Trick or Treat...and other Fall Fun

We've been having lots of fun over the past month or so. This year we were able to go to my sister Tiffani's house to pick pumpkins in their garden. It was way more fun than a pumpkin patch!

Mulan, her little sister, and the nicest policeman ever!


And we went trick or treating with the cousins again this year.

At the church trunk or treat, Ezra handcuffed inmate Allen and put him under arrest.

And all the girls decided to be matching ladybugs.

And our annual Witches Night Out was a really great night. Just imagine about 30 "witches" at Johnny Carinos. We got a few looks...

Autumn weather in Colorado is always so unpredictable. One day we have this...

and the very next day it looks like this...

Of course, the kids love the snow!

And I like to "play" outside in it too...

I ran the Loveland Heart Center of the Rockies Half Marathon again this year. It was a lot of fun and the company was great! Love all of these hot pink mamas!

I was very happy that Tasha and Brandie joined us for their first race ever! They ran the 10k in preparation for their first half marathon in December.

Haley and Amy were great company for all 13.1 miles.

And I had the cutest little cheerleaders at the finish line. I loved hearing, "Go Mom!"

Cali got her first haircut this month. We just trimmed it but she was very happy about it. She fell asleep on the way to pick Bella up from school that day but when she woke up she barely had her eyes opened before she was sharing the news with her big sister..."Bella, I got my haircut!" It was so cute.


I just love watching Cali play. She loves to dress up, put on high heals and sunglasses, and push the stroller all around the house. This particular day, she told me, "I have to go to work."

Well, this is no glamour shot but it is real life for me. Every single night I have at least 1-2 visitors snuggling up to me sometime during the night. I love how they want to be close to me...I just wish I could actually sleep when they are in my bed with me. Usually I end up in defensive mode trying to protect my nose from all of the head and arm flailing that seems to happen. I sure love these little people though!

And since this post is already in the running for the longest post ever, I might as well finish off with this. Blaine and I took Bella to go see the musical the Lion King in Denver. It was so much fun to have a special dinner/date out with Bella. The show was awesome and the company was the best!

What I love most about my life is the people I share it with. I am so blessed...

Sweet Seven

Miss Bella turned 7 this month. We told her that she could invite "a few" friends to go someplace special. Well, Bella has always been a girly girl and in the past, only girls have come to her birthday parties. But this year was DIFFERENT because her guest list was half full of boys. And so it begins, I guess...

We took the gang to Jumpin for an evening full of pizza, cupcakes, and well, jumping, of course!



Earlier that morning I volunteered in Bella's classroom and brought cupcakes to the kids. It was fun to see her in action at school. She really is a smart girl and I loved hanging out with her. It is crazy to see her really growing up...reading, spelling, doing math, helping out with the kids at home. Somehow my red-headed baby doll grew up on me! As she grows, so does her confidence. She is good at pretty much everything she tries...school work, artwork, and sports. Recently she started gymnastics and is really loving it. She keeps advancing quickly in the sport and I love watching her fearlessly do flips, bars, etc. She is one buff little mama. I love how our relationship is growing, too. I enjoy spending one on one time with her and in addition to being her lifelong (and beyond) mom, I hope we can be lifelong friends. I love my sweet Bella Joy!

The day before her birthday, I woke her up with surprise news. I told her that special friends were in town visiting and that she didn't have to go to school that day. She really enjoyed playing hooky from school and hanging out all day long with Hadlee and Travis.

Ez-man turns 4!

Mr. Ez-man turned 4 this month. Call me biased if you will, but I'm not sure 4-year-old boys can be any cuter than this guy. He wanted a spiderman party and I was happy to oblige.

He told his sunbeam teacher at church that she would be making him his cake. I guess she really loves him because she agreed to do it and made him this really awesome cake!, Thanks, Haley!

Throwing a party for a bunch of 4-year-olds is fun. They are pretty much happy with anything. We got the party started with spiderman mask making. Sarah created the masks for me. I have great friends!

Once their masks were made, they were transformed into honorary spidermen and women and then they ran all over the backyard "getting" the bad guys with their webs (silly string).




Once the spiderman villains were sufficiently destroyed (or in other words...the kids ran out of silly string), we moved the party back inside for pin the spider on the web and finished off with cake and presents.


