It's so great when I come home from scouts to find the kids all ready for bed and even being read to!
One of Trace's favorite things to do! And below, one of his newest... I think he'll be walking before we know it!
Sadie and I were playing with play doh the other day and she made (as seen below in blue) a Kaven snake, an Emery snake, a Dallas snake, a Grandma snake, a Trace snake, and a mommy snake. It made me laugh :)
We have been to the park a few times lately, even though there is still snow on the ground, the weather hasn't been too bad and we have needed to GET OUT of the house!!!
1 out of about 20: Update blog more frequently! Luckily we got a new camera from my parents for Christmas because our old camera has been on the fritz and I have not been able to get pictures from it. I finally got them onto a cd, and now even several weeks after Christmas, they are below for your viewing. What a busy time it has been. I went home with the kids on the 13th of December and spent over a week with my family while Brett was still here in Colorado studying for finals (which went well and he passed). It was fun to spend time with my family. My mom had to work during the day, so we did a lot of late night shopping since the stores were all open later, and it was really fun. Sadie also got to visit Santa for the first time at my parents ward Chrismtas party and she did so great. She wasn't shy at all because she saw him giving candy canes to all the kids which eliminated the need for any coaxing from me. On the 22nd, my dad drove me and the kids to Delta to meet Brett. We had Christmas with his family and it was so fun. Sadie was of course much more into it this year and Trace was just enthralled with all the excitement and wanted to check everything out. The day after Christmas, we went back up to my family's and opened presents with them. We also went to see Avatar which was pretty good, I just didn't like wearing the 3D glasses, but the movie was cool. My parents also took us to the Bohemian Grill again (like last year) and it was SOOO good. And we played on the Wii that my brother got and I must say that I'm hooked, and quite good at bowling I might add (tennis not so much...) :) For New Years, we drove our stuffed car back to Delta and spent the night playing games with Tim, Dallas, and Brady and had a bonfire. It was really fun but went by too quick. We came "home" on the 3rd. We left at 9:30 AM, stopped in Grand Junction for lunch, and got home at 6:30. We should've gotten home sooner but we hit traffic and snow in Vail and it put us back an hour, but the kids did very well and we were SO glad to get home, out of the car, unpacked, and back in our own beds. We relaxed for the next week and then Brett went back to school Monday. Phew! Well now that I have a new camera, I need to take advantage of it and do better with taking pictures and blogging. We'll see...!
It is COLD here! It has been well below zero the last several nights. Today it was finally in the 20's. Well, I have been really busy the last several weeks and haven't had a chance to update our blog. Plus, our computer got a virus and we had to wipe our hard drive. It's been crazy around here. We've been sick on and off since Halloween. Brett is still getting over a cold. I've done two craft fairs that went well and that was fun but I'm glad they are over for a while. Thanksgiving was nice. We had Thanksgiving dinner with the Knudsen's and the Duncans here at our place and it was delicious. Then I was able to fly out to Salt Lake the next day with Trace to attend my friend Candice's wedding. It was so cool to be able to go and to get to see my family for a bit. However, it was interesting traveling with a baby. Maybe if Trace didn't weigh 22 pounds, it would've been a bit easier. Well now we are just busy getting ready for Christmas. I am trying to get organized so that I can leave on Sunday. I will be going home for Christmas ahead of Brett by a little over a week because he has finals that he will be studying for so we are going to get out of the way so he can focus and we won't feel neglected :) I'm so excited to see my family but I will miss Brett. He will be driving out to Delta on the 21st when his tests are over. I'm not too thrilled that he will be driving alone, but at the same time I'm jealous that he doesn't have to be stuck in the car with the kids for 9 hours! Hopefully we'll get to see some of our friends around the holidays too. I'm so excited for Christmas! Well here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks....
