So Much Time, So Little To Do...

Would it be an understatement to say that I have been remiss in keeping our blog updated?! My apologies. And rather than typing a whole long update of what has been going on I just decided to post a ton of pics and use descriptive captions.
The pics are kind of willy-nilly, jumping back and forth as far as timeline. Again, my apologies. Just wanted to get this up fast, before I ran out of time...which happens quite often these days.

For our 6th wedding anniversary Peter and I ditched the little ones and headed to Glenwood Springs! Above is a pic of Peter in one of the caves we explored. Tight quarters! I was a freaking out just a little bit. That's really the only good picture that came out-most everything else was too dark.

We also hiked Hanging Lake. One of my fav places in Colorado.

Spouting Rock

Glenwood Canyon behind us

Hanging Lake

On Memorial Day we took Ella (and Miles) to the Children's Museum. Ella loved it!

Here she is playing receptionist at the veterinary clinic.

Now it's time to get to work. She's checking his ears.

She would actually grab the chart and look at it and then say, "Okay puppy, it looks like you need a shot."

She painted...

and ran the grocery store...

and drove the fire truck!! (Look at that smile!)

Miles is a hoot! He loves to laugh and smile and he is quite the talker. He's got some good competition between me and Ella! He is not a crier at all. When he wakes in the morning, he just lays in there and talks. He gradually gets louder until I get up and get him. He falls asleep between 7 or 8 at night and sleeps until 4:30, sometimes a little later. I'm very lucky!! His pics are just scattered throughout, but this is the most recent...taken a few days ago...3 months old!


This is not a picture of my toilet. Look closley under the shower curtain and you will see two little feel poking out. This was Ella's hiding place one day when we were playing Hide and Seek!

Ella lined up "her babies" in the bed and asked me to take a picture of all of them.

Our roses that are doing pretty well this year despite my lack of care.

Miles

Our backyard renovation is complete for the most part. Just a few things here and there that I need to finish up. These pics got posted way out of order so you're getting the after pics and then the before pics.

I laid rubber pavers in front of our rose bed to make a play area for Ella. This was by far the worst project I did. It was so hard and time consuming. It's not perfect, but it will do.

The before pictures of this area will really show you how much this area has changed. We laid mulch on one half of the yard. Built a "dog path" with gray breeze from the steps and all along the fence. And left a patch of grass. THe other dirt over there is Koa's potty. =-)

This is a before shot of the rubber pavers area.

Mid job.

Finishing touches.

Ella posing for the camera.

I took pics for Ella's 3rd birthday, but they came out really blurry. That's one reason I bought a new camera. Anyway, this is a pic of the bouncy house (cake) we rented for the party! It was lots of fun. I have other pics that Tina took that are wonderful. I will try to post them soon.

More Miles.

Playing with my new camera which I have no idea how to use!

Silly face!

All smiles.

And more backyard...

This would be what it looked like before we did anything.

Sleepy head.

Party animal.

Doesn't hang out in the swing too much anymore. This was about a month and a half ago I think.

And way back in March I think, our main sewer line broke. Here's a few pics of the construction site in our front yard. They were there for about a week.


And here are more pics of the backyard. I didn't realize I posted so many, but man I'm proud of it!! Go back and check out the finished project, hehehe.





Quick updates on the kids:
Blake will be starting middle school in the fall! He is taking a math class this summer so that he can take higher level math when he starts school. Originally it would be so he could take Pre-Algebra, but his teacher has already bumped him up and he will be taking Algebra in 6th grade! Yikes. So much for me helping with any homework!!
Blake is also playing baseball this summer. His season just started. He's the fastest one on the team and the lead off batter! It's crazy how grown up he is getting. Freaks me out to think we'll have a teenager hanging around here in no time at all.
Ella is a lean, mean, potty trained machine! She is awesome! She loves to play pretend and make stories up. She also likes to perform for us, which I will record for you once I figure out how to do it on my new camera! She absolutely loves Blake and gets very sad when he is not here. She warms up to people much more quickly than she used to and has a lot of fun playing with other kids. She adjusted really well to me going back to work which helped me not be so sad either. We sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and our ABC's every night before bed. She has also learned some other kid songs that we listen to in the car and she can be caught singing those every now and again.
Miles is a wonderful baby. As I said earlier, he's not a crier. He doesn't cry to eat or be picked up or anything. He might fuss for a second to let you know he's bored or needs attention, but really the only time he cries is if he is hurt, and then boy does he let you know!! There have been a couple of times that he has scratched his face and he just wails! He giggles and smiles and kicks his feet. He rolls to both sides quite well and is giving it so much gusto that I imagine he'll be rolling to his tummy quite soon.
We are so lucky to have three great kids!
I'll be taking a few photography lessons so that I can be sure to catch all of the big milestones that will be here before we know it!!