Gratitude

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending a MOPS Summit. It was in Aurora, and lots of MOPS Moms from all over Colorado and some nearby States gathered to listen to amazing speakers and connect with other MOPS Moms. Wow! I was so enlightened, I'm thankful I was given the chance to go. What was even more cool is the live broadcast of the whole event--seen nationwide--was taking place right at our very location here in Denver. Very fun to be a part of the "live audience" and see the actual National President of MOPS and our other fascinating speaker do their thing right in front of us. It was a "leadership" summit, but the insights I gained for my own personal life made it even more special. 

Continuing with the whole MOPS theme, today was our "Tea and Testimony" day at our ACC MOPS. Three of our ladies got up in front of the whole group and shared their Testimony--their summarized life stories--and how God has guided their lives. How brave these ladies are! Everyone has a story to tell and I'm a better person, friend, wife, and Momma as a result of hearing what all these ladies had to say. Yet another inspiring day thanks to MOPS! This group has really made our move to Colorado a better adjustment for me. Thank you to Tami (if you're even reading!) for getting me involved. :) This year of MOPS is coming to an end, but I look forward to the play dates this summer and for everything to start up again next Fall. 

On a similar "gratitude" note, I got to experience an amazing volunteer opportunity through Junior League here. One of my required "Done in a Day" shifts--which sometimes you never know what you're going to get with those--actually turned out to be one of the best things I've ever gotten to do through Junior League. It was at a place that takes in kids of all ages after school into the evening, and provides them with a safe place to go. They get help with homework, play games, learn new skills, and they are given snacks and dinner if they want. I got the privilege of meeting a variety of kids yesterday. My first new friends were a group of 14 year-old girls. They were wanting to start babysitting and were making flyers to advertise themselves. I got to talk to them about what kinds of qualities parents want in babysitters, which then turned into the topic of pregnancy. At first I wasn't sure where to go with it, but then I thought--Wait. These are FOURTEEN year-old girls in a WAY DIFFERENT upbringing, environment, etc. than I'll ever know. Of course lets talk about pregnancy, unfortunately they're NOT at all too young. Hoping that even a tiny bit of what I would say would stick with them, I dove right in. They thought it was something fun and exciting. I tried to steer them otherwise.?? Of all things, something I think that stuck with them is that they would totally lose their cute girlish figures if they got pregnant. That and the fact that they could forget about sleep--both during and after pregnancy. Keeping their cute bodies--and sleeping--seemed to be pretty important to them, so if that's something that will stick with them, well then there you go. Another thing I got to watch there is their step group practicing. I've always thought the step dancers are so cool. To see young teenagers taking it on their own (no adult coach or leader) and working together as a team was awesome. Finally I finished up the evening reading to an adorable kindergartner. Kind of a challenge with my lack of voice (I JUST got my voice back yesterday, it's been gone since about LAST Wednesday--almost a whole week. The gunk that has plagued everyone at our house finally caught up to me), but we got through about 3 books. This sweet little girl opened up and talked to me about so much of her life. How her mom always shows up late to get her from the after-school program, (she was still there when I left--way after "closing time") :( and how she used to have 2 brothers, but now she only has one since her oldest brother just died. I have no idea what to say to that, so after she was done talking I picked up another book and thought maybe we should just read some more.?? I like being in new environments and around new experiences that broaden my views and open my mind. Having an open mind--and respecting lives that are so different than my own is so important--I hope those values will be important to my babies too as they get older...

I can't have a post without pictures, right?! So the uploader changed on me here. It's for the better--things were uploaded way quicker, but not the way I'm used to, so everything's kind of out of order picture-wise. Bear with me this post since I'm too lazy to figure things out further or start over again. Now I know for next time! 

It was "Crazy Hair Day" at school Monday. Camryn's got fun hair to go with her craziness running down the halls at school that morning.

They love sitting with Matt playing games and looking at pictures and videos of animals on Matt's iPad. Whenever I have my phone or iPad out with them they mess with it, never sit still, etc. But with Matt, they're so good!????

Some more "Crazy Hair" pics. Doesn't Cole's look awesome? I was kind of proud of my mousse/heavy-duty hairspray concoction for him...!

They don't like to brush their teeth with their toothbrushes, they like to play with them--and use them to "brush" their hair...Cole got into the whole hair doing thing that morning--he liked helping me do Cam's hair. It was especially helpful with the toothbrush and all...

All was good and happy in Camryn's world until she was forced to pose with her brother for a picture that morning...

Last week the babies and I went to get even more shoes for them. They've officially outgrown their play shoes--and fun shoes--so back to Nordstroms we went-to the same girl working there and everything! We are stocked up now and it's all good. Check the babies out here though--shoe shopping is clearly NOT their favorite thing to do. But then see further below and notice how their moods and faces turned instantly happy once we got to play in the kid's area!

