What a Life

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

2012-01-12T13:35:00.001-08:00

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!

2011-11-02T10:23:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-28T16:33:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-26T16:52:00.001-07:00

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!

2011-09-06T12:08:00.000-07:00

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....

2011-08-23T13:38:00.000-07:00

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....

2011-08-23T13:16:00.000-07:00

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.

Cheyenne is 2 months!!!

2011-08-08T11:17:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that the time has gone by so fast and Cheyenne is now 2 months. It really seems like yesterday when I had her. It's been a wonderful 2 months though. Above is a picture of Cheyenne's little knitted booties that one of my sister's made for her. I love little baby feet! Cheyenne is a great baby. About as good as they come, I think. She is so content and laid back. She only fusses if she is really hungry. She is smiling and cooing and seems to recognize both my voice and face. She gets very excited when she sees me walking over to her and gives me a big smile, kicks her feet, and makes noise. I love it!!

Cheyenne's 2 month baby stats:

Height: 22 inches long****10%-25%

Weight: 9lbs 3 oz. **** 5%-10%

Eyes: Blue, sometimes blue green...I wonder how much of this has to do with what she is wearing.

Hair: Light brown/dark blond. It will most likely come in blond. I can already see a lot of blond strands.

Sleeping: Great! 4 hours at a time at night. She wakes to eat, get changed, and is back asleep in about 15 min. I am easily getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night.

Eating: Every 4 hours. We are introducing rice cereal to her to help her put on some weight. She is petite, and Kiley was too, so I am not concerned. I think she looks a like a little chubs until I see her next to her friend, Eden who is our church Pastor's little girl and is 2 weeks younger than Cheyenne, but about 2X as big!

Who she looks like: Not me!!! We recently were organizing pictures into folders on our computer and noticed that in several pics of Creighton, they are almost splitting images of each other. I'll do a post with side by sides of them. They really do look almost identical! I always said Creighton would make a beautiful girl. :) All 4 of the kids do have one of my features with is tiny dimples above their upper lip when they smile. I have that and they all do to and it's nice to see some of me in them. I also think Kiley and Cheyenne have my eye shape and all 4 of them have my long eye lashes. So, they did get some good traits of mine, but my genetically dominant dark, curly hair and dark eyes did not make the cut. O'well. They are all beautiful kids and are healthy, smart, active, and have such different personalities. Life with 4 is wonderful and to Chad that means that a 5th can only make it even better. I am good with 4!!

What has the third blond haired, blue eyed babe been up to lately...?

2011-07-28T18:22:00.000-07:00

Baby Cort (aka the "third blond haired, blue eyed babe") is 21 months now and seeming much more like a 2 year old now than a 1 year old. (tears....) I loved that he stayed in the baby phase longer than Creighton did. I am so used to calling him "baby Cort" that I think that has become his unofficial name. Everyone calls him baby Cort, even the people at church...so, it seems the name shall stick. Baby Cort is now a toddler though and he keeps me busy getting him snacks, cleaning up his mess, chasing him around, telling him "no"...lots of "no" can be heard around here. :) He sneaks past the baby gate (which is attached to the staircase and opens and closes like a door) by simply by-passing it all together and slipping his thin, little self through the railing posts and going upstairs to open every drawer, closet, and cabinet he can before I get to him. He climbs on our outside play set, which terrifies me because it is so big and he is so little, but he hasn't fallen yet. He loves to color, but seems to always venture from his paper to the walls, fridge, floor, doors, and anything else in his sight. Thank you Magic Eraser!!! My house still stays clean, but I think I spend much of their nap time un-doing what they have done. O'well, kids will be kids and I want for them to explore, be inquisitive, experiment, and learn. The perfect balance, I have found, is to enjoy them and let them play and make a mess when they are awake and then clean it when they nap and God has blessed me with great sleepers. I am looking forward to Cort getting older and, even though I am sad to see his baby stage end, I am happy to have another toddler.

I am really enjoying Creighton, except when nap time is approaching or has been missed. He is so funny, talks like a small adult, and is SOOO loving. Oh my gosh, he is so loving-not all the time to Baby Cort, but I am convinced he thinks that he and I are married. He is always coming up behind me and hugging me and kissing me, saying "I love you". He holds my hand when we watch a movie. He is very, very protective of me and won't let me do a lot of things because he says they are too dangerous for me. He spends his days mowing the lawn (with his mower, of course) weed whacking, leaf blowing, shoveling dirt into a wheel barrow and moving it to it's new destination. His papa said that he will be the only 21 year old ready to retire because he gets up and "goes to work" everyday right now and in 20 years, he'll be too tired to get off my sofa. He is funny about his work though and he has a better work ethic than most adults do. He gets up around 6am every morning, comes out of his room fully dressed in a baseball cap, a t-shirt, jeans, and his boots. He eats a quick breakfast and then moves onto the first task of the day. He put me into time-out the other day (because he mimiks EVERYTHING we do!). I obeyed because I didn't want for him to think that it's okay to say "no" when you are told to take a time-out and, let's be honest, I don't mind sitting in a quiet corner for 3 minutes. He paced back and forth in front of me while I sat in the time-out corner. Every few paces, he would look at me and smile. When the timer dinged, he came to me and said I could get out if I said I was sorry-so I did. He then asked me to hug him and said "I love you, don't do that again"-referring to what had gotten me in time-out originally. I just love that I can stay at home and enjoy the kids so much.

The kids are all at great ages right now and I feel like life with 4 is pretty easy...not easy enough to add a 5th though! Kiley is almost 10 and very independent. She spends her days outside playing with her friends. Creighton is very independent too and spends his time "working", coloring, painting, and hoarding items under my dining room table. Cort is so sweet. He loves to play outside, read, watch movies, color-on everything, and nap. He still does two long naps during the day. Cheyenne is the easiest baby ever!!! Around 5 weeks, I was finally able to switch her schedule and she is now sleeping 4 hours at a time and has a pretty set schedule of: going to bed at 10pm, eating at 2am and going right back to sleep, eating at 6am and staying awake until around noon and then sleeping most of the day (waking to eat every few hours), waking up for about an hour or two around 7pm and then back to sleep around 8pm or 9pm. She's great. Life is pretty easy with an infant who lets you get 8 hours of accumulated sleep at night. Don't be jealous though, it took about 5 weeks of being up most of the night to get her on the right schedule. She only cries if she is starving. I can go a couple days not hearing her cry at all. I feel so blessed to have 4 healthy, beautiful, easy-going kids. If I didn't have to get pregnant to have another baby, I'd take a 5th or 6th, but the idea of being pregnant again makes me sick to my stomach. Chad's already started to try to convince me....we shall see...but, I think 4 is good.

Checking in....

2011-07-21T14:10:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy, busy summer! Here is a quick update on everyone. Cheyenne is a little over a month old now. She just began to finally get her days and nights switched back to normal and I am getting an accumulated 7-8 hours of sleep a night. At least, that is how this past week has gone. The first month was hard! She would be up from about midnight to 6am and then when she fell asleep, the boys woke up. It's impossible to take a nap with little ones and a house to maintain. Finally, I think we have everyone on a schedule that ensures I get enough rest (I actually am good with 5-6 hours a night, but I'll take anything more I can get!) and have enough time mid-day that they are all napping and I can get some stuff done around here. Cheyenne is sooooo cute and soooo sweet. I still can't believe how blessed we are to have 4 healthy, beautiful kids...and 2 of each gender!!! Cheyenne looks a lot like me....yay!!! Finally, a baby that looks like they belong to me :) She does have light hair and blue eyes, but her features are all mine. Creighton is so cute and loving, but as 3 1/2 approaches, we are getting more defiance from him. He did seamlessly transition into his twin bed and still goes to bed without a peep at 7pm. I don't mind the misbehavior that toddlerhood brings. In fact, I laugh about it daily and appreciate the randomness of a 3 year old and the challenges they bring. I know it won't last long and I will miss a lot of it, even the bad, when they are older. Cort is hysterical!!! He is so little, or seems so little. He is actually in the 90% for height, but only the 10% for weight, so maybe that is why he seems so tiny. He has hair now!!! About time! He is talking some and so, so, so sweet. One of the sweetest boys I have met. Kiley will be going into 4th grade this year! Wow, how time flies. She is going to be 10 in November. Geesh.....She is a really great young lady and such a great big sister to Creighton, Cort, and Cheyenne. Creighton is obsessed with Kiley and is constantly begging to sleep in her bed. She is like a second mother to them because of the age difference. I miss her being the cutest little 2 year old, but I really have enjoyed watching her grow up and mature. Chad's kept himself busy with the basement and work. Fortunately, his office has been pretty slow since June and he has had lots of time to be at home with me and the kids, which is invaluable since Cheyenne is so little and when his work is busy, he can put in 80 hour weeks for 3 months straight! It has also given him time to work on the basement. He started in late April and has moved pretty fast on it, considering he is doing it by himself! He framed the entire thing (an office, a bedroom, a living room, a play area, a bathroom, a storage room and a workout room-that is a lot of framing!) He did the electrical work a couple weeks ago and finished up the plumbing this past weekend. Next weekend, he is going to do the mechanical and then I think we will be close to ready for our first inspection. Everyone is doing great and we are all adjusting well to being a family of 6...although, I haven't yet mastered running errands with the three little ones yet. :)

Cheyenne Isabella 5.5 weeks old.

Baby Cort, 21 months....I know he isn't a baby anymore, but I will still call him baby Cort when he is 16.

Creighton. He is 3....that is my explanation for the outside toys inside the house, shoes on the wrong feet, the outfit, and I am sure he doesn't have underwear on under his shorts.....;)

Waiting for daddy to come home....one of the kids favorite things to do in the evening.

Cheyenne 3 weeks old.

Creighton and Cooper.......if it were up to me, we would have no animals, but the kids love them. They are napping on the patio with deflated swimming pools as blankets.

Creighton in a serious moment.

Cheyenne is 1 month old!!

2011-07-18T10:27:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how fast the first month of Cheyenne's life has gone by. She is such a joy and blessing. She is so laid-back and easy going. You would have to be when you are the 4th child. She loves to be in her swing, on the floor kicking around, on her tummy, in her crib, and being held. She is really content just about anywhere. She is sleeping now for 3 hours at a time now. She is still only 8lbs, but seems to be filling out her little body and has some adorable little rolls starting to show up. We are so in love with her. These pictures were taken on our window seat at our house.

Lots of updating from the past month.

2011-07-05T13:11:00.001-07:00

Okay, where do I start. I will start with the beginning of June! In due fashion, my labor did not follow the traditional rules. I went in at 37 weeks for my OB apt. and was not dilated or effaced at all. I had made some progress at that point with all other 3 kids, so I was a bit discouraged and getting anxious. At 38 weeks, I went in and was 4 cm dilated and fully effaced...and slightly uncomfortable. That was a Friday. I had contractions through the weekend, but still worked at church on Sunday. I went in for an OB apt. on Tuesday, June 7th and was 6 cm dilated. My Dr. sent me over to L & D (which was across the hall from her office) so I waddled my way over. It took a couple of hours to get me hooked up and in a bed. There was no rush, since I wasn't in active labor, despite being 6 cm. I called Chad and he came up to the hospital, but I told him to go home and help with the kids since I was just hanging out in my bed and I would call him when things got interesting. My Dr. came in around 9:30 to break my water, so Chad did come up a few min. before that. Within 15 min. of breaking my water, I dilated from 6cm to 10cm. My Dr. had gone home, assuming it would be at least an hour or two, so she had to rush back up, while I just sat there and waited....which wasn't bad at all. She came in, I pushed through one contraction and was SHOCKED to find out we had a girl!!!! Chad had kept it a secret from me and Kiley for 6 months! The labor and delivery were both so short and easy. The recovery was not as easy because of a third degree tear and some serious stitches. After a week though, I felt healed for the most part. Kiley was in bed when Chad got home and she asked what we had in the morning. He told her a boy, of course. :) She came up to the hospital and said she was happy to have another brother, but really wanted us to have a girl. I then pointed to the baby's isolette and the sign that read "it's a girl" and Kiley was thrilled. She stayed up at the hospital with me and held her sister even after everyone else had gone home. We named her Cheyenne Isabella and we are sooo excited to have her! Cheyenne weighed 7 lbs 2 oz at birth, but dropped to 6 lbs 5 oz a couple days later. She is now up to 7 lbs 5 oz and perfectly healthy, eating well, sleeping as well as to be expected, and soooooo cuddly and sweet. The only time we hear her cry is when she is starving. Chad and I have finally, after 4 kids, figured out how to work effectively as a team. I get up with Cheyenne at night all 7 days of the week, unless it's a particularly rough night. Chad gets up with all of the kids on Sat. and Sun. mornings around 6:30am-early risers-and I sleep in as late as I need to, but I haven't slept in past 7:30am yet. Chad offers to help M-F, but he has an important job and needs to be well rested and able to be productive and efficient during the day. He comes home and most evenings after we put the kids to bed, he works on finishing our basement-so, he is just as exhausted as me. So far, so good. I also know this is our last baby (Chad is not so sure about this) and I am appreciating the one on one time that Cheyenne and I get at night.

Cheyenne is almost a month old and I can't believe how fast it's gone. I am sad that it's gone by so fast and hope it's not an indication of how fast her first year will go by.

For the 4th of July, we kept it pretty low key. We worked on the basement most of the day and then went next door for a BBQ and fireworks. Creighton loved them, Cort was scared of them and cried the entire time until we took him inside to watch a movie, and Cheyenne slept through the entire show. I can't wait to get our cabin and be able to spend the 4th on the lake with family. The basement is moving faster than expected. Chad has done all the work himself. He framed the entire basement and is now running electrical, installing appropriate plumbing and mechanical and then we will call for our first inspection before August, hopefully. I am really, really impressed with how skilled Chad is. I have always been so impressed with his talent as an architect, but he is so smart and can figure out nearly anything whether it be car repairs or electrical work. I am smart too, but I know that if I were to try to figure out electrical, I would start a fire and nothing would work. Here are some pics from the past month.

Daddy with his baby girl, who has already stolen his heart.

Baby Cort playing outside. It's so nice to be able to take Cheyenne out on our porch (which is covered so she doesn't get any sun) and just sit and watch the kids play.

Kiley climbing the tree and looking into the neighbors yard. I guess she will be nosy like me. :)

Cheyenne at 3.5 weeks

Cheyenne on the 4th of July in her outfit.

Cheyenne Isabella

2011-06-15T10:38:00.001-07:00

Our sweet little girl was born on Tuesday, June 7 2011 at 10:37pm. She weighed 7 lbs 2 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. Like the others, she has beautiful blue eyes, but we are unsure of her hair color still.....although, I have no reason to think it will be anything but blond. :) She is the perfect baby and so laid back. Kiley is in love with her and so are her two older brothers, who are always very nurturing with her. So far, we have had no jealousy issues and all three kids love to hold her, kiss her, and bring her things. The labor was very short, about an hour and I only pushed through one contraction. I am loving having another girl and have taken so many pics of her already. I am sure she will grow up to be very comfortable in front of the camera, like Kiley.

The last OB appt. before the baby comes!

