Well, If You Must Know

It's been a while.  I know this.  So, in a nutshell...

Blaine got a mo-hawk.  But his curls are making a comeback
and I think he's going to have a curl-hawk here pretty soon. 

Blaine and David caught some fish.

They cleaned them.

We ate them.  (Mmmmmmmm!)

We watched Daddy play softball.  The best part of the game though
was when my sweet Mister asked me, "When is this gonna be over?  And
is Daddy's game going to be on TV?  I'll just watch it later." (LOL)

And then May came.  And apparently it snows in Colorado.  IN MAY!

Blaine made a super cool volcano with Ms. Sara.
But then he ran out of vinegar.  (What a project!)

Oh, did I mention that it SNOWED in May?

Tug had a growth on his eye.  The vet had to remove it surgically.
He is now sporting a cone so he doesn't paw at his stitches and
I think his eye might be permanently droopy post-op. :(  Poor thing.

Mister is still in swim lessons but now he has a fancy swim cap.

I went on a women's retreat with our church.  It was, hands down,
one of the top five best weekends of my life.  God worked
very powerfully this past weekend.  I am a grateful lady today.

More of Crooked Creek Ranch, where the retreat was held.

My kids' favorite cousin had her 1st birthday party this
weekend too.  She loved her cake.  More than any other
one year old.. ever.. I think!

And of course, Hannah G never turns down a cupcake.
Wouldn't be right.

Every time we go to see Uncle Steve (and I do mean, EVERY time)
Hannah fake cries and says, "I don't yike Uncle Steeeve.  He's a big guy."
Which is funny because she says it every time and he's not big.
Clearly she is "not" liking this book at all!

Her favorite party favor: noise makers!  Oh, I'll
get Aunt Sarah back for this someday :)

Oh, there is a lot more but I can't remember any of it right now.  I do know there are only two more full weeks of school left after this one and then it is officially SUMMER break and next week marks one whole year of David's employment at Trada!  Not to mention the biggest news of all - some little person around here is turning 3 in a month!  Wow, time flies when you're having the busiest and craziest life ever!

I'll be sure to update you all again when the kids are like 9 and 7!  Ha :)

Cupcake Wars

The small group we're in gets together twice a month and this month the host couple put on a halloween-themed party, including a friendly game of "Cupcake Wars."  Let's just say the competition was intense.  We had a lot of fun but I'm really looking forward to relaxing and getting some sleep.  I've been putting in some late nights and waking David up in the middle of the night to discuss cupcake designs ideas.  :)

Then there was a bunch of smack talk on Facebook and so the pressure was on.

Here was what we were up against:

We were not allowed to vote for ourselves and in the end our cupcake lost by only ONE vote!  The funny part is that I voted for the winner... so it's my fault that I lost... or something like that :)

Here was our design:

And everything was edible...

The whole family had a blast.  Blaine and Hannah dressed up in their costumes and both had fun playing with the other kids and decorating their own cupcakes.

We are all planning for the next competition: "Ginger Bread Man Wars!" Ha!

Fast Forward

Hello, my name is Jessica and sometimes I post random information here at this blog about our family but I've been a bad blogger lately.  Because of the length of time that has past I've decided to just fast forward through all the junk that has happened and get to the fun and happy stuff.

Just kidding, you know me better than that!  I've got to write about some of the "junk!"  The moving company continues to cause us problems and stress.  David had to help them move our items into the house (on Sunday the 1st) for almost 9 hours because they sent two small men (one who was on his first day of the job) to move all of our stuff in.  They damaged nearly all of our good furniture and many irreplaceable items (you know, the stuff from Pottery Barn, Ashley Furniture, our TempurPedic box spring, the Dyson vacuum, handmade decorative glass crosses, etc...) yet none of our cheap stuff.  The claims department is asking us to provide color pictures of the items, the boxes they came in, original sales receipts, weight of item, etc... for everything damaged and nothing can be emailed in - it has to be typed or handwritten and color copies of the photos have to be sent in.  What a mess. We're trying to get our credit card company to help dispute/recover the $3000 in overage charges and seek justice for the horrible customer service problems we've had.  The saga continues.