Spider-Ez seemed to really enjoy his day and he already keeps asking when his next birthday is going to be. This might be a long year!

Everyday I thank my Heavenly Father for the blessing of being this little guy's mom. He is truly special. He came to this earth with such a sweet, fun, happy nature and that makes parenting him feel easy. He is snuggly and cuddly and he makes friends so easily. Primary teachers, pre-school teachers, parents of his friends consistently give me the same feedback: that he is the life of the party, so sweet, and good-natured. He had this personality from day 1...this is just who he is and I love every bit of him!

Bonus pic: First day of preschool

Making Memories of Us...

I had a great weekend at Time Out for Women with my sisters, my Mom, my Aunt Linda, and a few friends. I don't know why we didn't take any pictures? It was a great way to refill our spiritual buckets while enjoying sisterhood and friendship. I LOVED IT!!!

While at TOFW, I received a text from Blaine saying that he needed to take Cali into his work, which isn't a good thing considering he works in an emergency room. He said she was acting kind of funny and was running a fever so he looked in her ears and saw a foreign object. So, off to the emergency room he went, took her straight back to an exam room, and played the role of Daddy AND practitioner as he removed the bead from her ear. I love the picture he took and texted me from his phone.

I just knew that our THIRD child would be our FIRST child to visit the ER...luckily it wasn't anything too concerning.

Our weekend continued with my sisters and I going to a Keith Urban concert together here in Denver. Tiff's husband even got us a hotel downtown and to our fun surprise, we found out that KU was staying at our same hotel! Now it would have really been a great story had we ran into him but of course, he had like, the whole top level to himself and a separate entrance and what not.

This is our third year in a row to see KU in concert together. Some people may call this an obsession, but I choose to call it having a blast with my sisters!

Every year that we see his concert, we make ourselves a button. This year's said, "3 sisters love Keith!"




Here's to hoping that in the coming years my sisters and I can continue making memories of us, right along with KU!

Ten years...and counting!

It's really hard to believe that it's been a DECADE since Blaine and I were married. No longer are we those young twenty- somethings going to school, building our careers, and trying to build our family. We are an established couple with an established career, an established family, and established in our community. I love where we are at. It feels good; it feels right. I'm not saying its always easy or it is with out struggle...I'm just saying that we have built something great together and simply put...I love it. We felt like a decade of marriage deserved a serious celebration so we booked our vacation to the island of enchantment, Puerto Rico. Thank you SO MUCH to my mom for being brave enough to spend a whole week with our little ones! We snuck an extra day onto our vacation by getting a hotel in Denver and going to the fabulous Les Miserables the night before we left. The last time we saw this show we were newlyweds! It was truly an incredible performance.

The beautiful city of San Juan. Super HOT and HUMID!!!


The old fortress. Very cool.



Luquillo Beach...such a fun, relaxing day swimming and sipping pina coladas. Loved it!


We basically had this beach all to ourselves for 3 days. It was so cool! Blaine snorkeled a lot and I lied around reading a book and basking in the tranquility and serenity of alone time!




These were all over our hotel grounds.



Our Bungalow...



Hiking in the Yunque rainforest. Awesome!


Last night in PR...beautiful!

Hurricane Maria was scheduled to hit Puerto Rico during our stay...WHAT??? This was an unexpected twist to our vacation. So, we headed to Wal-Mart along with, what appeared to be every resident on the island, to get provisions just in case we needed to hunker down in our hotel for a few days...Thank goodness Maria had a last minute change of heart and veered away from the island.

Roadside BBQ chicken and rice and beans. Watching that lady yield a machete to chop up the chicken was impressive.

I loved sampling the local cuisine. Toasted, cheesy bread and pastries for breakfast everyday...yum!

All the locals told us we had to have mofongo...so we did. It's mashed green plantains with shredded chicken. Not too bad.

Although we missed our kids like crazy, and we felt extremely guilty when we found out that Cali was sick, we had an awesome time together all week. It was a much needed vacation! Video chatting with the kids everyday was great and we are so blessed to have such great family and friends who took over for us in our absence. The only thing left to do now is plan our 20 year anniversary trip...actually, let's bump that up to 15 years...I don't think I can wait another decade!