Last Day!

 Today's the last day to buy the Dressing Your Truth course for $99!

You know I love it - and you will, too!

Check it out!

Here :)

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Do you remember the Staples commercial where the Mom is prancing around the store with her cart dancing to Andy William’s Christmas song? Then you see the two children walking slowly behind her with their shoulders totally stooped. This year I understand that commercial a little better. It must be all the fighting that has been going on lately, but I’m very ready for my kids to be back in school – I think they are, too!

Miss Rylee was up bright and early ready for her first (and full) day of middle school. 

There were some others up, too!

And, we couldn’t forget to take our first day of school picture on the porch.

Happy to chill with these little ones. 

I must admit that I am thrilled to not have a mid-day pick up this year– the first time in 7 years!!

An Afternoon with the Broncos

For the first time, we headed downtown to watch the Summer Scrimmage of the Denver Broncos.

We fought traffic and we fought the crowds. We sat as close as I’m sure we’ll ever sit there at the Stadium and watched the Broncos stretch, toss the ball, and then scrimmage. It was pretty neat. Although it was pretty hot, we had a great time hanging out with our friends and cheering the city’s beloved football team. (You really don’t want to mess with Bronco fans!)

I don’t claim to be a huge football fan, I prefer college football over the NFL, but I do know a few of the names. Like these two:

#18 Peyton Manning  and retired Bronco, Ed McCaffrey - the one in the blue shirt centered below his name.

After the scrimmage the cheerleaders did their thing, then the Denver Thunderstorm came parachuting out of the plane. I’m glad the announcer warned us that they’d be entering the stadium at about 50-60 miles an hour because it looked like they were going to land right on us! Crazy fast. By the time I got a decent picture of one of them, they were almost on the ground.

You can barely see the parachute.

After Thunderstorm, everyone raced down for autographs. The kids loved it. We weren’t sure how many of them would actually get any, but they did just fine.

Clay’s Montana Adventure

Clay was invited by his best bud, Jakob, (and his dad) to head up to Big Sky Montana for a family reunion. He loved it. It was a tad quieter around here, but I was constantly reminded by Olivia that Clay was in Hannah Montana.

Thanks to Jeff for sending pics home along the way.

Enjoying breakfast and adventures in Wyoming

I’m not sure it gets much more Beautiful that Montana – but Colorado is right up there!

Clay lives for this kind of fun. He and Jakob have already made plans to have their own cabin and ATVs in MT someday.

(Daisy Pass, Cooke City, MT)

Fun in Cody, WY

You can’t pass up a Rodeo!

Or find out you’re allergic to horses! Poor kid.

After some lavender and benedryl, he was much better ride home.

A fun stop on the drive home – they pulled this for 3 miles!

A wonderful week for Clay. Thanks, Jeff and Jakob!

For Your Viewing Pleasure ;)

I’ve felt like I’ve been in a creative rut for so long.  So when this project came together so quickly and perfectly, I was over the top excited.

Everything came together in a day. How often does that happen?? Not to me.

I picked up the shelf at Goodwill (see post below), went over to Hobby Lobby to find the letters. Success! They were also half price.

After re-painting the shelf, painting the M, and wrapping twine around the E, I actually had to have Ryan pick up a different H for me on his way home from work. What a great husband. I already had the wreath (also picked up from Goodwill some time ago just waiting for it’s turn to be used), so the total cost of the project was $18.00.

Fabulous!

Now, I’m toying with the idea of adding vinyl – something like this:

Excuse the unpainted knob and the flash on my camera. You get the idea.

I just want to sit and stare at it all day. See, very excited.

Now I just need to come up with another project.

Inky Pinky Ponky

I've never been so thrilled about computer ink. 

In fact, I want to gag when I know we have to buy more. 

So crazy expensive.

Until today.

While shopping at my fabulous Goodwill, I came upon these beauties - just perfect for our printer.

10 cartridges for the price of one!

At $3 a piece, I scooped every last one up.

And, notice those XLs in there, too.

Blessed day.

Now, if ink actually expires this may burst my bubble . . . they are a couple years old.

Is that a problem?

I almost wish I needed to change a cartridge today..

Stay turned to see a fun project I'm starting.

I picked up the shelf today (again at Goodwill) for $4.50.

I can't wait to see how it turns out!

Whose Kid is That?!

 

Twelve

Well, it appears I have caught up with my July posts - all in one week. 
And, hey, I blogged almost everyday.
Good for me. ;)

Sunday, Ryan and I celebrated our 12th anniversary.

It's gone by so quickly.

I still feel this young.