2011-06-03T16:28:00.000-07:00

Today was my last scheduled OB appt. The next time I will see my Dr. is for my scheduled induction on Friday or if I go into labor sooner. I can't believe it's just around the corner. Today, I had another ultrasound and the fluid was still low, but no different than it's been the past two ultrasounds. I was also told that I am fully effaced and 4 cm dilated. I am not sure how I got there because I haven't been having too many contractions these past two weeks and last week I was not dilated or effaced at all. I'll take it though! I am a little nervous just because at 4 cm I was in the hospital getting the epidural with Kiley and Creighton. I was in labor for 12 hours with Cort before finally convincing myself I may be in true labor and calling my Dr. who came to my house and found me to be 4 cm. I then dilated and delivered within just a couple hours with Cort. My Dr. didn't advise me on anything other than to not take too long to figure out if it's labor or not once contractions start. It's easier said than done with me though because my labor doesn't follow the traditional rules. My contractions never got closer than 10 min. and never got more intense until I was either administered pitocin with Kiley and Creighton or had my membranes stripped with Cort...I know, that's a lot of info. I know I don't want to deliver a baby without an epidural so I will stay on top of things and not wait 12 hours this time :) We'll see how the next couple days go!

1st of 3 new posts...I am not sure why I didn't combine them into one.

2011-05-25T10:44:00.000-07:00

Kiley, outside our house.

This is a picture of baby Cort wearing Kiley's bike helmet...and it looks like a necklace he got from church. He loves hats and shoes like Creighton, but Creighton steals most of his hats, so baby Cort has to improvise. He wore this helmet for a couple days :)

Kiley and Cort. She is so motherly to them. Cort hurt his lip and wanted to cuddle with her. She is better than any babysitter we could hire, but it's not legal until she is 12.......

This was the only pic I could get of Cort on Easter. He and Creighton had the same outfit and Kiley had a similar dress. I wish I could have gotten all three together.

These are Kiley's old glasses that Creighton found. They are dark pink, so Chad won't let him wear them in public, but I think he looks adorable. Here we are on our way to church on Easter.

Pregnancy stats!

2011-05-25T10:36:00.001-07:00

My belly at 37 weeks.

Pregnancy stats: My weight: up 37lbs total....hmmmm.....

Blood pressure: seems to always be in the 120/70 range. 110/78 on Monday.

Babies heart rate: 124-135 while on the monitor in the hospital overnight (explained in the post below). I still have my money on another boy!!!!!

Babies weight: Estimated last Friday at 6 lbs 2 oz, so most likely about 6 lbs 8 oz now and 20 inches long. (About the size of baby Cort when he was born). Only 15 more days until my due date, but I am thinking I may go into labor on my own before or wind up getting induced because of low amniotic fluid (again, explained below...I should have flipped these posts) Otherwise, everything is looking good with the baby!

Lots of catching up!

2011-05-25T10:04:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy couple months to say the least! I'll try to catch things up beginning with Easter. Easter was very nice and laid back for us. We went to a brunch at church and it was so nice to sit around and chat with friends. It was also nice to see so many faces that I often don't get to see. I had the kids all dressed similar and it was so funny to see the looks on peoples faces when they saw I was pregnant and asked if it was my first and I said "nope, that one, that one, and that one over there are mine too". The kids participated in the church's Easter egg hunt too. We went home and they took their Sunday marathon naps which lasted from about 1:00-5:00 that evening. When they woke up, we did an Easter egg hunt in the house and had a nice dinner. I finally broke the news about the Easter bunny not being real to Kiley. I did offer an explanation of why the bunny represents Easter, spring, and new life. I also threw the tooth fairy in. I am sure Kiley had already begun to figure these things out. She has drilled me about Santa and every other holiday mascot since last year and I keep trying to pass it off to the grandma's to explain, ignore it all together, or find someway to mix a little bit of the truth in without answering to honestly. Finally, I figured she is 9 1/2, all her friends keep telling her they aren't real, and she continues to ask (I think just to put me on the spot). She didn't seem to care at all and now she can participate in the fun for her younger siblings.

Mother's day could have been better. Chad has gone to skiing and golfing ( a Colorado thing-since there aren't many places you can go skiing in the morning and then golf in 70 degree weather in the afternoon) the day before, so I hadn't gotten much done around the house since he was gone all day. Cort got very sick around 5pm that night and I heard the infamous croup cough. I normally wouldn't get too worried about something like this, but he was having a very difficult time breathing and so I took him into the E.R. (Sadly, ruining my streak of never having to take a child to the E.R). He had a fever of 104 and was feeling pretty miserable. We stayed until around 1am. They gave him meds and a breathing treatment and observed him for several hours before giving us the okay to head home. He was sick for about 5 days after and then Creighton got it and was sick with it for another 5 days. My Mother's day weekend was spent cuddling my sick babies....but, I wouldn't have even considered leaving them for a minute when they were feeling so sick. I meant to go get a pedicure another weekend and have a Mother's day re-do, but things haven't really calmed down here long enough for me to sneak away.

Creighton moved to his "big boy" bed. About a year ago, we put a twin bed in his room along with his crib. He loves to lay in his bed and watch movies, but when he gets tired, he asks to sleep in his crib. I can't bring myself to force him out of his crib before he is ready. Finally, around his 3rd birthday, he showed much more of an interest in his bed than his crib. He's been doing great since moving to his bed! We haven't had any problems with him coming down at night or anything. I think that my belief in following their cues instead of pushing them into something they aren't ready for is still the best way. He goes to bed at 7pm, no tears or complaining, and sleeps until 7am, when he gets himself up and dressed and makes his way downstairs.

The basement is making good progress. All the rooms are framed. There is now a clearly defined office/study (that is much larger than a typical office-but it's also a conforming bedroom that we will use as an office and it has to be large enough to fit two desks and a drafting table) It's 12 X 12, the size of a large bedroom. There is another 12 X 12 bedroom that will be a guest room, a living room, a play room/area off the living room, a bathroom, a storage room, and a workout room! Chad's done nearly all of it himself and has only injured himself twice-once shooting a nail through his finger with a nail gun and another time by getting his finger stuck between two walls. I think getting a tetanus booster would be a good idea! I am excited to see the progress, but it will take another 6 months to a year to completely finish.

The pregnancy is winding down. I am 37.5 weeks now. A week ago, I hurt my stomach....One would think that with baby #4 I would have an idea of where my stomach was, but nope. I am constantly bumping it on things. I just don't seem to have a good idea of where it ends! I hurt it at around 8am and it was pretty sore. I thought I would give it all day to see how it felt later. As the day went on, the pain became pretty intense and at 6pm, I decided I should just go in and make sure there was no serious damage. I never go to the Dr. with complaints and NEVER go to the E.R., but I was feeling pretty bad and was concerned for the baby. My Dr. had me go to LDR for an extended non-stress test. Once I was all hooked up, they realized I was in labor. I had pretty bad contractions every 3 min......maybe that was what was hurting so bad :). I ended up being admitted and staying overnight. After about 6 hours the contractions stopped and I was able to go home the next day. I had to go in for a follow up 2 days later. An ultrasound showed my amniotic fluid was very low. My Dr. did not want to induce me at that point so she gave me the option of going back to LDR for 1-2 days to get fluids or to go home for the weekend and drink 120 oz of water each day and stay off my feet and be re-checked on Monday. I opted to go home. Monday's visit showed no change in the fluid level and that my fundal height was measuring 34 instead of 37. I go back in on Friday to have both re-checked. We are just taking it day by day now. If the fluid drops or there is no growth in my fundal height, an early induction may be the best option. Also, I am full term, so I could go into labor on my own. I have already made it further than I did with Cort. Even if there is no induction, my due date is only 15 days away!!! We are ready, but I'd like to get through next week and the end of the school year. We shall see!!!

Pics of Kiley and Cort...I still have to take one of Creighton.

2011-04-21T17:53:00.001-07:00

Cort, 18 months.

Kiley, 9.

Pics of the kids...more to come next week.

2011-04-10T14:55:00.000-07:00

Cort feels like such a big boy when he doesn't have to eat in his high chair.

Kind of blurry, but Creighton loved watching the tree in our front yard be cut down.

Baby Cort eating popcorn and watching a movie. Good thing his big brother loves any opportunity to get the handheld vacuum out and clean up!

My belly at 31 1/2 weeks. I said it was "big". Kiley took the pic, but I can't blame the angle for making it look big. It is...

This is one of my fav. pics from Creighton's birthday. Creighton was driving this monster truck and Cort clearly didn't trust him. His face was so funny every time they rode this.

I didn't have time to make Creighton a cake for his 3rd b-day, so we went with a store bought one. Kiley insisted on carrying it to him (I thought it would be a sure disaster) and then singing a solo version of "Happy B-day" to him.

The last leg of pregnancy and the first leg of the basement

2011-04-05T16:52:00.001-07:00

I am almost 32 weeks! I feel it too. I am more fatigued and my shirts aren't fitting as well. :) This pregnancy has gone by quick and has been pretty easy, overall. All of my tests have come back normal and it seems we will have another healthy, perfect little babe in a few weeks. It's such a huge blessing to have 4 healthy kids (knock on wood). We are still on for a June 10 birthday, but there is always the possibility of going early. Baby stats: Baby size: almost 4 lbs and about 16 inches long. At my ultrasound on Friday, the baby was measuring exactly to my due date. The amniotic fluid was low, as it has been with the last two babies. I am not too worried, but will try to be more conscientious about drinking lots and lots of water. Mommy's size: Big......up about 28 lbs overall. We had a grandma here for a few days, I am blaming it on her. :) Blood Pressure: 128/66... a little high, but I had to run to make my apt...well, waddle/run to get there on time because an accident made traffic a bit slow. Heart Rate: 134...it was 143 last week. I am guessing another boy! So, since this is my last pregnancy (hopefully) I have tried to appreciate all the things that come along with pregnancy. To be honest, it's hard to appreciate weight gain, heart burn, sleepless nights, strange dreams, cravings, etc. I have more of a "been there, done that" feeling even with the fun stuff, like feeling the baby kick. I hardly even notice the kicks because I am so busy during the day, but when I put the kids down and can rest, I can see my belly moving side to side and up and down. I think that he/she may be outgrowing the space. I still don't know the gender. My mom sent up a heavily taped box for the baby because she wants the baby to come home in something new, specially for them. I have to admit, I have been tempted to open the box and find out the gender. I know I would regret it though. I am thinking that I may have to give the box to someone to hide so that I don't have the option to look if I have a moment of weakness. I am having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions and my Dr. noticed several occurred during my 10 min. ultrasound. I probably have 40-50 some days! She was a bit concerned about that and told me to take it easy, but how can a mom of 3 with a busy husband and a house in the middle of some big projects take it easy. I will do my best though. The picture of the baby on ultrasound was adorable, but I would think so, of course. Chad took off 9 days to get started on the basement. I have to admit we were at each other's throats for the first couple of days. He worked 250 hours of OT in the past 3 months and I became used to not having him here that often. We made it through the 9 days though and by the end, I was sad to see him go back to work. He took off another 9 days though in June. We ordered all the materials needed for the basement and nearly all of them have been delivered. Home Depot is fantastic. They gave Chad a contractors discount (maybe because he is the architect designing our basement....not positive though) and that was about 20% off, plus we pay 0% taxes since we had to pay for the permit. They even let us borrow a truck for free to get all the materials. We had planned to pay cash for the entire project, but the contracting dept. offered us 18 months no interest if we put it on our Home Depot card. So, we did and we'll just pay a few hundred on it monthly and then pay it off when our 18 months is up. Chad (and I, a little bit) took down the storage unit, moved it to the new storage room, rebuilt it (this is all Chad) re-organized our boxes (this involved me some), moved all the workout equipment to the new workout room, and made a big mess of the rest of the basement. Home Depot delivered everything, so we are trying to find a place to store all the wood, doors, carpet, tile, bathtub, vanity, etc....it's so much stuff! Chad did get one wall framed and the door installed today. He is planning to build another wall tonight. To appease our daughter, Kiley, he installed some nice screen doors on the front of the house today. It's hard to find screen doors for a double door entry, but I would like to be able to open the front doors to hear the kids playing outside and get a nice breeze. We would have to custom order any double screen door to fit ours and that was pretty costly. So, Chad made them himself. I will spend much of my week painting them, but will post pics as soon as they are done. I hope we can get our house back in order before the baby comes. The weather has been nice and the kids have been outside a lot. Creighton is living his dream helping daddy with the basement and other home repairs. I am going to get him a nice tool belt for Easter because he has started to slide different tools into his pant waistband and carry them around that way. Cort is finally old enough to venture outside as well. He is still too little to play on any of our play equipment and has to be watched pretty carefully, but he loves to ride in his car, play basketball, and use his brothers shovels and rakes. We don't see much of Kiley when the weather is nice. She gets home from school, cleans her room, does her homework, and disappears outside with her friends until 6pm, when she has to come home to eat dinner with the family. I will try to post some pics of the kids and the basement (when a bit more progress is made).

Single Parenting, catching Vomit, a postponed b-day, and fighting with a 3 year old about taking a plunger into church.....What a week it's been!

2011-03-12T11:01:00.000-08:00

Actually, what a last couple months it's been. Chad has been so busy with work the past couple months, I feel like a single parent. He is gone before we get up in the morning and we are in bed before he gets home most nights. He has been working 7 days a week for at least the last couple months or so. To add to the stress that causes, the kids have been sick for going on 2 weeks now. First, Cort was very sick for a full week, then Kiley was sent home from school two days last week and stayed home for a third day to rest. Creighton has been sick for a week too. I have caught vomit in my hand, a diaper, with my body, in a towel, and the more conventional trash can and toilet (if we can get to it on time). I can officially say that I am exhausted and would be willing to pay an arm and a leg to fly a grandma out here for a few days.

Speaking of Grandma's, we do have some relief coming in the near future. Chad took off the entire last week of March, which is spring break for the kids. Chad's mom is coming in for a few days and then my mom is flying in for a weekend. That week, Chad and I have a "to do" list 2 pages long. We have to get the first phase of the basement done so that in April we are ready for the electrical work to be done. Chad drew up the plans for the basement and it's looking very, very nice with 1 bedroom, a den with a fireplace and sliding frosted glass doors (very nice looking), archways, tray ceilings with some fancy lights built in (they have a name, but I forgot), the living room, play area, bathroom, workout room, and storage area. I drew it up on a piece of notebook paper, not to scale, and only a furniture layout. He, of course, drew it up in AutoCad, with electrical plans, ceiling plans, floor plans, construction and material plans, etc. He is clearly better than me at at least one thing. The fine details like the tray ceilings and archways won't be in the first, second, or maybe even third phase. He wants to have the bathroom done, storage area done, and I want the workout room done, before summer arrives, but it all depends on how busy his work is.

Creighton turned 3 on Saturday. It was a pretty miserable day for him. He has been sick all week and his birthday offered him no relief. To add to that, he was missing his dad so bad and was so distraught when Chad had to leave in the morning to head up to work. Chad came home around 4pm and we attempted to take Creighton to Chucky Cheese for a bit of fun. I felt so bad for him that I had taken him to Target and offered to buy him anything he wanted, but he was too sick and didn't want anything...not even cake. He did play some at Chucky Cheese, but wasn't having a ton of fun, so we will try again next week.