Another, more important, challenge we have faced is that the therapy that Blaine had started to receive this last week ended up not being covered by our insurance company.  For almost three months we've been working through the details of this and several weeks ago it was confirmed on two different occasions that these particular therapy benefits would be covered but when it came down to getting pre-authorization, benefits were denied.  Our next steps are complicated and expensive but we're not going to stop at anything to get Blaine what he needs.  So even though insurance has denied these benefits now, we're not going to stop pushing.

Okay, now the fun stuff!

My mom (aka: GG) came and helped me get the house totally unpacked and put together last week.  She was an indispensable, calm and loving presence and just a huge help as we moved and settled in.  She came in before our actual move date to help with the kids and on moving day basically took the childcare reigns while we dealt with the BS that was our move.  Then we tag-teamed and managed to get every box unpacked by Wednesday.  By Friday the whole house was completely set up.  GG was on a mission and she accomplished.  We don't know what we would've done without her.  Thanks for your help, Mom. 

Walking into the kitchen from dining room.

Mister in the backyard

Out the front door

Mister getting the mail.  He loves doing this.



We got to bring our washer and dryer!  Me=Happy

Sister being silly in the main level bathroom.

Kitchen

Front room

Upstairs "Reading room"

Kids' bath

Hanny's room (we had to put her crib back together because she
fell out of big girl bed every night.)  Big girl bed is coming next...

Our unfurnished bedroom (getting new furniture soon.)

Toy room! :)

Mister's room.

Basement (we like to call it the "Guest Quarters" :)

A random little room I'm calling the "Office."  I'll keep bills
in here... Out of sight, out of mind? :)

Basement bathroom

Guest Quarters

This was after another "I'm not tired!  I'm not sleeping!" day.
Yes, this is in the dining room.

Sister in the TV room.

She likes getting dressed by herself now.  Those are actually shorts.

We went to the Denver Zoo with GG.  Mister liked the Carousel.

Aunt Ann sent Hanny this skirt (she made it.) 
Hanny calls it her "Annie."

Loving it!

TV room

TV room from the kitchen

Kitchen from the TV room

Dining room

Today we went on our first family hike at Chautauqua Park.  What a beautiful place we've moved to!  Hannah rode on D's back and Blaine hiked like a superstar.  We were out there exploring for nearly three hours today and Blaine ran most of it.  He wants to summit the Flatirons... maybe another day :)

HG using the "Knockers"

We also went to a new church today.  Yesterday while I was running errands I saw this bumper sticker (below) on several cars (minus the "flatirons community church") and wondered what it was.  I had a hunch that it was the Flatirons, but had no idea what it meant.  I thought maybe these people just liked hiking or something.  Saturday night I spent some time looking for a church for us to go to and came across this very logo... discovering that it was Flatirons Community Church.  The church is less than six miles from our house and was just what we needed.  When we walked in it reminded us a little bit of Gateway, (people dressed very casually, coffee and food available, even the signage and vibe was similar but with a special Colorado feel) and after checking the kids into their respective rooms (which, by the way, they have a smaller, quieter room with one on one care for kids just like Mister!) we headed to the auditorium.  The band looked young but as soon as they began playing we were excited.  And the best part... The God Moment... The this-is-where-you-belong-right-now moment...  The first song they played was our wedding song: Rascall Flatts' "Bless the Broken Road."  I looked at David within two seconds of the song starting and started crying.  What a special song for us and what an awesome way for God to show us that He is with us.  The service was great and we look forward to many more Sunday's at FCC.

David is enjoying his job very much and went on his first mountain climbing adventure on Wednesday.  He is in hog-heaven here in Colorado - he can't stop talking about how perfect the weather is, how he loves the views and the opportunity for adventure.  I would have to agree :) 

Tomorrow will begin my first full week here in Colorado as a stay-at-home mom.  (That should read: Pray for me!) Ha!