More Birthday Fun

Tori woke up on the morning of her birthday just as excited as can be. She was so cute. She wanted to make sure she didn't go downstairs to see her birthday table until everyone was ready for school. Here are her and Levi waiting outside the bathroom while I do Alexis's hair.
Here's our cute birthday girl!

Since she wasn't having her party until the following Saturday we wanted to stretch out opening presents throughout the day. We let her open 2 before school =)

I had to snap a picture of Alexis =)

After opening a few presents it was time for her breakfast of choice, Cocoa Puffs! I made sure to sneak in some sausage too so they got a little protein in to start their day =)

When I picked up the girls after school, the first thing that Tori said when she got into the car was, "this was the worst day ever!" I about died. What could have possibly gone wrong, and on her birthday of all days? Well it turned out that after she had finished eating lunch she had forgotten to close her water bottle, and when she went to pack up her backpack at the end of the day she noticed that it had leaked all over her backpack, folder and brand new book from the library. I was relieved to discover that this had all happened during the last ten minutes of school, so her whole day had not been awful after all. LOL My poor little drama queen. After talking about the rest of her day and deciding that it was a good day despite the water bottle incident, we headed home to do homework. After that we went to Red Robbin, her birthday dinner of choice. Brandon met us there from work. We got there around 5 and were delighted to beat the dinner time rush. We had great service and got our food really fast. Then we headed back home to get baths done, and lunches made before our families came over for cake and ice cream. Here she is sitting in front of her birthday table again. It was torture, according to her, to wait to open all of those presents! I think it made it more exciting. Finally everyone arrived (grandma, grandpa, Michael, Nana and Papa) It was so much fun to have them there to help us celebrate.

Her cake of choice was a cookie cake. That was easy enough! She got the birthday hat at school =)

It turned out to be a perfect birthday celebration!

Her birthday party was planned for the following Saturday. It was fun for her to be able to look forward to more birthday fun throughout the week. Since Tori's all time favorite thing to do is paint, we planned a painting party! Here is everything all ready to go

Crushed up candy ready to make picasso pops:

Art supplies galore:

And an anxious birthday girl ready to party:

After the guests all arrived, we started out by making the picasso pops. They had all sorts of crushed up candy (dum dums) to choose from, and they each got to design 2 lollipops. After arranging their candy of choice into a circle on the pan, we cooked them in the oven for 7 minutes. I was so excited when I saw this idea online. I didn't try it out first and was a little nervous that it wouldnt work, but they turned out so cute. In the midst of all the craziness I didn't get a picture of the finished products, but they turned out so cute, and the girls loved them!

After that, we moved to the table so they could begin on their "masterpieces" I found a great deal on art canvases at Michaels. They each started out with a plain piece of paper to practice their ideas on. Then they moved to the canvases to paint to their hearts content. We had paint, glitter, sequins, feathers, and more to choose from. I told them that this was their own personal masterpiece and they could make it however they wanted. They loved this, and really took their time and had a great time with it.

The painting took quite a while, which I was happy about. Then we moved to ice cream sundaes. We had all sorts of toppings, and I told them that now they got to make a masterpeice ice cream sundae (corny I know, but they loved it )

I stuck a candle in Tori's sundae and we all sang happy birthday. She blew out the candle so fast that I missed a picture, so I made her pretend to blow it out again. She thought that was kind of silly but played along for me =)

By this time it was almost time for the parents to arrive, so we hurried and opened up presents. Her friends were all so thoughtful, and she got some great girfts. Tori has always loved cards. When opening a present she always makes sure to find the card first and read it. I think it's so sweet. I caught a few on camera =)

Well, that was a quick recap of her fun birthday celebrations. I was so tired and wiped put after her party, that I had to lie down the rest of the day. I am so grateful for my mom! She came and helped with the party, and I could never have done it without her help! She even brought the ice cream, which I had totally forgotten to buy when I went to the store that morning. I bought all the toppings but no icecream! Another thing I will blame on my pregnancy brain =)

Now on to baptism preparations. What a special day that will be for Tori =)

