Our Growing Family: 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...