The Oakes

2011-12-21T04:53:00.000-08:00

I'm so annoyed. I have tried to post a couple of times and every time this is how my pictures look! You can see in the last post they had the color change at the very bottom of the photo. Any ideas why this is happening?

Thanksgiving

2011-12-14T11:24:00.000-08:00

The kids and I made our way up to Cincy a couple days before Trevor did for Thanksgiving so that we could go to my cousin Jeremy's wedding. I'm a slacker blogger now but were I leave off my mom always gives extreme detail with lots better picture so see her blog for more info there. Anyway, in our extra few days there Emmy and I made a trip to Goodwill were I found my new favorite purchase. I finally found us a piano. None of us know how to play but it is definitely on our homeschool agenda!

After having Thanksgiving a day or two early with my family (mom's blog) we packed up and made our way to IN. Oma and Opa packed in the fun for us!

They took us to see Arthur Christmas, we went swimming in their new YMCA, we got to see Oma's bookstore, made a gingerbread house, watched movies, watched the parade and ate lots of good food.

Maddie came with us on this trip but we aren't sure that she will go anywhere again! The vet advised us on how much Dramamine to give her because we already knew she got car sick. She did great on the way there. I think Ellis is a comfort to her. On the way home her belly got upset and she got sick all over Ellis in the Chick-fil-a parking lot. Thankfully we weren't on the highway!!

Early November

2011-11-15T10:58:00.000-08:00

These are all in random order but I am blogging!

Ellis got to have a friend birthday party this year and Michael was one that he wanted to invite. I'm so glad he could make the trip down for this because he is the master Lego builder and Ellis received lots of Legos from friends.

I think he loved every minute of his bowling party..... that is until they started singing Happy Birthday! He coverd his face with his hands for that and then it was back to fun!!

After our Halloween of super heroes he requested a super hero party and capes for the party favors. At first I was a little nervous that I wouldn't be able to pull that one off but Trevor helped me cut and it actually went really quickly. I did lightening bolts for the boys and hearts for the girls. One of the families texted me a picture of their kids eating breakfast yesterday in their capes so I think we may have started a new fashion trend for kids! :)

Monday is Trevor's day off so it is also an extra subject day in school. He does an at lesson with them each week and this week's was super cute! They made turkey puppets. They glued the faces on first and then turned the bag over and glued all of the feathers. They didn't seem all that impressed with it until he had them turn them over and put them on. You could tell when they saw the feathers hanging over the edges that they loved it! I think they are sooooo cute!

Two weeks ago Trevor's day off was gorgeous so we took a family bike ride on a trail suggested to us from a friend at church. It was so fun we are going to hit her up and see if she has any more ideas for us! This was Alaire's first solo long ride and she did fantastic!! The ride was about 4 miles long and the whole time they were asking if we could go there again some time.

There were a few long hills that Alaire would not have been able to make up on her own. Trevor just waited for her to start to struggle and then rode along side her, stretched his arm out and held the back of her pack and assisted her up the whole hill while they both peddled. It was really funny to watch because he went so fast and she was all smiles peddling as fast as her little feet could go.

Trevor and I made Ellis' bday invitations. Here is his front design, again all at Ellis' direction. The back said, calling all super heroes: Ellis is turning 6!

More October

2011-11-04T11:52:00.000-07:00

Oma and Opa got to come to celebrate Alaire's birthday with us. Opa even took them for the usual McDonalds breakfast trip.They loved every minute of it and told us all about it when they got home.

Alaire and I made a crown for her to wear on the big day. She also got a Kid Mover shirt from her Uncle Bryce and Aunt Tini that she hasn't taken off!

She loves to try on the scary masks at the grocery store..... weirdo!

Oma and Opa were also here for one of Ellis' last soccer games. He had a great season, made some new friends and scored a few goals!!

Alaire had another batch of cupcakes. These she decorated with Oma. They did sprinkles and swirly candles.

Here is Maddie in her super hero cape. Ellis deemed her "thundercloud."

The crazies at the Cincy zoo.

we went up to Cincy for the weekend in hopes to celebrate wammy's birthday by camping out but it was just to cold. we found lots of other fun stuff instead.

They even got to hold the new bunny.

we went on a little hike and had a fence race where everyone got splinters.

wv, Halloween Etc. (or, just be happy I'm posting!)

2011-11-04T11:02:00.001-07:00

Ever since we moved I have wanted to go to wv for a visit but with soccer and all of the new stuff we have been getting into we were having a hard time figuring out when. Finally last week we took a Fall Break and went to see my grand parents.

Ellis and Alaire were fascinated by the guns that Peep has hanging in his basement. He even let them hold one!

Mamaw let Alaire set up one of her Christmas displays. She wanted to do it exactly like the picture on the box. Every time we handed her a figurine she checked the picture first and then displayed it.

we got to meet Tristan this time too! Mam and Pap with all of their great grandkids!

Ellis, Tristan, and Alaire

Pap measured E eventhough we had just measured him when we stopped to say hello on our way to the beach.

There really is nothing else to say here but two peas in a pod! Stubborn as can be the both of them! She just hops right up in his lap and tells him who knows what. Earlier that day after her shower she brushed her hair in his lap.

As soon as we got home from wv we had to rush to get ready for Halloween. Pappy had gotten us pumpkins from his last visit so the kids both painted theirs and I carved mine and Trevor's. Alaire went with an abstract look. Really no surprise!

Ellis debated for literally an hour on what he would do until we threatened no painting and bed and he FINALLY landed on Diego. It is a good thing Trevor can handle artist requests because I'm sure he would have been in tears with my attempt. He actually did lots of this himself with lots of patient coaching from his Dad.

The night before Halloween I had my middle school girls group over for a "spa party." This was their party theme and I was a little unsure of my ability to pull it off as "spa" time is not really my thing but they seemed to have fun and thankfully a friend let me borrow her foot water massage thing. Trevor and Ellis took it as a night out to bowl and although Alaire was given the choice to go with them she chose Spa Night.

(to lazy to move this back to the wv photos) This is my best friend from when I was little's daughter, Gracie. She and Alaire were born just a few hours apart. we got to go over to their house and visit for awhile when we were in H-town.

Trevor was the M.C. at our churches Fall Festival. He was a cowboy/sheriff with a weird accent all night. So many people have told me since then how funny he is!

*Ellis only looks miserable because he had to pause and take a picture instead of jump back into a inflatable line.

These two are sisters and 2 of Alaire's idols!! Kennedy is in my MS small group and they both are Kid Movers. Our church uses ReThink's Orange curriculum and they do a 45 min. Disney like production every Sunday for families that is centered around teaching the month's virtue and Bible stories. There are high energy songs through out the production and the Kid Movers are the dancers on stage. Alaire had made it her life goal to learn every song and motion so that when she is old enough she can be a Kid Mover too......... it so reminds me of me, my sister and our cousin Sarah Beth and wanting to be Continental Singers.

Trevor has been doing "Thumbs Up Thursday" on the student FB page and yesterday I posted Ellis' picture. You can tell he had no idea what he was doing! You may also see that ever since his dad was a cowboy/sheriff for Halloween Ellis has been one too!

This is another "Kid Mover" development. She is much more open to letting me put a pony in her hair. Yesterday she said as long as I, "tuck it like Claire Marie, Kiley and Kennedy!" (They are all Kid Movers from my small group.)

I remind my girls all of the time that there are little girls in the church that look up to them so very much. Nearly every day Alaire wants to wear her kid mover shirt and pants like them, or hair like them, or something like them. They have quite the responsibility to point her toward Christ in the way that they act and in the things that they say. I hope that is stays this easy for a little while longer! Just keep wanting to be like a kid mover!!!!

Here they are in their costumes. Alaire was Exclamation Girl (perfect for her!) and Ellis was Bolt. He came up with and designed most all of their costumes I was merely his seamstress.

A Different Kind of Nut

2011-09-28T13:19:00.001-07:00

Alaire is funny! If it weren't for me knowing her dad so well I would wonder how she turned out so so so very different from me. It seems her goal in life is to do every day just a little different than the last. The two of them really liven up Ellis and I!

I took this picture of her a few days ago. After breakfast the kids have four things that they are supposed to do before we start school. They make their beds, brush their hair, brush their teeth, and get dressed. For a while I had to kind of supervise Alaire but she has it down now and she does it all on her own. The outfits always, I mean always MAKE. MY. DAY! This one isn't that crazy but the socks made me smile.

The reason I took the picture is because that is not her toothbrush in her hand. I had come out of my room after getting dressed and was looking for her to see if she was finished with her four things. She answered my calling with, "Mom, I'm in here doing my last thing in a funny spot with Ellis' toothbrush!" I didn't know what that meant so I checked and this was what I found.

Last night I let the dog out in the backyard and a cricket hopped into the house. I yelled for Ellis to come and get it (he loves bugs) and Alaire came instead. She picked it up, pinching it to death and said, "Mom I'm gonna flush him." She did just that and then came back and said, "mom wanna know what he said to me?" I asked and she replied in a high pitch squeal, "oh no, oh no you are flushing me down to all of the poop. oh no!"

She keeps me laughing!

Lots of Firsts!

2011-09-06T13:41:00.001-07:00

I started homeschooling Ellis last week and I thought Alaire would be only mildly interested. Boy was I wrong!! She would only be in 3 yr. old preschool this year because of where her birthday falls but she loves all things school. I didn't plan on doing any curriculum with her but by the second day I had to go to target and search the Dollar Spot for preschool workbooks. She is in the school room with us the whole time and surprises me with what she actually knows.

This is our new dog Maddie. For those of you that had the unfortunate experience of meeting Eli she is nothing like him!! Thankfully!! She is so so sweet and we already have her sitting on command.

Ellis had his first Upward Soccer game and he said it was super fun. It took him until the 4th quarter to really warm up and play but when he finally did he was all about it.

Here is the big Kindergartener on his first day. He seems to like it so far. I think his favorite is probably the Bible story. He told me today that the Numbers we have been doing are too easy. He also wants to make a deal with me that he only has to stand to say the pledge every other day. :)

I Can't Even Apologize and I Have No Idea If I'll Be Back!

2011-08-30T11:50:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure why I have hit this blogging slump. Can't tell if it is that we live close to family now and they see the kids more or if I like to spend my time elsewhere now or that every single thing that we do is new so it is overwhelming choosing what to post about?? So looks like the new trend is once a month guilt blogging. Fitting a lot of pictures and random stuff into one post is becoming the new norm. So, let's get to it.

Alaire is as crazy as ever!!! One night I was bored from staying home every day and not have a scheduled week like at home in CO so Trevor and I surprised the kids and acted like they were getting their jammies on for bed and then we took them to DQ. They loved it!!

The kids have a new buddy that lives next door. Her name is Shaina. She is at our house nearly every day from 3-7 pm. and even more on weekends. They entertain one another and Shaina has started coming to church with us.

The whole Ellis crew got together a few weekends ago for the Rockies vs. Reds game in Cincy. The rockies won and we ate lots of Cincy food favorites so it was a good night in my book.
The crazy thing was when the game was over we ran into some friends from LBCC in CO!

I got my haircut and I think this is the only picture I have of it. I couldn't take the long hair with the humidity mixed in!

Ellis joined his first organized sports team. He is playing Upward Soccer for the Little Sharks. I made the whole family shark shirts out of scraps I had in my sewing stuff.

Trevor's birthday was a huge celebration this yearbecause it was the first time in almost 5 years that I have made Ally Pally cake for him and it stayed in one peice coming out of the bundt pan. One of the only things we didn't like about CO was that the altitude really messed with Ally Pally cake!

