Whew, it's been awhile!

Hi there! It sure has been a while since I last posted. We had a big weekend, so I thought I'd fill you in. Bryan wanted to take a vacation, so we headed out for a 4-day trip to Woodland Park. It was wonderful! We stayed in a beautiful mountain house with a "hot pool" (or a hot tub, depending on your age). We took the kids to the North Pole, took a tour of the Cave of the Winds, visited with a great friend whom we hadn't seen for 2 years, went to church in Colorado Springs and just hung out and relaxed. I think everyone loved the entire trip. It was a much needed time away from home with the family.

Oh, we also have some prayer requests from this weekend. A dear, dear man, Bob Tweed, passed away this weekend. He is living in Heaven with his Heavenly Father, but he will be missed by his family and many friends. Please pray that God will comfort his family in the coming days. Also, my Dad will be starting Chemotherapy next week. We found out he had Cancer in the Spring of 2000 and he has maintained relatively good health since then with fairly minimal treatment, but now it is time to move forward. Please pray that the Chemo is effective and that each treatment doesn't make him too ill. Oh, and while I'm at it....please also pray for my Aunt Madlyn, who is also undergoing Chemo for Leukemia. I pray that God gives their doctors wisdom and them comfort and good health during these trying times.

The Funnies

Grady Quotes:
"cock-fruit tail" = fruit cocktail
"Bear Wilds" = either Bear Grylls or Man vs. Wild

Zetta Quotes:
At lunch today Grady asked when he got to go to school and I told him that maybe he could go to Preschool next year. Zetta told him that Preschool was "really, really fun" and that he should like that because when he got "really, really old like.....like Aunt Kymee, that school probably wouldn't be fun at all." (Kymee is a Freshman in High School...) We had to email this to Aunt Kymee and tell her to have a good day, and that we hoped school was fun today.

A Desire to be Domestic

I forgot to mention in the last post that I have also had an urge to dig out my sewing machine and start a few projects. How in the world do I find time to do that, though? There is always a small child around. I have no idea how the prairie women of "the olden days" did it. I guess necessity (and the lack of a Target just 15 miles away) made it a priority that ranked up there with cooking meals. Any suggestions? They are very welcome!

Today

So, I've started working......a very little bit, but I'm working nonetheless. I provide speech therapy in the homes of 2, 2 year-olds each week. I was seeing them back-to-back, so it was great that I could drop my kids off for a few hours with a friend to play while I worked. My schedule had to change, so today I saw 1 child at 10am and the other at 3:30. I don't really like that! It did allow me to run some errands by myself, but honestly, I could barely function! I think I am so used to managing 3 kids AND doing whatever it is that I need to do that I wasn't stimulated enough today. I was in such a daze, I could barely carry on a conversation with the man at the tire store. That was a bit disturbing! I am thinking that it might be a good thing for me to be working a little bit now and getting out on my own, even if it is only a few hours a week. Hopefully it won't take me long to learn to function again in the absence of 3 children!

Zetta Pics

Grady Pics

Merrick Pics

Kids

Zetta and Grady in a pleasant moment together - "Their Club"

Getting Rides on Papa O's Fourwheeler

It's Been Awhile

So, this is not what I had intended to start this post with, but it has me perplexed. It's been way too long since I had an English class because when I typed the title for this post I thought, "Is it a while, or awhile?" So, I googled it and found this:

When “awhile” is spelled as a single word, it is an adverb meaning “for a time” (“stay awhile”); but when “while” is the object of a prepositional phrase, like “Lend me your monkey wrench for a while” the “while” must be separated from the “a.” (But if the preposition “for” were lacking in this sentence, “awhile” could be used in this way: “Lend me your monkey wrench awhile.”)

Sooooo, I typed what I thought it should be, but I'm still not positive! Feel free to correct me if you'd like to!

