Trip to Colorado Springs and such

We just returned home from our trip to Colorado Springs for the weekend. It is a little over an hour away and they had some beautiful sights to see and fun things to do. It was nice to be gone and the kids thought the hotel was so amazing! They are easy to please. Here are some pictures from the trip but at the beginning I added a few to catch up from April.

I took the kids to the zoo on one of Landen's days off of school. Savannah was freaking out about this peacock eating someone's sandwich. She was yelling at him to try to get him to stop. I took lots of other pictures from this trip but I already added so many to this post that I will spare you :).

One of Landen and Blake's last soccer games in April. The kid's team name is Fire and they had these special shirts made for the whole team to wear (normally you can just wear a red shirt). As you can see they are more like dresses for my boys who are the shortest kids on the team. Granted Blake is only 5 playing on a 7 year old team (poor Landen). Side note: Jeb was 5'1" his freshman year of high school and he grew to 6'1" in a year....hopefully Landen will follow suit!

They had a great time and then it started to snow! One of those really random snowfalls in late April where we had beautiful weather for days and then Boom! We get a 30 minute snowfall. It's okay, we're used to Minnesota where winter lasts forever.

More fun in the snow!

Savannah's new friend Drew. I love watching Savannah learn to play with friends. She is very bossy and always says mine. She went and got Drew a Magic Tree House book like her so she wouldn't have to share and they could both read! (of course these are Landen and Blake's chapter books with no pictures).

Blake graduated from preschool on Friday!! He is happy to be moving on and keeps telling everyone that he is in kindergarten already. I try to explain he has 3 months of summer to enjoy but he keeps asking me about meeting his new kindergarten teacher next week. He was so adorable singing his songs during his program. He knew every word and sang with lots of enthusiasm. :) Landen was always so embarrassed to be in front of people at this age and Blake loves it (Landen is not that way now and I wish I had a little bit of it back...it was cute).

Mom and her goofy, fun boys!

This was on our first day in Colorado Springs. We went to the Royal Gorge which was unbelievable! Of course the pictures never capture how amazing it was. This is on a bridge that was built in the 1800's that is the largest expansion bridge in the United States. It is a quarter of a mile long and 2000 feet high and the gorge is down below. It scared me a little as it swayed back and forth (I don't like heights) and cars kept driving past us on it. I was sure the cars were going to cause us to tumble down in the water and rocks below! Apparently Savannah did not want to join in this picture because she wanted to race ahead on the bridge.

This is the tram ride across the gorge for the way back. I chose not to look down too often! I don't know how I married my husband who gets a thrill out of heights. He is always the one telling the kids to jump up in these things and "lets make it sway" :). There is a good reason why I am not in a lot of these pictures. You see, the baby decided to grow a lot this past week or so and I have still been wearing a lot of "in-between" clothes (looser, normal clothes) and after seeing our pictures, it is obvious it is time for maternity :). I think this will be a big baby. Landen (my first) was 8 lbs. 11 oz. so I definitely don't produce small babies!
Landen still enjoys the carousel ride but he won't admit it.

Savannah and Jeb getting ready for the train ride. They had so many fun things to do at the Royal Gorge area. We went hiking, rode a vertical train down into the gorge and had a great time! The kids were tired just after this but then we went back to our hotel and swam for awhile and then continued our fun with Mr. Biggs (see below for more details)

This is Little Bigg town inside Mr. Biggs (basically a cooler version of Boondocks, etc.). This is where Savannah and I spent our time. They had lots of fun places for kids to play. This is the princess, dress-up and beauty parlor section I was trying to coax Savannah into.

This is the type of dress-up she wanted to do. She took off her fire hat just before I got the picture but you get the jist (sp?) of her idea of fun!

This was one of her other favorite spots!

I did get her to have some fun in the shopping section though. She poured me some "hot chocolate" and we played pretend for awhile. I just enjoy doing "girly" things now that I have the chance. I'm sure she will like to put on the princess dress and the pretty tiara when she is older!

Here are a few pics I captured of the boys at Mr. Biggs before we hid away in Little Bigg town. This was called Bumper hockey. Blake was barely tall enough! I was so glad he was because they had a blast! I didn't get it, but his grin was priceless.

Riding the Go-Karts!

Landen and Dad coming in from the Go-Kart ride. Sorry about the bright flash on the right. We are having a hard time getting our settings just right on our camera. A lot of pictures come out horrible. Jeb is getting a new one from work that will be really nice so hopefully we will notice a difference!

