La La La La Life goes on.

This Tuesday Aaron and Evie and I met some friends at a nearby theater which does kids movies for only $1.25 on Tuesdays. We was the new Winnie the Pooh movie. It was cute - Aaron loved it. Evie thought it was rather loud, but as she got used to it she really enjoyed it also.

Thursday morning, I had a doctors appointment. I am about 18 weeks along, the baby is healthy and doing well - now I am just waiting on a call from the ultrasound people to set up an appointment to find out the gender. So hopefully in a week or two, we will know. :)

Thursday was also the girls school party at Skate City. They wanted daddy to take them, so the picture is just from his cell phone, but they had a blast. Apparently the only time Eileen would go near him was when he was offering food. They came home exhausted but have been talking about it ever since.



Saturday we went out and looked at houses. We aren't really sure if we want to buy and move right now, but we figured we would look around. We had a couple houses in the area that were in the price range we wanted that we had a realtor take us to. Neither one would suit us, but it was kinda fun to look and think about a house of our own again.

Normal?

Well I think life is finally settling into some sort of normal. I am back to being healthy, the two older kids are in school and adjusting to new schedules and new habits. Life is beginning to get back to a routine.

Mornings around here are pretty quiet. The two older ones get off with Daddy nice and early, then Evie and Aaron enjoy the morning with mommy's attention - having books read to them and playing with toys.

I finally saw a doctor who put me on antibiotics and I'm finally starting to feel like myself again. I can breathe, talk and sing again, so I'm good :)

This was a week full of birthdays. Monday was my Dad's birthday. I called him and we had a nice chat. He has since been enjoying his birthday present - a Nintendo 3DS - his favorite part is the ability to take 3D pictures....

On Friday, one of my friends had a birthday party for her son who was turning 8. There was yummy food, lots of friends and a magician. The kids just LOVED the magician and are still talking about it 2 days later. They just watched in rapt attention and laughed and giggled and oohed and ahhed the whole time.

Saturday we went down to celebrate my Uncle's 60th birthday. We got to eat roast pig, and have fun playing with cousins, including water fights, and cake and ice cream. I had a really nice time chatting with Aunt Joan and other family members there.


Evie is talking a lot now. Dan took the kids for a walk and any time Evie got ahead of him - she would keep turning around and saying "come on!!" After our preschool group on Tuesday, one of my friends took one of her kids out to the car, while the other kept playing in the back yard. When Evie heard him out there, she yelled "BIGGG" (his name is Brigg) then ran to the back door and front door yelling "BIGG BIGGG BIGGG BIGGGG" afraid that his mommy was going to leave with out him. She is so cute and helpful and thoughtful. She is also adventurous and explorative....

Anna has been loving school. Her teacher gives out gold coins for good behavior and she loves to talk about how many gold coins she has and how the naughty boys have black coins. She makes sure to tell me every day how she has been good. :)

Eileen is adjusting, but still misses her Park Lane friends. I have been meaning to invite her friend over, but figured I should wait until I was healthy! Didn't want to bring a little girl with asthma over to a house where I was congested and coughing....

Dan has decided that he needs a hobby. So he has decided to learn how to make balloon animals.

Eileen has been listening to a CD from her piano teacher with a bunch of classical music from Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, and Bach. She loves the ballet type music and loves to dance around the room to Swan Lake. Evie likes to copy her by spinning in circles on her toes with her arms in the air. This was the best pic I could get of them dancing.

First Day of School Part 2

Anna is now officially a Kindergartener. She has been very excited about starting school all week, so off she went with anticipation this morning. This afternoon, after school, she said it was boring.... but she seemed rather excited about it either way :) And here she is all dolled up and ready for her first day of school!

Cough cough, sniff sniff....

