Monster Jam 2011

What a ton of fun we had today with the boys. Monster Jam, Lightrail and great gifts from Feld Entertainment.




I look forward to these times with the boys because they are growing up so fast and one day, it'll just be Dave and I, I'm certain our memories when we see a Monster Jam commercial will make us smile, remembering how much the boys cheered and yelled. Remembering how much we laughed waiting for the Lightrail and how many lessons they learned on the concrete platform.



Dave and I had the opportunity to teach them LightRail etiquette and show them how waiting for the next bus makes the experience much more enjoyable. Life is not a rush.... sometimes you should just enjoy a little more time watching the train go by.

Our Valentine's Tree

I was reading one of my favorite blogs the other day 24/7 Moms , they always have great ideas for decorating, planning and making a holiday the best with the help of your kids.

So... when I saw the Valentine's Tree l idea I KNEW it was something I wanted to do. 10 days later I finally got my Valentines Tree up and operational... Okay, at least up.

We started out our day by taking a walk on the trail behind our home, it is up against a greenbelt that is full of vegetation. It's the color of brown right now.. but that is the Colorado state color in the winter. :)


After we found our pieces we brought them home, laid them all out and spray painted them with some leftover pink paint we had.


The girls got a little bored and ran off to play, but I manage to steal some photos before they came back to inspect my progress.



We had to let them dry, so all of us piled in the truck to see some of these....



and these.....




and play around at the zoo.


When we came home I tied them together and put them into a flower vase I had. I put rocks inside of the vase to hold up the vase and... there we have it! Instant Valentine's tree....


Tomorrow we are making ornaments. Anyone have cool ideas for those??

And now... the planning begins.

They met through pictures.
He with his son, a genuine smile and equally as loving was his sons.
Her picture was a bit coyer, glancing up before being given the chance to smile.

She was scanning, searching for anything that caught her eye.
The title, the picture and then the profile, Oh, he was funny, witty, self-deprecating without being negative.

Saying “Hello” was alright, she would just put it out there.
An hour later, he responded…
She was already asleep.

The anticipation of the morning e-mail, there he was.
Just as funny and curious about her, was she real? Was she like the others?
Yes… she had to be, there would be no reason she wouldn’t be.

They spoke back and forth electronically… then.. they met.

They met each other… finally their kids, the months passed, they met friends and relatives, they got to know one another slowly.

There was building and long exhausting nights before the families finally began to blend.

The kids squabble like siblings and laugh together the same. The parents fall into bed some nights too exhausted to talk and fall asleep with their legs intertwined.

Then one cool winter night the earth passed between the sun and the moon and hid the light. The stars have never been brighter. He’d brought her there to the place they shared their first kiss.

With the look of true love, words that will never leave her mind, he asked her to be his wife.

She said yes….. the new chapter has begun.

(It took me over a week to come up with what I wanted to say to my blogoverse friends. How do I hold a moment as special as this on my blog. I'd written this many months ago and never finished it... here is the revised version)

Thanksgiving BEFORE Thanksgiving

I remember hearing the adults in my life say….

“Wow, it’s already the holidays? This year went by so fast.”

I remember thinking they were all nuts.

So fast? Those years moved at a snails pace, I had school, music programs, field day and then summer. There was ballet, swim practice and annoying my siblings. I had months to get in trouble, mounds of homework and a whole library of books to read.

(click photo for photo credits)

I mean my birthday was in July and I felt every single day of that. The holidays were not here too quickly.

If anything, “It was ‘bout time.”

Now I am in my *cough*early *cough* late 30’s and I am looking at next week feeling like it wasn’t that long ago when last year came and flew by. So I know I better enjoy the relaxation I have right now, because it’s going to get blissfully hectic. I have a house to clean, a college kid coming to town, a set of folks coming up from Texas to visit and a Thanksgiving dinner with 18 people at Dave’s parents house. (Yes… the two sets of parents are meeting for longer than ½ an hour. It’s a BIG deal!) (Dave and his nephew last Thankgsgiving)

To welcome my folks into town I plan on:

· Putting themed flowers next to the bed to liven up the room.
· A new runner for the bedside tables
· Fresh water and glasses next to the bed to drink as well as a few snacks
· Flavored creamer for coffee
· Smell good Recipe (Recipe from Cooks.com)

CHRISTMAS "SMELL GOOD" RECIPE
1 pkg. pickling spice

1 pkg. whole cloves

1 pkg. stick cinnamon

1 jar apple juice

Put in crockpot. Fill to top with water. Bring to boil, put on simmer. Last 2 to 6 weeks.

However, before all of that, before the laundry gets the best of me, before I start worrying about the Cowboys lineup and my kids forget what the holidays are about (because I’m sure my teens just associate it with stress), I am going to sit down with them and watch “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving”, drink hot cocoa and eat some kettle corn. I am going to share the spirit of Thanksgiving with my toddlers just like I did years ago with my older kids.

The true spirit of Thanksgiving is being with the ones you love, and giving Thanks for each and every one of them.

Oh…. And football.

Don't forget to check out the Yahoo! Mother Board page

6 weeks until moving day

Hey all.. I know.. I've been quiet lately.

*Between getting thing set up for this Bloggy Birthday Bash in July
*Trying to figure out how to make a button (Anyone help me here? I am LOST)
*Getting packed up to move
*Painting and assisting a little with construction
*Keeping up with my bloggy friends

I have been a busy girl. As well as the kids and work.... AHHH....

But.. I do have pictures.... not many.. but a few with more coming weekly.

This first set of photos is of the toddlers room. The color was supposed to be a little browner, however came out more yellowish. Amazingly, it looks great. Dave likes the color and I have images of little girls in swirly white dresses dancing around their new room when it is all decorated!

In reality, it will be little girls in shorts, food on their face and hair standing straight out running around putting their grubby hands on my new paint job. Yep.... the reality makes ya cry!

Before
(The room was almost a greyish color, I never realized it until the yellow went up. The closet had not been painted before, so it was a clean slate for my additions. Oh.. and we are taking off the doors to the closet to put up fabric like "princess style" curtains.)

Before

(Faith looking rather bored because of all the taping and covering up of windows and doors I was doing. She just wanted me to get onto painting!)

After
(It looks all grainy because I was taking a picture in a non-ventilated room after I had just used the paint sprayer on the walls and there were particles in the air. Needless to say, Lilith did not sleep well that night.)

Today I am painting the ceiling to repair what I painted while doing the walls.. I am a dork :)

I will put up pictures of the basement bedroom in a few days (It is almost fully framed) and show it all coming together!!