Frolicking in the leaves - again!

October 16, 2009 - Hannah spent the night and we started the morning out innocently raking leaves again

Then Grammy appeared and chaos errupted!

We all had leaves in every crevice imaginable by the time we came inside!

I Love Fall!

October 13, 2009 - When the kids got home from school, there were leaves everywhere and they asked if they could rake them up into a big pile. I love this part of fall, so I agreed and we began raking up and jumping in the leaves! I don't know what it is about fall - but it is my favorite, I love the beautiful colors of the changing leaves, the yellows, oranges, and reds make me happy. I love the crispness in the air, and even when the leaves are dead and brown covering the earth - I think that is a beautiful sight as well. I love the sound of the fallen leaves as I crunch them beneath my feet. Anyway - now that you know I'm in love with fall, here are some cute pictures of my kids enjoying it too.

PS - Reese was still taking a nap during our frolicking, but not to worry, she had her fun the next time we got to play in the leaves - I'll be posting those pictures soon too.

The not-so-fun field trip

October 13, 2009 - Cameron's preschool class had their first field trip to the Venetucci Farm Pumpkin Patch. I have to tell you this day goes down in my book as one of those horrible days that you have to keep telling yourself, "this will be a really funny story later"! It started out okay - the kids were really excited at first, but we stood around for 30 minutes waiting for our tour to begin, so I had 2 grumpy kids on my hands pretty quick. Cam, of course has to eat on a regular basis because of the insulin in his system, so as we're waiting and waiting and waiting, and Reese is whining and whining and whining and pulling on my arm, saying "let's go Mom, let's go!", I had to kneel down in the dirt to check his insulin levels, while Reese is pushing Cameron and saying "hold me Mom, hold me!" By the time we are allowed to look around they are both so grumpy that they refuse to look at the animals. Cameron started it. He would hide behind me and make angry, whiny noises if I tried to make him look at the animals. Then Reese thought that looked like a good idea so she wouldn't look at them either. They both got mad if I tried to take pictures, so I had to catch them by surprise.

Here they are NOT looking at the horses.


Grumpily eating their peanut butter sandwiches as we walked



Some chickens that all the other kids were looking at

So we finally made it past all the dumb animals to the pumpkin patch and Cameron got excited again to hunt for a pumpkin. So Reese did too. The outing started to look up with his new-found enthusiasm. He was really a trooper hiking through all the weeds and plants and uneven ground. Pretty soon we began to notice that all the pumpkins were either half-eaten by animals or very squishy and gross. I started to get grumpy again, but Cameron persisted, he knew he could find a good one. Reese, by this time had decided that the vines on the ground were snakes and would not let me put her down. Why, oh why did I have to try and be prepared for any eventuality and be carrying a heavy backpack too! After about 45 minutes of searching, I was about to give up and go buy a stinking pumpkin when Cameron found a small, green, slightly squishy pumpkin that he thought was perfect. So that was good enough for me. He put it in his bag and we started our long walk back to the car (with Reese still on my hip, and my heavy backpack still on my back). I was exhaused, my back hurt, and we were covered in some kind of prickly stickers when we finally made it back to the car. Cameron handed me his bag and I gasped so loudly it was almost a scream. The bag was empty!!!!! After all that miserable time searching and hiking and carrying and just AAAAAHHHHH!!!! The pumpkin was not there! Cameron decided right then and there that I was freaked out enough for the both of us and wasn't even upset. In fact I think my little break-down scared him a little, because he immediately started apologizing, which made me feel even worse! So, needless to say, I don't have any pictures of Cam with his pumpkin! And I still am not quite able to laugh about all of that yet. Maybe I just need some time.

Inspiration from the Friend

October 18, 2009 - I get a lot of inspiration from church magazines, and it seems that Becca does too. The cover of the October Friend magazine had a picture of a child building a temple out of blocks. I came downstairs this Sunday to find Becca had decided to do the same thing. Here is Becca, the architect next to her block temple. Reese was jealous, and had to pose too.

