriting is an important part of the preschool curriculum, especially for those kiddos who will be in kindergarten next year. Here is Jack tracing his name. There's a spot under the name to try and write it freehand (no tracing!) too, and Jack has gotten very good at that part. His writing has definitely improved over the course of this preschool year!

Dandelions...

My lack of inspiration has driven me to bring my camera to a place it has rarely gone....... to school! So preschool is a part of our routine 4 days a week, and yet I never photograph anything about it. Now that there's just a smidge over 2 weeks left of school, I figure I better get to work. So probably every school day between now and June 11 will be documented in some way on this blog. :)

Of course I brought my camera into Jack's classroom today with high hopes of snapping a part of his "getting to school" routine - washing hands or hanging up his backpack or tracing his name on his piece of paper... but Brayden INSISTED on bringing his backpack to school today too and doing Jack's routine too, and he tends to get a little pushy with the REAL preschoolers and cut in line and stuff, so I need to be on top of him and teach him good classroom manners! So by the time I was done refereeing Brayden's every move in the classroom, Jack was DONE with everything and sitting on the carpet playing with his best bud Jaxon. Figures.

As we were leaving I thought, "Okay, I guess I'll just take a picture of the outside of his classroom today..." when I saw them. The dandelions. The dandelions which cover the hill just next to Jack's classroom. The dandelions which Brayden picks almost daily and we CANNOT GET IN THE CAR UNTIL HE GETS TO BLOW OFF ALL THE SEEDS! Since winter has been behind us and these nuisance weeds have started to bloom, Brayden has developed a bit of a love affair with them. Truly, they are part of our daily preschool routine. Brayden was MORE than happy to frolick (yes, frolick) on the hill and pick tons of dandelions and blow the seeds to his heart's content. He even let me take pictures! Now you know he was in his happy place. He let Mommy take a picture without putting up a fuss! And now *I* am having a bit of a love affair with dandelion pictures. I took about 50... and pretty much I love them all. I want to go take MORE dandelion photos tomorrow!

Shameless bribery

What you see here are the spoils of a successful (well, sort of, anyway) day of potty training. Today we introduced the upped-ante prize for going poop on the potty (after four days straight of accidents). If you can poop on the potty, you get a NEW HOT WHEEL. Ding ding ding! We have a winner folks! Brayden had one accident first thing this morning. After that he pooped on the potty FIVE TIMES. Okay I should preface this by telling you he does not usually poop THAT much. I honestly think he had a bit of an upset tummy today, which oddly worked to our advantage. One of those five times started as an accident but he caught himself (or *I* caught him, rather) and finished on the toilet. And all day long it was, "And if I go poop on the potty, I can get ANOTHER new car?" Yes Brayden, if this is what it takes for you to stop pooping in your underwear. Mommy is tired of cleaning them out.

Hallelujah, I think we've had a breakthrough!

Swim goggles

We went swimming this morning at our gym's indoor pool (because it was too cold for the outdoor one which is, of course, now open). We met the Gumm family there, and the kids all had a great time splashing around together. In fact, Jack and Brayden both threw fits when it was time to leave, they were enjoying themselves so much. And since Jaxon and Ashlee both were sporting their cool swim goggles, Jack and Brayden decided that they too NEED swim goggles. So this afternoon we headed out to Target to pick up some goggles. The boys had them on as soon as they were out of the package and properly adjusted. They thought they were so cool wearing their goggles around the house this evening, and they especially enjoyed testing them out in their bath before bed. Goobers.

Week 21 Layout

Well I managed to finish this up earlier than I expected... probably because of the extended holiday weekend and Daddy being home for an extra day - woo hoo!

Click to see a little bigger...

Credits: Kit is Love All Year Long by Jady Day Studio; Template by Andrea Gold; Font is A Little Pot

Another rainy weekend...

The afternoons have been cool and rainy this Memorial Day weekend. So this morning we went outside to play in the morning before while it was still sunny and warm. The boys did some scootering and some playing with their trucks while we were outside. Jack was being particularly cooperative posing for me and I was lucky enough to snap this photo of him - great smile and those sparkly eyes again! This one may just make it onto the wall! Sure enough, it did start to rain and was chilly this afternoon. We did, however, venture out to Home Depot and bought oursevles a storm door!

I graduated from high school 13 years ago today - crazy!

