Thursday, November 30, 2017

Birthday Weekend/Month

It still technically November for just a few more hours and thus the conclusion to birthday month! It's funny how as our family grows the amount of birthdays and events just gets bigger and bigger. I mean we have been in throws of birthday season since August and still have a bunch more coming. But November is by far the busiest (at least in my mom brain) We have Callie, then Brien and then Thanksgiving and then our nephew's and by then it's practically a new year. I guess that's just how we roll in this big fun family!

Callie has been asking me when I was going to post about her birthday and all the fun things we did, and I don't think she will be satisfied until she sees it! I am sorry kid, life is busy right now!
So here goes...

The festivities started on Friday night at Spider Monkey...It's one of those crazy ninja warrior trampoline places. It was pretty fun!


They actually have really cool things and if I wasn't a super sophisticated grown up, I would have been right there playing with them (Who I am kidding, there is very little sophistication here, it's crazy expensive! Like 20 bucks an hour?? To jump around? No thanks, Tom Hanks, I have a trampoline in my back yard that I can jump on for free)

After all that crazy, we had 5 girls spend the night. It was not my cup of tea. I can't wait to have a basement that they can sleep in and I can just close the door, instead of having to listen to 6, eleven-year olds talk about instagram and play twister until 3 am. 

The next morning after NO sleep, we got the house ready for party number 2. I am loving these big girl birthdays. Gone are the days of turning my house into a princess palace. Nope. She just asked for Brien to smoke ribs and grandma Sue to make a cake and have everyone over for supper. That's more my speed!


It was fabulous and once again and we are so grateful and blessed to have our families nearby and always willing to come to our birthday bashes!

After the weekend wound down we had one more birthday surprise! Aunt Phanneth got her tickets to see one of her favorite singers, Britt Nicole, in concert the following Tuesday! 
I am not gonna lie, going downtown stresses me out these days! I remember always wanting to go to the city when I was a teenager, heck even when Brien and I were dating. In my 20's: Wanna go downtown? Me: Yes! Let's go right now! In my 30's: Wanna go downtown? Me: Ummmm...I have to stay in, cause there's people and traffic.

The concert was at the Belco Theater in the Convention Center, so we braved the snow and rush hour traffic and made it to perilous Denver. At work that day my girls at school helped me find a parking garage nearby that wasn't too expensive. I have this irrational fear of parking in outdoor lots and getting towed or lost or mugged and since I was going to be downtown with 2 young children it felt safer to be in the parking garage of a fancy hotel close to the theater!

 We met up with Callie's concert appreciating cousin, Aiden, and we found the theater with a little help from some friendly people and we were safe inside!

We got to be VIP'S and made it through the line quickly and got to the meet and greet, got out concert swag and spent a million dollars on snacks! But it was worth it!
It was the positive hits tour and Denver was one of their last stops. They had all of our favorite christian singers and it really is so positive and encouraging that their music is so popular. The musicians performing said that Denver by far had their biggest and best venue and turn out. It was pretty cool to look around and see families and churches in the middle of our crazy city in the middle of the week, in the middle of the night, worshiping God!


Our seats were ridiculously close and all of the musicians put on an amazing performance! Even with all of the shenanigans with getting there and it being downtown it was totally worth it and both kids had a blast staying up past bed time and listening to awesome music! Callie said "It's like being at church, but with really cool music." Well said, little girl!

After the show, we had more adventures...Of course, couldn't just get off that easily. We found our way back to the car, no mugging, towing or getting lost. But we sure got robbed by the parking garage. $38 to park for 4 hours. Yup that was 7 bucks an hour, not for the night. But hey, we were safe and dry, so there's that. Then onto the high way we went to meet up with uncle Joel to drop off Aiden.

About 5 minutes into the drive, I got behind one of those super awesome trucks that sprays the road with mag-chloride to keep it from freezing when it snows and it blew the spray all over my windshield. When I tried to use the wipers to spray off the smeary mess, I realized I was completely out of washer fluid. Dry as a bone. Dun, dun, dun! I couldn't see a thing, so we had to pull over at super shady gas station in a super sketchy neighborhood and put in the fluid. Thank goodness I had my big strong 9 year old nephew with me to help! 

Back on the road and then home safe, right? Nope, we happened to get behind some crazy driver that tried to crash into us like 3 times and then proceed to swerve in and out of traffic, run into cones and barriers and almost hit a bunch of other cars. So I did what any responsible driver would do. I had my 11 year call 911 to report them. Thankfully the 911 operator was really helpful and kind and the kids told her the make, model and plate number of said crazy driver. I hope they got them, that was scary!

We managed to get Aiden dropped off and back home without further incidents, praise the Lord!
It was a night to remember, that's for sure, never a dull moment!

The next weekend was Brien's birthday, so I tried to plan a night out with dinner and fun things.

I sure do love this fella!

 We had a great date night and I had my first Uber trip. That was interesting...I think this year I want to resolve to do more date nights, sometimes when we are sitting on couch watching Cops, I forget how much fun we have when we get out and about and spent time focusing on each other! Cheers to 35 Mister, I hope it's a great year!

