Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Good Mornings

I am so much happier when we hang out outside, but I'm always too lazy to get out there. This morning was nice and we made it happen.
Paige and Cason caught and took turns holding a ladybug again. Cason kept squealing that it tickled.
Neely's gonna be our family's version of an early bird. She regularly gets me up just a little bit before Jess's alarm goes off. I am actually a morning person, if I can just get enough sleep. I guess I'll have to start getting the other two up early with us so we can all get to bed earlier too. Then a little coffee, drag myself outside, and we'll have a good start to our day.

Lookin Good

Jess and I were just talking about things we want to do, but don't have time for. We normally take turns working out (WHEN we work out, which is rare), with one of us holding Neely while the other does their exercise. Well tonight when we were talking he goes "I'll take care of Neely if you want to work out." I just smiled and asked "Do I look like someone who wants to work out?"

And THEN. THEN. He said: "You look like someone who needs to work out."

Haha. By the time he finished the sentence he realized, and goes "THAT didn't come out right. I just mean we would feel better and have more energy."

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Backbend

I've seen these little butterfly collections people make, and wanted to make one for a while. I finally did one for Neely's room.
I love how when you smile at Neely, her smile grows and grows until she's overwhelmed by the joy and starts squirming and does a crazy backbend kind of thing.
Also I love forearm rolls.

Monday, March 21, 2011

New Leggings


Sunday, March 20, 2011

Part III and a Twig Beat-Down

Not sure it really helped anything separating this into a few posts, but it felt WAY too long for just one. So anyway, here's part 3.

We didn't ONLY eat all week. We also took the kids to lots of cute little parks where they could play.
They made friends all over Colorado.
We also went to Manitou Springs, and on the drive there I heard Paige saying in a really girly voice: "Every girl needs a little makeup". I looked back and she was pretending to teach Neely how to powder her face, with a wet wipe. She got embarrassed when she realized I was listening.
The kids favorite part of Manitou Springs was the little arcade area that had TONS of little quarter rides, and really unique ones. Like kangaroos.
And UFOs.
And a "killer whale" that was clearly a dolphin they painted to look like a killer whale. Ha.
There were also gigantic bike sculptures I made the kids pose on.
And we saw what we dubbed the "Batmohearse" parked there.
Then we drove around Colorado Springs looking at houses I want to live in.
On a street with the little buffer zone between the road and sidewalk, like this:
Poor Jess did 99.99 % of the driving the whole trip. But he looked good doing it.
Oh, and I liked the street names there, especially "Silver Swan". But we picked out the street we'll live on, mostly to please Cason, once we can afford the gigantic houses they build on it.
AWESOME!!

Another day we took the kids on a little walk by a creek.
Neely was cute in the carrier with her legs sticking out in front.
The big kids liked it, until Paige tripped while sprinting along the sidewalk and scraped her knees AND her nose.
Jess held her while she cried, and then I asked her how she tripped. She pointed to a tiny twig and said it tripped her. So I pretended to get really mad and went back and yelled at and beat up the twig while she watched. I stomped it and then picked it up and broke it in half. She felt better after I avenged her.
Another day, we did a different hike and it was SO nice out. Neely was hungry so they started without us, and I fed her in the car. But THEN a BEE flew in my window so Neely and I ran for it and did the hike with them after all. Ha.

When we got back I went to make sure it wasn't hiding in the car waiting for us, and the VERY first time I stuck my head in to look, it landed in my hair and I could hear it buzzing. So Jess smacked it out of my hair and killed it.

I took this picture of him and Neely, and Paige was clinging to him, calling him her "hero" for saving us from the bee.
I think Cason's favorite part of vacation was getting tons of superheros in happy meals. He was so lucky, he got a new one every dang time, no repeats. He was so pumped when he got Batman. He strapped him in to his carseat with him to keep him safe, and put his hands behind his head. You can see Batman's belt showing under the buckle. Ha.
His hair was getting rather long while we were there, so we took him to get his first haircut by someone who's not his mom or Grannybob. He was SO good though. He just sat quietly with his shy look he started doing lately, with his tongue sticking out.He felt pretty good after. He made up a song that went something like this: "I'm so cool in my new shirt. I wook soooo haaaandsome!" He was pretty handsome.
Other than that we shopped for some more summer clothes for everybody, and Neely got her big girl carseat while we were there. We have a certain one we love and I swear every model gets cushier and more comfy looking. Jess said the new one's a throne. Fit for our little queen bee.
Aunt Gail showed up in town our last day there, so we all went to dinner before we left. I failed to get any pics but this one though. Neely's expression makes me laugh.
The kids loved Cassie and miss her already.
When we said it was time to go Cason went to give Cassie a hug and said "Bye Dr. Cassie." Haha. We thought it was so funny. We've only mentioned that she's a doctor now like once, but he remembered apparently.

Rollin'

Neely also rolled the other direction while we were in Colorado. She'd never tried to roll from her back to her tummy, until the last week or two. I was on the ground with her at Cassie's apartment on Wednesday and she kept trying really hard, but at the last second she couldn't quite get her arm under her properly, and she'd roll to her back again.

But she started getting REALLY close so I grabbed the camera. Sure enough after a few more tries I got pictures of her first success!
She was so proud.
But tired.

Part II

Colorado was quite lovely.

The morning after we got there, we went to church with Cassie and Aunt Dawn and Anthony. (Cason called him Andodee) It was a really cool church, and THEN they took us to lunch at Yolanda's Tacos with them. It was SO good, we had it 3 times during the week we were there. Haha.
Cason was hilarious all week, much like this:
and this:
So was Paige. She got these new sunglasses from Cassie, and when we were driving she goes "Hey mom, look at this cool move." So I turned around and she lowered her eyes, and used her hand to slowly slide her shades down her nose. You know the move:
We also spent plenty of time at Dawn and Anthony's, where they made us delicious dinners and let the kids burn up LOTS of extra energy sprinting around with balloon animals stuck to their hair.


We stayed there a couple nights, and the rest of the time we stayed with Cassie. We spent just enough time going out and doing things, and just enough time relaxing.
Cassie and Dawn showed us around downtown Parker.
One of them took our first family picture in which everybody pretty much cooperated. YES! Although Neely looks a little grumpy.
She wasn't grumpy though.
Ever.
Just cute and sweet.
There was also the best cupcake place EVER. Seriously SO DANG GOOD.
We went 3 times during the week, and I secretly wanted to go more. It was really cute inside.
I also loved that the logo was black and pink.
Cassie met us there the 2nd time we went, on her lunch break.
The kids were so excited when they first saw her coming.
Cassie also took us to see her work, which was really cool. She has a nice office and the kids liked all her contraptions.
She adjusted Jess and I a few times, including MY EARS, which I didn't even know could happen.
And Neely did some tummy time in the office.
More to come, stay tuned.