I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Well, as I am sure you have heard on the news we are in a Blizzard warning until noon tomorrow. I would say there is at least a foot out there. It is hard to tell because of the drifts. I went to my neighbor's this morning to borrow cupcake liners and it was an expedition just to get over there. Thankfully our neighbor across the street (with a plow on his mower) shoveled us out this morning and has been packing down the cul-d-sac all day. Katie's school was cancelled today and tomorrow. Unfortunately that means no Christmas program. That was supposed to be tomorrow morning. I even had Chase for about an hour today, because his daycare center closed at 9:00 am., but then his dad got out of work early. So did Scott. He was home by 3:00 amd I doubt he will have to work tomorrow. It is still falling. Scott and Katie just got back in from shoveling the driveway. Katie had a lot of fun doing that. She is ready to go back out and make a snowman, but I am making her warm up first and giving Daddy a break.

The Office

Well, it is finally done. The carpet is in. The shelves are up (and loaded with books). We are pretty much moved in now. There are still a couple boxes to unpack. We are pretty much done though. The next room will be the bathroom. I can hardly wait. That will be so nice. Hopefully that will come by this time next year. We will keep you up to date as we make more progress!

Ski 2006

Here are pics from our A-Basin trip. As you can see the lines were horrible. I didn't get many pics taken since there wasn't a memory card in the camera so I had to use all internal memory, opps! The weather was nice though. We tried to go to Ski Cooper on Monday, but when we got up there we found out the first couple weeks they are only open Fri-Sun. We were sad.

Monster Trucks

TJ, Scott, and TJ's God-Father went to the monster truck rally a week and a half ago. Or, at least, they tried. They changed the time form 6:00 to 2:00 so it wouldn't interfere with a stupid Broncos game. So it was over before they got there. They still got to see some trucks though and got to watch them put little tires on them to load them into the big trucks that take them from show to show. Scott even got to talk to some of the drivers. I guess TJ was a little scared when they started them up, because they are very loud. He was a brave little guy though. I really like the picture of him with the Spiderman truck! He loves Spiderman.

The Office

No, not the super awsome comedy on Thursday nights. I am talking about the room in our office. It is just about done. We are just waiting (and waiting and waiting) on the carpet guy. We are so excited to get moved in. We got a bookshelf up that is not in the pictures, but that has been a big help. You will get to see it when I get the next round of pics up. This first pic is a view from the basement door into what is now the office. This is the office once we finished framing.

This is our current view from the basement door.

This is the inside of our new office. You can see where we started to put shelves in the upper left corner. They go all the way around the room now.

Pie Auction

Well, the pie auction has come and gone again. I reall wasn't into it this year so, I only made 4 pies. I made chocolate mint, lemon rasberry, pineapple, and grated apple. My good pies went low and the ones I wasn't so sure about went high. You never know what is going to happen at the pie auction. The reason I was not as into it this year was beacuse the middle and high school ministries have joined with other churches so there were 5 or 6 churches at the auction and it was not even at our church. It ended up still being a good time and a lot of fun. I will be back on my A game for next year. The kds had fun helping make pie as you can tell from the pictures.

Katie's Thanksgiving 2006

I suppose since it is almost Christmas I should finally post the pictures from Thanksgiving! These pictures are from the aprty they had at Katie's preschool. The first picture is when they were eating their Thanksgiving feast. It really WAS a feast there was SO much food!

This picture was taken when Katie got her pie. Mommy's world famous Key Lime Pie at that.

This picture was taken when they went back to their class for a craft and story. She is sitting on her carpet square for story. Mommy got to read the story.

Here Katie is dancing in her indian dress. The same indian dress that Gramma made for mommy, many years ago.

Her she is posing pretty in her costume.

