Holiday Season

Christmas was AWESOME. We spent Christmas Eve at my parents with all of us present and accounted for. It was a great evening.

I finally got my Christmas wish that has been a couple of years in the making. My babies got to wake up Christmas morning with my mom, dad and my sister at our house. I could not have asked for a better gift.

Funny thing is that every gift that Ty opened, he would carry it over to my dad and make papa unwrap the gift entirely before he would even consider opening the next. So having said that, we opened gifts for what seemed like hours. We all made out like bandits.

Fall Festivities

Halloween was an absolute blast this year. Ty really got into the whole thing. We spent a Saturday afternoon with my mom and Becca and some neighborhood friends making Halloweeen Treats. Basically it was one big sugar fest.


















The kids always love carving the pumpkins. The decorations were Ty's favorite part up until the actual Trick or Treating. Em was a Vampire Girl and Ty was Spiderman (no surprise there, since he has been stuck on Spider Bug for a year now).

Ty's Off to Day Care

When Emily started 1st grade I decided that Ty needed to have interaction with kiddos his own age. So I enrolled him in daycare two days a week. He loved every minute of it. But I can honestly say I don't know who loved it more, him or I. I AM so excited to have 2 days a week to myself. I will find tons of things to keep me busy and then there will be days that I do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. And guess what, I'm ok with that. YIPPEE!!!

6 Years Old

It's funny that this time of the year is all about Emily.She started school and turned 6 all within a couple of weeks each other.

Rick and I keep explaining that she is a big kid now. So she needs to start making her own bed, learn to tie her shoes. She's not happy about these new challenges, but she's getting there.

We had a small celebratory dinner for her birthday. She got to have a couple of friends over for cake and ice cream. She had a great day.

First Grade

My peanut has started 1st grade. We had been talking during the weeks leading up to school starting. I was explaining to her that she would have to get up earlier and that she would get to eat lunch at school with her friends. I thought she would be totally excited at this new adventure.

I can remember her saying, "What, I don't get to sleep in anymore?" This coming from my child who is the laziest 6 year old you will ever come across. Needless to say, she has handled these first few weeks of school like a champ. On the other side of that, Ty misses Emily. He's always asking where she is. Some days he seems so lost without her. It's so sad. I'm keeping him busy learning new things and figuring out a new routine.

We have gone shopping for school clothes. I actually put this off this year because last year Emily had a huge growth spurt and so there I was a month later buying everything again, this time only one size bigger.

Back to the shopping for school clothes...Against my better judgement, Emily went shopping with me. We were shopping along just merrily when I hear her screech, "mommy, I have to have these jeans. They're just too cute." I think we now have a shopping maniac on our hands. There were just a few more things she just "had to have" before I could drag her out of the store.

Dance Recital

In August, Emily had her first dance recital. After 3 months of rehearsals and lots of frustration, recital day came and was a HUGE success. I was so worried that my daughter would get up on that stage and be completely frightened. Not to worry. She was fabulous. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard.



















This fall she will begin her 2nd round of jazz dance lessons. She's so excited. I have a little performer on my hands. YIKES!!!

San Diego Vacation

Our family vacation to San Diego was GREAT. We went to Sea World two different days. There was just way to much to see in one day. It was nice to see our kiddos get excited over seeing animals that they have never, ever seen before.

We found ourselves at several beaches that San Diego has to offer. Ty wasn't quite happy with the "durt." It was icky. It took him some time to warm up to the waves. Then in no time at all, Ty decided that getting dirty wasn't so bad. And Em, well, she jumped right on in. For her, it was the best part of her vacation right next to seeing Shamu.

Emily and I went to the Cabrillo National Monument. Emily loved that there was a "real" lighthouse.

We spent an afternoon at La Jolla Coves. The beach was pretty and the ocean was clear. We had fun exploring all of the different rocks.

At the urging of my dad, we made a stop at the San Diego Zoo. He didn't tell us that we would need at least 2 days to see the zoo in its entirety. It was HUGE and absolutely beautiful. We took the double-decker tour bus and then toured the rest by foot and by sky ride. We left the zoo absolutely EXHAUSTED. But it was worth it. We will have to make another trip to the zoo so that we can see the rest.