I Blame it on my Pregnancy Brain

Brandon and I have joked throughout this pregnancy that I totally have pregnancy brain. I'd like to blame what happened this past week on that =) On Wednesday night Brandon and I went to back to school night at our kids school. We drove separately, because he was coming straight from work. It happened to be pouring down rain. It was pretty bad. Because of the limited parking at the school they had people directing everyone where to park. I pulled into where they told me to park, opened my door, opened my umbrella, and headed out into the rain towards the school. I looked back at my van and noticed that the lights were still on, but assumed they would go off in a minute. (They always stay on for a few minutes) Brandon was already there, so I met up with him and we were mingling in the gym with some other parents, when someone announced in the microphone that there was a blue Dodge minivan outside that was still running. They then went on to announce the license plate number. I couldn't believe my ears. It was mine! I started looking through my purse for my keys, just in case there was some mistake and it wasn't me. Brandon saw me, and said "You have got to be kidding me, it's you??" I was so embarrassed! I didn't want anyone to know it was me. I begged him to go out and take care of it, and so he did. Not with out giving me a really hard time about it though! In my defense, it was raining so bad, that I just wanted to get into the school as fast as I could. But that is a first for me, so I totally blame it on my state of mind at the moment. I have done a little research online and it turns out that pregnancy brain is a real thing. Thank goodness. There is still some hope that I can regain some sanity once this baby is here. But I don't know. While I was researching about pregnancy brain, I came across quite a bit about "mommy brain" As well. I think I may just be doomed! lol =)

First Day of School 2011

We are a little over a week into the school year. This year was especially exciting because the kids started at a new school! Towards the end of last year we heard of a new charter school that was opening in Highlands Ranch. We did a lot of research into it and praying, and really felt like this was where our kids needed to be. The new school goes through junior high, which was a huge selling point for me. The values taught and curriculum really struck a chord, and we couldn't be more happy with our decision to send our kids there. They were all really excited and nervous for this new beginning. Knowing that everyone was going to be new there, helped to calm their fears a little. An added bonus is that they are required to wear uniforms. I LOVE that. Here they are all ready to go on their first day. The uniform they are wearing is the formal uniform that they are required to wear on the first day of school, field trips, and the first Wednesday of each month. It's actually Levi's favorite shirt to wear.

There is no spiked hair allowed at the school, and considering the fact that we have always spiked his hair, ever since he had hair to spike, it took a little getting used to =)They were all so excited!

For the first day, they had the kindergartners go a half an hour later then the older grades. This meant Levi and I had a while to wait in the car before he could go in. I'm still loving his toothless grin =)

The way the school is built doesn't allow for very much parking, so they have a system where we just pull around and drop off our kids, and they go into their classrooms. This was a little difficult for me to accept at first, especially for the first day, but Alexis and Tori were champs and did great. The reason they had the kindergartners go late was so the parents could walk them in on their first day. (thank goodness!) Here is Levi walking towards the school, excited as can be!

Here are a few pictures once we were in the classroom. His teacher's name is Miss Oakley and Levi loves her! She is a great kindergarten teacher. She is the one in the green. For the first week of school they all got to bring in a teddy bear, and have it go throughout the first week with them. On Friday, they concluded the week with a teddy bear picnic.

Once everyone was there, we all gathered around the rug and Miss Oakley read us this story.

It is the story of a raccoon who is starting school for the first time and is so nervous to go and be away from his mom. His mom kisses his hand and says that it will always be there in his hand, and that if he is ever missing her to touch his hand to his cheek and know that she loves and misses him too. This was such a touching story and there were quite a few of us mom's with tears. This was especially touching to me, because I always draw hearts on my kids hands if they are having a hard time going somewhere, and tell them if they miss me to look at the heart on their hand, and know that I love them and am thinking about them.

After the teacher read the story, she gave each of the kids a heart sticker and had them bring it to their mom's and put it on their hand and give it a kiss. It was the sweetest thing ever! I loved that they did this. They also gave us a little pack of tissues and some hershey kisses.