My layout will be late again this week... but I''ll finish it eventually! :)

Big boy underwear

We embarked upon the aruduous journey that is potty-training today with little man Brayden. Last night he shopped for his new underwear, and we prepared him last night for the drill this morning... and he was totally ready to go. When I got up I asked him if he wanted to change into his big boy underwear now and his reply was "am I a big boy now!?" He was super excited. And he did great ALL day. He didn't need to go half the time we reminded or asked him... he's got enough of a grasp on the pee part of things already that we were mostly just annoying to him, asking over and over. He did completely love getting his stickers for his sticker chart (or "potty picture" as we are calling it) as well as his gummy bears. We only had ONE accident all day - he pooped in his underwear right after lunch and was NOT happy about it, so I'm hoping it'll be a learning experience for it and he'll have better luck getting straight to the potty tomorrow! We are so proud of how well he did today... and of course, he looks super adorable in his big boy undies. :)

Dinosaur museum and boy stuff

On Thursday, Jack's preschool class field-tripped to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. I'm ashamed to admit, I have never taken the kids there. Anyway they are learning about dinosaurs at school right now so they went to the museum armed with a scavenger hunt to find different dinosaurs in the Prehistoric Journey exhibit. I think Brayden was slightly let down by the fact that it was just statues and displays of dinosaur bones... somehow the discussion of a "dinosaur museum" meant to him a "dinosaur petting zoo." In any case though, they seemed to enjoy it overall. We spent the day with Jack's best school friend and his family, which always makes for a good time. We also visited the Space Odyssey exhibit, and saw a show at the planetarium called "Astronaut." That was a big hit with the kiddos. Here Jack and Brayden are checking out the skull of the t-rex and some other dinosaurs.

Today we had a playdate at our house with my best friend and her two little guys, Kadin and Ashton. They are all such BOYS... my two and her two. They went outside to play and they were MOST entertained by throwing around the action figures that came with their various trucks. Such a boy thing. Brayden and Kadin especially enjoyed hanging their guys from the tree in our front courtyard.

Side note. Mr. Kadin has undertaken the treacherous journey we call potty training this past week... and he's been doing a pretty good job! He's a few months younger than Brayden, who has shown all signs of readiness, so we've decided to seize the opportunity of the long weekend (and two grown ups at home for the duration) to start working on potty training with Brayden. EEK! Potty training with Jack was such a nightmare... such a frustrating journey. Of course he's 5 now and completely 100% potty trained and I can't imagine it was ever any other way. But still, the task is daunting to undertake again. Really it SHOULD be smooth sailing... but you never know with that guy. He's a wild card. Wish us luck!

Week 20 layout

So I got caught up in some other projects (like... finishing up my 2002 paper scrapbook, going through and throwing out a plethora of old pictures - mostly doubles from my old film camera, etc)..... so I just finally finished that Week 20 layout, which was mostly done a few days ago. Now it's all the way done... and it's almost time to get to work on Week 21!

Without further ado... here it is, Week 20... click to see a little bigger (almost half a year and I still haven't bothered to figure out how to post larger pictures).

Credits: Kit is Rainbow Joy by Miss Mint of Peppermint Creative; Template by M Originals; Stitching by Christine Nash; Font is Pea Mystie Unicase

Game time

The boys busted out the family game box today - I think there are nine different games in this box - and they don't know how to play ANY of them. But they absolutely love all the different pieces and pretending to play the games. They will just sit at the table and set up the game boards, make up their own games and rules, and play. It's amazing how long this will keep them entertained!

No layout from last week yet - I got distracted by cleaning out old photos as part of my scrapbooking/organizing project. Now... to watch Idol. Even though I accidentally already saw a spoiler. :-p

Ouch!

I can't say I undestand it, but the couch cushions have been the boys' toy of choice the past few days. They take them off, stack them up, make castles, runways, use them as packages to deliver, etc etc. Earlier today they were building castles and somehow Brayden managed to bounce in such a way that he bit his bottom lip - HARD. It immediately started gushing blood and he is left with two nice deep teeth marks on his lip. It very clearly HURT! But some time with an ice pack and extra TLC from Mommy seemed to make it all better. :)

Week 20 layout is almost done... should have it up tomorrow!

Mini-mani

I've been pretty pampered the past few days... a pedicure on Thursday with my spa gift certificate from the gym for renewing our membership. Then I had my big haircut on Saturday. This morning I decided to top it off by giving myself a mini-manicure. Of course, if the little monkey in the house (the big monkey was at school) knew what I was up to, there was no way I'd be able to pull it off - he would most certainly demand my attention. So I hid in the kitchen and set up shop on the kitchen counter. Surprisingly it worked! He must have figured I was doing something far less interesting!

