Hello from Sunny Colorado!

Well - we made it - we are officially here in Colorado and in our house... not exactly settled, but here! We are still surrounded by boxes.... :) Dan and I's bedroom is still carpet-less (should be in by Tuesday... hopefully...) So we have been unable to un-pack our bedroom stuff and unable to pack the stuff that will go in the room that our bed is in for now.We took a trip to the zoo with Grandma and Grandpa Cox before we left - the kids had tons of fun feeding the birds, petting the animals and hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa. We rode the Carousel - which the girls love - but Aaron did NOT! I ended up needing to stand with my arms around him until it stopped. Aaron loved petting the goats and anything else he could touch!
So Saturday morning the kids and I packed up into the van and took off for Colorado. The drive took a bit longer than anticipated - since I kept missing turn offs - for some reason - they aren't marked very well.... So after a long but mostly uneventful drive - we arrived safely and began our life as Coloradans (or whatever...)


One of our first things to do was get Eileen registered for school - since it had long since started here. So Wednesday, Eileen started her first day of school! Here she is all dolled up in her pink pants and pink backpack and purple (because i couldn't find pink) lunchbox. She has already made friends in school, but I think she is in a bit of a rowdy class which she doesn't like.
So our week has mostly been full of un-packing and trying to get settled in (as much as possible) my greatest accomplishment has been to make our kitchen functioning - enough that we got bread made this weekend.
We have also gotten to see a lot of Great Grandpa - he has been a bit help in entertaining the kids and letting me get stuff done - and we also went over to visit him yesterday and went swimming in his pool. The kids had a great time - but were shivering and freezing any time they got out of the pool!
We have loved the difference in the weather. Everyone here is complaining that it is too hot and miserable - our family thinks it's perfect... LOL - after coming from 104 degree weather and 80-90% humidity, this feels almost like fall weather!! LOL

We are having a bit of a hard time adjusting to the dryness - lots of little (and not so little) discomforts - we hope we adjust soon - Aaron and Evie are both a bit sick and Aaron is coughing a lot - we finally went out and got him a humidifier - but it only helps at night. We are having to make a conscious effort to drink more water and we are using lots of lotion and chapstick. :)

So that has been the last two weeks for us.

Our Texas ward turned out in force to help us off - we had tons of ladies to help pack and clean on Thursday and Friday and tons of men to help us load the truck on Friday night. Plus a bunch of my friends took me out to dinner Friday night. We are going to miss that ward - but we are looking forward to new friends to be made.

Until next week!

The Insanity

Our life has been thrown into absolute insanity. Dan was offered a job working for his cousin in Colorado. After much prayer and thought we have accepted the offer and will be trying to get ourselves moved in the next couple of weeks. Between the start of the school year and the need for Dan to be out there for meetings, we are going to try and bust our backsides and get all our stuff packed up and moved by a week from Friday. I'm not totally sure how (or even if) we will pull this off - but either way - the next two weeks will be total insanity!!!

On a different note - Eileen has lost another tooth and now has a sizeable gap in the front of her grin.

Today I went in to start packing up clothes I won't need between now and then (sweaters in 100 degree weather?? NO!) and in the process started sorting out some of those clothes that I have that I have resigned myself in to never being able to wear again.... Eileen saw the pile and asked if she could play dress up in them - i said she could and the kids spent the rest of the day dressing up and playing in mommy's old clothes. (and of course - posing for pictures) Aaron loved dressing up - but wouldn't hold still for pictures :

Welcome Home!!

First thing I hear from Eileen "Mommy - we're loaded up with SUGAR!!" LOL - my kids had a wonderful week getting spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa! When I got home and tried to hold Evie - she just gave me the "what do you want with me" look and went to Grandpa. LOL
Dan and I finished our last day in Vancouver with a 6 mile bike ride around the peninsula - the weather and scenery were just GORGEOUS!!! - I miss oceans and trees.... :) Our area has neither. The whole ride was like this - beautiful trees and rocks on one side and the ocean on the other. And then a movie - the flight home was uneventful (lol - which is a good thing!)
After coming home we enjoyed a nice day with Grandma and Grandpa Jones - the only downside was our AC breaking down in the middle of the hottest week of the summer... thankfully it was in the evening and once the sun went down it was tolerable (well for me... Dan's parents - not so much.) Today we went down and spent the afternoon at my parents house to escape the heat - fortunately for us after an night and morning of resting it was easily fixed....It's amazing how much kids can grow in a week - we come back and Evie is walking everywhere (never crawls any more) and Aaron decided to start potty training himself.... He still wears a diaper - we haven't really pushed the issue yet, but any time his sisters use the potty - he wants to also - and he pees and poops in it. He's got that all figured out - and he loves to wipe himself - but can't quite figure out how to wipe the poop - the only problem is that if anyone goes in to try and help them - he waves his hand at them and says "no no - way way!!" (away) and shoos us out. LOL! What a funny boy!
Some pictures of the kids :)

Evie in Eileen's fort in the living room. :) She thought it was fun to sneak in there and out the other side...

Our indoor picnic (since it was too hot to eat outside!)
Playing in the new little pool that Grandma and Grandpa Jones got them.

Oh Canada!

Well - here I am posting from beautiful Vancouver, Brittish Columbia! Dan and I have been here for 5 days now and we have been enjoying ourselves immensly! The scenery is gorgeous and while the work is tiring - the time together has been great. The kids are all having a marvelous time with Grandma and Grandpa Jones (LOL - I'm not sure they want mommy and daddy to come back!) Hopefully they are taking pictures that I can share with you later.. speaking of which maybe I should do that too...

Dan and I got to celebrate our 8th anniversary here yesterday (in the same city that we took our honeymoom) and we spend the afternoon walking around enjoying the scenery and then we enjoyed a nice dinner at a restraunt right on the harbor. After we walked all over the penninsula on our way to Theater Under the Stars. We saw Joseph and the Amazing Techni-color Dreamcoat. The show was great and we had a lot of fun - even running into two senior missionary couples who were at the show because the lead character is in one of the wards they serve in.

Heehee - ok hopefully I will be back later with pictures!