Three Months Later...

Well, so much for writing once a week! August saw the beginning of school again, then September came and went and October is almost gone--whew! Chris had another birthday and Aiden is 6 now. The time is really flying by! My sister Toni (middle) came for a visit and this was a picture of me with her and Eliza (left) and I at my niece's birthday party. We are only missing you Amy!

This coming Sunday is our Primary Program in church and I have been busy helping to get that ready. This past week was also parent-teacher conferences for Caylee and Aiden. Both conferences went well and I was surprised and happy to hear that they were both very good at reading and writing and behaving themselves in class. You just never know how they will act when they aren't around you, but their teachers were both happy to have them in their respective classrooms. I don't think there is anything more satisfying as a mom with grade-school aged kids :)

Chris has been busy with work and other home projects. He finished up a work project recently that had him driving to Fort Collins every day for about 6 weeks. He is glad to be done with that as he was mostly babysitting. FUN TIMES--oh yeah sounds like my full-time job--HA HA HA.

We are doing well and the kids are anxiously awaiting Halloween. Okay, I am to. It's fun to watch the kids having fun. Chris' parents will be in town this weekend for the Primary Program so we should have some fun. I want to go to the pumpkin patch and to a corn maze. I think we might even catch a movie. I'll be sure to post pictures if there are any. Until next time...have a good one everyone!

July--MIA

Hello all,

We've been SO busy lately, so I will sum up July in one post. So get some popcorn, and a drink....only kidding.

We spent the first weekend in July on a family camp out with the Snell side. It was a lot of fun, although we got sick of the constant bug spray/sunscreen/dirt combination :)

We ate smores, camped, watched fireworks, took a scenic mountain train ride, walked through Old Town Leadville, ate good food, went fishing, went for walks, and slept as much as we could.

Shortly after our trip, my sister Amy and her family came into town for two weeks. We went to the Butterfly Pavilion, Water World, swimming, hung out, had a couple of family dinners, and just let the kids visit with their cousins. It is amazing to see how much all of the kids have grown.

At the end of their stay, my Aunt Holly and cousin Katie came to visit as she prepared to leave for San Diego. It was so much fun and great to see some family members that we don't get to see very often.

After that, our schedule kind of became a whirlwind. Chris ended up getting a lot of side work all at once. He finally finished a mantle piece that he had been making and got it installed. Then he outfitted a couple of small businesses around here with computers/software/support. I am keeping busy with Primary and teaching the kids at church. We went through the drama of trying to get home repairs from the tornado. In fact, the roofers are banging away as I type. Then we have had to get the van fixed, get the kids to their swimming lessons every night for two weeks, met up with Chris' Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Gaye for dinner, wow it just never stops...

Things are good. I am really looking forward to getting the kids back into school. They are missing friends and learning, and are starting to wear on each other's nerves. I am ready to have more time to get things done while they are gone. The house has suffered with them home all day :)

I hope everyone is well. I posted a bunch of pictures, so just click on my picture link at the left. Take care, and I hope to keep up to date better as we transition into a school schedule. Caylee will be in 2nd grade, and Aiden in Kindergarten. Goodbye summer, and we'll talk to you all later :)

A few weeks later...

Hello all! I hope the last few weeks were good for you. Ours were not very eventful. A few trips to the park, a few playdates, you get the point. This past weekend was probably the most exciting, as we took Sawyer to his first movie in the movie theater. We went as a family to Kung Fu Panda. It was pretty good, and there were a lot of funny parts that made the kids laugh and clap. Sawyer did well, and stayed in his seat for most of the movie. The kids especially enjoyed having drinks, popcorn and candy.

On Saturday night, we attended a work party for Chris. It was for all Poudre Valley Health Systems employees. I think there were a few thousand people there. We waited in lines a lot though, so it was hard to stay excited. They had a lot of good food--popcorn, nachos, sno-cones, ice cream treats, cotton candy, and we had hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner. We tried to do face-painting, but after 20 minutes of standing in a line that wouldn't move, we moved on. Caylee and I stood in line for the bungee trampolines. If you ever get a chance to do those, they were SO fun. Caylee is my daredevil, as she wanted to go higher than anyone else. She also managed to get a back flip in one of her jumps. She was giggling and squealing and having a great time. We didn't get out of there until after the kids bedtime, so church the next morning was a little hectic. It was so much fun though.

