Scary Day

Yesterday was the longest day of my life. On Monday night we had our friends Katie, Thomas and Etta along with Kara, Russ and the boys over for a sushi dinner. We had a great time rolling our own tuna and salmon rolls for Russ and Katie's birthday. After everyone left Jeff and I tackled the mountain of dirty dishes together. While I was finishing up I decided to take my wedding ring off. Now I never take my ring off. I shower, sleep and play in my ring. But since I've been running so much my ring finger has started to get really tender and sore from the hot weather and it just needed a night to breathe. I placed it in a safe spot on the counter and finished up the dishes.

 The next morning I went downstairs to start my morning cup of joe and to put my ring back on. Of course when I went to grab it -gasp!- it was gone! I then spent the next 13 hours tearing apart the house looking for it. I looked in the sink, in the garbage, under vents, behind the dishwasher. You name any part of the house and I was there looking! Well finally Jeff gets home and fighting back tears I hand him the kids and head out the door on a jog for a much needed break. While I was gone Jeff searched the house to no avail. Right before bed Jeff asks if I had checked the drawers of my dresser I told him yes I had looked inside them. He heads upstairs and a few minutes later he comes downstairs with a big smile holding my wedding ring, he had found it!!! Apparently the night before I had grabbed the ring from the counter and brought it upstairs placing it on top of my dresser before bed. Jeff thinks that sometime in the morning while he was getting ready he knocked it over where it then fell in between my dresser drawers and was stuck at the bottom along the side. I hadn't even thought to look way down there.

I was so lost without my ring I couldn't even think straight. Thank you Jesus! Thank you St. Anthony, my Mom and my friends for praying for us. I know it is just a possession but it is my wedding ring that Jeff picked out just for me that has so much sentimental value that I just can't imagine not having it. I will NEVER be taking it off again!

In other news happy 5 months to my beautiful baby boy.

 And happy 22 months to my gorgeous baby girl.

 Johanna is busy learning a whole bunch of new things and taking everything in like a big sponge. One of her favorite things to do these days is sing. She is always singing some little tune or asking me to sing a song for her "Mama, princess song!" (big surprise.) She loves singing her ABC's or ABCD's as she calls them, any song from Rapunzel or Beauty and the beast aka her princess songs, Jesus Loves Me, Edelweiss, the Goodnight song from the Lawrence Welk show, the Mickey Mouse clubhouse song and hot dog song, the Superwhy song and a few more. It is hilarious listening to her tiny little voice. She is still in repeater mode and I have to remind Jeff constantly to watch what he says around her. Although I admit she picks up what I say just as easily. At the mall Daddy was trailing behind us so she turns around waving her hand "Jeff! Follow me!" This year is flying by I just can't believe I am already starting to think about her second birthday.

JJ loves to kick and wiggle and always has his little legs moving. He absolutely loves bouncing in his jumparoo and is even liking his ergo baby carrier now. He thinks grabbing Mommy's nose, mouth and chin is the funniest thing ever and does it every chance he gets. When he lies on his back or tummy he likes to move around in circles to grab whatever toys are around him. Last week I posted that we were starting solids. After two days he got stuffed up and had horrible gas so we stopped his cereal and went back solely to Mama's milk. Finally after one week he is back to normal. I knew we were starting a little early and I should have just listened to my gut and waited, poor guy. But as parents you live and learn! So looks like bubs has another month to wait then its bananas and avacados for my little man.

Family Day

Half of Jeff's family works for Lockheed Martin so for the past two years we've had the privilege to join them on their family day at Elitch Garden's complements of the company. Last year while we were braving the heat I happened to be 10 or 11 weeks pregnant and battling some nasty morning sickness so this year it was much more pleasant and I FINALLY got to ride some rides, woohoo! The first ride we went on was a kiddie ride with Johanna.

She loved it so much she had to go again with her cousin Adrienne.

Her second ride was the little tug boat that rode around in a circle. Her and her boat buddy took turns ringing the bell as the boat circled around.

 JJ was taking a nap when we first arrived at the park so when he awoke he was pleasantly surprised to see we were somewhere with tons of things to stare at.

While Jeff, Adrienne and I went to go ride some big kid rides Johanna got to ride the ferris wheel with Grandma and Grandpa. We made it back just in time to see them go around. Johanna was having so much fun I could hear her shouting from their cart "flying! flying!!!"

After a few more rides and a nice big lunch compliments of Grandpa the kids zonked out in the double stroller (which I LOVE!) for a nice long nap. Adrienne, Jeff and I all took separate turns pushing the stroller on our own while the the other two went on more rides. It really made me miss the huge amusement park back home in Ohio, Cedar Point but the awesome thing about this park was there were no lines, it was amazing!

Along with dealing with morning sickness last year I remember it being so super hot the only thing I could think about was jumping into a big cold pool. This year I made sure to pack the swim suits because I knew we'd be ending the day at the water park. None of us had ever been to this part of the park so we weren't sure what to expect. Turns out it had a whole bunch of stuff to keep the kids entertained including a huge pirate ship with over 400 water features.

JJ was overwhelmed with things to look at, he was in baby heaven!

He kept eyeing the sparkling blue water down below.

 Johanna had a blast running around the pirate ship splashing in the water.

 

 JJ was so excited being around all the people he was kicking his legs around like a mad man. We thought we'd see how he liked the water so we stuck his little toesies in. He wasn't too impressed, didn't cry but had this look on his face like "No thank you get me out of here!"

Now I had to post this picture so everyone can have a laugh at the lady to the right of me, HA!

 Here, less distractions in this one.

