School Year 2009-2010

We finally got school pictures back. They are growing up so fast! Skyler is my beautiful angel all fashion just like her Aunt Dani.



Kaleb is trying to grow out his hair; it goes against every ounce of my being to not shave his head in the middle of the night. hee hee.

Deep Devotion

I would like to spend a few moments and express my deep gratitude to my husband. Despite some of the burden of stereotypical perceptions he has endured and continued to take care of this family with humility and joy. Honey, I don't tell you enough I appreciate all that you do around the house and the way that you take care of me and the children. I know that you have your ups and your downs but they make you who you are and I love every bit of you. You are a wonderful loving husband and father and I praise God he has given you to me. I love you Shawn...~A

Skyler the Pianist

Skyler has started taking piano lessons with her grandma; they go to lessons together each week. Her father and I both have absolutely no musical talent but she has quickly picked up reading music and playing notes. She is learning simple songs such as O’l McDonald and Skip to My Lu. Here is a small sound bite of the new Mozart.

Kaleb in Cub Scouts

Kaleb has joined cub scouts this year. I think he looks adorable in his uniform. I think I have always had a thing for guys in uniform ... most likely why I fell for his dad.

Skyler on 2 wheels

For those of you who know my little Skyler, she is not so little anymore; she is growing up faster than I can write my blog. Skyler has a genuine interest in new things and applies herself with a determination that will get her far in life...but will most likely make the teen years very difficult for us.

One afternoon she was over at grandma and papa's house playing outside with some neighbor kids there was a little girl a bit older than her that was riding a two-wheel bike without training wheels. So she decided that she wanted to ride her bike without training wheels too. They came off that afternoon when we got home and she was off. After a couple of spills...a lot of pushing by mom and some tears now she is officially a rider.

She has advanced so quickly that she made her first long bike ride last weekend. Shawn and Skyler rode all the way to Grandma and Papa's house. It was about 4 miles over all types of terrain (dirt trail, hills, sidewalk, street, open field) and she did GREAT! Toward the end she was a bit whiny since the last stretch was up a small incline but she looks back on it with rose colored glasses and can't wait till our next outing.

Congrats girl...I hope you will have many years of enjoying biking.

Camping

With the start of my new job this year we have not been able to do as many fun things this summer as we had hoped. However, we did get to squeeze in a camping trip with the church we attend. We went to Pike National forest, the kids had a blast. We got dumped on the second night and ended up bailing early. The one thing I hate about camping is getting wet. Our tent did alright and stayed pretty dry but with the kids and the ages they are...no matter how many times and how many ways you tell them they still tracked all kinds of crap from the ground into the tent and then soon enough it was a big mess inside that I did not want to sleep in. We still had a lot of fun and spent time with some great people who love God.

Shawn also got to enjoy his new volleyball net that he found for a steal at the arc.


The colorado moutains are breathtaking...

Modern day idioms

It is funny how out lives are engulfed with technology. I had a moment of sad insight the other day when I was talking with my daughter. We were in the middle of a indoor soccer game, she was watching from the sideline.


She came and talked to me through the net and asked me..."How much longer?"
I pointed at the clock and told her "...about 22 minutes left..."
She said, "How long is that?"
I repeated, "It is about 20 minutes."
In the classic winy tone..."How long?"
Then without thinking I said, "It is about 2 SpongeBob shows, or less than 1 Hannah Montana, and less than 1 Wizards."
She said, “Oh, okay”

At that moment I realized and reflected … it is really frusterating sometimes how kids have no concept of time … but when I put it in terms of television shows she understood. I am such a bad mother!

Skyler turns 6!

Well another year down and Skyler is getting too old too fast. She is becoming beautiful girl. And once and a while Shawn or I will catch a flash in her eye...a glimpse of what the teenage years have to come...oh goodness we are in trouble. Can't she stay 5 forever?? [By the way skyler you flare your nostrils just like your daddy!]

Well, this year we are doing something a little different on the birthday party front. Since Skyler's birthday is in the summer AND the same weekend as the 4th of July we have had difficulty getting kids to come to a party. Strangely enough we have the same problem with Kaleb's birthday in December. Now, on a kid’s birthday, they are allowed to invite a couple of friends to do a bunch of fun stuff.

For Skyler's birthday this year we went and saw the Hannah Montana movie. It was cute when her and her friend starting belting out the song "the climb" in the middle of the movie. Then we went skating at skate city with her new roller skates. Just this summer she learned how to skate. She does pretty well but her technique is to just run. hee hee. Then the next day we went to Mr. Biggs for fun and food. Whew what a birthday.

In the way of presents this year it was all about the guitar. Shawn found a junior size pink guitar for an amazing deal on ebay. For weeks that is all she talked about, "I hope someone gets me a guitar, all I want is a guitar, I bet no one is going to get me a guitar." Well she got her guitar, in fact she got two.

She got one she can play.

And one she could eat. This was my sad attempt at a guitar cake. I waited till the last minute to try and make it; and I had the genius idea of putting mousse in it...what a disaster. Oh well, hopefully I will do better next year. Note to self, we found out that papa doesn't like fondit.

Happy Birthday Skyler we love you and look forward to spending many more birthdays with you!
Love Mom and Dad

Michael Jackson dies

A pop icon...no legend died this week. It was a bit of a shock for many people. At only the age of 50 Michael Jackson has died. Even though I really didn't care for his music of late...I grew up dancing to thriller and beat it. Though is life was filled with scandal and turmoil I think he will go down in history as one of the great musicians of all time...tribute to Michael Jackson may he rest in peace.