Rylee wrapped up this picture and (re)gave it to us. :)

I know this sounds cliche, but I love him more everyday.

There's no one else I'd rather journey through this life and enjoy eternity with.

I love you Ryan, I'm so grateful you're mine.

Now, I may just go and put on my wedding dress and prance around . . .  ;)

Half Way

I remember holding a 2 week old Clayton in my arms late one night sobbing.
How was I going to let him leave for two years?
There was some comfort that I still had 19 years before that would happen, but TWO YEARS.

I was reminded of that evening this past Friday.
Now, I was hugging a 9 year old boy good bye.
For a week long vacation with is best friend.
His first solo, no-family-around, far-away-from-home trip.

Then it hit me.
I'm half way. HALF WAY.
I'm half way to those two years.
How the heck did that happen - half way already.

My hearts sunk a little bit and I swallowed hard.
While these days feel so long, the years are whipping by.
My boy's going to be a missionary someday.
And, that someday is going to come before I know.

I love this picture. *tear*

Swim Team 2012

If you look at all the pictures and times from our first year of swim team, you’d notice a drastic change to this years. Barely any pictures and no times. (I’m noticing a trend this year…)

Swim team was a little rough this year. Not for the kids, but for me. Henry would try and get in the pool on a daily basis at practice and just trying to keep track of his wanderings was hard. He only escaped the fenced area a few times, but I was constantly on the look-out. Then there were meets. There were a couple where I was on my own – one half way through and another completely. With 4 swimmers, 18-19 events, and 2 littles running around it was a bit much.  Thankfully, we have helpful swim families and they were both home meets so it was easier being on our own turf, but still, I wouldn’t recommend it. Enough about me though.

It was a great season for the kids. Everyone worked really hard. It was very interesting to see the different competitive levels from the kids. Lucy didn’t care about competing and sometimes even had to be bribed to participate – especially those relays. She did it, though, and we’re proud of her. We didn’t learn for a few weeks that she has a very impressive breaststroke kick. It must be in their blood because all of them can do it phenomenally well. Of all the strokes kids can get disqualified the most in, breaststroke is it. It’s such a carefully coordinated stroke, I’m really impressed with our kids. Only one DQ this season.

Lucy and her friends. Their favorite part of the meets.

Kaycee was very diligent in practice and we could always count on her to swim. She didn’t see the meets so much as competition, but certainly a lot more fun than practice.  She placed several times for her breast, and did really well swimming the 50 free(style) – flip turns and all! This year at preliminaries, she swam the butterfly for the first time and smoked everyone in her heat. It was really cool to watch. She helped her medley relay team qualify for League Championships!

Clay took it a little easier this year and made swimming more of a social event. We’ll see if he does it next year. He’s such  a great swimmer that it’s hard not to push him that way into keep doing it.  He rocked his 100 free and even participated in a 100 IM (individual medley – butterfly, back, breast, free).  It was impressive.

Rylee was also a very diligent participator. It wasn’t long after the season started that she recognized that if she worked really hard, especially with her breaststroke, she could place 1st overall at these meets. And, she did! Twice in a row. You couldn’t wipe that grin from her face for a good week. We were also thrilled when her free relay team broke a pool record! Her medley team – which she swam breast for also made it to Championships. She was only 2 spots away from qualifying for breaststroke at prelims. With  over 120 swimmers, she placed 18th! Some tough competition.

Rylee’s free relays team right before they broke the record.

At the year-end team party, our most wonderful coaches gave out the trophies. Three trophies: MVP, Most Improved and Most Dedicated were awarded to each age group. Miss Rylee and Miss Kaycee both received the Most Dedicated award. I wish I had recorded what Coach Andy said about Rylee. It was so kind. Some of the Coaches tried to say little blips about the kids, but Rylee’s Coach said something along the lines of “as Coaches, we try and teach the kids things that they can use in their lives in and out of the water. If anyone wants to be a great swimmer and a great person, and know how to work really hard, they need to be like Rylee Hunt.” So sweet.

A treat after winning one of the meets

Little did I know that Ryan could be a tatoo artist. Nor did I know that half the team would come to be tatoo’d. Coaches included!

We’ll have a tip jar next year!

Tired Henry chilling out. Those were long Saturdays for him!

Rylee and Clay at 7/11 on 7/11 after prelims.

Insanity after a meet. You’d think all those kids would be done with swimming!

Rylee with head Coach, Andy. We sure are going to miss him!

It was a great season and we look forward to next year – with 5 swimmers!!

(A hearty high-five to anyone that finished reading this post!)