Pictures of the Week -- Week 8

Our cruise from San Juan, Puerto Rico to the Southern Caribbean islands was wonderful!

While we cruised to Barbados, we had a mini golf tournament. Cliff & Joanne brought some amazing prizes... Rum Run bags for the ladies and Rum Run hats for the men. Very cool!


Monday night was our first formal night. I love this picture of Jeff, Amy, Vaas and myself.


We took a beer and rum tour in Barbados. The tours were pretty lame, but some of our crew made it quite entertaining!!!



Antigua boasted some beautiful views. We had a fun time ziplining with Vaas & Amy!


While we were in St. Lucia, we celebrated Kevin's birthday and Julie & Kevin's 3rd wedding anniversary. We surprised Kevin with a "It's my birthday... buy me a beer" t-shirt and we all wore t-shirts bearing Kevin's face and his favorite pose! I know he would have preferred no one even mention his birthday, but c'mon... that's not how we roll!

In St. Maarten, we drove "Rhino Riders" and then had a toast at the Blue Bitch Bar.


In St. Croix, we did some shopping and then took a shuttle to Christiansted. It was sad that our vacation was coming to an end.

Pictures of the Week -- Week 7

Mattea has a way of making even the most mundane tasks (like laundry) SO much fun!!!

Since Jeff has introduced the boys to sushi and they love it so much, we decided to try making it at home. It was quite the adventure and Jeff wasn't too thrilled with the results, but the boys found Dad's sushi "AMAZING"!!!

Pictures of the Week -- Week 6

Mattea got a new leotard for gymnastics, so she just HAD to put it on and wear it all day long! She practiced her splits, jumps, forward & backward rolls, handstands, backbends and walkovers. She really loves gymnastics and gets better every week!



Today was Gum Day at the elementary school. The kids paid a quarter for each piece of gum they chewed throughout the day. I'm pretty sure that Josh handed over his 4 quarters and just shoved all of his gum in his mouth because this is what his "wad" looked like!!!


Some friends of ours have a 4-year old daughter named Anna who was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma, a very rare and aggressive cancer. We made valentines for Anna and her brothers to let them know we are thinking of them. I put out construction paper, stickers and markers and the kids had complete freedom to create their cards. Josh's card really touched my heart. His words were so incredibly sweet and made me very proud to be his mother. He has always been such a sensitive boy. I love that about him!

Pictures of the Week -- Week 5

Mattea had to go to the hospital for an outpatient dental procedure. It was very difficult for us to to make the decision to have her go under general anesthesia for the procedure, but it was best for her. Had she been sedated but awake for the procedure, I'm sure she would have been traumatized and scared to go to the dentist even for a cleaning after that experience. (Plus, I'm sure we would have had to hold her down!) The staff at Children's Hospital were A-MAZ-ING and Mattea was SO brave. Everyone came in to talk to her, explain what would be happening, make her feel comfortable and answer her questions. She asked anyone that she talked to whether she would get a shot or not. They all said no, but she continued to ask! We could tell that she was scared about what was going on, but she just bucked up and took it like a champ. We were so incredibly proud of her. She recovered easily from the anesthesia and thoroughly enjoyed slushies at the hospital and then ice cream, pudding and applesauce all day long at home!


Josh got a black eye after he was elbowed by his teammate during a basketball game. He is a tough cookie though. He totally shook it off when it happened and got right back in the game. I know he thought it was cool, but it also caused him quite a bit of pain.


The girls' got style... there's no doubt about it. And she can rock those rain boots like nobody's bidness. You go, girl!


It's fuh-reezing outside. Negative temps. So cold that you could throw boiling water into the air and it would freeze before it lands. (Yeah, we tried it.) However, Indy still wants to be outside. He's not sure what all the fuss is about when I yell and yell and try to get him to come inside. What can I say? He's a snow dog. Cody... not so much!


Superbowl Sunday! Woohoo! Let's go Broncos!!! Oh wait... the Broncos STUNK it up this season. Well, as you can see, I couldn't resist wearing my Broncos gear during the Superbowl. I'm just crazy like that!

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

This post is a little late, but I have rarely been known to be timely, so what did you expect??? Last weekend, we celebrated my birthday. The morning started early with Josh's 9am basketball game (which meant we had eaten, gotten dressed and were out of the house by 8am). His team won and they remain undefeated and headed to the playoffs! Woot woot!


