Dancing the day away!

Emily and Katelyn had their first dance recitals this week.  Katie is in the preschool combo and Emily is in the tap/ballet 1 class.  They were sooo adorable!!  They love their dance classes and their teacher, Farrah, is AWESOME!  My little babies are growing up so fast.  I posted the videos of their dances on Facebook so I won't post them here too.  It takes a long time!

Lately my kiddos have all been so excited for Christmas they are bordering on insanity, which makes my job that much more fun...especially when my hubby is working a ton of hours and was out of town this week!  I'm glad they don't get out of school until Wednesday next week.  They are like on a permanent sugar-high without the sugar!  It just keeps life interesting, right?
I have all my shopping done but I still have to finish sewing my girls aprons and I have to convert a train table into a LEGO table as soon as all of the new base plates come in the mail, which should be any day now.  Then I had to plan and organize Brandon's class party for next week so I have to finish getting some things ready for that and I have to take treats for Katie's class and plates and napkins for Emily's class.  Then I need to take some goodies to a bunch of people and wrap all the presents I bought.  You know how it is...there's never enough time in the day to get everything done but we try anyways!  Merry getting ready for Christmas!  Only a week until Christmas Eve!

They're coming out!

Well, it's official.  Emily will be getting her tonsils and adenoids removed on January 7th.  They wanted to do it in late November or early December but I decided if we have to pay her full $1500 deductible we're going to do it in January so it will be paid for a full year.  She is already pretty nervous about it and she will miss a week of school, but that shouldn't be too hard to make up in kindergarten.  Hopefully she will feel a lot better after it's all done!  The doctor said she might be less emotional too, which I am really hoping for.  She is by FAR my most emotional child!  They said her tonsils are so big she probably isn't getting into a deep sleep at night and she is chronically sleep deprived, which makes her more emotional.  We'll see how it goes! 

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween this year.  It was crazy busy that whole week but it was a blast.  I am the room mother for Brandon's class so I got to plan his whole party.  Then for Emily's class I was in charge of doing one of the games so we did the mummy wrap game with the toilet paper.  Then I got to help out at Katie's party too, which she absolutely loved!  Then we had a trunk-or-treat at the church and Brandon had a good time helping me decorate the back of the van.  There was a big party at the farm and my kiddos played there for a little while but we couldn't stay too long because we had to go home and get things ready for Katie's birthday party.

Douglas entered me in the chili cook-off at his work again this year and I won first place.  That's two years in a row now!  Then we had a chili cook-off at the church trunk-or-treat and I tied for first place there too!  Woohoo!  Too bad I'm not a huge chili person, huh? 

Since our sweet little Katie is a Halloween baby that only makes the holiday that much busier!  We did her party the night before so it wouldn't interfere with people going trick-or-treating.  I can't believe my baby is 4 years old already!!!  Where did the time go?  She is such a fun kid with her spunky personality.  She keeps me laughing all day long! 

Grand Witches Council Scavenger Hunt!

Our friends, Wil and Kim, did an awesome scavenger hunt this year for Halloween.  It was a lot of fun and Douglas and I won!  We got the amazing golden broom :)  It was raining all night so we were soaked and covered in mud by the time we got done but it was fun. 

A trip to the museum!

My sister and I took my kids to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science this week.  The kids had a lot of fun looking at all the cool stuff there!  They especially loved the dinosaurs!  It was hilarious watching them during the IMAX 3D movie because they kept trying to reach out and grab the fishes.  They got to see the Space Odyssey exhibit, the mummies, the Amazon exhibit, the wildlife stuff, the dinosaurs, the giant bugs, and so much more!  It was a fun way to celebrate their fall break.  By the way, what's with the fall break?  We never got a fall break.  That would have been nice to get a week off in fall too...

Hannah's phone disappeared while we were at the museum and we couldn't find it anywhere.  I felt sooo bad because she was being so nice helping me out and then she lost her phone :(  Luckily they found it hours later though!!!!  YAY!!!!! 

My how time flies!!!

I absolutely love and adore my children.  Some days though between soccer practice, dance classes, cheerleading clinics, birthday parties, volunteering at school, toothpaste on the ceiling, juice on the couch, more laundry than one person could EVER do, and everything else that come along with my children I feel like pulling my hair out!  You know you did this to yourself on purpose but just can't seem to remember why...?

Then you have one of those moments when you are tucking them into their snug little beds and they hug you and say, "Mom, this was the best day ever and you are the best mom in the whole world."  Or when they say, "Mom, you are the best peanut butter sandwich maker ever."  Then you remember why you do this day in and day out constantly sacrificing everything that you have and are for the sake of your sweet little angels that you just couldn't live without.  They are my joy and my purpose in life.  I LOVE my kiddos!

 
I can't believe it has already been 7 years since my sweet little Brandon came into my life making me a mommy for the first time.  He truly has a heart of gold.  Sometimes he is almost too nice like when he is playing soccer and he lets the other team take the ball from him so they can have a turn too.  He is always trying to make everyone around him happy and he has a cutest darn smile I've ever seen!  He is an amazing boy!

These are the kids that came to Brandon's birthday party this year.  He has a lot of really good friends!  What a lucky boy!

Emily did the Windsor Junior Cheerleading clinic this year.  She thought it was the coolest thing ever!  She was so cute learning the dance and cheer and it brought back so many memories of the "good old days".  It was a lot of fun watching her perform at the football game.

