The Last Few Months 

As usual, I have delayed this post for far too long.  They have made some updates to how you upload photos on here so now my photos are out of order. Oh well.

So we are moving from the most recent stuff to the older stuff.

Like always, short captions and updates at the end.

Without further ado:

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo  

I have been wanting to go to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo for the past two summers. Finally this year, I said I'm going with or without everyone--I don't care! Luckily, everyone came along. Here's the pics: 

Can not keep this child away from water.

Tina teaching Ella how to pet the goat.

TeeTee and Ella

The Moose. He was pretty impressive. Unfortunately I was racing to get Ella to a potty, so I literally set her down grabbed my camera took three pictures and picked her back up and kept running. Mostly wanted to get this shot for my dad.

Checking out the little cave.

Kind of like the Denver Zoo you can go in this little bird place and buy some birdseed to feed them.  Ella thought it was pretty awesome.

And apparently, this bird thought Blake was pretty awesome. Landed right on his shoulder. Oddly enough this same thing happened to him when he did this in Texas.  He must have good shoulders to perch on.

Wallaby (for multiple do you say wallaby or wallabies?) Hmm.

Have I mentioned that I love that Blake is big enough to do this now??

Thought this was pretty funny. Getting a ride on Blake's shoulders and snacking all at the same time. What a life!  Check out the hill Blake is about to conquer...and yes, it was as steep as it looks.

This was awesome and the whole reason I wanted to go to this zoo. Feeding the giraffes!

About to feed...

Taking entirely too long to give the giraffe the lettuce!

Well hello.

What are you lookin' at?

Hot Summer Days

As I am sure most of you have heard. It has been unusually hot here in the Mile Hi City.  Ridiculously hot, really.  We have spent lots of time at the water table and are hoping to make it to some spray parks soon!

Ella is also taking swim lessons right now.  I have pics from her gymnastics later in the post. No pictures of the swimming yet.  She cried the whole first class, but only cried for about a third of the second class and was fine this last time. Yes, I am the mean mom who makes their kid cry through class.  I was not pulling her out!  Breaking down walls, people! I think she was a little freaked that the instructor was a guy, but he's really funny and great with the kids so she adjusted well.

Enjoying the cold water. Miles was dumping it on Blake's head. Sneaky little fellow.

My columbines came back!!

Ella taking a ride on the bike she got for her birthday. (Pics of her birthday are coming)

Ella and Connor (E.J. and C.J.) Best Buds

Obsessed with playing games on our phones, but sharing so nicely.

Gymnastics Certificate of Excellence!

She did it!!

1

2

3

Yay!!!

She really liked doing this part...just jumping and spreading her legs.

She has really good balance and was pretty awesome on the balance beam.

Jumping high to the sky

Around on the bars

Stretching

Hi!

Back in Time

So let's go back a few months. These are just some random picks to catch everyone up.

Before he was walking, that's why I took this. He was holding himself up really well.

Or maybe not...

Face off.

I'm pretty sure I have a picture of Ella in that same high chair eating strawberries too.

Heather and Ethan after he was baptized.

I posted this because I have one of Ella that is very similar...check it out below...

Crazy, eh?

Is it weird that my kid goes to the fridge and says, "Mom, can I have some sushi?"

Three excited ladies heading to Vegas!

Three excited ladies chillaxin' in Vegas!

My ragamuffins

What? We have just been sitting here the whooole time. We didn't do it.

I'm pretty sure I have pics like this since Ella was a wee bebe.

Birthday Girl!

Ms. Connie, the Magician!

Ella preparing to perform a magic trick.

Everyone so captivated.

Waiting to get her face painted.

The results.

Now this cake looks a little boring. But when I asked Ella what she wanted she said she wanted a cake with blueberries and strawberries. So when I asked the King Soopers lady what the heck I should do she suggested getting a white cake with strawberry filling, and they would just add the blueberries to the filling.  Then we went through the book to pick a design and this is what Ella picked.

Yay, Cabbage Patch doll!!

Blake got her a new bike!

Best Picture Ever!

So-I apologize that the pics are all backwards. I really wanted to start with Ella's birthday and move forward, but oh well. Just be glad I got this done, right!

