Great Family Weekend

We had a great weekend with the boys. On Saturday, we took them to a state park east of Castle Rock that has a paved trail. R and L had a great time running off the path and picking up every rock and pine cone that they could find. L in particular loved to throw any size rock or pebble

into any size puddle he could find. Greg and I of course ended up carrying them around for most of the trail. They've gotten really bad at asking to be held all of the time (especially L). They say, "hold Mama" or "hold Daddy" over and over again. L will even run in front of us and try to grab a hold of the front of our leg to make us pick him up in order to move on. After our "hike" we went to lunch where L ate an entire chicken quesadilla by himself. I think that he could sit at the table all day long and eat if we would let him. I have to declare him done half the time in order to move on with the day and to get him to stop eating. From lunch, we all went to a bicycle store and I got my birthday present, a new bike. The boys had a blast running around the store and riding the kids' bikes around. Thank you Greg for a wonderful birthday gift. My parents (thank you so much) have gotten me a bike trailer so the boys can ride around with me. I can't wait to get that in and try it out. Greg can't either, he thinks it will be a really funny picture.















This is homecoming week at the high school where I work. Last night was the chili cook-off and bonfire. The four of us went and the boys had a great time watching all of the crazy high school kids and the bonfire (especially when one kid threw a firecracker into the fire). The boys didn't eat chili, but they enjoyed the quesadilla and the guacamole that we had picked up for them to eat beforehand.















New things going on:



R has "pee-peed in the potty." I got them a little portable potty to start introducing them to potty training. I know that they aren't really ready yet, but you have to start somewhere. Right now, they are sitting on their potty while I run their bath water. And 2 nights ago, R went. I think I startled him when I started cheering him loudly. L loves to sit on the potty, but nothing is happening yet.


R is continuing improve on recognizing his letters and saying the ABCs. He really seems to know almost all of them. He does confuse some of them, such a V for Y, but he is doing really good. He can say his ABCs when he sings them with us or L, but when it is just him, he almost says "A, O, A,O" over and over again.


L loves to ride on Greg's shoulders. He surprised us the other day by saying to Greg "on my shoulders," meaning he wanted to get on Greg's shoulder (Greg has asked him in the past if he wanted "on my shoulders").


One of our most favorite things about R is how genuinely happy he is to see us. He loves to say "hi Mama" and "hi Daddy" over and over again. It is so heart warming to come home and have him so excited to see me. L tends to look up, and sometimes says hi, but he doesn't really care unless it benefits him.

I let the boys play in the sandbox today and L had the best time dumping half the sand on R's head. I had the hardest time getting enough of it out to even let them come in for a bath. The bathtub is was full of sand afterwards.

I leave you with a video of L singing the ABCs at dinner and R singing his favorite part of it, "XYZ, yeah!"

First Day of School! First Day of School

For those of you who know Finding Nemo, this is the opening line (after Nemo's Mama dies, but the boys don't watch that part). So, the boys went to Parents Day Out on Thursday for the first time. They did great going in, they love their backpacks (thank you Grandad and Nana for their birthday present) and their lunch boxes. They marched right into their classroom and started playing with the cars and only cried a little bit when I left. But at about 12:30 I got a call from their teacher telling me that they were sick. My boys never get sick, but they did their first day of school. Turns out that they had some sort of stomach bug and ended up with numerous dirty diapers. I left work and picked them up. They were excited to see me and didn't seem too out of sorts (except that L's little bottom was quite sore). I don't really know what happened, but they got over it within a couple of days. Today was round 2 of school and they made it all day. They even took a nap, which I wasn't sure about since they tend to only sleep in the confined areas of their crib or pack and play. But apparently R went straight to his cot and fell asleep. L ran for the door and cried no, but soon calmed down and fell asleep, as well. That is a huge relief. R and L need naps, it is required for their sanity and ours. They become miserable little souls when their routine is messed up to the point that they don't sleep. It must have been the super cute new blankets that Nana made for them for school! Their 2 teachers were sweet enough to offer to keep my camera and take pictures of them during the day.

So football season has started. I hate football. I really hate the combination of football and Greg, but it is unavoidable every year. I think that I must repress my memories of each season because I forget how awful it is until it starts all over again. I am currently listening to Greg scream his lungs out downstairs and hoping that his insane screaming doesn't wake the boys up. However, I know it is important to him, so the boys are dressed up in their Bronco shirts on football days and wear lots of orange and blue. I also took the 3rd annual Opening Day Football picture with Greg and his boys again today. I'm adding the last two years' photos as a reference to show how much the boys have grown. Note - Greg is going to hate that I bashed football and his behavior while he watches it in my own personal blog; however, this is my blog and he can get his own if he has a problem with it :)

I took this last picture tonight before the boys went to bed. It is cold here today (53 degrees, but it is supposed to be in the upper 70s tomorrow-crazy), so the boys are wearing their footy pjs. They also insisted on wearing their hats to bed.

Happy Baby Shower!

