Wordless Wednesday ~ A Day in the Life of Gracie Mae

E's New Smile

E came into our room early on Friday morning and she was smiling.  I could see that her front tooth was loose.  Ironically, I had just awoke from a dream where she had pulled out her front tooth.  So I told her about my dream.  We discussed her front tooth and she agreed that it was ready to come out.  She wanted to pull it out at school though so she was going to wait.  However, I managed to talk her into letting Jon pull it out since it was basically sideways in her mouth.  Jon had one little tug and it came right out.

I just love her new smile.  E has been waiting a long time for her front tooth to come out.  She is about 1.5 to 2 years behind the other two in losing teeth and it has been a long wait to finally get a turn.  She was so proud.  Doesn't she look cute.  The tooth fairy brought two dollars worth of change and a car wash token.  E was thrilled when she woke up to find that this morning. 

I am excited for her and this milestone.  Gosh they grow so fast!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Basketball Champs

Wordless Wednesday ~ Gracie Likes to help with Bath Time

The Big Sleep Over

Not sure if I have mentioned this or not but this year I volunteered to "Co-lead" the Girl's Daisy Girl Scout troop.  We have been having a lot of fun with it and the other Moms have been AWESOME about helping out.  This past Friday, was the Cookie Dance which falls the night before "Cookie Go Day".  This is when the girls can start to sell Girl Scout Cookies. 

Last year we opted not to sell cookies as we felt the girls were a little young for that.  This year we decided to go for it.  A and E have been having fun and they even went through the neighborhood on Saturday with Jon to sell some cookies.  The neighbors were very sweet and did buy some from the girls!  If you are one of them THANK YOU.  Next we hit up the family and of course they were generous and bought cookies as well. 
Back to Friday night...I decided it would be a perfect night to have our big "Sleep over"!  So 12 girls and 4 moms came over after the cookie dance and we had a PJ party.  The girls watched a movie, played hid n go seek, ran around like crazy, and had some good ole fun.  The Mom's managed to have some fun too. 

The next morning, after a night of very little sleep, we had pancakes, sausage, fruit, and juice.  The girls played some more and then they all headed home.  It was a fun event and one that I dare say we will do again next year.  I am simply so impressed with our troop this year and how the girls are all so kind to one another.  It really is neat to see.  They all slept mostly through the night and were up early. 

Jon and K had to find another place to stay that night.  K exclaimed "I do NOT want to be home for that!"  I can only imagine in a few more years he will not want to leave for the event. 

The thing that makes me smile the most about the event is that the girls will have so many fun memories of these times.  I am so glad that get these opportunities.  Now...anyone want to buy some Girl Scout Cookies?!?!?!?!?!?

Happy Valentines Day 2012

5x7 Folded Card

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Wordless Wednesday- School Dances Are The Bomb

Steamboat Part II

I just realized that in our busy return home last week, I did not get a chance to do a post of our last day of skiing in Steamboat. This happened to be the day we brought the camera out with us as well.

On this special day, we took the kiddos out with us.  We all LOVED it.  We hit the slopes by 10 AM and Uncle T, E and myself did not stop until the lifts closed down for the day.  It was a blast.  Sunny weather, nicely groomed slopes, and lots of laughter and fun.  The perfect day.

One of my favorite memories of this day was watching the three kiddos follow Grandpa Al down the slopes.  He would go and they would follow.  The kids also enjoyed skiing through the trees and taking all the mini jumps on the way. 

I truly love our time in Steamboat from the skiing, to the hot tub, and the awesome meals and great conversation, and the beauty that surrounds the entire village.  It truly is an amazing trip for all of us.  Jon and I have sure enjoyed watching the kiddos learn to ski and although they have a ways to go we were pleased that this year in Steamboat they could come and ski the mountain with us and they did awesome.  Soon enough we will have to keep up with them. 

Wordless Wednesday ~ Better Not Show This Dog Bed to Jon!

Steamboat Springs 2012

Uncle T, Jon, AEK on the mountain!

We are on our 2nd annual ski trip to Steamboat Springs this weekend.  We are all having such a great time and we have vowed to come back again next year as well.