Back to the real meat of the post....It really has been a LONG TIME since I posted anything. We are having a great, busy summer. We've been skating some, hiking once, went to see "Walking With Dinosaurs," went to Water World and have been playing at Autumn and Judy's daycares quite a bit. I think the best parts of this summer have been visits from friends and family, though. Our friends the Stefans came out for church camp and the kids and I were able to spend most of the day with them before they headed down to Westcliffe. It was great to see Danielle and the boys and it was so nice that the kids fell right back in step with one another. Amazing after not seeing each other for a year! After that, my friend Jen visited with us for a day and then Aunt Suzy and Uncle Ryan came out for a great visit. We all love hanging out with them, but the kids especially think they are a super special treat!

In only 20 days, Zetta will start Kindergarten! We took a bike ride to the school this morning to "practice" riding safely. Zetta did great. I think Grady might be riding in the bike trailer w/ Merrick. I start to feel a little sadness mixed with excitement when I think about Kindergarten. She could really care less. I don't think she's really excited, but not upset by it either. Ooooh, just thought of a way to help her with her #'s from 1-20. We can count the days until school starts on the calendar. She has had a hang-up on the teens since the beginning of preschool! She messed up once and hasn't been willing to count past 11 ever since. She will occasionally try, but she mumbles through the teens and sometimes ends up crying.....ridiculous! I hope she doesn't try to pull that with her teacher! She also likes to act like she doesn't know her letters or sounds, but the other day I pulled out some letter cards and let her put some words together and she can read! Ok, not fluently, but she can sound out 3-letter combinations pretty easily. I didn't push her by trying 4 letters because she probably would have shut down for the year! This is the girl that convinced her teacher that she only knew 5 upper and 5 lower-case letters at the end of the year in preschool......and then when I sat her down and made her try at home, I got about 20 of each! Fun, fun. Should I warn her teacher about her when we go register tomorrow?

A Great Trip

We are back at home in Colorado after a great trip home (and yes, we still think of KS as home) to visit family. We had so much fun! The week started off with a wedding, then meeting Eiley Grace/#19, then a family reunion, a volleyball game, a little swimming, a trip to the airport to pick up Daddy and there was also some relaxing with family and visiting with friends. It was packed, but it couldn't have been better. The best part was that the kids got to play with their cousins. (Sorry Kymee and Kyle, they actually lump you guys into the cousins group.) Seriously, I barely see the kids when we are back there. If cousins or aunts and uncles are around, they disappear and kind of fend for themselves. It does always take a while to adjust to our regular life when we return to CO, but they have behaved better today than they did yesterday, so I guess that's all I can ask of them.

We always have some funny moments when we are there. The one that comes to mind right now is a conversation between Zetta, Grady and myself.
Z: "Grandma Kristy said that Dominique and Divante are DYYYING to see me."
M: "Oh, yeah? I bet they are pretty excited. They haven't seen you in a long time."
G: "I can't WAIT to see Dominique and Buh-dan-tay!.......But, why is they dying?!"

Dominique and Divante are twins that belong to Bryan's cousin, Heather. Poor Divante (duh-von-tay). His name must be hard for everyone to say because Great Grandma Mary said that when the babysitter's son talks about them, he refers to them both as "the Dominique brothers!" ;) Very funny! I love kid talk!

The Dreaded Dr.

Merrick had his 9-month check up today. I can't believe it! The receptionist needed to give me some paperwork and asked how old he was and I told her he was 8 months. Then I realized, nope, he's 9 today. Where did the last 9 months go? I have no idea. It's all a blur. Well, back to the Dr. Grady has been worried since last night that Merrick would have to get a shot. He was even crying this morning before we had to leave saying, "I'm not going! I don't want Merrick to get a shot!" He is so protective of his siblings. It's very funny and very sweet! I prepared him for the appt. and said I didn't know if there would be a shot or not, and that if there was he would not throw a fit or bother the Dr. or nurse while it was happening. He was sure to ask everyone in the office if Merrick was getting a shot, and luckily he didn't have to. Whew! He did have to get a finger stick, though. Grady was pretty leary of that, but Merrick didn't even flinch, so everything was great. The test he had was to check for an iron deficiency but, probably thanks to the liver Bryan fed him the other day, he was just fine!

3 year-old wisdom

Grady said to Zetta, "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit."
Z said, "I'm not throwing a fit about the cereal, I'm throwing a fit about the sugar." (She didn't get any on her already sugary cereal and Grady did on his Cheerios.)
Grady replies in his most matter of fact manner, "Well, big girls don't cry!"

