March - April Post

We've had a crazy couple of months.  To sum it up: We had G-mas Chloe's b-day, a couple trips to CO destinations, made a trip to WA to close on G-ma's house, started playing LOTS of baseball, had lots of snow (& decided to go to a Rockies game in it), thought Dexter broke his ankle, kid's had spring break and conferences, had Auntie & family visit from CA, were worried about Willow in ICU, went to CA for a wedding, had ear infections, eye infections & awful colds, and as of Monday last Monday I started a new job (still at Starz but new position).  Due to the amount of pictures I've taken throughout all this, I'm going to break it out into a couple posts, and maybe, just maybe I will get the May post out by June.  

Jim/Kellan's baseball team is having a great first season as a new team (only three return players for the more competitive league).  They're one game out from finishing the regular season...UN-DEFEATED, baby (12 & 0)!  Kellan is pitching awesome.  He's had many shut out innings (can't say games because they don't pitch a full game).  He's got my vote for M.V.P (2 homers, lots of hits).  Zoe starts up this week.  Dexter & I play baseball almost the entire time Kellan's games are going on.  I'm being pretty biased here, but all three of them are pretty damn good.  

Zoe had her school conference first, and here comes some more bragging.  She's now at the top in math & reading at almost a third grade level (I don't really know what that means, but it sounds pretty impressive), along with grades her teacher couldn't stop talking about how sweet, nice, helpful she is.  I said, "Are you talking about the child sitting next to me?" and her teacher looked at me really odd and said "Your husband said the same thing in the fall."  I'm still happy most people believe the Zoe in public is the Zoe in private.  We love her just the same.  As I always state, and as we always feel, we worry about Kellan.  This conference we heard that he was average in some things (which we are always over joyed for), but we got a bit OVER average in math, reading, etc.!  Very proud parents (I have nothing to do with it, I still can't help them with their homework, it's all Jim, his genes, and the Ashely (G-ma Chloe) genes).  

G-ma Chloe on Zoe's bike.  

The boy has style

This scared the &^% out of me one night.  It is a tree in the back yard covered in snow. 

At Red Rocks for G-ma Chloe's birthday.  Jim and I have been for concerts, but the kids & G-ma had never been. 

Zoe made G-ma a Happy Birthday hat.  We made her favorite chocolate milk shakes.

From Christmas picture

I am going to miss this place, a lot...Lakewood, WA

Gma, Monty & Willow

This little girl was so sick for so long & we are so happy she is out of ICU after a few long weeks.  We hope, pray, wish, hope, pray, wish she keeps getting better & better.   

Tim & Debi found two boxes of trophies in the attic.  Papa Frankie had individually wrapped them all.   I have no recollection of ever winning this, but am pretty impressed with myself.   And there were more, many more. 

Trying on their outfits for Cousin Erin and Vivian's wedding

Me attempting to use Papa Frankie's camera, I need photography lessons.  At Roxborough National Park

Dexter was a trooper.  It was a 2 plus mile hike (granted this doesn't look like a hike, but there was some terrain & hills) & D walked til almost the very end.  We're hoping we'll do more treks since he did so well.  That was before we knew Kellan's baseball was on Saturdays & Sundays. 

We had more snow in March, April AND May then all winter. 

During one of Kellan's baseball games there was very, very strong winds.  So strong, D was running and the wind knocked him over.  He sprained his ankle really bad, fell asleep on me at the game, came home and slept.  Jim took him to the ER, no break (from what they could tell, but in the growth plate and we were referred to an ortho).  He ended up wearing a walking boot for a week. 

He got some GOOD drugs from the ER.  The kid was hilarious.

Spring Rockies game at Coors Field.  Didn't we say we'd never buy tickets in April/May?

It felt a lot colder than 36 with the wind.

Note the snow and appx. 100 person attendance.

We realized when we got there, Zoe didn't wear socks.

Kellan may have stayed the entire game.  We lasted 1.5 innings.

Pre-Rockies game.

Happy 40th Birthday Uncle Mike!

Dear Uncle Mike,

We hope 40 is your best year yet.  We wish we could celebrate your birthday with you.  

