One Week at a Time

We had a busy week last week with Greg out of town. It was my first week to have them on my own and work full time since we left Texas. It worked out ok, but I was tired by Friday. We had a good and relaxing weekend to recover. We went on a short hike on Saturday and I took the boys to the movie to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs on Sunday while Greg stayed home and watched football. I also got my house clean, for the most part, and put fall decorations out. Above,the boys like to help me with laundry.

The boys have really enjoyed looking at the blog in notebook form that Linda made for my birthday. They like to look at "Baby Luke" and "Baby Ryan" and ask a million questions on what is going on. Luke's favorite part is finding the pictures of the cakes and cookies that I've made and Ryan likes to look at himself.

Ryan carrying Davis back inside after he got outside.


2 Videos: The first one is the boys singing one of their favorite songs to sing with Greg, White and Nerdy. Greg is a geeky Weird Al fan, and this is one of his songs - Ryan especially loves to sing it and Luke likes to strike a gansta pose. Second video is of the boys looking at the blog notebook. Ryan has to ask what is going on in every picture.




Lastly, a picture for Luke - Ernie riding Davis.


Happy Birthday to my sister. Ryan sang her the sweetest version of Happy Birthday tonight, but I failed to record it.

A Great Day

I had a great birthday weekend with my boys. The four of us went out to breakfast Saturday morning - which is one of my favorite things to do (I love breakfast although I rarely eat it). After that we headed to a corn maze at the nearby botanical garden. It was really hard and we had to cheat our way through towards the end. It took a little over an hour and the boys were getting tired and wanted to be carried-so we had to do what was necessary to survive. They had a lot of fun, but it was a little long. While the boys were napping I went shopping and got a new purse and super cute PJs for the boys (see below). That night Greg took me to dinner while Uncle Jonny and Aunt Jenny babysat. This morning we went on a bike ride along the river. Overall it was a perfect weekend. Greg and the boys got me tickets to the TCU v. Air Force game and tickets to see U2 in Las Vegas (plus they all 3 made me a cake). My parents got me a new winter coat and my mother in law printed out my entire blog so I will have it always. Thank you so much to everyone.

At the corn maze.


Greg's helpers.

New PJs. They love them. I had gone shopping to search for Superman PJs with a cape attached, but I found these instead. In case you're not up on your Disney Pixar characters - Luke is Buzz Lightyear and Ryan is Woody from Toy Story (one of their favorite movies).

As I was heading upstairs today I glanced in the playroom and found them like this.

Lastly, 2 videos: one of the boys at the corn maze and the other of Luke icing my birthday cake.

Opening Day Football 2009

My least favorite time of year has begun - football season, specifically Denver Bronco football season. I think Greg has low expectations this year for a good season, but that won't stop him from taking each loss personally. However, I do like taking the annual opening day picture of Greg and his boys. I even convinced Greg to go to Target on Saturday night to get the boys new Bronco shirts because they had outgrown their old ones.

Pictures from the previous years:





Unrelated picture - the boys helping me make cookies tonight.

Back to School

The boys started their first day of school on Tuesday. Not only was it their first day, it was at a totally new school. They did great. Greg and I both took them and they marched right in and said bye to the both of us happily - no tears or hesitation. It has been a long week for them, they aren't used to being at school every day, so by the end of the week they were tired and grumpy. I think they are going to like it just fine and their school director is very impressed by the both of them. We're spending this weekend staying close to home and not doing too much. They are taking a nap right now and have both been asleep for at least 2 hours - they need it.


They do such a great job humoring me for pictures - this is the 2nd annual first day of school picture, many more to come.

Walking into their new school.

First day of school last year. At that time, I rarely could get them together for a picture - they are alot more cooperative now.

I start teaching on Monday. I'll have one class of World Civilizations (World History minus Europe) and one class of Geography. Greg and I brought my teaching stuff up from the basement today. When I stopped teaching, I was on maternity leave and my mom and I spent as little time as possible tearing down my classroom and throwing everything into boxes. I'm glad I didn't throw anything out, but I also hadn't thought I would teach again. However, while I was going through the boxes today, I was getting more excited about getting back in the classroom and teaching. I love being a counselor, but I also really liked teaching - hopefully this will give me the best of both worlds and not turn out to be more than I can handle. I tend to thrive on pressure and stress, so I think I'll be fine - I'll let you know in a few weeks.