Today on our trip it was Sunday so we took it a little easy. We went and explored Garden of the Gods which is amazing! Before we left Blake surprised us by fixing his own hair. He shut the bathroom door at the hotel and didn't come out for awhile. Then he presented us with this.

He explained he wanted to look like Christiano Ronaldo who is on Manchester United's team. He was voted best player in the premier league (England) and will likely win world player of the year. ManU is Jeb's favorite team and they won the Champions league last week. (ladies, if you google Christiano Ronaldo you will see why I enjoy watching Manchester United play also :)) Anyway, Blake was excited for his new do!

While we were packing up in the hotel Landen finally mastered tying his shoes!! Blake has been able to do it for awhile, but Landen is a perfectionist. He would try and if he couldn't get it right away he would just give up. I suppose it is a lot of my fault since I hate dealing with laces and often opted for the non-lace shoes. But now he is feeling very confident and happy that he figured out the trick to getting it right (and is no longer one-upped by his younger brother! :))

Jeb and the boys walking into Garden of the Gods. It was so beautiful!

Landen jumping off the rock. All the kids wanted to do was climb the rocks. Of course Savannah refused to be left behind. I wanted to stay on all of the nicely paved trails, but they wanted to explore all of the dusty dirt trails off to the side (of course I wore sandals and Jeb reminded me of that smart move the whole day :)) Oh well, we saw a lot of cool stuff!

Blake pausing during one of his climbs

At the top of one of the awesome red rocks! The background was amazing.

Does anyone else get nervous when their kids are near edges? I probably sound like I am afraid of everything! I love to do and try new things, but when you have 3 mobile children climbing and running, you kind of hold your breath!


Well, that was our short vacation. We had such a great time. I hope you survived all of those pictures and explanations. But remember, I have a goal to update more so be prepared!

Note: Pictures to come!!

I have been one of the worst bloggers. I love to read people's blogs who update frequently. It is so entertaining! I am probably on most people's list of "do not check very often because she never updates". My goal is to blog more frequently this summer because I have loved to go back to last year and read about the things we were doing and see pictures of my family. :)

I got out my real handwritten journal on Mother's Day to write down some things and realized I hadn't written in there since Mother's Day 2007. My kids had so much fun reading what I wrote about each of them it made me want to recommit myself! We'll see.

Life has been slowing down finally. Soccer is over, which helps a lot and school is almost out! The kids are really excited for summer and so am I! Last time I was pregnant I had to deal with Virginia humidity. Nothing will be as bad as that. :) Landen is about to finish 1st grade and move on to 2nd which blows me away. I remember 2nd grade very well and I can't believe he will be that old! He is in the process of getting braces right now. He is only 7 years old but he already has 8 permanent teeth almost fully grown in. Many of his classmates are just starting to lose their teeth and if they have, they just have spaces where the teeth are. Anyway, he has an issue they call "tongue thrust" where every time he swallows (which is many times a day) he pushes his teeth with his tongue. His teeth have started to push forward and fan out which is not a good thing. For the past 2 weeks he has had a device in has mouth that will re-train his tongue to hit the roof of his mouth when he swallows instead of thrust it forward. This has been a painful process for both Landen and Mom. You can only imagine what kind of device is put at the roof of his mouth to stop his tongue going forward. Lots of pokey things! He has had to re-learn to talk, eat and swallow and has been in a lot of pain. But, things are looking up and soon he will get 6 brackets put on his teeth to help move them back into place. He is thrilled! (Ha)

Blake's last day of preschool is on Friday. He is sad because he loves his teacher, but so happy that he will finally be in Kindergarten at the same school as his brother. Blake turned 5 last October so he is going to be a very old kindergartner...he has been more than ready for a long time. It is getting really hot here so the kids have been putting the sprinkler under the trampoline and jumping for hours. I'm sure it is dangerous, but at least they aren't watching TV right? Their "wonderful" father has been teaching them some pretty amazing tricks that scare me really bad! We have some on video so I will have to figure out how to post those. Blake loves to be active. A couple mornings a week, I have tried to go on a run/jog (it is getting very difficult :)) and he rides his bike with me while I push Savannah. He lives to be outside and moving! He is such a fun kid.

Savannah is always happy. She loves to jump on the trampoline or go to the park. She gets mad at her brothers if they try to get on while she is on there. They are finally learning to all jump together which makes it much easier on me. Otherwise I deal with her screaming (and it is not nice) because they are trying to get on or them complaining because they can't jump high while she is on. As she is getting older she is getting better and more stable so they can all have a good time out there. I love having a fenced-in backyard!