Emily's good friend, MacKenzie, was in cheerleading with her :-)















Katie started preschool because a spot opened up at the school by our house.  She is so happy to be able to go to the "big kid school" like Brandon and Emily.  She rides her bike to school everyday just like the other kids do.  She is my little ham having to be the center of attention everywhere she goes but she is a lot of fun to be around!

School is Back!!!!

School is back in session!  My kids are so happy to be back in school (at least for now).  We have a lot of fun walking to school together but since I have to go in there three times a day it's wearing me out!  Brandon is loving being at school all day and Emily  loves being able to meet some friends that are girls for a change.  She can't believe that they actually get to play every time they go to P.E.  I forget how exciting it can be to learn new things and find joy in the simple things in life.  Maybe I need to be a little more like my kids and not so much like a boring mom sometimes...

Where did summer go???

School starts next week....WHAT???  Where did summer break go?  We had a busy last week trying to squeeze in those last few things we wanted to get done.  Last weekend we took the kids to the Ault Fall Festival Parade, which I think was a little better this year than the last time I went.  The kids love all the big tractors and equipment they get to see. 




Then we went to Elitch's this week for the first time with our kids now that they are all big enough to ride all the kid rides.  They had an absolute blast!  We went with Justin, Jamie, Lexi, and Hayden, which made it more fun.  The kids rode all the kid rides and then we went to the water park and then they rode the rides all over again.  I was surprised at how well they did!  Plus, we got to meet Bob the Builder!  (okay so that wasn't exactly my favorite part of the day but I will always remember the cheesy singers in that show!)


The next day I took the kids to Windsor lake for a few hours so they could play in the water and we made sand castles together.  We had to stop at the dollar store on our way to get more buckets and shovels and water toys because apparently we didn't have enough.  At least we ended up with plenty of stuff to share with our friends. 


Then the next day the kids had their ice cream social at school to meet their new teachers.  We were worried Brandon didn't know anyone in his class but he will sit right next to a girl from his kindergarten class and right across from a boy that was on his soccer team so he is really excited. 
Emily can't wait to start school and it's  killing her that kindergarten doesn't start until Wednesday when everyone else starts on Monday.  I'm pretty sure she'll survive though.  She starts dance on Wednesday too.  Katie is excited to do preschool with her friends and she was so happy to get her tap and ballet shoes I thought she was going to cry.  She is excited to have a lot of time alone with mommy to be my big helper!


By the way, Emmy asked me how many days until Christmas this morning, which I thought was a little random, but then she is my daughter.  So, in case any of you are wondering, Christmas is in 134 days :o)

Camping at Hermit Park

This last weekend we had our 3rd annual family camping trip to Hermit Park.  The kids absolutely love going there and they ask for it all year long!  We had a great time!  Douglas and I got a lot of practice using the dutch ovens, which was a lot of fun.  We made chili and cornbread and blueberry cobbler the first night, then a yummy breakfast with hashbrowns, eggs, sausage, and cheese.  Then for dinner the next night we did a potatoes and ham dinner with peach cobbler.  So yummy!  Then of course we had to do banana boats and smores, because it's just not a proper camping trip without those!  Brandon was our little fire bug who made sure the fire never died out on us.  Katie was terrified to go poop in the porta-potty for some reason but she eventually had to get over it.  Emily got strep a few days before we went so I was glad she was feeling better by the time we left so she could enjoy it. 

We got home Sunday afternoon and seriously like five minutes after we got home we got a horrible hail storm at our house.  The kids thought it was awesome and they ran out to fill cups with hail balls to keep in the freezer when it was over.  Our poor garden didn't do too well though...oh well.  It hailed for almost 20 minutes and the hail was about an inch in diameter.  Our fence is covered in dents from the hail so it was hitting pretty hard.

Our next adventure will be school starting in less than two weeks!  I can't believe two of my three are already in school.  We still have a couple of fun things we want to try to get done before school starts like maybe a trip to Elitches but we'll see if it happens.  There's still a lot to get done before school starts and the girls start dance classes right around that same time.  Brandon is signed up for fall soccer too so we are jumping right back into everything!  Never a dull moment around here!

Emily turned 5!!!!

I can't believe it has already been five years since I had my sweet Emily.  The doctor's office told me I was going to the hospital for some imaging studies on the baby to make sure everything was okay because I was having a lot of pain but they said it wasn't a big deal and I just had to go over sometime during the day.  When I got there the doctor yelled at me for taking so long to get there because apparently he had been waiting to do an emergency C-section on me because my uterus was about to rupture.  I think there was a slight mix up in communication somewhere along the way but at least she got to us safely.   She has always been such a sweet child and she has a very tender heart. 

She wanted a castle cake this year for her birthday so I made her the best one I could.  She absolutely loved it.  It took me a LONG time to put together but it was worth it in the end.  I used the Wilton Romantic Castle cake set that I bought at Michael's.  I started with making all the flowers a few days ahead of time so they had plenty of time to set up.  Then I covered the tops of the turrets and the roof with fondant and rolled them in sugar sprinkles.  I also decorated the turret windows with royal icing they day before so they had time to set up.   The night before I baked the cakes, frosted them, stacked them, and put the flowers around the top edges.  The morning of her party I put it all together and it turned out great except that I had to use hot glue to glue the dowels to the turrets instead of melted candy like the directions said, but it worked perfectly.  All in all it was a great cake!






 P.S.:  I FOUND SOME OF MY FAVORITE COMMERCIALS FROM WHEN I WAS A KID.  HILARIOUS!