We have been vomit free for a full 24 hours now and I had to take the kids to church with me this morning, despite my reluctance. I would have left them at home and let them sleep in, but Chad had a physical at 8am. I think I'll be taking the Spring Ahead Sunday off each year from now on. Kiley fell asleep on the church floor, Cort cried over every little thing, and Creighton threw the tantrum of all tantrums over not being allowed to take a plunger into church. Seriously. Fortunately, one of our friends was in the parking lot and was there to help me collect my trio of crazies and get them inside, kicking and screaming...well, one was kicking and screaming, the other was picking his nose and observing his brothers antics, and Kiley was half asleep carrying in a pillow and blanket.

The weather is looking gorgeous for the next week. I am hoping everyone can get over their sickness, get some extra rest, and we can enjoy the spring like weather. One more busy week for me and then things will slow down at home. Chad's going to be busy until the last week of March and then hopefully by mid-May he will get back to a 40ish hour work week for a month or two. I don't want to wish for more than that because the firm is still struggling with keeping work consistently throughout the year. Hopefully, as the economy recovers, so will the firm.

Baby Stats:
I haven't' been to the Dr. in a couple weeks, but will go again for my 28 wk check up and glucose screen on the 18th. I still don't know the gender and am not curious at all. I weighed myself and am up 22lbs, but that's healthy and I'll plan to put on the full 30lbs by the end. I was hoping to stay in the 20-25lb range, but 30 is okay too. The baby is moving a lot, but is still a lot too. I have already noticed that this baby quits moving around 8pm and doesn't move again until around 7am. I hope that means it's already developed a sleep routine!

Hopefully, I will have some great spring time pics and happier times to share next time I update!

A couple new pics of baby Cort

2011-03-03T16:44:00.001-08:00

Cort has been sick with a terrible cold since Sunday. He was feeling a bit better and I took him outside to enjoy the nearly 70 degree weather. This swing was given to us by the previous owners. The daughter, 21 years old, had a lot of memories with her mom on the swing and her mom passed away about 6 months before we bought the house. She wanted us to keep the swing and form our own memories, and that we have.

He is starting to try and do more things on his own. He put on two mis-matched socks and tried for a good 15 min. to put on his shoes with little success. (prior photo)

Random Pictures...mostly for the grandparents.

2011-02-23T13:34:00.000-08:00

I know these are old, but I know the grandparents have wanted to see how 30 month old Creighton squeezed himself into an 18 month old costume. You can see the pants end slightly below the knee. We couldn't win the battle though, he inisisted. Kiley was a pink pirate and Cort was a dinosaur. This neighborhood is great. Everyone paid in a bit and they set up some great haunted houses for the kids and several stops to pick up hot dogs and hot cocoa. I love how it's so family oriented here!!

Creighton helping daddy shovel all the snow. This is one of Creighton's favorite activities. In fact, he will do anything if it involves Chad in some way. Creighton is a worker though.

Bathtime for the boys. This used to often end with someone crying, but they enjoy the company now.

Baby # 4 is a..........

2011-02-11T11:36:00.000-08:00

I went in for an ultrasound last week and was able to get a good litte peek at the baby. Everyone has been telling me that I won't be able to wait until the delivery to find out the gender, but I think I have finally convinced my husband that I can. I went to the ultrasound, turned my head when the tech got the gender, carried the sealed envelope home and gave it to Chad and I haven't asked about it since. Some days I think it's a girl and some days I think it's a boy. Both would be great and I wish I was having one of each. You can't have too many boys. They are so sweet and fun. Chad played sports his entire life and is really athletic. He would love to coach for the boys and would make an awesome coach. I think it would be a blast to have 3 boys. Kiley really wants a girl. She wants a "nice sister". She is very clear that she only wants a girl if she is going to be a nice girl. In my experience with girls (sisters) I think Kiley is unique in her niceness and would be much happier with another brother. She keeps telling us "well, you guys have rules and this is a nice house where everyone is nice, so if it's a girl, she will be nice too". I am not opposed to another girl. It would be fun to see what she looks like, dress her up, etc. When I think about what I'd rather raise though, a boy seems to be the easy alternative. We'll be so excited with whatever though. Chad does know the gender. We keep telling Kiley that the baby keeps it's legs crossed so the tech can't see what it is. I want for her to be surprised too. I'll post some belly pics and an ultrasound pic too.

Chad's been keeping very busy with a new VA Hospital in Illinoise. It's a good project for him to be in charge of because he is learning a ton about government and state standards and it's not just a design he can throw together without having to do a lot of research. I do miss seeing him though. I think the project deadline is the end of March, so I should have my husband back sometime in April. ;)

Colorado has had some crazy weather the past couple weeks too. Somedays it's in the 50's and even the 60's and a few days later it's in the single digits (which I haven't seen since I moved here!) It got to be 0 degrees one day and the news said it hadn't been that cold in 15 years!! In Nebraska, it's that cold a lot. I was fine with it, but schools shut down for two days because of the low temps. Hahaha....it's funny to me because I remember being in school in Nebraska and we had a digital board that said the temp. and it often was a negative number in the winter and we still all made it to school . I didn't mind the days off with Kiley though.

Our plans for the basement are taking way. We are going to start with an area to the left of our basement stairs and put in bathroom, storage room, and a nice workout room, equipped with surround sound, TV, mirrors and everything you need to get in a good sweat. Chad said to me the other day, and I quote him "I want to get buff". Ummm...okay. He was 215lbs when we met and has slimmed down to a svelt 190lbs. He is pretty muscular in all areas except the belly. I am positive there is a nice set of abs under the layer of fat protecting them. Once the baby is born and I have recovered, we have a plan in place to begin a pretty good workout routine and have even recruited some friends to join in.

The pregnancy is going really well. I did have a couple weeks where I wasn't feeling too well, was swollen, and had some headaches. My Dr. prescribed me Fiorecet for the headaches, but I am not sure how often I'll take it. I am not a person who takes a lot of medication, especially if it will make me drowsy. I am feeling a lot better now though and am in a good stage of pregnancy. I am getting lots of sleep, eating well...but a lot, and feeling pretty energetic most days. Here are some pregnancy stats:

Almost 25 weeks

Weight: ummm....I am in favor of scratching the entire weigh in process. I am not getting any smaller and the baby is healthy, so is it really necesary....they think so and I wasn't surprised to learn I gained 6lbs in a week. Ooops. I was really hungry for about 2 weeks, but that has tapered off. Anyways...up 18 lbs total.

Blood Pressure: This never really means much to me. I usually sit around 80/60, but can't really analyze what any change in the numbers mean. This week it was 118/60.

Baby is about 12 inches long and about 1 lb 3 oz. I can sure feel the kicks and all the movement.

The next 3 months will go by so fast. Chad is reading a book called "Your baby's firsts"...nothing like reading up on pregnancy, child rearing, and safety after baby #4! I guess you can't be prepared enough though.

Random pics to be posted in a few days!

Also, please excuse spelling or grammatical errors as I don't have time to run the check!!!

2011

2011-01-16T12:32:00.001-08:00

Well, so far so good in 2011. We are now 20 weeks pregnant and everything is looking good. I have decided to not find out the gender. Chad is dying to know though. I told him we have to decide on a boy name and girl name and then never speak of the baby again, otherwise I am sure I will figure out what it is. I am not curious at all to know the gender and with the other 3, I was so eager to know as early as possible. I think I can make it to the end, but I won't be disappointed in myself if I can't. I don't know of a single person who believes I can do it either. :)

We are going to be finishing our basement this spring/summer...and I am sure into next year. The plan is to add two bedrooms, one large and one smaller that will be used for an office, but have a conforming window and a closet. We'll have a living room, bathroom, play area and large closet (about 6 feet long and 3 feet deep to house toys) a storage area, and a small kitchen. The kitchen won't have appliances until next year when we remodel our kitchen, but it will be tiled atleast. It will be nice to have it finished, but we get so much use out of it now, being partially finished, that I can't imagine not being able to use the space all summer. I am not sure how much value it will add to our house since it's a 5th and 6th bedroom and 4th bathroom-I read that a 3rd bedroom is the most profitable and value goes down after that because of necessity. I can't say that we don't need a 6 bedroom, 4 bath house though with 6 people and 2 dogs. I looked at comparables in our neighborhood at 4-5 beds, 4 baths, 3500 sq. ft homes like ours and the value ranged anywhere from $280K-$455K (the highest I saw in our neighborhood) Denver is so tricky with house values, there really is no telling what it will do for ours. On our street alone, values range from $200K-$350K, with an average of about $265K. We don't plan to refinance, but equity is always nice.

Chad's work has stayed busy for the past couple months and it's been great. I feel like a single parent some weeks and won't see him at all until the weekend, but we certainly can't complain. I am crossing my fingers that it stays busy throughout the year.

Baby info:
19 weeks and 4 days
weight: up 10 lbs.....but I feel way bigger and my stomach is much bigger at this stage then with the boys.
I didn't have an ultrasound this week so I am not sure on much info for the babe and I didn't hear my blood pressure.
Everything seems good though.
Placenta is still anterior, so I am not feeling many kicks unless they are to the side, but I don't mind. ;)

Church is having a baby boom! There are about 5 couples, including myself, who are expecting in a few months or just had a baby. I got to hold a sweet little girl, 3 months old, today and it made me want a girl...for the few moments. I think I am planning to stop working there around the end of May (last time, I worked there until the day I had Cort and I had to call in to our head pastor and explain to him that I thought I was in labor). I will probably take a month off and then go back only every other Sunday though. The alternating Sunday's it would be nice to go as a member and not staff. We'll see, we'll see......

Spring cleaning has began in our house. We had the carpets cleaned, although, I think I have already noticed a couple stains in our family room. Last night, we had the tile and grout cleaned and it's being sealed today, and next month we are having the air ducts cleaned and sanitized. This would all add up to about $1300, but we got a great deal on it from a friend of a friend.

For the first time in a couple years, we have had snow for several days in a row on the ground. It's been warm the past couple days, but we were still able to build a sledding slide from our neighbors front door, across their yard, across our driveway, and into our yard. The kids love it. We also spent about 2 hours outside in a 10 man snowball fight yesterday.

I am still looking for a pic of Creighton in his too small halloween costume. It's pretty funny...well, we think so and I am sure the grandparents will too.

Pictures from 2010

2011-01-16T12:24:00.000-08:00

Kiley Nicole, 9 years.

Creighton Walker, 2 1/2 years.

Baby Cort (Cortlind Sawyer), 14 months.

From Halloween to Christmas and a baby in between!

2010-12-21T10:41:00.000-08:00

I know it's been forever since I updated. It took me a month to figure out how to sign in after an "e-blogger" page took over my regular sign in page. After many calls to the help line, I figured it out! So, to update you on the past couple months:

In September, we started trying for baby #4 and were blessed to get pregnant right away....which seems to have happened each time we try. That gives us a June due date which is perfect. The baby is supposed to arrive a week after Kiley gets out of school and I will have all summer to just hang out with my kids and not have any obligations or school functions. I am about 16 weeks now and starting to show. I am not sure why I am surprised to be showing..it's about that time and it's my 4th baby, but I am still a little disappointed. I am going to steal an idea from my friend, Mary, and post info on the baby after each check up. Check up at 15 weeks:

Weight: Up 5 lbs overall...
Blood Pressure:92/80 - a little close in range, but I am not sure what that means.
Baby size: 4 inches (a large apple)

The nurse did an ultrasound because I was measuring at 12 weeks, but everything looks good. I always measure a couple weeks behind. I will see a perinatologist this time around too, just because the last two pregnancies have had low amniotic fluid levels from about 20 weeks forward. The nurse tried to get a peak at the gender, but the little babe was curled up in a ball and refused to stretch out. That's okay though. We did the OTC Intelligender test at 10 weeks and it gave us unclear results, but I would put my money on girl if I had to. They say blue for boy, orange for girl, and it turned orangeish brown-so I'd say girl. I also have different cravings and am carrying different than I did with the boys. Who knows though. I always try to guess and have been wrong on all 3 babies. I think the names in the running for a girl are still Cheyenne Isabella and Karissa Kay. I have no good guesses on what names Chad will throw out, but I know he is really fighting for the name Champagne and is recruiting his friends to gang up on me in his quest. I have had to battle this with each pregnancy. He thinks the name Champagne Shaffer is a cool football name, but I have my doubts about any of my kids becoming professional football players. I like Carter Brooks for a boy, but it's already been shot down many times. None of us, including myself, will probably know the name until they are pushing us out the hospital doors like we did with Cort.

Halloween was fun. Kiley went around the neighborhood with a group of abut 15 friends and 5 supervising parents. They went to haunted houses (there are a couple in our neighborhood that go all out). Chad and I took the boys up and down the street and then came home to hand out candy. Kiley was a pink pirate. Cort was a green dinosaur, and Creighton...oh, Creighton-the stories this little boy gives me to tell :) He insisted on being Woody from Toy Story. I searched high and low and could only find an 18 month. Creighton was 30 months, but SQUEEZED himself into this outfit. It was short and tight, but he wore it. Pics will be in a post to come.

Thanksgiving was very low key. We weren't able to head back to Nebraska because Chad's work finally picked up and he had to work. He was off Wed-Sunday, but worked each day during his break. I can't complain though. We have been praying for it to get busy for the past year and a half and it looks like things may be on the right track again. We played outside most of the day, since nearly all winter it's been in the 50's and 60's. We ate a nice dinner with the traditional food (ham, sweet potato pie, candied yams, green bean casserole, corn, rolls, salad, etc) and then played games.

Christmas was celebrated here on the 18th. Creighton got a silver power wheels truck and loved it! Cort got an outdoor play set that is a rocket and slide. He is much too little to play on our outside equipment, so this will keep him busy for a year or two. Kiley got a lot of things and was very happy. She keeps asking me if Santa is real and, in an attempt to not disappoint, I keep saying yes. I did tell her of the real Santa Clause and then told her that Santa is a term we use to refer to anyone who is giving and I told her of some stories of money being given to the poor, etc. I am transitioning into this conversation. I don't want to ruin the magic of Christmas for her, but I also don't want her to be the only one in her class arguing with her classmates that Santa is real and to get made fun of. Maybe I can find a good book that will break it to her softly.

Well, until next year.......

A cute pic of Creighty....few and far between :)

2010-10-12T14:15:00.001-07:00

Just a few pictures

2010-10-04T13:46:00.001-07:00

Sorry about the formatting. Sometimes my page has a mind of it's own. Here are several updated pics of the kids. I have many more to post...maybe this weekend. Please excuse the ones of Creighton without pants on. We were trying to potty train him and decided to let him run around outside without pants. He didn't have any accidents and sat on his potty chair a few times and tried to go. The cowboy boots were his own idea :)

Pictures to come soon!

