No time to do a full update, but soon....I promise.

So sorry that I haven't had the time to really update this for the past couple months. Life is busy BUSY with 4 kiddos! Cheyenne is 7 months now. She is such a great baby. Never fussy. She loves attention but is totally fine just playing on the floor. She has been sitting up for a while and is nearly crawling. Very soon! As you can see from her photo-she has big blue/green eyes and dark blond hair (although sometimes it looks a bit red in photos-it's not though). So, 4 out of 4 of my kids have blue or green eyes and blond hair. I am certain that dark hair and brown eyes are a dominant trait, but I'm thrilled they are all so beautiful.

The holidays were great and I will give more details and tons of pics soon. For Thanksgiving we celebrated with a huge feast and had some friends over. We ate and then played some games that Kiley and her friend could take part in. We decided to stay in town for Christmas this year to avoid the torturous winter weather of the Midwest. Turns out, it snowed here and was beautiful in Nebraska. Of course. Our parents came up here on the 26th. Since they tend to go overboard with gifts, I set a limit of 5 toys per child, per grandparent. (That comes out to be about 60 gifts, 80 if you count the ones I got them! Ummmm...no, I can not find room for 80 new toys! Turns out, one grandma just stuffed a bunch of gifts into 5 bags, but each child really ended up with about 10. The other grandma didn't even attempt to deceive us and just said she couldn't do it. So, we ended up with a living room FULL of gifts!!!! Some of their favorite gifts were: Kiley-a new flat panel TV, an MP5 player, and gift cards. Creighton-a 5 foot tall fort and remote control cars. Cort-the same fort and a ball (he's simple), Cheyenne ended up with a ton of adorable clothes and some toys, but loves her new Johnny Jumper! It was a great Christmas for us.

The basement is coming along very nicely. Chad is just finishing up mudding the seams and then I am going to paint. Woo Hoo! I hate the act of painting, but love the end result. I already know the colors I want. The workout room is pretty much done. We are going to have one wall of mirrors and some free weights and later on Chad wants to put down a rubber floor. The living room is going to be really cool. He put in a cove ceiling and two columns that will be trimmed in wood. The ceiling will have a rope light so it looks normal during the day, but can have a movie theater feel when it's dark. Same with the play area. The bedroom is pretty much done too, nothing to great in there except a nice window seat and huge closet (considering it's the 5th bedroom and will be used as a guest room). The office also has a window seat, but no closet although it's technically listed on our permit as a 6th bedroom. Chad built a beautiful fireplace and hearth that will look awesome when it's tiled. The bathroom is smaller than our other 3, but again, it's just for guests. It will be done in all travertine, so I am excited to see the end result. It has a bathtub/shower so it counts as a full bathroom. Very soon, this house will officially be a 6 bedroom, 4 bathroom, 3500 finished sq. ft house. I can't wait to have full use of the new space! Kiley is even asking to move downstairs already. Many pics to come!!!! Hopefully before March. :)

One big, long, catch-up fall post!

Well, it's time to play catch-up. Fall has been a beautiful season and we have really enjoyed it. The weather has been great, minus one snow day. The colors are amazing. I light my cinnamon candles, open the windows and sip hot cocoa. Fall is my favorite month! Chad and I had our first date in a long time. We were invited to attend the Denver Dinner for an event that benefits abused and neglected kids. We dressed up and spent the evening enjoying cocktails, dinner, entertainment, and music with friends. I was surprised to see so many familiar faces when we arrived. It was a great time for a great cause.

These two pictures should be flipped. Cheyenne plays on the floor and plays so rough with this that it eventually collapses on her. You can see she is just as happy to chew on it as she is to play with it. The first time it happened, I was in the kitchen and heard Creighton yelling for me "mommy, Cheyenne is stuck!". I found him standing over her, lifting this off of her (it's maybe 2 lbs) but he was holding it up off her like he was lifting a car off of someone. He said "you have to get her, she is stuck", as he is lifting it off her and barely breathing. He cracks me up!

Cheyenne has decided she is too big for her beloved swing. She tries to scoot out of everything, so I suppose we should start strapping her in. Although, she seems to prefer a quilt on the floor, some toys, and space to roll around.