In-home rivarly and a new 'do

Rob went to CSU for his undergraduate degree, and I went to CU. So as long as we've been together, there's been a little rivalry between us. In fact one of our first unofficial dates was a party at Rob and his brother's house to watch the annual Rocky Mountain Showdown. (CU won). So it's always been kind of funny since having kids to fight over what gear to dress them in. You can tell by their closets that we have more CU relatives than CSU. Yesterday Jack picked out his CSU t-shirt to wear and Rob had him running up to me to say "GO RAMS!" but he slipped up and said "Buffalo, buffalo - oh, um, GO RAMS!" Rob was just so pleased that Jack picked his CSU t-shirt that I could help but sneak Brayden's CU jersey shirt into the pile of clothes for the day, and he was sooooooo excited to be a Buffalo football player! Well what I REALLY wanted yesterday was a photo of the two of them together, but they haven't been getting along so great the past few weeks so that wasn't going to happen. And because I was gone most of the day getting my hair cut and scrapbooking... I tasked Rob with getting a photo of the day. I'm honestly surprised he took ANY of Brayden... I fully expected to come home to a camera full of CSU shirt pictures! :) However, as it turns out, Brayden was more cooperative than Jack about getting his picture taken yesterday, so there you have it - the little dude in his CU jersey. GO BUFFS! :)

And since I wasn't home long enough yesterday to have Rob take a picture of my new 'do... he snapped a few tonight while we were outside grilling some burgers. I think I got a solid 8 inches cut off... I had planned to go shorter but wasn't planning on THIS short... it's growing on me though (so to speak!). Sooooo different! (I wanted to do a before and after... but in the past two months of pictures, I can't even find one that I'm in with my hair down - so oh well!)

This week's layout is underway... hopefully will have it ready sometime this week!

TGIF!

Oh I'm so glad it's Friday... and tomorrow I'm going to get a lot of Mommy time away from home which I'm very much looking forward to!

This morning we met Castara, Kadin and Ashton at a park in the Stapleton area. We ran into our friends Kristin and Ian there, too! The park has a great sandbox, some play equipment, and these cool hills the kids can climb on. The three big boys in our group - Jack, Brayden and Kadin played so well together. Here they are climbing the "big mountain" together just before we left. Poor little Ashton was having a rough day and not feeling great! But we still had a fun trip and visit as always though!

And I have to share a sweet story before I sign off for the night... my little monster Brayden has been driving me nuts lately.... he's a cheeky little monkey and has some serious 3-year-old attitude.

It's been hard for me because he was always so sweet and cuddly and such momma's boy till recently. Then tonight, he says to me (with no prompting - just out of the blue) - "You are the best Mommy for-EVER." And gives me a big hug. Melts my heart... so here's a little pic (just for fun!) of my sweet monster from the elementary school carnival we went to tonight.

Bright eyes

Even though I'm still feeling very much in a photo funk, I managed to get some rather good pictures of the boys today. Most of them were with the help of Rob telling them jokes. But before all of those I happened to snap a picture of Jack while we were outside playing baseball with one of the neighbor kids. The boys were sharing Lukas' Rockies - Jack was wearing it while he was the pitcher. I just love how his eyes are sparkling in his shot!

(I think I need to find Jack his own Rockies hat!)

One of those days.

Today was one of those days. There were few moments of peace, there was much bickering between the boys (resulting in much yelling by me - I hate to admit it), there was much pulling out of hair by me. Thankfully after giving up the fight over a new telescope toy from a chick-fil-a kids meal, they stopped fighting for a few minutes and played trucks together nicely and peacefully while I finished making dinner. (Yes, Bradyen is still wearing his bike helmet). I'm glad this day is over.

Preschool art show

Jack's preschool art show was this evening at Cici's pizza. The best part for Jack was hanging out with his BFF Jaxon. Jaxon has been out of school for a couple of weeks and the boys definitely missed each other! So we had a yummy dinner, raised money for Creekside's preschool program, and we got to see Jack's art on display! Each student had one piece displayed, and Jack's was a painted butterfly.

Boring photo day

Okay with taking the photos every day, I fear that I'm getting very boring and repetitive. Every afternoon I find myself scrambling because I never took a picture... and by then the light is bad, the boys aren't cooperative, and we're doing the exact same thing every day. I'm not sure what to do... I need to find some new inspirtation or something... I'm starting to feel burdened!


