Denver - a little late

So here are my Denver pictures - and there are a lot of them and I could have done a lot more! It's so hard to decide.





On Saturday we went to a wonderful park, that even has a little train. How fun! (pictured: Levi, in front; Katie, Miles, and Lexi - from left to right; and Uncle Kenny in back).


On Sunday we visited the Littleton Historic Farm. It's a lovely place to just walk around and see old buildings, some animals, etc.








Here is Ben putting Jonas on a cow. Mooooooove.

















My other husband.



















Ben and Jonas inside an old schoolhouse.









Yes Miles is doing what you think he's doing. Yes, he is weird.

A family photo.

The Coneheads

All kids need is a little creativity and look what they come up with - loads of fun! They all had a great time in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard and with all their fun "toys."

From left to right: Melanie, Josh, Claire, and Miles (cousins).

Claire and Jonas sending "messages" to each other via the cone-phone.

Before heading out on Monday we stopped by Jim and Diana's friend's home. They have all sorts of creatures there - snakes, lizards, tarantulas, etc. Lucky for me Jonas was too antsy and wanted to just walk around everywhere, so he and I just went out and played. Miles loved touching the snake - I was real surprised at that! It was fun.

It was really great to "meet" the Hudsons - Ben's sister Debbie, husband Kenny, and great kids Katie, Melanie, Josh, and Claire. Miles still talks about them and often pretends he is Katie, Jonas is Melanie, I'm Claire, and Ben is Josh.

Here are some sweet pictures of Aunt Debbie and Cousin Katie reading to the kids.

A Remarkable Thing Happened Yesterday. . .

Miles actually looked AND smiled (at the SAME time) at the camera for me! And even waited for me to take a picture. Whoa. Monumental. Huge. Amazing. I was in utter shock.

Seriously, whenever we want to take a picture of Miles we have to beg and plead and beg and plead. Then we might get a nanosecond of a glance towards the camera. Usually it won't include a smile. If it does include a smile, it's a completely goofy one.

So I was pleasantly surprised. And that's why I love this picture.

Explanation of the picture:

A friend brought over some hand-me-downs - mostly toys that we don't have room for. We also ended up with few items of clothing. I thought Jonas' shorts/slacks were quite funy and wanted to try them on. As soon as Jonas was decked out Miles wanted to join the fun. So we got his "new" swim shorts, football jersey, and train-conductor's hat on. Oh, and Jonas put those shoes on by himself. It was hilarious (to me since I'm their mom and they are my life) to see them strutting their stuff - and, yes, they were definitely strutting.

Ben's Baby Shower

Ben was lucky again to have his work throw him a baby shower! I feel silly, but we've had baby showers for each of our kids. Oh well - they are fun and we do get some great stuff. So I won't complain.

The baby shower was for 2 other people, too - another gal at work who is due any day, and another man at work who just adopted a cute little (well, cute and chubby) Korean baby. So it was nice to not have all the attention on us - I hate attention.

When it came close to opening presents, 3 chairs were set out and gifts divided up. I was nudging Ben and telling him to go and open them. His response: no. (He thought it would be a little funny to sit there opening presents while his pregnant wife watched the 2 kiddos.) However, the hosts had already decided that the men were going to open the gifts - Perfect! I was oh so happy.

I hardly saw anything opened because I was watching Miles and Jonas. The shower was at Sonya's house and she has about 1.5 acres with a playset, etc. So the boys had a fabulous time running around and occasionally checking out the gifts. It was a fun evening (thank goodness for cloud-cover) and we're always amazed at how nice people are.

And, YES, I am absolutely excited to have little Grassy Rose -- if for no other reason than to play dress-up with the adorable outfits we got!

Some more pics of the occasion:

The men: Ben (no need to comment on how he is sitting like a girl - he already made that comment himself!), Sherman, and Andrea's husband (can't remember his name!)

Miles - yes it's fuzzy because the kid doesn't stop moving for too long.

Jonas enjoying his new present! Well, okay, Grassy's present. But Jonas doesn't know the difference - at this point.

A Child's Prayer

Miles tonite at bedtime:

"Heavenly Father, thank you for mom. Thank you for her boobs."

And for some reason, I can't remember the rest. Except for "amen" at the end.

Nothing

We spent last weekend up in Denver, staying at Ben's parent's home. Ben's sister and her whole family (1 husband and 4 kids) were there, too, and we haven't seen them in over 3 years and so it was really fun! It's always nice to be with family.