I gave Levi one last hug before leaving. Suddenly my excited boy got a little nervous. As he wrapped his hands around my neck his lip quivered and he said, "I want to go home" This melted my heart! After a big long hug he took his bear and walked over and sat with all the kids on the rug. I lingered outside the door a few minutes to make sure he was OK. He put on a brave face but I could tell he was still nervous. When I picked him up a few hours later, he was all smiles and said he loved it =)

Later in the afternoon we went to pick up the girls. After over an hour long wait in the carpool lane (such a nightmare, but thankfully they have tweaked the system so it goes much faster now) I was finally to the front of the line and could not wait to hear how Alexis and Tori's first day had gone. When they jumped into they car, Tori immediately burst into tears and said she hated it and wanted to go to her old school. My heart sunk! She told me that the playground was so small (it really is, but they will be adding to it soon) and that she just had to stand around at recess and that they hardly got any time to eat lunch, and that she hated having to wait for me for so long at the end of the day. After talking about it we came to the conclusion that lunch and recess were hard, but that they would get better as the routine got better, and that waiting for me was hard, but that would also get better. She admitted that the rest of her day was fun and that she loved her teacher (Miss Whelan). So the hard parts were parts that would get better, and the fun parts were the most important parts. I was so nervous to pick her up the next day. When she hopped into the car she said that she loves school, and that she made a new friend name Violet. She has continued to love school more and more. What a relief!

On the first day when Alexis hopped in the car she immediately said that she loved it so much. She loved her teacher (Mr. Harvey) and met a really nice girls named Katie. Each day she has continues to love it and has made several new friends. One thing I love is that her teacher gives them time at the end of the day to do their homework, so they will rarely have any to do at home. Homework has always been a hard thing for Alexis, so this has been such a blessing!

So we survived the first week, and so far this week is going great! Last week was hard for me to get used to waking up so early, and I was exhausted all week long. This week I am feeling much better, and feel like we have a really good daily routine. Brandon has been able to take the kids to school on his way to work, since it is right on the way, and that has been a HUGE blessing and help to me.

Here's to a great school year!

It's Great to be 8!

Today, our Tori bug turns 8. Time is flying by! It feels like yesterday that she was born. My pregnancy, delivery and recovery with Tori was very hard, but she was such an easy baby, and brought us so much joy from the beginning. It is so fun to look at each of our children as they grow into who they will become. They are each so unique. I love it. Here are some things we want to remember about Tori as she turns 8 this year.

~She is so incredibly kind and compassionate and always thinking of others. I want to record a cute little side story to go with this one. On Friday as Brandon was driving the kids to school, Levi discovered that he had forgotten to put his snack in his backpack and was quite distraught. Without thinking twice, Tori said, "You can have mine Levi!" She took hers out of her backpack and gave it to him, leaving her without a snack for the day. Everyone who knows Tori, knows that she loves her snacks, so this act of kindness said a lot! She is always doing things like this.

~She loves to go fishing and hiking with dad.

~She loves to look pretty. I often find her in her room in front of the mirror applying all kinds of makeup and accessorizing from head to toe.

~She is very creative and is always coming up with some kind of craft off the top of her head.

~She has a huge sweet tooth.

~Some of the funny sayings she says often are, "Oh, come on!" and "Are you serious?"

~ She is a very loyal friend

~She loves to sing, and is really good at memorizing songs.

~She is so good with animals.

~She is starting to go by Victoria at school instead of Tori

~She loves to get and give presents.

~She is always writing Brandon and I cards telling us how much she loves us.

~She is getting to be quite the little reader and has started reading chapter books.

~She is really good at remembering things. Several times when she is with me when I am going to the store without a list, I will specifically tell her some of the things that I need to get (I am notorious for forgetting why I went to the store in the first place) I know that if I tell her, she won't let me leave the store without those things!

~She loves raw vegetables (especially carrots, broccoli and celery) She will gobble them up, but the second you cook them, she won't touch them any more. (This is exactly like Brandon)

~She loves to ride her bike.

~She loves to roller skate, and is really good at it.

~She still is a blanky girl, and sleeps with her "Winnie the pooh blanket" every night. It brings her so much comfort!

~She loves to take videos with my little video camera.

~ She is often the peacemaker between Alexis and Levi's daily brawls.

~She is very strong willed.

The list could go on and on. Our family would not be complete without Tori. She is such a special, important part of our family. We love you Tori! Happy Birthday!!