Jeb and I are doing well. He has been very good to me through this pregnancy. He frequently runs to get me my chocolate blizzard with M&M's late at night even though he is tired. I guess I should admit he goes and gets Taco Bell, Quiznos and other wonderful things that I feel sound good at night-time too.:) I definitely got lucky finding him! We are going to Colorado Springs as a family for Memorial weekend just to relax and get away. We can't wait. Most of our trips are to see family, which is great, but this will be a nice change. I will get some pictures up of that and other adventures we have been having. See ya!

I wrote this back in March and saved it as a draft. I was going to edit it and add more back then but obviously never got around to doing it. I just read it and thought it would be fun to post. So this is when spring was first starting to peek through:

Colorado is so strange. On Thursday and Friday we had sunny skies and 65 degree temperatures. Saturday was an amazing 75+ degrees. We woke up this morning (Sunday) to a blowing blizzard and snow on the ground!?? Yesterday you would have thought the snow was gone forever!



Landen had Thursday and Friday off of school for Parent Teacher Conf. On Thursday I wasn't feeling great and had a lot to do around the house. My kids seemed really bored so I decided to let my kitchen go for a bit and spend some quality time with them. We all helped prepare a nice picnic lunch because it was so beautiful outside. I was feeling like a pretty nice mom because I was telling them how we could play red light, green light, Mother May I, etc. (even though I was feeling pregnancy nausea) and have an afternoon of fun (just like summer!). Well, we get our picnic lunch outside in the backyard and sit down on our blanket. Savannah thought it was so cool to be eating outside, she was very happy. All of a sudden Landen jumps up off of the blanket and says, "I just saw a bee". I said "No, it must have been a fly. There aren't really bees out yet because the flowers haven't bloomed. Sit down and finish your lunch."



Next thing I know, two bees whiz by our picnic lunch. Landen jumps up and runs inside and shuts the sliding door as quick as he can. I went and got him and convinced him it was fine and we probably wouldn't see him again. This went on for the next 20 minutes, where the bees would come back and both boys would run in the house. Finally, they both gathered up their lunch and said "I want to eat inside!" So Savannah and I stuck it out and had our picnic by ourselves (to be fair, Blake got stung in the neck last year a couple of times and Landen was there to see the pain so they are a little more nervous than usual :)).



After we ate I convinced the boys they couldn't spend such a beautiful day inside and the bees only came around when we had food. So we started to play our fun games. All of a sudden Landen saw a couple of bees again. He yelled, "more bees!!" and him and Blake literally started freaking out! They both ran inside, slammed the door shut, then I hear them open it and come screaming toward Savannah and I on the trampoline. "The bee got trapped inside, he followed us inside, he's trying to get us!" At this point, Savannah is crying because her brothers are so scared of something. So I have 3 kids huddled on the trampoline sobbing (no doubt all neighbors can hear this). The boys trapped the bee between the screen and sliding glass door. I was able to carefully let it out and I said, "Guys, lets just go inside, you obviously aren't having much fun." "No, we can't go in there, the bees will follow us again, no, no, no". I said, "Get inside right now". I had to open the door for them so they could make a "beeline" run for the door (leaving their sister alone with the bees). I got Savannah and took her inside and the boys were panting and thanking their lucky stars they were safe inside and not "attacked" by those killer bees!!



They kept saying, "I am not going outside all summer!" "I hate bees, I am never going outside again!". Needless to say, I was so annoyed. I couldn't believe they were that scared. We have never had such an issue and now they are older and more scared than ever. So much for trying to be a fun mom and enjoy the beautiful afternoon with my kids!



I didn't see a lot of the bees but my kids kept claiming there were a bunch of them. A couple of days later I found out there is a dead tree stump nearby with hundreds of bees. Luckily we have been playing outside a lot and we haven't had a problem with the boys being frightened.

IT'S A..........

BOY!!!!! Jeb and I went to the perinatologist on Friday and found out our new little boy is perfectly healthy. During Savannah's ultrasounds it was very stressful because there was a very obvious empty, black space in the back of her brain. We hated looking at it because it was very unsettling. It was comforting to see our new little guy's brain fully there along with a healthy heart, etc.