I'm going to wait on posting pictures because we didn't get too many and so I'm going to wait until we get a copy of pictures from Ben's parents. And that might be a while because they are visiting Ben's bro for the next couple weeks. So the pictures might be late, but that's not a problem.

So today was the first day (well perhaps that I can vividly remember) that I really, really, really, wanted to spank Miles! Urrrgh. We were walking back home from the park, had crossed the street and walked down a couple of houses, when Miles demanded that we turn around and go back to the park because he left his stick there (just a stick he'd found walking to the park). I said no and that we are going to head home - I told him we don't bring sticks in our house anyways. And the kid just went. . . ballistic. Seriously. Now I know I am to pick my battles - but sometimes you don't know they are going to battles! I would NOT have picked this battle if I saw how it would be played out, but I really didn't know it would turn so ugly.

So anyways, he is completely insane in my opinion. Screaming, kicking, and not wanting to move forward of course. So I've got Jonas in one hand and am literally dragging/pulling Miles on the grass. It got so bad that I had to throw Miles over my back (while still thrashing around) and hold Jonas' hand and walk back home. I'm sure I was a sight2see: 7 1/2 month pregnant shortie with one kid on her back and another being pulled 5 times his natural speed. Lovely.

So we got home and somehow I managed to strip the kid (the boys played in some sprinkler puddles by the park and were drenched) and then, ummmmm, not-so-nicely place (i.e., toss) Miles in Jonas' crib. Urrrgh. I think he was there for about 30 minutes. He was safe there. :)

When he got out he was banned from touching/playing with any toys - and he did really well with this. I did allow him to look at books - which meant me reading them to him. So I sat and read some books and tickled his back - and he was back to my sweet, little, inquisitive boy.

Oh, PLEASE, do not leave me again!

Good Morning

Well we've had a good morning. A backhoe (joys of joys to my boys) came to our neighbor's front yard to do some "stuff." I wish I knew what that "stuff" was because Miles asked me about every 3 minutes what they were doing - and, frankly, I didn't know. Fixing pipes???? So we went out on the porch and watched for a while as the backhoe dug a big hole.

Then we went out back and the boys were busy pushing their toy backhoes, front-end loaders, and bulldozers all over the yard and parking them in the garage (an empty diaper box). (I feel so smart when it comes to identifying trucks.)

As they were busy driving their trucks, I weeded the garden. I love to weed the garden. I never loved weeding for my mom (sorry mom!), but I love weeding my garden. I think it's because I can see the end result of my labors. It is so nice to work hard at something and actually see the results. I think that's why motherhood is difficult - at the end of a hard day's work, my boys will still whine, cry, take each other's toys, forget to say thank-you or please, etc. Yes, I know they are learning every day (for example, Miles constantly asks now to say the prayers!), but it is just hard to see an "end result" at the end of the day. That's why I love projects, I think.

Anyways, here are some pics of our good morning:

After we came in from the backyard, the boys sat down again to watch the backhoe still at work.

Warning: the scarecrow is a little SCARY. haha. But here is our growing garden.

A closer-up view of mainly the corn plants. Behind the corn we have 2 tomato plants, basil, corn, and beans.

The other side of the garden - here we have 3 tomato plants, zucchini plants, peppers, cucumbers, pumpkins on the back row, and then sunflowers along our fence.

So another reason to come (if not move) to Montrose: to eat some yummy, fresh garden food.

A Few of My Favorite Things

So maybe this will become a weekly post - on my favorite happenings/sayings of the week. Maybe it won't. We'll see how it goes.

But today I had 2 favorite things:

Jonas -
So we went to story/craft time at the library today. Usually Miles sits down on the floor and I sit on some surrounding chairs trying to hold Jonas and keep him entertained. I guess I was doing a poor entertaining job and so Jonas really wanted to get down. So I took him to the back of the room and sat down with him. He wouldn't have it. He started moving - and rather than make a huge scene by pulling him back to me, I thought I'd see first what he'd do. Well, he walked around the room, found Miles, and sat next to him. I LOVED it.

Miles -
We went on a lovely evening walk today - during a light rainstorm. We had found some plum-like things from some trees and the boys decided to carry their's for the walk (the Big Boy - not Miles or Jonas - had to throw his plum-things at a stop sign). Well when we were at our house we told them they had to throw them - Jonas threw his and to encourage Miles I told him we'd have a contest to see who could throw the farthest. Well Miles won. So as we were walking inside I said, "Wow, are you going to be a baseball player???" He said no and so I asked what he wanted to be when he was bigger. His reply: "I want to be a daddy. Mommy's daddy." I knew he meant Ben by this (tho' he does love his grandpa's very, very much). I explained that mommy's daddy was Grandpa G. and that his daddy was my husband. So then he said he wants to be mommy's husband. He went up to Ben and told him that "I want to be you, daddy." SO cute.

