Home Sweet Home

We are proud new homeowners! 

This little green cozy place on the corner in central CO Springs is what we now call home. 

 It was a long time waiting (since Sept).....we feel God has definitely blessed us WITH good things and He blessed us THROUGH the waiting as well. The waiting is where we were tested.......and during the testing it's our reaction that tends to reflect the condition of our hearts. How would we keep our hearts focused on Him instead of losing patience, forgetting to be grateful for what we already have, forgetting His promises?????.... He loves us, He provides for us, He takes care of us, He knows our every desire. The home buying process didn't stick to our ideal timeline and the events were mostly disappointing and tedious over several months. And yes, we struggled to keep our hearts focused on God, the one who finishes what He started and who blesses us lavishly every day. It took daily reminders of His goodness and faithfulness and lots of prayers to re-focus our hearts to align with His.

 Within hours after closing, we were in our work clothes to start demolition. We pulled up carpet, pulled down blinds and curtains, we constructed walls, textured walls and started painting. We had little time to do LOTS before moving completely in.

 The kitchen was in need of several updates (not there yet) but the barn red cabinets & new appliances are a vast improvement! More painting to do and more projects on the list, but I'm most excited to do all the "little things" that make a house a home! Can't wait to host you in our home!
--Lord, please bless this home and all who enter it. May it be a place your Kingdom is built and where are hearts belong to You. May it be a place where we are daily experience your forgiveness and grace and where we constantly strive to be like Jesus. --

BETWEEN Thanksgiving & Christmas!

It's been an incredibly busy season around here but none of which we haven't enjoyed.

To back up a bit (like all the way to Thanksgiving) there are a few things we don't want you to miss (although sadly still missing so much)! 

In this season of "newness" and "change" for us, these are a few of the pinnacle events:

Kai accompanied me to the rollerskating rink for my YMCA class graduation. It was his 1st attempt on skates and he did awesome! In 2 hours, we made it around the rink about 5 or 6 times together. He balanced only holding my hands and we only had 1 major wipe out together.....meaning he fell to the ground and needed help up and I pulled something and just wanted to lay there :)

Process Skate Ministry was also super blessed to be able to buy a shuttle bus to haul skaters to and from the skate parks, for mission trips, and for outreach opportunity! It's awesome and the guys love it! Thanks to all our supporters and contributors for believing in God's call to love these skateboarders!

Although crazy busy, we were able to hit a few holiday parties/traditions! Derrick and I got an evening out together and decided to go Ugly Sweater Style....yeah it wasn't the theme of the party but we rocked it well!

We went downtown CO Springs to watch the Christmas Light parade with our great friends, the Tadlocks! We didn't get there early enough for curb side seating, so the kids perched on shoulders for a good view! We did remember chairs and blankets (lugged by stroller through the crowds although barely used) and sipped hot chocolate to get into the Christmas/winter spirit even though it was like 60's most of December.  

We had our 2nd annual get together in Denver with a few college friends and their families! So fun to keep in touch and hang out together a few times a year now that life is so different! We are growing exponentially!

 We had our 2nd annual Skate Church Ugly Sweater party & white elephant exchange as well! It was slightly thrown together this year....since we had moved into our house only days before. The menu included hot dogs and brauts, chips, Egg Nog, soda, and cookies (yikes I know). The guys make us laugh...they ate it all and a few of them remembered their sweaters! 

  Kai also had his 1st preschool Christmas program! We all dressed up to attend the program and then birthday party for Jesus in his classroom afterwards.  He knew all the words, although I never heard him practice. He gave us like 10 thumbs up from the bleachers between songs. So precious! We ate punch and cupcakes together in his classroom and he shared a special gift ornament he made for us.

We picked our Christmas tree this year from a tree stand (which we've never done) but it was a new and different experience! We got a beautiful fir tree, much less "charlie brown" and much more expensive than we usually choose in the woods :) Shopping through the isles of trees was somewhat like hiding in the clothing racks in a department store for the kids. They loved it.

We only managed cookies for my cookie exchange at work before Christmas. The kitchen didn't produce much until the other cookies we frosted ON Christmas Eve. The kids helped by unwrapping the kisses to top the cookies for the exchange. I was all about the help this year as it was hard enough to find all the pans and ingredients to cook anything after the move and renovation!  

Although Christmas is a busy season by nature and with moving added to the mix it became just that 3 fold, we are grateful for family and friends who helped us so much by helping pack, move boxes, babysit, etc and we are extremely grateful our kids who are flexible and gracious to us during change, disorganization, and pure chaos. 

More to come on our Christmas with family and our NEW home.

thankful turkey times

1. We got to sit 6th row in the endzone at the Broncos vs Chargers game this past weekend! I've been looking forward to an exciting, not-every-day date with my hubby for months now (we don't get out much these days). The criteria for earning the ticket (from a Broncos "nut" like Derrick) was being able to name 7 players on the Broncos team this year. It seemed a somewhat daunting task considering I've only sat to watch part of 2 games this season however I do HEAR about specific players quite often! Without the help of the TV or anything else, I did name them; barely, by the skin of my teeth! I named some first names, some full names, and some last names......but hey, they were all 7 names! Besides the fact that it was MY birthday gift as well as Derrick's from his parents, I made the cut!
 So amazing until........migraine hits. I'm covering my nose and mouth to breath into my orange cheerleading towel from the game due to diesel bus fumes as we walk a mile back to the car. Then I'm coping and trying to keep the meds down, lying in the front seat............. then cop lights are pulling Derrick over for expired tags on our van (oops I thought it had been awhile). Finally, after my head is really spinning we are on our way to pick up the kids and I'm puking in the coffee mug. Nice. Great way to top a long awaited date :)

2. We have a trytophan-induced, fat, and lazy turkey drawn up on our wall with colorful feathers expressing our THANKS this season. It was a fun art project to write out the BIG and small ways we feel blessed this year and this week together and give our lazy turkey some spunk! Happy Thanksgiving!

