February Flyby!

Spring has sprung early here in Colorado, and before I let myself get too excited, we know it's just a counterfeit spring and we're still patiently waiting for the rest of winter!!! I came back from Arizona and have been met with temperatures consistently above 50 degrees and NO snow. I'll take what I can get, but dread what March will bring...

We saw a herd of about 9 deer the other day, crossing the street as I was dropping Lucy and Zach off at school. Not a great picture, but a fun reminder that we live in Colorado!

I never post gym pictures, but I took this one as an inside joke for a friend back in North Carolina who bought these leggings for me as a going-away gift. She has the same ones, and whenever we wear our "twin leggings" to teach we have to send a picture. I miss her! One of the instructors who teaches here is from Australia, and has run into some major problems getting her work visa renewed. So as of December 31st, I've been picking up all of her classes, plus my own, which averages out to about 3-5 per week. I'm loving the extra money and free babysitting, but wondering what I'll do once she finally comes back!

Like I said, the weather this February has been absolutely amazing!! A few Fridays ago we topped out at 81 degrees!! I saw a thing on the news that we were actually warmer than LA, Miami, and Honolulu. Go figure, Denver!

This little thing has discovered the great outdoors and loves to play outside in the backyard with Leah. We are enjoying this temporary respite, since we know spring won't really officially be here until at least April....

I made the kids color coordinate the Sunday before Valentine's day because a) I can, and b) they just look so darn cute in red and pink! They were SO naughty at church, and it made me so mad, that I realized I can dress them up, but I still can't take them anywhere nice. Ha ha.

Cute Lucy and Leah!

These two are the exact same child-- just the male and female versions. Jon always says we ended up with two naughty kids and two nice kids, so we'd better not push our luck for number 5.

We consider her to be "nice," but she definitely has a naughty streak!

XOXO 

My cute little Valentine's 2017

Zach designed this minion Valentine mailbox all by himself for school. He is SO artistic and creative, and I was really happy to see he was recognized for it and won an award for "most artistic" from his teacher (they have a little contest). Love that he cut out and taped all those teeth individually!

Lucy made her mailbox into an iPod with headphones. Pretty creative too!

Speaking of Zach's artwork, I absolutely love this picture Zach made at school. It's obviously our family, with rocket boosters on our feet, all holding hands and flying. Jon is on the end with no hair (ha ha), then me, Zach, Leah, Lucy, and baby Lizzie. So sweet!

Lucy got invited to an epic birthday party for her friend Brennan this past weekend and had so much fun. We are really pretty strict when it comes to allowing sleepovers, but the mom met with us beforehand, explained it would just be her and the 5 girls sharing a room overnight, and it was at Great Wolf Lodge, so how could we say no?!? She had a fantastic time with her friends, and I'm glad we decided to let her go.

That same weekend Jon and I enjoyed a double date with my old roommate Laura and her husband Jeff, to the Denver Museum of Art where there was a temporary "Star Wars" costume exhibit. It was seriously SO cool!! They had all the best, most memorable costumes from all the best movie moments, and Jon and I were totally geeking out. Here's the Emperor's robes.

The original Obi Wan Kanobi costume.

"Help us Obi Wan Kenobi you're my only hope!"

Queen Padme. They had the most of her costumes and I came to two realizations: a) she is itty-bitty tiny in real life, and b) they were so intricate and beautiful and the most labor-intensive of any movie's costumes by far.

Jon checking out a Tuskan Raider costume.

Princess Leia's iconic slave bikini. Definitely my favorite! I think this is probably the most famous female heroine costume ever.

THE Chewbacca suit and Han Solo costume from "Empire Strikes Back." I mean, can you even imagine how cool it was to be within touching distance of this piece of history?!? EPIC.

Daisy Ridley's "Rey" costume. Lucy would have LOVED this. 

An Ewok warrior from "Return of the Jedi."

The C-3PO and R2D2 units from the first trilogy, and of course BB-8 from "The Force Awakens."

Hayden Christensen's Darth Vader costume from "Revenge of the Sith."

And last but certainly not least, the Yoda muppet from "Empire Strikes Back." We absolutely loved seeing these relics up close and personal, and are so glad we snuck in a chance to check it out before the exhibit moves on in April. So far, February has been off to a pretty awesome start-- let's just hope our luck holds out as we venture forth to Disneyland this week with 4 kids and only 2 adults (please cross your fingers for us!)....

