I just gotta share this...

I have yet again been lead astray. I realize I haven't posted in a while and since I really have nothing at the moment.. Well nothing I really have TIME to put together at this moment. I will instead just share a post from another blogger.

Although 99% of the others I follow are Mommies. It's nice to get a male perspective now and then that is why I love this guy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIqKWrBNKiY

Those of you who know me.. KNOW I can put most sailors, truckers, and just about any foul mouth out there to shame. Although this is not a trait I am proud of as a matter of fact I have been trying so hard to stop the cussing here I think the frustration of it all has actually has me cussing more.. HUH.. go figure.

Some of you may even recall my FB post a while back... you know it's time to stop cussing when you say..Son of a... and then hear B!TC# in stereo! (from your 4 small children! )

But today the guilt has been lifted just a little..Fuck Ya! I mean Thank You....http://whyisdaddycrying.squarespace.com/

Check him out when you get the chance.. he'll have you laughing, crying and cussing or is it laughing and crying because you're cussing?

Eleven years ago.. Time may have passed but your memory lives on.

Another year has passed and yet today still brings back all those memories as if it were yesterday...

April 20th, 1999.

Cassie Bernall, 17 - Steven Curnow, 14 - Corey DePooter, 17 - Kelly Fleming, 16 - Matthew Kechter, 16 - Daniel Mauser, 15 - Daniel Rohrbough, 15 - Rachel Scott, 17 - Isaiah Shoels, 18 - John Tomlin, 16 - Lauren Townsend, 18 - and Kyle Velasquez, 16 - and teacher William "Dave" Sanders, 47.

May you all Rest In Peace...

Even now I can not drive by Columbine or my old house and not have those memories return.. those images are forever etched in my mind.

To my family and friends that survived that day.. Know that I am praying for you and thinking about you today and always..

May God bless all of you.

Columbine Rebels!!

AlWAYS LOVED and NEVER FORGOTTEN

TESTING...

Hello...Is this thing on?

Has it really been 6 months since my last post? My God where does the time go? All is well here. The kids are doing good. Keeping my busy and on my toes. Although there are days when I would rather just run away to the funny farm. I'm sure it would be ALOT more quiet there.

So Preston is attending college. Devin is enlisting in the Marines. Michael is starting Kindergarden. And Alyssa, Kayla and Joey are no longer babies. They are getting so big it still amazes me that they are going to be THREE already.

With the warmer weather approaching we have lots of plans for the summer. Hopefully a family trip before Devin leaves for boot camp. I will try and post pictures of our adventures as they happen.

It feels good to be back........

Our SPRING storm!







MICHAEL!!



JOEY!!



ALYSSA!!



KAYLA!!

No your eyes are not playing tricks on you.. We had over 2 feet of snow one day and then out on the bikes just couple weeks later!!

Coming Soon...

Halloween pics.

I will post them as soon as I can get my FIL to e-mail them.

I was so sick all day on Halloween I don't even remember much of the day really except for my husband saying.. when are you going to get up?? Never if I keep feeling like this!

Anyway I had to call in reinforcements just in case. So I had my in-laws come over to help with the kids and hopefully get some pictures. I am chomping at the bit waiting to see if I will have to dress all the kids again just so I can hopefully get one keeper.

However despite by illness I did manage to muster up enough strength to go out with the kiddos for a little bit. They were so freakin cute!

Michael had no time to waste waiting for his siblings so he was always a few steps ahead.

Alyssa was the only one out of the trio that I could get to say trick-or treat.

Joey would get so mad if we got to a house and there was no candy left of if no one answered the door. Thank goodness he's only 2 and can't do much damage ;O

Kayla had to inspect every piece of candy she was given and would hold her own little protest on each stoop until she got what or how much she wanted!

As for Preston and Devin well they were off somewhere probably scaring other kids and stealing their candy! Well not really but there were a few bratty kids who would have deserved it!

Hopefully I'll have some pictures soon one way or another.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween.

If only..

Mr Heene had been THIS smart?!

The Balloon that was chased across Colorado

Then after it finally landed





This is what they really found inside...