We are excited to add another boy. Savannah will be quite the princess in this family!:) I will add some new pictures soon...I have been bad and not taken a lot lately. We went to the Colorado Rapids game as a family last night (it was kids night) and we grabbed everything we needed (and more) except for the camera! I hate it when I miss fun, family events like that. It seems the more kids I have the more I don't want to forget it, but do! :) We were worried about bringing Savannah but she had the best time of anyone. By the end the boys were complaining they were tired and cold and she was still jumping up and down, dancing with the music! We also went to Cold Stone because of our ice cream bet about the sex of the baby. The boys were relieved that even though they guessed wrong, they got to share in the ice cream treats. :)

This is one of Savannah's favorite books, Go Dog Go.
Her new passion. You can tell she has brothers! I have had boy toys for so long (not that trains are only for boys) that I can't wait to buy My Little Ponies and Polly Pockets! :)

Blake lost his first tooth. It was really hanging and we could already see the permanent tooth coming through. Jeb tied some floss around it and told Blake to yank on it as hard as he wanted. I asked Jeb how we were going to get the floss off...he looked at me with a grin and said "you don't". Blake let Jeb give it one hard pull and it flew out (luckily it came out very easily).



He was bragging all the next day that the tooth fairy gave him $5 and Landen only gets $2 or $1. Little does he know the tooth fairy is only that generous on the first lost tooth! :)

I know everyone is sick of Easter pictures, but because I am so slow...here are a couple. I only got pics of Savannah collecting eggs because the boys are too old and fast for me to follow anymore (so sad). Here is Savannah showing my Dad her collection. She was in the toddler section where all of the eggs were just laying on the ground. She quickly realized that if she set her basket down she had both hands free to pick up two eggs at once! That's my girl.

We were at my Mom's house for Easter. We dyed eggs and decorated cookies on Saturday.

We got to meet Lanes' new girlfriend Elyse that weekend. We love her! We had so much fun with them and getting to know her.

This is Adam's girlfriend Erin. We love her too! She is the best with kids. Everytime she comes over her and Adam immediately start playing with all of the kids. They are a definite favorite!

Lane and Elyse had great cookie decorating skills! :) Sorry for the glare.

Landen and Savannah on Easter. I'm not sure where Blake was. I didn't do my traditional sit all of the kids down and take their picture...it was to crazy that morning. I'll take what I can get!

Jeb and I went to Colorado Rapids season opener 2 weeks ago. They played LA Galaxy so that is David Beckham you are looking at in the white. Jeb was very excited. He has been a long-time fan of David Beckham's. He boasts of being a fan before he was popular :). We had a great time together at the game and the Rapids won 4-0! We are going to have a nice season. Soccer games are really fun to watch. Colorado has it's own new soccer stadium and the games are very fast-paced. There are only 2-45 minute halves and they rarely stop the clock for anything. Kind of like hockey, I love going to hockey games too. I guess I am grateful my husband is such a soccer fan and not baseball. I really love watching baseball (and playing) and the occasional live game is really fun....but those games can get so long and are really hard to take little kids to! Soccer has been really fun for our family to dive into!

So, I should probably update that my aunt, Abbi got out of the hospital a couple of days ago!! Yay!! We were so excited. It was pretty scary there for a bit. She is still really weak and will probably take a couple of months to fully heal, but it is nice for her to be home. She doesn't really remember a lot of her time in the hospital (I think it was 21 days) so it is kind of freaking her out that she was that sick. I can't wait to see her again!

We had a great trip to Utah. We drove and had nice weather the whole time. It feels like the trip is always so fast. It takes 8 hours but compared to 17 hours from Minnesota, it is a breeze! We were there for Landen's spring break. It was a lot of fun to see my family. We really missed having Brandon, Stacy and Ben there though. We also got to see some of Jeb's family for a minute. Just a quick trip!

Last weekend we really loved conference. My kids actually sat through 2 entire sessions on Sunday. I couldn't believe it! Of course I had lots of activities for them (coloring, etc.) but they were really good and quiet. Jeb and I heard every talk....I think that is the first time in 7 years that has happened! I think by the 2nd session Savannah would have been fed up but she went down for her nap.:) We had our traditional General Conference Scones that I have had since I was a little girl in between conferences. I grew up with all of my Mom's siblings and their spouses and kids going to my Grandma's for scones. Whenever we aren't there we have to carry on the tradition or it just doesn't feel right. Of course, they are always better with lots of great people around! :)

During President Monson's last talk my kids were cracking up how the prophet's wife told him not to touch the microwave, the stove, etc. while she was away. They could not believe how funny he was. Blake kept asking me to rewind that part. We had some real tender sweet moments. :)

We have our ultrasound on Friday the 18th. I will only be in my 18th week but we are doing a Level 2 ultrasound with a perinatologist. Because of all of the issues we had with Savannah, my doctor just wants to do some extra checking for us. I'm not sure if it is just for piece of mind or what, but I'll take it! I can't wait to find out the sex of the baby because I want to start painting the room.