Winter in the Rockies

If I were a scientist I would conduct an experiment as to why January goes by so sloooooowly. It really does, I swear! Time seems to stand still after the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving and Christmas, everyone gets sick and seems to stay sick, and the weather is just as dreary as the fact that there is nothing to look forward to for months. I've always admittedly been afflicted by the January blues. In fact, if you have any money laying around, you can donate it to me so I can use it to plan a Caribbean cruise to avoid this phenomenon next January fund my very earth-shattering research into this subject. Thank you.

Anyway, here's a little somebody who could chase away anyone's January blues! This little dress has been hanging in her closet for over a year, and now it finally fits. She looks like a Southern belle.

She is getting so big! Walking and talking and acting like she's a big kid doing all the same stuff the big kids do. The days feel so long with four little kids to constantly take care of, but I remind myself that it does go by in a blink of an eye. It seems like Leah was just barely this size, and now she's in preschool, headed straight for kindergarten!

We start to get some amazing sunrises and sunsets this time of year, as the days lengthen back out. I caught this one on the way to piano lessons one night, just as it was fading behind the Rockies.

Lucy's BOB team, the "Lightning Rebels" came to a disappointing and frustrating end this season. They DOMINATED the mock-battles throughout the fall, accruing over 200 points (most teams had around 100) and reigning as the only undefeated team out of about 20. As you may recall, they got 2nd runners up in the city finals last year, so they were really gunning for el Champions this year. They easily made it to the final school battle which is held at an all-school assembly (pictured below), and then ended up losing by ONE measly question!

They throw out the point totals (which I think is dumb) and it's whoever wins or loses this battle that goes on to the city battles. They missed one of their last questions, and the other team didn't know it either, so if the other team had gotten that question first, our team literally would have won and moved on. They lost 9-10. Luck of the draw, I guess. They were gracious losers in their defeat, so we are proud of them for that. The team that ended up winning hasn't done very well so far in the city battles, which just goes to show our team was better prepared and SO ready for redemption! There is always next year and their coach already has them reading books to get ready.

Here's Miss Lizzie helping me on a recent Costco run. This was just after Lucy, Jon, and I passed around a nasty stomach bug and we were finally fit to be out of the house again!

Resourceful Lucy had a school project to make a representation of the Colorado state flag, so she found a cake recipe online, baked the cake, made the frosting, and decorated it to look like the Colorado flag pretty much all by herself. She is amazing. And she's just 10, for crying out loud!

And last but certainly not least, Jon got his own little "Mans Weekend" when he traveled to the wilds of Idaho for a snowshoeing retreat with my dad and brother and some other manly men.

Idaho has gotten a TON of snow this winter, as you can probably see. I think there's a few feet of snow up on that cozy little cabin they shared!

There was actually almost TOO much snow for where they wanted to go, and some of the roads and trails were snowed in, but they had blue skies and sunshine, and a good time exploring the backcountry nonetheless. It's amazing what a little vitamin D does for the soul.

And of course any adventure with Maddog includes a hot springs, where they could relax and do manly-men things in. Looks pretty good to me! I'm so glad he got a little mini-vacay to shake things up a bit, a chance to sleep in, some fresh air, and a few good greasy rib-sticking post-backpacking meals to fatten him back up. It was worth a weekend at home alone with the kids to see him come back refreshed and recharged! So although January has been long and a bit dreary, we've stayed busy as usual, and we don't mind at all that Old Man Winter is finally on his way out.... 

Girl Party in Arizona

I just had the BEST weekend ever. Whitney turned the big 3-0 on February 3rd, and about six months before that she decided she wanted as many people as possible to come down to AZ to help her celebrate and have one big huge birthday party! Needless to say, this girls' weekend has been on the calendar for awhile!

I also have the best husband ever. While he stayed home and kept the home fires burning for him and the 4 kids, I took an early flight out to Phoenix at 6:30 a.m. Friday morning. It was 12 degrees when I left Colorado, and had snowed overnight. I arrived about 90 minutes later to the desert, where it was a mild 65 degrees and sunny. Whitney picked me up and we met up with my mom for lunch in Tempe at the "Culinary Dropouts."