My brother and his wife were in town this past weekend to visit friends and to have a baby-shower. Kent and Tara were living here until June before they moved to LA. They will be there a year and then off to Singapore. Tara just found out she is having a baby boy, and she is now set for life in the clothes department. The boys had a great time at the shower. The restaurant was open only for the shower, so they had a wonderful time running all over the place. I made the cake, which you can see below. Tara likes overalls on little boys, so that is the cake. I just started decorating a few months ago so I could start doing the boys' birthday cakes, it is so much fun. This was definitely my biggest cake. It is a double layer 18X26 inch cake, and I think I used about 3 pounds of butter for the frosting.

We took the boys to a nearby nature center/trail this past weekend to let them run around. They found a good spot by the river to throw rocks and watch their Daddy skip rocks across the water. R immediately sat right down and tried to scoot his way into the water. His little butt was so covered in sand and water that I had to strip him before we got back in the car.

The boys start their first day of school tomorrow!!! I'll be sure to take lots of pictures. I let them try on their backpacks today - they are so cute walking around with them as well as with their lunch boxes.

I leave you with a picture of R and his "Big Bird." He totally made this all by himself. He took his legos, put this together and came out of the playroom and told me it was big bird (it is what is on the table, not what he is holding). He is such a doll. He is often a whiny doll, but sweet all the same. He had a great time crawling in bed with Kent and Tara this weekend and laying down with them (he doesn't do that with us - he jumps on our bed and fights with his brother).

One Down, One to Go

R is paci free!!! We started at the end of June cutting little holes in the end of their pacis in hopes that they would lose interest. At the time, R was becoming really attached to his paci and was demanding it at times other than nap and bedtime. When I started making the holes bigger and bigger every night, he would get angrier and angrier that something wasn't right with his paci. But all of a sudden, a couple of weeks ago, he threw them all under his bed and has not asked for it since. We thought L would be the first to give his paci up, but he is still attached to one (Green Paci - he calls it), the rest he no longer touches. I'm hesitant to cut another hole in his last remaining paci, because he still wakes up in the middle of the night and his paci helps him to go back to sleep. Right now sleep is much more important to us than one last green paci.

This past weekend, the 4 of us went to the balloon festival not too far from our house. It was a last minute thing. I had mentioned it to Greg the night before but when I said that it started at 6:45 am, he said no thanks. R woke up at 6:15 the next morning and I decided that I would take the boys, and Greg said he would join us. We didn't actually go in the festival because there was a long line of cars to turn into the parking lot, so we parked on a near by street with a few hundred other people and watched from the side of the road. R really liked it, he kept saying "ba-oons." Afterwards, we went to breakfast at a really neat little place in Littleton and the boys had Fruity Pebble Pancakes with whipped cream. They ate the whole thing.

Below are pictures from the balloon festival. R's favorite was the pink Energizer Bunny.

I read an article in the newspaper about people waiting to put their kids in kindergarten until they're 6 (R and L have summer birthdays, so I'm already thinking about that - as an educator and seeing really immature young middle school boys, I'm leaning toward waiting until they are 6). The article said it is more of an intellectual discussion than in practice, most parents put their kids in kindergarten at 5. They interviewed a kindergarten teacher who said that all she really expects from her students at the beginning of the year is recognize at least 10 letters, count to 10 and know a few colors (plus be able to get their own lunch in the cafeteria). Based on that criteria, L is ready to go. He knows (truly knows) all of his letters - he loves to spell out words, he can count to 30 and he knows all of his colors. R isn't quite there yet, but he is close. My dad said that the teacher probably said that so parents of kids who can only do these minimum things won't feel bad :) At any rate, I'm excited for the boys to start "school" next week. I think it will really be good for them to do learning centers and to hang out with other kids again.

R and L's new favorite books are the "I Spy" board books. R is really quick about pointing all of the objects out and L has the whole book memorized so he can read it to himself in his bed.

I've been trying to get the boys to start singing songs (I haven't really worked on that). L knows the ABC song (although he tends to skip L-N), but that has been about it. So we've been singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. R loves it. He says "Tinkle, Tinkle" and he doesn't sing the whole thing but he chimes in with the last word of each refrain(?), like star, are, high, sky and so forth.

Ileave you with 2 more of L's cars that he has drawn this week, they are getting better and better and now I finally have one that we can keep and put on the refrigerator.

One more thing, I want to thank Greg for being so kind and sweet by getting me some Blue Bell ice cream at a little candy shop in Denver last week. One of the things I miss most about Texas is Blue Bell. The ice cream here is awful, I've tried all the brands (including the national ones) and they all fall well short of Blue Bell. There is one place in Denver that sells Blue Bell by the scoop and Greg brought me home Mint Chocolate Chip and Cookies and Cream (my all time favorite). Thank you!!!

Our House

I've gotten really bad at keeping this blog updated. My excuse is a really slow/old computer and not enough time/or not wanting to use the time I have uploading pictures. I will try to do better.