My December Column

Thanks, but no thanks Santa
This time of year is full of family traditions. In our home some of them have been passed down from our families, like a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas, and pizza on Christmas Eve. My favorite traditions though are the ones we have come up with since we have been married, and in most cases, since we had the kids. Our newer traditions are reading the kids T’was Night Before Christmas before they go to bed Christmas Eve and reading them The Nativity Story before they open presents Christmas morning. One we started last year was my husband and the kids put up the Christmas tree while I am out doing some Black Friday shopping and I decorate it with the kids when he is at work on the Monday after Thanksgiving.
Our strangest tradition though is telling Santa not to visit. Don’t worry his feelings are not hurt. He has many houses to visit any he can skip saves him time and money. This was a decision we made shortly after getting married and years before having the kids. We were pretty sure that people would think we were off our rocker, but surprisingly we have met friends that do the same thing. We were shocked not to be alone in this decision. It was a little harder for Grandparents to get used to, but after a couple years they got on board too.
There were a few factors in making this decision. First, we wanted our children to know that Christmas was about the birth of Jesus and not about toys and candy. Second, I wanted to save them from the traumatizing year that comes to every child when they get too old for Santa. I personally was older than I like to admit and I was still traumatized. Third, it just makes life easier. No waiting in line at the mall, no sending letters, and no figuring out how he gets in our chimneyless house.
Of course, there are some drawbacks. Now that Katie is in preschool we will have to explain to her why Santa is visiting her friends and not her. Right now she doesn’t even know who he is. Last year she called him “Snowman”. We didn’t bother to correct her. Once she has it figured out we will then have to teach her not to tell her little friends. We certainly don’t want her to be the kid that . . . well you know.
We are happy with our decision. Our oldest at only 3 already knows why we celebrate this holiday and that brings great joy to our hearts.

Fun Pics

My November Article

I love fall. Although I am not a fan of the cooler temperatures, I do love all the family traditions that surround this time of year. There is the ever-popular leaf diving, corn mazes, and pumpkins. Not to mention fall has fun holidays, hunting and football games.
The great autumn childhood past-time - leaf diving. During the summer we are blessed with a very tall cottonwood. This tree gives us shade in the hot afternoons and evening and is home to lovely birds and squirrels. On the other hand, in the fall, it is a major pain. This is the only tree of consequence in our back yard yet the leaves cover the whole yard, and we have a very large yard. We always end up with a huge pile of leaves. Perfect for throwing a couple kids into. It ends up being 4 times as much work, because the kids are throwing leaves, kicking leaves and in all others ways undoing the hours of work, but it is worth it. You get great home videos and great photos. They squeal with delight. Plus you can't find anything cheaper to entertain them with. We used to have a dog that loved to lie in the leaves too. What can I say? It is cheap fall entertainment for everyone.
Every year our family goes to the corn maze at Chatfield. This year my husband had to miss out, because of a twisted ankle. So, instead we took a Gramma a Grandma and 3 aunts. It takes a lot of relatives to make up for one missing Daddy. TJ was completely content kicking back and eating snacks while being chauffeured around in his wagon. Katie on the other hand was sure to get us lost trying to convince us to go down routes we could clearly see were dead ends. She is a tricky little one. Although both kids tolerated it, I think the experience was not as much fun for them as it was for everyone else. I am sure they will like it more in the coming years when they understand better what is going on.
This was the first year we went to the pumpkin festival at Chatfield. The kids had a lot of fun. They wanted to put every pumpkin they saw in our wagon. By they time we were done it felt like we had. They each got to pick out one little pumpkin and we got one BIG family pumpkin. What happens after picking the perfect pumpkin? Well, the carving of course! I like to pick a difficult and scary looking design, but seeing as how the kids are getting older, I let them decide. We ended up with a big happy face. Oh well, it was still a treat to see their faces when we lit it for the first time.

Voting Lines

Wait time for voting seems to be the hot topic of the day. So, I got to the end of the line at 5:38pm. I had my friends daughter with me who I was supposed to get to violin lessons by 6:45. I walked out of my polling place at 7:33. Total time 1 hour 55 min. My feet hurt, but my goal was clear.

Train Museum

Yesterday we went to the Colorado Railroad museum. It was a nice warm day and we had a lot of fun. TJ has been playing with his toy trains more now that we have gotten back. He really love the small model train track they had set up. There must have been 6 trains or so running on it. They got to ring a bell and pretend to drive and look off the back of a caboose. They had a great time. We will definitely have to do that again.

I'm up

Katie woke me up at 5:30 and now I am up for they day. So tired.

Happy Anniversary!

The bounce house

Here are pictures of the children young and old playing in the bounce house. My dad won the bounce house at a company picnic. It is just perfect for Katie and TJ and a few of their closest aunts and second cousins. Dad set it up at my aunts house this weekend and everyone enjoyed either getting in or watching the kids.

Here are TJ and Janie going down the slide.

Here is Katie at the bottom of the slide, head first!

Here are Katie and Angela going down the slide.

Here is Leslie trying to hide from the camera.

Here are Leslie and TJ playing int he bounce house.

Here comes TJ!

Lokk out there

I really had a bay widow installed so there would be a place to stand.

