David's Birthday

Believe it or not this adorable little bundle of cuteness turned 9 years old on April 1st, no joke!

    

 With baseball just getting under way we were running crazy getting 5 kids to their activities. We didn't get to celebrate David's birthday until late that evening. I think he even got to run a few extra laps at baseball practice since it was his birthday. Forget dinner, how about some mint ice cream cupcakes instead?  Our children worked really hard all winter to split and sell firewood. With all of their hard work they've saved quite a bit of money. They've really enjoyed living across the street from Target. Walking across the street to spend all of their hard earned money has been so much fun for them.  When we requested a birthday list from David he put a hula hoop on it and boy has it been fun around here. We can't wait to see some more fun come from this kid this year. He's mastered that hula hoop along with the Rubik's cube, and knot tying has still kept him busy around here. We began doing scholastic testing on him a few years ago. This year he has ended up in the 99th percentile for his age. Getting him to do his schoolwork this year has really tested my patience when there are so many other things he'd rather be doing, like riding scooters or mastering other patterns on his Rubik's cube, playing Legos or cleaning the chicken coop, but I guess we really can't complain when his grades are so high. Happy birthday, David! Keep driving us crazy like you do. :) We love you!

May Was Kind of Blur

After we listed our home, it sold in just 4 short days with an offer above our asking price! Crazy, right? The market seems to be a little insane right now. Thankfully we were already under-contract for the new home that we wanted to purchase. Now it was just a packing and waiting game until the loans and closing dates were ready. Whew!

During that wait my parents came to visit us from Seattle. The weather was beautiful so we placed all of our bikes in the back of my husband's pickup and off we went to the park to play and ride bikes.

Elizabeth finally became brave enough to let us take the training wheels off of her bike. Little does she know that my husband bent the training wheels up so much that they were never even touching the ground when she rode her bike anyway.

It's been a long time since my dad has ridden a bike. It all comes back quickly doesn't it?

When my parents come out they always insist on having a mini photo session with their grandchildren. 

My friend, Mandy, talked me into running the Bolder Boulder, so I signed up the week of the race.

What a rush! I've never run a race before and this one was a big one. There were about 50, 000 runners in this 10K, along with street bands on the corners, belly dancers, neighbors offering beer for going on their slip n' slides, and food and water were given all along the route. I placed 76 in my age and gender. It was so much fun!



Since Mandy convinced me to run, I convinced my friend Laura to run with me since I've never run a race before and she has run a few marathons, plus she just had a baby, so I thought maybe I could keep up with her. After the race a beer was waiting for us along with another friend, Brian! Since this was old hat for Brian, he ran in an earlier heat and then tied his personal best! I think it was a great running day for everyone. 

Did I mention that the race just happened to fall on Rachel's 11th birthday?

We celebrated with my parents, a few friends, and Thai food, cherry cupcakes, and homemade ice cream!

At the end of May I photographed a wedding for a dear, sweet family friend. It was my first wedding and now I see why wedding photographers charge so much, and why I don't want to be one. I had a great time photographing the wedding, but I definitely don't want wedding photography to be in my future. 

We've known the Besel family since we moved to Colorado almost 10 years ago. Their children used to babysit my children and now they're all grown up, graduating from high school, college, getting married, and getting real jobs in the real world. Yikes! Where did the time go? Aren't they a beautiful family? I can only hope that my children turn out as kind, sweet, and well spoken as the Besels.

April Flew By

April began with the celebration of David's 8th birthday and we continued the partying with two more birthdays that month. Our foster boys turned 6 and my husband, stayed the same age he thought he was last year. His old age is a making him forget how old he really is.

Our Easter was pretty low key. We arrived to church earlier than normal to help with the pancake breakfast. Then the younger children hunted for Easter eggs and my husband preached a wonderful sermon. Later that evening we had a smaller crowd over and enjoyed supper and dessert with the Clemmers and Sampers!  
To close out the evening our children performed my favorite song from The Sound of Music. Enjoy! It's so sweet.


Our church softball team went out with a bang! By the end of the season I'm pretty sure the last team we played was a little shocked at how well we kept up with them.

At the end of April our friends, the Fienes, came out for a visit. Katie was a real trooper and listened to my girls read to her at the same time, attended baseball games, and even went to speech therapy with me and one of my foster boys. We did make it out to do a little shopping and hit up Starbucks. The last day of their visit we took them to Estes Park and we had dinner at Hans', now favorite Estes Park restaurant, Cheesy Lee's.

For as long as I can remember we've constantly been searching the MLS or Zillow for houses. My husband has flipped a few, and we've always been interested in a home with a bigger lot. Back in March we saw a home that we were interested in buying. By the end of April we decided to put our home on the market and start wheelin' and dealin' on the home we looked at back in March, thus begins the crazy that has become our life recently. Stay tuned for how it all went down. 

A Teenager and Her Grandparents

When Yei and Grandpa come for a visit there's Lego building,

matching pajamas,

warm weather for

playing football,

lots of laughter,

and family photos.

We also added a teenager to our family. What? How did that happen?

Our new teenager surpassed me in height years ago, but currently stands at 5 feet 6 inches, which means I need to buy higher heels now. Lady Gaga send me your heels, please!

We had a small celebration at home and then it was off to dinner

at Cinzettis. We've come to enjoy this all-you-can-eat buffet that lets our children eat for free!

Dessert is addicting at this place, and

so is the laughter from all of these cuties! Happy birthday Rebecca and also to my mom who recently turned . . ?. . ;) Love you guys!!

Our Baby is Five!

Just one week after Elizabeth's birthday comes Anna's birthday. They're like two peas in a pod being just one year apart. Can you guess what Anna wanted to do for her birthday?

It was another trip to the zoo for us on Anna's birthday. We tried to check some of the animals that we didn't see the week before.

I suppose making regular trips to the zoo makes it so one doesn't have to see all of the exhibits on these same day, right?

The sliver backs were snacking which made the rest of us a little hungry too.The downpour the week before caused the carousel to close for obvious reasons.

Elizabeth was super disappointed, but all was well when they gave us a raincheck and she was able to ride along with Anna!

Since I seem to get dizzy on the carousel, in my old age, my Lutheran Stud rides the carousel with the children while hang out and to get footage.

Have you ever seen the penny thing? You stick a penny into the machine above. It gets melted down into this. Pretty cool, huh?

It seemed like a lot of the animals were eating lunch when we came by, as was this rhino. He paid no attention to us. He was focused.

This ass, on the other hand, wanted to jump the fence and get us. We actually thought he was going to do it too.

The sea lions wanted to play too. They kept swooping down and putting on a show for us.

We couldn't leave the zoo without a stop for ice cream for the birthday girl!

And to be spoiled even more, Kellee made these awesome Snow White cookies for her.

This sweet baby of ours is now 5 years old! Yikes! Isn't she the cutest thing, ever?Happy birthday, Anna! We love you. Now stop growing up!