Babe Ruth!

How cute is he? Last month Ammon had to write a speech for his second grade class. Then on the speech day he had to bring in a poster and give his speech. He was so cute. I just love how into these things he gets. He memorized his speech on the bus coming home from school one day. And was very serious about it. He's such a good little student. Always trying his best, never wanting to disappoint and a reminding me when things are due or needs something for school. I hope all of my kids are like this!

Denver Zoo

Our Spring break was last week. I wanted to jump in the car and go on vacation badly but we stayed home and went to a few parks, to the Denver Zoo and just hung out. 

Kasey and Jessie (Kasey's friend from dental school days in Iowa) met us at the zoo. Ammon held Ethan's hand or held him and took care of him the whole day while Sienna and Cohen (BFF's) checked out all the animals together. Tate sat perfectly in his stroller and Rylee pushed the stroller (into people, sorry Jessie), followed the kids around and checked out the animals. Kasey, Jessie and I just chatted and tried to keep track of everyone.  I just love that I live close enough to meet Kasey and friends for the day in Denver and still make it home in time for dinner. We ate lunch at Cafe Rio. Yum. I don't know what it is but the Cafe Rio in Denver tastes better than any other I've ever been too!

The Latest and Greatest

Why am I so bad at blogging? Probably because I feel like my life is CRAZY right now!  I'm trying to get a photography website up and running so I can do a little work on the side. I'm also working for a couponing blog right now. So I work about 2 hours every night and posts the best deals I can find and I get payed a nice little paycheck every month. Then we are building a house (really doesn't take my time besides driving up to check it out every day) and I really need to start thinking about how I'm going to decorate it..... Then of course there are the five children to tend to, Jody, Ammon, Cohen, Tate and Rylee.  Keeping the house together, laundry (it's currently all clean but I've got a MOUNTAIN of clothes to fold right now), cooking, grocery shopping(couponing), homework, school events, snow days, church, and trying to find time for myself? Hah!

Life has been a whirlwind lately.  My mom came the middle of February and I loved having here! I miss not having someone to run little errands or cook with.  I just want her to move right in with us! We ate, shopped, went to the boys basketball games, and just spent some nice quality time together. We drove up to Kasey's house and stayed the night and watched the Bachelor together.  I felt like it took forever for her to get here and then once she did it went by in a blink of an eye!  The kids go nuts when she is here and totally made her feel like a celebrity. Fighting over her got to sleep by every night. Ammon told her she was his second favorite girl. Me being his first because I'm his mom and I have to be his first.  Rylee told her she didn't want her to get back on the "hairplane" because she would cry and be sad.

The boys are playing basketball every Saturday morning at the YMCA.  They are doing great and having so much fun. I just die laughing watching Cohen play.  He is very into it which is great and he understands that in order to get the ball he needs to stand next to the hoop and wait for the rebound.  Whenever he gets the ball he dribbles straight for the hoop and throws it up.  The funniest thing is watching him play defense. For one he plays defense on offense too. We are trying to teach him that you don't actually want to be around the defender on offense.  On defense he is intense!  He in on his man like white on rice.

Ammon is an amazing defender and very quick.  My mom bribed the boys when she was here. She would pay them money for every shot they made. Well that was all it took. Now they are scoring points every game! 

Rylee is still a little devil. One minute she's a little angel hugging and kissing you and telling you you're cute and the next running off, screaming, or throwing herself on the ground.  I think she might be bipolar!

Tate is adorable and sweet as ever. I could have ten of him!  We all just go nuts over him. And to think how much I cried when I found out I was pregnant with him? I would have missed out on so much pure joy. 

I'm feeling the need for a vacation right now. If we didn't have this house being built and all over our money going towards it I'd be tempted to book a trip right now.  But Jody keeps reminding me about my Hawaii trip in June with my moms and sisters. I can't wait and need it so badly. 

Things are good. Life is good and we are so blessed to have all that we do!

Valentine's Day

This year, for me, Valentine's was a bust.  I was preparing for a colonoscpoy and wasn't allowed to eat all day. Plus I had to drink this nasty stuff that made me sit in the bathroom all day and night.  But after it was all said and done I have to say having the actual colonoscopy is not a big deal, at all. I slept through the whole thing.  All save the reason I had to have the procedure for another post.

This year I decided we would make our own cards and I loved how they turned out. I saw this on a blog last year and a friend in Windsor actually did it with her own kids. Aren't they cute?

So we woke in the morning and I made the kids pink heart waffles (cut out with a cookie cutter) and then Ammon was off to school.  I spent the rest of the morning cleaning and drinking some nasty stuff.  When the boys got home from school we went and checked on our house and were excited to see they had poured the foundation!  Then I dropped Jody and the kids off at the YMCA and went grocery shopping.  I stopped by Papa Murphy's to pick up a heart shaped pizza but they were out! So we just got a regular cheese pizza.  It was so hard for me to smell it I wanted a piece very badly.  We had our Family Home Evening during dinner and then the kids had a scavenger hunt that Jody made up and of course prizes at the end.  Ammon and Cohen made each of us a at least five Valentine cards. My favorite was the one Ammon gave to Jody it said, To Dad, I love you. You are fun and silly.  Happy Valentines. Love Ammon"  It's true Jody is so fun and silly with the kids. He's a great dad.  Always taking them to play basketball or go sledding.

