Best Friends can be amazing

There is something to be said for best friends.  I have several friends near and far.....but there is one special lady that I can't wait to meet up with, or talk to.  She has always been and inspiration to me, and helped me through some tough times. 

 

 

 

The best thing is that we can go months without talking to each other and when we do get to talk NOTHING has changed!  We can still be just as silly (okay almost, I mean we have kids now) as we were in college. 

 

Thanks for being my friend, Ms. Jenny!

Ayden's Baptism

 

 This last September Ayden turned 8 years old.  He chose to be baptized and had a wonderful experience.  We were blessed to have quite a bit of family come into town for the occasion.  I think the biggest take away from his baptism was watching his face when Janet (Doug's Mom) break a glass bowl in her talk about baptism.  I am sure it is something he will won't forget.  

 

Halloween

Halloween is always fun.  The kids figure out what they are going to dress up as and then change their minds a million times.  Our tradition is to carve pumpkins the Monday before Halloween.  So here are a few pictures  of the pumpkins.

 

It is hard to see but Masyn's has a pirate eye.

 

 

The kids in their costumes just before trick or treating.  We went around our neighborhood.  The kids got quite a bit of candy. 

 

We also went to a Halloween Party at our friends house and had a blast.  We did our best to dress up like Katniss and Peeta from The Hunger Games.

Suicidal Frog

On Tuesday I took Masyn to school and then headed off to the grocery store.  I had to pick up a few things for the Halloween dessert I was making for a party that night.  I get home about 12:30 and start making my cake.  I have been home about a half hour when I got to put a dish in the sink and find this. . . .

 

 

Pedro our frog decided to jump out of the fish tank (which has a lid  - so I don't know how he did it).  I eventually got him back into the fish tank, but he wasn't the same.  He died the next day.  The kids have asked me why he jumped out, and I have no answer.  Now they are asking for more fish.

Where does he get it?!?!?

Masyn is always making people laugh!  He loves the attention, and will do anything to get it most of the time.  Here are a few picture showing that side of his personality.

 

 

He is pretending to be a drummer from the band Love Handel in Phineas and Ferb

 

Hide and Seek with his backpack is almost a daily activity

 

Sometimes there is nothing better than a sleeping Masyn

 

The funny thing with this one is he was singing "I'm a rockstar" over and over

 

This is what happens when you don't hear anything from Masyn and you know he went to the bathroom

 

 

 

Bad picture

I have been told it is a right of passage to have a bad school picture.  Well guess what! Ryleigh had hers right off the bat!  We missed retakes because she was sick so we will always look at this picture and wonder what I drugged her with in the morning.

 

 

Police Family day BBQ

Every year the Loveland Police Department does a Family Day BBQ and every year it has fallen on a drill weekend for Doug.  Last year it was cancelled because of weather and this year I went without him.  This is a big step for those of you who know me.  I don't know many of his co-workers let alone being put in an area with their families that I don't know.  It is never a pretty sight.  I usually stand on the side and just watch, only speak when spoken to, and avoid eye contact while watching time count down. 

 

It was fun and I am glad that I took the kids.  The had the bomb squad truck out with the robots, and the K-9 guys did a demonstration for everyone (Masyn and Ayden even got to help out).  Each of the kids also got to sit on one of the police motorcycles.

 

Even without Doug it was fun and I was even able to meet some new people on the force and catch up with ones I hadn't seen in a long time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Laundry soap fail

So I learned how to make my own laundry soap a while back.  It has been a huge money saver for us.  I have been trying to figure out how to add some stain fighting to the soap.  This last time around I decided to buy liquid Oxiclean super stain fighter.  I finished cooking the soap and added the Oxiclean and next thing I know I am taking my pot out back because it is about to overflow.  It bubbled over for probably 7-10 minutes.  It wasn't pretty - as you can see.  I will have to try again next time when it is cooled down. 

 

General Conference October 2012

This year my Dad was able to get 6 tickets to the Sunday Afternoon Session of General Conference.  My Dad called and asked if Ayden and I wanted to go.  I rearranged a few things and off we went!  We loaded everyone up Friday night about 5:30 and headed to Utah. 

 

The next day after the long late drive the day before we took the kids to Temple Square.  They had blast!  All of the kids got to ride a "train" for the first time and LOVED it.

 

The Salt Lake Temple

 

Masyn enjoyed the train

 

Ryleigh avoiding the camera

 

Ayden leaning like a grown up

All of the kids at the reflection pool on Temple Square

 

Ayden Ryleigh and Masyn in front of the Chistus

 

The session was an amazing experience.  Since Ayden has just turned 8 he was able to go (Doug had to work and couldn't make it).  Watching him take in everything warmed my heart.  We brought his binoculars so that he could find President Monson at the conference.  He took several notes during the talks, Ayden couldn't stop smiling the whole time.  When the session was over he said that went by really fast.  I asked him how he felt he told me "I feel really happy Mom.  I like it!"  I couldn't have been more pleased.  I explained that was the Holy Ghost letting him know he made a good choice.  I know that this is an experience that Ayden will never forget and neither will I.