I can't say that we have been really really busy with tons of stuff going on. It's just that Miles requires a bit more attention these days and it's hard to get the time to sit down to do this.

Let's start with Miles:  He's walking! Yay! And talking! Yay!.  My last update said he was starting to pull himself and balance really well. Well it took him a lot longer than I thought to get moving.  I'd say it was mid May when he really started to try walking and not just fall on all fours and decide crawling was faster.  Now he's cruising. He hates to be held. He is 24 lbs. so I don't complain too much, but sometimes it hard to just get him to stay put for a minute.
He is really starting to use words now and try stuff out. He says bye-bye, shoe, uh-oh, ball, balloon, and he says Mama, but still not sure if he really is referencing me.  He also started saying Ka in the last few days and I'm pretty sure that's his way of saying Koa. Now every dog he sees is Ka.
His last check up was great.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. He is a great kid. Very easy going.  He's changed a little bit in the past month because whatever Ella has, he wants, so he screams about that. But he doesn't really carry on and on. He gets over things pretty quickly.
He did fall and hit his eye on our coffee table. It had a pad around it, but he still managed to cut his eyelid. So he had a black and swollen eye for a couple of days. It broke my heart so see it all puffed up. He could barely open it when he first woke up the next morning. But he healed well. The lid is still a little yellowy-green.

Ella: As I mentioned earlier, she wrapped up gymnastics in May and starting swimming class. It's only every Saturday for a half hour for five weeks, nothing intensive at all. But I'm mostly just wanting to get her in this stuff so she gets used to meeting new people and getting over her shyness and fear.  She adjusted a lot faster to this class then gymnastics (it took her about four classes before she didn't cry at all) so that 's a good sign!  She loves to pretend. And she loves to sing and dance.  We'll probably sign her up for dance this Fall. 


Blake: The big man around the house. Or so he thinks.  He wrapped up his first year of middle school with a 3.99 GPA! Woohoo! That pesky B in Science class his first quarter thwarted his quest for perfection. Oh well, there's always 7th grade, right?  He's a great kid and is growing up so fast. In the last month or so I have mistaken for Peter on a number of occasions. I will be half way through my sentence before I look up and realize it's Blake! I always say, "Ugh! I thought you were your dad!" I've advised them to coordinate their wardrobes so they aren't wearing the same color shirt on the same day. That really throws me off!  Blake has a wonderful sense of humor and is the best big brother.  Ella adores him and Miles always wants to be wherever he is.  At the moment, he is in Texas with Kathy and Jim. We miss him a lot.  I'm sure he is in hog heaven though.


Peter: Just call him Mr. Tennis.  He is playing at least three times a week and just finished up a tournament where he was playing both singles and doubles. He lost the singles match in the 2nd to last round, but he won the doubles!! That was a crazy week. He played every night except Wednesday.  He applied for a GS13 position at work but apparently his resume was not clear enough so they couldn't push him forward to the interview stage. It was kind of annoying because he did have the qualifications, but when he asked them to reconsider, they said, "Sorry, we can only go off what is on your resume."  So, hey, guess we'll wait for the next opportunity. Because there will be one--there always is, right?


Me:  The last month or so has been a bit tough on me. Work and some other things have been really stressful.  I have had neck and shoulder pain all of this week and I think that is all due to the stress. I am not the type of person to bring work issues home with me but some of this has just been too much.  Thankfully, we are getting a new director on Monday.  I'm hoping that change is swift. We'll see. In the meantime I have a few applications pending and am waiting to hear back from a job that I interviewed for. I am waiting to see what my workload will look like before I register for any classes.
I wasn't really into my birthday this year and I think it's just because of everything that is going on. But I'm glad that I made plans to go out one night with a bunch of girlfriends. We went to Canvas and Cocktails and it was ton of fun.  
Besides work-the kids keep me busy and the house keeps me busy. Endless laundry, dishes, toys, baths, etc, etc. We did just have the interior of our house painted! I haven't taken any pictures yet so can't post anything. But hopefully soon. It looks a lot warmer and cozier...which I think is something I really needed.

Okay-that should get everyone up to speed.  Here's to more picture posting and shorter updates! Hope everyone is well.