Grateful

Today I am feeling a little down. I decided to sit down and write out a list of things that I am grateful for lately and hopefully that will lift my spirits!

Today I am grateful..............

~That Brandon was home last night to fight off yet another bat that somehow made it's way into our house.

~That Alexis offered to mop the floor today with great enthusiasm. It has been needing to be mopped for a while.

~ That I get to see two of my sisters this next week.

~ A much needed girls night outs at Nella's with a dear friend

~ A patient husband who deals with my crazy pregnant hormones on a daily basis.

~ My mom and dad's nice air conditioned house that they let us come hang out at whenever we want.

~My sweet kids who make me laugh.

~ Patient neighbors who kindly bring back our dog when it escapes on a daily basis.

~Much less nausea then I have been experiencing

~ Good sales on comfy pants.



Ok, I feel better. Now back to my day.................

No Bears Out Tonight.....We Hope!

I was feeling really guilty about how un-fun our summer had been, and so Brandon had the idea of going camping. I was a little nervous about going, because of how rotten I have felt, and Brandon said he would just take the kids. But it made me so sad to think of all the memories I would be missing, so I decided to tough it out. I spent several days looking on the Internet trying to find good camp spots ideas. A few days before we were set to go, I still didn't really know where we were going to go. There were so many places that looked good online, but what if they weren't?? Then I thought that maybe we should ask someone who camps a lot for an idea. (I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier) so Brandon asked a friend and he suggested Jefferson Lake. I called right up to get a reservation, but found out that you have to reserve a spot at least 5 days in advance. They said there was one first come first serve sight, so we probably wouldn't get it. Then Brandon talked to Justin again, and he said that right next to the Jefferson Lake campground there is an overflow campground that you could go to, but it just didn't have any amenities. So we decided to leave early Friday morning and try our luck. We got out of the house by 10, but after having to make several stops, to pick up last minute things, we didn't really get going until around 12. By the time we rolled into campgound there was a sign saying it was full =( We decided to ask anyways just in case, lol. The lady was really nice. She told us about the overflow with no amenities (bathrooms) but then she said there was another campground just up the road called Michigan Creek that might have a few spots. As we drove to see I started preparing myself for having the dig a hole to use the restroom (which being pregnant means, having to dig a lot of holes!) I was relieved when we pulled into Michigan Creek and found several open spots! We snagged ourselves a perfect little camp sight and then started setting up camp. Here are the kids standing in front of our tent, ready for our camping adventure.

We brought our two dogs along, because we felt to bad asking anyone to watch our obnoxious yellow lab puppy, and the kids didn't think it was fair to make Misty miss out on all the fun. Lets just say, we will never bring Jasper again! He was the source of quite a bit of stress on the camping trip, but I wont go into that now.

Misty, on the other hand was a perfect angel. She can come any time =) After we set up camp, we took the kids exploring and to look for some firewood. We found a little stream, which the kids loved, but unfortunately in order to get to it we had to walk across a narrow log surrounded by tons of mud. Needless to say, we all got quite muddy. I hate getting dirty, and when my kids get dirty (maybe that's why I'm not much of a camper) so I tried to be a good sport about the whole thing, but it was hard! lolHere are Brandon and Levi on their way back from getting firewood. They found an old dead tree that had been cut down, and it provided us with a ton of firewood.

Here's Levi chillin in the tent =)

Brandon made up a game similar to horseshoes, but with rocks. Levi got bored fast, but it kept Brandon and the girls busy for quite a while.

We made hot dogs for dinner, and then the kids begged for smores. We tried to hold them off until it got dark but it didn't work too well. Smores are the best part of camping!

Here's the one picture of me we got (That I will let be seen) We had so much fun sitting around the camp fire at night in our jammies. It was really hot during the day, but once the night hit, it got quite chilly. We were so glad that the fire ban had recently been lifted, so we could enjoy lots of nice warm fires =)

After a while we decided to head to bed, and we got all situated in our tent. Here is Brandon cuddling with Jasper, lol.