 Grandpa and Grandma were great sports and hung out with the kiddos while we rode the big water slides.

JJ was laughing up a storm as usual. I can't say enough how happy of baby little bubs is, I hope he always stays this cuddly and laughable it just warms my heart :)

We had so much fun at Elitch Gardens for Lockheed Martin's family day. Thank you so much to Russ and Brian for snagging tickets for my family, we love you guys!

Pine Valley

 

Have I been blogging a lot or what?! I blame it on the kids being extra good with their naps this week. On Thursday Adrienne, Katie the kids and I all loaded into the car to drive out to Pine Valley Ranch Park about 30 minutes west into the Rockies. We had never been to this area so beforehand I made sure to call the ranger to see if it was jogging stroller accessible. She said it was but failed to mention anything about fire damage. As we were pulling into the open space we noticed acres and acres of dead trees... we were all laughing thinking oh great we drove all the way out here and its toast! Luckily the damage was minimal and we enjoyed plenty of beautiful sights.

This was the first time I had Johanna on my back since she weighed 15lbs less, turns out the pack distributed the weight great and I could hardly tell she was there!

The river was particularly high and rushing by very fast that the girls thought crossing the bridge was even more exciting than usual.

At the beginning of the trail we were greeted with a beautiful lake.

Me and peanut

Adrienne got to enjoy some off-road strollering. JJ had a great time on the bumpy trail and spent a lot of his time giggling on his ride, that is until he zonked off for a nice long nap.

Ahh beautiful Colorado air so serene so far away from civilization. Oh, minus the loud screeching and squealing coming from the two overly excited toddler girls!

Johanna scoping out the lake for some ducks.

These two girls are quite the adventurers. They both loved walking around exploring the area looking for animals.

 And yes, here is Mr. JJ asleep in his stroller happy as can be. I love day hikes!

Playroom

The playroom a.k.a. spider room and/or dungeon was in need of a major face lift. Really all it needed was some organization and decoration but both Jeff and I were too unmotivated to do much about it. Now that we've got two little bambinos in need of some play space we took some time to spruce it up a little.

"Hi, I'm slobbery JJ and welcome to my crib...errr play room!"

My Aunt was so nice and gave us an IKEA gift card after staying with us last week so I knew it was the perfect time to go out and purchase the storage unit I'd been eyeing all year. With some kicking and screaming Jeff finally agreed to putting it together and I am so happy he did, THANKS YOU JEFF YOU ARE THE GREATEST HUSBAND EVER AND I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! (He only agreed on the condition that I gave him some recognition for it.) It felt great taking some of the toys that have been crowding our living room down into the basement and into their new cubby holes.

IKEA is awesome because they have super cheap and cute things like pink and green frames to match my pink and green bins. I wanted something to display some of the kids artwork in so I thought these were a cute idea.

The next few pictures are of little bean's gummy smile. Now that he has a couple teeth on the way we won't be seeing it much longer :(

Drool monster!

I liked this picture because it looks like he's saying "Yeah, thats right! I'm playing in this princess castle!"

His first time checking out the tunnel, I think he liked the bright pink color.

Hi smiley face!

And one of my favorite parts of the playroom...the growth chart! I remember my Dad taking our measurements along the side of our door and how excited I was to see how much I had grown in between. I wanted to do the same thing with our kids, but since I knew we'd be moving in a few years I found this cute portable one.

 

Well that's all the updates we've done so far, stay tuned for more!

Summer Days

I love Summer and I love sunny Colorado so we've been taking full advantage of the warm sunshine days with plenty of outside adventures. On Sunday we had our Moms and Tots kick-off BBQ at the new Centennial Place Park. Can you believe it is already the start of the school year?! Johanna starts her first year of Parents Day Out- PDO, in three weeks!

The park had an amazing splash pad so good thing we brought along the swimsuits.

Johanna loved running through the sprinklers and standing under the giant water buckets with the big kids.

Her favorite was sitting on the giant rocks watching all the kids run by. This year for M&T I'll be a small group leader and co-chair for communications, I'm excited to take on some more responsibility within the group!

While my Aunt was here visiting we drove over to Garden of the Gods for some exercise. I love that it is only a 15 minute drive from our house because there are so many great hiking trails surrounding it.

Of course this is Johanna's idea of an exercise outfit. Most days she insists on picking her outfit and on those days you can guarantee her ensemble will include a dress of some sorts and sparkly shoes. In fact here is a conversation from last night as we were putting pjs on: Johanna- Princess dress! Me-No, we are wearing jammies now, you can wear a princess dress tomorrow. Tomorrow morning Johanna is calling from her crib to get down. The first thing she says as she sees me walk through the door? No, not good morning Mommy like usual. Johanna: Mama! PRINCESS DRESS!!! oy vey.

Taking in the sights.

She proved us wrong, you can indeed walk around the Garden of the Gods in a dress and sparkly shoes.

After plenty of Mom and Dad time she's got to sqeeze in some friend time too. This week we met with our friends Etta and Noah to visit Noah's new home and the park by his house.

Etta and Noah are sliding masters, they don't even need their Mom's help anymore.

Weeee!

Johanna on the other hand is not a big fan of the slide. I'm not sure why she is afraid of it, but she is no longer interested in going down. This is here saying Mommy down please!

Cutie pie Etta.

Ragamuffin Hanna :) Stay tuned for her upcoming first haircut...

Johanna agreed to showing JJ how to go down the baby slide.

"Okay, I think I can do this!"

"Wait, wait, wait...am I supposed to be enjoying this?!"

After fun at the park we took the wagon back to Tracy's home for lunch.

 

What a busy week and we're only half way through.