Skyler Kindergarten Graduation

It is interesting how our society has started celebrating some of the small everyday type things...and we make it into this big monumentous celebration. Today we went to Skyler's kindergarten "graduation."
Note to Skyler: "You are a wonderful and beautiful bright young girl. You have done and shown us amazing things this year; you are becoming a reader, an artist, a linguist, a diva, and there is so much more to come, I am anxious and scared all at the same time. I love you darlin'."
It is funny because shawn was in complete defiance of the whole activity; he came and sat thru and supported his daughter but he was appalled at the concept of graduation from kindergarten. Hee hee life is so funny.

Happy Birthday to me!

Just for the record there is no way I am turning thirty....I am going to be 29 for the next 10 years hee hee.

Spring Soccer

Soccer season has started again; and in true Colorado fashion, the first games were canceled due to poor weather. This past weekend they both played games in the snow.
I am not terrible impressed with Kaleb's new coach...we will see if he lasts. They lost their first game, but Kaleb got a lot of play time and touches on the ball. On the other hand, Skyler returned this season with her same coach, in addition, a majority of the same girls returned. They rocked their first game...I stopped counting after 7 goals ... it was a shut out. Skyler I think scored 4 goals on her own. It appears it will be a wonderful season. Stay tuned for updates.

Pulpit Rock Hike

This past weekend it made it up into the 70s in Colorado Springs. You really have to take advantage of it when you get it because it is back down into the 20s today with snow flurries. We hiked pulpit rock; here is the view at the base...


Here are the kids at the edge of the world. I really love the view of Pikes Peak. One of the reasons we returned to Colorado.


The kids even got to do some bouldering.

Jammin

This is awesome. The kids watched a movie this last weekend...some cheesy high school drama about kids and dancing on the streets. But I got some great footage of their skills...

A new car

Well for those you who know us...it seems that every couple of years we have a new car. Well, we have done it again. I must say though we are getting pretty savvy at finding the best deal and executing the transaction.

Since the economy is doing so poorly right now, many auto dealers are doing crazy things to get people to buy new cars. In addition, buyers are pinching pennies and more people are trying to be frugal by purchasing used vehicles. Last weekend a dealership in Denver was running a deal...they were offering 110% of Kelly blue book for your used vehicle if you came in and bought a new car. The car that we had was a 2006 subie with all the bells and whistles (leather, heated seats, kicking sound system, performance tires, etc). Well, despite how much I love all those things I don't really "need" them. In times like these, you really have to quantify the difference between what you need and what you want. Despite how young our car was we did have a couple of warranty issues that made the car suspect on its long term reliability. However, I am definitely sold on the performance and quality of the Subaru brand, especially here in Colorado. So Shawn and I thought we would go up and check things out.

Of course it happened to be the VERY last day of the month...which is always good when you are purchasing a car (dealerships are trying to hit their quotas). We took our car in and first found out what they would offer us for it. There were a couple of minor things wrong...it needed new tires, one of the rims was scraped, and it had a couple of scratches where Skyler decided to color on our hood with a rock. So they offered us $17,000 which was about 105% above Kelly blue book at the time. Of course they didn’t offer that to us initially, we had to remind them of all the “deals” they advertised and hold them accountable to the offers. Then we turned around and bought a brand new stripped down Subaru outback. You must note that we came prepared and did our research. The dealership was also advertising that they would match any competitor’s price. So we brought a local paper and showed them the sticker price for the car we wanted from another dealership. So the cost of our new car went from $24,500 to $18,688. Therefore our new car only cost us $1688. And on top of that, since our old car was so new, and we had purchased an extended warranty plan…we were able to get a partial refund of our original investment for the warranty direct from the dealership. So when it was all said and down we literally only paid $568 for a brand new car.

WAS THIS A DEAL OR WHAT. To the right is a factory stock photo of the car we bought. SWEET.

Inaguration

Well, this is one of those moments in history where you are just honored to witness. Hundreds of years from now kids' history books will record this day as the first African American president, and to imagine only a couple of decades ago African Americans weren't given equal rights and often weren't allowed to vote, and today we wake up to our first black president.

Ellie & Jana

It is great to be back in Colorado and be able to spend time with old friends. My son Kaleb and Ellie, the daughter of our friend Jana share the same birthday, except they are three years apart. WOW they grow up so fast! Jana I hope that we can remain life long friends...and who knows maybe our kids could get hitched and we could be in-laws...hee hee.




Three beautiful butts...

Christmas 2008

Well between grandparent's and great-grandparent's the kids made out like banshees this year!! Just look at the sea of presents...we are truly blessed to have such loving family, especially during our time of need.



ON A SIDE NOTE: what about this saying..."making out like a banshee." The definition of the word banshee is a female spirit that would wail under a window sill of a house where someone was going to die. That being the case, I am really confused where the expression came from. Food for thought...




This year one of the big hits was the kids' robes. Each of them expressed to me that everyone in the world has them except for them, isn't that always the arguement. So, since we were in cost saving mode this year I underwent the daunting task of making them. I think they turned out pretty nice. I thank God every day for what beautiful and loving children he gave us! Merry Christmas, and Happy birthday Jesus! :-)