It's also fun to try to drink Momma's Starbucks. Fortunately I drank it pretty quickly (shocker). But they still like to get any remnant they can. Yep, they'll likely take after their parents (and grandparents, etc.) and have a nice addiction to Starbucks!

Also last week we got to see Fisher! Jennifer and Jim were out of town so Anne and Fisher came to stay with Maya and Cooper. We went up to Ft. Collins last Wednesday. We were supposed to go hang out Friday too, but the gross gunk got the better of us that morning. Both Cam and I woke up with low fevers--I had NO voice, and my throat was so sore I thought it was going to burn out of me. :( But we had a GREAT, FUN day on Wednesday, thank goodness!

Cam and Cole are obsessed with Bart and Nelson (their golden retrievers) and watching for them outside. Cam also likes to wear other peoples' shoes. She liked strutting around in Fisher's flip flops Wednesday...

Boy Cousins hanging out...

The babies love their older cousins. At one point I looked over and Cole was sitting up on the ledge of the couch just like Cooper. Yikes! 

Girl Cousins!

All the kids--even my own babies--ate SO GOOD at Red Robin, so we all destroyed and devoured a big chocolate dessert too!

More Ice Cream--this time at "Scrumptious" in old town Arvada with Matt

And another trip to the zoo. This time in our new WAGON! It was awesome.

Growing

It's here! Now we just need Matt to put it together....

Last Friday we had fun playing with Annabelle, one of our friends from MOPS. Her Momma, Alicia, has a newborn baby girl too. Not sure if she'll want to meet us at the park again. My monkeys never play in the same area, and at one point I looked over and she was feeding her newborn, watching Annabelle and wrangling Camryn off some steps--all at the same moment. Where was I? Oh, just peacefully, calmly pushing Cole on a swing. I promise I didn't mean for it to happen that way! I think (I hope!) that was the only moment that got away from me. Alicia is such a sweet friend and the babies play really well with Annabelle. We're looking forward to more park dates with them. Due to an increase in winds, we chose to have lunch in the back of Alicia's van instead of the rather chilly shade, getting blown away at the picnic tables. It was super fun hanging out in there--and eating Annabelle's carrots...!
Can you just see the pleading in Mario's eyes? Please little sister, please throw my ball for me???! She did a few seconds after the picture was taken. But the stare down for it lasted longer than Mario wanted it to.
We've been very curious about the super cool, double-decker fire trucks at the mall. I wasn't 100% the babies would nicely sit in them. Since Matt was along with us this trip, I felt brave enough to try them out. Huge success! They sat really well in it and took their steering of the wheels very seriously. The catch: That thing is enormous for Momma or Daddy to push around. It's also noisy and doesn't fit through many of the stores very well. And it was $7. I think that will just be a special treat for them when Matt is with us...and he can push the huge, noisy beast around!
We needed to go the mall because these babies are in need of shoes. They each only have 1 pair of play shoes and since we're outside playing all the time, it would be nice to have another pair on hand. I really wanted to get them Keen's. Some friends of ours have their little ones in Keen shoes and I find them so adorable. Not to mention the pair I have are super comfy and durable, so I figure the kid's ones will be just that too and perfect for playing outside and everywhere else. My favorite place for toddler shoes: Nordstroms! Yes, I'm very aware that I pay more than I would at other places, but the shoes they sell there fit my babies the best and they last. And last and last and last. The only reason we move on to other shoes that we've gotten from there is because they've outgrown them. I can't reiterate enough how durable the shoes we get there are. Any I've ever gotten from Target--busted after about a month's wear in them. These babies are pretty hard on shoes. Anyway--found the Keen shoes I wanted for them! And I'm glad we went in person to get fitted. Turns out, Camryn's feet have grown a WHOLE size. I wasn't expecting that.

Speaking of growing, Cole has been a sleeping and EATING machine lately. Perhaps that means he's going to have a growth spurt? Seriously, he's such a good eater. I hope it continues, but who knows? We went out to dinner after the mall and the babies actually behaved nicely. Cole was too busy eating to act any other way. Here he is polishing off all of our chip appetizer. We ended up just putting the plate in front of him so he could clean it off easier.

And then this is all that was left of his chicken fingers and sweet potato fries. Seriously, we didn't touch his plate, he finished it all on his own!
Meanwhile, this bugaboo ate her normal small share of some stuff and then kept trying to find ways into my lap. Hard to tell from these pictures, but she's covered in ranch dressing and ketchup.
Ranch is completely smeared on the side of her head in her hair. Needless to say we went straight up to the bathtub when we got home.
This picture is from the next night's bath. Poor Coley, he cut his lip and chin on the edge of a table at school. They said he was super brave and only cried for maybe a minute when it happened--and that he was very good holding ice on his lip. He acted fine when we got home and even had THIRDS of salmon for dinner. (The good eating streak continues for now!) After that though he started latching onto bear blanket and wouldn't let go of it to get into the bath tub. He screamed when I took it away and kept trying to crawl out of the tub, crying, until I gave in an handed it to him...in the tub. This is a new experience! He clutched onto bear blanket the entire bath and then held onto it, sucking on it too along with an ice toy, the rest of the night--and even went to bed that way. Guess it all caught up with him that night and bear blanket was the one, true thing that would make everything better.