We had a great vacation. All Emily can do is ask when are going to San Diego again. All we tell her is "some day." And we mean it.

Summer Outings

Every year I take Emily to the Aquarium and the Denver Zoo. She loves these outings. She especially enjoyed this summer because Ty was older and got to walk around with her. She was quite the tour guide. She explained every exhibit to him. It was too cute.


This is too cute. There was this Macaw that this kids saw. Emily was "cawing" at this bird and so Ty decided he would do the same thing. I don't know what is up with the placement of his hands. He was just mimicking Emily.

Emily was, as usual happy, to be at one of her favorite places. It doesn't seem to matter that she is been to the Denver Aquarium several times. She's always happy to check out the fish and see Nemo.

Next stop was the zoo. Mirinda, Jordan and Madison joined us for this outing. It was a blast. Poor Jordan is now scarred for life. He was checking out some animals and went to get closer to the fence so that he could get a better view. Unfortunately for him, he did not notice the peacock sitting on the fence. The peacock made a slight movement while Jordan was standing right next to him. I've never seen anybody move so fast. The look on his face was priceless. This scared him so bad that he avoided the birds for the rest of the afternoon. While poor Jordan was frightened half to death the rest of it got a good laugh at his expense. Sorry Jordan.

I'm sure Ty doesn't remember his first 2 trips to the zoo. I'm sure he'll remember this one for a little while as he is still talking about the tiger he growled at. This is not the only animal he growled at. Pretty much every animal he saw he growled at.

If you've ever been to the zoo, you know that there is a small train to ride on. Well, Ty loves choo choos. So of course he had to ride it not once but twice.

I'm sure here Jordan is giving Emily etiquette lessons about trying to ride on a train.

WELCOME BACK

Ok, so it's summertime. We've been crazy busy and that's why I haven't posted in a while. So read on and catch up to see what we've been up to.

4th of July

We hosted what I believe will turn out to be our Annual 4th of July Block Party. We had families from the 2 neighboring blocks and friends over for a friendly get-together. All of the kids had a great time playing together while the adults enjoyed some adult beverages. Thanks to some of our friends, we had fireworks, fireworks, and more fireworks.

Rick manned the grill while the others stood by salivating. We had tons of food, beverage and good times.

Later in the evening, when the kids were passed out, there was a friendly game of poker in our garage. These guys were the last men standing. I must say we throw a great party.

Summer Planning

Well here we are. Summer break is half over and we still of tons to do. We are in the midst of planning our vacation to San Diego later is summer, the kids are taking swim lessons and Emily has her first dance recital in August.

Ty is talking up a storm. You can almost understand everything he says. He gets more independent with every passing day. He keeps us on our toes.

Emily is growing like a weed. It's hard to believe that my little peanut will be in 1st grade in just a month and a half. She'll go to school all day. I'm sure she'll do just fine. She loves her little bro and she has the big sister thing down pretty good.

Indiana Trip

At the end of June we took the kids to Indiana. We had a nice visit with family and friends. The kiddos absolutely thought that Uncle Steve was the best. Because he had cool toys. Steve took the four-wheelers out and he and Rick rode around with the kids in his backyard (yes, they have backyards that big). I think there may have been a little sibling competiton going on between Emily and Ty and Rick and Steve.

Back at Grandma's the kids tried to climb a tree, ran through the sprinkler and rode the another four-wheeler. They slept like babies every night.

A Day with Nonny and Papa

My dad has been promising Emily a trip to the Mother Cabrini Shrine. We climbed all the way to the top (I climbed half way up with Ty on my shoulders...UGH). When we reached the top, Emily said and I quote "We came all the way up here for this?!?!" She was so disappointed. So since that was not enough excitement for her, my mom and dad took us to Heritage Square. She had fun, but we weren't there long enough for her as she explained on the drive home. Sometimes, you cannot win with this kid.

Emily and Jordan had so much fun riding the cars. Ty was plenty mad because he wasn't big enough nor old enough to ride along with the other kids.

By the time we got home, Emily was over her devastation. She decided that she needed to say a prayer since she didn't get to say one when she went to see "God's Heart." She had tears in her eyes and as she explained they were happy tears. God, I love this child.