This kid had figured some things out finally! Upon first moving he kept saying things like, "mom, when do you think we will go back to American?" (meaning CO) I think he understands now but today I asked him if he knew our new address and he had the number and street correct but when he got to the city and state he said, "University of Kentucky."

Another weird Alaire picture. At least once or twice a day she has something weird on. She usually changes her outfit at least 6 times!

I wish I had a dollar for every picture I have on my phone like this and a quarter for every trip to walmart or Lowes that I have made in the last month! I would be able to pay off every bill we have ever had and ever will have!

One of Trevor's days off we took the kids to a city water park. It was no Broomfield Bay but they had fun in the water and we here there is something more like BB in Nicholasville that we will have to try out next summer. There are a lot of neighborhood pools here and one day we had driven past a couple and Ellis said, "mom isn't it weird that they don't have buildings around their pools here!" I was confused at first but then I realized that we frequented the Rec. Center in CO and there really weren't many outdoor pools there so he must think it is kinda weird!

Holden Beach

2011-07-19T07:44:00.000-07:00

I'm back!
Don't get to excited though. I'm gonna start myself out easy as to not over do it. Or, if you want the truth.... the thought of organizing these is exhausting to me so as I like to say, you get what you get and you don't throw a fit!!

Here is the lovely Alaire on the ride home from the beach. There were a lot of stops along the way so this chica was getting restless! Auntie Em and her makeup bag to the rescue! She said everyone would know she was big because she had makeup on

I had to get this picture with Emmy for a favorite blog of mine. She does "Fist Pump Friday" posts and had requested a reader picture in a hammock. There was a hammock under the house and the writer of the blog has a "twinner" as she calls it so I hope we make it. Look for us here on Friday!

Lunch stop on the way home was at Mam and Pap's for Gino's. In 5 minutes flat we finished of 4 pizzas!

There was a short detour on the way home in Lewisburg wv for my "cousin" Jason's wedding. It was so fun to see friends and family!! Read my mom's blog for lots more pictures.

This was the picture of the losers of our races one day but they had so much fun you would never know that they had lost.

Auntie Em and I walked to Alaire's "ruffles" a.k.a. the sandbar where the waves are just ripples with all of the kids and as we waited for the tide to go out we had a big obstacle race.

Peepaw treated us to ice cream every. single. night! And that is likely why my shorts are VERY snug fitting currently!

The winner picture with the losers giving bunny ears.

riding our boogie boards in the ripples.

She and Ellis loved looking for the little clam diggers and fiddler crabs. Trevor got really good at catching them with the net and the kids would just lay there and watch them dig.

Displaying their dollar prizes after our goofy golf tournament award ceremony. My dad has always given away a dollar to any player that gets a hole in one. Sarah got the only one this year but Pappy had lots of dollars still to give so he had an award ceremony on the bench outside.

Ellis Loved Boogie Boarding!

@ thumbs up for brownies and ice cream to celebrate Trevor's bday.

sand angels

she caught a crab!

more ice cream!

The Drive

2011-07-12T20:32:00.001-07:00

Leaving CO

2011-07-12T20:18:00.000-07:00

Another Busy Dump

2011-05-24T21:16:00.000-07:00

Family night at CFA. These 3 thought it was just great!!

Our neighbors just got a new dog. Alaire loved her so much and wanted to help name her. They have 2 other dogs, Biscuit and Gravy so I suggested Scrambled Eggs but Alaire likes cotton ball

CFA also had RipStroke a trick Mt. Bike group. Ellis and Jack both thought it was super cool.

She stood in line for no exaggeration here, a half an hour, to get her face painted. I. Could. Not. Believe. It!! She was so so so very excited once it was finished. She loved her red lips and blue eyes!

Alaire had her first real bike ride at our favorite trails. It was quite the workout trying to keep up with her!

we got to go to the circus with some of our best buds Lucas and Helen.

It was incredibly rainy that day so lucky for us it got moved inside!

Lots of park days!

Dad's last few days-photo dump

2011-05-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

Lots of time to wait for paint at walmart. Alaire entertained!

They are constantly asking me to take their picture together.

They went to Target to buy something with their own money. Ellis bought a lego Ninja and Alaire chose to buy a bathing suit tutu. She wears it nearly every day!

This almost never happens so I had to get a photo. She is strong willed and knows it drives him nuts when she says she wants Mommy to do everything. This night she went straight to him and just hopped up on his lap like it was nothing.

Another night after church. The next day they helped us paint the entire exterior of our house in one day!!!

Finally made it to "The Pool" hike. Not only did we finish it and get the patch but we saw a moose! and a baby!!

She let us get so close to her. The baby hid in the brush most of the time and then ran out and baby and mama ran off into the trees.

Look how clear it is!

They wanted to splash around in the water but I knew it would soak through their boots and get their socks wet and then Trevor and I would be carrying them to the trail head. I thought I would be clever and say they could play in it barefoot knowing that it was fresh snow melt and there was no way they would last more than a few seconds. I was wrong. They thought it was great!

Ellis begs every time to get a picture by the Estes Park boulder. He was super happy we stopped.

we asked for a picture so....

they wanted one too!

CAN. NOT. GET. OVER. IT!

DITTO!

Finally, we hiked to the Pool! and ate Village Pizza after!

Children's Museum for crazy hair day. Lindsy Lu who anyone?

black mohawk for this one.

Sweet tomatoes..... everyone's favorite and then a little surprise put-put afterwards. Super fun day for everyone!

Another requested photo

Not exaggerating....she took 200 pictures of herself at Baskin Robbins. This was the best one.

Alaire rides a 2 wheeler!!

2011-04-29T05:53:00.001-07:00

I know I said I was just going to be dumping pictures for a while but I really feel like this one deserves its own post!

Ellis started riding a 2 wheeler at 3 yrs. old but Trevor and I weren't really sure if Alaire would follow suit or not. For the longest time we really had to encourage her to ride the strider bike and she just didn't seem interested then about a month or two ago she was always asking to ride it. She rode it so much over that time that she had gotten really good at putting her feet up and balancing. My mom came for a week and since she is the one that taught Ellis we decided to wait for wammy to teach Alaire too.

wammy didn't have to really do any teaching for this one at all. She stood one one side of the driveway and I stood at the stop sign. Alaire put her feet on the pedals and wammy gave her a push and she rode right to me. I don't think she knew she was doing it but she rode a couple of times like that and then we took her into the street and she was off. Trevor and I even took her out 2 nights ago and she can turn and start herself. All that is left now is learning to brake and she will be headed to DQ!

She is sooooo proud of herself and asks nearly everyday if she can ride her bike to the park. :)

I keep trying to add a video of her but my computer is saying it is unavailable. I'll keep trying but if you want to watch I know it works on my FB page!

April in mostly picture form

2011-04-26T09:15:00.001-07:00

So it is official we are moving to KY. I hate that this move has basically brought the blog to a standstill but that is just how it goes for now. I will just be dumping some pictures for a while with a few highlights.

Easter. I didn't even think about what they were going to wear until the night before. Alaire borrowed her friends skirt and LOVED everyone commented!

Mom and Michael were here for a week to help us get the house ready. The McCrazies came over too to help us with tilling the back yard, planting grass seed, and painting the tough spots.

Every night Michael was here we tried to do something fun. This night we took him to Casa Bonita. He said he is never coming to CO again unless he gets to go there!

Alaire was so excited to go and then for the first 1/2 of the night she did this. She said it was to loud because we sat close to the waterfall.

Tuesday we took them up to RMNP. Michael wanted to go to the Mt. Summit. I warned him that I didn't think the road would be open all the way up there just yet but we went as far as we could.

Lots of painting!

This is from a few weeks ago... costumes with Lucas and Helen!

Bike ride to Food!

2011-04-06T19:25:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a record setting high day here and we definately enjoyed it! Ellis has been asking all winter long when we could ride our bikes to eat at "Pizza Hut" again. It is actually Black Jack but who is really keeping track?

Saturday morning we hung around the house in the early morning and then started packing up for our ride. Black Jack really hasn't been that great of a meal the last few times we tried it so we decided to pack our lunch and then have dessert at DQ after our homemade feast.

Alaire has gotten so good at her Stryder bike that she insisted that she could ride the whole way on her own. Trevor and I knew better but we did allow her to ride it through the end of the neighborhood and then he carried it on his handle bars until we were on the trail near DQ and she rode again.

Ellis did so well!! It was nearly 80 degrees by the time we got home and my legs were worn out! I told him we were really impressed with him because I thought coming home was hard and I had the luxury of changing gears but he had to just keep working his little legs and peddling. That night after the bike ride, no nap, and church in the evening he asked if he could go straight to bed. :)

In closing, I leave you with another of Alaire's outfit inventions. This ensemble consists of play high heals, a flotation wet suit that used to be her brothers, a crown and wand, hair bow bracelet, "Julie" the baby doll and her "flute."

Oh good gracious!!

Super Fun Friday!!

2011-04-02T07:08:00.000-07:00

Last night when I asked the kids what their favorite part of the day was Ellis said, "all of it! The museum, the dinner, the bikes and the milkshake!" I'm with him! It was a really great day!!

It is Ashley's Spring Break this week so they invited us to go the the Natural History Museum with them. Ellis was really excited because he is really in to dinosaurs right now. He has been asking to go to the dinosaur museum for a while now so when we walked in the door and saw a huge T-Rex he was ready for some fun.

He matched all of the dinosaur skeletons to the correct dinosaur.

Alaire thought her head being big was so funny and Ashley kept showing her how to make her belly big.

They had so much fun that these are the only pictures that I got. I would love to take them back and read some of the signs a little more. They just wanted to move from room to room as fast as they could to make sure they saw everything.

I made chicken tortilla soup for dinner and apparently Ellis thought it was really good. It was really good but I was surprised that he added that to his highlights for the day.

After dinner we went to our new favorite bike trails to "mountain bike." Most of the trails are sidewalks but there are a few portions that are pea gravel and they love to trek through them. Alaire has gotten really good at the Stryder bike so we are thinking wammy will have another "training wheel extraction project" when she is here in a few weeks.

The sunset was gorgeous last night and Trevor and I took tons of pictures. I texted mine to a few people with the caption "All most heaven... Colorado!" My brother Bryce texted back, "don't rub it in!"

Trevor sent one to his brother T.D. who lives in CA a couple of miles from the beach. T.D. sends us sunset pictures every once in a while so these were our competing pictures.

After the bike ride dad took us for a sweet treat at Chick-fil-a. Really, who can say no to one of their chocolate milkshakes??

2011-04-02T06:52:00.000-07:00

I love this picture. She is so funny! She picked this outfit herself and then added the cowboy hat and horse and then told me to take her picture. She actually rode her bike to a friends house in this dress. I was surprised that this is the outfit she chose. Lately, her outfit of choice is either her pj's or a bathing suit.

This has been a weird winter here. There has been almost no snow so when they woke up and saw a little snow on the ground they wanted so badly to go out and play. There really wasn't enough to play in so they rode their bikes in it instead.

Just had to include this picture in the random because this is where you will find Ellis every Saturday night. This is his buddy Jack and every night after church while we stand in the church lobby and talk Jack and Ellis wrestle around on the floor at our feet.

CRAZY week for us!!

2011-03-25T08:49:00.000-07:00

One day we are out riding our bikes on some new trails we found and the next day things turn crazy. I know I'm always saying how crazy busy things are around here but this last week has been extra crazy!

I have lost track of the days but we did go on a bike ride one night and then over to our favorite Mexican restaurant. The kids had so much fun on the trails that we went back the next day. Alaire has really gotten good at the strider bike. If she keeps it up at this pace I'm betting that she will be riding with no training wheels by the end of summer!