I am now working again. I started the beginning of August off and on, but school started Tuesday. I'm working part-time, so I was off today, but I'll go back in tomorrow and Friday morning. As much as I enjoyed my time home with the boys, I am glad to be back at work. I've really missed my job and seeing students. Everyone I'm working with seems really great and I think I've been blessed with working at a really good school. Greg stayed home all day with the boys on Tuesday and he was supposed to keep them tomorrow and Friday, as well (Parents Day Out starts after Labor Day). But apparently he can't hack it and he called his mom Tuesday night to ask her if he could bring them over to her house on Thursday. Ha! He will say it is because he also has to work, but I say, whatever, he can't handle them all day.

My parents came last week and what was supposed to be a little project of painting the boys' playroom, turned into an all week project. My poor dad took off work for the 1st time in 2 years to spend time with his grandsons, and he spent the week painting. I think he enjoyed it overall. I promise no projects over Thanksgiving (at least for now). So I've finally taken some pictures of the house, but only those areas that are done. We still have more to do, but we are now alot closer to being totally moved in.

New things:

Both boys love to whisper at the dinner table. They also like to scream, but the whispering is a nice break. They like to whisper as softly as possible, "Hi Mama" "Hi Daddy" and then see if we whisper their names back. This has become an endlessly fun game for them every night.

We gave the boys a sandbox for their 1st birthday, but finally put sand in it last week. They love it. However, they can take the lid off on their own, so they have to be constantly watched if I don't want them in there all the time (because it requires a hose off in the backyard and then a bath). The top picture is of them sneaking in their sandbox yesterday, they were filthy. I stripped them of their clothes and hosed them down when it was time to come inside. They hate the water hose. It was funny to see 2 crying naked boys run up the hill to get away from the hose.

Below are the 2 pictures of the boys I had to take for their Parents Day Our registration packet, I thought they turned out cute.

I leave you with another of L's artistic creations. It is a car. For real, he drew it himself and said it was a car. I wish I could get him to draw like this on paper with crayons, but he loves his magna-doodle.

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Fun Vacation Week with Cousins, and 1st Dentist Visit

We had a wonderful week with my sister and her two kids, Jacob and Olivia. R and L had so much fun playing with their cousins, and they amazingly all got along the whole week. We were busy the whole time and I think all 4 kids had a blast. We went to the pool (with Tim and Stephanie who were also here that day...thank you so much guys for helping out with the kids at the pool and at dinner), 2 crazy restaurants (the White Fence Farm and Casa Bonita), the Children's Museum, the zoo, Tiny Town (because it has a train), Rocky Mountain National Park, the Bounce House, and lots of fun at home. Our only bad time was the mistake Conny and I made of taking the kids to the Melting Pot for dinner. R and L were absolutely awful, they acted like they were on speed. The main problem is that it is a restaurant that is too slow for 2 year old boys. It is a place that is meant for a leisurely relaxing dinner, which we can't do with them. But the experience was memorable and funny, but one that will not be repeated until they are at least 10. Below are several pictures from week.

Feeding the cow at the White Fence Farm.

One of the many attempts to get a picture of Olivia and Jacob.

The 3 boys looking down from a tree house.

A family picture.

Daddy and his boys riding the train at Tiny Town.

Conny and Jacob on the train.

Sweet Olivia, riding in the caboose of the train.

L, sitting on the porch of one of the buildings in Tiny Town.

R and L at Tiny Town.

Waiting to ride the carousel at the zoo. R was crying at the time because it was going and he was not on it, he does the same thing with trains.

All four kids at the Children's Museum.

Jacob and L and being pushed down the hill in our backyard.

Other news:

The boys are doing great and are learning new things and cracking us up more and more every day.

When I take the boys to the grocery store, they get a free cookie. As a result, when we're in the car and drive to or past the grocery store, L starts to get really excited and says, "Cookie please." If we drive past it, he starts to say, "Cookie, no." If I do pull into the parking lot, L gets so excited and starts to act like Cookie Monster.

R is talking more, but his favorite word is "no." One of his favorite past times is to chase the cats around the house. He just wants to pet them (whereas, L wants to hit them), but they take off when he comes running and screaming "Davo, Fuffy, Boot" which are the cat's nicknames (Davis, Jackson and Daisy).

Both boys have a great time every day playing with sidewalk chalk. But they do not like if if their chalk breaks and will no longer use it. R insists on "more chalk" and will fall to pieces if he doesn't get a brand new piece. L is more careful with his chalk and he can usually make one new piece last the day. He put his chalk down the other day for a minute and R got a hold of it and dropped it. It was so sad to see L's little face panic as he saw his chalk break in half, and he brought it to me sawing "broke, green chalk." Of course, he got a new piece of green chalk. As a result of the chalk issue, we have a plethora of broken pieces of chalk all over the yard, much of which is eaten by the dogs.

We took the boys to the dentist this week. There was no need to go, but they are on our Dental Insurance, so we went. We didn't learn anything new, but there was a big fishtank there with a real Nemo's Daddy and Dory, which the boys loved.

I leave you with a video of R, L, Jacob and Olivia playing skee ball at Casa Bonita, and below that a picture of all 4 kids walking around Bear Lake in the mountains.