...But I really don't want to make a habit of bathing with bear blanket. Another reason it's a VERY good thing we have two of them!

Easter Times

We had a great, long Easter weekend time here. Matt had off Friday and we took advantage of the nice weather and a long weekend.

Friday we took Daddy to the Zoo with us! The giraffes, bears, penguins, and of course the geese wandering around, were all our favorites this time. That's when we're talking about the animals we liked best...

Ice Cream was probably one of our most favorite things at the zoo that day--Ice Cream usually trumps anything else involved.

When we saw the bears, one was snoozing away on a log--Both babies then started proclaiming "night night" and pointing at the bear. While visiting the giraffes, Camryn started blowing them kisses. So sweet.
Cole decided he should start blowing kisses to the giraffes too...
Matt was all about stopping off at the gift shop on our way out. We picked up some fun Zoo books and also a set of animals. Cole enjoyed playing "animals" on our way home. Even now, he still corrals all their animals together and will start playing with them. One thing he likes to do in particular is stick the giraffe's head into the lion's mouth and have them wrestle. I have no idea where this comes from.
The next morning we went to our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. This was a lot of fun too. Cam was excited to get her hunt on again and Cole was excited about all the candy he got from Cam's eggs. Matt was excited to play basketball...
Cole and Daddy :)
Off she goes. We were in the ages 3 and under section. She held her own with the older kids, no doubt.
Cole did some hunting, but mostly he held back working on getting the candy out of each egg he would pick up!
Scouting the next section she wants to take on...
Cole is needing to grab a few more eggs, having run out of candy from the ones he already got.
Handsome Easter boy :)
Congratulating Cam on a hunt well-done...

They waited not-so-patiently for Matt to open up the eggs and get all the candy out.
After the hunt it was time to play!
Slide time with Daddy...

As mentioned before, I fondly call this the "Rockies" version of our River Court. I think of One Tree Hill's dear River Court whenever I look over at our own park's basketball court. Oh Nathan Scott, how I miss you already.

Matt and Cole had a lot of fun playing basketball. Camryn joined in sometimes too.
Check out Cole's shooting stance already...

If only he were taller!...
Matt has taught him the whole "bend your knees and shoot" technique quite well already...


While the boys continued to hoop it up, we went back over to swing and slide some more.

We really enjoy eating outside in our backyard lately. The babies and I have frequently been having lunch outside, it's fun to have dinner out there too.

Speaking of things we really enjoy frequently, add On The Border to that list as well!
Easter morning, the bunny most definitely made a delivery to our house. We had stuff from bunnies in Colorado, Texas, and Kansas!
Our Colorado bunny was good to leave some more eggs to hunt in the backyard too.
The babies had so much fun with everything they didn't even get to their morning milks until much later!

Cole was particularly excited about the toothbrushes. And I guess Mario was too?! I wish the babies were more eager to actually brush their teeth when we try to do it.


They were very into their farm...



Out for Easter egg hunting one more time. And also, as mentioned before, Yes--I do realize that my babies are wearing their Christmas jammies on Easter morning...

Leave it to Cole to find a fork in the yard in addition to eggs...???


Later that morning, Camryn propped up her new little pink bunny up next to her, opened up her new Easter book, then started reading aloud to the bunny. She's definitely become our little reader. Of course it's all babble when she reads out loud--but the babble clearly has all the right inflections and phrasing as if she's actually reading the book! She likes to read out loud to me and Cole during the days more frequently too.

That afternoon we headed up to Ft. Collins to join The Hendricks and friends for Easter dinner.
Cam and Cole love playing in Maya and Cooper's playroom.
An Easter family picture
Another Easter family picture with me and Jennifer
We headed over to Susan's house for dinner and pulled the babies along in Maya and Cooper's wagon. The babies absolutely loved everything about that wagon and riding in it--we had a hard time keeping them out of it the rest of the evening! All they wanted to do was ride in the wagon from the first minute they got in it. Needless to say, we've already ordered our own same red wagon-canopy and everything-our's should arrive tomorrow...!

And just to end with a glimpse of what our every day can be like here. Lately, they like to just be in their tummies. It usually starts with Cole tugging and trying desperately to take his shirt off himself (not sure why???). Then once Camryn sees his is off, she can't get her own shirt off fast enough. And that's become acceptable attire around here these days.