Today's Demo

So, I thought today was going to be a totally boring demo, but I did awsome. This is the first time I actually sold out of product. It was pretty cool. People were like "Sounds goodI'll take one" and I was like "Really?" Anyway, I got to go home early and was able to spend some time with my friends and that is always cool.

Katie's Memory Verse

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me" Matthew 19:14

And on a completely different note, it is time to write my article, and I have nothing. NOTHING! Any sugestions would be greatly appreciated.

Poll results

Well, apparently you guys are just here for pics of the kids. Well, you know what the say . .. give the people what they want! So, here you go:

I said look at my nose not point to your nose. Here is our big boy trying to walk in Daddy's boots. That is his new thing putting on every ones shoes.
The kids got new show this weekend. Katie went from at 6 to an 8 and TJ went from a 4 to a 5 1/2.

Ski Season

Well, ski season is almost here again. We have signed up for our gems card, and are disscussing weither to get on or two 4 packs to Copper. My knees hurt just thinking about it. I hope to make it down a blue this year. I do love my cool new skiis. I saw what color they are "supposed" to be at sniagrab. If you don't know the story, I got some sweet skiis cheap, because they were made the wrong color. Anyway, look out, because ski season will be here before you know it. So three chears to all the women who do stuff they hate (aka skiing) for the men they love. Hiphiphorray!

Scott & Brent go up a hill

Here are pics from Scott & Brent's 14er weekend a couple weeks ago:
Here they are on the top of Humbolt.

The view from Humbolt summit.

Humbolt Composit Rock.

The 4x4 road coming home.

Kids

Those days where the kids scream all day and you think you are going to go insane. Yeah, totoally having one of those days. Had to deal with them all weekend. I get tonight off to go to a Body Shop meeting, but I have them Thrs morning through Saturday night with out a break, and Scott has bussiness Next week so, I will have them all day Monday and Tuesday too. I want to go on bussiness. SAH moms need to have a very important bussiness meeting in San Fran or Honolulu. Or at least I do.

Kids

Those days where the kids scream all day and you think you are going to go insane. Yeah, totoally having one of those days. Had to deal with them all weekend. I get tonight off to go to a Body Shop meeting, but I have them Thrs morning through Saturday night with out a break, and Scott has bussiness Next week so, I will have them all day Monday and Tuesday too. I want to go on bussiness. SAH moms need to have a very important bussiness meeting in San Fran or Honolulu. Or at least I do.

PT Cruisers

Ok, you all know what PT Cruisers are right? They are pretty much a Neon with a different body. I can't stand them, and the convertibles are even uglier. Don't tell my aunt I said this, because she loves them and has gotten one for herself. I just have to go off tonight, because I saw 4 in less than a minute today, I kids you not, seriously, one ant one intersection, 3 at the next. The convertibles seem to be aining popularity very quickly as well. Ok, I am done gripping about that for now, I will move on to something else.

Cinderella

What luck, I LOVE Cinderella!
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Lady Tremaine (Cinderella)
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Video Editing

Well, I am starting on this year's video. I am currently capturing video as far back as last Christmas. It is a fun hobby, but it sure takes a lot of time. There is a lot of fun stuff. In addition to all the major holidays, we have TJ's first birthday, Brian's first sermon, and Jackson 2006, oh yeah, there should be some Moab somewhere too! Haven't seen that one yet! Like I said, it is a lot of fun, but a lot of work too.

Woh, hoh, I retained something!

You Passed 8th Grade Spanish

Congratulations, you got 7/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Spanish?

More quizes

Your Political Profile:

Overall: 45% Conservative, 55% Liberal

Social Issues: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal

Personal Responsibility: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal

Fiscal Issues: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal

Ethics: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal

Defense and Crime: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal

How Liberal Or Conservative Are You?

I knew it

You Are 60% Weird

You're so weird, you think you're *totally* normal. Right?But you wig out even the biggest of circus freaks!

How Weird Are You?

MySpace is Dumb

I do not intend on offending anyone, but I am sure I will. MySpace sucks. I am sorry, I know you all love it, but . . . why!?!?! I joined last week, because everyone keeps asking "Are you on MySpace?" So I thought I would check out all the hub bub. There are so many people accessing that site that it runs slower than molasses. I posted to my blog and it just dissapeared. I have had to relog in, becuause it forgot I was there while I was trying to upload photos. I am just SO not impressed.

