Rodeo Parade and Rodeo

This year we were invited to be on my company's float in the rodeo parade. The theme was Bring Your Wild Bunch so we made cardboard cutouts that looked like various bugs and animals. And we had a cow (the son of one of my coworkers) sitting at the back. Of course everyone thought it was the Chick-fil-a cow so the kids watching would get super excited. Oh and we had to dress like rodeo clowns. I don't think I will share those pictures here...... :) It was fun for me and Hailey. She got the pageant wave down pat by the end! Emma didn't smile because she was a little scared to be riding on this trailer with no real seat or stability like a car and Eli and Kayla apparently didn't realize just what they had signed up for to begin with! It has to be said that it was their idea to do it! I was asked, I asked them and they both got very excited, said yes and promptly got to work on their costumes.

We were given tickets to the rodeo by one of my coworkers that plays a big role in the rodeo even taking place here. I had taken Kayla and Eli only once before and they were both too young to really remember it. They have also changed venue's since then so it is much easier to see the whole thing now. For some reason this town decided to have our rodeo indoors in an arena for a few years but changed it to an outdoor stadium. Which makes a lot more sense! Anyways, I took my 4 kids plus my neighbor's 12 yr old son who was visiting from Houston, TX for the summer. The kid lives in Houston and his dad has never taken him to the rodeo! I couldn't get over it! But I was glad to help him experience his first rodeo! Oh and I didn't mention that our seats were in the front row next to the shoots for bull riding. The kids all had a great time and loved seeing the fireworks at the very end (we didn't get any on the 4th because of budget cuts). It rained on us for a few minutes but the majority of the seating is covered so the little girls and I just moved back a bit. The big kids didn't care that they were getting wet! and the funny thing was that at one point Hailey was on my lap to where she could see the crowd on the opposite side of the arena and started doing her little pageant wave!

Twilight and drinks

I went with a friend and some of her friends to see the movie tonight. Yep, that's right, on opening weekend. BUT our show wasn't sold out thank goodness! I liked the movie. Didn't LOVE it. Just liked it. I really don't like the guy they picked to play Edward. He just doesn't match what I had pictured in my mind. They did do a good job of keeping with the book though. And with getting that 1st book in a 2 hour movie.

Afterwards we went for dinner and then drinks. I think I have found my new drink of choice....chocolate martini. Yum!

Busy day

Man! Today ended up being a not so lazy Sunday for us. It did at least start out slow. But then we went to Eddie and Carla's house and had him cut Eli's hair and Kayla hung out with her friend Janae there. We also got the opportunity to visit with Rosie, who is the lady that babysat Kayla and Eli for 6 yrs! She unfortunately broke her back a few weeks ago so she is staying with them (he is her son). Her first comment when she saw Hailey was "She looks just like Eli"! No surprise there! The girl does look just like her brother! Anyways, Kayla stayed at their house to hang out for a bit. In the meantime, we went to lunch.

After lunch we came home and put Emma down for a nap. She only got to sleep for about an hour before we had to wake her up so that we could go pick Kayla up. We then had to go pick up her friend Kadejah so she could borrow our computer and printer to do her homework. While the girls were working, JR and Eli were grocery shopping. Then we had to take Kadejah back home so we could get home and finish up cooking dinner (pot of beans) and actually eat it! After all was said and done, I didn't actually get to sit and relax until about 9:45! Phew! I think we were all worn out and ready for bed! :)

Leaves!

Today was yet another gorgeous day here in beautiful Colorado! According to my computer the high was 72. Remember, this is Nov 2nd! The only way you can even tell it's fall around here is because the yards and now streets are starting to fill up with leaves. So the kids decided to make the most of it and went outside to play in the leaves. I swear this is the only time of year you will find kids everywhere WILLING to do some yard work! The kids would rake the leaves into a pile and then jump into them or throw them at each other. I think I will be picking leaves out of Emma's hair days! And you should have seen the tub at bath time! I don't know where she was hiding them!

Kayla jumping in

Emma "jumping" in. She is a little too short to jump so it was more like a run.

Eli jumping in. I LOVE this picture. It shows his care-free nature and the smile on his face is priceless.

Eli, Cassidy (lives next door), Kailey (lives across the street and I'm not entirely sure I spelled her name right!), Emma, Kayla and Hailey. The were taking a candy break here!

While this nice weather was good for Halloween and this whole weekend....enough already! We need snow!