Well - we managed to come back from Idaho with a few colds... Anna was coughing, but I think that was the dryness more than anything else. I thought Colorado was dry... Utah and Idaho are much worse. It was actually a relief to get back to CO. We have also had a cool summer here, so it was nice to get back to that too. Dan had Tuesday off, so we spent that day un-packing, and doing laundry and settling back in. Wednesday and Thursday I moped around the house while the kids went stir crazy and got into everything. Dan took Friday off to let me try and get some rest and try and shake the cold that has been hanging on for more than a week now. I finally gave up and made an appointment with the doctor... I just hope he can do something about this... I can't take another week of this!! Evie and Aaron have had some runny and stuff noses, but theirs seem to be clearing up, while mine just seems determined to hang around and make itself comfy.

Saturday morning we got to pick up the fruit we ordered from Bithell Farms. We ordered fruit from them 2 years ago and made lots of yummy home made jam with it, but we have run out and so Becky came up last night to help us make jam. We did a few batches last night and a few more tonight. Hopefully we will be able to finish it off tomorrow. I've been eating the foam we scrape off the top on everything I can find, there is just nothing quite like homemade jam on homemade bread... mmmmmmm. The best part is - that this year we ordered purees - which comes already ready (and de-seeded) to make into jam - so most of the hard part is already done! :)

Back to School - Part 1

Well Eileen started school this week. She started at the Quest Academy - and she is missing her old friends - but slowly making new friends. Anna won't start until next Monday, but she did get to go in and meet her teacher and see her class room this week. So here is my beautiful girl, all dolled up for her first day of school - Mommy was sick in bed still, but got up long enough to take a picture, and give lots of hugs and reassurances. Then Dan drove her to school. Good luck big girl first grader!! We LOVE you!

Back Home

Last Monday we left the wonderful hospitality of Paul and Candace for Idaho and Grandma and Grandpa Jones' house. We arrived in the afternoon - tired and ready to be out of the car, but happy to be with Grandpa and Grandma. Eileen quickly ran for the back yard to check out Grandpa and Grandma's new play house and swing set - in testament to the spotless house that Grandma keeps - she ran promptly into the transparent back door. Haha - she's never seen glass so clean! Thankfully that didn't dampen her excitement.

We got the girls hair cut - Eileen and Anna have been asking for shorter hair for awhile now - and so Grandma called a lady in her ward and let up a time for them to get their hair cut. I told them that they could have it cut however they wanted - they both look adorable!

The kids had a blast running around with cousins, playing with Grandma and Grandpa, going swimming and running around outside. Mommy and Grandma had fun sewing, and choosing out the fabric for Evie's quilt.
On Thursday more cousins started to arrive. Steve and Claire showed up and Eileen loved having an older girl cousin to play with - she and Elise got along wonderfully.

On Friday, the rest of the gang arrived - Paul and Candace, John and Melissa and Dave and Stephanie all showed up with their kids in tow and best of all - Dan got in from Florida. We all got together for a wonderful hamburger dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house. The kids all had fun running amok and playing together and even doing a bit of eating. It's amazing that SO many kids and people can get together and still have so few traumatic situations. I was excited to meet Stephanie finally - she's awesome - she fits right in with this crazy bunch!


Saturday we headed up to the cabin - but it wasn't "ready" for us - so we spent the morning and afternoon down playing in the river. The water was FREEZING for those of us spoiled by Texas water and weather - but it was a beautiful spot. The kids all had tons of fun - Eileen and Anna (and some of the other younger kids) were a bit scared by the current. Evie with lack of nap time and too much play, got a bit cranky at the end. Finally we were able to head over and settle in. We had a yummy dinner, played some games, put the kids to bed, played more games and crashed hard for the night.
Sunday we went to church near by and doubled the size of their nursery and primary. Then came back for an afternoon of crafts, and games and relaxing. The kids (and some adults) got their faces painted by some of the older girls - LOL - some of the paint really didn't want to come off though.... We had a family home evening together that night and had fun singing and learning together.

Monday morning, we loaded up the car with kids and stuff and hit the road for the long trip ahead. The car trip was uneventful and late that night we arrived back in Colorado and quickly went to bed.