A church in KY had been talking to Trevor for a while and called to see if we could fly out to interview next weekend. I was getting that set up when they called to say that weekend wouldn't work after all, could we come this weekend?

Trevor's mom was also here at the time so that she could visit with her mom who was not recovering well from her recent hospital visit. Karen called on Tuesday morning from Loveland to say that GG had passed away early that morning. Trevor and I decided to postpone the KY trip so that we could be here with everyone to celebrate GG.

Trevor's dad flew in on wed. and Jeff came on Thursday and T. D. on Fri. morning. The funeral was on Fri. at 2 p.m. and we ended up scheduling the KY trip to fly out on Fri. at 6. It was crazy all because of us but we didn't want to push it off for another month. It was so crazy on the days leading up to Friday that I didn't even get one picture with all of the family that was in town. I do have one video of Opa and Ellis watching a movie together. They both laugh at the same parts!

Trevor and I decided not to tell the kids that we were flying out until after the funeral. They were exhausted before we even got to the airport but the adrenaline had kicked in and they couldn't wait to go to wammy and Pappy's house. Our plane landed in Louisville at 10:55, luckily it was just an hour after bed time our time!! My parents and Michael met us at the airport and took E and A with them and Trevor and I drove off in my dad's truck to Lexington.

It was a great weekend and we loved the church so now we are just waiting to hear back from them. The thought of leaving CO is such a bummer to me. I really do LOVE it here! There is so much to do outside and it is gorgeous all year around. There are lots of great friends that we would be leaving too but we know God would bless us there as well and it was exciting to get just a glimpse of it all.

The kids had a great time in Cincy. Check my mom's blog to see every detail of their weekend. There was a lot of sleep to be caught up on and when our plane was delayed for almost 4 hrs. because of high winds in CO I knew we were going to be cutting it close with keeping us all sane. Actually, they did great on the plane and through the airport but as we sat waiting for Trevor to go get the car they started falling apart.
I sat on the floor and held Alaire and told her to close her eyes. Ellis was a little more restless but once I talked him out of his chair and on to stretching out and using my leg as a pillow he was out. It was literally the fastest I have ever seen them fall asleep! All of us are recovering nicely and hoping that wammy and Micheal still want to come visit us for their spring break because there are lots of things we could use some help with.

Auntie Em in Estes

2011-03-08T11:11:00.001-08:00

Sunday after church we made our way back up the mountains into Estes Park so that Ellis and Alaire could show Auntie Em how they can walk on water. As soon as we entered into RMNP it started snowing and there is still tons of snow up there.

In the parking lot everyone got dressed in their snow gear and I mourned the fact that I had forgotten the sleds again. The ski poles were still in the Dango from our skiing the day before so the kids used those as their walking poles. There was a lot of new fresh snow on the ice so after walking and sinking for a while we made our way to the shore where it was more packed snow.

Auntie Em is always up for a little climbing so she took them on top of this huge rock and then they all slid back down.

"I'm the king of the world!"

Emmy and Ellis were our leaders through a snow shoe trail that went back into the woods. I heard Emmy laughing up ahead and when we caught up I could see that she had sunk all the way up to her thigh with one leg. After she got out she let Alaire and Ellis have a turn standing in the hole.

Here she is with her foot in the hole.

Emmy and I lifted them up onto a rock covered in snow along the trail and they both made snow angels as they slowly slid down the side.

At the huge icicle waterfall they went sled riding on Auntie Em. Her pants were so slippery that they slid right down the hill.

Our leaders standing in the middle of Bear Lake.

After our hike we went into Estes and let the kids each pick a treat. Ellis had ice cream and Alaire chose a lollipop. Emmy also bought herself a new pair of socks because her feet were soaking wet.

Dinner was so good that night; we finally got to eat at Village Pizza. Trevor's aunt and uncle had told us about it a long time ago and then our friends the McCreas love it too so we thought we should give it a try. Lots of specialty pizzas and a salad bar. You can't go wrong!

The kids finished off the day with another sleepover with Auntie Em. Monday we toured the thrift stores in Boulder and took her to another favorite, Pei wei. It was a short visit but we really packed it with fun!!

E & A's 1st Ski Trip

2011-03-08T07:44:00.000-08:00

Trevor and I had been planning to take the kids skiing this past weekend and when Auntie Em called on Thursday and asked if she could come to visit for the weekend we knew it was great timing. She got here on Friday morning and we showed her one of our favorite Goodwill in the morning and then that evening went to rent skis.

Saturday morning Alaire had her ski helmet on before we even got in the car. To say they were excited would be quite the understatement! It took us about 2 hrs. to get up the mountain and we ran into our friends the McCreas on the way. Loveland Basin was the perfect place for them to learn. Their lift tickets were free and we were able to get adult lift tickets for lift 7 (the bunny hill) for only $25.

Before lunch we walked them up and down small inclines and let them coast down on their own. Alaire was really whining with me so Auntie Em took over and she had a blast. Emmy would carry her up and then give her a little push and off she would go. Emmy walked behind her and said "up" and Alaire would stand on her skis. If Emmy called "sit" Alaire would sit on her skis as she was still moving and she thought it was great. They did that until lunch time while Trevor and I took turns with Ellis.

Around 11 we headed back to the car for lunch with the Mcrazies. I gave Alaire a pole and just pulled her up the parking lot.

After lunch Alaire was beat so she and Auntie Em hit the snack shop and then watched Ellis, Trevor and me come down the mountain.

Ellis begged and begged to go up the lift. I was nervous about that idea but Trevor thought he could do it so he took Ellis up the lift the first time. At the top Ellis said, " that was so fun!! Can we do it again?" Trevor and I both died laughing and told him the fun part was skiing down the mountain.

The first few times he went down Trevor skied backwards in front of him and put his pole between his legs to keep him in control. Once Ellis got the hang of standing up on his skis we put my scarf around his belly and let him ski between our legs. My hips have been so sore for 2 days from having my legs so far apart all the way down the mountain. This picture is Ellis and I midway down with our friend Allie leading the way.

This one is Ellis and Dad at the top of the lift. I was really surprised at how quickly he caught on. I think he and Trevor will have to take a few more trips up the mountain to practice and he will have it down!

I went down a couple of times with them and then I went and took Alaire to the car so Auntie Em could go down a few times. She said that by the time she was going down with him Trevor was letting Ellis go down alone and just sticking out his pole a few times to slow him down.

I think we left around 2:30 and after a short snack time in the car they were both cashed out. It was a great day and we all can't wait to do it again!!

Hike to the Trailhead

2011-03-07T06:40:00.001-08:00

The kids and I had planned to go the library story time last Tuesday but wouldn't you know that the one day we choose to go they don't have it. Thankfully I checked the website before we made our way there and we changed our plans to spend the day in Estes Park and the Rocky Mt. National Park.

Trevor and I had taken them to try "The Pool" hike once before but it was so cold and windy that we turned around. This time it was gorgeous so I thought we would give it another shot.

I think we would have benifited from snow shoes but there was a small part of the trail that was packed down and that is where we walked.

According to the map the trailhead is at the end of this road so I drove to the end, parked, and we started out. Unfortunately after we hiked the 1.7 miles I realized that we had actually just hiked from the overflow lot to the actual trailhead. This portion of the road is closed for the winter.

The kids didn't mind and had fun so I guess that is all that matters. I guess we will just have to go back in the summer and try one more time to get our patch! :)

Look how wide that "trail" is. I don't know why it didn't occur to me that we were actually on a road!

After our hike we made our way down to Estes for the usual ice cream stop and then we got home just in time for dinner with dad.

Strep Throat and Everything In Between

2011-02-28T08:27:00.001-08:00

Strep throat has hit us 3 times in the past 2 weeks, twice for Ellis and once for me. If we had medicine we were feeling good but when we didn't it was rough going. A couple of Saturdays ago we went to the zoo and about half way through Ellis started asking if he could ride in the stroller and by the end of it he was asking to go to the doctor.

I think they did have fun at the Zoo but we went straight from there to prompt care where they got a negative result on his 5 min. strep test but started in on antibiotics while we waited for results from the 3 day test.

That evening after a dose of medicine he was feeling much better but we decided that Trevor should stay home with him and Alaire and I would go to church ourselves. Alaire and I came home to a huge fort that the boys had made in Ellis' room. Against my better judgment I let them have a fort sleepover that night. I have no strength for the "no" when they are sick.

I was starting to feel yucky by the time we found out that Ellis did have strep. The next day I went and found out that I had it as well. Once we were both on antibiotics things started getting back to normal, and by normal I mean Alaire picking out weird clothes for herself to wear.

I took the kids to the children's museum and we did had some nice days that we were able to play outside. Alaire also mastered the logs at the Rec. Center all by herself!

Here is weird outfit #1....
material from Trevor's cuttoffs on her head and her way to big "running shirt" on over a green shirt. I can't remember and you can't see her bottoms but if I were to guess, you can nearly guarantee there is no bottom to this outfit!

weird outfit #2...
large running shirt and bare everything else.

I would also like to point out Ellis' lovely attire. I think I will retire those shorts for him before Richard Simmons comes asking for an assistant.

The running shirt of Alaire's and Heelies that Ellis has on are their new FAVORITE purchases from half price Goodwill Saturday.

Valentines day we had a busy day so that evening we had an impromtu family mini golf tournament with some hand me down crouquet toys we had been given.

weird outfit #3... especially weird!

valentine heart tights, navy shirt with pink sequined leotard over top, finished off with a life vest and fuzzy crocs. This outfit is really made complete with the lovely face she is making.

This Friday Ellis had been finished with his antibiotic for 2 days and he was back to not eating and crying when he swallowed so on Saturday morning we made another early trip to prompt care for stronger antibiotics.

No church for us again on Saturday night so we decided to go to the movies. I told you I was an extreme softy when it comes to sick kids so we let them get Mt. Dew and they thought it was sooooo soooooooo awesome! Trevor told them this is what the beach is going to be like, "Mom is going to let us do anything we want!!"

Steelers, Skis and Schoolwork

2011-02-10T14:40:00.000-08:00

A few fun new things at our house this week. Trevor and I went on a date last week and did our usual out to eat and hit a few new thrift stores. This time we were in Boulder and found my new favorite thing, an old school desk. Ellis loves it and has been asking me nearly every day for "homework" to do while Alaire naps.

Trevor had someone give him a bunch of ski and football equipment. I think most of it will eventually find a new home but there was one set of skis that will probably be perfect for Ellis in a few years. He has worn the boots around the house for a few days so when we got a few inches the other day I took him out to see how much work it would take to teach him. I couldn't believe how easy it was so now we are looking into a family ski weekend. I CAN NOT wait!! I have been waiting 5 yrs. for this!

He only went down a few times because we didn't have the luxury of a magic carpet or tow rope but when we got in the car he told me that he "rocked it!" He is really good at "french fries" but I'm thinking we should really practice the whole "pizza" thing. Although, Trevor told him that when he was his age if he wanted to stop he just fell down. :)

Unfortunatley our family celebrated the Super Bowl at home. After church Alaire wasn't eating her lunch and acting funny. I took her temperature before naps and she had a low grade fever. A few of our friends have had a flu like bug so I assumed that was making a visit at our house too and canceled our plans. She was back to her "fight for attention any way possible" sort of self during the game so it wasn't the flu thank goodness, just a nasty cold.

Sunday morning everyone was supposed to wear their game gear for church. Ellis was sooooo excited to wear all of his Steelers stuff. He even told Alaire that she could wear his jersey that was too small and then she could have it for her room.

He didn't seem to care much that they lost. He just acted bummed for a little bit because he knew thats how Daddy is when the Broncos loose.

