Monday, January 31, 2011

Some great family photo moments






















Growing up

Jolene has been quite the grown up lately. Speaking in sentences, not taking good naps(to my dismay), and starting to use the potty. We've been sitting her on the potty at bath time and she is now going #1 regularly. But when she came to me last night and told me she needed to use the potty?! and she #2'd!!!! We were blown away. Then about 30 minutes later, she says it again! So I take off her footed PJs, remover her diaper, thinking that this is just a waste of my time, sit her on the potty and she pees! At this point, I called my mom and needed to be reminded that this is just a fluke(good work, mom!) and came back to reality. She is showing interest earlier than Emmett and I truly believe that she will potty train easier than him as well, but to start at 18 months?!





















Ok, enough about the amazing Jolene. Here are some fun times with Emmett the great. We watched a bit of the X games this weekend. Crazy people on snowmobiles doing flips off jumps and snowboarders at breakneck speeds flying around the halfpipe(working on my lingo!). Emmett loves it! "That's what I want to do!" Over my dead body. Anyway, he set up his own "halfpipe" with my stools and races his tiny skateboard and cars up and down and flips and tricks. He has a pretty great imagination these days. Preschool is so much fun for him and for me as well. I get to help out a few times a semester. It's really interesting watching him interact with the other kids and his teacher. Emmett almost always runs for the imaginative play center or the train table, while the others move around quite a bit: art center, library, drawing/learning center. Not Emmett. Not once while I have been there does he ever participate in the art or craft of the day. All the other families have artwork to hang on the fridge, but not us. He would rather play. I guess the other day, when mom picked him up, he played with paints. They pretended to be Michelangelo and paint the Sistine Chapel. Mrs. McLain hung paper up on the underside of the table and the kids laid on their back's and painted. Mom said Emmett had a bit of green paint in his hair when she got there. At least he tried it. I am really glad he loves it so much, cause I will never hang paper on the underside of my table and let him down there with a paintbrush! Thank you preschool.

Happy Birfday, Mummy!

Jolene is so darn cute when she says "Happy Birfday Mummy!" For my gift, Mom picked up Emmett from Preschool so I would only have one kiddo for the day. Emmett loved this idea because he got Grammy all to himself, as well as her basement. This means, that when Joey is not around, he gets to break out the tiny legos. Otherwise known as "stuff Joey will put in her mouth and choke on". It turned out that Emmett was picked to bring home the class pet, a stuffed sea horse named Fireman. Fireman, Emmett and Grammy baked my a cake for my birthday. Luke, Jolene and I were invited over for a birthday dinner at Grammy's. It was nice to not have to prepared my own dinner or bake my own cake. Thanks, Fireman! (just kidding thanks mom!) It was a nice time and really enjoyed some time with Joey alone. Except that she was sick and grouchy...ok, it was nice to only have one sick and grouchy kid for the day. Luke got me a really nice bread knife and paring knife for my 35th birthday. Right, I am only 34, but Luke thought I was 35-so did mom! What?! I really don't need any help feeling older than I am. Thanks for the knives. I know just what to do with them! ;) There was also a beautiful sunset the night of my birthday. Gorgeous with the mountains from mom's back deck.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Playing catchup

Since today is a high of -6 degrees and we won't be leaving the house unless it starts on fire...I thought I should at least update the blog! Sorry fellow followers. A lot has happened since I last posted, but I really can't remember most of it! so here's the gist. BUSY, BUSY, BUSY! The kids are growing like crazy. Jolene is speaking in sentences and certainly has an opinion about it all. Emmett is loving school and Grammy's house.
As for things we've done... now that Mom is here, Luke and I have gone out a few times. As a fund raiser for the local animal shelter, they held small dog races that you could bet on. We met up with a few friends and pre-partied and then went to bet on the corgis and jack russells. It was a blast and if they do this again this summer the kids are sure to go with us. Emmett would love to cheer on the dogs and Jolene just loves anything to do with "puppys". Eventually we will have to break down and get a dog, but a lawn really needs to be in place first(so the said dog can then pee all over it and ruin what we've started!).
Next came my hosting of a few baby showers for friends in MOPS. Dawn had her third baby boy right before Christmas, so we held a shower after the fact since she had no idea which: blue or pink. I was rooting for pink, but now that he's here, blue is pretty great too! Cruz is a darn cutie. I must say that three boys would probably end me, but she's doing alright. The second shower was originally my MOPS table fellowship for January, but since Sonya is at our table and in due next month, we turned it into a shower for all to enjoy. I of course love to host parties, but most of all I get to test out new recipes! It was fun, but glad they are over. Time to relax.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Asleep

I guess we are all a bit worn out these days. I fixed the kids' lunch and then started on some baking. The next time I turned around Jolene was asleep at the plate!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

cute extras

The vidoes are coming! I am having a hard time finding time to work on them!