Zoo with old friends

As I am sure you have figured out by now, we love the zoo! I think we have the best zoo out of all of the zoo's I have been to. And it's great exercise because there are lots of hills to walk up and down. It is in the mountains after all. So this trip to the zoo was with a friend of mine since 6th grade and her 5 kids. It was an overcast day so it kept it pretty cool up there for us. I took some pictures of all the kids together (minus one) and some cool pictures of the 2 grizzly bears wrestling. That was pretty cool to watch because they reminded me of teenage boys horsing around.

From the left: Christian, Zander, Allorah, Gabby, Sam, Kayla and Emma

This was inside this tree thing that has a bug display and let's you see a better view of the Pumbaa's (warthogs)

Here is a picture of the bears playing....couldn't get any closer because of that head..... :)

This mountain lion was not happy...you can't really tell by this picture but it was growling and hissing. There was a docent down below (outside of the cage) and I am guessing it was talking to her for some reason.

The hippo....it was eating but you can't see it's food.

They have a carousel at the zoo. This thing is from the 1930's and they restored it in the 1990's. I am not kidding you, this is the fastest carousel I have ever been on! So this was Kayla checking out what is holding her on it before the thing started.

This is Emma....by the look on her face she is only just now processing what she is about to do and isn't too sure of it.

I stood between the girls while the thing went so that I could hold on to Emma. And let me tell you, it isn't an option to hold on. If you don't you will go flying off!

So if you did the math, and read my note, you notice that there is no Eli. He and JR went to an air show at the old airport. Too cool!

Zoo trip with friends

We decided to meet up with my friend Valerie and her daughter, also Emma's BFF, Morgan at the zoo. It ended up being a fairly nice day, not too hot not too cold and was overcast so we didn't have to deal with the sun. It was a trip with just us girls because Eli stayed home and hung out with JR.

Emma did actually try to feed the giraffes this time but she was still a bit nervous about it. I don't know that she has a favorite exhibit because she is so quiet as we go through looking at the animals. She must be just taking it all in and one day will know what she loves the most! Of course my favorite exhibit is the primate house. The silver back gorilla is such a fascinating animal to me. I can't wait to see how Hailey will eventually react to everything at the zoo. For now, she just gets to go along for the ride in her stroller!

Kayla and Emma at the cool giraffe exhibit.

Emma checking out the big fat pig in the petting zoo exhibit. She did pet it for a split second and that was enough for her!

Emma and her BFF Morgan

Busy!

It has been a while since I have had the chance to do a post because we have apparently been a little more busy than I realized!

On Friday the 25th was JR's birthday. We took him out to dinner and made him birthday brownies. Though his dad gave him a homemade cheesecake which tasted way better than our box brownies so that really ended up being his birthday cake!

In the meantime, my step brother and his family came home from Alaska (he was in the Army) and was spending the week here before moving on to Delta to live there. So we spent some time with them and went to a couple of parks so the kids could all play together along with his mom and my nephew. My step brother's birthday was the 28th so the entire family plus a couple family friends all went out to dinner. Was fun times for sure!

So now we are just going to take it easy for the next couple of weeks before school starts here. Kayla is very much excited for it, Eli, not so much!

Hailey is getting fatter by the day. I took a couple of pictures that I would have loved to share last night but for some reason my other camera is starting to act up so I lost the pictures! Ugh! She is still waking up twice a night but she is doing good on her routine/schedule. And Emma is still doing great with her. Hailey loves to lay on her brothers chest in the morning after her bottle while I eat breakfast with Emma. And of course Kayla is always a HUGE help with both the girls! I don't know what I would do without her!

Emma is pretty much talking in full sentences now. It is sometimes entertaining to listen to her try to form it. She will repeat the words until they come out sounding just right to her. It may take her 5 tries but until it's perfect she will not quit! And for the most part, you can understand what she is saying. Of course there is still the occasional word that you just can't make out though.

A day at the park with friends

I met up with my friend Jessica at our favorite park here in town, America the Beautiful, so that our kids could play and cool off in the fountain. We have been friends since we were in 5th grade so not only did we basically watch each other grow up but we have watched our children grow up. Jessica has 5 children of her own plus my 4 kids so it makes it a little bit of a challenge to try to coordinate our schedules and get the kids together to play. But we were able to do it on Tuesday afternoon. And boy was it a scorcher! Phew I am done with this heat. It has been in the 90's all week long here which seems too hot for me!