He probably could have got a movie deal out of the whole thing after all ?

What's wrong here?

Well other than the fact that my children are outside ( when it is almost freezing out ) in their PJ's, most of them without shoes..



oh yeah.. Kayla has decided she loves Thomas and therefore "stole" her brothers pajamas.. I will admit Joey sure looks cute in pink.. wait isn't pink the new black anyway?

Rock Creek Farm.. ROCKS!

Fall is finally upon us. The Aspens are changing and all the fall colors are so beautiful.

I absolutely love this time of year...

Not to mention it's pumpkin pickin' time!

We loaded up this kiddos and headed to Rock Creek Farm. It has acres of fields you can walk through and pick your pumpkin right from the vine.

Just make sure to watch your step.




Then you can head on over to the Corn Maze..





This maze is literally miles long, two to three miles depending on which way you go and how lost you get. Needless to say we didn't make it very far at all before Joey decided he had enough.





And if the kids ( actually Mommy and Daddy ) aren't exhausted after that, there is always the petting zoo...





We had some yummy treats too. The carmel apples, pumkin bread and iced pumpkin cookies were gone in seconds!




Last but not least.. the giant bouncy slide. I wasn't able to get any pictures or video because just minutes after getting the kids' shoes off all H-E- double hockey sticks.. broke out.

The bigger kids were running down the smaller ones, kids crying and parents yelling.

Hey, I get enough of this crap at home! And with that we packed up and made a run for it before someone lost a limb or vital organ (and I don't mean the kids).

However, despite all the chaos I am already looking forward to doing it again next year.

Where is Fall?

I can't believe it was 78 and sunny yesterday with some afternoon rain.

Now.. It's SNOWING!

One of the reasons I love Colorado so much is for the weather, but I am not ready to see snow yet.

Well I'll just wait ten minutes and see what happens. If you've ever been to CO you know what I mean. It seems the weather changes that quickly around here.

I just hope Fall returns soon!

Just catching up..

Michael and I finally managed to "escape" from the kiddos for a weekend ( ya I know it was over a month ago). We went to Grand Lake. I absolutely LOVE it there.

Here are just a few pictures...

Here is where we stayed.. ( I guess I could have cropped out the dumpster)

While visiting...

Formed by glaciers, surrounded by Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, Grand Lake is the deepest and largest natural lake in Colorado.

Although I would have been happy spending the entire weekend on the lake...

I did agree to check out the trails.

BEFORE....

AFTER...

thanks honey.. I really enjoyed "eating your dust"

( lesson learned.. I will not.. " just follow me " ever again! )

oh, a helmet may have helped too.

I was hoping we would see some Elk or maybe Moose, no such luck, we did however see

a chipmunk,

a squirrel,

Elk tracks.. still no Elk

random wild flowers..

I love this view

We even "found" LOST LAKE..

which apparently wasn't all that lost ( see the guy on the other side )

then back down to civilization and my favorite place for dinner.

This is why I love this place... these are the rapids that run directly behind the restaurant.

OK so the pictures don't quite give you the full effect.. let's try some video..

Well it was fun while it lasted.. I could have stayed another day or two or ten... we do have children at home anxiously waiting our return.. make that my mom anxiously waiting ( before the kids drive her crazy !)

AAHH yes.. the relaxing ride home..

these are a couple of pictures I managed along the way..

a TEE PEE??

and one more before the rain started

this was pretty much it after that..

That's all folks...

I need a vacation.. from my vacation.

O.K. so remember a few days ago when I was counting the minutes until I left. Well that was because I couldn't wait to get away for a while and enjoy a little QUITE time..



SSHHHH listen..

Did you hear that?

Wait... you didn't hear anything (except the stream flowing) EXACTLY :)

It was so wonderful up there. I wanted to stay alot longer but I can only leave my children for so long before they drive eveyone else around them crazy..

See this is what I came home to..

And don't let their cute little "cheese" iness fool you. Just before I turned on the camera it was nothing but screaming and yelling. I guess like Pavlov's dog.. they turn on the charm as soon as they see the camera.