 

Thanks Mom and Dad for the tickets!

 

Me and Ayden waiting for my parents after the conference

First day of school 2012-2013

This is a year to remember.  All three of my kids are in some form of school for a period of time.  Ayden is in 3rd grade this year at Loveland Classical Schools, Ryleigh started Kindergarten. She goes to school on Tuesday/ Thursday all day and then Friday afternoon.  The schedule is a little  wonky and was hard to get used to at first.  Masyn is in his first full year of preschool.  He goes to school Monday through Thursday in the afternoons.  It is wonderful because while I LOVE my children I get five whole hours a week without any kids, two of those hours are mine completely because Doug works.  It might be a while to get used to the fact that I go do what I wanted or needed during those times and it would be uninterrupted. 

Ayden ( 7 years old - 3rd grade)

Ryleigh (5 years old - kindergarten)

Masyn (3 years old - preschool)

Backyard FINALLY!

Remember when we bought a house?  Scroll to the bottom and you can see what the backyard looked like before everything started.  Then we put in the fence.  This was the start of the backyard.  Here are some of the pictures of the process to get the backyard to what it is now.  First my awesome brother in law helped us put in sprinklers for the grass.  It was a big process but got done, I just wish I had some pictures to show you.  After the sprinklers one of my brothers came and helped up extend our patio with paver brick.

 

The extension was 6x10

 

The finished patio is now 16x10

 

Next came putting in our borders.  We installed a bendy board  to give the division between the grass and the mulch.  The nice thing is if a kid trips on it they are less likely to get hut than if they are tripped on a galvanized edging. 

 

This is our 5 yards of mulch!  The nice thing was it was light to carry and didn't take long to put in

 

 

 

Then came the path for the mower to get through

That was a lot of sod, but it only took about one and a half hours to install.

The final shot.

 

We now have a backyard to enjoy and let the kids run around in!  Thank goodness, the house was getting loud!

 

Specfics are important!

How does a 5 year old clean her room??

 

I have learned that I need to check the completion of a task.  I was too late this day.

I love my husband!

I have no caption for this!  Any suggestions??

Ryleigh's hair crisis #2

Remember Ryleigh's first hair crisis? I knew that was the first of many.  So here we are about six weeks later and on another hair crisis. 

I babysit a little boy (Cole) and a little girl (Kaylee) three days a week.  Last week during quiet time the girls were playing hair.  This has happened several times before so I though nothing of it.  After maybe 20 minutes Ryleigh comes into the kitchen and asks for help to get a comb out her hair.  When I turned to see it I was shocked!  This is what I saw. . . .

I was speechless!  I asked what Kaylee was trying to do and was told that Ryleigh wanted her hair curled.  I put Ryleigh up on a stool and started to see what I could do.  While I was working I thought I should probably prep her in case I can't get it out and we have to get it cut.  She was not happy (can't say that I was either).  I tried and tried for 45 minutes and couldn't get it out.  So I told Ryleigh we were going to go to a haircutting place and it would probably end up getting cut out. 

When we got to the salon the hair stylist were confident they could get it out.  The hair stylist put Ryleigh into a chair and got to work.  She at first used a rat tail comb and wasn't very successful.  The second attempt was to use a hair product to give the hair some slip.  After she tried for about 20 minutes the hair stylist was successful. Ryleigh's hair was definitely curly. 

We had to do a small trim to get rid of the damaged hair but we were able to save her already short hair!

 Needless to say I bought some of the product they used and will keep it on hand for the next episode because I am sure we are far from being done with hair traumas. 

Silly kids

While Doug was gone on his AT (annual training) for the military I bought the kids goggles. They were so excited they wore them most of the day.  The kids CRACK me up, you can't help but love them!

High Park Fire update



This is a picture taken by the Coloradoan, a local newspaper.

According to the Larimer County Emergency web page the High Park Fire was 100% contained on July 1st.  The fire burned a total of 87,284 acres and 259 homes.  The fire is estimated to cost of $38.4 millions.

There has been much devastation to the area.  Shortly after the containment there have been fierce rains and now flash flooding is a big concern.  The Poudre Canyon has been closed at least once because of mudslides.  My parents were able to take a drive up into some of the area where the fire was sent me a couple of pictures. 

 This is Pingree Park area

This is Highway 14 (Poudre Canyon)

Below are some pictures that a friend of mine took (Thanks Deedee) of the thank you signs that were around north Fort Collins, Laporte and Bellvue area.  This is only a few of her pictures and she saw several that she didn't capture in picture.

I am truly grateful for all of those that worked on and continue to work on the High Park Fire.  Those mountains have many memories for me from growing up.

Thank you to all of our first responders!