Tristan Gearhart, The Denver Broncos Kick-off Kid

October 11, 2009 - For my birthday, Tristan and the kids took me out to Red Robin for dinner, and they had a coloring contest there. The kids colored a sheet and I didn't think anything about it again until I got a call from the Denver Broncos saying that Trister had won! His prize was 2 side-line passes to the Broncos/ Patriots game, 2 extra tickets, a Broncos jersey, and he got to run onto the field after kick-offs to retrieve the tee! Tris is such a sweet boy, he's usually just doing his own thing, being quiet and good, never really in the lime-light, so I was really excited that he was able to have a big deal made about him for once. He and his Dad went up to the game with his uncle Tyler and cousin Griffin, and had a great time. The Broncos jerseys were yellow for this games because it was some kind of anniversary for the NFL or something, so the teams wore old throw-back jerseys. Look how close they are to the field! They got to stand right along with the reporters and photographers, just a few feet from the team.

Dad and Tris

Here's Tris, running out to get the tee.

Here's a clip of him doing the mile high salute and running back off the field with the tee. The guy standing on the sidelines works for the Broncos and was coaching Tris on what to do.

It was really cold that day, so the 2 Tristans stood by the large outdoor space heaters occasionally to warm up. Apparently, Trister got a little too close to the heater, because his jersey got a hole melted right into it! He wasn't hurt - he didn't even realize what had happened until his Dad told him! The Broncos are sending him a new one in the mail.

Jammie Time!

October 10, 2009 - This was just a random photo shoot because the girls got new matching p.j.'s. They had a lot of fun jumping all over the place and posing for pictures. These were my favorites.

I love how much these two look like sisters - My little brown eyed girls!

And Tris and Cam didn't want to miss out on jammie pictures, so here they are getting ready for bed. Cameron is posing with his new favorite book, "No David!" He loves it because he can "read it" by himself (he has it memorized).

Here's Tris reading "Goodnight Gorilla," another favorite of my kids.

Thanks Poppy and Grandma!

October 8, 2009 - Poppy and Grandma couldn't stay forever, unfortunately, so here's our last group shot before they headed for home. Thanks for all the fun! We love you guys and can't wait to see you next year!

Skate City

October 8, 2009 - The kids' school had a roller skate night at skate city, so we all went.

Here's Cam in his skates. That was interesting! I had the guy lock his skates so he could just walk on them without the wheels rolling, but Cam knew something was up and demanded we fix his skates. So of course after that, the skates were "slippery"! But he liked them better that way. I had to keep at least one of his hands in mine the whole time, because his little feet slipped out from him a lot! Oh, the back pain!

Tris and Grandma both concentrating very hard at skee-ball!

Unfortunately, this was the only picture I got of Becca skating - it was pretty dark, but she was having a blast!

Reese kept Poppy very busy. He chased her all over the place trying to keep her from running onto the skating rink, or from getting hit in the head by crazy kids throwing their skee-ball a little too far. I'm actually really sad I didn't get a picture of that - he makes me laugh when he's in full-bodyguard mode!

A visit from Poppy and Grandma

October 2, 2009 - My Dad and Leona came to visit from Mississippi for a week. We had a lot of fun spending time with them. They spoiled us a lot, as usual! We went out to eat and to the movies and the mall and the zoo and swimming and roller skating and to a soccer game.....whew! Anyway, we did a lot of fun stuff, and the kids (and grown-ups) had a great time.

Here's Poppy reading the kids a bedtime story.

October 3, 2009 - Freezing at the kids' early morning soccer game!

Becca, attacking the ball.

Run, Tris, run!

Tristan and Cam

Dad and Leona in front of the rising sun.

What's that on your face, Poppy?

Next stop - IHOP!

Reese showing Grandma her butterfly balloon.

Tris and Cam with their balloon dogs.

Becca with her tiger.

Quick pit stop at the mall, where we hit Build-aBear, the pet store, and visited Aunt Jakelle. . .

...Then on to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo!

Tris feeding a giraffe

Reese and Grandma by the giraffes

Looking at the tiger

Cam and Poppy watching the otters swim

Queen of the mountain!

Becca and Poppy by the giraffes

Brave Cam and Becca petting a snake

Cameron's 4th Birthday!

September 15, 2009 - I made it home just in time to celebrate Cameron's birthday with him. I got in the night before. I was a little loopy because I woke up at 4 in the morning and was not able to get back to sleep (jet lag)! So I made do, and started decorating the house with birthday stuff at 4 a.m.! Cam seemed to have a really fun day. He told his Dad all he wanted for his birthday breakfast was fruity rice krispies, so that was pretty easy. Then we went out for lunch to Burger King with Reese and Dad, and had some family and friends over that night for cake and ice cream. We love you Cam! It's so hard to believe how big you are getting!