I better post this before it gets too long. I always have so much updating to do. I haven't even covered the fact that Landen needs braces! I'll get to the details of that next time. We are off to the kid's soccer game!

Long break

It has been a long while since I have posted. My main excuse is that I have been having migraines with this pregnancy and do not enjoy looking at a computer screen. I am starting to feel better and hope I am going to see some light. :)

We are in Utah right now visiting our families. We head home tomorrow so I will write more updates and post some pictures when I return home. Just to answer Maren's question, no, we are not having twins (:)) and yes, I finally went to the doctor. We find out the sex of the baby in 3-4 weeks and we don't care if it is boy or girl...we are just excited! (By the way Maren, I will call you back when I get home...it has been crazy here!)

Another thing, some of you close to me might remember my Aunt Abbi (my Mom's youngest sister). She is 10 months older than me and we grew up close like sisters. 9 days ago she was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia. She struggled to breathe for 3 days in ICU then they finally intubated her (put a tube down her throat to make her breathe). She actually got a string of Strep A that attacked her lungs. It has been a roller coaster of emotions and she is still not out of ICU. It looks like it will be a long road. She has a wonderful husband and a beautiful daughter. Please pray for their little family! She is one of the most thoughtful people I know and I just can't believe she is dealing with this. Thanks a lot!

We went to this great park (thanks to Trisha) near our house and it was amazing! They have ducks, a path around the lake, amazing play equipment. We have already been there 3 times. It is a lot of fun for our family! Colorado keeps giving us glimpses of spring and then it snows. The snow never stays long around here though.

Jeb swinging Blake in the air!

I don't know what is up with Blake's goofy face. Landen looks really thrilled. It was getting a little cold because the sun was going down for the evening.

Savannah was begging for more bread to feed the ducks. Of course, I am wearing a hat. It seems those are the only pictures I have of me (it was Saturday and we love to stay relaxed on Saturdays!). Blake's lower face is bright red from skiing earlier that day.

Savannah and the geese. She loves to say the word "cheese" with her smile so we get a cute "cheesy" smile

Blake kept running back and forth along these rocks trying to make sure every duck (and goose) got a piece. He was so concerned one would get left out.

Okay, I can still post about Valentine's Day because it is still February. These are my beautiful orchids and "purple flowers" my husband got for me. He is a very good at flower-giving throughout the year so I like it when he gets a little creative and colorful. These kept blooming throughout the week. Very pretty!

Blake, Savannah and I got to attend Landen's Valentine party at school.

Landen decorating a cookie for each of us. (He put on a lot of frosting!)

The kids showing love!

Landen and his friend. He decided since it was Valentine's day he would be a gentleman. He helped a couple of girls carry their heavy backpacks and he gave his teacher a special hug and "Happy Valentine's Day" wish. This is huge for him because he has always been very shy. He is really coming out of his shell this year (getting a little too confident!)

Savannah thinks her bros. are so funny!

Playing in the snow.

Landen has been learning about the moon in school. If you can't tell, I love it when my kids read to each other! Such a precious moment. Landen was reading a book about the moon and solar system to Blake, teaching him all the stuff he knows. We got the kids out of bed and watched the Lunar eclipse last week Landen was so excited!

Landen and his crazy friends (and Blake)! They were out playing in the cold and came in for some hot chocolate. They are really fun to listen to as they interpret and talk about life!

Well, my dear friend, Maren lovingly informed me I needed to update my blog (thanks Mare!:)) . I guess it is definitely time. I will probably spend most of my time adding some recent pictures, but I did want to share some news with you. We are expecting Baby Number Four in September! We are very excited and a little scared. 4 seems like a lot but we are so grateful to be able to add another child to our family. I have been a little more sick this time and my clothes are getting tighter faster! Jeb thinks it is twins...Ha! I haven't been to the doctor yet. I figure I've done this a few times before and I can wait a little (I'm only 10 weeks along). Anyway, just wanted to share our exciting news with our friends. Take care!