The makings of a Christmas Card....

I wanted one photo, of the 3 kids in front of our tree.....

Thank you Owen, for reminding me you are 3 and my ideas are not the same as yours. OUr card this year is my payback for these moments. Love you son.

Three, still a jerk....and a half cut.

HI, its me Owen....you may remember me from a blog post my mom wrote a few days ago...well I am back with another tale!

Today, my dad told my mom to take me for a haircut, so she did. I thought hair cuts were fun, but after 160 seconds I was ready to play, so I got up to leave and the lady wouldn't let me!
I did what any normal kid my age would do, I panicked. I went into plank mode. My mom picked me up and put on a funny cape and tried to hold me so the lady could cut my hair, well I didn't want that either. I got so mad and frustrated and threw my BEST tantrum and guess what! The manager asked us to leave! Lucky me!!! I didn't need to finish my hair cut. Too bad my mom still had to pay for my half cut, oh well. She still loves me and I had a great thought process while in time out today.

See you next time!

Summer life.

I mentioned on Facebook the other day that Summer is an always messy house, kids reaching high decibel levels, stepping on Legos and falling over American girls, the biggest piles of laundry ever,sibling rivalry, lots of lame easy meals and leftovers, staying up way too late and sleeping in, it's straight up crazy time....but I will miss these butt heads when they go back to school in 16 days. Its true, I will miss them., because Summer is a lot of fun, freedom, imagination, and playing.

My new friend, he's sexy and he knows it

Summer is rad. 

Get in the shot!

Every camera has a timer on it, even the cheapest of point and shoots can do a timer. How many pictures do us moms take a month and how many are we actually in? I think its so important that our kids have photos of us WITH them so I am challenging you, to get in the pictures.

Screw the double chin, screw the flubby gut, we all have our issues but our kids dont see us that way. They think we are beautiful! (at least until teenage years right?)

So give it up, and get in the shot! You'll thank me later.

I am going to try and do this at least once a month. I think its a necessity.

Ten on Ten- February

Happy  ten on ten!

{Document a snapshot of your life & find beauty among the ordinary things in your day!}

Started the day off with a rare moment- Hailey in time out! She is such a well behaved kid this rarely happens. I am lucky to have her!

I sat on the ground to get a shot of Owen, so naturally he had to run right at me and tackle me.

 Grandma and papa came down to spend the day with us, we had a sad day yesterday.

 Hunter, you are always so busy doing your grown up kid things, thanks for letting me snap this photo of you!

 Yesterday, our dear guinea pig Ozzy passed away. He was the best Guinea pig, always so happy to see us, and eat, and playful. We loved him a lot...This was so unexpected and has hit the kids really hard. I snapped this shot while we were burying Oz in the backyard. They were too sad to come out :( 

 We played HedBandz with Grandma

 Stella chewed her ball

 Ozzys resting place. 

 This is what usually happens when I try and get a picture of this kid. 

  and this one because this is just the kind of thing that occurs in our home on a daily basis. My mom said that our house is like a comedy club. So true!

I love that my parents can drive down for a visit and help cheer up the kids. Today was a great day :) How was your 10th??

Moms Weekend Away

A couple of years ago when we moved to Colorado I had high expectations of all the friends I would reunite with. It turned out that Colorado Springs was a lot more isolating than I imagined and driving to Denver everyday for friendship was not going to cut it. After just 10 days of living here Russ was off to Korea and I was left to fend for myself with the 3 kiddos. One of the first things I did was look up the Mops in my area. I started at one church and they were meeting every other Thursday, I tried it out and just didn't feel like I fit in. Then after Winter break came and went I tried another Mops, I was excited about this one because it was ONCE A WEEK! Socialization with other moms?! Yes please!

Turns out, it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. I made a huge community of friends who are all amazing people. I have never in my life had this big of a support system filled with so many great friends. I am so glad I went to mops, even better moms weekend away!

Every year we go off to the Hideaway, a bed and breakfast tucked away in the woods, we have a speaker and FREE TIME, plus hot tubs, plus those aforementioned women, and it turns into quite a weekend of fun!

This is Ruth, she was my mentor mom last year in Mops and again this year, and probably for always. I cherish her dearly!

 We spent time frolicking in the woods without a care in the world!

 and found a weapons shack just in case of apocalypse? maybe?

 We stared and stared at the beauty of Pikes peak.

 Created a table in the hot tub to trap the escaping heat. Pivot!

 Spent a lot of time here...

 our hideaway.

 We brought along a friend who couldn't make it this year.

 She had a fun weekend!

 and so did I with my loves. If you are a lonely mom, I highly recommend finding yourself a Mops group and building a community. Every one should have a net.

P.S. If you read my blogs, leave me some love in the blog comments so I know you're out there! No one likes to talk to themselves :)