Chapmans visit

I think it was the day after my mom and sister left town that the Chapmans arrived!  The evening they arrived we went to Pasquini’s Pizzeria, a local favorite of ours.  Dan’s parents stayed at our house, our girls like that. :) Jason and Candice were at Matt and Cami’s house.  (I stole a couple of pictures from you Cami, thanks! I don’t always remember my camera.)

Cherry CricketWe have to visit the Cricket every time Jason and Candice are in town, it’s a MUST.  Here’s Jaycee reading a menu, she wanted one of everything!  Those cheeks are a lot of work to maintain.   Jason taught Sophie some table manners, which she loved of course.  Uncle Jason is a big time favorite!

Tessa was very attached to her Ariel doll that weekend and had to hold her while she ate or did anything.  We got a kick out of watching Sophie shooting the shot gun on the arcade, I’m afraid she learned how to hold it from her mom, not her dad. :)  I know it’s wrong, but I don’t know how to do it right either.

Candy Store

 

We then ventured to old town Arvada…?  I forgot which town it is.  Anyway, they have an old walking mall that’s pretty cute.  Our destination was the candy store, I took SO many pictures!  Let’s see if I can narrow it down…

There is a random red pig outside the store, Tessa liked it, I think Sophie was pretending to.  They had animatronic bison (randomly) on the wall and Uncle Matt took each of the kids up to it to see their reaction, Lily cried, Jaycee had no reaction, Tessa was scared but Matt didn’t put her all the way up in his face like he did the babies, so she didn’t cry.  I don’t think Sophie participated, she was a little busy…

Sophie was a little too busy enjoying the candy we bought.  Sorry to post these pictures Soph, I really am but I can’t resist, they are too funny!  I think I just got her mid-blink but she just looks so intoxicated by the candy, what a crack up.

 

There was a section of GROSS candy that contained REAL bugs.  Never seen that before, have you?

Their trip wasn’t over at this point, but this post is.  Because the next day was Sophie’s birthday!  And that deserves it’s own post.

a pre-birthday party

We were lucky enough to have my mom, sister, and nephew here for a couple days the week of Sophie’s birthday (and the month of Jenny’s birthday).  It was a quick visit but we relished every moment.  I sure love my family, thank you for coming guys!

We went straight from the airport in the afternoon to the Nature and Science Museum because they were having another free day.  I had forgotten to bring my camera to the airport though, so no pictures. :(  They closed at 5 and we went home.

It was Februrary 13th, so when we got home Grandma whipped out a ton of Valentine making stuff and these cute head bands.  Sophie made several valentines for her friends.  Tessa likes the ideas of stickers, but ended up taking all of her stickers off, she can’t commit I guess.  Just on and off with Tess, until the stick is all gone.  She’s in process in the pic below. :)

This picture makes me laugh because usually Grandma can do no wrong, but I guess hair brushing hurts no matter who is doing it.  But Sophie didn’t cry for Grandma… interesting.  But she really does love her, see:

Tessa really enjoyed Jenny oozing over her jewelry, such a girl.  {BTW - Can you see the boy jeans over the back of the chair?  They were part of a bunch of baby boy clothes my mom brought for us, we didn’t know what we were having yet… I am convinced my mom is either a)physic or b)has special privileges with God, because she’s always right!}  Dean went to bed pretty early that night, but here he is the next morning just so proud of himself for getting in that chair on his own!  He has the cutest smile and bright eyes, he’s going to be a big brother in just a couple months, so exciting.

 

All the kids in the morning, Dean would rather investigate his head gear rather than wear it.  Maybe he knew it was the wrong holiday to wear antlers. :)

Sophie went to her preschool Valentines party that morning while Dean napped and then he woke up just as it was my girls’ nap time (of course!).  So I took the monitor with me so I could hear the girls and we went out for a walk around the apartment complex.  Dean’s learning to run, he wants to so bad!  It’s very cute.  It was a beautiful day, don’t let the snow on the ground fool you, it was sunny and warm, no jackets required (unless you are from Houston and can’t handle anything under 70, although they eventually shed their coats too.)

Dean really just wanted to play in the puddles, Jenny didn’t really want that. :)  Here’s a bump check, Jen is 2 months ahead of me.  Not that you can even tell!  It’s fun to be pregnant the same time as her, she’s having a girl (in May) and we’re having a boy (in July).

After the girls were up we went over to the park by the university that we love.  Dean was supposed to nap in the van while the girls played but he ended up coming out to play instead.  He never held still much, just have this picture of the back of his head. I know these pictures of my girls in short sleeves next to snow covered ground look terrible, but I PROMISE it was really warm!

After the park we headed down towards Dan’s office and went to a maternity store… a dangerous place for my mom to recommend with 2 pregnant daughters.  She treated Jenny to a really pretty dress and me to the darling shirt (which I love and wear at least once a week) which I am wearing in the framed picture at the beginning of this post.  Thanks Mom! 

And as if that wasn’t enough, she insisted that she should take us out to dinner.  Dan met us at Red Robin.  Here’s Sophie with her complementary birthday treat, and a scary smile.  Notice Dan trying so hard to be noticed, out of focus in the 2nd picture.

We all shared Sophie and Jenny’s ice cream.  Oh yeah, get after it Tess!

Then they left the next morning, after some couch photos on the timer.  (Look for me trying to get the kids to smile in the mirror reflection, kind of cheesy.)