Not the best pic of all the kids, but it shows their costumes and that's all we need. Creighton was Frankenstein, Cheyenne was a fairy, Cort wore the infamous Woody costume, and Kiley was a devil. When someone asked Creighton what Cheyenne was, he said "she is a fly"....I suppose he isn't familiar with fairies and the only bug he really sees that has wings is a fly. :)

Kiley was on fall break all of last week. We spent the time at the park, playing outside, watching movies, going to the pumpkin patch, and catching up on house work. The weather was so beautiful, except for one snowy day, but of course, it was 70 degrees the next day and we were once again in short and tank tops. I am trying to get Kiley to watch some of my favorite movies-My Girl, The Addams family, Now and Then, so we spent one whole day watching movies.

On the hay rack ride. It's impossible to get a pic of them all looking at the camera. This came close.

Kiley and Creighton in the hay maze at the Pumpkin patch.

This picture of Kiley and the boys cracks me up. Kiley is 10 and the boys are 3 and 2, but more than 1/2 her size. They aren't big boys either, she is just very petite. They still listen to her and she somehow manages to carry them around, despite there only being about a 10-15 lb difference in their weights. She is a really, really good big sister and she'll be a great babysitter in a couple of years.

Finally, Cort is big enough to go on our playground by himself. We do plan to make some changes to it though. The ladder he is crawling up is going to turn into a rock climbing wall. It's more fun and safer. The fort will be closed in more to make it more like a tree house and we may take the three swings down and move them to another area of the structure and put a bridge across the center. We'll see, but for now they have a blast on it.

I am not sure why Cheyenne is giving me this crab-tastic face. I think it may be that she HATES the hat and I always put it on her.

One of the houses a couple blocks from us goes all out for Halloween. I couldn't get a picture of the whole thing because it's too wide. This was the exit to the haunted house and me and the kids are in front of the entrance. We took a walk down there with our kids and a few of Kiley's friends one evening. It's definitely a fun thing for the kids to do on Halloween night. We didn't take the little ones on Halloween night because it's much scarier with smoke, fire, sound, etc. The girls did go down and go through it though.

Baby Cort feeding Cheyenne fire cheetos. Don't worry, I took a quick picture and then put them back in the bag before she could grab them.

Denver got some snow on Tuesday evening. A lot of snow. One of our tree limbs fell off and one was resting on the deck awning. In true Colorado fashion, this should all be melted by tomorrow.

This is our lab, Cooper, with a toilet seat around his neck. He was supposed to be upstairs taking a nap with Creighton. I heard Creighton yelling "Cooper's stuck, Cooper's stuck!" and when I went upstairs, I found Cooper with his head in the toilet drinking water. When I said "Cooper!" he tried to pull his head out, but because he has a big head and this is just a little kids training seat, he pulled the whole thing off and this was the end result. :)

Cheyenne and Cort had their well baby Check-ups a couple weeks ago. Cheyenne is 25 inches long and 15 lbs. This puts her right in the 50th percentile.

Cort was 32 inches tall and 23lbs. He is in the 76th percentile for height and 10th for weight. Tall and thin.

I am running out of time now, but will update more in a few days!

Cheyenne

Okay, I know I make a lot of posts about Cheyenne and the other kids seem like they are being neglected. The truth is, Kiley is gone so much with friends, Creighton is outside all day, Cort won't hold still, and the only one that will cooperate and let me take pictures is Cheyenne.

Kiley is in her third week of dance and loving it. She takes ballet, hip hop, jazz, and tap. Her recital isn't until the spring, so they are just practicing technique for now, but will learn dances soon. She is doing great in school and loves her teacher. She is very popular and we have found that there is always an invite to a b-day or sleep over and we have to balance out her friend time with family time. So far, it's been working well.

Creighton is so funny. He is almost officially done with naps now, but takes a "rest" midday and goes to bed at 6:30pm. He still spends his day working outside. His newest thing is to make a hat out of anything. Today, I saw him wearing the dog's water bowl around as a hard hat. Silly kid.