Top 10 things we love about our Uncle Mike

1. He throws us up in the air
2. He has a dog
3. He lives in Washington DC (not because it's far away, but because it's a cool place, not that we have ever been there and would know)
4. He farts a lot (you knew that one was coming)
5. He's strong
6. He's nice
7. He cares about people
8. He's a friend to all
9. He married Aunt Jessie
10. and...he has a really cool sister

Click here for Happy Birthday Video

(I had high hopes for this blog: pictures of Uncle Mike over the years, funny quotes, fond memories, but I didn't quite it all together, maybe it will be like the X-mas blog and it will be a 40.5 year birthday post)

X-mas post in March

It's that time of the year when I am lucky I am so far behind on posts, since not a whole lot has been going on.  I'll save the annual commentary on the time of the year, as I feel if I read back on posts it will be more of the same.  We are all stir crazy.  The weather has been really mild this winter, up until the last week when it's snowed enough to finally be really cold and allowed the kids to go sledding.  Today it was more like "mudding" since there was still snow on the ground, but it was about 65 so the snow was melting as fast as they were all sledding. 

Dexter's hit a couple milestones.  He's potty trained!   Another one of those bittersweet moments for me - don't get me wrong I'm not going to miss changing diapers, but it's one more thing that makes my baby that much older.  He's older than three and a half now, the same age Kellan was one when we moved to Colorado and the same age Zoe was when he was born.  How different they all seem at the same age.  Dexter started "Play School" twice a week (it's not really called that, but D likes to hear the word "school" in the title).  We thought it would be a good introduction to socializing with kid's his age.  His relationship with Kellan, Zoe and all their friends and neighbors is a little mature and...violent (at times).  Go figure his days at Play School have been tackling the coaches (instructors).  The coaches kind of encourage it.  Jim took one of them aside this week and basically told him we are trying to discourage him tackling people since he will be starting pre-school at the end of the summer and we'd rather him not tackle Ms Peg his first day.  

Jim's been checking out the Brady Bunch from the library.  The kids LOVE it.  We're two discs into season 3.  I don't know what I'm going to do when we are done watching it; I'm going to have to milk the last two seasons until Spring.  It's the only thing which distracts them all long enough to stop fighting.  

Kellan and Jim were supposed to start baseball practices last week.  I guess there was some mis-communication about practices.  They were supposed to practice indoors, turns out there's a fee and wait list involved with it...with the snow they missed their first week of practices.  Unfortunately, this week isn't looking much different.  Jim's shoulder is worse than it was pre-surgery.  Two cortisone shots later we are hoping for improvement...or a second opinion.

G-ma Chloe spent a week in D.C. with Mike and Jessie.  She was down for the count most of the trip.  She hasn't stopped hacking since she's been back (that was in Jan.).  Dexter 's been the same.  We took him to the doc and turns out he has bronchitis.  We made G-ma go with that in mind, and turns out she has the same.  Hopefully that's the end of the hacking for awhile.  G-ma's house is going through escrow, a few bumps along the way, but it's due to close at the end of March/early April.  We're planning a trip to finish cleaning it out at the end of the month.  Another bittersweet moment...

Oh, and I tried hard for everyone to give me his/her New Year's Resolution, just one...they were all very obnoxious and not worth giving any time to.  I have many of course.  One was to have a "Happy Hour" a few times a week.  I know, coming from me most people think that's probably me going to happy hour a few times a week.  Instead I had this great idea; during dinner for thirty minutes (figured I wouldn't start with an hour), I would turn on music, cook dinner (ok that never really panned out either, microwave dinner) and have the kid's participate in happy conversations, we would all just be happy.  I tried.  I tried on multiple occasions.  We never made it past the ten minute mark on any night.  Next year my New Year's Resolution is going to be "Accept/Embrace the Fighting".  Honestly, I may be setting myself up for failure with that one too.  

The kids got everything they wanted plus more for Christmas.  If I asked them today what they got they probably couldn't name more than a couple of things.  

Christmas Eve at Tom and Jan's

Zoe's letter to Santa.  Note: Zoe didn't request anything, it was purely a Thank You letter.

Kellan's letter to Santa.  Note: Kellan had a couple last minute requests...

A brief moment Zoe thought she didn't get something she wanted

A surprise "Barbie" house.  

Dexter can't even see the top floor.  We've since moved it out of the dining room and upstairs to the loft. 

Meeting Cousin Camila

Valentine's Day

I walked in the door from work one day to total silence and thought something very bad had happened.  I guess it depends on how you look at it, maybe something really bad has happened?  There wasn't even a Hello for their old mom, though there also wasn't any fighting...maybe not so bad?

Last Kid's Quote:

Dexter, observing (for a long time) the skeleton Halloween decorations in the house:

"Mommy, the skeleton has no penis, why does the skeleton have no penis?"