So that was birthday week/month. It's always an adventure when we are involved! Until next November...birthday party on and stay safe downtown!













Friday, November 24, 2017

Just Thankful...

We had such a lovely Thanksgiving this year! Perfect weather (Hello 70 degrees in Colorado in November!) yummy food and a laid back time with the family!
I am so thankful for my people!

Especially these little turkeys!



My favorite picture of the day! Like little miss Cara was just done with him... I was dying!


They were ready for some yummy turkey!

Callie's sweet little star cherry pie! It came out so pretty!


Can I get a good picture please?

They had a blast at the park!

Per our tradition of putting up the tree on Thanksgiving night! It almost didn't happen. This year Brien wanted to get a real tree, but NO STORES were open on Thanksgiving morning to buy a tree and stand. So it was back to our big white wonder. I think it might be on it's last leg. You were a good tree, but you will be retired after this Christmas season. The little nuggets dragged everything up from the basement and put everything together. They did a pretty good job!


The most magical part of getting ready for Christmas, relaxing under the tree!

So much to be thankful for! Happy Thanksgiving!

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Callie is 11!

This precious girl turned 11 and I am just getting around to sharing... Whoa. I need to manage my time a little better, before things get really out of hand!
Oh my heart, she is just so pretty among other things of course!



This girls, oh where to start?! She is ALWAYS up for an adventure! Climb it, drive it, ride it, try it. She is my little dare devil! She will try anything once. I love this about you, you my friend are brave and uninhibited. I wish I could be more like this. Not caring what anything thinks or says, just enjoying every experience for what it is.  You are a skiing expert, you tried boogie boarding in the ocean this year and have recently been inquiring about bungee jumping and sky diving, yipes! 


She is my photogenic girl, she will stop drop and pose and look great doing it! 

The silliness doesn't ever stop, you crack me and daddy up daily with your silly stories, jokes and insights about life. Your parodies of songs are to DIE for! I love how you are so musical and clever. Speaking of musical, you certainly didn't get that from me, but you have such a natural talent for sounds and we are so proud that you were recommended for a music learning plan for gifted kids at school, I can't wait to see what you do!

You are currently so low maintenance I don't even know how to be your mom sometimes. You are self sufficient at so many things! You are pretty easy going and it drives me a little bananas that you don't want to brush your hair or dress up super fancy right now, but that's okay, maybe I had my fun with that while you were small and impressionable. But I hope that you always put your best foot forward and above all, be YOU and not what others want you to be. Lord knows you are too strong willed for that nonsense!

Again with the adventure...

You never run out of ideas to keep you and Kellen entertained. This creativity, again, I have no idea where it comes from, but who makes ninja costumes and sneaks around the house all day?Why, you my dear!


You love the outdoors! I think this goes with your nature of climbing and your spirit of adventure. I hope that you always choose being active and outside to staying in and being on technology (remember this dear one, if you ever get a cell phone!)

This year you got to meet your idol Sabrina Carpenter and it was so sweet to see how excited you were!



You have such a special bond with your grandparents, well all of your family really! You are so loved by your family!


Speaking of bonds, even though you don't always show it, you love your brother and are usually so sweet to him. Little brothers are tough, I get it, but you are patient and kind and I pray that you always keep that relationship with Kellen!

Again with the silliness!

You are fierce! Even though you are little and that's a-okay, you pack a punch with your sass and personality. You are such a wonderfully unique and precious girl and I am so thankful that God made you just the way you are! You are crazy smart and love books and writing. You love and are truly so talented at music! You have the biggest heart for people who have less and I think your 3 children around the globe that you want to help are a testament to your sense of injustice and fairness! You stand up for people who can't defend themselves and I can't wait to see how God uses you to help and touch others. I hope you never ever lose your sense of wanting to help and being someone important. I love you, hot stuff! Happy 11!

Saturday, November 11, 2017

Halloween and how can it be November?

I blinked and we are already 1/3 of the way through the 11th month of the year, from here on out, it's crazy town USA with birthdays, the holidays and the general shenanigans!

We made it through Halloween, Callie's Birthday weekend, conferences and closed on a sweet piece of land in the country! (much more about that later)

So Halloween...
It was freezing this year, cold and short but fun!
They did most of the carving and cleaning this year, so it was more productive and far less work, which is what you always want as a parent!


Not too shabby for these two!

At school we had our annual monster party! It was a blast!
We did crafts and made monster cookies and watched Monsters University (Have I mentioned how much I love teaching elementary?!)



The most mismatched pair on the block. I had Kellen all convinced to be captain America or Spiderman and he went rogue and decided to be a lion. Which is super fitting given his obsession with lions, but these two things just don't quite go together!
We made a quick pit stop at Grandma and Grandpas's house to visit their neighbors and take some pictures with little monkey we found! 


By the time we made it back to our hood, the sun had set and the wind picked up and Wonder Woman's legs and toes were freezing and our big lion's costume was itchy! They called it quits on their own after about 20 minutes! So we headed home to pass out candy and get some fish tacos in our tummies (It was a Tuesday after all)
Pay day! Another great Halloween in the books!