Pictures of the Week -- Week 19

We have had some wild & crazy spring weather. It's been raining quite a bit, which actually has been nice for several reasons... sports practices have been cancelled and our yard has gotten watered for free! One afternoon, I went to pick up Alex & his friends from middle school because it was raining. Right before we got home, it started to hail. It started and ended very abruptly. The kids were fascinated!


Alex loves to take things apart (thanks, Grandpa Bob!). Our old Xbox got the "red ring of death". It sat around here for months and finally, Alex decided he was going to fix it. He loves seeing how things work and identifying different parts. It was a valiant effort, but the Xbox was just dead.


Mattea & Hanna finished their soccer season and they got purple sparkly trophies. As you can see, the trophies were a HUGE hit! It didn't matter that they only won one game all season. It's all about the bling, baby!


Mother's Day was amazing this year. My kids are so wonderful, talented, sweet and generous. Each of them made me handmade gifts which I absolutely adore. Alex made me the sweetest homemade card. Josh drew a picture of me which listed all of my best traits and wrote a poem about me. Mattea gave me a cookbook with her picture on the front (as a Chef) and a ceramic tile with her handprint on it. I got special cards and emails as well. The funniest card came from the one and only, Hallmark Queen.... Julie Mishler. It said "I'd offer to take over for you on Mother's Day, but..." [open the card] "HOLY CRAP! Do you realize how much you DO????" Oh my goodness, I laughed for a LONG time about that one.

Pictures of the Week -- Week 18

Mattea & I went to a play together with some friends from her Girl Scout troop. The play was put on by high schoolers and was really cute. Mattea had a great time hanging out with her friends and I enjoyed spending time with the Moms. It was a win-win situation for all!


Alex & the dogs had a nice snuggle on the living room floor. Indy & Cody were both vying for Alex's attention and he gave it to them. I took several pics and the last one makes me laugh every time I see it. Alex did his usual stick-out-the-tongue-and-make-a-freaky-face look and Cody's expression almost looks like he was reacting to it... like "he is SOOOOO weird, isn't he?"



Mattea wanted to polish her nails and then decided to do mine, too. She gave me the full treatment -- she filed my nails, polished them AND gave me sparkles!!! What more could a Mommy want???

Pictures of the Week -- Week 17

Mattea went to a birthday party sleepover at her friend Alexis's house. Thanks to Aunt Jenny, she has a very cute "suitcase" for sleepovers!


We have an increasing amount of stuff at our house and the big stuff was starting to really take up space. Since there are lots of rules about where you can take electronics, plus the fact that they are really, really heavy and would be difficult to load, we called in the experts... College Hunks Hauling Junk. C'mon, who wouldn't call them??? They were extremely nice even when they found out what they had to haul out of the basement. We got rid of our big screen TV that has never been the same since the move, the old tube TV, our broken washing machine and our held-together-with-duct-tape lawnmower. It felt great to watch it all drive away.


We did some yard work this week in preparation for summer. Josh chipped in and did his share. I'm not saying he did it willingly, but he did it. ; )

CrossFit Day 1

So, I fell off the exercising horse. (Don't worry, it didn't hurt.) I have finally decided to get back on the horse. Actually, I decided to get back on the horse at least a month ago, but it took me this long to track her down and hop back on. : )

Long story long... I drove by this strip mall that I have driven by many, many, many times, but this time I noticed a placed called "South Aurora CrossFit". I just HAD to check it out. I had heard about CrossFit and was interested in trying it, but when I had looked before, I hadn't found a gym near my house. I can make it to this place in roughly 5 minutes if the green lights are working in my favor, so that totally rocks. Suh-weet!

Since Jeff is not traveling this week, I decided to give the place a try. I dragged my butt out of bed at 5:40am and got ready to go. I was anxious and a little nervous, but I realized that I am a grown adult and the muscles aren't going to tone themselves nor is the fat just going to fall off my body. So, I opened the door and went in. I was met by one of the owners - Dave. He made me feel welcome right away, had me fill out some paperwork, explained what happens on a normal day and then got me started with the beginner's workout. It didn't sound too bad and I was glad it wasn't the workout that the rest of the crew were doing. Let me just tell you that the name of their workout was called "Oh Shit!". Ya dig???

My workout consisted of 5 reps of each of the following exercises: squats, sprawls, push-ups, jump squats and burpees. I had to do the circuit 5 times. Dave told me that once I get used to it, they will time me. Gee... I can't wait for that day! He then told me that when he does it, he tries to do it in less than 3 minutes. Um... excuse me???? Come again??? Yeah, that won't be happening for me for quite some time. It makes sense that Dave could do that. You should see this guy. R-I-P-P-E-D!!! He's a firefighter and I bet he saves lots of lives. He got in on the workout today and was killin' it. It was very motivating to see everyone dripping with sweat and pushing their hardest.