Here he is again in his new desk. He has been practicing a lot with his reading. I got the 1st series of Scholastic's Bob Books from the library and he has been reading one a day. After about a week of doing it every day he has gotten much faster at sounding the words out and is so proud of himself to be reading actual books all by himself.

weird weird weather!

2011-02-02T20:44:00.000-08:00

** side note** the"w" key on my keyboard doesn't work. I'm to cheap to fix it and since I have to copy and past to get a "w" at all I'm to lazy to look for a capital. Sorry! I think my copy and paste "fix" is also what keeps changing the font.

Since in the last two days our high temperature has been 6 degrees, with mostly negative temperatures the rest of the time we have been trying to come up with a few fun things to do inside. Yesterday we decided to play around with some shaving cream on the kitchen table. At first Ellis was a little unsure of getting dirty, as you can see his sister did not share his worry.

** I'm listening to the news and the weatherman just said it is 0 degrees right now and it is a good sign because we are warming up!

He eventually got into it and by the end Alaire was practicing her name and Ellis was spelling out words I was giving him.

Later that night I had a meeting but that talked Trevor into doing another shaving cream craft that they had done before at a friends house.

I don't have any good pictures but another fun cold activity that we did was glow in the dark bath time. Target had a pack of 15 glow sticks in their dollar spot so we gave them each a few turned off the lights added bubbles to the water and took a bath in the dark. They had so much fun with that one!

Before it got so cold we got a chance to hang out with some friends of ours that have baby goats. we were able to go into their pen and feed them their dinner. Alaire loved them so much. Ellis really just wanted climb through the barn window and rummage around or crawl under the hay bales to see where they go to sleep. I had to beg for a picture of him feeding them.

There is another new blog below so keep reading... unless you are family and like to complain when there aren't regularly scheduled posts. In that case, wait 4 days and come back and read that one then.

Lots of Random

2011-02-02T20:15:00.000-08:00

It just seems like we have been up to a lot of random stuff lately. One night we were looking for ways to entertain the kids before bed and we started watching videos of them when they were younger. I think we all loved it so I guess random is fun....... so here you go.

I can't even remember exactly what he was doing but he had just eaten ice cream and I requested a picture because it looked like he had a mustache.

There were a few warmer days last week and Ellis wanted to go rollerblading. He is much much better this year but Alaire did get a chance to remind us how much our backs enjoying lugging a 3 yr. old on roller skates up and down the sidewalk.

Ellis and Alaire are really into costumes right now. I have been sorting through some things that are to small for them and we found Ellis' Halloween costume from when he was 3. Alaire pretended she was a dragon all morning long.

These next two pictures are of another before bed time activity. Trevor came up with a craft for them. Alaire LOVES crafts and surprisingly Ellis somewhat enjoyed most of it. They wrote each letter of their names on a piece of paper and then thought of animals that started with those letters that they could make out of random craft supplies.

Ellis made an Elephant, Lion, Lizard, Inchworm and Snake.
Alaire made and Antelope, Llama, Ant, Inchworm, Rabbit, and Eagle.

Completely unrelated but I really want to remember both of these stories so here ya go....

1. Tonight I was sitting int he floor near Alaire's bathroom door waiting for her to finish brushing her teeth and I saw pen lines on the wall in front of me. I asked Ellis about it (knowing who likely did it) and he said he didn't know about it. Then I asked Alaire about it and she looked at it very closely. I said, "Alaire do you know who did that?" She got a hilarious look on her face that had me laughing and then she looked at me very seriously and said, "Oh mom, that was a monster that did that!" Thankfully Trevor stepped in at that point because I could not have handled the, "Alaire where do we color?" "tell the truth" conversation. Oh that girl at 13 frightens me!

2. Lately conversations between Alaire and I go like this on her end about 50 times a day....
Mom, right? I just wear my boots when there is snow, right?
Mom, right? Ellis can have pizza for lunch if he wants, right?
Mom, right? we don't have stinky feet and the boys do, right?

and many many many more "Mom, rights?"

winter day in Estes

2011-01-17T08:31:00.001-08:00

Saturday we packed ourselves up and headed up the mountain to spend the day in Rocky Mt. National Park and Estes. The temperature was supposed to be in the 40s so we thought it would be a good day for a winter hike. There are very few "Easy" rated hikes left that we haven't done but we managed to find one that we thought would work.

Trevor packed our lunches and we stopped for "wammy" white powdered donuts on the way.

It was really overcast when we pulled into the trailhead parking lot but you could see the sun was coming. After getting all bundled up we made our way over to the trail and saw two different families strapping on their snow shoes. I guess you could say that was when I got a little worried. Trevor asked though, and they said it was their first time in snow shoes and that they had been there last weekend and you really didn't need them until the end.

I would say we made it about 1/4 mile in about 15 minutes due to Alaire's pokyness and the wind cutting right through us. The sun was also now nowhere to be found. Trevor and I made an executive decision at that point and decided not to ruin the day just so we could say we had done a hike so we posed for pictures and made our way back to the car with some other ideas for fun.

Ells and Alaire made their way back to the car much faster than we had started and we determined that to be because of the lunch that was promised, while they would say it was the walking sticks.

Our gourmet lunch was enjoyed in the car peering out over large field were we usually see Elk, no sightings this time though.

After lunch we made our way up to Bear Lake to try to see a frozen lake for Ellis. This was a GREAT move. As soon as we stepped onto the little trail up to the lake I could tell we were walking on at least 2 ft. of packed snow. As we approached the lake Ellis asked were it was and I told him those people out there were on it. He said, "you mean they are walking on it? CAN I DO IT TOO MOM? This is a picture of us on the middle of Bear Lake. If you scroll down in this post you can see a picture of Ellis and Alaire a couple of years ago on the shore of the same lake.

Near the middle of the lake Ellis spotted this huge collection of icicles and wanted to make his way over to check it out. Alaire didn't want anywhere near it for some reason so Trevor hung back with her and I took him up. It was really cool and he was even able to see behind them. Later he told me he thinks that is were the chipmunks we usually see in the summer go to hibernate.

Once we were up there he wanted to try to walk the normal trail that we usually walk but we were only able to make it a few hundred feet when we were really in need of snow shoes. There were a few teen boys in front of us that ran/slid down the hill back to the lake and Ellis asked if we could give it a try. He held my hand and we ran all the way down. It was sooo fun! At the bottom we sunk at least a foot into the snow. He kept saying, "this is the best day of my life. I didn't think this was going to be that fun but I was wrong mom!"

After all of the fun in the park they wanted to go walk the shops and of course pick a treat.

Alaire picked ice cream! Trevor and I got a pound of dark chocolate covered pretzels and Ellis chose candy corn.

It was almost 2:30 when we finally got back in the car to come back down and they were worn out. Alaire was asleep as soon as we put her in her seat and Ellis had a few candy corn and then he and dad were out too!

It was a SUPER FUN DAY! I think we may have to try it again and rent snow shoes!

our random days

2011-01-17T07:57:00.000-08:00

It has been busy around here but so much so that I haven't jumped on every few days to post. Here is a short update.

It snowed last week and then a few days after that it was sunny and bright. It was also so warm that we were able to go out in the backyard to play without our coats. It was kind of weird to be playing in the snow and not wearing coats.

After a few minutes on the swing and a little game of soccer we found some chalk that had been left outside. I showed them how bright chalk is when it is wet and then ran it to get more chalk and some paint brushes. They soaked the chalk in the snow and then rubbed and painted all over the back stoop.

Every Thursday morning the kids get together with their friends Lucas and Helen. This past Thursday it was our turn to have them over to our house. At lunch time I was having a hard time coming up with what I should make because I really needed to go to the store. I picked through the fridge and decided they might eat a bunch of random stuff if it looked fun. They ate all that was on their plates and then I gave them all of the supplies to make another food man and they filled up again!

Alaire has a baby with her every minute of the day. This morning I caught her reading her Bible to "Target" baby.

Ellis got his present from Auntie Em in the mail the other day. It was a new mummy sleeping bag and he LOVES it. He even took a nap in it on the couch the first day he got it. This was huge because we finally had to have him drop his afternoon nap. Bed time was not fun anymore so now he is nice and tired at 7 p.m.

Lots and lots of swimming for us this week too. They both love it. Trevor and I have been trying to spend some time in the pool with them without life vests. They are getting better but haven't caught the hang of it yet. Hopefully by summer they will be able to make it across the pool with no life jackets.

Finally some snow!!

2011-01-04T12:48:00.001-08:00

There has been lots of snow sledding going on around our house. There for a while it was feeling like it really wasn't winter at all! Ellis even told me that he didn't believe the weather men any more. It snowed about 4 inches and the first day the high was only about 12 degrees. Needless to say, we waited for day number two to go sledding.

Trevor and I had a date night during the storm so on our way home to pick up the kids we made a quick stop to buy them some new disc sleds. They were waiting in their car seats and we even tried them out in the driveway at 9 pm.

Ellis was a crazy man on his! He would go back to the Durango and take a running start and dive down the hill. He loved it! Near the end of it all we had his whole face covered.

Alaire started out a little timid, wanting to either ride down with me or Trevor but after a couple times she took to it on her own.

These pictures are from a couple of different sledding excursions. The last two days that we have gone out it has been so sunny that you can hardly open your eyes. (I love that about CO winters.)

Yesterday I took them sledding at lunch time and they made trains and sledded on their bellies and knees.

I was so proud of Ellis, he carried up Alaire's sled for her every time without even being asked. It could have been that he was sick of hearing her whine just ask much as I was but I like to think it was because he is just that sweet!

She was doing her fare share of whining yesterday but she was also doing a good amount of cracking me up too. I kept asking her to come over to me so that I could fix her boot and she said, " I can't mom I'm holding up this tree!" Once I was finished laughing I took a picture and she came over to have her boot fixed. She sat in the snow and I readjusted it for her. As I was working she said, "hey mom, when I get up look at the snow and you can see my bum foot print!" That one made me really laugh!! She also decided to wear a "Horton Hears a who" hat sledding. It has really big elephant ears on it. Every time she saw her shadow she said she looked like a reindeer. :)

** Keep reading the Christmas post is below.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-04T11:30:00.001-08:00

It was a great Christmas at our house. The kids were excited for weeks! As the day got closer it seemed like the box boy was ringing our door bell every day and they couldn't stand that they had to wait until Christmas to open all of the presents.

Trevor and I had told them that they would get to open one present on Christmas Eve after church and Ellis kept saying he wanted to open his gift from Alaire. He had told her exactly what to get him and he thought he was going to choose. I warned him that what he would be opening would not be a toy and he was bummed. They were so excited to find foot pj's inside. They both loved them and put them on as fast as they could, even though we hadn't even had dinner yet.

Christmas morning they woke up really late for them. Ellis came in our room around 7:30 and we let him go in and wake Alaire up while I got the camera ready downstairs.

Some of Alaire's gifts:
* a dollhouse made by Trevor's grandmother (GG) and all of the things to go inside
* a broom and dust pan
* a shopping cart
*Tangled Leapster game
*clothes
*colored pencils
*Toy Story 2
*Chutes and Ladders
* headlamp, flashlight, lantern
*baby, baby clothes and accessories

Some of Ellis' gifts:
*Tons of GI Joe stuff that used to be Trevor's and his brother's
*headlamp, flashlight, lantern
* Toy Story 2
* Steelers outfit
*LEGOs
* air hogs motorcycle
* rescue helicopter
*chutes and ladders
*colored pencils'

They both also got the toothbrushes that they told Sneak and Noel about over and over again. It cracks me up that one of the first things they show their friends when they come over are their new toothbrushes and toothpastes.