Katie's First Day of School

Today was Katie's first day of preschool. We were very proud of her and also a little nervous about how she would do on the potty. She did great, no accidents all morning long!
She was very excited in the morning, but when we got there she was being clingy at first and didn't want to sit and play play doh with the other kids, but once she started playing in the kitchen we told her bye and she was fine. TJ looked very worried about leaving his sister though. He was very excited when we went to get her and ran into the building yelling "Katie, Katie"
When we cam to pick her up they we're playing an egg game where each kid picked a egg an did what a paper inside said. Her's was count to 10. So, we heard 8,9,10 Good job Katie. It was great.
Then after school we went to Cici's with her god-father and TJ's god mother to celebrate.

Eliches

We took my sisters to 6 Flags Sunday. It was a little cool, but not too bad. I think they had a lot of fun. We were lucky that Janie was just tall enough for all the rides. This was our first water ride "Shipwreck Falls"

Summer in a puke bag

My super great friend from high school had a very busy summer, just as we have had here. She recently posted on her blog a sumary of her summer that I found quite funny and sounded like verbal puke. So her goes our summer in a puke bag.

100 kids and 2 churches come together for a week of VBS
Moab 100 degree weather camping in a tent
Finishing basement, have storage room and most of office
$600 down toilet, because jet ski sucked up rock
Ken and Cheryl get married
Swimming lessons, Katie failed
Jesse and Katie get married
Justin and Jane get married
We discovered Culver's
Carla can't water ski
Gramma creams Carla at Scrable . . . twice
Iowa is hot
Krystle is walking!
Katie 60% potty trained
Carla joins The Body Shop
TJ suddenly talks
Camping in Glendo, WY, Diamond makes new door in tent, we go home early
Wonderful romantic anniversary weekend in Glenwood Springs
Camping Jackson, new tent, water crazy low, carry jet ski in 50 yards
Not getting email, had to change address
Missed Joyce Meyer :-(
Killed both jet skiis at the same time, had to flag down boat to tow us in (during lighting storm)

And that brings us to the current moment. Looks like the jet skiis will easily take another $600 to fix, my money is on closer to $1000. They are fun though. I will try to update more in the fall!

Crazy Summer

This summer has been insane! We have been going none stop since VBS in th middle of June. We went to Moab, Wisconson, Iowa, Wyoming, Glenwood Springs, and this weekend we are camping at Jackson Resevior (aka mudpuddle). Hopefully we will be back at church the following Sunday, but nothing is set in stone yet. Katie starts school on the 30th. That is so exciting. Maybe then things will g=begin to go back to normal. Enjoy the rest of your summer.

August Column

This is my article for August. I tried to upload more pictures, but something isn't working right, sorry.

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Is there really a kid out there that follows “the book?” You know, rolls over at 3 months, sits up at 6 months, crawls at 9 months, and walks at a year? No? Good, because my daughter doesn’t do anything by the book. She didn’t crawl until after she was one and didn’t walk until a month before her second birthday, but she has been babbling since birth. It is a good thing most kids don’t follow “the book” or I would think she was weirder than someone standing in a hailstorm covering their garden with cardboard.
We spent this last week in the Midwest visiting family when she defied the laws of “the book” again. All the potty training books say not to potty train if you are moving, expecting another child, or planning a big trip. Well, we brought the potty chair with us in hopes of not loosing any ground and with NO intention of actually gaining ground. Sure enough on the second day of our trip, while we were driving on the highway half way between two of our stops, and just past an exit, we heard “I have to go potty.” So, we pulled over, took the potty out of the topper and there she sat with the only privacy as the side of the truck and Daddy blocking the view of on coming traffic. Well, our one success a day was out of the way, right? Wrong! She stayed dry most of the two days we stayed at her great aunt and uncle’s house. I was sure it was a fluke; maybe she just really liked their Noah’s Ark themed bathroom.
We left Wisconsin and headed for Cedar Rapids. This is when we decided the potty chair had to go everywhere with us. She was really getting it! We had lunch in an Amish community one day where we spent most of lunch taking turns with Katie in the bathroom. On the twelve-hour drive home we had to pull over about every hour. This turned our twelve-hour drive into a fifteen-hour drive. We thought we had this potty training thing down, but the first day we were home she had no successes all day. I guess it is more fun to use the potty 1000 miles from home.
My son, 18-month-old TJ, is no stranger to being weird. We are cat sitting this week for his godmother. During my errand running this morning we stopped in to check on Gabby, the cat, and water the plants. I was coming in from watering the plants on the deck to find TJ walking around with Gabby’s water bowl. Did I mention it was empty? He poured the water into her food dish. This is new for him; he usually puts the food into the water dish. I refilled everything and was cleaning up the floor and TJ decided to help. He was putting the food that had fallen out on the floor . . . and was putting it in her water bowl. Gee, thanks big helper.
I don’t think he is alone in this strange behavior of putting cat or dog food into the water bowl. I have seen other kids partake in this activity as well, but you never see this in any of the books. Why is this? It seems to me this behavior is common enough and yet so unexpected we should be forewarned.
On top of the food and water phenomenon, he also has short-term stranger anxiety. During our week long tour of the Midwest, we made three stops to see three different sets of Great Grandparents. Every time he would wait until the day we were leaving to warm up to his great grandparents and let them hold him. It was almost more of a teaser. Who is this kid they write all the books about? A book about my kids would read more like a mystery novel than an advice book. I guess all kids do something that is a little weird. That is just part of what makes them special. My kids are very special.

