And....the rest of the story

So we left off last time just before the kids Birthday party. We had it at a little place called Monkey Bizness. The kids had a great time and got way too many presents. We went with a monster theme so that it would suit both boys and girls. Here are some pcs of the event:

We stayed at home for Thanksgiving this year and had our friends, the Daniel's family, over to share the meal with us. Wes and Mia's real Birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year....we had their party the weekend before. The day after Thanksgiving we always put up our Christmas decorations. The kids really loved decorating the tree this year.

Then, Chris and I got all fancied up for my company Holiday party. We were fortunate enough to talk our friends the Nuetzel's into taking Wes and Mia for the night so that we could stay downtown after the party. It was held at The Brown Palace.....very nice!!

 Also, with December brought back our family's elf on the shelf Chippy. He was a very mischievous elf and had lots of fun getting into all kids of thing around our house....

We spent Christmas this year back in Chris' hometown of Florissant MO. Got to catch up with all the relatives and swung by Farmer Skip and Beth's house too. Thanks to everyone for helping to make a memorable holiday! And thanks to Skip and Beth for saving us that big beam....can't wait to get that puppy up in our living room. Shoot....I have pics from Christmas on my other camera and the stinking battery is dead!!! Seriously, it's like every time I try to get something accomplished a road blocks gets put in the way. Well, guess I need to charge the camera and next time I will put some shots of Christmas. In the words of Charlie Brown.....Good Grief!!

New Computer.....Wish I Knew How To Use It Better

I know, everyone has been bugging me to do an update. The delay had been due to a severely out of date computer. We got a new one around Christmas and I just haven't had the urge to sit a write. I am home with sick kiddos so I thought I'd get on here and bring everything up to date. Only problem is I can't get some of the photos off of my camera. I'll have to get back on this weekend when Chris is home so he can tell me what the heck I am doing wrong. Gotta love technology! Every year I feel like I am falling farther behind with all of it....I should probably just ask one of the kids to take a look. At 7 they seem to be able to get stuff to work before I do.

We left off last time with the kids starting 1st grade. They both have some really great teachers. Learning all kinds of cool stuff and both doing really well. During the first month of school they did a fun run to raise money for new playground equipment. Here is a pic during the race:

Then over Labor Day weekend we traveled back to St Louis for Chris' parents 50th wedding anniversary. It was a fun evening seeing everyone celebrating. Congrats Pat and Ron!

Before we knew it Halloween was upon us. We carved some pumpkins and did trunk or treat at the kids school. I have to say, their school does a really great job on this and everyone enjoys it. Chris and I went as vampires and the kids were a candy corn princess and some star wars character that I sadly forget the name of.

The kids played soccer all during the fall as well. Our last game was I think the first weekend of November. Chris coached again and one of the other dads from last season helped. It's so crazy how much different the kids looked playing this time around. Soccer starts back up near the end of March. Looking forward to seeing the kids play!

That's all I have for now. Will pick up the rest of the story this weekend. I need to get the pics of the kids birthday party off of my camera to continue......stupid technology!! More to come soon :)

The Mother of all Make-up Posts

Hello everyone! We had a spectacular summer and hope you did too. Sit back and get comfy, cause this is gonna be a long one to make up for the last 3 months. Enjoy!

So the last we spoke the kids were getting ready to finish up soccer for the spring season. They started out really strong, but I think they were all sick of doing soccer every weekend. All of the kids on our team improved greatly over the course of their play. I think we won half and lost half of the games...not too bad considering none of our players had played before. We are actually getting ready to start the fall season of soccer this next week. Last season we had 6 players, and this fall we have 8. Many (5 of the 6) players are returning to be a Turf Monster again. Looking forward to seeing what they can do this time around. Here is a pic of the spring team after their last game:

At the begining of June Wes and Mia finished off their last day of Kindergarten. I can't believe what a baby I was about the whole thing. I told myself I wouldn't cry.....yeah right! Hell, I'm tearing up right now just thinking about it. We went to their little school celebration and then we headed out for lunch. Here are a few pics from that day:

Shortly after the end of school we waited for the perfect night to do some camping in the backyard. It seemed we waited several weeks before we had a weekend without rain/thunderstorms. We had a very weird wet spring/summer here this year. We lit a fire that night and made smores, then the kids and dad settled down for sleep in the tent.....I stretched out in the bed with a glass of wine and my ipad.....mommy LOVES camping in the backyard night!

At the end of June we were fortunate enough to get invited to a wedding in the mountains. We decided to make a long weekend of it and stayed several night in Steamboat Springs CO. What a beautiful little town! We had a nice little get away....here are a few pics from the weekend:

The day we drove back down from Steamboat, Deb and family were also in town. We all went to Coors Field and caught the ballgame between the Cards and the Rockies. The Cards dominated the game and won:

Starting at the end of May through the middle of July both the kids played baseball on a team called the Riverdogs. It was an amazing transformation to see them learn the game....they were both much improved in their skills the last couple of games. Poor Mia kept getting hit by pitches almost every game. We were like "really, does the only girl on the team have to be the one that keeps getting hit." That experience kinda messed her up for a while, but we pushed through and by the end she was back to hitting like a pro. Wes really liked to pitch and Mia really liked to catch:

Over the summer we managed to get the rest of the floors finished on our main level. Chris worked hard to knock out those last 2 rooms. I can't believe how different our house looks with the darker floors.Here is a pic of the dining room as Chris was installing:

At the end of July we headed out for another long weekend getaway. This time we went out of state out to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park. What a great trip it was! South Dakota is only about 6 hours drive from Denver. It was beautiful and not crowded. And to top it all off, we stayed at a hotel that was attached to an indoor water park!! We will definitely head up that way again, as we did not have enough time to see all of the stuff I wanted to see.

Chris and I both celebrated our birthdays at the begining of August. We celebrated Chris' birthday with dinner out and a desert smorgasboard! I celebrated my day with my dear friend Deni. She came out for a visit and I ran her poor butt off helping me redo some of the decor in the house. Deni is super good at coming up with cool decorating stuff. Sadly, I did not get a pic of us together :( I can't believe that! Anyways, I am attaching a few pics from the Denver Botanic Gardens. It was the one relaxing thing we did during her visit out here. They had a special Chihuly exibit....which is really cool blown glass staged throughout the gardens:

Finally, to wrap up the summer, Wes and Mia started 1st grade. They have been going for 2 weeks now and absolutely love it. Their teachers seem very nice and we are looking forward to what the school year brings :)