After the presents had been unwrapped we feasted on homemade cinnamon rolls. I used The Pioneer woman's recipe and about half way through making them I looked to see how many the recipe served. Yeah...... 50! Needless to say on Christmas morning I only made half of them and made the other half the next morning. After we had our fill we loaded up and took the left over ones to the people that were working at Starbucks. They were so excited to get the little surprise that they gave all 4 of us free drinks.

After some fun in our pj's at Starbucks we headed home for play and naps. That evening we went over to Steve and Nana Kelli's house for stuffed sopapias and games. The kids had fun playing with Camdyn and Silas and Trevor and I got to see Matt and Sarah a little more too! Eventhough we didn't spend the holiday with family it was a really great Christmas, exactly what I had hoped for!

Chuck E. Cheese

2010-12-23T05:42:00.000-08:00

In October when Ellis and Alaire first started to memorize Luke 2:1-20 we let the kids pick what they thought their prize should be if they were able to do the whole thing. I think the only thing they really thought of was a toy but I wanted them to think bigger. I thought it was a pretty big accomplishment. So, I suggested Chuck E. Cheese and they were so excited by that idea.

Monday night was the reward and we did it up right. I felt like my dad, saying, "Is there any where else we could spend a little more money. I just don' t feel like we have spent enough money." Trevor kept reminding me that this was a reward and we were having fun!

They did have fun! Alaire kept wanting to go see Chuck E. and give him five. I took her up to the stage and she touched him but when I asked her if I could get her picture with him she was not about to be up there by herself. She wanted me in it and she was not going to look at the camera she had to make sure she could see him out of the corner of her eye.

Ellis checked out the prize counter about halfway through the night and decided on a dirt bike that was worth 800 tickets. The rest of the night we spent time reminding him that he would not have enough tickets to get it. They ended up with 55 tickets and very little tears at the counter. Alaire got a tattoo that she had lost by the time we got home and Ellis got a little plastic alien with a parachute.

Looking a lot like Christmas here!

2010-12-21T21:12:00.000-08:00

Lots of Christmas preparation has been going on at our house. I guess that is why you have seen so little of us here.

This whole month in Ellis and Alaire's class at church we have been talking about Jesus and his birthday. This past Sunday I got to help out with their birthday party. This is half of the class and I love the looks on my kids faces. Alaire, in red is over the top excited and, Ellis who is beside her in green is excited but you would never know it by his face.

Ellis kept asking about my tree topper and why it wasn't a star. After dinner one night we did a Christmas ornament craft and he decided that instead of an ornament his would be our new topper. No mom could resist that cute face so I helped him craft a pipe cleaner and his ornament into our new tree topper. He is sooooo proud!

Uncle Michael's star has nothing on us!

I just had to add this precious picture. It took everything in me to get her to sit still for it but I'm so glad I put in the work. She is so adorable! Don't let her looks fool you though she has an ornery streak in her!!

She had 6 Christmas dresses in her closet this year, thanks to some great hand me downs, so we started wearing them as soon as Thanksgiving was over. This is what she wore last Sunday. It was missing the bow around the waist so we just added one from my ribbon collection. I couldn't pass up the chance to make her a hairbow that matched so we were a little late to church but as my grandmothers always said sometimes beauty hurts.

There are lots more festivities planned and the presents under the tree are just killing them so stay tuned for more Christmas updates.

Christmas Tree

2010-12-10T07:56:00.000-08:00

Our tradition for 7 yrs. now has been that we get our Christmas tree on our wedding anniversary, so as soon as Trevor got home on Tuesday we loaded up and went out for dinner and tree shopping. (Trevor and I got to go out on our own the next night.)

I had picked a tree out and we were ready to purchase it and then Ellis made the executive decision to veto me and chose a different tree. He said it was, "the perfect one to get."

Thankfully it hasn't really felt like winter here so by the time we got home we still had feeling in our hands and were ready to decorate.

Ellis and Alaire were really in to all of it. So much so that Trevor and I had to keep reminding ourselves that they were just excited. It was like they had eaten cotton candy and Mt. Dew for dinner and topped it off with sugar for dessert.

Our tree is gorgeous. It has a huge branchless hole in the middle, lots of hand made ornaments on the bottom half, its leaning to the right in it's stand, and two strands of lights that only half of each light up. The whole family thinks it perfect!

Alaire got to put the topper on. I still don't know what to call it. It is just a twisted piece of copper that was scrap from when Jeff Marshall and Trevor made Ellis' paper airplanes for his room before he was born.

Here are a few out takes of their craziness. As we were going to bed that night Alaire asked me if it was Christmas when she "waked up" and Ellis said he thinks it would be so cool if we, "had a house with no down walking steps, because then he could open his door and Christmas would already be there." (He is referring to the fact that we make him wait at the top of the steps on Christmas morning until I can get there with the camera.)

I can't remember what I laughed at before those two.

These last two are of a little craft we did yesterday. The register at Lowes had a few hanging up when we were getting our tree so we saved the bottom off of our tree when they trimmed it and then asked the people behind us in line if we could have theirs.

The nose is a cranberry. I let them do all of the glueing and then I helped them hand over hand with the face. They couldn't push hard enough on the wood grain to do it themselves. I think they are super cute and I hope they last. I put some magnets I had on the back and we hung them on the front door.

Alaire's photo shoot

2010-12-02T14:59:00.000-08:00

Alaire has finally gone 5 nights in a row with a dry pull-up so we decided to celebrate a couple of nights ago with Dairy Queen. (Lets all just ignore the fact that the very next night she wet the bed.)

She decided we should have a photo shoot in order to remember the occasion.

This is her "princess smile."

This is the smile she would do to say she loves me.

This is the "pretty smile."

This is the "regular smile." (Regular is exactly what I think of when I see it!)

Ellis and Jack

2010-11-30T12:52:00.000-08:00

Ellis got to have a sleep over the other night. He invited his best buddy Jack over for a very last minute sleep over. It was so last minute that it was actually past bedtime when we got home.

The boys played in his room for a while and then did some giggling with the lights off before finally drifting off to sleep. Ellis woke up at his usual 6:30 but Jack didn't get up until a little after 8. Ellis waited that whole time so that he could have his breakfast with Jack.

They played all morning long and then we packed up and headed to Subway for lunch before taking Jack home. The entire lunch they looked like this. They were coming up with a plan for how they could break open the wall next to them and slime each other with slime guns. I have no idea where that all came from but they thought it was great and I just had fun watching Ellis interact with another boy his age. I'm so glad we met Jack!!

2010-11-30T08:32:00.000-08:00

Our Scout Elves, Sneak and Noel Tip-Toe have come back to visit us. They are keeping track of if Ellis and Alaire are being naughty or nice and give the report to Santa.

They have been very creative with were they will sit to watch us for the day. Today Sneak is playing the cords of Trevor's guitar and Noel T.T. is strumming. A few days ago Ellis was really racking his brain to try to figure out how they actually get into our house. The next morning when he woke up he found Sneak on the couch giving him his answer. Apparently Sneak and Noel T.T. know where we hide our spare key.

Buy me last pape' Miss?

2010-11-24T14:14:00.000-08:00

Ellis has been waiting and waiting for this day. Every time we go to wammy and Pappy's house he gets to help Michael do his paper route and ever since the last time they did it he has asked when he could get one.

Our friends are out of town this week so Mr. David asked if we wanted to do his wed. paper route for him. I jumped at the chance because I knew Ellis would love it.

This route was much larger that Michael's so I wasn't sure if it would hold Ellis' attention or not but he helped me roll them all.

Towards the end he even got pretty good at putting them in the bag.

He stuffed the bags David gave us. I love his face in this picture..... such a cheese.

I let him pass two whole laundry bags full and it was a real test of my patience. I had to drive up onto the sidewalk in order for him to get it into their driveway. He loved the houses with fences because he tried to throw them over the fence.

The kids switched seats and it was Alaire's turn. The little Diva was more of a hindrance than a help but I tried not to let on like she was. She got to pass 1 whole bag by herself and then she cried for awhile about her baby not having it's hat on right, her feet being cold, being thirsty, wanting kid music, etc. (you get the idea). Thankfully for Ellis and I she then decided to just take her afternoon nap a little early. I was fine with that idea!

All in all it was a fun time and I'm thinking we may get out own route. I told them they both get $10 for their work and their eyes got as big as saucers!!

Ellis' 5th birthday Picture Dump

2010-11-15T09:04:00.000-08:00

Ellis is 5!! He has been so excited to celebrate and has been getting gifts all week long. Mam and Pap sent money and he got to buy a truck he has been wanting for a long time. He also got new shoes and jeans. Oma and Opa sent him a Toy Story lego set that he loves, the movie Toy Story, and another pair of jeans. (He really needed jeans. The 5Ts that I had bought him in early fall where way to short.)Peep and GG both sent money that he is still thinking about how to spend. Pappy and wammy got him and Alaire a family pass to the Denver Children's Museum and Trevor, Alaire and I got him skis and a sword and shield.

He requested cinnamon rolls and the crazy straw for breakfast.

Andrea and Ashley introduced us the the Children's Museum earlier this year and Ellis has been talking about the Fire Truck ever since. This year was family party year for him so he chose the museum.

He spent a lot of time at the fire truck!

Alaire loved the grocery store.

The new bubble room was really cool!

Ellis and Alaire slammed into one another in the tree house and Ellis got himself a birthday shiner.

Their fishing skills would make the Meadows side very proud.

In the morning when he woke up he said, "mom, I really think I grew some when I was sleeping."

After a long afternoon nap for the kiddos we had the usually Saturday night crew over for birthday dinner. Ellis wanted steak but we told him we would save that for another night. Instead, we had taco soup and bean bread.

He was surprised with more presents from his buddies. Ashley brought him a bunch of Lightening McQueen stuff, even a super cool new towel for the Rec Center and a Pixos thing-a-magig and Jack got him a Tech Deck skate park with skate board.

It only took five years for him to realize birthday cakes can go way beyond the normal fun-fetti cupcakes. He asked for, "that yummy cake dad had for his birthday." Ally Pally cake it was (thanks so much to Mamma T in Cville!)

After scarfing down our dinner we rushed off to church where he was ecstatic to move up to the 5 yr. old class with his buddy Jack. I finally got a picture with him at the very end of the day. I can not believe that he is 5!!

Alaire wanted in on the pictures too so I obliged.

I'm so glad his birthday was Saturday because they both seemed super grumpy on Sunday and today we found out it was because they were getting sick. Today I have two sick kids just laying around on the couch.

They did it!

2010-11-14T15:45:00.000-08:00

They memorized Luke 2:1-20 MUCH faster than I thought they ever would. If you watch consider this your warning. Alaire is ALL. OVER. THE. PLACE!!

Somehow Pappy is the one who is giving the final approval. So, Pappy if you think this is Chuck E. Cheese worthy (the prize they chose if they completed it) let us know and we are going to go spend some tokens!!

**** I can't for the life of me get it to upload directly to the blog. (They may be to long??) I have posted the link on the side of the blog so you can watch it from You Tube. Ellis' version is very quiet. I had him re-tape it but You Tube doesn't like that video for some reason. You can view it on FB though???

And so it Begins!

2010-11-09T18:32:00.001-08:00

Tonight is movie night and we are watching Robin Hood. Ellis is really into it except for at times we find him 'watching' like this. Trevor keeps looking at me and saying why is he doing that. I pointed to the TV and Trevor still didn't get it. I then explained that on Friday Ellis will be 5 yrs. old and the princess was about to kiss Robin Hood. This kind of thing is apparently totally disgusting to a near 5 yr. old!