There was bear danger in the area, so I was really nervous that first night. I hardly slept a wink, and would jerk awake at any sound, thinking for sure it was a bear! I felt better that Brandon had his gun to protect us, but I was still a little freaked out! On our last morning there, the people at the campsite next to us came and told us that they just saw a bear cub run past the campsite next to theirs. I was so glad that we were leaving because there is no way I would have slept at all knowing that! We made sure we always kept our campsites really clean, and always packed up all of our food in our car each night. Brandon thought I was a little silly as I went around the campsite each night and picked up every crumb I could find, but I was just trying to be careful!
The next morning we had a yummy breakfast of sausage, hash browns, and pancakes. There is just something about camping that makes everything taste so good! After breakfast we loaded up and headed over to Jefferson Lake to go fishing. I am not much of a fisher, so I wasn't much help getting the kids poles ready. Here are the kids anxiously waiting for a Brandon to finish with a pole so they could start.

I love Levi's huge excited grin in this picture =)

Almost ready to go...

First up was Alexis. Right away she got a bite, but as she was reeling it in, it escaped =( She did end up catching another one though. Unfortunately it was when I had gone back to the car to make some sandwiches so I missed the photo opportunity. She kept it though, and loved playing with it (eeekk) Brandon ended up cooking it that night.

Here are Levi and Tori waiting patiently for their turns.

This picture of Tori makes me laugh. She is humoring me by letting me take yet another picture but her expression is clearly saying, ok mom that's enough!

Next up was Tori. Doesn't she look like a natural?

She also got a bite right away, and it didn't get away! It was so fun to see how excited she got as she reeled it in.
Here she is with her catch. After admiring it for several minutes she decided to let it go back to it's family =)

Finally it was Levi's turn.
Tori hopped up next to him to give him some pointers =) He got bored really fast, and didn't catch any fish, but he didn't seem to care! lol

Here's a picture of Jasper with us at the lake. He may look innocent enough, but don't let him fool you. He sure was a trouble maker, and we ended up cutting our fishing trip a little short, because we couldn't keep him under control.

Towards the end, the kids talked me into letting them take their shoes off and go wading in the lake. They loved it =)

After about three hours we packed up and headed back to camp. I was exhausted and wanted to take a nap, but Brandon and the kids wanted to keep on fishing, so they headed down to the little stream by our campsite to see if they could catch anything. They actually caught 2 fish! When they got back, Brandon gutted them and cooked them over the fire along with the one that Alexis caught earlier. He got Tori to take a bite, to which she almost threw up, haha. Levi and I didn't dare try any. I told Brandon that I was sure that I wasn't supposed to eat fish caught from streams or lakes while being pregnant, since they hadn't undergone proper testing, lol. It got me off the hook this time, haha. but Brandon and Alexis did and they actually really liked it and gobbled them up. I went on to make our planned meal for the night, Chilli. It tasted so yummy!

After dinner we got out these popcorn things that I found at the store before we left. We didn't quite know how they worked. Brandon read the instructions and decided to try and cook it over the stove. These next few pictures are hilarious. It started out totally flat and within a couple of seconds it totally puffed up. We were sure it was going to explode at any second!

You can see Alexis holding out a cup in this picture in case she needed to catch any if it exploaded.

Luckily it didn't and it proved to be quite a tasty treat! Then we got out the marshmallows to take advantage of our last night to make smores.

Alexis decided to enjoy the popcorn a little bit longer before she made her smores =)

Brandon and the kids headed out one more time to get a little more firewood to last the night and next morning. We sat around the fire again for quite some time that night while Brandon wittled each of the kids a knife, and himself a new walking stick. It was so relaxing sitting around the fire and just enjoying each others company.

That night was a little harder cleaning up the campsite because of all the popcorn everywhere, but I made sure I got every one! We didn't want any unwanted visitors that night.

We all slept pretty well that night. I was glad that I didn't wake up as much =)

The next morning all the kids crawled up on Brandon's cot to keep warm =)

We just slept in and realxed all morning. Then we got up, had some cereal for breakfast, and relaxed a little more. We didn't want to feel like we were in any rush, since we didn't have to check out of the capsite until two. Finally after a while we started packing up to head for home.

It was such a fun relaxing weekend that was much needed! It was so great to to take a break from reality. I actually felt really good the whole time, with only a little bit or nausea.

We really want to head back at least one more time this summer. This time without the dogs. Well Jasper at least =)