Where did summer go?

I love to look back at this blog and see how much my IF miracles have changed. It's been 8 months since I last posted so they've changed quite a bit!

This summer we had some great family trips - we enjoyed the sand and surf in Florida in June, visited family on a road trip in July and went to the mountains for a long weekend in August before school started. Our next travel won't be until Spring break where we're booked on our first family cruise - to Mexico, Honduras and Belize. Have to get those passports!

Florida

 

  

Road Trip

Mountains/Camping

It's hard to believe that summer came and went so quickly and we're already well into the school year. Here in CO we just got our first snow today so I can feel winter coming a little too quickly for my taste.

K is now 7 and in 2nd grade and started a new K-8 school this year. She loves it and is doing great. She recently started karate and just passed her first belt test a month ago. It is so good for her and so far she loves it. She even had to use her protection skills with a little boy on the playground who was hitting her. Good skills to have! K also takes gymnastics, piano and swim classes these days. She is a very perceptive, kind and helpful little girl and is always good company. Recently she's been to two sleepovers. She seems ready, I most certainly am not.

C is 4 and in pre-k this year. Hard to believe my baby will start kinder next year! He is a busy guy and begs to be involved in all kinds of things. Currently he's in basketball, soccer, gymnastics, karate, swim and piano. I swore I wouldn't be "one of those mom's" with over scheduled kids...but it seems they don't get as exhausted as I do. Maybe they will zero in on one or two activities in the near future *fingers crossed* In the mean time it's fun to see them try out all their activities. C can be a whirling dervish or a cuddle bug, sometimes mere moments apart. Equal parts adorable and stubborn it seems. He has a wonderfully creative mind and keeps us on our toes. His smile is almost always present and he's a pretty happy little man.

M took a new position at work in April and is now traveling 2-3 times a month. We didn't really know that would be the case and are both adjusting to our new reality. I'm so happy the kids weren't younger when this development happened. For the most part we're all taking it in stride.





Our new house will be done in two weeks! We're excited to move the last weekend of the month and get settled in our new home. Feeling a bit stressed about it all but I'm sure it will come and go without me totally losing my mind...right?!

Not sure how many folks are out there still reading but I love to pop back here now and then. Hope all is well out there blog friends!

Bye for now :-)

Hello World!

It's once again been a long time since I posted on here. Not sure anyone is still out there, but if you are HI! 

Life is busy, crazy and wonderful these days. I often stop to think how lucky we are that IVF gave us these beautiful miracles. Can't imagine life without them. 

K is half way through her 1st grade year. She's lost six teeth now (two in the last month), is getting to be a good little reader and is overall a happy, content little girl. She's taking swim classes and a jazz/hip-hop class. Recently she had her first ski lesson and loved it. We're starting drop off play dates with a few friends and she's begging to have her ears pierced for her 7th birthday in May.

Cole is in preschool. He's a very funny, chatty, smart little man and oscillates between independence and baby type clingyness, as most three year olds do. He's daytime potty trained, can count to 40, knows his ABC's in English and Spanish, loves to tell jokes and wants to talk your ear off at all times. He's taking swim class and martial arts. He loves the snow and no matter how cold it is he wants to be out there...fishing of all things.

We are building a new house this year so it'll be busy and exciting. Move in will be in November...because everyone loves to move that time of year...not. Oh well, it'll be worth it!

May Birthdays!

May is a big month in our house. M's b-day is the 20th and K's is the 6th. We sprinkled in some other fun things like the end of the school year and K's dance recital and it made for a busy month.

M and I took the day off for his b-day. While the kids were at school we enjoyed donuts for breakfast, 9 holes of golf, lunch (complete with margaritas - YUM!) and a movie. We topped the day off with a nice dinner and cupcakes at home with the kiddos. 

K's b-day weekend was very busy! Friday was her last day of kindergarten. Her school didn't have a cermony or anything but she is thrilled to now be a 1st grader.

Friday night she had a four hour dress rehearsal for her dance recital. Saturday she had two shows, each 3 hours long. She got to perform a dance with her daddy and I cried through it - both times. So adorable!

