Littleton Farms

We have had about 8 birthday parties to go to in the last 3 Saturdays.  It has been a little crazy.  Last Saturday the boys had 3.  So the girls and I went to Littleton Farm's, especially since it was 70 degrees outside!  They really wanted this picture by this statue.  It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun.

Chuck E Cheese

As per my goals from a few posts ago.  I am wanting to do something fun with the kids one day a week after school.  The best day for this is Friday.  On Monday we have homework packets to get done before Family Home Evening.  On Tuesday Brock has Basketball.  On Wednesday we have Chess Club and Cub Scouts.  And on Thursday, well Thursday would work fine, but we do have spelling test the next day - so we just have to make sure we are done with that and all of the other homework due on Friday.

Well last week I picked the boys up from school and we went straight to Chuck E Cheese.  Santa had given them quite a few tokens in their stockings and they were eager to spend them.  Brock broke his record and got 280 tickets!  Mostly because Chuck E Cheese is always EMPTY from 3:30 - 5:30 and Chuckee still came out and did his "free ticket throw" and my kids were the only ones there to get the tickets - score!!

On the way home we went through a car wash (which my kids had never done before) - when we got home Megan told Jason she had the best day ever, "we went to Chuck E Cheese, went through a car wash, and listened to the whole Wicked sound track."  I never knew car washes could mean so much.

Weddings...

As soon as we got back from Utah the girls were in "wedding mode".  Obviously we had just gotten back from Utah from Danial and Angie's wedding, so everything in their lives became about weddings.  They had also gotten SEVERAL Anna and Kristoff dolls for Christmas - so naturally Anna and Kristoff were the ones getting married.  But the BEST part... they got married in the temple!!  It was hilarious... and wonderful. Megan told me that her and Madison were going to have a wedding for Anna and Kristoff - I told her I thought that was great.  About 20 minutes later they came and got me and this is what I found.  

They had gotten down a book that I have with a picture of the temple on it - then they put all the "friends" sitting around the temple - and then Anna and Kristoff "walk out of the temple" and everyone claps and cheers.  (If you are not LDS - this is how my kids experienced a temple marriage).  I loved it.  I am so grateful for Daniel and Angie for being such a great example to my girls.  They are at very impressionable ages right now, and I know that having been at the temple and seeing Daniel and Angie solidified in their mind that "you get married in the temple".  Had they seen Angie walk down an isle and get married by a preacher, I am sure there would have been an isle on this table and Anna walking down.  

This has continued over several months now - they even get married in different temples, by collecting pictures of other temples I have around the house.

Wednesdays/Pinewood Derby

Wednesdays have been some of my hardest days since moving here.  Most have brought me to tears at some point.  When we first moved here Jason got put into Young Men's and I got put into Cub Scouts.  Both are on Wednesday nights (mine at 5:45, his at 7:00) - and we can't take kids to them - and it is very hard for Jason to get home predictably at 5:30.  On top of that it seems that the kids extra curricular activities all fall on Wednesdays after school or nights as well - soccer, basketball, chess club, etc.  Several of which have been across town.  The worst was when we first moved here and didn't know anyone and couldn't turn to anyone for help.  Sadly, I am not exaggerating when I said they have brought me to tears - I have never felt more alone, far from family, and inadequate than I have on Wednesday nights.    But it is these moments that make us stronger... right?  Or at least let us know we can do hard things.  I know this isn't really a hard thing.  But it was at the time.  Jason has since been released, and basketball this season is on Tuesdays (hallelujah) - and as the kids get older things like this get easier.  Not having a two year old makes everything seem more manageable. :)

We were at our Pinewood derby last week and I realized I hadn't documented on my blog my hard Wednesdays - so I took a few pictures to remind me to blog about this part of my life.

Pictonary

We have stumbled across a new family favorite activity.  Pictonary.  We play girls against boys.  They love it.  And are really good.  We are having a hard time coming up with things to draw because everything is too easy.  Soon we are going to have to start doing abstract things like "love" or "imagination".  haha

Swimming

On Martin Luther King Day we decided to go swimming.  We have a great indoor pool close to our house with a lazy river and a rope obstacle course.  My kids love it. 