It all started last Tuesday. Tuesday night it started to snow. It did not stop snowing until Thursday night. Because we only have a little car we were pretty much stuck at home, but it's not like we could go anywhere anyway because along with the snow came sickness. Sadie got it first. Poor thing sounds like death. I should've known something was up when she put herself down for a nap Tuesday afternoon.... Then I got sick too. Somehow Brett has escaped it so far but it was a good thing because he had two lessons to teach Sunday and a huge test that he took this morning. Anyway, we had lots of things planned for Halloween weekend, but only got to do one thing. We went to the ward Halloween trunk or treat Friday night because we all seemed a little better. It's a good thing we at least went to that because it's the only trick-or-treating Sadie got to do this year. Saturday morning, we felt worse and even Trace had been coughing all night. So these are the only pictures I have of them in their costumes. I'm so sad because Sadie was finally more into it this year and it was Trace's first Halloween. Sadie sounded so cute saying "Tick or Teat!" Hopefully they aren't sick for Christmas! But the good news is that I took them to the doctor today and they were tested for all types of the flu and strep and were negative for all of them. So it's just a virus they have to get over. Better luck next year!
I don't think we really experienced autumn here. Today it was snowing yet again most of the day. Seems like we have jumped straight into winter. The leaves changed colors, then the next time I looked, they were gone. Oh well, it's supposed to be clear and sunny on Halloween so I'll stop complaining! :) This is our pumpkin Brett carved yesterday. We went over to John and Tammy's to carve pumpkins and they turned out great! Brett had a three day weekend and we took advantage of it and celebrated that his monster test (Thursday) was behind him. Don't worry, he has another one in a week! But he has next Friday off too so that's a plus! On Friday, we all drove out to Idaho Springs together for a little road trip. It is an old mining town with lots of old shops and we had lunch and fresh root beer at Tommyknockers. It was fun but the traffic coming back was at a dead stop. But not to worry, John serenaded us to keep our spirits up.
Well here are some random pictures. I have been absolutely terrible about taking pictures lately, and when I do, they are not of anything very specific. This is Sadie talking on the phone. She was talking to Grandpa that time, according to her :) I love how her legs are crossed, silly girl. She has been doing pretty well lately. I forgot to mention last time that she can count to ten (since about 2 months ago), name most animals and tell what sound they make, identify colors, and recognize some letters. It is so fun to me how much she is learning and how cute it is! I must admit I have to give a lot of the credit to Elmo. She watches Sesame Street everyday.... OR ELSE!
Trace is being a pill. I am tired. Very tired. Tired of getting up with him in the middle of the night and waiting an hour or two or three for him to go back to sleep. First, he was sick, throwing up and exploding poop out of his diaper. Now he is teething and he is downright MAD! Oh the joy. Otherwise, he is adorable and SITTING UP! Right after I declared that he wasn't even close in the last post, he started doing it.
Alright, now it's time to check out everybody else's blogs before the internet disappears again!
You'll want to turn off the music for this one and turn the volume up. It's so dark because we don't have a light in our living room, just the lamp, and so it's very dim in this room, but the point of the video is what you can hear!
Okay, so just so you all know, we have internet issues and so sometimes it is hard for me to update our blog regularly because it takes a while and when I can get online, I don't have tons of time. So now that I'm connected, I'll hurry and spit out the latest news.
First, it's getting cold here. It's in the 60's which isn't bad, but cold enough for long sleeve shirts and pants. I am so excited for fall and all the holidays coming up. I'm probably going to whip up some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies before the weekend is over! School is going well for Brett. He has had a lot of days off lately because they get all the jewish holidays off in addition to everything else. Yesterday, Brett went up to Denver at 5 in the morning for MEPS, which is the physical for the military. He was gone until 2:30! They took x-rays of his shoulder ( he had surgery on it several years ago) and the whole bit, but he said everything went well and he passed all the tests. He also made weight just fine which was so exciting because he has been dieting and running himself half to death the last couple of months to get ready. He has lost at least 25 pounds. Thank goodness it has all paid off, poor guy. All he wants now is to just eat a donut or something with FLAVOR!!!