Cort is entering the terrible two's and, oh my gosh, had he hit this stage a year ago, there would be no Cheyenne. :) It's funny how God makes them sweet until you decide to have one more and then they do a 180 on you. He is still the sweetest little boy, just soooo into everything!!

Speaking of sweet, Cheyenne! The sweetest baby on earth. Sometimes I feel like I just can't get enough of her. She is so great. Still consistently sleeping through the night, about 7:30pm-7am. Mommy and daddy get plenty of time to relax in the evenings, except that time is now spent with me at the gym and Chad working on the basement. Well, I finally found 5 min. to update this, but now it's time to get dinner served and head to Zumba!!!

Just a quick picture of Cheyenne

Cheyenne is going to be a fairy for Halloween this year and here are a couple adorable pictures of her in her costume.

The sweetest baby girl is 3 months old!

Our adorable Cheyenne is 3 months old! Well, tomorrow she will be. I simply cannot praise her enough for being such a great baby. She has been sleeping through the night since 2 months old. She rarely fusses. She coos, laughs, and smiles all the time. She is such a joy to have and certainly makes the idea of a 5th child sound not so bad. It's the pregnancy that is keeping me from having another one. I would take a million kids if I didn't have to be pregnant. We shall see. I am for sure done for at least a few years. At 3 months, Cheyenne is: rolling over (since 11 weeks), picking her head up to look around, smiling and clearly recognizing faces and voices. She loves to kick around on the floor, cuddle on the couch with me or Kiley, and be talked to. You can have quite the conversation with her. She looks almost identical to my baby pics, except that I had dark hair, dark eyes, and darker skin and she is fair skinned, blue eyed, and her hair is going blond. However, despite all of that, she still looks a lot like me. Yay!! Finally!

Summer Wrap up, part 1....

Since I am not the best at aligning photos with captions, I am doing one post for the update and one for pics.

Summer went by fast. Probably much faster than usual because of baby Cheyenne entering our family. It was a great summer though, but I am anxious to get into fall-schools back in session, beautiful colors and amazing weather. Here is a quick update on everyone and how their summer went:



Chad: Chad didn't really get much of a summer break. His work stayed busy until the day Cheyenne was born, which also happened to be the deadline for his VA project. Since then, it's been steady, but not too busy and he was able to get a ton done on the basement. I think we will be ready to call for an inspection next week. It is still so impressive to me that he was able to design, frame, and complete the electrical, mechanical, and plumbing on his own. I am excited for the next stage because some of the design elements and architectural details will be done once the drywall is hung. There's an archway, some recessed areas in the columns that will fit a vase, lamp, or pictures, there is a tray ceiling with rope lighting in the living area. I am so excited to see it all come together and decorate!!!



Kindra: My summer has been spent caring for my children and recovering from having Cheyenne. She has been an easy baby though, so I can't do too much complaining. She started to sleep through the night at around 6 weeks and can go about 10 hours right now. I didn't have an overly exciting summer, but it was such a blessing to have Cheyenne 1 day after school let out and have the whole summer break to lounge around with the kids. I am glad that school is back in session though. I really prefer a scheduled day. I keep meaning to set my alarm for 6am to get up and work out in the morning, but so far, I have hit snooze each time and missed my window of opportunity. Maybe tomorrow......



Kiley: Kiley spent her summer playing outside with her friends-riding bikes, swimming, taking walks, and just hanging out on the curb with her girlfriends. I am so glad she is able to play outside with friends so much. Those memories will be some of her fondest. She took a trip to Omaha and seemed to have a good time. Once she got back, we had to get her ready to head back to school. I heard on the news that the typical family spends $600 to get their kidS back to school items-school supplies and clothes. That's for a family, we spent that on just Kiley!!! What are we going to do when the rest go to school.....I am pretty certain that she has nearly every item in the Justice store and am absolutely certain that I hate the Justice store!! Last weekend, I took her there to get one pair of jeans, 2 shirts, a backpack and water bottle and it came to $175!!! I had some coupons for $50 off, but still-they are much too expensive. Fortunately for Kiley, she has two grandma's who love to take her shopping! She is definitely the most stylish one in her class this year and those clothes will be boxed up and handed down to Cheyenne-I don't care if they are still in style or not. :) Kiley starts dance on Sept. 3. She is taking advanced child's ballet, tap, jazz, and hip hop. It will keep us busy. I have been pushing her to take dance for years. I finally made her take a month long introduction course just to see if she liked it and she loved it!! Her life is all about dance now and some of her close friends go to the same dance studio. It did cost quiet a bit of money to buy ballet shoes, tap shoes, jazz shoes, leotards, hip hop gear, and the monthly cost of the classes, but again these will be some of her best memories as a kid and hopefully she can continue it in high school and even college.