 Here is Madison's story with the ropes course.  I didn't let her do it the first few times we went - because... well.... she was two and two year olds could not do that.  Finally one time the pool was hardly crowded, so I let her try.  Boy was she determined to show me.  She did  the whole thing - it took her about 20 minutes... LITERALLY.  She has crazy upper body strength.  Her feat would slip off the floaties into the water and she would just hold on to the rope and try to swing her body back on to the lily pad.  She would fall off again, but swing her self back on, again.  She would repeat that process about 10 or 15 times - but she never let go of that rope.  By the end of it she had attracted quite a crowed of cheering kids, parents, and life guards.  The life guards said they had never had such a little kid ever try, let alone make it across (she is 3 now - but 2 when this all happened).  Sadly I didn't have my camera that day so today I remembered to take some pictures.  It is funny to watch everyone's reactions when she gets in line - usually a "big kid" or a lifeguard will move her out of line and tell her she is too little - she firmly tells them she is not and can do it.

Seriously - she kicks her legs back up and slides her bottom back on that to stand up - over and over and over again

Her hardest part is this crocodile nose - it is too narrow and slippery to kick her body over, she will get her feat up and then she just slides back over to the other side, she will seriously do this 10 or so times.  Eventually she has to scoot her hands along this rope and try again on the crocodiles back  - which is hard because it is so much higher out of the water.

They make us get out for 10 minutes every hour.  Here is Brock and Jason just chill'n.  

Dart Wars

Sometimes we like to "surprise" (ambush) Jason with an activity when he comes home from work.  In the summer it is usually a squirt gun fight.  We had been having a rough few weeks at home - we were all kind of in a rut.  We needed some good, stress-free, fun.  Each person had a dart gun with bullets, we set the house up with barricades, hiding places, and "sniper stations".  We put "re-load" bullets in the hiding places and in random locations around the house.  We left a note and a gun with bullets for Jason in the garage.  And then...

We waited...

And waited...

Jason was longer than normal getting home that night, the kids waited with GREAT excitement and anticipation for about 20 minutes - just looking out the window wondering if each car was his.  

When his finally pulled in we all hid behind the first barricade facing the garage door just waiting, we heard the garage door open, and we cocked our guns.  And then... nothing.  

After a few minutes we let our guard down and wondered where he was... he had seen the note, got the gun, and decided to sneak around the house and go in through another door - he started shooting all of us from behind.  And the game began....

I didn't get many pictures... way to busy being shot at and defending my position.  The game lasted about a half hour and was exactly what we all needed.

2014 done

I guess you can tell how busy I am because it has taken me until February to finish up the last year!!  Only a couple of times I have had to go into the first week or so to finish blogging about Christmas - but NEVER FEBRUARY!!

But now... officially.... it is 2015 in my blog.  Hopefully this is not a new trend and my blog can stay more up to date.

Mapleton with the Herberts

So the plan was to spend the first part of our trip (Wedding and Christmas) with my family in Salt Lake and then the last part of the trip in Mapleton with Jason's family and do "Christmas" there (it was the 26th) - and then stay there a couple of days before heading back to Colorado.   But it didn't quite work out the way we intended... I will get to that at the end.

As soon as we got to the house the children found presents waiting for them under the Christmas tree.  They were thrilled to be opening presents again!

There are many wonderful things about being at the Herberts (food) - but one of the best is how relaxing and fun it is.  The kids just play... with everything.   There is always something to do and somewhere to go and someone to be with.  We spent the entire day of the 26 just relaxing around the house while the kids played with their new toys... and all of grandma's toys.

The girls got lots of great books.

Brock got some racing cars that he can paint.

And Noah got, of course, some more legos.

Debby loves to read to her grandchildren... and they love when she reads to them.

Then on Saturday we spent the morning just hanging out and taking it slow.  We put the girls down for a nap and I went to run some errands.  While I was out running errands I became aware of a major storm coming right down the Denver I-70 corridor starting at about 5 am.  I rushed back to the house to verify the information, and sure enough a huge storm was coming and was lasting for then next several days.  We knew that we did not want to get stuck in Grand Junction or Veil... and that with I-70 it was very likely - and Jason had to be back to work by Tuesday - so we couldn't just ride it out.  We made the sad decision to leave right then.  The children were heart broken and I felt so sad that we only got to stay with the Herbert's for barely 24 hours.  But Debby and Randy were so supportive and helped us get the kids ready, all packed up, and dinner in our tummys in under an hour.

Here we are just before we left.

And Randy took some pictures of us driving away.  Isn't their view beautiful?

By the way.... we did  miss the storm... and we did have friends that chose not to leave early that did get stuck.  Phew!