First Snow

2010-11-09T18:19:00.000-08:00

Today was our first snowfall. There was just enough to cover the grass. It fell for a long time but took a while to accumulate because it has been so warm lately.

As soon as Trevor got home it had stopped snowing so we got all of our garb on and went out for some fun. He pulled the neighborhood gang around on the sled.

I went through basket of winter wear and I think we are going to have to make a trip to Target for some new gloves because all of our waterproof ones seem to be to small.

*** Another new blog below.

Alaire's gum

2010-11-09T17:49:00.000-08:00

A pack of strawberry shortcake sugar free gum (sounds delicious doesn't it!) came in the mail yesterday for us to sample. Ellis had gotten a birthday card in the mail so when Alaire asked if she had gotten mail too I just gave her the gum package. She is 3 now so she is allowed to chew gum and loves to tell you.

She asked if she could have a piece and I said, "yes just make sure when you are finished with it you put it in the trash." She kept asking me over and over which trash can to throw her gum in and I kept saying, "Alaire, I said the white trash can." (white is trash and green is recycle) About 15 minutes later I noticed that she was still chewing the gum. I was surprised because every other time she has had it she chews about 5 times and then spits it out. Upon her asking me again for the 13th time which trash can her gum went in I realized what was happening. There were 15 sticks of gum in the package and she had 2 left!! She was so proud!

Halloween x3

2010-11-01T06:20:00.000-07:00

These pictures are all out of order but hopefully if you look at Alaire's costume you will be able to figure out what party we were at. Blogger is driving me nuts right now so sorry in advance.

This first picture is from Trick-or-Treat on Sunday night. The crazies joined with another group of crazies that are just about their same ages. Lucas and Helen live down the street and go to church with us.

During Trick-or-Treat Alaire was a kitty cat and Ellis was a pirate all three nights.

Night #2 was a fall carnival that we attended with Ashley and our new friends the McCreas. Ellis was again a pirate and Alaire was a punky,rainbow brite, tutu, butterfly, princess. This was my favorite outfit of hers.

The two of us worked on this creation together. Her favorites were the pink and orange snow boots.

Night #1 we celebrated Daniel's birthday at the park and then went with a bunch of friends in our costumes to Chick-fil-a for costume party. Ellis was the pirate and Alaire was a pink princess. She had taken it all off by the time I took a photo but she wore all of the stuff that Bryce and Tini got her for the wedding. There was face painting at the party and as Alaire waited in line I talked to her about all of the things she could choose, "you could get a butterfly, princess, fairy face....." She hadn't decided and when she got up in the chair the lady asked her what she wanted and she whispered, "a superhero." The lady looked at me and said, "like a mask?" I just shrugged my shoulders and said sure. Alaire LOVED it!

Before Trick-or-Treat we went to the Rec Center's Fall Festival to play games and eat chili. The game playing was funny. They enjoyed it but it took them forever and ever to chose a prize so they didn't even get to play every game.

I tried so hard to get Ellis to chose these glasses but he didn't think they were near as funny as I did.

Everyone loved the colorful Dracula teeth.

Ellis even added them to his costume.

Here is the loot. I showed Ellis how I used to seperate my candy into like piles as a child. This was right up his alley but Alaire and Trevor didn't really share our appreciation for organization. Alaire just wanted to eat it all.

This is our crew from night #2.
Max the dog. Jack the pirate. Ashley the princess. Ali the snow princess. Ellis the pirate. Alaire the punky, rainbow brite, tutu, butterfly princess. Molly the cowgirl.

Luke 2:1-2

2010-10-23T14:18:00.000-07:00

Our family is working on memorizing Luke 2:1-20 by Christmas. So far verses 1 and 2 are committed to memory and we are having to slow Ellis down in order to keep him to our 2 verse a week goal. I love the sound of Alaire saying it!!

* Yes, I know Alaire has no shirt on. She had just finished lunch and spilled water down her shirt.

* Yes, I know they are saying "Syria" incorrectly but that is how the child on the cd that we listen to pronounces it. I'm guessing it will correct itself over time.

Alaire's 3rd Birthday

2010-10-17T13:54:00.000-07:00

I can't believe she is 3! She tells me that, "next day" she will be 5. I hope that takes a while!

Friday morning she woke up at 5 a.m. and started celebrating. I let her climb around all over me for about an hour in our bed and then we started the birthday extravaganza. After getting dressed we made our way downstairs for the opening of a few presents. She opened a new baby, a car seat, jeans and some new socks all from Mamaw and Papaw.

Then we loaded up the new baby, Saffi-Ernie, and went to pick a donut.

She chose a white iced one. They didn't have any pink. No worries though, she only ate the icing on top.

After dropping dad off at work Ellis, Alaire, and I went over to Bounce Town for some fun. Every time we asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday Ellis would tell her to go to the jumpy place. She repeats EVERYTHING he says so that was where we went.

They loved every minute of jumping and most of the time ran from one inflatable to the other hand in hand. They were just to fast for me to get a picture of that.

She of course chose Chick-fil-a for her birthday lunch. I didn't get any pictures inside but she did get to open another present from mommy and daddy in the parking lot. She loves carrying her baby in the backpack!

I was sure that we would be having more pink princess cupcakes for this celebration similar to what we had at Pappy and wammy's house but she said she wanted rainbow cupcakes. I don't know where she got this idea but I think what I came up with turned out pretty cute.

Ellis and Alaire both took forever long naps and then we started the dinner party. She had requested mac and cheese and spaghetti but I altered the menu a little and we had mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, green beans, and baked steak.

Every other year our kids get to have a friend party and this was Alaire's year. I asked a couple of times who she would like to invite and she always said, "Ashley, Andrea, and David." I'm sure next year when she sees Ellis invite his friends she will get the idea but for now this party was perfect.

Trevor and I about had a heart attack when she was blowing her candles out. If she would have had hair on her chin she would have singed it off!

Here she is with her two best buddies, Ashley and Ellis.

I love Ellis' sneaky looking face here.

After dinner she opened a few more presents from us and a big goody bag from the Suttons.

She finished off her day with a sleepover in Ellis' room where she got to sleep on the top bunk for the very first time!!

I think she loved every minute of her big day. I can't wait to see where year number 3 takes her!!

Anderson Farms Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-16T08:48:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to our favorite Pumpkin Patch with a group from church. There were barrel rides, a tractor ride to the pumpkin patch, big tricycles, and our new favorite hay bale jumping.

Lots of fun was had by all, and then a nice long nap was had by all!!

Let Me Translate That For You.

2010-10-11T14:29:00.001-07:00

Alaire has a funny little accent and we have no idea where she picked it up. She pronounces any word with "an" as "ain." The whole family enjoys it so much that we now have a favorite sentence that we repeat at random times to make someone laugh.

"I caint touch my paints. I have rainch on my hainds."

Translation: I can't touch my pants. I have ranch on my hands.

She also now calls all babies "sweetie pie," but the "pie" is very drawn out and has a nice twangy sound to it..... a lot like how wammy says it!

Cincy wedding week

2010-10-07T08:40:00.000-07:00

I hope it is true that pictures are better than words when it comes to blog posts because this one is full of pictures!!

Ellis and Alaire (and mom and dad too) were more than ready last week for a trip to wammy and Pappy's house!

They did great on the plane. Trevor sat with them and I got to take a short snooze on the way there. Pappy picked us up and we went straight to Penn Station to mark one place off of the list.

Thursday morning we met Emmy, Ericka and their kids at the zoo for some fun. we were a little late so we didn't get to see a ton of animals but we did get to ride the train and carousel and have a slice of LaRosa's for lunch.

They loved the petting zoo. Auntie Em supplied the quarters and we all go to feed the goats.

Alaire was in heaven with Saffy and Ernie there.

Pied Piper Pappy leading the children in song on the train.

Ellis loves the eagles at our zoo so when he saw that the Cincy zoo had an eagle on their carousel he raced to ride it as soon as the door opened.

As we were leaving we saw a zoo keeper walking around with a baby boa constrictor in his arms. Alaire told me, "its okay mom. I'll touch it and you don't look."

Thursday night we celebrated Alaire's birthday at Chick-fil-a with a VERY pink birthday cake. I was asking her how much she liked her party when I took this picture.

Friday night was the wedding rehearsal. I didn't get any pictures from the actual rehearsal because I was running around trying to keep the crazies from being to crazy. The dinner was at the Montgomery Inn Boathouse, one of my all time favorite restaurants in Cincinnati.

Tini and Bryce did a great job picking out gifts for E and A. Ellis loves is bazooca nerf gun and I'm sure it comes as no surprise that Alaire hasn't taken off her pink princess attire.

The day of the wedding was pretty cold. Our family pictures just happened to be during the windiest and rainiest part of the day. Alaire cried and cried when we took her coat off of her so we just rolled with it and got some better pictures at the church. Hopefully those that got pictures will send them to me because this is all I have.

Ellis was so proud of his sharp suit. They both tried so hard to smile nicely and here is what we got. :) That is uncle Michael behind him playing jokes on him.

This is also our only picture from the day..... again, if you have pictures send them to me!!

They did great walking down the aisle. I was a little worried. Alaire was asleep up until about 30 minutes before the service and Ellis was very concerned about the speed at which they should walk. when it was their turn I put Alaire down to grab Ellis' arm and she said she didn't want to do this. I gave Ellis her flowers and helped her grab his arm and then Ellis gave her flowers back to her. I gave them a little push and told them to go look for Daddy. Alaire pulled Ellis all the way down the aisle and I hear the Ellis melted to tears in Trevor's arms saying she went to fast. I just laughed because it was the perfect display of their personalities.

The reception was at the westin hotel across from fountain square. I couldn't believe how well they both did. They were up so late both nights and they normal schedule was out the window.

Sunday morning Peep came over and we took some silly face pictures with him.

Sunday night my friend Sarah from Asbury came to visit with her three boys, Josiah, Elliott, and Hutson. we missed Ben but it was lots of fun. Pappy took us bowling and paid the kid team a dollar each because they beat the adult team. They could not have done it without Elliott who had the best score of everyone!

That night we had a delicious dinner and celebrated E's birthday with batman cake and ice cream. The fun lasted for even longer when we put all 5 kids in the basement for bed.

Monday morning we hung out with Sarah and the boys and then made a special trip to the Gap Outlet with Sarah.

Monday night we met Oma and Opa half-way for dinner. After dinner Karen asked our waitress if there was a fun place in town for the kids to play. we ended up at a small town "Chuck E. Cheese" sort of place. we played glow in the dark golf and then let the kids play games and jump in the inflatable.

Tuesday morning we took the crew to Shaw Farms in Milford to play around at the pumpkin patch. we also learned that Doodles has pockets!

After the pumpkin patch we introduced Trevor to Skyline. I warned him not to get to excited. I think you kind of have to live in Cincy for a while to learn to appreciate it. He said I was right but he was glad he finally go to try it.

Tuesday night we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant and then to a dark field near the High School to do some paper lanterns that Auntie Em has been holding onto for us. They were so cool! They are like hot air balloons and lasted in the sky forever. I think we are going to have to get some more for our trip to the beach next year.

when we got home we celebrated wammy's birthday with cupcakes from Sugar and presented her with her gift..... the only goat she will ever get! His name is BillyBo.

Wednesday was the day to return home. we took a few pictures with Pappy and wammy and then headed out the door. Our trip home was pretty uneventful and now it is time to readjust to life at home where we don't have cake for breakfast, we don't have constant entertainment and help for mom and dad, and we can't drive to Penn Station for lunch. :(

Saturday Hike

2010-09-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a super fun family day at our house. A few days ago we decided that we would find a new hike in RMNP and spend the rest of the day in Estes. It was a gorgeous day and there were yellow spots all over the mountains where the trees were turning colors.