Thanks again for making the trip out Mom and Jen, it was lovely to have you as our guests!

super bowl party

 

I know the super bowl was quite a long time ago… but I have these pictures I wanted to post, so bear with me… or not. :)

We got together at our good friends’ house and enjoyed the game (and commercials) and lots of yummy food!  No pictures of the adults, sorry.  The kids had a ball as they always do over there.  Baby Daniel was cracking us up with his dance moves, he’d sway from side to side then stop and point… hold it, then sway again.  It was so funny!  Sophie also got into the halftime show and I almost died laughing when she was pretending to be a dancing horse, I think you had to be there to fully appreciate but it was REALLY funny, trust me.  I really love that girl!  Later, the girls got their pj’s on and watched a movie in the other room, so stinkin’ cute together. 

I made my first home-made salsa and it was way better than I expected.  You know how you sometimes figure that you buy certain foods because you can’t really make them as well?  NOT true for salsa!  It’s way easy and so nice to be able to control how much of each ingredient you put in to your own taste.  Seriously so easy.  I also made (with help from Dan, I can always count on him to help me cook when time is running low… and he doesn’t want to miss kick off) some chocolate cake balls we shaped like footballs.  They are incredibly delicious and addictive, good thing they are fat free! no, wait… :)

BYU vs. AFA

Beginning of February we attended a basketball game down in Colorado Springs.  When the tickets were originally suggested by a friend Dan called and asked me how many we should get.  I decided that it would be cheaper pay for the girl’s tickets than to pay a babysitter so we might as well bring them.  This was like a month before the game.

Fast forward to the week of the game, we get our tickets from the friend and note the game time… 8:00 p.m.  Aaaaaaaa, that’s when it starts?  Our girls’ bedtime is at 8 and Colorado Springs is almost an hour drive, they are going to be TERRIBLE!  I was really really really nervous about it. I contemplated getting a sitter and selling our extra tickets but I didn’t have much time (only 2 days).  I tried to get the girls to nap late that day and crossed our fingers!

I was pleasantly surprised by my children, they did wonderfully at the game.  For the most part they didn’t notice how tired they were because the game was so exciting.  As you can see, Tessa wasn’t as impressed by the game as Sophie.  But they both loved to chant, “B-Y-U!”  And still do chant at random times just for fun.  They enjoyed the mascot and cheerleaders and just all the noise and the freedom to yell without getting in trouble.  I remember the first time I yelled at the game and my girls looked at me wide-eyed and surprised, I had to explain that it’s ok to yell at basketball games.  They were very happy about that.  I have loud kids. :)

There was a set back to our cheap tickets.  We were in the very back, literally against the wall.  Almost against the wall, that is.  I wished we were.  There was a kid-sided gap between us and the back wall with a sheer drop to the bottom of the stadium!  I was so nervous about my girls standing up in the chairs and falling to their deaths, I was relieved when Tessa wanted to lay on the dirty floor, much less scary.

 

It was so fun to watch Sophie enjoy the game, she was just giddy most of the time.  By the end she was saying, “I need to go to bed Mom,” and  “It’s time to go to sleep now Mom.”  But she didn’t cry and neither did Tess, so I was happy.  They shocked us and didn’t sleep at all on the hour ride home!  They just sang songs and chanted, “B-Y-U!” some more, crazy kids.

just dreaming

I love the way they redid this kitchen, found here, I love it all.  I especially love the gray color of lower cabinets and the openness of the upper cabinets where they removed the doors (and added molding and the sconce things below).  It’s just so light and beautiful, I want one.  I don’t know if I’d ever have the guts to do it though.  Oh and I also covet dark wood floors.

Also, this little boy’s room is pretty cute.  I really like how she made the top of the wood paneling wide so it can be used as a shelf for art.  She did the same thing in her dining room, also found here.

Have you ever seen such a good looking PANTRY?  She has no doors on hers so she made it super cute.  I love the quaterfoil design she did on the back, one of my favorite patterns.  She also did the really pretty bathroom, you can’t see in in this picture but it has a bedboard cieling to boot!  Wow.  I think it’s official, I am drawn to white with blue or grey.

Can you tell I’m getting house hungry?  Truth is I have always loved looking at decorating and home improvement blogs because their ideas are so genius!  I think it will help me when we eventually do start looking for home to better see the potential of some homes that are currently ugly.  Plus it’s good to know what I like.   I’ll keep dreaming though, we just signed another year lease at our apartment, yeah!  Does anyone else share my obsession (ahem!) interest in design blogs?  If so, please share your favorites!

snow day

On MLK Day, Dan had the day off from work and I think the temperature was around 50 degrees but we still had a good foot of snow on the ground.  I decided it was the perfect day to FINALLY dress the girls up in their snow clothes and take them out to play.  Even the dressing in snow pants was a treat for these poor deprived children.  They were over the moon excited to play in the snow with Daddy, and I was more than happy to take pictures while he made snow balls and such.  Here are the results:

Dan made them jumbo snow balls and then lifted them so they could throw the balls over the side of the bridge into the water.

Tess had trouble making the distance… it was comical.

 

Throwing more snow in the creek (Dan holding Tess so she doesn’t throw herself in along with the snow.)

It’s official!  They like snow.

THINK FAST! Tessa throws snow balls w/o warning.  Sophie making a snow angel.

In our explorations by the creek we found this man-made shelter.  If you look hard you can see that Dan’s inside.  I also found this pretty weed.  Equally exciting right? :)

 

I don’t know why I am so apprehensive to take my kids out in the snow, I am afraid it will be a disaster I guess, that it will be too difficult.  But it’s no a big deal, and we all had a great time!