Oops!

I some how lost the folder with all the blog addresses of all my friends, so I just had to send them all an email to ask them to send me those addresses. I hope I didn't forget anyone! Some friend I am! Keep on blogging friends, I love to read them!

Travel with Tots

Here is my most current coumn entry. I was going to write on freebee places to take kids this summer, but I never got my research done on that one so I improvised with our Moab trip. I have posted more photos at yourhub.com Columbine area.

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Well, summer is here, time to go on vacation. Traveling with toddlers is always an adventure. My family and I just spent 5 days camping in Moab and visiting National Parks. Sound impossible with a potty training 3 year old and a wandering 17 month old? Well, it is certainly not easy. The first step to success: realize you are not going to get to do everything you want to do, the kids will be crankier than normal while off their schedule and finally, things won’t always go as planned.
Lesson one: thoroughly research your accommodations. Searching on the internet I found a campground with a playground and a pool, perfect for the kids, I thought. When we got to the campground I made reservations for, the covered tent sites were too small to accommodate our tent and the playground consisted of 4 swings (no baby seats) and monkey bars. After 5 ½ hours in the car the children were not happy to have to go hunt for a new place to stay instead of getting out and running around. Not the best way to start a vacation. In the end it paid off; our new camp site was 4 times as big as the first one, had a nicer pool, cleaner bathrooms and an age appropriate playground. I learned from this experience to call and get all the information you can before making a reservation. Remember businesses use their internet site to make themselves look appealing to potential customers. It’s not that they are lying, just that you may need more information to make a wise decision. Had I called and asked about the size of their tent sites or their playground equipment, I wouldn’t have lost the $30 cancellation fee.
Lesson two: if there is a visitor’s center at the place you’re visiting, use it. This one simple tip could have saved us half a morning driving around trying to find a place my husband had read about that was great for kids. He was very excited to take the kids to an area of Arches National Park that he had read was sandy and covered in low rocks for the kids to climb. Since he was sure he could remember the name looking on a map, we didn’t stop to ask. The first day we didn’t find it, but we thought we knew where it was. The second day we drove back, but of course we could not find the spot we were looking for. We ended up driving half way into the park and back out to the visitor’s center. After talking to one of the rangers for less than 10 minutes we figured out where we wanted to go and were back in the park again. Third time is a charm! We had learned our lesson in Arches and on the third day of our trip when we went to Canyonlands National Park, the visitor’s center was our first stop.
Lesson three: don’t plan everything. Now, I didn’t over book us by any means. We had a few things we wanted to do, but our schedule was very open, which left room for fun side trips. For example, on our first day we left Arches National Park by way of a four wheel drive road, and after a tip from a ranger at Canyonlands we went on an Indian Rock Art scavenger hunt. Both were fun excursions we didn’t plan on, but were glad we did. Then my favorite part of the whole trip was on our way to get ice cream on the last day. On our way, my husband drove me by the Slickrock bike trail he had ridden that morning, but the kids fell asleep so we kept driving and watched a beautiful sunset in some canyon we found down the road.
Traveling with kids can be great fun if you go with the right attitude. Our kids didn’t much care for the spectacular views in the National Parks, but they loved swimming in the pool every afternoon and going to get ice cream in the evenings. A great family trip has something for everyone. So, I guess it is possible to have a great trip with young kids!

New Subscription emails

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More Moab Pics

Our home for five days.
Daddy, TJ, and Katie enjoying some shade under Double Arch. Arches National Park.
Out on our Scavenger Hunt to find Indian Rock Art. Even with the sign it took us some time to see the pictures.
The desert was like a giant sand box for the kids.
TJ can find was to get into trouble, even on vaccation.

Katie chilling in her Princess camp chair after one of her afternoon swims.