But this is supposed to be about me. Soooooo... back to ME! The kids and I had a nice lunch at Noodles & Co. and then I took them to a birthday party (not mine... wasn't this day supposed to be about ME???). After the birthday party, Jeff got home from Minneapolis (where he had attended a wicked cool Linkin Park concert) and we opened my birthday presents. My super awesomely insightful hubby got me the Dance Central Xbox game AND the new Kinect system. The technology is a-maz-ing!!! We danced our little hearts out and had so.much.fun!!!

Eriviel arrived (while we were dancing... embarrassing!!!) and Jeff & I escaped for our date night. We took in a chick flick ~No Strings Attached with Ashton Kutcher and the fabulous Natalie Portman ~ and then dinner at Old Chicago. We both gave the movie two thumbs up! I truly think Jeff had expected the chick flick to be the perfect opportunity for a cat nap, but he was surprised by how funny it was and it kept him wide awake. Plus, Natalie Portman is some sweet eye candy.

I made the executive decision to continue my birthday celebration on Sunday since Jeff had been gone and half of Saturday was attending kid activities. When I woke up at 8:30am, I went straight down to the basement to dance. I didn't feed anyone breakfast... not even myself! It was every man, woman and child for themselves cuz I had some dancing to do! We had a family dance party and guess who won??? JEFF!!! Seriously. How did that happen? I mean, the man's got moves, don't get me wrong... but he didn't really bust them out... never really got into the groove. But, hey. It just gives us all motivation to kick his butt the next time. (I declared that there will be a monthly Dolan family dance party, so there WILL be a next time.) We also played Kinect Adventures which was really fun! Once we were all worn out and hungry, we had some lunch and then Jeff & Mattea took off for their Daddy/Daughter bowling date for Girl Scouts. When they got back, we took some quick family pictures (they couldn't say no cuz it was my "birthday") and then it was FINALLY time to go to my favorite restaurant... CRACKER BARREL!!! I love me some Cracker Barrel.


When we got home, we ate some delicious birthday cake courtesy of the Mishler family. Who knew you could send cake in the mail??? AWESOME! It was a great way to end my extended birthday celebration... eating yummy cake with my wonderful family. I'm such a LUCKY girl.

Funny stuff that just begs to be shared...

Conversation after school with Alex...

Alex: "Mom, can I use your laptop to google something really quick?"
Me: "Sure, go for it."
Alex opens Google and begins typing... speaking out loud while he types.
Alex: "Testicle."
Me: "Excuse me????"
Alex: "Testicle."
Me: "Why are you googling that?"
Alex: "Because we talked about it today in Science class."
Me: "You did?"
Alex: "Yeah. It's a rod that sends out electric shock waves."
I finally look at the laptop to see that he has googled "TESLA COIL" and not "TESTICLE".
Me: "Ohhhhhhhhh! I thought you were googling testicle."
Alex: "Seriously, Mom."

Pictures of the Week -- Week 4

Mattea decided she needed a foot soak. I have no idea what prompted it, but it was pretty funny. Once she added the soap to the water and made bubbles, she soaked her fingers, too. I don't blame her, though... I'm looking forward to my next pedicure (and you can bet it won't be in the bathroom sink!!!).


I did some more decluttering and came across my St. Thomas tote. What perfect timing... I will be using this next month when I take it to the beach!!!


Josh came home from school wearing a tank top. Our conversation began...

Me: "Is that really what you had on all day today?"
Josh: "Yeah, why wouldn't I?".
Me: "Ummmmm... it's WINTER!!!"
Josh: "So?"
Me: "Where's my camera? I'm taking a picture of this."
Josh shrugs and I ask him to stand by the wall.
Josh: "If you think it's such a big deal, why don't we take the picture outside?"
Me: "Genius. Let's go."

He cracks me up. If he would have had it his way, he would have had shorts on today, too!


We took the kiddos to Denver Big Air on Wednesday for the snowboarding competition. It was pretty cool to see the action up close.


We left the snowboarding show before the finals and decided to take the kids bowling since we don't spend a lot of time downtown. The kids bowled two games while Jeff & I had dinner. It was great dinner entertainment!!! (I have no explanation for this pose, but it makes me laugh every time I look at it!)


I ran across these two cookbooks in my decluttering efforts and just couldn't bear to get rid of them. One is my Mom & Dad's cookbook all the way from when Mom was only cooking for TWO people! The other one was given to me as a wedding gift from Maggie and it contains a personal message from her that is very special. I may not ever cook a recipe out of either one, but I refuse to get rid of them for sentimental purposes.