Creighton: Well, Creighton has had a summer busy with "work". He is still waking up early, putting on jeans, boots, a t-shirt and a hat. He grabs a quick breakfast and heads outside where he spends most of his day building things. He is either going to be an engineer, architect, or construction worker. His mind is so organized, much like mine. He is one of the smartest kids I have ever met. He is talking tons and we are making progress with potty training. He is so stinking cute.



Cort: Sweet baby Cort. He spent most of his summer just trying to stay alive. He is the younger brother, so he gets bullied some. About 50% of the time, the boys play great together and that seems to be increasing in frequency as they both get older. Cort is cutting his 2 year molars right now and is pretty miserable. He loves to go outside, but is still a bit small for our play equipment. He has the best little personality. He is reserved and more quiet than the others, but such a free spirit. He is definitely a mama's boy and I hope it will stay that way.

Cheyenne: Cheyenne rolled over on Tuesday!! At 11 weeks. She rolls to the left, back to front. She doesn't quiet know what to do with herself once she gets on her tummy though. Sometimes, she cries, other times she just squirms around trying to get her arms out, and often she just gives up and goes to sleep! She is quite possibly the best baby!! She sleeps about 10 hours at night, rarely cries, and has such a sweet disposition. She coos and smiles a ton and lights up when Kiley comes around her. We have been so blessed with healthy, beautiful, laid-back kids that love to sleep!!!

This year has flown by, but been a great year. Next on the agenda is losing all this darn baby weight. I would love to get back down to my pre-wedding weight. I was 117 lbs and a size 2 at our wedding. However, I have 4 children now and am nearly 30 years old so I would love to keep some curves and get to a size 4-6. We have a romantic trip planned for our 5 year anniversary in 9 months. I am just going to stick to a healthy diet and exercise program. I don't want to lose to much too fast because I mostly want to tone up and get more muscle, so I have to do it the right way. Slow and steady! For every 5 lbs I lose, I can go buy myself a gift. First gift is a pair of earrings. The big gift at 25 lbs is a makeover! New makeup, new hair cut and color, and some new clothes. Hopefully, I can lose most of it by Christmas so I can feel good in our Christmas photos! Fingers crossed!!!

Summer wrap up....

We have been spending a significant amount of time in the hot tub this summer. It's cool in the evening and so relaxing to go hang out and talk after the kids are in bed. The problem we have is that both boys want to clean it and fight like crazy over the tools to clean it. So, here we begin with always having two of everything....Baby Cort taking his turn to clean it.

Girls on the water slides.

Creighton and Cort

Baby Cort. He spent much of the time finding things and eating them...and it's a wonder why he ended up sick a couple days later. :)

Creighton spent his time swimming around like this pretending to be a shark....yep, he got in a lot of shark week this year.

Baby Cheyenne sunbathing. She looks chunky, but she's not. She's so petite, but this picture might suggest the opposite.

The boys playing at the fountain at the mall. We took Cheyenne to get her ears pierced, but I thought they would have fun in this too. We just swung by Children's Place on our way out to pick up some new, dry shorts.

Grandma got the kids "Pacimals" and they LOVE them. These will definitely be my go to gift for baby showers from now on. They are so cute. Cheyenne has a bunny, lamp, and doll. Cort has a frog and monkey.

Cheyenne at 2 1/2 months. I am biased, but I think she is so pretty.

Kiley's first day of school. I like how the picture of her at 2 years old is above her. Time flies....

Cheyenne officially rolled over on Aug. 23rd at exactly 11 weeks. She started here

and ended up here..... She still can't get her arms out from under her so she just squirms around until I come get her.