Cute

Today is Zetta's last day of Preschool. She wore her light blue cherry dress and I curled her hair a little (nothing too fancy, just enough to make her look a little less like an orphan on the street). She looked pretty cute. When it was time to go I said, "You could wear your sandals. That would look cute." To which she replied, "I don't wanna look cute, I wanna look cool." So she put on her tennies. :)

Grady is wearing his Army helmet and carrying around his wooden Cabella's rifle saying, "I'm gonna shoot some animals....right there....in kaw-luh-wayado (translation: Colorado)." :)

Merrick just spit up on the floor and growled at it. :) (That's just what I wanted to do when I saw it!)

Grady's Birthday - Present

Good morning and happy birthday, Grady! He woke up and got to open one present right away. He was very pleased.

Oh, yeah!!! A light-up Spiderman shirt. He saw it in the store and HAD to have it, so I snuck it into the cart without him noticing. (I don't think I'll be able to pull that off much longer.)

And here is the John Deere cake with Papa in it. I cut out a picture of Grady and Papa O in the real tractor and just stuck it on with some icing. He loved it! I'm so glad, because it was A LOT of work and next year I'm going to do what my Mom did and say, "It's your birthday! Are you ready to decorate your cake?!" I think the kids will love that, too. ;)

Checking out his new Deere Gear

"Is this the last picture, Mom?"

"What are you two doing? The present is in here, not the car!" They had to run past it to get to the car. Silly kids.
We got a good deal on a trampoline, so Grady and Zetta got to split this present. They've done great with it...so far no injuries.....from the tramp. A day or so after we put the trampoline up, Grady did fall head first off of the roof of the playhouse that Grandma Kristy and Grandma Mary bought for Zetta 3 years ago, though. It knocked him silly for a while, but overall the injuries were fairly superficial. Whew!!

Grady and Jenna loving the kittens after a fun night and bellies full of cake and ice cream.

Grady's Birthday - Past

Grady on his birthday - May 1, 2006

One year old and about to fall asleep at his birthday lunch - May 1, 2007

With that sweet little smile....2 years old - May 1, 2008

Grady's birthday is tomorrow, "May Thuth" (as he would say it). I love all of my kids equally, but it is funny how their personalities affect you differently. I was very strict with Zetta and didn't bend my rules very often.....if I said no about something, that was that, no bargaining, whining, etc....and that worked for us. And then came Grady! He has had this way about him since he was born, a sweetness and innocence (hahah!) that just makes you melt and want to cuddle and squeeze him no matter what he just did. If he asks for something that I surely would have told Zetta no for, he can just look at me with wide eyes and his cute little face and I'll let him have his way! I try not to take him grocery shopping with me because I usually end up buying things without even realizing that he has sweetly conned me into it (mainly Little Debbies, gum and candy). I love my Grady-boy and the arrival of his birthday has made me a bit sentimental. I'll be sure to put up some 3rd birthday pictures as soon as possible. Zetta wanted a butterfly cake. Grady.....wants a tractor, a John Deere tractor......with Papa in it! Oh, that sweet little boy!

The Love of a Sister

Zetta has affectionately nicknamed Grady "Pigsty"! I have no idea where that came from. If you ask me, they are equally pigsty-ish!!!

The Boys

Grady - March 2009

Merrick - April 2009
"Yup, I eat dirt!"

Bryan always says my posting is feast or famine....and it is, but I do it when I can. And....all of the kids were napping at once today, so I thought I'd take the time to share. Enjoy!

Z's Birthday - Past

April 22, 2004 - Fresh Picked

April 2005 - At a friend's party a one week before Z's 1st birthday. Anya, Gracen, Jack, and Zetta (in the denim dress). (Bryan, why don't we have pictures from her birthday on our computer? Hmmm. I don't remember what happened to them.)

April 22, 2006 - 2 yrs. old; Bryan, Zetta and Lydia

April 22, 2007 - 3 yrs. old

April 22, 2008 - A big 4-year-old