Active Weekend and New School

We have spent our Labor Day weekend doing fun family stuff with the boys. On Saturday, we took them to a nearby farm in Longmont where they could do all sort of neat outdoorsy things. They got to feed the goats, ride a pony, play in a treehouse, swing on tire swings, have a picnic with chickens swarming around us, and wade in a little pond. They had a really good time and it was a great activity because it was shaping up to be a whiny day.
Today we rode the train downtown and went to the Taste of Colorado. The boys are always up for a train ride and they even got to ride a bus. They had a great time and behaved themselves. I think I visited more porta-potties today with them than I have in my whole life combined - but they did great with that, as well. They even got to go through a giant inflatable obstacle course, which was their highlight of the day. They were so worn out they took a nice long nap when we got home. Tomorrow we're hoping to hit the pool for the last time this summer.


Picnic with chickens and roosters.

Ryan on a pony - he loved it and was willing to get right on, which surprised us.

Ryan was fascinated with this old tractor.

Luke feeding a goat, he told us, "he is so cute."

Luke on the treehouse bridge.

The boys in the wading pond. They both fell in and I was glad to have brought an extra change of clothes along with us.

I was hoping for a cute picture of the boys with the capitol in the background. But Luke let go of his balloon (he wouldn't let us tie it around his wrist) and Ryan wanted to watch it go up.

Ryan eating fried alligator - he liked it.

Ryan's first picture of a car.

This is what happens when the boys don't take a nap at their grandparents house. They fell asleep shortly after we left and we decided to leave the doors open and let them sleep when we got home - I think they stayed in there for about an hour.

I'll be working full time starting on Tuesday, so Greg and I spent part of Wednesday and Thursday last week visiting daycares/preschools. The one on Wednesday was ok and I think the boys would have been fine there, it was a daycare with a preschool during part of the day - but it really felt more like a daycare. We really liked their school last year and I was hoping to find something more like that (but with hours that will fit my schedule). On Thursday we went to a Montessori school. I knew a little about Montessori and its philosophy based on education classes in college, so I've been intrigued with that idea. We both really liked it. It is different - Montessori schools are really calm and student-directed. It also "teaches" more at the student's ability/interest level. Classes are multi-aged, which I think will be good for both boys. There is a lot of play, but it is play through work (doing fun tasks that the individual student is interested in). They'll start on Tuesday and I'm hoping that we will all really like it.

Below a video of Luke reading to Ryan. He isn't actually reading the book, he has it memorized. Both boys like Luke reading it to Ryan, rather than one of us reading it to him.

Changes are Coming

The boys are now home with us. They had a great week with Nana and Grandad and seeing their cousins in Lubbock, TX - but they are glad to be home. I was able to take them to the Bounce House yesterday and it was the first time I've been able to sit and read a book while they played. However, these things are about to change. I'm most likely going to start working full time in the next couple of weeks. The school has had an unexpected increased enrollment (5 teachers were cut at the end of last school year), so classes are going to be added to prevent having classes of 35. I will be teaching part time (2 classes) and counseling the rest of the time. It is not ideal, but I need to work full time, and this is my opportunity to do so. This has all come up very quickly, so I've been scrambling to find a new preschool for the boys. Greg and I will visit a couple in the next few days. I have enjoyed being able to stay home some of the time with the boys the last year and a half, but I'm ready to work full time again, and they will only benefit from a 5 day a week preschool. The good thing is that I don't work late -so I'll only be at school from 7 to 3, which still gives me time to spend with the boys.

Ryan is going to be Harry Potter for Halloween and Luke is going to be Harry's best friend Ron. I've been planning these costumes since before they were born. Mom made their robes while she was here and I made their scarves. I found glasses for Ryan (which are too big-I need to work on that) so now all I need is a Gryfinndor patch and tie and a dress shirt to go with their gray corduroy pants and black shoes. And of course, I still need to find the perfect wands and red hair dye for Luke. Ryan was so excited to try on his glasses. I introduced the first movie to them this summer, so they know who the characters and they're pretty excited about it (they like to say Harry Totter and Ron with a W).



Lastly, 2 videos: The first is of the boys marching with the flutes that we got them in Santa Fe. The second is a clip of the video I took of Greg and I talking to Ryan on Skype. Luke never stops talking when he is home, but Ryan took over talking to us on Skype. It was nice to be able to have conversations with him - it was like his own little forum to communicate.