I took the younger three out for a little photo shoot last week. Cohen is hilarious to take pictures with because he either makes the "cheese" face or tries to act really cool. But I think I got some great ones of him!

We kind of missed out on the day as a couple but I think we'll just celebrate it on another day. 

More Georgia

Here are a few more pictures from our trip to Georgia.  We had such a nice, relaxing time there. Flying out of Denver is nice. It's a direct flight and it's quite a bit shorter than the flight from SF.  Jody's brother and sisters came over a few times. We played games, ate good food and just hung out. Jody's grandmother moved to Stockbridge and we got to see her a lot more than we normally do. The kids love it there. They have a blast wrestling and playing with Grandad (who's just like a kid when they're around) and making crafts with Grandmom.  Jody's parents will be out in April to visit. We only wish our house would be ready by then.

Georgia- Wild Animal Safari

Gearing up for the big adventure. 

 I had to get a picture of how funny the animals looked following the cars.

We went to Georgia the day after Christmas. I love going there. It's the place I really relax and just have fun. The kids play with the older cousins and we get to just sit and talk with the other adults. 

Most of our time was spent hanging out with our family there. But one day Larry had the idea to drive to the Wild Animal Safari a few hours away.  We didn't tell the kids where we were going until we got there.  When they saw the signs and the animals they were so excited.  We rented a huge passenger van that had bars that went across the opening where windows would normally be.  When we drove into the park I was not expecting the animals to literally attack the van.  We had food that we purchased to feed them.  They were sticking there heads into the vans as far as they could and then running their tongues along the bars.  I was dieing laughing the whole time.  And the kids? I think they were speechless.

The whole drive through the park took about 45 minutes. There were elk, water buffalo, deer, pigs, zebra's, giraffe, bulls, cows, llama's, sheep, ostrich's, Camel's and goats.  Then there was also a few fenced areas that held a rhino, and a liger. Whenever they saw us coming the animals would come running for food.

So after driving through the beginning we noticed the giraffe's were not out when we drove by their fence.  So we went back through.  This time the giraffe's were out and sticking there heads right up to the opening in the windows so that we could feed them.  They were getting their heads further and further into the van and I moved to get out of their way and poor Cohen was alone on the bench seat.  I think he even got slobbered on.  I was literally screaming because it was kind of freaky. Cohen was in shock and Ammon had a huge grin on his face totally petting the giraffe's head.  It was just crazy.  The giraffe then reached his head all the way down to the floor board in the van and started grabbing stuff and eating it.  The crazy thing was that Larry, who was driving, couldn't just drive off because the giraffe had worked his neck in just perfectly and we would have caused some major damage to the van and the animal. I actually got most of it on video.  And have enjoyed watching it over.  Finally the giraffe wiggled back out of the van and we finished our tour.  It was such a fun day and exciting day!

They also had a zoo at the park that was full of great animals that were actually up and alert, unlike most zoos were all of the animals are sleeping.

If you are ever in Georgia go check it out. It's pretty entertaining! And rent van number 14.

Balls, Shoes, Hats, Dogs

He's the love of my life. If only I could just get time to stand still. 16 months is adorable and so much fun. Right now he's obsessed with putting shoes on his feet, hats on his head, carrying or bouncing a ball around and anytime he sees an animal it's a dog and he's super fascinated.  He could be my baby forever and life would be grand.  He's starting to copy us.  But will only say things when he wants to.  He'll copy me and then I try to get him to say it again and he won't.  He is so mellow, inquisitive and silly.  Such a joy. Pure joy.

Happy News!

We are building our first home!  This is the floor plan and the lot. It is just barely under an acre and in a culdesac.   The loft upstairs will be made into a fourth bedroom with a little room left for a small study area. We finalized all of the inside details and they should break ground within the next few weeks.  The home should be ready to move in mid May.  Oh happy day!

Children's Museum

My mom got Kasey and I family passes for the Children's Museum in Denver. It's perfect because we can meet up with the kids, play for the morning and go to lunch and then head back home.  So yesterday (yes I'm already blogging) we met up.  The museum was so much fun. My kids loved it. Rylee and Cohen were so into it.  I think Rylee's favorite was the grocery store and Cohen loved the bubble room.  Cohen and Sienna could not wait to see each other. They are best buds.  Cohen brought her a barbie of Rylee's as a gift (Rylee let him).  I just love that we live close enough to meet for the day.  We were at the museum for a few hours and then we went to Cafe Rio for lunch.  There were some crazy ladies at Cafe Rio who yelled at us because they said we weren't watching our kids. The were CRAZY. But the food was awesome so it made up for it. 

On the way home Cohen said, "Mom that was the funnest day I've ever had! "  Love living close to our family.