I am planning on going 3x a week and if the activity schedule allows it, I will try to go on Sunday afternoons as well. I'm a little sore and I hear that will only get worse, but I guess that means it's all worth it, right??? Anyway, I survived Day 1. YAY me!!!

Pictures of the Week -- Week 16

I wanted to get Alex a cell phone when he started middle school, but Jeff nixed the idea. He told Alex if he earned all A's and B's, he could get one. After two quarters of being just points away from his goal, he finally earned his cell phone. We upped our family plan to unlimited texting and it was lucky we did... Alex sent almost 900 texts in his first month!


Here is proof of the good grades. Alex made the honor roll!!! We couldn't be more proud!!! This was the best picture I could get with his certificate. (Now you know why you don't see more of Alex on the blog... it's the age.)


Mattea took it upon herself to be the cleanup police. She "cited" us if we did a good job or a bad job cleaning up. I'm glad I was on her good list!




The Spartans Gold baseball team went 2-0 for the weekend against the Falcons and another Spartans team. They are having an awesome season so far!

Pictures of the Week -- Week 15

Jeff made a statement last month claiming that he would like us to hike a LOT this spring/summer... like, every other weekend if we can. I'm totally down with that, but with the baseball and soccer schedule, it will be tough.

On Sunday, we were able to work around the baseball schedule and squeeze in a hike before Josh's game at 4pm. We drove to the west side of Castlewood Canyon State Park since that was near Castle Rock where Josh would be playing his game. We scoured the map for a bit and decided to start on the Creek Bottom Trail and head up to the Rim Rock Trail. It was a great hike. Alex almost cut it short for us when he slipped off a rock, but his agility helped him land somewhat gracefully and we moved on. Whew! Once we got back to the parking lot, we looked back at where we had been. Wow... I was amazed that Mattea's little legs kept up with us for that long of a hike. I only carried her at the tail end. She is such a trooper!

Aunt Julie came for a visit on Wednesday evening. YIPPEE!!! She stayed till Monday morning and we had lots of fun while she was here. Mattea colored in this welcome sign on our driveway. We took a quick picture of it since it started raining and we wanted to make sure she saw Mattea's beautiful art work!



Aunt Julie took Josh on his birthday date. They were nice enough to share the lunch portion of their date with Jeff, Mattea and I. (Poor Alex was in school!!!) They went shopping and saw the movie "Soul Surfer" which they both really liked. It was another successful birthday date!


Mattea had a soccer game this week and she played SOOOOOO aggressively. It was inspiring to watch. Her face showed the effort she was putting forth. She was very involved when she was on the field and I was such a proud Mommy watching her play. Aunt Julie was there for the game, too, which was very cool. Maybe that was the reason for her intensity! Her and Marley tag-teamed for the only goal their team scored. You go, girls!!!


Josh's baseball team suffered a devastating loss on Saturday (their first loss of the season), but came back with a vengeance on Sunday. Josh did a spectacular job catching and was awarded the game ball for his efforts!! It was awesome that Aunt Julie was there when it happened. We are so proud of Josh and how hard he has worked at being an amazing catcher!
Believe it or not, I didn't have my camera with me, so I had to take a picture of Josh, Aunt Julie and the game ball the next day.

Pictures of the Week -- Week 14

Mattea put on a skirt today, but I told her to get some leggings because it was a bit cool. She grabbed some of the ones that Grandma Judie made for her and she looked SO cute! I snapped a few pics while she was visiting with me in my office. She insisted that I send one to Grandma to tell her how much she loves her leggings. Got that, Grandma Judie??? You done good!

Cody & Indy love to wrestle! Cody was laying down in Indy's bed when Indy came over and started messing with Cody. I love that Cody stayed in the submissive position... he knows his place!!!!

I found this pancake batter in a can at Target and had to try it out. Josh was completely amazed! I think the first day we had it, he had pancakes for breakfast AND lunch. He wanted them for dinner, too, but I vetoed that idea!

Mattea & Hanna had a play date and I gave them both a bath and then french braided their hair. With their sparkly vests & shoes, they looked like divas and had no issues posing for a short photo shoot!

Josh & Mattea have been off-track since the end of March. For the most part, they have been getting along pretty well. Today, I went outside to check on them and they were playing catch. Josh was so sweet... throwing the ball underhand to Mattea. Mattea, on the other hand, was zinging the ball back to Josh with all her might!