2010-09-22T13:34:00.000-07:00

I have dozens of new pictures of all the kids, but have little time to post them. It's on my "to-do" list though. We had a wonderful summer. Lots of family came in town and we went to the beach, the zoo, the waterpark and more. Kiley started school on Aug. 24th and is loving it. She kept saying she didn't want a specific teacher, Mr. Ginsberg, but I know she was secretly hoping for him. He is hilarious and they have a lot of fun....I was cleaning out her school cubby (her own cupboard in our laundry room) and found a note that she had written...I guess to herself, that said "School is about to start. I don't know my teacher yet, but I hope it's Mr. Ginsberg. He is funny. I know he will embarrass me though because he always calls me fashion queen". I was also hoping she would get Mr. Ginsberg. Having a fun teacher can make school so much more enjoyable. It wasn't easy to get back into the routine of waking up early, getting lunches and school bags together, taking her and picking her up, etc. Oh, how I miss the laizze-fair lifestyle we live during the summer :)

The boys are doing great. Cort is almost walking. I can't wait!! Creighton is beginning to potty train and talking more and more. We officially kicked off "operation baby #4" a couple of weeks ago. We are going to try for a girl following the ovulation method, but we will be thrilled with whatever God gives to us. I am SO excited to be done having kids. We are hoping for a mid-June due date, so that I can have a few weeks off before the chaos of the school year comes. Of course, I have names already picked out. If it's a boy, I like Carter Brooks and if it's a girl, I like Cheyenne Isabella. I also like some other C and K names. Chad is the really picky one. I like the middle name Brooks because it fits in with Creighton and Cort's middles names of Walker and Sawyer. They are older, not very common, and distinguished. Of course, I am planning on my boys being architects, lawyers, doctors, or engineers, so I should name accordingly :). Chad thinks they will grow up to be professional football players and I have had to build a case against the name Champaigne Shaffer for each boy. He thinks it's a cool football name and I agree, but the odds are against them for becoming professional football players.

Chad is officially a licensed architect!!! Yay!! It takes so much work. He had to get his Masters degree, work for 3 years, acquire hundreds of hours in specific areas of work, and take 7 tests. He had to take a couple twice. Each test is about $300 and he spent an estimated 100 hours per test studying. It took 1 1/2 years to take all the tests and get licensed. I am so proud of him. His work just got in a huge 10 million dollar job too, so he may get the increased salary and bonuses that typically come with getting licensed. Although, we know that it probably won't be as much as it normally would be, I am still happy to see things start to recover.

Chad and I are doing what I like to call "The Marriage 30 Day Challenge." We want to make every effort to be kind, considerate, affectionate, respectful, thoughtful, etc. towards each other every day for the next 30 days. It's so easy with jobs and kids to forget about those things. We started two weeks ago and it's been great. It's amazing how little gestures can make a huge difference. It's kind of a fun experiment to do and I like to fulfill my desire to be a marriage councelor by seeing what I can do to make my own marriage the best it can be. I think my husband gets annoyed with me sometimes, but it's important to make your marriage a priority and to always be working on it. It's easy to fall into a rut, become complacent, and let your marriage take a backseat to everything else in life, but we all know that is not a healthy approach.

Our Las Vegas trip is quickly approaching. We will be leaving in about 2 weeks. I am not sure if I am excited or not. I am not the girl you bring to Vegas. I don't drink, don't party, don't gamble. I like to be at home, taking care of my kids, cleaing house, and cooking. We are taking Kiley with us too. She had asked to go to Pheonix for her b-day. Her grandparents have a beautiful home down there. That would have been more my type of vacation: swimming, shopping, sitting in the hot tub, and golfing. It's very relaxing. My twin sister is getting married though in Vegas and we decided to take Kiley along for her birthday. I have a lot of fun activities planned for her.

I will post pics soon. You can see the original post date for this is 9-22 because that's when I started it! I get a paragraph written and have to stop and pick it up at a later date. So, 2 weeks later, it's ready to be posted...minus pictures and, I am sure, some very exciting details of our summer, but this will get the grandparents up to date and I can fill in the holes later! :)

New Pics of Baby Cort

2010-07-28T14:12:00.001-07:00

Some new pics I took at home. I thought the laundry one was appropriate because Cort is always finding folded laundry and playing in it. I have heard many, many times that he and Creighton could be twins (well, if Creighton was still a baby, I suppose). They do look alike, although there are differences. I also hear all the time that Cort looks like Kiley. Cort and Kiley both have my mouth and nose and eye shape. They are both pretty fair skinned and super blond. They both have these two little dimples above their upper lip when they smile. It's adorable. All three of them look so much alike. If baby #4 is blond, Chad and I may have to consider doing some highlights to our hair so that we look like we belong with these kids.

Summer time....

2010-07-26T11:13:00.000-07:00

Well, these past couple weeks have been very busy for us. We have been doing tons of work around the house and Chad has really impressed me. I am beginning to think he should become a handy man. I am sure being an architect pays better though. He has done so much though. He did a chimney sweep, cleaned the gutters, powerwashed the fence, installed a gate in our fence to our neighbors yard, built steps, repaired some parts of our sprinkler system, changed the brakes on our cars, put in a new alternator and battery in his car, built me a beautiful new dining room table and bench that can now seat 8 people, and more. Seriously, I had no idea he could do such a broad range of things.

We have been planning to start slowly doing some things to our house. Most of the projects will be saved for the winter, but we did find some really nice hardwood flooring on sale for the weekend and bought it. It's a Vera Mahogany and really pretty. We got a pretty good price on it too. We are going to put it in the entry way and formal dining room. I am really excited to see what it looks like when it's done. The carpet is in great shape, so I think we will save it and put it in the basement bedroom. My next project is to paint our double front doors. They are steel, so there is no wood grain. I did find a "how to" guide on painting steel doors to look like nice wood doors. There is this tool that makes marks that look like grain and then you stain over it. I am going to give it a try. I love having double doors, but hate that they are white.

We have had a lot of family visit lately. It's been fun. We had this huge tool bench in our basement storage area and Chad and his dad (and Creighton) took it apart and Chad's dad is taking it back to his house to use it. I am glad to have it gone. We also went to the County Fair and had a lot of fun. Some of the people we went with tried to convince me to go on a roller coaster. They tried everything. They offered to clean my car once a week for a year, make me dinner every night for 2 weeks, money, massages, etc. I did not go. It would take a lot more than any of those offers to get me to do something like that. I have kids I need to stay alive for! I did win a Ipod touch, a home stereo system, and $25 at the fair though. I thought about giving the Ipod touch to Kiley for Christmas, but she just got an Ipod last year and I don't want her to think she gets these expensive gifts every year. So, I haven't decided what to do with it yet.

Kiley comes back from her visit to Nebraska soon and we are so excited. My mom is flying back with her and we are going to go to the beach, shopping in Castle Rock, and to the Springs to do some shopping and go to the Garden of the Gods. I can't wait for her to get back. Here are some pics from the last week.

Pictures from the County Fair.

The petting zoo at the county fair had baby pigs and they were sooo cute. I wish Kiley had been there because she loves baby pigs.

Creighton and Chad have really developed a very strong bond. They adore each other. He is very loving to me as well, but he is at the age where "daddy" is most important.

Chad is the new Sheriff. He got this badge from some Kiosk (sp?) and wore it around the entire day.

I realize the if Creighton ever sees this posting when he is older, he will kill me, but it's so cute. He thinks the swimming pool is a "bath" and REFUSES to wear any sort of suit in it. We have a 6 ft. privacy fence, so it's not bothering anyone and, if I bring out some soap, he can actually take a bath in it. Saves me some time!

Creighton is always digging in the dirt in this part of our yard. I think it would be nice to eventually put a garden in here. It's about 2 1/2-3 ft. wide and about 20 ft. long. Maybe next summer....

Grilling out! Every Sunday, we BBQ with out neighbors. Since Creighton is always doing what Chad does, we got him this play grill so he can cook alongside Chad.

Creighton loves tools. His tools are his favorite toys and he LOVES Home Depot. Chad takes him all the time and Creighton says "Tools!". He goes in and just runs his hands over all the tools. He doesn't grab them or play with them, he just wants to look and maybe touch a little. He has started to want to use "daddy's tools". We let him use the hammer sometimes. Here he is "fixing" his swing set with a real hammer and some of his tools.

Pictures of the kiddos

2010-07-13T12:36:00.000-07:00

Daddy and Creighton changing the brakes on our cars.

Not sure why he is wearing a santa hat, but there isn't always a reason besides, he's two.

Ohhh, Creighton was kindly telling his brother not to get into the dogs food. So sweet. All of my kids are so kind to one another. That is why having 4 or 5 kids doesn't scare me. They are so great.

Creighton and daddy spending time together after work.

This was one of those days that I decided I couldn't win against the two year old and I simply let him do what he wanted. He tatooed his arm and ate jalepeno chips for breakfast. Whatever. Sometimes, it's easier to just let them make their own decisions for a day. 99% of the time, he is such a joy, so kind, so obediant, so loving....and then there is 1% of the time that he is a terror and that was this day.

Hahahaha....he got the puzzle piece stuck under his knee and couldn't figure out how to get it unstuck. He was very confused. :)

Getting so big. He will be walking soon!

Grandma's visit

2010-06-29T09:38:00.000-07:00

Grandma came to visit and we had lots of fun. We went to the zoo and to Splash water park. Kiley brought her friend, Sabrina. Cort loved the water. He was not cautious at all and was ready to dive right in. He's a brave little 8 month old. Creighton is very cautious and loved the water, but stayed in the areas he felt comfortable in. Kiley and Sabrina went down the water slides and laid out. They swam a bit, but Kiley seemed more interested in getting some sun (even thought she was lathered up in sunscreen). We swam for a couple hours, played in the sand and then went to get a snack. Creighton was running to throw away his ice cream cone and fell, skinning both knees pretty badly. He turned around and blood was already running down both legs and he said "I fall....it hurt". Cute. We took him over to the first aid station and he was so brave as they cleaned him up with soap and water and put some big bandages over his knees.

The bandages stuck for a couple days and we finally had to rip them off in the bath. Even though both Grandma and I did it, he only held a grudge against Grandma and wouldn't let her touch him for a while. He covered up his knees if she tried to change him. They made amends though. We went to the Denver zoo. We are pretty spoiled by Henry Doorly in Omaha, so it was hard to not compare the two. It was a good zoo, but not half as good as Henry Doorly. We walked the entire thing in about 2 1/2 hours. I don't think we will get a pass though. It's just not like Henry Doorly.

Kiley flew back to Omaha with Grandma Kriss for a summer visit. Creighton was so upset he cried and tried to get out of the car. Poor guy. Things are surely different without Kiley and we are surely counting down the days until she comes back. A little girl at church, who adores Kiley, said "I need my Kiley". She's funny. Kiley will be very excited to learn that some friends of ours are expecting a baby in January. My best friend, Jimmi, and her husband, Paul, are expecting a baby in the next week. I am so excited. Paul plays baseball for the Rockies, so we get to see them a lot. He usually gets traded every couple of years though, so it's been nice to have them here for 2 straight seasons, but we never know when they will have to move. Fortunately, they are from Omaha, so we always see them over the holidays.

We had our garage sale over the weekend and made about $500. Kiley made $100-well, we threw in some to make it an even hundred since we are requiring her to save 1/2. We gave Sabrina $30 for helping out. We plan to put in a nice sandbox for the kids under the tire swing and fort and put in a 4th bathroom in the basement.

We don't have any big plans for the 4th. I have to work at church that Sunday, so the boys will lay down about noon and sleep until about 4pm. Around 5pm we are going to have a BBQ with several neighbors and then watch and set off fireworks. Hope everyone has a fun, but safe, 4th of July.

Creighton and Grandma

Yep, the hat goes in the water too! He had a lot of fun.

Kiley and Sabrina in line for the water slide.

Colorado is awesome. Nebraska doesn't have water parks nestled in the foothills.

Kiley is in the brown suit. She was more interested in laying out than swimming. Her friend, Sabrina, is in the pink.

Chad and Creighton in the little cave at the zoo.

Creighton watering Kiley's flowers while she is visiting Omaha. He is wearing Kiley's shoes. He likes them because he can slip them on and off without my help.

I realize this pic is only cute to me, Chad, and Grandma Kriss. Whenever Creighton is working in the yard, he gets very serious and he will occasionally put his hands on his hips and think for a moment before going back to work.

Sweet baby Cort in the airplane swing in the backyard.

Baby Cort put his hat on this way.

Creighton was hanging out in the backyard while I made dinner. He is sitting infront of our raspberry and blackberry bushes. He was so excited when Chad came home and they hung out for a while in the yard while I cooked and baby Cort slept. Creighton adores Chad

I know I am posting a lot of similar pics, but I couldn't resist. Chad and Creighton were having some one on one time in the yard and it was so cute.

some new pics

2010-06-19T13:01:00.000-07:00

Creighton waiting to go outside. That is baby Cort's red hat he stole.

Creighton encouraging his baby brother to wear a hat because, for reasons of his own, that is the expectation of every boy/man.

Creighton hanging out in the window, where he often curls up with a blanket and takes a rest. It's everyone' s favorite seat in the house.

Uh oh....baby Cort got into the plant....

Creighton coming to the rescue with the swiffer and Cort moving out of the way.

Creighton trying to clean up his brother's mess and keep him out of trouble....neither the mop or the swiffer were beneficial to the clean up.

I can't offer an explanation for this....he found some Q-tips in the bathroom and walked around like this all morning.

Creighton sleeping in his big boy bed. He got out to get his hat. I have never met someone so attached to a hat.

Baby Cort 8 months

Cooper, our new lab. He is great.

Where does the time go?

2010-06-18T18:34:00.000-07:00

As always, I had all intentions to update a couple of weeks ago and the time got away from me...again. Kiley's last day of school was Tuesday, June 8th. I am really enjoying the freedom in the morning. Instead of waking up early, packing lunches and backpacks, and driving Kiley to school, we now get to wake up when we want (around 7am) and move at our own pace. It's awesome. Kiley has been having sleepovers and plays outside with her friends every day. So far, it's been a great summer break for everyone.

Creighton is sleeping great in his new bed. We tried it again over the Memorial Day weekend and he did fantastic. He must have learned from the weekend before that he has to go in his crib if he gets out. He goes in at 7pm, we turn on a short movie, and when it's over we can see on our monitor that he gets his bear and blanket and goes to sleep. So cute. He doesn't come out at all. It's a blessing and a relief that the transition has been effortless.

Cort has been crawling everywhere and pulling himself on the furniture. He wears himself out more during the day now, so he is more than ready for bed at 7pm. It's been really great with the boys being such great sleepers. Cort now sleeps about 12 hours straight at night and I get an uninterrupted (usually) 8 hours. It's amazing. Hopefully, we will all get a great night of rest til baby #4 comes....probably sometime next summer.

Chad's work has picked up some and he got back 20% of his pay. We are still down about 30-40% from previous years, but we will gladly accept any increase in his work. The company has a lot of prospective projects so it could get very busy soon. We are definitely ready to get back to "normal". Chad's last test for his license is on Sunday. I will be so glad when he is done with these tests. They are so time consuming and expensive. This one is mostly calculus. It's about structural engineering, so there's a lot of formulas to memorize. He has put in well over 100 hours, 2 full months of studying and has taken a week off work to prepare for it. Yesterday, he studied 13 hours straight and today is the same. Thank goodness grandma is coming to town and offered to watch the kiddos for a night. We are both in need of a nice dinner and maybe a movie or walk in the park.