Halfway up the mountain we thought that the day was going to be spoiled because I had forgotten to grab our park pass. At first we were just going to do a hike that we had done before that you don't have to enter the park for but Trevor thought we should just give it a shot. Apparently, it was National Outdoor weekend and the park entrance was waived all weekend long. Score!

The hike's trail head was at a ranger station that we had never been to before. I had done research the night before and found that we there are very few hikes left that we haven't done that are rated, "easy" or "somewhat easy." I decided on one called Copeland Lake. As we pulled up we realized it was a bust.... I would go more with Copeland puddle. It has been so dry here that there was very little water and not really even a trail around it. I did a quick check of the map and we decided to drive in a little more and try Copeland Falls. I'm so glad we did, it was gorgeous and a really easy hike for Alaire.

The kids were so excited to eat their lunchables that they had picked out that we ate lunch at 10:40 at the top of the falls. It was the perfect spot to eat and watch the fly fisherman in the water below. After lunch we let them climb around on the rocks and touch the water but I don't have any pictures from that part because I was to busy have mini heart attacks.

The goons! I don't think I will have a decent picture of the two of them until they are 16 and 18!

I give Copeland Falls 5 stars. It is very likely that they scored high because of the fact that Alaire walked the entire time and I didn't have to carry anything but her baby doll but it was also beautiful, not much of a climb, had less traffic then the trails along Bear Lake rd.

After our lunch hike we drove into Estes Park to pick up the new patches for the kid's camelbacks. Alaire slept the whole way in so we decided to stay in town a little longer that we would have. I got another bag of pretzels (that I shared with Trevor) and the kids got a scoop of ice cream. Ellis, the shopper that he is wanted to, "walk the shops" so that is what we did, but by "shops" he meant Geppeto's toy store.

The boys napped on the way home and Alaire and I sang to Pandora. It was a great Saturday that reminded us why we love living here!

Very Random Updates

2010-09-21T13:00:00.000-07:00

Ellis helped me pick a few of our last veggies from the garden. Somehow we missed this zucchini.

The kids and I took a trip to the zoo yesterday. Ellis requested that we go backwards this time so that we could see the cheetahs first, in hopes that they would be active.

The cheetahs were sleeping but we did get to see lots of new babies.

Trevor was out of town over the weekend on a retreat so I was the sole entertainment. I had it all planned out that we would have a sleepover in my bed complete with ice cream and a movie..... we did but I ended up in Alaire's bed. Saturday morning we were supposed to go to a hot air balloon launch but the weather was terrible so it was canceled. A walk around the park was all that I could come up with and then Ellis suggested the rec. center.

After naps we went to church and then celebrated "Mommy weekend" with our town's miner's day celebration fireworks.

This is them waiting for the show to start.

Ellis and Trevor play sports and cars all of the time but my tolerance for that is somewhat limited. Ellis found a container of paper cups and was busy inventing with them when I showed him how to make a tower. He loved it and hasn't stopped since. The only wrench in the hole thing is that Alaire tends to like to "clean up" the towers.

It Clicked!

2010-09-16T19:36:00.000-07:00

In the beginning of the summer Ellis asked me a few times when he could learn how to read. After a few times of asking I thought maybe we should give it a try. I borrowed a book from the library, "The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Your Child to Read" and we went to it.

The first 26 lessons go letter by letter, learning the name of the letter and the sound that it makes. He already knew a lot of the letter sounds from a Leap Frog video that he loves. Lots of visitors came in and out of the house this summer so our lesson time wasn't always consistant but in the last 2 weeks we have worked at it for 10-15 minutes nearly every week day. Near the end of last week he was ready to start sounding out two and three letter words. He did the two letter words with ease but as soon as I added a letter he got really frustrated and wouldn't even try to sound it out.

I took a day break and then the next day we just did a fun review. I gave him a cookie sheet with flour in it and made a letter sound for him to write in his pan. He loved it and so I had him write words that I sounded out for him. Today I cut out letters from construction paper and we tried reading again. For some reason today was the day. It was so fun to watch his face when he knew that he had just read a word. He would read it and then start laughing with disbelief. As soon as he got it Alaire would say, "good job Ellis" as if she knew it all along. The funny thing was a few times as he was sounding them out she would hear the word before he did and she would say it herself.

**Don't look to closely but the little reader's mommy was reading upside down and placed the "a" in front of him upside down...... oops!

Miss Amanda's crayon books for Afghanistan

2010-09-15T13:04:00.000-07:00

One of our favorite friends, Miss Amanda, is going on her second trip to Afghanistan this year. This is an all women trip and while we sponsored her and her husband on their trip earlier this year we wanted to find a way for Ellis and Alaire to be involved this time. As soon as I started thinking of ways to help them be a part of it all I thought of one of my all time favorite blogs and how she involved her kids in her husbands trip to Haiti. They made crayon notebooks. You can read all about her idea here.

Our crayon books for the children Amanda will pass them out to are very similar to Ashley Ann's blog post. Ours were decorated with scrapbooking paper and modge podge. I also sewed the elastic loops directly to the notebook to save myself a little elastic. I just had to add a little scarp fabric to the back to make sure the thread held.

The kids both loved decorating their books. As soon as they woke up they were ready to decorate.

It was a great craft for them. They were able to do a lot of it on their own and we were able to talk about how we have so much and that some kids don't have special crayons that are all their own. I think they caught on to the fact that when Amanda gives the books to the kids in Afghanistan they will feel special and hopefully know they are loved.

Two finished products.

The back.

They were so excited to deliver the bags full of books to Miss Amanda. Ellis was so very proud of the work and time he put into them. Alaire even told Amanda how she put the crayons in all by herself. :)

****More new posts below so keep reading!

Recycled shirts....... recovered from broken camera

2010-09-15T12:58:00.001-07:00

Alaire has more stained ruined shirts than she has that are wearable. One day during nap time when there were plenty of things I should have been doing I instead attempted to make her a new shirt. I used the whit shirt that had grease stains down the front of it and the black shirt that showed to much of her belly. I think the finished product is super cute but she tells me that she isn't wearing it because she is scared of spiders......... we will just see about that!

***One more new post below.

Date Nights--- a late post from the broken camera

2010-09-15T12:42:00.000-07:00

Trevor and I are trying to be intentional about spending time one on one with both Ellis and Alaire. Our first "date night" was when the boys had tickets to the Steelers/Broncos game. I had no idea what to do with Alaire but she had her own ideas based off of her dates with Auntie Em.

She wanted to go to Target and get a baby and icee and then to Chick-fil-a for dinner. The only bummer was that it was Sunday so she said, "how about Sweet Tomatoes?" I was all for that since it is one of my favorites. So I think she had fun and she ended up with new markers instead of a new baby. Thank goodness, because we are running out of room in her bed for her!

I had Ellis model his Steelers outfit before the game so she requested a little modeling session too.

Trevor said Ellis had tons of fun. He was interested until about halftime and after that Trevor let him search through the Steelers website on his phone. He has now chosen a favorite player (the guy with long curly hair) and can tell you all about the Steelers mascot.

The Broncos won the game but Ellis didn't seem to mind. I'm not looking forward to the day that it actually affects his mood if his team loses.

Likes and Dislikes

2010-09-09T13:38:00.000-07:00

So...... the big, or I guess bummer news around here is that Alaire broke my camera. She LOVES to take pictures and I sometimes let her but only when she is right beside me. She had taken it off of the counter without asking and I was in the middle of something else and as soon as I returned Trevor was attempting to fix it.

I'm really not surprised, with the age they are now I don't really feel like we can have anything nice that stays that way for long. This was the longest a camera has lasted for me so I guess that is good. Now we are trying to decide if we get a new camera or do we get me an iphone that I use as both. My phone has been acting up lately too and I'm up for an upgrade. So, if you use your new iphone as your camera too let me know how you like it.

Since I have no pictures I thought it would be fun to do a LIKE/DISLIKE post for Ellis and Alaire.

Ellis likes......
riding his bike!
steak
Si Senors (mexian restraunt)
Cyberchase (tv show)
being outside
motorcycles and dirt bikes
toy swords
PayDay candy bars
green and red
Steelers
golf

Ellis dislikes......
Broncos
mac and cheese

Alaire likes...............
pink
Chick-fil-a
being a princess when I pick out her clothes
to look at books
to sing
to be tickled
baby dolls!

Alaire dislikes............
me helping her out of the car
having her hair combed
"ponies" (ponytails in her hair)
loud noises
sweets, she asks for them but never eats them

Oma and Opa's visit

2010-08-30T06:49:00.000-07:00

We finished out our summer of visitors with Oma and Opa last week. We had lots of fun and got to do a few things we have never done before.

The last night they were here we took them to Sweet Tomatoes (one of our favorite restaurants and then to play goofy golf and ride go karts. The golf course was made to look like an island that a plane had crashed into. The alligators gave Ellis a scare!

The go carts were a huge hit. Alaire rode with Oma and Ellis rode with Trevor. They thought it was so cool.

Alaire was so funny on the golf course. She took her ball right up to the hole and hit it in. Every time she would walk back to us and say she had gotten a hole in one.

We also took them to the dirt track. While we were there the sprinklers came on so after a few rides we made our way over to the park.

Alaire showed Oma her favorite thing at the dirt track...... the bleachers.

Doug's birthday was at the beginning of August so the brothers got him tickets to attend a Rockies game with Trevor while he was here. Ellis got to go too.

We got to go see GG and she treated us to some really yummy take and bake pizza. The place was called Nick and Willy's I think. I'm on the look out for one a little closer to our house.

This picture is the reason it has taken me so long to post this blog. It is from Karen's camera and we have had a terrible time trying to get some of the golf outing photos to my computer! So, just this one will have to do. I love it because it looks like he has great form with his new clubs from Oma and Opa but if you look closely you will see the ball is still there were he left it. :) I am told he still loved every minute of his first tee time with real clubs.

Who is there?

2010-08-26T14:36:00.000-07:00

Me: Alaire will you please pick up your shoes and take them upstairs.

Alaire: NO! I'm no doing it!

Me: Excuse me? Would you like to change what you just said!

Alaire: (While picking up her shoes and making her way to the stairs...) Oh Mom, that was just a knock knock joke!

Aunt Sarah!!

2010-08-22T13:56:00.000-07:00

Aunt Sarah came to visit for all of last week. We did lots of fun stuff with her and showed her lots of cool places for her first trip to CO.

We took her to the Broomfield Bay on her last day here. It was so sunny but we still had to take a few warm-up/snack breaks. Next time she comes we are going to have to give her some lessons on the tube slide because she did more than her fair share of back flips at the end!

We went to Estes park one day for a hike and Aunt Sarah treated us all to ice cream afterward.

Ellis and Alaire had ice cream all over them once it was all over.

This is Nymph Lake. It was so pretty and different from the other hikes we have done in RMNP. It was only .5 miles up and .5 back but the climb was 200+ft. and we had to take lots of breaks. Once we got to the top it was all worth it because we saw a momma Elk and her baby. We even got to watch the baby go for a little dip in the water.

Aunt Sarah got a much sunnier day in Estes than Wammy and Michael.

Ellis showed Sarah how to make the proper s'more and then he showed her how he pees on the fire to put it out. :)

It was a fun week and we can't wait to show her more next time!