Well, I hope everyone has a good week. Next time I will try to post a picture. I forgot to take my camera to that picnic, so I didn't get to take any pictures. Have a good one!

Visiting With My Sister

Yay, I finally got to see my sister, Toni, and her son, Jack. Talk about a happy little guy! He didn't sleep very well and was driving his mom crazy, but he sure is a cutie Toner! We were going to go swimming, but it wasn't very warm yesterday and the wind was on a rampage. So we hung out and talked. At dinner, the only sibling missing was Amy--miss you Amy, can't wait to see you next month!

I can't believe it is already Father's Day on Sunday. Guess I better get a move on so that Chris has a nice day! He just finished a wood project that he has been working on for a long time, and he installs it tomorrow. He made a mantle piece for a friend who didn't like the drywall mantle that they had. It looks really nice. He is way too modest about his work. Now maybe he can get MY projects done. :) Well, we better get going! Hope you are all doing well, and we miss you!

Time Flies

It's amazing how the time can get away from you! Our Memorial Day holiday was very short. The weather was very cold and full of rain, so we were not able to do our regular BBQ/pool activity that we normally do. We have had sick kids for the past couple of weeks. First some chest colds, and now we have had kids with fevers and more. Today I got to spend some minimal time decorating a float for a parade. Caylee wanted to ride on it, and had a great time. Today was also Relay for Life of Loveland. Kickoff was at 2, and I showed up at almost 4 for our team picture. Then I got to work a station from 4-5. Even though it was the bounce house and there were a couple of obnoxious kids, it was a lot of fun. It's amazing how much personality some of those little tykes have. Last year I spent the night as the relay lasts until 8:00 the following morning (Sunday). This year I decided I wanted to sleep better, which means I need my own bed. I also have to teach the Sharing Time lesson tomorrow. At least church is in the morning so it will be over really quickly! :)

My sister, Toni, is in town with her little man. His name is Jack. I can't wait to see them more when my kids get better. There is nothing like having family in town that you hardly ever get to see, and then not being able to see them as much as you wanted because of things like the flu. Oh well, that's life right? Even though it isn't too peachy-keen at the moment, it is still pretty good for us here in Milliken. I'll let you all know if I actually get to see my sister and nephew. Later my people...

After the Storm

What an unexpected day. I was going to write a happy blog yesterday. Now I have a somewhat less happy blog to post. We had a severe storm yesterday that wiped out our power and had us hoping that the hail would stop. I have never seen such a long hail storm. I posted pictures of the hail size and of our home, and you can view those by clicking on the "My Pictures" link to the left of this post. We were lucky, as more than one tornado danced around our tiny town yesterday. This is a picture that my neighbor took from the middle school here in town. This is the tornado that started near Gilcrest, a small town to the east of us, and headed to Windsor and left massive devastation there. We went and stayed with my parents due to the power outage. Power was restored to our home some time last night and we are home now. The aftermath of the storm left many homeless, but the miracle is that only one person was killed as he tried to outrun the tornado in his car. The tornado shifted and he ended up right in it's path. Our hearts go out to his family, the neighboring communities, and we ask that you might include our little area of Colorado in your prayers. Until I write again, may we all be safe.

Butterfly Pavilion

Hello all! This weekend found us at the Butterfly Pavilion in Denver with Chris' brother John and his family. Chris was with his dad at a gun show and also a coin show. Chris' mom, Rue, was with us. The kids had a lot of fun, and it was neat to see an entire room dedicated to different exotic bugs. The had a living beehive in that room, along with different looking leaf bugs, HUGE spiders (EW!), and even cockroaches. You can see the link in my pictures for all the photos from that trip. It was great to see the kids faces. They had an ocean room with different sea creatures. The kids got to pet a starfish and a sea urchin. There was also a kind of crab to pet that looked a lot like a stingray. Anyway, it was quite a bit of fun to plant flowers to take home, and to tour their new garden and get tips on how to plant a garden that will attract butterflies. Besides Chris having the flu, an ear infection, and pinkeye this weekend, everything was pretty laid back. Saturday was also Gary's (Chris' Dad) birthday, so we celebrated with banana splits. We hope everyone is well, with all that seems to be going on in the world. Hurricanes, earthquakes, fires--the earth is sure groaning right now. Take care all, our love goes out to you.