My twin sister, Tricia, is getting married in Oct. at a very intimate ceremony in Vegas at sunset. Her dress is gorgeous (picked out by me) and the bridesmaids dresses are adorable (also picked out by me). Chad and I are looking forward to a short vacation and some time away. I would do more writing, but I am exhausted and have to go price things for our garage sale. I can't wait for it to be over. It has been taking up so much of my time. We should make quite a bit of money though. Kiley is not happy that we told her that she can only have about $50 to spend and the rest will go into her savings. I try to explain that she will be happy when she has money for a nice car and for college, but she doesn't care at all. I'll update again in a couple of weeks. Grandma is coming in this week and we plan to go to the water park and zoo and then Kiley will be flying back to Omaha for a few weeks. What will we do without her?

pictures from the past month (sort of random)

2010-06-02T11:36:00.000-07:00

Just some pictures. I am not on my laptop (where I have most of my pics saved), so here are a few pics until I have time to put some up from my laptop.

naptime on the kitchen floor...he was tired and waiting for me to finish up something before I could take him upstairs for his nap.

the cupcakes Kiley and I made for her school bake sale.

Creighton eating his lunch in the living room. The furniture is scotch gaurded...so, no worries.

Baby Cort

Sushi night at the Shaffer's. Lots of homemade sushi .....

Baby Cort wearing Creighton's hat and looking a whole lot like his older brother.

I WILL UPDATE SOON!!

2010-06-01T15:44:00.000-07:00

I will update sometime this week. I have tons of new photos and stories to tell. Sorry grandparents who look foward to the weekly update and pictures....I will get on it!

Finally...an update.

2010-05-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

I guess we have been pretty busy these past few weeks. That means lots of new updates though! Oh, and new pics, but those will have to be in a seperate post. I still have not mastered the art of making a post and getting the pics in the correct order. We have really been enjoying the longer days and gorgeous weather. We have had lots of BBQ's with our neighbors, friends, and family. Mother's day was nice. I had to get up early to go work at the church, but I still had a relaxing day. Kiley wrote me a long, 2 page letter thanking me for all the things I do for her. It was very sweet. Surely something I will look back at in a few years when she is a teen and remember how sweet and appreciative she once was. :) She also gave me coupons for a massage, pedicure, and manicure. I am very happy that Kiley has had a professional manicure and pedicure before because when she gave me mine, it was awesome. Complete with a massage, lotion, buffing, etc. It was a kind gesture. We did miss our church group the weekend of Mother's day because we had family in town and some more family over for a BBQ. We also had our playset installed and it has been wonderful. I did hear the next day at church how fun the church group was, so I was a little sad we missed it. O'well. Fortunatley, they happen every month and we will meet again in a couple of weeks.

Kiley has had a million b-day parties to attend (well, really only 1 or 2 a weekend, but twice she has had 3 in one weekend...and it seems like a million). It's getting quite expensive so I had to set a $10.00 limit for each party. That easily turns into anywhere from $50.00-$80.00 in a month on just gifts. O'well. She has a lot of friends and she does have a lot of fun at the parties. The last one I took her too had a private dance instructor who taught them all the dance moves to "Thriller". When we picked them up they were all made up with stitches, blood, etc and did the dance to the music. It was cute. Kiley has also been busy with school field trips (2 a week for the past 3 weeks), school carnivals and fundraising events, her Girl Scout graduation, an upcoming GS field trip and summer day camp to prepare for. (it's only for 3 days, but it will be fun for her and her friends).

Chad's been busy with work and his licensing exams. Between the two of them, I am doing a lot of running around and "single parenting". Chad has had a late night meeting, (5:30-9:45pm) once a week for the past month. He is meeting with a group of Dr's and they want the meetings scheduled for the evenings so they don't have to miss appointments during the day. They do buy him dinner and he is getting in extra hours at work. Since his work isn't quite busy enough yet to pay him for the overtime, he is tracking his extra hours and going to take some time off when he finishes the project. While it will be nice to get some time off without using any vacation, sick, or flex time, he does have A LOT of that that needs to be used. If work stays slow this summer, he might take a significant amount of time off. I won't complain. He only has one test left to take and it's scheduled for June 20. I can't wait for him to be done testing. It's so time consuming-he puts in atleast 100 hours of studying for each test and it takes about 2 months to study for each one. It's a lot of work for both of us. It will be nice for him to be licensed though.

We are having our neighborhood garage sales in June so we are getting things ready. We have a lot of things to sell this year. Our HOA is great at getting the word out and there is a huge turn out. We told Kiley that she will get all the money for her items that sell. She has to put half in her savings account and can spend the other half. I am hoping this motivates her to get rid of a lot of items.

Cort started crawling a couple weeks ago. He is everywhere now, so we have had to do some additional baby-proofing.

Cooper made his trip here. We are enjoying him so much. He is such a great dog and a perfect fit with our family. He is large and in charge though. He is so big he just pushes you out of his way to get to what he wants, his head is about level with our counters so he can see what is up there and has no trouble getting something down.

Creighton got a "big boy" bed. We left his crib in his room too and thought we would see how things go before taking down the crib. I am glad we left it there, he isn't quite ready to get out of it yet. We have a video monitor in his room. We had it for when he was younger, but we enjoy watching him so much that we left it. He does all sorts of adoreable things when he is alone-like take off his socks and put them on his hands to make puppets who talk to each other. So funny. We tried out the new bed over the holiday weekend. He loved it, but wouldn't stay in it. We could see him on the monitor getting out of his bed and playing with toys, looking out the window, etc. We went up about 10 times before we finally put him in his crib. He likes the bed, but hasn't learned to stay in it yet. We still let him get in it and watch movies, but when it's time to go to sleep we put him in the crib. We have an intercom from our living room to his bedroom, so that does make it easier to tell him to get back in bed when we see him out. He just turned 2, so I am not going to pressure him to move into the new bed just yet. We will let him do it at his own pace.

Only 3 more days of school left. I am looking foward to being able to wake up and not have to make lunches, pack backpacks, and drive Kiley to school. It will be nice to go for walks, bike rides, and spend the day together. The hours changed for Kiley's school starting next year. Currenlty, they are 7:55-2:30 and they will be changed to 9am-3:30. I think I will find it easier to get her to and from school at those times without having to interrupt one of the younger kids naps.

That's about all that's been keeping us busy this past month. We have lots to look foward to this summer.

adorable picture of baby Cort

2010-05-03T17:11:00.000-07:00

I took this picture of baby Cort. I love it. Thanks Mary for giving me the idea to buy fabric and take pics at home. It has saved tons of money and given me a new hobby!

Poor, gorgeous Kiley

2010-04-29T11:33:00.001-07:00

Kiley was really sick on Wednesday and had ot stay home from school. She fell asleep in the bathroom upstairs. She is feeling much better today.

I think I know why our friends call Kiley "Jean Benet". Not my favorite, but a compliment I suppose. She is so gorgeous. I am so glad my friend gave me the idea to buy some fabric from Hobby Lobby and take pics at home. I love to take pics of her and I think I am getting good at it. It saves us tons of money and we have albums full of pics of the kids. One time, when we were at the suite at the Pepsi Center, someone came up and said Kiley was the most beautiful kid they had ever seen. I think so too!

What a busy couple of weeks

2010-04-27T11:08:00.000-07:00

We have definitely been keeping busy now that spring is here. We have been doing projects around the house and helping our neighbors with their projects. These past couple weeks have flown by, we have had a lot of fun though. Last weekend, Kiley had a great time with friends. On Friday, it seemed like all the kids on our street played in my driveway. There were tons of them gathered there. I like to see them all getting along so well and Kiley has so much fun. Early Sat. morning, Kiley went to the aquarium with her friend, Sabrina. The girls were supposed to swim with the fish. Kiley chickened out when she got there. I probably would have too. She did have fun watching Sabrina do it and then walking around for a couple of hours. She got home at 1pm and I had to take her immediately to a b-day party at Jungle Quest. It's an indoor jungle where kids can climb trees, zip line, rock climb, etc. She had a blast. I picked her up from there and she went right over to meet a friend for a mani- pedi. Kiley didn't get home until around 8:30 and went straight to bed. She had a really fun time. Next weekend, Chad is taking her to Elich gardens on Sat. with a few friends. I am staying back with the boys, but I know they will have a blast.

Chad and I have been trying our culinary skills with making homemade sushi. We don't go out often because we don't like to hire sitters. We took a menu (just a paper one) from our favorite sushi restaurant here and tried to make them at home. They turned out AWESOME!! Our neighbors have been over for a "sushi party" twice. We get together and make a bunch of rolls and talk. It's been really fun. Our neighbor, Jeff, who we see all the time has been asking me to teach him piano for some time now. I am going to teach Kiley when I can get a piano or keyboard. I was going to wait for the community garage sales in June to see if I could find one. Jeff is getting one so I can teach them now. I taught him some basics last night on Cort's toy piano, but I was able to teach him "Mary had a little lamb" and "brother John". It will be nice to work on my own skills again. I haven't played in over 10 years, but it's like riding a bike.

The next couple of weekends are going to be busy too. This weekend Cooper is flying in. Cooper is our chocolate lab who has to make the trip from Ohio. We are going to take Kiley to the airport with us to pick him up, but leave the boys at home. The next weekend, we have some family members coming to visit and to help put up our play set for the kids. We also have our monthly church get together.

On a not so near future note, my sister, Meghan, is getting married. Her wedding is on New Years Eve this year in Omaha. Chad and I are planning to attend. I will have to find a sitter for the kids though because it's only for adults. It's a nearly $60,000 wedding. I am very excited to have such a nice evening out. Chad has to wear a tux and I have to wear a formal gown (everyone does). Usually, we attend this charity event every year over St. Patrick's day that is formal and we get to wear a tux and gown. We didn't go this year though. I am hoping to be able to fit into a size 2 gown by then. I have plenty of notice. I have been working out and eating healthy all week and lost 5lbs this week. I am excited. I have finally found something that works well for me. I just need to stick to it, which I find is easier to do during the summer. It's time to say good-bye to the baby weight (I know, just to put it back on next year). This wedding is something I am looking forward to. It will bring back some good and bad memories. Chad and I had our first kiss on New Years Eve, but it will also be a sad reminder that Mark is not with us. The third anniversary of Mark's death was a week and a half ago. Hard to believe it's been that long. I anticipate that the wedding will be here before we know it. This year has flown by so fast. We are having such a wonderful time in Denver. I feel so very blessed to live here. Whenever I am driving on this certain overpass getting onto 225, there is a moment of breathlessness when I can see a beautiful lake, the mountain range, and downtown all at once and it's so picturesque. What a wonderful time in our lives!

Lots of new pictures!

2010-04-21T16:30:00.001-07:00

Sabrina and the instructors swimming with the fish. Kiley was supposed to go too, but she chickened out. I can't blame her. There were some pretty big fish in there, including some small sharks. She thought is was cool to watch her friend do it though and had a really good time.

Creighton and his friend, Addison. He made he wear a hat too and he sat on her lap while they drove in the car. Silly kids.

Our little guy is on the move. He army crawls and rolls all over the place and has recently started to master the art of crawling. He gets up on his knees and rocks back and forth. Sometimes he crawls backwards and sometimes he face plants....it won't be long until he figures it all out. He might be the earliest crawler of my kids. Kiley and Creighton were both about 8 months. Kiley walked around 1 year and Creighton walked at 9 months. Cort just turned 6 months and he should have it down in a week or two. I am excited. I love it when they get mobile.

hmmm...this was no accident. He wanted to be like daddy and have some facial hair. Chads looks a lot nicer than Creighton's handy work with a marker :)

He dressed himself-in a painting apron and snow boots....whatever. Like always, he was vacuuming for me.

Always has to have a blanket near his face when he sleeps. We may need great Grandma to make us some more since both boys cover their faces with these when they sleep.

Such a good big brother. He loves to take care of Cort.

This is the only pic Kiley would let me take of her. I am waiting for a weekend that is stormy so that I can keep her inside and take some more pics of her.

Sweet Baby Cort

weekend pictures

2010-04-12T09:26:00.000-07:00

Creighton still is slightly possessive of "his" toys. He is always supervising and often disrupting Cort when he is trying to play.

hahaha...Cort sits up really well. Occasionally, he still tumbles. His face is so cute in this pic.

Kiley and Tazzy.

Creighton and his friend, Emily, in the church nursery. They like to get in the baby toys, including the baby swings. You can see how they are much to tall for these, but they hang out like this a lot. Too funny.

Sweet baby Cort-sitting up. He is growing up so fast. I am going to try to get some more "portrait-like" pics of all three kids this weekend.

A great weekend.....

2010-04-12T08:49:00.001-07:00

I was sad to see the weekend end. We enjoyed it so much. Friday, Chad was off of work (he has three day weekends while work is slow). We did things around the house, ran errands, played with the kids outside and then drove to Lakewood to spend time with some friends from church. One of the younger couples at our church has organized a young couples group. We meet once a month. The kids played in the basement with a sitter and the adults gathered upstairs over pizza and dessert. It was nice to see our friends from church outside of a church setting and have a good conversation about our faith. Chad really liked it too and the kids (especially Kiley) had fun playing for a couple of hours.

On Saturday, we spent most of the day outside. Kiley has 3 friends that live either next door or a couple houses down. The girls play every day after school and most of the day on weekends. We have had to set some rules so that Kiley is still spending time at home too. During the week, she has to do her homework, tidy her room, and do some chores and then she can go out from 4:00-5:45pm. Then we eat dinner, she takes a bath, and the kids get ready for bed. Now that they are spending so much time running around, they all crash at 7pm and are eager to get to bed and rest. On Saturdays, Kiley can play from 10am-5:30pm and on Sunday, she can play after we get home from church until 5:30pm. The girls ride their bikes, play tag, jump on McKenna's trampoline, and play inside-mostly in my house. I find myself feeding 3 extra children often, but don't mind at all. I make sure they all have water bottles on my front porch and I set out snacks for them. Two of the girls are 11 and 12 and one is the same age as Kiley. With the older kids, I don't feel like I need to supervise as much. We let them ride their bikes around our houses and in the cul de sac one house down from ours. Plus, Chad and our neighbor, Jeff, are outside a lot during the day and we open up all the doors and windows and can hear everything they are doing. We live on a very quiet street with hardly any traffic, so it's very safe for them. It reminds me of my childhood, when I would be gone all day playing. I am glad Kiley is getting to experience that too. Sat. night we had our neighbors over for a BBQ.