Today all I could think to photograph was Jack shutting the door as he came into the garage from the kitchen. Now that it's getting nice again, we're spending a lot more time outside. And even when we're outside, the boys are always in and out of the house for something or another. And they ALWAYS leave the door open... letting out the cool air, letting in the warm air, and of course, letting in the bugs. I am constantly reminding them to close the door after themselves when they go in and out. Jack went inside for his water bottle, came back out, and started playing... till I reminded him to SHUT THE DOOR! (At least he heeds when I make these requests, and doesn't throw a tantrum like his younger counterpart).

Week 19

And on time! I am kind of baffled by the fact that 19 weeks of 2009 have already elapsed. It's MAY! It's almost MID-MAY! Craziness. But enough of my ramblings... here's the layout... click to see slightly enlarged.

Credits: Kit is Bee Happy by Andrea (hereascrapthereascrap); Template by Lindsay Jane Designs; Font is Perpetua

Happy Mother's Day!

First I want to wish all those Mother's in my life - my mom, mother-in-law, grandmother, aunts, sisters-in-law, and dear friends - a wonderful Mother's Day. I hope it was a great day for all of you, and you got all the spoiling you deserve! :)
Mother's Day celebrations started for us on Saturday morning, when we went to my mom's house for brunch with my little family, one of my brothers and his family, and of course my mom. It was the most food I have seen for five adults and three kids in a LOOONG time. It was absolutely delicious, and I have no idea why we don't do brunches more often! The kids all ate, then we sent them outside to play (or rather, they excused themselves to play outside!), then us grown-ups got to sit down and eat in relative peace, too. We felt stuffed ALL DAY. The kids all had a great time too. Miss Kate was a doll as always... and the one word that still always comes to mind when I see her is DIVA! After she gets over a little bit of initial shyness, that girl does not mind being the center of attention one bit! As we were getting ready to leave, she was showing us her gymnastics moves, then got ahold of my sunglasses and was happy to pose for me while wearing them. Isn't she just a riot!?

Today we celebrated Mother's day with our little family. One thing I really wanted for Mother's day was not to have to run all over town for various different get togethers... but to spend time with my three special guys! So my day started with a much needed sleep-in. :) I was awakened at 9am by two excited little boys with breakfast in bed, cards and presents. The boys each made me a card, and I got two new Willow Tree figurines to add to my collection, including this one from the boys. It's called "Heart of Gold" and the phrase attached to it is "you will always have my heart." Very appropriate for a Mommy whose heart belongs to two very special little guys. Our day also included lunch at Olive Garden (yum!), a lot of lazing around the house, and soon some take-home dessert - our favorite white chocolate raspberry cheesecake. I've been sadly feeling a little under the weather today so I've been a little frumpy for Mother's day of all days... but that doesn't mean the day was made any less special by my three awesome boys. I'll be sad to be back to the grind tomorrow!

Sticker fun part II

The boys had so much fun with their foam sticker pictures earlier this week, that since we had nothing else to do today, I decided we should take a field trip to Michael's and buy some more stickers. Each of them got to pick out their own box of stickers - Jack picked "Monster trucks" (when we opened the box we discovered it was really more boats and bikes, but that's okay), and Brayden picked dinosaurs. When we got home they immediately got to work, however they kind of lost the creativity that was part of the process earlier in the week. Jack was pretty much just throwing pictures together as fast as he could, sticking 3-5 big stickers on each page with no rhyme or reason, then moving on to the next one. He said he was going to make one for everyone in Colorado - so all you CO family and friends - if you haven't gotten a picture yet, there's probably one on its way. :) He made some good headway as you can see from the big pile on our table... but he still has a long way to go. For today, he settled for giving each of his teachers one of the pictures he made today. So we labeled them accordingly and put them in his backpack to bring to school next week. He gave one to me, too. For Mother's Day.

Mario Kart

Tonight Kerry and I went out for dinner... and before we headed out she came over and gave the boys a belated birthday present - Mario Kart for their Wii! After they ate their dinner tonight - while Kerry and I were at Chili's - they got to play their new game! Jack really enjoyed it, and so did Brayden, even though I'm told he couldn't quite figure out how to play it. Rob took pictures in my absence. :)

11 fingers?