Sunday was her b-day party, at ChuckECheese. An assault of the senses for adults but the time of their life for the kids. They had fun gobbling pizza/cupcakes and playing lots of games. Here she is in her party dress (courtesy of grandma) and the mouse of the hour. 

C has determined he also wants his party there *sigh* I was hoping to get away with a family party for one more year for him. Tell me he'll forget in the next month, please!

Spring!

Thanks for your thoughts on my last post. It turns out C's dedication to potty training isn't focused yet. He's going on the potty when he wants but we're waiting for true motivation =)

Since I last wrote K has lost tooth #2 (April 11th), went to her first school dance and attended her first daddy-daughter dance *melt*

Here in Colorado some years you have to be patient for Spring to...well spring. But in the last few weeks we've watched some baby birds hatch on our porch and the tulips are in finally in bloom.

We took this as our sign that maybe we have seen our last snow flakes and have built our raised garden beds. Hopefully we will plant them in the next few weeks. So excited to enjoy some warmth and sunshine!

Mother's Day was nice and we enjoyed brunch with family and the rest of the day was play time with the kids. Perfect!

In May we have both K and M's birthdays to celebrate, K's end of year dance recital and the end of school so it's going to be a busy month!

Potty Training - Part II

Advice? I hear boys can be harder than girls. We're more of a go with the flow (HA!) type rather than a 3 day boot camp type if that makes any difference in the advice.

C has gone in the potty 5 times over the last two days! Good job big guy =)

The End of March?

Seriously - time is just whirling by at this point! Pictures help me remember what we've been up to so I'll tell the story of our month with captions =)

M and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary! We enjoyed a nice meal at a fondue restaurant on Saturday while the kids were with grandparents AND we took Monday (our actual anniversary) off work to work out, have lunch at a winery, go bowling and see a movie. He is still the cheese to my macaroni and I'm so thankful to have him as my husband =)

Spring in the Rockies usually provides some weather extremes and this one is no different. We've had some really nice weather where the kids could wear short sleeves and ride in the bike trailer to the park...

and some very snowy weather too. In all honesty I'm ready to say goodbye to the snow for the year...but we're expecting more tonight *sigh*

There was St Patrick's day parties at the kids schools:

And we went on our longest family road trip to date (500 miles each way) to visit family for 5 days. The kids did great with the drive but only did about an hour of this:

They had a great time with their cousins. Can't see any relation here, can you?

They loved staying with their great aunt and uncle. 

We came home 2 days before Easter and managed to find the bunny on Saturday. This was the first time Cole has seen the Easter bunny and you can see he's a touch concerned!

Easter morning had a lot of surprises in store. This was just after following the jelly bean trail to their presents and doing our indoor egg hunt (we had 10" of snow and it was 10 degrees so the bunny took pity on us).

We hosted brunch for 13. Here's K all dressed up getting ready to eat.

C got a Thomas the train from his grandparents and he has played with it constantly since. This sweater vest makes him look so grown up *sniff, sniff*

I think that's it for March, we'll see what April has in store for us =)

2016 so far...

Some big happenings so far this year =) We're going for the high level updates here!

K has had a trio of firsts! She lost her first tooth, read her first book all by herself (Green Eggs & Ham) and had her first school music program.  My little girl is growing up *sniff, sniff*

C is moving out of toddler-dom and into full on little boy. He is 100% adorable and has entered the "why" and "mama, mama, mama" stages.

The kids have been developing an even stronger sibling relationship. They miss each other so much when they're away from each other and it's really awesome to watch them love each other! I hope it stays this way =)

M's grandmother passed and he had some skin cancer removed from his back so hopefully the year improves rapidly from here for him. At least his Broncos won the super bowl!

As for me...not much new. Just enjoying a busy life =) I tried to find a picture of me from this year but it doesn't look like we have one. I'll share a few family pictures we had on Christmas Eve day.

In March M & I will be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary and we're taking a road trip to visit family over Spring break. More photo ops!