3. My childhood obesity prevention class I teach at the YMCA graduated this last weekend and we celebrated at Skate City! I haven't been rollerskating in years! It brought me back to all those Friday night school gatherings at the roller rink skating hand-in-hand with some nerdy boy and all my birthday parties at Dakota Skateland taking laps in the skate ride for the birthday girl only! Needless to say, lots of fond memories on the rink. So I thought I'd pass the love and take Kai with me and let him get a feel for it! We started out a little rough and I think I may have pulled something (not really but I am sore), but we ended much improved! Only one major wipe out including both of us!

Me bracing Kai or Kai bracing me??

After our 2 hours skating we probably made it around the rink 5 times together!! :)

4. I have a few parenting realities that are crawling under my skin lately. The reality of raising kids is when their "ugly" and your "ugly" is all too similar. We've been working on many respect issues with Kai in the past weeks and sometimes when I see his frustration seeping through during discipline, it's scary to see myself responding in the wrong way right through him. The other reality of having these 3 munchkins so close in age is the things of one child are learned by another child through osmosis. Some days if I hear one "potty word" then I hear it automatically x 3 a million times a day....which could drive a sane person straight into insanity! Just saying....

5. The house we are trying to buy is pending, still. It's been pending since mid-Sept. We are so thankful this season for the sellers for sticking with us. We are also so thankful that our landlord is letting us stay put in our rental house an extra 2 months!! He has been beyond generous! We are praying that all things will be confirmed and signed before we enter this Christmas season!

Gobble-tee Goo-k

~Happy Halloween 2012~

Yes, all of these pictures are of this Halloween celebrated over about 4 days. Not ONE of the kids costumes were the same at any given party. 

I have decided that options may just be the key to less fuss. I hate talking my kids into wearing their costume, or messing with accessories falling off, or arguing that a cowgirl does NOT wear ballet slippers but DOES wear a shirt:) The thing that makes me smirk the most about costume selection is that my kids LOVE to dress up! It's our main staple for play time at home. They pick them out and put them on themselves and mostly choose the outfits that are logical together.....western wear goes together, dance attire goes together, superheroes have appropriate weapons, etc. So it baffles me when Halloween rolls around and we have selected and/or bought a special outfit that they would chose to boycott and argue about wearing it!! What's the deal with that?  

So in light of all that, I have learned to pick my battles on this one. Halloween costumes will never be one of them. In addition to the fact that I never plan ahead when it comes to costumes anyway it also may help me avoid the SUPER SCRAMBLE. So, they picked the costume they wanted for each party this year (with a minimal amount of direction anyway) and none ended up being worn more than once. Go figure. I guess it IS like having Halloween each day when you have a large dress-up bin!

We did Trunk-or-Treating with great church friends at the farm (friends property). The kids ran wild through a semi-haunted hay maze, chased barn cats, and picked at a wonderful potluck (that we adults thoroughly enjoyed) so they could get straight to business collecting candy from each car's trunk! 

Kai a SWAT member, Addie a cross between ballerina & gymnast, and Eli a one-eyed pirate. 

One-eyed E was quite proud of this manly mustache. When walking from car to car he was quiet to say "trick or treat" but lingered around at each trunk to make eye contact for his "thank you's" So precious!

Warm and happy to collect some sweet treats! She is wearing a turtleneck, a long-sleeved unitard and a leotard with a tu-tu with white socks and ballet slippers! Again, she chose this "costume." 

Eli playing a throwing game to receive his candy!

I voted myself most warm and cozy costume. I'm very willing to pull this one out again next year! We decorated the back of the van with spiders (spiders are super creepy in our house recently especially since we've been finding BLACK WIDOWS everywhere now that we are packing to move--yikes).

We went to our playgroup Halloween party! It was an art getting this pic....more than half the kids there are 3 or under. We had spooky treats and played ghost bowling and pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern. It was a wild time!

Addie was a ballerina, Kai was a SWAT member but less accessorized, and Eli was Mator from Cars.

Instead of tramping around from house to house, we decided to hit a church Harvest Party. There were games, face painting, food, etc. TONS of kids in fun costumes but also requiring waiting in line for activities.

Kai and Eli were cowboys and Addie was in her unitard with a different tu-tu and different sparkle shoes. We could just call her a "dancer."

Waiting in line patiently.......

 Each of the kids got their faces painted! 

Eli requested a "cow." Not sure where she was going with this one....slightly disappointing. When we reminded Eli to say "thank you" to the lady he gave a turned-up-nose-look and shook his head. Poor guy.

Addie LOVED her butterfly full face! 

This cowboy needed a horse.....pretty amazing if you ask me! I like how she tied it right into the sideburns he already had! :)

Our lil happy dancer (right before her meltdown)

Derrick taught Kai how to sort his candy.....yah, I know, who really does that? My OCD husband taught him the categories for taking proper candy inventory. Oh gezzzzz

Well, we all stayed safe and will be rationing our load of candy for weeks to come. I feel like there's always need for extra emphasis on thorough toothbrushing habits this time of year in our house! I honestly look forward to the years I sit at home waiting for the doorbell to ring with little tykes vs prowling the streets!  Hope you Halloween was more happy than spooky.