Emma on the big girl swing

Allorah hanging out in her stroller....she doesn't like cold water so she wouldn't play in the fountain

Gabby, Zander and Christian playing in the water

Zander, Kayla, Emma, Christian and Eli playing in the water....not really sure why it is fun because they basically just run around and around the fountain kicking the water...guess you gotta be a kid to appreciate it!

Emma followed Zander every where he went! Made it nice to keep track of her since I just had to look for him and she would be right there!

Happy 4th of July

My sister, brother-in-law and brother were all in town over the last week so we celebrated the 4th at my moms house. We had a BBQ and then went down to their neighbors house to light off some fireworks. JR and Hailey stayed in my moms house because of the noise and excessive amount of sulfur in the air! Emma was either up on the front porch or in Aunt Lorie's arms most of the time because of the noise. JR and I ended up taking the 2 little girls home to go to bed and let the big kids stay with Nana and come home after all the fireworks. It was a little surreal for me to wait until after 11 for my kids to come home! :) Here are a couple of pictures.

Nothing goes together better than fireworks and beer right?!

The kids with their sparklers

Front view of the kids with their sparklers....the girl in the white shirt is the granddaughter of the people who's house we were at

Another Baby Shower

My mom threw me a baby shower yesterday at her house. It was lots of fun and gave me time to catch up with some friends that I didn't realize just how much I missed them! I haven't exactly been a social butterfly since being put on a "rest" order. Hailey got tons of cute little outfits and is definitely set for the summer time! Now I just have to wash everything and we are good to go.

Emma and her friend Morgan - neither one of them were real interested in smiling for the camera

Kayla and Eli - they spent a good part of the time in the pool in the back yard

My friend Jessica and my sister Ayrah

Pretty Emma

Not the best picture of me and it doesn't really show the belly but here it is!

The cake....see below for a really funny story.....

So we weren't sure what this little baby and flower were made out of. It looked alot like marzipan/fondant. So we pulled it off the cake and inspected. Kayla tried to pull one of the leaves out but it wouldn't break. She licked it and swore it tasted like sugar. She even tried to bite into the leaf. Still wasn't happening. So my mom washes the frosting off the bottom......made in China! turns out to be fake and not edible by any means! But it sure did give us a good laugh!

Oh what a Saturday!

We had gorgeous weather on Saturday....temps in the low 70's which is perfect in my mind. And really, in the kids minds too because if they can wear shorts and short sleeve/no sleeve shirts then the weather is perfect! We didn't have a whole lot planned for Saturday which was fine for me. We had a friend, Mark, come down from Boulder and spend Friday night and most of Saturday with us. While JR and Mark went and did some official work the kids and I hung out around the house. The big kids went outside and played while Emma took a nap. Then Eli had a birthday party to go to. After that JR and Mark took all the kids to the park to play soccer. I stayed home because I woke up on Saturday with a sore throat and gradually felt worse as the day wore on. So I took a much needed nap for the time they were gone.

Emma having the perfect warm weather snack....cantaloupe

After dinner the kids and I took a short walk around the block. It had started to get a bit breezy which was making it a bit chilly so we didn't stay out for very long. Good thing we have more beautiful days in the near future so we can take a nice long walk!

Emma on her "walk"....that is one heck of a dirty look on her face!

Eli looking handsome

The kids walking...Emma had enough of her stroller at that point and we were close enough to home so we let her walk for the last part.

Jodi Picoult!

For the last 3 years I have gone to see my favorite author Jodi Picoult in Denver at the Tattered Cover bookstore. She reads parts of her newest book, does a q&a session and then signs books. It changes a little every year as the bookstore gets better and better at organizing these events. I had a minor scare this year as a friend at work asked if I noticed on the bookstores website that it said when you buy the book there, you get 2 free tickets. The info was very vague on the website so I called them in a panic (this was all the afternoon of the signing) to make sure I didn't have to buy a ticket to the event. Which I didn't and I am pretty sure I remember Jodi either saying or writing on her website somewhere that she will NEVER charge for these events. Anyways, I took my friend Jessica along with me since she has never been to anything like this before. The original plan was to go up to Denver, have dinner and then go see Jodi. However, we had to drive through lots of snow and rain and then I missed my exit so we were too late to eat dinner before the event. The place was so packed that we ended up sitting on the floor for the entire evening until it was time for the signing. But it was still a fun night and worth all the trouble to get there!

Slumber Party!