So apparently this is Brayden week... it must be my way of subconsciously making up for last week, which was more Jack-heavy on photos. :)

Anyway. The boys are very into "math" right now - that is, questions like "what do 2 and 3 make?" or "how many fingers is this?" when holding up 4 on one hand and 2 on the other. They are mildly obsessed with numbers. I suppose that's a good thing, right? Well tonight while playing math with Daddy, Brayden decided to count his fingers. And he was CONVINCED that he has 11 fingers. I tried to tell him that he had counted wrong, but he was very certain that there were 11. In fact, it took several re-counts before he finally did end up with 10 fingers.

PHEW!

Family baseball game

After quiet time today, as usual, the boys wanted to go play outside. Jack really wanted to pick up trash, and Brayden really watned to find a ladybug. Well after Jack picked up all the trash he could find and Brayden gave up on finding a ladybug (but not for lack of trying!), we started playing baseball. Rob came home from work around the same time, and he played pictcher while Brayden was the batter and Jack the catcher. Brayden is getting closer and closer to actually hitting the ball... but he still mostly misses. :) I used the game as a chance to practice my shutter speed photos - so have here also a good example of frozen action!

Sticker fun

I kept Jack home from school today... he's had a mild cough on and off since Thursday... and while I am certain he was fine, the whole "swine flu" panic led to me to decide to just keep him home. Not because I'm worried about him getting sick... but because I don't want him to freak out other parents with his cough! So a boring morning at home... until Jack remembered our package of foam space stickers. We haven't done anything with these stickers for literally over a year. The boys sure had a field day making their space pictures... they each made several... and they made space stories about their pictures as they created them. They also decided to give most of their pictures away and planned which family members to give them to. Daddy already has two space pictures to adorn his office - lucky him! I was especially impressed with how well Brayden did with peeling apart the stickers - good fine motor skills!

We will be off to the craft store to buy new foam stickers just as soon as they go on sale again! :)

Week 18 Layout

Got this week's layout done - only one day late - yay! I love the retro feel to this one. :) Click to see (slightly) bigger!

Credits: Kit is Eat Your Greens by Sarah Bennett; Template by Christina Brown; Font is Pea Charmaine

Lazy weekend

For the first time in awhile, we actually had a lazy, boring weekend. No running around crazy! So lazy in fact that at the end of the day yesterday I found myself thinking... oh, no! I didn't take any pictures today! It was gloomy all day, so we mostly just stayed inside doing nothing. After the boys' naps and quiet time, we did go run a few errands (and out to dinner at Red Robin). After the little guys were in bed, I got to work on my project of the moment - a "through the years" scrapbook to document the boys' school years. Sarah and I took this class at Archiver's awhile back, and I'm finally getting around to finishing the pages. I nearly finished my layouts last night, and once the boys really start school, all I'll have to do is pop a few pictures onto each page as we go along. In the end, they'll both have a really cool moment of their school years. (I hope!)

Today was cloudy again, but a little nicer. And even though it was a little on the cool side, we played outside for a little while in the afternoon. We finally go around to taking the "balance buddy" off of Brayden's bike (it's a little bar we used to push him around before he could pedal himself). Then we talked Jack into practicing riding his bike without training wheels for awhile. All his friends are already riding with no training wheels, and we took his training wheels off awhile ago because one of them was broken. So basically, it's turned into a situation where the training wheels aren't going back on, so until Jack decides he wants to learn to ride without them, he doesn't have a bike. He does have a scooter though, so he's been pretty much avoiding the bike. Jack is very much the nervous type, so the fear of falling has him avoiding the bike. Jack did a great job! The last time we tried, I knew he was very close. Today he was even closer. He's got his balance almost down... he just needs to pedal a little faster, focus (he gets very distracted!), and I know he's just going to take off!

Behind on the Project 365 layout again... hopefully will have that done in the next day or two. :)

Breakfast for dinner

Tonight we decided to spice things up by having breakfast for dinner (in our jammies!) - something we had never done before - can you believe that? Soon after deciding to make pancakes, we realized that we were nearly out of pancake mix, so I had to make a quick run out to the store to get more. While waiting, the boys needed something to keep them occupied, so they got busy building with their blocks. After I got home and Rob started making the pancakes, I had an impromtu composition-practice photoshoot as the boys played on the floor. Something about this photo just jumped out to me - the boys hard at work with their blocks, all cute in their jammies. Jack was so excited to wear his new baseball jammies for the first time, and we busted out some of Jack's old jammies that he's outgrown for Brayden - who was more than thrilled to be spiderman.

And one final note - breakfast for dinner was a big hit. :)