The kids have been doing great in their ski school.  We feel that they are really coming a long way with their skiing and we know that we will all enjoy many skiing adventures together in the months and years ahead. 

Yesterday after we dropped them at ski school we were standing at the base of the mountain waiting for everyone to get their ski passes for the day.  It was fairly busy around there and soon we heard a ski instructor shouting to his class "Hey class what's my name?"  He did this a few times over and over again and low and behold...it was AEK's instructor for the day.  It was fun to see so much enthusiasm from the instructor and we were pleased to know that AEK were going to have a great day; have fun, learn a lot, and create great memories.  Sure enough they had many stories by the end of the day when we picked them up from ski school. 
 
Today they had a very kind young lady who they just adored.  Both of the days went great and they have skied over 12 miles on both days.  We know this because they put a GPS tracker on the kids to show where they went on the mountain and what they did for the day. 

AEK are up to skiing some of the blue runs and are loving it. Tomorrow we are all going to ski together and we are looking foward to sharing some of our favorite runs with the kiddos tomorrow.  We are all getting spoiled here with good times, good food, lots of laughs, and good nights sleep. 
Stay tuned for some more pictures soon as Jon plans to bring his camera out tomorrow and get some actions shots along with trying to capture the mountains.  It is truly amazing here and there is nothing like cruising down the mountain with the sun shinning, and to top it all off a breath taking view.  Awesome, just totally Awesome! Once again, we are loving this vacation!  We are truly blessed to have this time. 

Wordless Wednesday ~ Oh Gracie How You have Grown

Water Park Fun

This past weekend we headed out of town and caught up with some of our favorite "triplet" friends, The Clark Family.  Awhile back, a deal came across one of those "Steals" type discounts and we could not turn it down.  It was lodging for 12 and water park passes for the weekend.  We split this with the Clark family and it was a heck of a deal. 
The kids had fun hanging out together and the adults had a great time catching up and relaxing.  Oh how life has changed for both our families. The kids are getting so much older and it is easier to just "hang" out since all of the kids do so well together.  We have been friends for about five years and we sure do enjoy making memories together. 
It was great fun and my only regret is that I did not get the fancy camera out to take some photos at the water park itself.  We spent 8 hours at the park on Saturday and another 4 hours on Sunday.  It is safe to say we were all tuckered out when it was time to come home. 
Thanks Clark family for all the memory making fun.  We for sure have to do that again. 

Wordless Wednesday ~ Future Architects

New Years Eve 2011

What a fun night we had on NYE.  We hosted our annual New Years Eve party and although our guest could attending was lower this year than usual, we had an awesome time. 

The kids had their very own party downstairs with crafts and at the kid midnight (10 PM) we had a count down and a balloon drop.  It was so fun and the kids LOVED it.  My fingers were a little sore from tying all those balloons but it was well worth it for the excitement the kids had over. 

Later in the evening the women took on the men in a game of Battle of The Sexes.  Although it was close, the women won the match.  That means we have a girls night out while the guys stay home and watch the kids. 

Above the guys are thinking hard about their answers.  Below, the Women were having a good laugh and a ton of fun. 

Much to our surprise and delight most families stayed until the real mid night and the kids did another count down.  It was a lot of fun and we even got to enjoy the fireworks from our local ski hill that we can see right from our front windows. 

It truly was a night to remember with lots of laughs, cheer, and fun.  It will go down in the books or the blog as another fantastic way to start the new year. 

As the evening came to an end, we had lots of dance parties going on with both the kids and the adults.  You can see we really rocked the house.  Happy New Year to all and may the year ahead be full of lots of laughter, happiness, great health, and joy!  We are off to a good start.  God Bless.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Look closely, Uncle T is a Sioux fan?!?!?

Working Hard

The last two days I have been in Chicago for work! I have been helping to get a new 300 bed hospital's kitchen up and running! Lots of fancy equipment that I would love to bake some cookies in these fancy ovens.

Or make some pizza in this fancy pizza oven.

I have learned that being on these projects is an a amazing experience and for me it is always exciting to watch the project come to an end but sad to say good bye to the team.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Life is always better at Grandma's House