The kids are great. No sicknesses this season yet. Sadie has plenty of attitude as usual but is talking like crazy and still doing great in her toddler bed. Actually she has moved into the closet. Her closet is really big and so I put her bed in there so that I can move Trace into the crib in their room and he won't wake her up as easy. I know it sounds crazy, but really, if you saw her closet... :) Trace is saying "ba ba ba" and teething. However, he is not even close to sitting up. And Sadie has absolutely no desire to be potty trained. I guess my kids just like to take their sweet time with things! Well I guess that's it for now. Hope all of you who are reading this are well and not getting that nasty flu!
Well, I'll start off with some good news: We finally got our loan!!! Since it has come, I have been able to relax, now that I know we will be able to pay our bills, etc. And we had enough of the loan budgeted to get Brett a new laptop for school. Our Gateway laptop is old and slow and after the virus it got a few months ago, it is time to have something fresh and uncluttered for Brett to use exclusively for his studies. So, now that I have a computer at home, I'm hoping to update our blog once a week, at least, and also be able to check in on how everyone else is doing. I've been horrible at looking at blogs and commenting lately. Sorry!
So what's new around here? First, Sadie has graduated from the crib and is now sleeping in a toddler bed. I have to say that I am so impressed that she has adapted to it so well. I thought she wouldn't want to stay in it, get out all the time, or FALL out! But she hasn't and she loves it. It's fun to have her wander into our room in the morning when she wakes up all by herself.
Trace started rolling over a few weeks ago (FINALLY!) and now it's all he wants to do. I just love when my kids experience their firsts. It is so much fun to see him haul his 20 pound self onto his tummy! He isn't very close to sitting up yet, but he is sure anxious to do that too. Sometimes when he is on his back, he tries to do a sit-up, so I'll have to get out the boppy and bumbo to help him get used to the position. He has also started rice cereal....yuck! He doesn't like it much but he smiles at me anyway and thinks it's funny when I put it in his mouth. Little goof.
I think I've mentioned our indecisive weather here a few times. This is a picture of the hail from about 2 weeks ago. It may not look like much, but it's about as big as I've ever seen and some of the vehicles around here have hail damage from bits like this one...
There are dealership commercials on TV all the time announcing their "Hail Damage Sales Events".
This is the view from our patio door during a good rain storm last week. So here is the little river beginning to form....
Two minutes later....
Another two minutes later....
Another two minutes and our patio would have been flooded! I was getting a little nervous and started wishing we were on the second floor! After I took this picture, it started to hail and it looked like their were patches of snow around the apartment complex and on the roof for a couple of hours.
Well I can't believe it is September already but I am so excited for the fall. I've been looking for Halloween costumes for the kids already and can't wait!!! I guess that is getting a little ahead of things! It's hard to believe Brett has been is school for 5 weeks already. He got 105% on his first anatomy test last week and 100% on a couple of quizzes since then. He is doing so well and really enjoying school. Last week, he came home and told me about some wrist manipulations he learned. Some of you may have heard me complain about my right wrist bothering me for the last couple months. I couldn't put any weight on it and it really hurt. I don't know what I did to it. Well, Brett practiced something he learned on me and fixed my wrist! It feels 100% better and I'm so happy. I was beginning to wonder if I should go to the doctor to get it checked out, but my student doctor fixed it for me! It's so fun to see the things Brett is learning. He had his first shadowing assignment last Sunday at the ER in Colorado Springs and really enjoyed it. And I guess we weren't busy enough already, because we both have new callings. Brett is the sunday school teacher for the 15 year olds and I am the assistant to the Bear leader is Scouts. We are both a little nervous but excited because we are loving our new ward. Well, I can't think of much else to yap about. Sadie and Trace are both asleep so maybe I'll catch up on some reading!