Sunday, I took the boys to church. Chad and Kiley stayed back. Kiley was up late the night before with a friend and I let her off the hook. When I woke up Sunday morning, I was walking through the kitchen and stepped in a puddle of water. I looked up and there was a big leak in our ceiling. I went upstairs and told Chad. This is how our conversation went: "honey, there is a leak." (Chad) "okay" and he rolled over in bed. (me) "hey babe, we have a leak". (Chad) "yep". (me) "hmmm....are you not concerned about a leak?" (Chad) "Like a leak with the baby?" (me) "no, like a leak from the ceiling"? Chad then said "oh" and got out of bed quickly. I said "not to distract you from fixing the leak, but why would I wake you up at 6am to tell you if our baby had a leak....and, what exactly is a leaking baby?" I guess it was too early for him to comprehend...lol. By the time I got home from church, Chad and Jeff had fixed the leak. They went to Home Depot and picked up some piping and replaced the leaking section. We have to wait a few days for the ceiling to dry out and then we can repair the big hole. It only cost us about $50.00. I though we would have to have our home warranty company come out to fix the pipe (we have a 50.00 deductible) and then also have our home owners insurance repair the ceiling. Nope, my handy husband and our handy neighbor can fix about anything. We also bought a treadmill on Sunday. It is really nice and I am looking forward to using it. Our home gym is in the basement, but I asked if we could put the treadmill in our room for a couple months. We have a big room with a sitting area. We don't have a table and chairs yet for that area, so there is plenty of room for a treadmill. My thinking is that if it's in our room, I can walk or run on it for an hour and hear the kids and watch T.V. We have DVR in our room, so I can record shows and then watch them when I work out. It will be easier for me in the beginning. We do have a T.V in the basement too, but no cable. It's just for movies and the Wii. Once I am in a good routine of working out, we will move it to the basement with the other equipment. I am excited to get on it. I have a huge closet full of size 2/4 clothes that are calling my name. :) We also found out we are getting a dog. He is a 2 year old Chocolate lab named Cooper. Chad has been wanting to get a lab for a while, but I didn't have time to train a puppy. Cooper is already trained and has been around kids. He belonged to our best friends sister. She moved into an apartment and Cooper went to live with our friend's dad. Our friend, Jeremy, was going to take Cooper, but his job requires him to travel a lot. So, we are taking him. Cooper has to fly from Ohio to Denver. I hope he does okay. We are very excited to meet him and think he will be a great addition to our family.

A pic of Kiley

2010-04-08T16:03:00.001-07:00

Pictures

2010-04-07T10:20:00.001-07:00

Sorry. I just noticed that the pictures showed up before the story of our week. The two posts should be flip-flopped. O'well. Here are a few pics of Kiley. I love taking pictures of her. She picked out her own outfit, hair style, and poses.

This was a night when Cort had slept all day and I was trying to keep him up for a couple of hours in the evening. He made it about 30 min. I tried to sit him up and he still fell asleep...poor guy.

Cort in the swing and Creighton getting books.

Chad rocking Cort in the church nursery. This is where everyone comes to see the babies (mostly my kids, since I make up about 90% of the 2 and under kid population at our church) and to chit chat.

A couple pics of the view from my parents yard. It looks boring, but it's relaxing to watch the sun go down behind the hills. Now, if they could just get rid of the gnats, flies, and mosquitoes that buzz around you when you sit outside :) Another plus for Denver....no bugs!

We hung out on the steps a lot and just enjoyed the view. It's peaceful to look out into a cornfield.....(not said sarcastically)

He seems to always have a tool near by to do some handy work.

Check out his form!!! I can't believe how he actually swings and hits the ball....in perfect form! I think he is destined to be a golfer. My mom actually wanted to buy him this jumbo golf club and jumbo ball and I said "he can hit a regular ball, with a regular club and hardly ever misses....we should keep working on that with him". This weekend we are going to set up our golf net in the backyard and we can start practicing and working with Creighton. He is so cute.

Baby Cort sitting up. He is getting so big!

Kiley and Sabrina sledding. After about an hour, the 18 inches of snow we got started to melt pretty quickly as the temp. rose. Only in CO. do you see people sledding with a t-shirt on!

What a crazy, busy month! (3/17-4/07)

2010-04-07T09:54:00.001-07:00

Sorry, sorry, sorry. I can't seem to find the time to keep up with this as often as I would like. It has been a really busy month. Before spring break, Kiley had a school spring performance. I took a lot of video of it. The kids were really cute. She practiced for a couple of months for this play and did very well. The kids went all year without having a snow day, but in late March, 18 inches of snow came down on us overnight and the kids had their first snow day! In true Denver fashion, it melted the next day :) Kiley and her friend, Sabrina, went sledding. We took them out in the early morning because we knew the snow would be gone around the noon hour. They got in a few good runs before the snow turned to slush and melted away.

We drove back to Omaha for Kiley's spring break from school. The drive was awful. We got a late start because of some car trouble. Chad had taken the car in for a tune up the day before (who knew a tune up was $400.00) and it wasn't running right when we picked it up. Chad had a meeting with some Dr.'s that night at 5pm and didn't get home until after 10pm, so it was too late to have him look at the car and take it back up to the shop. The next morning, when we were supposed to leave, we took it back in and one of the spark plugs they replaced was shattered. It took an extra hour and a half to fix and delayed our departure until the early afternoon. The boys didn't sleep at all and we had to stop several times to let Creighton get out and run around. Kiley was a huge helper though and I paid her $10.00. We made it to Omaha around 8pm and the week stay was really no better than the drive there. The kids have a very scheduled life at our house and we can't seem to stick to that same schedule in Omaha. Everyone kept pretty busy and that meant that the boys and I were on our own for the week and got pretty bored. By the end of the trip, I told most people in our family that we won't be coming back with the boys except for Christmas each year and that we would love for them to come visit us. Who doesn't want to come to Denver....we have tons of fun stuff to do here. Denver is an awesome place to vacation and Nebraska is.....not so much. I stayed at my mom's house and tried to kill time by cleaning and cooking. I made them chicken-etti, crispy BBQ chicken, and a big Easter dinner. By the time I left, they had decided that either they should get a maid or have me move in with them. :) Lucky Chad, he comes home every day to a clean house and nice dinner.
Easter wasn't as traditional this year. We celebrated in Omaha with our family and that was fun. I made a big Easter dinner and we did an Easter egg hunt. Usually, we would do the same at home, but I figured we would do something low key since we had just celebrated two days before in Omaha. I bought the kids a present and some candy. I just planned to give them their gifts over a nice breakfast. The night before Easter, Kiley asked me if I would pray with her. She prayed that the Easter bunny would hide the eggs really hard. Well....the Easter bunny didn't have any eggs or candy. My amazing husband dug some eggs out of the trash (the ones from my mom's house) and we filled them with quarters and recycled candy (the same candy from my mom's house) and hid them.....The next morning, the kids found the eggs and Kiley said that the Easter bunny kept bringing her candy she didn't like. Guess she didn't like the chocolates the first time around. I will do better next time. We went to church early to set up for the Easter egg hunt. Kiley and Chad hid the eggs for the 0-3 year olds and I was in charge of the 4-8 year olds. I think we need to make some adjustments next year so that it goes smoother. I think there were a lot of people who showed up for the egg hunt and that was it. We didn't anticipate on so many kids coming that we had never seen before. It was a fun day though. Friday, we have a monthly meeting with some friends from church who put together a group for all the young couples at the church to get together. Hopefully this weekend will be a relaxing one. The weather is supposed to be great.

Cort is sitting up now and has his two bottom teeth. I can't believe how big he is. Chad and I originally planned to start trying for baby #4 this month, but we postponed it until next Feb. However, Chad is starting to talk more and more about trying sooner than later. I don't really care when we start, but I would like to get within 5-10 lbs of my normal weight first. So, I guess I should get started working on that. Finding the energy to workout is not easy when you still have a baby that is waking up 2-3 times a night.

Everyone here just got over a terrible 24 hour stomach virus. Kiley was the first to throw up, then Chad, then Cort, then me....Creighton somehow dodged this one. It's kind of a funny story though. Kiley started to throw up with out any previous symptoms. I walked outside to tell Chad and ask if he could go get some 7up. When I opened the front door, I saw him throwing up in the bushes. Within an hour, Cort and I were both sick. We were rationing meds, soup, and Gatorade and no one was well enough to make another trip to the store. Kiley stayed home from school the next day and Chad stayed home from work. Chad and I took turns taking naps. We are all doing much better today. Here are some pics of Kiley sledding, Cort sitting, and our trip to Omaha. Oh, and a few Easter pics (I wasn't able to get any good ones...maybe next year)

Pics from 3/4-3/17

2010-03-17T10:15:00.000-07:00

When we first got Creighton's potty seat ( a couple weeks ago) He would go in to the powder room and sit on it and read and come out 15 min. later. He has since learned that we use it to go to the bathroom. I really haven't worked with him at all on this yet because he is just now 2 and boys don't usually have the ability to understand the idea until closer to 2 1/2. He knows exactly what it is for though. He will tell me "poop" and then go in there. He hasn't gone yet, but it's mostly my fault. He tells me as we are walking out the door to go get Kiley from school and I say "okay, we will go when we get back" and he goes in the car. It's good that he is telling me when he gets the sensation to go. I think he will be pretty easy to train. We will see.

This is a trophy that Kiley made Creighton. She saw it in a magazine at school and came right home and had to make it.

Eating his cake, he kept it pretty clean. He doesn't like to have messy hands or a messy face. I was actually surprised he didn't use his fork-he uses a fork for everything.

Hitting his pinata.

So, here is my big bird cake. I have never made a cake before. I also didn't have and couldn't find yellow food coloring. All I could find was pink, purple, orange and green. I thought I would be able to find a box of primary colors-since I can use those to make all the other colors. I also didn't have any tools for frosting the cake besides a butter knife. Overall, given my tools and skills, it turned out fine. It was very tasty and that is what is important!

See his watch in this photo! It's another thing-besides his hat and shoes-that he always wears. He is so funny. He loves babies! He doesn't play with them (dad would not allow that) he just holds them and kisses them. He is so nurturing. He is like that with Cort too. Creighton is really protective of Cort, especially at church when other kids try to see him. Kiley is so affectionate to Creighton and he, in turn, is so affectionate to Cort. They are three of the greatest kids!

Like Creighton, Cort also sleeps with a blanket over his face. I might have to start making him sleep with crocheted blankets instead of these, so I know he can breathe fine. He has been sick for a couple weeks with Bronchiolitis. He slept most of that time in his bouncer with a vaporizer right next to him because his nose was so stuffed up. Fortunately, we didn't have to worry about the other kids getting sick. The Pediatrician said that Bronchiolitis only occurs in kids under 2 and 90% of the time in those under 6 months.

He is starting to do better at brushing his own teeth. I bought him an electric toothbrush because it will get more done in the minute he lets us do it. I brush his teeth first and then he is allowed to brush his tongue (that's what he wants to do) for 15 sec. So nice to have a kid that doesn't want candy or money, just to be able to brush their tongue for a few seconds. :)

Trying to convince me that putting maple syrup in his sippy cut is a good idea.

Creighton's favorite activity is to color on his dad's blue prints. I am convinced he will be an architect like daddy. He is always into fixing things, figuring out how things work and are put together, he has extremely developed fine and gross motor skills-he could even snap his fingers perfectly (better than me) at 1 year old. He is allowed to use markers because he stays on the paper and puts the lids back on.

Per Kiley's request, I have included some pics of her room. She is allowed to decorate it however she likes. She is 100% responsible for keeping it clean (except for vacuuming and dusting). She actually does a good job. Each day after school she has to do her homework right away and then spend 10 min. tidying her room. Once she has done both, she can go outside and play. It never gets messy. Occasionally, I will have to re-make her bed just so it looks nicer, but she tries. It's actually a pretty large room, but she has it packed with things-

I found this shelf in our goodwill box and painted it to match her room.

3/17/2010- Such a busy, busy week

2010-03-15T15:28:00.000-07:00

I can't seem to keep up with my promise to update this once a week. I started a post over the weekend, but didn't finish and forgot to save it. I started this one a couple days ago and am not sure if I will have enough time to finish it. I will try better. Recently, Chad and I have been watching several documentaries. We saw just a brief clip on this new one called "Food, Inc." I went to the grocery store to pick up items for the week ahead and looked at the price comparison of organic items over processed items. I found that milk was about $3.50, instead of the normal $2.00 milk I usually buy, chicken was the same price per package, but the chicken breasts were smaller. Actually, I like that idea better-who needs an 8 oz chicken breast when a serving is only supposed to be 4 oz. For $5.00 I was able to buy 4 chicken breasts, about 4 1/2 oz each. I like it much better because they look nicer, cook better, taste better, and are individually wrapped so I can freeze them separately. I found beef was about 20 cents more per package, not bad at all. Fruits and vegetables were quite a bit more when I bought organic. However, I found that if you buy frozen vegetables (less preservatives) it was not much more at all than canned vegetables and you get more in a bag than in a can. Overall, the cost to replace our milk/dairy products, fruit, vegetables, and meat with the healthier alternatives only added about $10.00 to my bill. We were very pleasantly surprised. Our neighbors are putting in a 30 X 10 foot garden this summer and are taking our requests for vegetables. That will really help with our plan to eat healthier.
Easter is quickly approaching. Kiley has her Easter dress but still needs a cardigan. I have to make a trip to the mall to pick up outfits for the boys. I have several thank-you cards to send out for gifts/money that was sent to Creighton for his b-day but am waiting until I can send an Easter pic of the kids in with the card. Creighton had a fun b-day. It was pretty low key though. I made him a big bird cake (my first attempt to make a cake....and the only tool I had was a butter knife. I need to prepare better next time! We had the neighbors over and grilled out brats, polish sausage, and hamburgers. We had cake and ice cream for dessert. The kids all hit the pinata several times, but it eventually took Chad to break it open (even after I tried and failed) . Creighton loved his Black and Decker weed whacker and wore the batteries out that night and again the next day. I eventually put rechargeable batteries in it. He also got a shovel, rake and hoe (he thinks it's a pooper scooper because it looks like ours that Chad uses). He loved his kitchen I made him and our neighbors got him tons of food and dishes to use with it. Sabrina, Kiley's friend, stayed the night and we had a friendly game of Texas Hold'em with our neighbors. It was a really fun night.
Daylight savings made for a rough weekend with the kids. Instead of getting up at 6:30 Sunday morning to get to the church, we had to get up at 5:30 and it took them several days to adjust. I am not a fan of daylight savings. I like it to be light out when I wake up and now it's dark until about 7am, which makes it more difficult to pull myself and the kids from bed at 6:45. I do like it staying light in the evenings, but not at the expense of the morning.
Cort has been sick with bronchiolitis for about two weeks and it looks like we are on the road to recovery now. Fortunately, the Pediatrician said it is really rare for a child over the age of 2 to get it, so we have been safe from him passing it to other kids. He did sleep in a bouncer seat, in my room for the two weeks and it has been difficult to transition him back to his crib. He was waking up about 10 times a night when he was sick-he was coughing and couldn't breathe well out of his nose. I think he has now gotten into a habbit of waking up and even though he isn't sick any more he is still waking up about 6-8 times a night. I hope he adjusts and gets back to his normal sleep schedule soon!
I am looking to take Easter pics of the kids this weekend. Hopefully, I can get them posted right away....no guarentees though.