Now if I could only time it right I could actually get something out of it. Stay tuned you may just see them on America's Funniest Home Videos... I should be so lucky.

I almost forgot.

I took the babies (wait can I still call them babies?) for their 2 year check up on wed. and everyone is doing well.

Alyssa is the tallest at 34 inches and weighing in at just shy of 24 lbs.

Kayla is catching up at 33 1/4 inches but tipping the scale at 25 lbs. 6.2 oz

then of course my "little" Jo Jo at just 31 inches and finally breaking the 20lb mark at 21 lbs 7 oz. he is still at - 3% ( yes that is negative folks, how that is possible I don't know ) Anyway, -3% for height and weight but still following his own curve. We did take him to see an endocrinologist and the blood work looks good, so we will just wait and see hopefully he'll catch up soon. I will bring him in again in a couple months for a height and weight check just " for fun".

Other than that they are all doing quite well. I think Joey may have some sensory issues too, so I will be checking into that and keep everyone posted on his progress.

I can't believe that 2 years have passed, more like whizzed by in the blink of an eye. I swear it was just yesterday they were a nestled together in the NICU and I was anxiously waiting to bring them home. Now they are pulling me in 3 differrent directions at once and I find myself anxiously awaiting bed time !

Does it make me a bad mom..

if I am counting the minutes untill I leave my children for an entire weekend? Just under 600 in case you were wondering.

Off to Grand Lake for some " down time" OH I can't wait.

Sorry kiddos Mommy will miss you.. * wink wink *

It's hot outside.

So I have been trying to get the kids out of the house.. because quite frankly they are driving me insane being trapped within these walls.




So there is a mall nearby, and even though a tornado touched down right in this spot just a couple weeks ago, I figured why not. I mean if I can keep up with four kids four and under. I might as well keep it interesting and add dodging tornados to the list. And if that's not enough, after lunch I decided ice cream would be a nice treat. Next time anything but the BLUE one!

Anyway here are some pictures and a little video I put together.

Sharing lunch.

Don't let that sweet smile fool you.

One of my favorite pics of the day.

The blue ice cream monster went that way...

Looks like he got Joey too

Alyssa and Michael were too busy playing in the water to care about the ice cream.

Still Trying..

Hopefully next year I will be able to get better video.. I tried several times to get the kids watching the fireworks.. but eveytime I started to record SOMETHING would happen and I would have to turn it off and take care of things. So I put together all the 5 & 10 second clips and this is what I get??



As you can see within seconds Kayla was scared to death and she literally cried the rest of the night everytime anything went off.

Alyssa cried too but only if she was outside.. and the rest of the boys had a good ol' time...

Well that about sums up my video editing ability to this point.. I finally managed to get onto the computer long enough to barely accomplish that ( did I mention Mike hogs the computer ) Maybe he should buy me my own for our anniversary!?

ANOTHER REASON TO CELEBRATE

The block is still standing and no one lost any limbs! The girls may be permanently traumatized though.

"Leagally" the fireworks are not suppossed to leave the ground but try explaining that to a group of grown men.

And despite the fact that yesterday was our 6 year Wedding Anniversary ( and I didn't even get a card!) Mike has an issue with priorities... It's more important to have lots of stuff to blow up than to buy your wife a gift.

Anyway.. I'll let it go THIS TIME!?

Here are a few pictures I managed amidst the chaos... I mean festivities!

Alyssa was much happier once we were inside.



Kayla.. not so much



Joey could care less either way..



Michael was out side with the rest of the "boys" trying to SHOW OFF to the neighbors.. after all what fun is it to blow stuff up without a little neighborly competion..





OK maybe they were one up on us for that one.. I have more video but don't have the time or patience for that matter.. to edit any of it together.. so that will have to do..

OH and no party is complete without..

yes.. CAKE! I made it myself are you impressed?? The recipe is from a good friend mine.. we like to call it "better than sex cake" really Linda.. tell them.. and for Mike's sake he better hope it is because.. we ALL know, no gift no...

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th of July!

( and if you want the cake recipe let me know )