Kayla had her birthday party on Saturday. She had 6 of her friends over for lunch and then it was off to see Alvin and the Chipmunks at the dollar theater (yep we ARE that cheap!). This was Kayla's first time doing anything like that without an adult being with her. But it was a nice pleasant surprise to see my friends husband walk in with his 3 children to see the very same movie the girls were going to! :) It was truly coincidental that they showed up. But nice for JR and I to know that they were there. We ended up with one of the girls going home after the movie because she wasn't feeling well. But this house was crazy for over 12 hours with these giggly, screaming girls running around. They did finally get quiet around 11 last night...but a couple of them didn't fall asleep until 2ish. Emma made a couple of friends along the way. She really wanted to be in the middle of it all whenever the girls were hanging out upstairs. And Eli spent part of the day with Darlin (JR's mom) so he wasn't subjected to girls ALL day! Here are a couple pictures from last night.

From top left: Janae, Kayla, Katy (aunt), Sarah, Jayde and Kadejah

Here comes the cake.....

The girls watching a movie for some "quiet" time

Science Fair!

Kayla had her first ever science fair on Thursday the 7th. Her experiment was to see if plants could grow in different colored light. She got some seeds from Nana and planted them in seperate pots for each different color of light. She used white, red and blue bulbs. And nothing grew! Oh well! That's part of doing an experiment! She was pretty nervous on Thursday because that was her big day to present to the judges. She had already done a trial run and was critiqued by her science teacher earlier in the week but that just isn't the same! She had to dress up and look nice for the event and it lasted from 1:30-3:30 that afternoon. Then they had awards and such later at 6:30 which is what I went to with her. It is fun to see all the different experiments and ideas that these kids came up with. And I love seeing this group of kids because they are so diverse.

Here is Kayla with her board that she spiffed up quite well

Kadejah, Kayla and Jade....bff....and the great thing about these girls is that they go way back to 1st grade and have been friends since then....though not as close as they are this year

Sarah, Kayla and Kadejah....bff

And as I said earlier these kids had to dress up for the presentations earlier in the day....I think at least 90% of these kids went home and PROMPTLY changed their clothes!

Thanksgiving

OK so again I am a little late with this post but this week was a bit crazy....Emma has an ear infection in both ears, Kayla got the stomach flu again, lost internet ability again (touch and go wireless connection), had a date with the girls on Thursday and now here you go.

Thanksgiving came and went quickly this year! We went to my moms house and they cooked up a yummy meal! We made green bean casserole and pumpkin pie and took that over there. We hung out with them for a few hours and that was pretty much the extent of it. We were all too tired to travel all over town....we will save that for Christmas! Kayla actually made the pumpkin pies and she did the majority of the casserole. She loves being in the kitchen and I certainly won't discourage it!



Thursday Sue, Jess C and I went to a church here in town to watch one of the funniest comedian's I have ever seen. Her name is Anita Renfroe and I am sure some of you have seen/heard her song Total Momsense. If not, go check it out on her website. She was on Dr. Phil yesterday (which I missed because I had to work late...bummer). I haven't laughed that hard in quite some time. So much so that by the time I got home I was ready for bed!

Fun in Divide

On Saturday we went to visit some friends that live in Divide, CO for a bbq. They live at the top of a mountain and you have to turn around and getting a running start just to get up their driveway. I certainly wouldn't want to travel that road and that driveway in the winter time! And the wife does it twice a day to come down here to the Springs to work! Anyways, they have a swing attached to a tree and a hammock attached to a tree that makes you feel like you are going to fall off the side of the mountain. So naturally I had to make my kids get on the swing and get a picture of that. They had moved the hammock so it isn't as scary to be on any more. Here are the pics from that.

Here is Eli playing it safe and facing towards the drop off - not as scary this way!

Here he is standing on the swing with the drop off behind him. Can you see how tense he is by the way he is standing? I don't think I have ever seen him so stiff!
Here is Kayla standing on it with her back to the drop off. It didn't freak her out as much.

Emma chilling in the hammock. She started singing to herself and was ready to go to sleep as I pushed her. A girl could get used to this life!

Kayla and Emma in the hammock. Now this is what scared Kayla! Can't you tell by the look on her face? She was afraid of falling the 2 inches to the ground! :)

It was a nice fun day with friends up in the mountains. It did rain and chase us in to the house for a bit but it was nice and cool afterwards! Beats the heat we have been living with down here in the city!