Weekly Update 3/4/2010

2010-03-04T12:29:00.000-08:00

I had all intentions to update the blog last Friday and begin my routine of doing some every week, but the weekend came and went and I hardly had a chance to put my feet up. It was a very busy weekend, but fun. On Friday, we had our neighbor over and talked with him for a long while. It was after midnight before we got to bed and that is very late for Chad and me. We so enjoy their company though. It's so nice to have great neighbors. Jeff (our neighbor) did some landscaping work for us and Chad returned the favor by helping him put in his granite counter tops over the weekend. While it meant that Chad was gone a lot this weekend, he did learn some things for when we put granite in our kitchen. I made the guys cupcakes...well, I had to make 50 cupcakes for our weekend dinners and gave some to them. Chad and I made our first batch of beef jerky and it was awesome!! Our neighbor, Jeff, got us started on this. He has a meat slicer and dehydrator at home and was always making us jerky. We tried to make our own and were very pleasantly surprised at how tasty it was. Of course, we gave some to the neighbors as well.

On Sat. night we went to a going away party for our close friend, Jeremy. We couldn't stay past 8pm because the kids were tired and we were bummed to learn we missed an exciting game of Apples to Apples. It's a good thing we left though because the kids were all asleep within minutes of leaving and they were all a bit crabby in the morning for church.

On Sunday, we hosted a "long time, no see" dinner and we had a few friends over who we hadn't seen in a long time. It was really nice to catch up with them and to fire up the grill after not using it for a couple months. It has been in the 40's and 50's for most of the winter, but I think we get spoiled in Denver and consider it too cold if it's not in the 60's. It did get up to 60 degrees this past week and I had my house opened up and did a nice "spring cleaning".

This weekend I have to get things together for Creighton's 2nd b-day. After giving it some thought, I think we have decided to just have a little get together at our house. It will just be us and our neighbors. We will get Creighton a pinata, a cake, and of course presents.

A couple of our friends are putting together a get together every Friday night for some of the younger couples at our church. Our first meeting is March 19. It will be nice to be able to meet with other people who share our values and faith and whose company we really enjoy. The kids can go too and all play together. It will be good for the kids to see us be involved in our faith outside of just going to church. This is particularly good for Chad. Chad grew up going to church, but he has a hard time getting motivated to attend regularly-especially because I am working there so I can't sit in with him. He also finds service boring, which most of us do. I think these get togethers will appeal to him much more than service.

Cort is cutting his two bottom teeth and kept us up all night last night. He is running a low fever and having a hard time sleeping during the day. He gets over tired and can't fall asleep in the evening. It was a rough time, but he is showing improvement today.

Chad and I are not attending the Green Tie Charity event for MCPN this year. We have gone every year, but decided that it's a bit expensive for a night out when Chad's work is still slow. I think Chad still intends to play in the Celebrity Golf Tournament though. It's about time to set up our golf net in the backyard and start practicing. Creighton is getting good at hitting balls. Can't wait for summer to get here!!!

We watched the premiere of "The Marriage Ref" last night and loved it. We have so much fun in our marriage. We laughed because I have the same rule with my formal dining room and living room as a couple on there. We only use it for formal events, otherwise it is meant to be looked at and not touched. We are looking forward to a relaxing weekend. We are going to rent movies tonight and probably just have tacos or pizza for dinner. We have a plan to start making one night every weekend "game/movie night". We want to order in pizza and watch a movie together and when the kids are older, play games. We want it to become something we do that night every week until our kids are all moved out of the house. We will have a rule that they are only allowed to go out with friends one night during the week and one night on the weekends, so we want for their time at home to be fun too.

Weekly Update Pictures 3/4/2010

2010-03-01T11:04:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics from the last two weeks. I take a lot of photos. So many, the I have had two digital cameras give out on me. I only post about 1/20 of the pics I take. Each kid has so many photo albums. Cort is only 4 months and he is already on his 4th large album. They will have lots to look back on. I only have a couple of pics from the time I was a baby to a teen. My kids will have albums, scrapbooks, video, etc. I like to look back at them too.

Kiley is getting so big. She had a bad cold this week and had to stay home two days. She did get to go to school on Thursday though, so she was also allowed to go to Girl Scouts.

Playing with my sofa cushions one morning. Notice, he is still in his pj's, but has his hat and shoes on too.

After bath one night. Creighton's loves baths. He usually takes one every other night, but he has found a way he can get one every night. We make him take his hat off during dinner time. He gets food on his hands and rubs it in his hair and then says "bath?" and we say "no, we'll just wipe it out". Then, he gets more food and puts it in his hair and looks at me and says "bath?" and I say "well, yes, now you have to have one". I like giving him baths though, it's so time consuming though because he doesn't want to get out.

We thought that by the time Cort was 4 months and went into the nursery, Creighton would be done with his crib. Creighton has a beautiful crib, much nicer than this one, but he loves it. He is not ready to give it up yet, so we had to buy a new one for Cort. The little decals on his wall are individual, wooden animals. I used double sided tape to put them up. I will have to take a pic. of the whole nursery, it's really cute.

Cort's feet are always in his mouth. It's so cute. When I feed him his baby food, I often have to fight off his feet. He tries to stick his feet in his mouth as I am feeding him.

Daddy was in charge of dressing Cort one morning and he grabbed clothes out of a basket. He ended up putting our 4 month old in Creighton's 18 month clothes. Silly daddy.

Getting some more hair, but his eyebrows are still too blond to see.

Because this is Creighton's old swing and he is still slightly possessive of it, he feels he needs to supervise when Cort is using it. I usually put Cort in it when Creighton is asleep, otherwise Creighton will not leave this spot until Cort is done swinging.

Kiley is such a good big sister. She adores her brothers and they love her. When Creighton gets hurt, he runs to her for a hug. They never fight and are always cuddling and playing together.

Kiley turned over the ottoman for Creighton to lay in and watch a movie.

Creighton loved this swing when he was a baby. Most of the time, he doesn't pay any attention to it. This day, he decided he wanted a little rest. He looked ridiculous, but he was very happy to spend a few minutes in his swing.

Creighton thought the dog should eat in the dining room, like everyone else.

Creighton, with a sock on his hand of course, telling me he doesn't know where the dog is. He is so cute.

Baby Cort spent much of Wednesday night in our bed, crying. His teeth were bothering him. He had a low fever (the rosy cheeks, cute-but the result of a 100 degree temp). He also has a cold and his nose has been stuffy. We have tried to use the baby nose syringe but the congestion is too far up. He can't breathe well out of his nose right now and that frustrates him when he wants to drink his bottle or suck on his pacifier. It was a terrible night, but it only lasted 24 hours.

Since I am here....

2010-02-23T16:32:00.000-08:00

I am thinking I will start to just do one weekly update to this blog. Most likely on a Thursday or Friday. I have found that so much goes on with the kids and when I post everything, my blog looks a bit messy. Since I am here now though I will give a little update. :)

Kiley: Oh, Kiley. Well, Girl scouts was a hit. I convinced her to join. I still hope I can convince her to join gymnastics or dance (dance preferably). I guess she loves being home so much that she doesn't want to spend even an hour away from home. That is one of the reasons she gave me when we discussed it. She told me she will join when she is 10. I am not going to force her to do it, but I think she would like it. I might be able to convince her to try it for two weeks before making a decision. Kiley got her report card and of course did very well. At her old school, she scored off the charts for everything and was taken out of her classroom and put into a gifted classroom. This district, however, is the best school district in Colorado and it has a more difficult curriculum. She is still scoring above average in reading and spelling, but is not doing as well in math. (Still getting a proficient score though). This district uses a math curriculum called "Everyday Math". I have a K-12 teaching license and have never heard of this before. I looked into it and got some materials from the school. Apparently, it's only used in a handful of school districts but has been shown to have higher overall scores when these kids were tested in later grades. One subject that has been coming up frequently in our house the past couple months is popularity. I have always associated popularity with high school, but Kiley is dealing with it now and has been since 1st grade. In 1st grade there was a small group of girls who declared themselves popular and called their group "The Girls Club". Kiley was in the club, but struggled because she wanted to play with friends who were not in the club. We had countless conversations about being friends with everyone and always being kind and how popularity is just an idea and it's much more important to be friends with everyone. This new school has something similar. Within the first couple weeks of school, Kiley told me that there were two really popular girls in her class. I asked her why she thought they were popular and she said they just were. I asked her if they had a lot of friends and she said no. Again, we revisited the same conversation we had the year before. Kiley, of course, became friends with these two girls, but still played with her other friends. Last week, Kiley told me that this group is now handing out "popular invitations". Where do these girls come up with this stuff? She told me she is confused because she knows they will give her an invite, but that means she can't play with her other friends. I told her that the decision is hers and we had yet another discussion about being kind to everyone and being friends with everyone etc. She has a good heart and a good head. I hate to see her torn though.

Creighton is getting feisty. The terrible two's are upon us, even though he is not quite two yet. Today, he found a crayon and colored on the wall and wainscoting in the dining room. I will have to make a trip to the store for a Magic Eraser. He still cracks me up, but keeps me busy and on my toes.

Cort is cutting his two bottom teeth. He is only 17 weeks, but by about 24 weeks they should be completely in. This week has been really bad for him. I am giving him Tylenol and Orejel, but he still has moments of hysterical crying. Last night, I didn't get to bed until after midnight and Cort was up at 1am, 2:30am, 3am, and 5am. I am on my 4th pop today. Thank goodness for Caffeine.

Chad is still studying for the tests. We have been really busy the past three weekends, so that has hindered his available time. We need to start prioritizing things though so that he can get these tests done by the end of March. I will be so happy when he has his license and I don't have to worry about giving him time to study anymore.

Our neighbors are still the greatest! We had dinner with them the other night. I am not much of a drinker. I drink very lightly maybe once a year, if that. I succumbed to the peer pressure and had a shot of Patron and it was AWESOME!! One was enough for me though. The Bachelor was on last night and our neighbor made us chocolate covered strawberries to eat while we watched it. He just brought them to our house and then went back home. At least three times a week he cooks something for us. I made them a cake and we are having them over for steaks in two weeks. We have discussed putting a gate in our shared fence so we can go back and forth that way to each others house. We share a gate with our other neighbors, but don't know them that well. We might just move the gate when we redo our fence. It's really fun having them next door. They love poker too!! Always exciting news to me since I am pretty much a poker shark. We have a table in our basement and they do too. We will probably play a lot this summer.

I have some cute pics of the kids, but am too tired to upload them right now. Maybe this weekend.

Girl Scouts, Houses, and good neighbors.

2010-02-18T10:22:00.001-08:00

For years I have been trying to get Kiley involved in some sort of activity outside of school. Every time, she talks about it like she is excited, but when it comes time to enroll she changes her mind. Once again, we have been talking about Girl Scouts and gymnastics or dance. I got the name of a troop leader who has a small class of girls that meet at the school twice a month. There are 7 girls and Kiley knows 4 of them. When I called yesterday to see about attending the meeting tonight, Kiley began to cry and beg. I got all the info and then went up to talk to Kiley. When I asked her why she was crying and didn't want to do Girl Scouts anymore she gave me the answer of "I just don't want to". I do not allow answers like this. Anytime she tells me "because" or "I don't know" I make her go up to her room and think about it. When she has written down the real answer she can come down and we can discuss it. So, after some though, she came down and said that she had two reasons. 1) she would be shy because she doesn't really play much with those girls. I told her that her best friend Erin is in the class. 2) She told me she doesn't have any badges and she doesn't want to be in a "race" and lose. I told her that the leader said we could bring home the book and complete the tasks and earn the badges (there is only 3 she doesn't have) and I finally figured out that by "race" she meant selling cookies. She watched this show the other day where two girl scouts were competing to see who could sell the most cookies. I assured her that everyone gets the badge (if there even is a badge for that) and that it is not a competition like that. I told her that they sell cookies to raise money so that their troop can do more activities and even selling one box of cookies is an accomplishment. Plus, we would have no trouble selling cookies. We would buy some, our families would, Chad would take them to work, we have great neighbors to buy from her, and of course she could sell them at church if she wanted to. I did convince her to attend tonights meeting and I would stay with her. Fingers crossed that she likes it. She is also saying she doesn't want to do gymnastics anymore. I haven't tackled that issue yet, but will this weekend.

On a happier note, I found some pics of the house Chad designed for his cousin. He works right now in health care design, but he does like doing custom home design. It's not as profitable, I guess. The architect for a custom build usually gets 6% of the cost, so this would have earned him $36,000. He didn't charge anything for it though. He has done two other homes in Omaha and they are also beautiful homes. He likes this kind of work, but he said when he opens his own firm (someday) he will not do home design, it's just not worth the amount of work. He will do our home though!

We finally have some neighbors. They bought the house next to ours that was foreclosed on. We are still waiting for the foreclosure across the street from us to be bought. It's only $259K, but does need about 40K in work. It could be amazing though. We looked at it and wanted to buy it, but it didn't have 4 bedrooms upstairs and that was a must have for us. I hope that the people who do buy it will be fun and let us come over and swim in the awesome in ground, heated pool. The new neighbors next to us are really great. They bought the house for 180K (pennies in Denver) and have put about 30K into it. The man, Jeff, is a tradesman. He can do anything. I mean anything. He gutted the house and completely remodeled the main level. It's a ranch, so it's about 1000 sq. ft. smaller than ours, but it looks really nice inside. We are going over there for dinner on Sat. Jeff and his wife, Dell, are our age and they have an 11 year old daughter, Sabrina. We talk to them almost daily. Chad has helped him with some of the projects in his house and loaned him some of our architecture and design books. Jeff came over on Monday and cut down one of our trees and trimmed the tree in the backyard. He is going to help us do some work this summer with the landscaping in the front and backyard. It's pretty awesome having great neighbors that are so much fun. I foresee many, many BBQ's this summer. We have some plans for the front yard first. We are going to pull up some of the landscaping to make a full third car space in the driveway (currently it's only about 3/4 a space and not big enough for a larger vehicle, but there is a full space behind the fence.) We are also going to remove one tree and put in a smaller tree, maybe a sugar maple. Eventually, we want to rip out the rose bush in front of our living room window and extend the patio all the way across and put up a nice white railing. The backyard's plan is to rip out some fruit bushes and a tree and put in an area to install our play set. We also want to put in a hot tub in the back corner of the yard.

2010-02-18T09:47:00.000-08:00

This is the other side of our yard. Our plan for this area (the back corner with the bench and lattice) is to put some stepping stones across the yard from the sidewalk and put a hot tub in that corner. The sidewalk turns into a 3rd parking spot behind our fence. You can't see it in this pic though.

The fence that Creighton is standing in front of is a small fence that keeps the fruit bushes safe. I want to remove those and the small tree next to it and make a nice area to put our play set.

This is similar to the play set we got the kids. Ours has a couple more features, but it's similar in size. It is being installed in the spring. I would really like to take out the blueberry and raspberry bushes in our backyard and put up a nice enclosure like this with some gravel. We will need some extra dirt to level off that side of our yard some, but I think it's the plan right now.

This is a pic of the lake that Kiley's school overlooks. It's so beautiful. She goes to a great school. The building is really nice and it's in our neighborhood, about 4 blocks from our house. There is a sidewalk that connects the middle school to the elementary school and in the middle of the two is the soccer field, baseball diamond, football field, and two playgrounds. The school overlooks this lake and a dog park and has a beautiful view of the mtns. DeVinny (her last school out in Lakewood) was the most beautiful because it was nestled in the foothills. Nonetheless, this school is by far way nicer than any school I ever went to.