Our own Lance Armstrong

2010-08-18T20:11:00.000-07:00

We are super proud of Trevor. He has been riding his bike to work for a couple of weeks. He rides about every other day and it is 30 mi. round trip. He bought an iphone app. to help him keep track of the rides and to find out which way is easier. The other day he was reading it to me and it estimated that he burned 700+ calories on the way there and 600+ on the way home! Either he is going to waste away to nothing or the $ we are saving on gas is going to be shifted over to the grocery side of things. Now I just need to figure out how I can get a 30 mi. bike ride into my schedule every other day!

Bye for a liitle while

2010-08-14T20:07:00.000-07:00

We had so so so so so much fun with Auntie Em while she was here. There were a few things I didn't blog about. We took her to the zoo, a few parks, the dirt track etc. We just had to much fun to stop and take pictures of everything.

When we said our goodbyes the kids stood on the top railing and screamed goodbye while she went through security. She called me later and said she heard Alaire the whole time. Ellis was crying, "I wish she didn't have to go." He got his wish because she called me about an hour later to come and get her for lunch. She gave her seat up for a $400 voucher to come visit us another 2 times!! Fun surprise!!! We got right back in the car, picked her up and headed to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch. Now we can't wait until her next trip!!

Camping in Estes

2010-08-12T11:31:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend that Auntie Em was here we took the kids for their first camping adventure. We tent camped in a spot just out side of Rocky Mountain National Park. We picked Trevor up from work on our way up the mountain, had dinner in the park, set up our tent, played goofy golf, made smores, "slept", back into the park for a hike, then hit downtown Estes for lunch and my dark chocolate covered pretzels. The pictures are completely out of order and I don't have the patience to fix them so I'll give a brief explanation at each one.

This first one is from our "hike" around Sprauge Lake. It was a really easy (wheelchair accessible) trail around a gorgeous lake. The kids threw rocks in the water and climbed every big boulder they could find. They even got to take their new camelbacks that Auntie Em bought for them. On our way out of town we stopped in a store that had little patches for every named trail in RMNP. We got one for each trail that they have done and I have sewn them on their camelbacks. They can't wait for Aunt Sarah and Oma and Opa to come so we can go up again and hike for another patch.

This is the campsite right next to ours. Emmy and I had taken the kids to the bathroom in the morning and we were heading up the hill for a walk around camp to give Trevor some extra sleep when Ellis said, "Auntie Em, look down there!!" We had been on the lookout for any wild animals because Emmy said she wanted to see something she had never seen before. Ellis delivered on this one. We walked back down the hill and saw a herd of 15-20 Elk checking out camp. They were attempting to get the food inside the tent and kept licking the outside.

We see Elk nearly every time we are in RMNP but this was as close as I have ever gotten. That is actually our tent in this picture and Trevor was inside of it sleeping! I kept think, "Oh Trevor please just keep on sleeping."

This was Ellis favorite part of the trip. He and Auntie Em hiked up a little ahead of us and climbed the back side of this huge boulder. He called it their hideout and kept asking her to find more.

One of the views along the hike. That peak is actually part of the Continental Divide (according to the sign Emmy and I read.) We made our dad proud!!

Our bedtime snack. I grabbed the wrong bag of marshmallows on the way out the door so they were very sticky and stale but no one seemed to mind.

Goofy golf was funny to say the lease. I think Alaire scored a 6 on every hole but every time she got her ball in she came running to say she got a hole in one!

Setting up the tent would have been a good episode on a reality show! Ellis and Alaire were running around with excitement and Trevor, Em, and I couldn't get it done fast enough.

We did a great job setting up the actual tent it was just the rain flap that gave us a little trouble.

These two were quite the pair! Emmy was rigging the ties while Trevor pounded the stakes in with rocks. Had we known we should have picked up all of the rocks before we put the tent down we could have put the kids to work!

In the morning when we awoke I said, "well the kids slept like rocks and I slept on rocks!

Ellis' first two holes were both hole in ones. If only Pappy had been there he would be rich! On family vacations growing up my dad always paid us and our cousins a dollar for every hole in one we got.

We made dinner before we went up the mountain and then drove straight into the park to find a picnic table.

We had a great spot right by a stream. The kids stuck their feet in the water and tried to talk us into it too.

This was probably my favorite day while Auntie Em was here.

Casa Bonita

2010-08-11T15:14:00.000-07:00

While Auntie Em was here I posted a status on FB asking for suggestions on fun things to do while she was here. I got a few people who said we should go to Casa Bonita and with Trevor's memories of his childhood visits we thought we should give it a go.

The day we went I researched a little on the internet and began to second guess our decision. I started third guessing it when we sat through downtown traffic for what seemed like hours and I was fourth guessing it when I walked in to check out the wait and it smelled like the cleaner they use in port-a-potties.

We gave it a shot though and I'm so glad we did. I don't really plan on going back in the near future but it was a fun one time trip! This place is unbelievable you really can't imagine it. It is just something you have to experience it yourself. They have a mariachi band, pirates, magicians, puppet shows, a 14 ft. deep pool in the middle of the restaurant that divers jump into, flame throwing divers and more! One of the reviews said it is like Taco Bell meets Chuck E Cheese. That is a pretty good description plus more!
We had a great table right in front of the main stage with great views of the diver. The kids didn't eat a thing!

It was really fun. The food was terrible. Auntie Em spoiled them and they had a blast!!

Riding to the Rec.

2010-08-11T14:50:00.000-07:00

Wednesday morning I had a meeting at church so the kids decided to introduce Auntie Em to two of their favorite activities, riding their bikes and swimming. They got all loaded up and rode to the Rec. Center. They even tricked Auntie Em into jumping off of the diving board by telling her that I always do........ um negative!

Auntie Em!

2010-08-03T06:59:00.001-07:00

We were counting down the days till Auntie Em came and the day has finally arrived!

We have been busy these last few days of having her here.

Yesterday we went to a water park that we have never been to before. We all had so much fun and there were so really good naps to be had in the afternoon.

We have done some general playing and goofing around too.

Ellis showed her his sunflowers. They are growing taller than he is!

We sat around the fire pit and made smores. We also took her to the dirt track but forgot to get pictures. :(

We have a few more fun things planned so stay tuned!!

Trevor's Birthday

2010-08-03T06:47:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Trevor's birthday last Thursday. The kids were very excited to find presents for him. Ellis was very persistent about wanting to buying a $1 magic trick that he had seen at Michael's. He knows his Daddy! :) He also got some new bike shorts, swim trunks and is still researching bike tires.

This years dinner request was the same as Christmas dinner. Steak with whiskey cream sauce, mashed potatoes, onion straws, portabello mushrooms and Ally Pally cake. I haven't been able to get the cake to turn out looking right since we lived in Charlottesville but it still tastes the same so we are happy.

When we woke up on Friday, his actual birthday, and enjoyed the traditional birthday breakfast of cinnamon rolls. We also added another fun tradition of the silly straw. I think it was a very happy birthday. I think that picture is hilarious!

'10 Asbury Girls Reunion

2010-07-29T05:57:00.001-07:00

I just got back from a reunion with my girlfriends from college. We used to get together every year but life gets in the way and we hadn't done it for three years. So much has happened for each of us in those three years and the time together was priceless. Sarah Hope said it best in her FB satus the next day... "Amazing what even a moment's worth of transparency and genuine fellowship can do for you."

We went to Beth's house again this year in MD. She lives on the Chesapeake Bay so we enjoyed their boat in the evenings. In the years since we were at Beth's last they have put in a pool too. She is a fantastic hostess and we enjoyed lots of yummy food and then sat by the pool and talked the rest of the time.

We missed Amber and Sunya this year and I'm really hoping the next time we can all be together!

Catch Up

2010-07-29T05:49:00.000-07:00

We have been crazy busy around here and just haven't had the time to sit and blog. Our time with Jen and T.D. was fantastic. We just wish it could have lasted longer! We got up on Sunday morning and drove back home. We actually passed home and went up to Loveland to see GG, Aunt Nancy, and Uncle Rick. We ate dinner together at a Chinese restaurant where Kat used to work.

Since Pagosa we have had the last FUNtastic Family Night at church. I did all of the planning for these and they were incredibly time consuming. The kids had a blast at them I just did get any good pictures because I was so busy making it happen.

Riding the River

2010-07-19T11:01:00.000-07:00

**WARNING: Mamaw there is no need to worry. We are all fine and no one drowned. These pictures make the river look much more rough than it actually was!

Our second day in Pagosa was super fun! We rented some inner tubes from a shop downtown, they shuttled us up river and we rode the "rapids" down. The kids (and the adults) had so much fun. There were only a few spots where we couldn't touch and then a few places where those of us that were a little heavier had to stand and take our tubes to a little deeper water. I wish I had had a waterproof camera to take pictures as we traveled but instead I jumped out and got shots of everyone riding the last and largest ripple.

That is Henry.

T.D.

Mayzee. She was still a little upset that she lost her Croc in the river. Not to worry though it was found.

I love this picture of Jen.

We only rented two tubes because we weren't sure if the kids would be able to do it themselves. Ellis definitely could have done it himself and Trevor was such a good partner for him. He would leave Ellis up river and then Trevor would wade down and have us let go of Ellis so he could ride down to dad himself. He loved it!

We rode the whole way once and then carried our tubes back up river a ways to come down the really fun section again. For the last trip Alaire and I ran and got the camera and gave our tube to Ellis so he could ride himself. He loved it so Trevor decided to let him do the last rapid on his own. He went down and then got stuck in the wave and it kept pushing him back into the rapid to where he couldn't get out. I was sure he was terrified but he was actually having a blast. A teenage boy pushed him out and he floated down to Trevor who was rescuing Henry at the time.

Alaire had lots of fun too and was worn out by the end of it. Her only request was that she not have to sit in the tube herself so that my bum would get wet rather than hers.

Pagosa Springs with Cousins

2010-07-17T07:36:00.000-07:00

We are in Pagosa Springs with Trevor's brother T.D. and his family. We are having fun playing with cousins and staying up late. Yesterday we played in the river and went on lots of bike rides and for a hike to Treasure Falls.

We went on this same hike two years ago when we were here and we have a picture of us posed in this same spot.

The brothers.

When we were coming down the hike I was carrying Alaire and T.D. was behind us. She kept looking at him thinking about something and then she finally looked right at him and said, "but my dad doesn't have hair." I think she was seeing a lot of similarities but that one difference was really sticking out to her. :)

The whole crew. Jen, Henry, T.D., Mayzee, Trevor, Ellis, Cassie, Alaire.

They are having so much fun playing together. Trevor keeps saying it is reminding him of when he was little and how much he looked forward to getting together with his cousins. I guess I was pretty luck to be able to see mine every day.

Stay tuned..... day 2 has begun and a few of us already have our swimwear on!

Alberta Falls

2010-07-14T06:51:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun in Estes last Saturday. On Friday night we were trying to come up with an idea of what to do tomorrow and Trevor suggested a hike in the National Park.

We woke up early and packed a lunch and then hit the road. The Parks website calls the hike easy so we figured the kids could do most if not all of it. They were running the trail for the first few minutes. Alaire kept asking us to take a picture of her on every rock she saw and there were a LOT of rocks.

The hike was only about a mile long but there were places where it was a pretty good grade up. The falls were at the end but unfortunately I didn't get a picture. We snacked on Life cereal at the top and then made our way back down. Alaire was carried almost the entire way down. She was exhausted!

They both managed to stay awake for the ride back into Estes at the promise of ice cream. Ellis chose bubble gum and Alaire..... no surprise, pink! Trevor also talked to the manager of our favorite candy store there. They stopped making dark chocolate covered pretzels (my FAVORITE!) so they came up with a plan where we call in the morning before we come up the mountain and she will have a bag ready for me when we get there. That would make this mom a much happier camper while in Estes Park!