New year?! already?!

I really can't believe that it is a new year already. This last year went by so fast. Lots of things to look forward to this year....having a 4 year old and a two year old! Yippee! A few fun camping adventures are on the horizon for us, maybe new york?...and of course, another 4th of July! Should be a great year.
We rang in the new year with some good friends, the Lamascus'. It was a pretty uneventful night, but we had a great time. Luke and Jeff went out the next day to go ice fishing! in 2 degree weather. Luke caught the first fish(beginners luck!) and then froze his butt off watching the others reel them in! The trout we ate the other night was de-licious- I'm sure it was the one Luke caught ;)
Since then, we are back to school and work as usual. Ready to take on the cold weather and the wind! Poor mom is already complaining that "it's never this cold in Colorado!" She went to Sierra and bought herself two hats and some thermal curtains for her large patio door! She might unfreeze in a few weeks. We really love having her here. She came over for wine last night with the neighbors and we have marked on our calendars Wine Club night in a few weeks, with few Billings trips in between for kids doc appts and her bathroom remodel.
The kids love playing at Grammy's house after it snows, cause she's got a yard! We took the sled over this past week and ran around in the single digit weather as long as we could last! It was Jolene's first time playing in the snow(that I can recall-I'll have to go back to last year's posts to double check!).

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Christmas 2010



It was a really nice Christmas this year. Chrissy and Mom drove up the Tuesday before and we had a few days to play before the big holiday. We got a sitter and Luke, Mom, Chrissy and I went out to a nice dinner- sans kids! What a gift to ourselves. A few too many glasses of wine found us out looking at the Christmas lights and dropping mom at home a bit early. We woke up the next day with a bit of holiday humbug and perked up after a few glasses of water and a bite of breakfast. We went over to Mom's to help carry in some boxes and to let the kids play in her basement. That night, we had planned a GNO with friends Brandi and Ingrid. We decide it would be more about the appetizers than the wine! Mom, Chrissy and I started out at the sushi place and then moved over to the steakhouse, where we met the other girls. Lots of great conversation, great food and a few glasses of wine. We took mom home and met Brandi for one more holiday drink before we went home. The next morning Luke and Chrissy went to Sleeping Giant for a day of skiing/boarding. The weather was pretty awesome, a bit of new snow and the sun was shining. Later that afternoon, Emmett and Luke sprinkled magic reindeer dust all over the yard. Magic reindeer dust consists of oatmeal and sequins and glitter. That way the reindeer sould smell the oats and santa sould see the sparkles in the moonlight. No way would he miss our house that night. We also expect some really interesting deer poop in the near future! We had a pretty calm dinner for Christmas eve and Mom and I went to Christmas eve service. Thinking it would be filled with Christmas carols, it wasn't. Alternative solos and wordy sermons instead. I guess the carols were at the early "family" service. It was still in the beautiful spirit of the holiday and I'm glad we went. Christmas morning wasn't too early-about 6:45am. Emmett was awake pretty quick once he heard Jolene's morning cry. I was heading down to wake up Chrissy when I sent him to potty-cause he was headed out to the tree. As I was walking back up the stairs, he ran by in a blur and started yelling that Santa had been here. Jolene was getting changed by mom and I was trying to get the camera ready....a whirlwind start to our morning. The kids had a ball opening gifts, especially Emmett. He was so excited that he got what he had asked Santa for.(Luckily, Jolene and I had already picked out one of those items-Joker Castle- and Santa Chrissy had on her own bought the Buzzlight Year jet pack/wings.) We made a bit of breakfast and mimosas and then Emmett remembered that we have a tree in the basement! What did Santa leave under THAT tree? It appears that he left us a Wii. It has been really fun and Emmett is exceptional at it. Not really a surprise-male.child.Luke's kid.....need I say more? It was a very nice Christmas day-we even got to sit outside and let the kids play in the warm sun! Luke played us tune or two on Emmett's new guitar. Would have sounded better if it was Ken playing......Maybe next year! I attempted to overcook the standing rib roast-which I accomplished! Chrissy flew out early Sunday morning, so I dropped her off at the airport and Mom and I went shopping in Billings for the day. We had a great time and got a ton done(It's amazing what you can get done without having to haul the kids around with you!).