I have learned to save the balloons until after the presents. This is all that Creighton was interested in and nearly all of my pics of him that night look like this.

Kiley's Valentines Day gift from me and Chad. It's really interesting. I am excited to have some time and read through all of the cards.

Our crazy dog is always sleeping in the most random places. We couldn't find her and she had gotten herself under Cort's bouncer and was sleeping. She is not a tiny dog. She weighs about 45 lbs.

Creighton loves Cort's bumbo seat. Anytime he sees me getting it out, he runs from across the room to sit in it.

He fell asleep again on his play mat.

Baby Cort finally moved to his nursery. I usually wait until 4 months. I don't have that great of a reason. I just like to be close to them at night until I know they can pick their head up. He is taking all of his naps in his crib and is sleeping 6-7 hours at night in his crib. He sleeps 6-7 hours and then wakes up for a bottle around 3am and then usually goes back to sleep until about 6am.

One of Kiley's chores over the weekend was to vacuum the main level of the house. (Chad vacuums the basement and I vacuum the upstairs). Kiley does a pretty good job. Creighton just uses the attachment and follows behind her. It's cute. I vacuum my house every day-well, the main level. We don't allow shoes in the house (except Creighton because he won't take them off), so our carpets stay pretty clean. I only do the upstairs once a week and Chad does the basement once a week.

P90X

2010-02-17T10:46:00.001-08:00

I bought Chad the P90X workout system for Valentines Day. We have both been talking a lot about getting into shape. He is studying for his licensing exams and that is taking up all his extra time right now. He said I should do it first and then he will be even more motivated by my results when he is able to find the time to begin himself. I agree. If I want my husband to get his shape back, I should get mine back as well. As part of our commitment to getting into shape, I allowed him and the kids to go with me to the grocery store to choose healthy foods. He came home with 1 gallon of ice cream, 1 quart of ice cream, ice cream snickers bars, and ice cream big wheels. He is not allowed to go with me anymore. I did the legs and abs workout yesterday and I only made it 1/2 way through and was so tired and so sore. I was okay with that. I just had a baby 4 months ago and haven't worked out in a long time. I will do what I can and stop when my body tells me to. I was telling Chad some of the crazy exercises and I thought he would be surprised that I did them. He wasn't. He said "oh, I used to have to do that daily for hockey practice". I forget he played hockey for so long and was very strong at one time. His lower body is still very muscular, but he has lost a lot of muscle in his arms and stomach. Kiley likes to do the stretching and yoga workouts. She tried legs with me, but gave up after about 15 min. Creighton seems to like the stretching and the abs. He is actually pretty good at sit-ups for a 22 month old.

Kiley-some updated photos

2010-02-17T10:39:00.000-08:00

This is a shirt Kiley got for Valentines Day. She looks so beautiful in yellow.

Kiley has been sleeping like this lately. She has decided that she does not want to make her bed in the morning and it is easier to sleep on the floor. Hmmm....

Creighton's New Shoes

2010-02-15T09:53:00.000-08:00

Creighton is obsessed with his hat and shoes. He was given two new hats at Christmas time and he won't wear either. He has his favorite and it's on him from the time he gets up in the morning until he goes to bed. At nap time, we take his hat off and his shoes and set them on the steps. He gets them and puts them on right when he wakes up. He has the same obsession with his shoes. He loves his brown shoes and is always wearing them. He is, of course, outgrowing this particular pair though. I tried to find a similar pair, but wasn't able to. I bought him these white Nike's and though he would like them. He hates them though...as you can see.

Creighton Dancing

2010-02-15T09:09:00.000-08:00

Creighton loves to dance. He turns on his pillow radio and grooves. Sometimes he has some pretty interesting dance moves. In this video, his dancing is a bit reserved, but still so cute.

She did it again!!

2010-02-10T16:11:00.002-08:00

Well, Kiley cut her hair again-for the third time now. When she was 6, she cut about 4 inches off of one side and part of the back. I cut it into a cute bob cut for her. Then, she wanted it shorter, so she cut it again. I took her in and they had to cut it pretty short. She still looked cute and she got the short hair she desired. Since then, she has been trying to grow out her hair. Kiley's hair doesn't grow fast at all. I noticed the other day that she had some weird thing going on with the side, a chunk of hair was really short-like bangs on the side of her head :) I asked her if she cut her hair and she said yes and that she wanted bangs and layers. I added some side swept bangs for her because she didn't' want real bangs, she wanted them on the side, but not side swept-make sense? Then she wanted layers, which I had to do to disguise the bangs she tried to cut. I kept the length the same, except for a trim and didn't layer the back. In the end, she spent a day being grounded for cutting her own hair, but I fixed it for her and she was happy.

Valentines Day

2010-02-10T16:04:00.000-08:00

Kiley has her Valentines Day party at school tomorrow. We had to sit down together and get the cards ready. It took a long time. Kiley wanted to write each child's first and last name. To speed things up, I signed her name. Then, we had to put a sticker on each one and attach a tattoo. When that was done, we had to tape them and insert the candy. Kiley wanted to get these miniature sports bottles with candy powder inside. The trouble was that they were too heavy to tape to the card. We ended up having to roll up the card and stick the bottle down inside. I am pretty sure the bottles will fall out of most of them by the time Kiley gets to school tomorrow. O'well. Kiley then wanted to individually pick each candy for the person. She based it on their favorite color, if they were a girl, boy, or tom-boy, if they were nice, if they got hurt that week, etc. She put a lot of thought into it. Here she is getting the cards ready. I think we spent about an hour on them.

Creighton and Addison

2010-02-10T11:47:00.000-08:00

Thanks to daddy, we have a full supply of old blueprints to draw on. It's perfect for little ones. Here, Creighton is drawing with his friend, Addison.

Creighton's sock puppets- I really can't offer an explanation

2010-02-10T11:40:00.000-08:00

The other night, Creighton was in his bed. We could see on his video monitor that he wasn't sleeping and was doing something with his hands. We looked closer and saw that he had taken off his socks, put them on his hands, and had them talking to each other. What an imagination! The next morning, he woke up with one sock on his hand and wore it around all day. (The bottom photo). Today, he woke up with both on his hands. Last night, we tried to talk him into letting us was the socks because, after all, he had worn them on his feet 3 days ago...ewww. He refused and put up quite a fight when Chad tried to take them. We gave in, of course. Once he was asleep, we pulled the socks off his hands and threw in a clean pair of socks (the same design). When he woke this morning, he had no idea they were different socks and threw them on his hands.

Finally getting some hair-still no eyebrows though :(

2010-02-10T11:36:00.000-08:00

Baby Cort is 4 months old today! He is the sweetest baby. Recently, he has begun to laugh when we tickle him. We know he still looks a bit like an alien, but he is nearing the end of that phase. He is finally starting to grow some hair. He still has really blond eyebrows though. I think that is the main reason for the alien look.

Church and Valentines Day

2010-02-07T17:36:00.000-08:00

Today was a good day at church. I took some clothes in for one of our members who has two little boys and are struggling right now. The little boy was very excited to have several brand new outfits. Our refugee family that the church sponsored also stopped by. I gave them about 3 boxes full of clothes for the 3 year old, 5 year old, 13 year old, and the mom. Today, one of the little girls was wearing an old outfit of Kiley's. I also bought them $100.00 worth of groceries when they first arrived so they would have food for a week or two. They were very grateful and gave me a big hug. It made me feel very appreciated, although I didn't need that to know I was helping them out tremendously. Kiley made me a Valentines day gift at church. She asked me what I had gotten for her and I told her nothing yet. I do have everyone's gifts, I just don't want her to go searching the house for them. I bought Chad the P90X workout system. I hope he doesn't buy it for me though. He keeps bringing it up and I am not sure how to give him the impression I don't want it without him knowing that is what's in the box that came in the mail the other day. I got Kiley this human body learning toy. She is very interested in the human body and how it functions. It is a doll that is covered in skin. You can take parts of the skin off and see the muscles inside. If you remove the muscle, you can see all the organs. It comes with trivia cards and information cards about the organs and their purpose. It also comes with a real, working stethoscope. I think she will really like it. Everyone always tells her she should be a Dr., but she always says she wants to be a teacher. I bought Creighton some new shoes and a couple outfits. He loves shoes. It's so nice to have a child that only wants practical gifts. I bought Cort a large stuffed monkey. Creighton will probably take it, but o'well. The kid's Grandma Kriss (Chad's mom) bought them all large pillow pets. Kiley is getting a dolphin, Creighton is getting a monkey, and Cort is getting a lion. They are really cute. My mom is sending all the kids money, but she also got them gifts. Kiley is getting a Zhu Zhu pet and a CD. Creighton is getting a truck and two outfits, and Cort is getting a book and some outfits. They will be very happy. I think we are running out of space for toys though. Might be time to make a substantial donation again.

Valentines Day

2010-02-06T20:06:00.000-08:00

Kiley brought home a sheet from school for the Valentines Day party on Friday. I asked her what she wanted to do for her box. She said "I will just color a tissue box". Not very creative. I talked her into doing something a bit more elaborate.

Kiley

2010-02-06T20:02:00.001-08:00

Kiley had a PJ dance for her elementary school on Friday. She went with one of her friends, Haley. Of course, Kiley has outgrown the really cute matching pj's and now usually wears some drawstring or yoga pants and a long sleeve shirt to bed. This was the best we could do for a pajama ensemble that actually looked like pj's and not an outfit. The girls had a fun time. Haley's dad took them to the dance and then dropped them off to our house and Haley stayed the night. The girls played in the basement (Kiley is standing in front of our basement door) and then went to bed. They were very quiet upstairs and watched a movie. I am not sure what time they fell asleep, but I would guess around 11:30. They had a really good time.

Baby Cort

2010-02-06T19:56:00.001-08:00

I think that Cort has begun to associate this play gym with sleep. Within minutes of me putting him down to play, he is asleep. This has happened so many times.

Creighton at the Dr. office

2010-02-06T19:50:00.001-08:00

Well, thanks to my sister Tricia, Creighton has a new favorite accessory. He has always worn a hat. Everyday, he has a baseball cap on from the time he gets up til the time he goes to bed. He keeps his hat and shoes on the steps and we get them first thing. Now, we also include these sunglasses. I wasn't sure how he learned to wear them on the brim of his hat. I did eventually figure out that they are too big for him to keep on his face, so he has to wear them like this. People laugh at him when I take him out to run errands with me. He is cute though.

My new hobby

2010-02-06T19:39:00.001-08:00

I have found a new hobby. I like to look at thrift stores for used pieces of furniture and refurbish them. I am not usually one for thrift stores, but we stumbled across a really neat one out by our house. I found an old dresser for $20.00. It was in pretty rough condition. It was an antique white with stickers on it and someone had colored on it with markers. I liked the style a lot though. It's very old. On the inside of the drawers are some kids signatures with dates back to the 1950's. I painted it and put on some new hardware and it looks awesome and it is perfect for Cort's nursery. It will also be good if our next one is a girl, it will match her nursery as well. The kitchen set is actually a b-day gift to Creighton. He loves to play with the play kitchen at church and at home he is constantly setting the kids table with dishes and food. At first, we thought it was Kiley because it was so orderly, but then we caught Creighton doing it. I found this sturdy, but pretty used kitchen set at the thrift store for $10.00. I painted it some more masculine colors and I am going to put a hook on each side and hang a oven mitt and a pot. We are also getting him some pots/pans/food etc. for his b-day to stock this little kitchen. He will like it.

Kiley- What to do...what to do...

2010-02-04T11:15:00.000-08:00

Well, it's official. Kiley is growing up. Lately, her friends have been calling her non-stop. The calls begin to come in about 5 min. after we walk in the door from school and they don't stop until well into the evening. I am new to this, so it took me 2 days to finally come up with an appropriate plan for her age. I told her that she has to do her homework before she can accept any calls. She has always done her homework right away so that she is done and doesn't have to worry about it when we are eating dinner or getting the kids to bed. Once her homework is done, she can take 1 fifteen minute phone call. If she has chores to do, she can do them after the 1 call. She is then allowed to either take another 15 minute call or to make 1 fifteen minute call. No calls are allowed after 5:30 pm. I want to give her some freedom, but still provide a lot of structure for her. I can tell that some of these kids who call 10 times in a 3 hour period don't have a supervising adult at home. We always eat dinner between 5:30 and 6pm together, as a family. The kids take their baths between 6:15-6:45 and get ready for bed, which is at 7pm. Kiley is allowed to stay up until 7:30 in her room. She usually reads or talks to me about school. At 7:30, we turn out the lights and she is usually asleep by 8. I am also trying to make decisions that will help me once she is a teenager. I think she knows that dinner as a family is important and there will only be a couple of nights that she will be allowed to miss that. She knows that her homework has to be done before anything else. She gets grounded if she is disrespectful. She has chores, but also gets an allowance for doing them. She also gets money for good grades and gets grounded for bad grades. I just want to stear her in the right direction when she is older and I have to start laying the groundwork for that now. Kiley has a PJ party to go to at her school on Friday. She is going with one of her friends. A few of the other girls in her class were upset because they couldn't take her. It's silly, but I try to take her issues seriously because I know they are a big deal to her. She seems a little bit more mature than some of her friends. I think this next year is going to be a learning experience for both of us.

Some of my favorite pics of the kids

2010-02-04T10:42:00.001-08:00

These are all of Kiley and Creighton before I set up this blog. There are none of Cort because I have been posting his pics since he was born. I can't explain the formatting of these photos. My blog has a mind of it's own.

Cortlind Sawyer Shaffer

2010-02-04T10:34:00.000-08:00

This happens often. I put him on this floor mat to play and I go do something for a couple minutes. When I come back, he is sleeping. It must not be that entertaining of a toy for him :)

Creighton Walker Shaffer

2010-02-04T10:20:00.000-08:00

Creighton was in a time-out in these first photos. He doesn't need to be disciplined often because he is SO well behaved...typically. He was having an off day and was really tired-not to excuse his behavior-so he had to take a time-out and relax. He had been vacuuming and became upset when I decided to put the vacuum away after 20 min. He vacuums several times a day and I really don't mind. Each time, I just have him do a different area. Our vacuum is also an air purifier. In 20 min. it will completely replace all the air on one level with clean air. It also deodorizes as it does this. The filter inside is supposed to be made to catch the smallest of viruses. I usually put a few drops of a fragrenced oil in the deodorizer and it makes my whole house smell good. Our vacuum has many functions including: vacuum, air purifier, carpet shampooer, deodorizer, wet-dry vac (shop vac), leaf blower (yes, leaf blower!), drain unclogger (that's probably not the right word), duster and more. I can't even tell you the cost of this because it was so ridiculous, but it comes with a 100 year warranty that is transferable to our kids (yep, it was expensive enough that we included it in our will) and is made out of steel and commercial grade materials so it will never get damaged. It's pretty impressive. Creighton loves to vacuum with it and I don't mind at all. In the lower photos, Creighton was fixing my basement door. When he is not cleaning, he is usually fixing something. I think he will grow up to be a very useful kid.