I got the grilled chicken club sandwich, and Whitney got the pork belly nachos and both were FABULOUS. We headed back to our posh hotel suite which was right smack in downtown Tempe-- and featured an amazing rooftop pool and hot tub. I even got to spend the afternoon laying out in the Arizona sun next to a pool that wasn't covered in ice! So much bliss! 

More members of the girl party arrived throughout the afternoon, so we headed out to dinner on Mill Street at Postino's-- a pretty swanky wine bar for drinks (non-alcoholic drinks, of course) and appetizers. The sunset that night was beautiful and I can never get enough of the palm trees!

It was warm enough to eat outside, so of course we chose to do that. It was so nice to eat without the pressure of a) KIDS there!!!!, and b) the nagging feeling of having to rush back to relieve a babysitter at home. There was just nothing but time and good company.

They are famous for their different kinds of bruschetta and they were all so yummy! Proscuitto, figs, and mascarpone, bacon and Burrata, smoked salmon with pesto, and green apple with brie (my favorite). We also tried a yummy Brussels sprout salad, and a grilled veggie board with some amazing almond humus.

After a stroll through downtown Tempe, we headed back to the hotel for Whitney's birthday cake. Her best friend Kiera (who is the flight attendant and hooks Whitney up with all the cheap deals) had pulled out all the stops and made a totally decadent cake for the birthday girl. 

She'd made a brownie base, two different kinds of homemade ice cream (chocolate and Nutella), a chocolate truffle topping, and fresh whipped cream. Wowser! Thirty, flirty, and thriving! 

Although it was explicitly a GIRLS-only party we allowed Kubo in for cake. He works for Marriott, and was responsible for procuring our awesome hotel suite for such an amazing price. These three have been friends since their sophomore year of college at BYU, and are more like family at this point. They sure love, and take care of Whitney and I'm grateful for that!

After cake we headed out to the rooftop pool for a soak in the hot tub. There's my cousin Missy and Sarah P. warming up by the bonfire, trying to work up the courage to enter the jacuzzi which already had a dozen or so people in it. Ha ha.

Pretty sweet view from 14 stories up though!

The next morning we needed to burn off a few calories from the night before so we headed out to Papago park for a 3 1/ 2 mile hike. The weather was what you could call PERFECT. 75 degrees and sunny, beautiful blue skies, and a slight breeze. It was just what the doctor ordered for this Denverite.

I was soaking up as much vitamin D as possible! Who knows when spring will finally come to the Rockies?? Surely not in February, that I know. Phoenix reminds me a lot of our year in Vegas and makes me miss the easy winters there!

Our hiking group: Whitney, my mom, Missy, me, and my cousins Emily and Stacy, who both live in Gilbert, AZ.

After our hike we needed more food, of course, so we headed to brunch at Snooze which is like my all-time favorite place for a good brekky!! Sarah P was staying with her sister in Mesa, so she joined us to eat.

I got the eggs Benedict with one Italian style, and one Mexican style and both were delish.

We headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready, and the rest of the day was all Whitney's choice. And she decided she wanted to hit the gun range, believe it or not. She'd been once for the first time a couple weeks before, I've been 3 times with Jon, and the rest had never been, EVER. Needless to say, hilarity ensued as we tried to figure out what the heck we were doing! 

Things are looking pretty grim if I am the so-called "expert" of the shooting range! Ha ha! At least I did know how to load it though, thanks to Jon.

After some more relaxing and laying out by the rooftop pool to calm everyone's frazzled gun-shooting nerves that afternoon, we headed to the final birthday dinner at Hopdoddy Burgers in Scottsdale, which is Whitney's all-time favorite. It was PACKED, so we ate outside again just for the heck of it, and it was well worth the wait! It was so much fun just to be there to support Whitney. She is SO loved by SO many people-- and since she is always the one bringing the "party" to everyone else it was nice to bring the party to her this time. I love seeing where she lives and works ands plays, and meeting her friends, and experiencing Phoenix for myself. I hope she knows how much we love her, and that she had the absolute happiest 30th birthday a girl could ever have!! (And thanks again J-man for letting me escape for a few days!)