All it takes are moments like these to make all the tantrums, whines, fights, etc. worth it.

Come For a Visit

So we've been doing a little bit of stuff to improve our "curb appeal." Not because we are selling our house, but because we want to enjoy our house more. Little things make a big difference to me - like last nite I put in some pantry shelf liners and feel much better about our pantry. I love the little, cheap things we can do to make our home just a tiny bit better.

So here's what we did to the porch: last summer we painted the top of the columns black. Then last week we painted some boards black and sawed them and added them to the bottom of the columns. We made some little fence thing around where some wild flowers might eventually bloom (we actually have gotten some blooms in the past 2 days). We made the window box last year - I need new flowers in there. Then we bought those flower planters at a garage sale a month or so ago. They were antique-looking in their natural wood state, but it looked too washed out on our porch. So we painted them black. Then Ben finally (!) finished my birthday present - the lovely red porch chair. I LOVE it. (And don't worry, i knew i would be getting it 2-3 months after my birthday.)

And I think that's it. We think it might be a little too much - but I think we'll leave it like that for the summer at least.

Hopefully our porch is SO inviting you all will want to come for a visit now!

Lake City

Differnt camping trip, same people, similar adventures:





Lake City is just a beautiful area! I can't wait until the day when we can actually explore the area and hike in it, etc. But for now we just played and fished in the river and lake.

Ben waded across the river with the 2 boys to show them the Beaver House.






How beautiful - my family, that is!











I saw an idea from Family Fun for a scavenger hunt - paint colors on an old egg carton and then find things in natures of the same color. So we tried it out. Miles did really well, but I think it will be better when he gets older. But it was still fun and neat to see how many colors in nature we could find










We tried fishing at the lake, too, since we didn't have any success at the river.
I was successful in catching our only catch - a white sucker (or something like that). Ben thought it was SO ugly that he didn't even want to touch it. But I knew Miles would like it, so I made Ben do it. I just didn't know that Miles would LOVE the fish. Gosh, kissing the fish???? I don't even get a kiss from that kid! Sheesh, what's a mom gotta do??



Jonas had a fun time at the lake - playing in the water. It was a perfect location - one where both Ben and I could fish at the same time, while still watching the kids. It was grand.

July Fourth

We had a fun time watching the parade (we did this same trip last year). We get so much candy - it's like Halloween! I think that's all the boys cared about - well, at least Miles. Sure the horses were neat, the firetrucks cool, but dang a LOLLIPOP! Way better!
After the parade we hung out in town. Our first stop was the carousel - Miles had been asking about it ever since he saw it while driving thru town! And, ummmm, it looked like he wasn't disappointed!









So the campout was good. It's a lot of work and still consists of constant parenting, but at least we're in the beautiful mountains, even if we're still surrounded with the same howlings of our kids. . .

Window Treatments

So my sister first introduced me to the term "window treatment." I had no idea what she was talking about. I think I had mentioned making some curtains for our windows in Grand Junction, but never did I mention anything about cleaning them or something!

Then she explained that window treatments are window curtains. Oh, then call them curtains.

So she helped me sew my first curtains back in our rental home in Grand Junction. I then made some curtains in our first home in New York. And it's taken me a while, but I finally made some window treatments (I've matured now and call them window treatments) for our home here.

Here they are for the big windows:

At first I thought these would turn out pretty lame and plain. But I like how they actually turned out when "folded" up and tied with ribbon. It's a pain to do it, but oh well! All I had to do for these were sew up the sides and wah-lah! Nothing complicated about it - that's why I was able to do it.

Then here is what I finished up tonite, for our small little window:

This is an "hourglass curtain." Now my mother-in-law gave me instructions for making these - but unfortunately she didn't come with the instructions. So I was at a total loss! I seriously can not understand instructions for the life of me. When I finished up the big window treatments I thought, "Hey, maybe it would be fun to make some cute things for the baby." Ehhh, no. I can't follow a pattern. So I winged A LOT with this curtain - and it all worked out.

Anyways, as you can tell from the windows, it is dark outside and I must be going to bed.