Back in business!

Finally have a computer, now to get back into the routine of things. Not much has happened in our life since the last post, except we finally sold our home in Milwaukee. Also, Corey's mom has moved in with us -- giving the kids an opportunity to develop a better relationship with Grandma Kathy. She is going to school in the mornings, so she gets some breaks from the chaos. And we get along very well, so there is little to no strain. Other than that, life goes on like always.

(note the superhero undies)

What am I talking about?! The biggest change for us is that MAX IS POTTYTRAINED!!!!! What a relief!! Although there are still accidents when we are out, he is nearly perfect at home. Pullups were killing us, because he just used them like a diaper. But when we got brave and committed to only underwear, the heavens opened and we finally had success! Even better, he prefers to go by himself. Addie called me to help for at least the first YEAR, so this is a major blessing.

Addie started kindergarten (again) and is loving it. I love it, too! Her school is just behind our house, so we all walk there in less time it takes to get out the door. Max will be starting a 'tiny tots' twice a week, but that can't come soon enough for the poor boy. Dropping Addie off is heartbreaking for a little boy who wants to go to school himself. Next week big man!

Hudson is a maniac, and has the longest reach of any baby I've seen. This kid gets into EVERYTHING!!! He just had a checkup, and even though his weight is in the 40% it's dropped off from 70% so he's on a high-calorie diet! My kid, isn't that wierd? Also, he has a verified 'outie' as the doc poked around his button. He has to do everything differently!

Enough dribble, here are some pictures (since I haven't put any up in the last 4 months or so)

Addie loves picking wildflowers, and is a handful of will!

Swimming in Utah and playing at the zoo in Denver

Funny girl drawing on the back deck... and holding hands with her new friend (the boy, Hayden!)

Loving an ice cream

How can you not love this face?! Especially the drip off the chin... priceless!

Hanging out in Colorado Springs, checking out the airforce and Garden of the Gods

We love visitors, Grandpa is one of our favorites! Dad playing fort when it got too hot for hiking.

On we go, troops!!!

My funny fella, walking all over the place (usually trying to hunt me down). And enjoying his favorite nu-tritious meal (good thing he needs the calories).

This kid know what he likes!! And doesn't!

And DOES!!

Guess we're in hail country, praying for a new roof!!!

Proof that I actually exist (usually behind the camera, this lovely shot thanks to Addie). This must be where Hudson gets his forked tongue!

All in all, we're doing well. Corey continues to enjoy his job, I continue to lose my mind, and the kids continue to surprise and delight us!! What more could we ask for?!

Missing computer

As my life settles down, my computer dies. Posting from my iPod is more difficult than I've wanted to bother with. But too much time has passed since my last post and I'm ashamed.

Life has been crazy, but I'm learning that this is the definition of life. Where to start...? Just got back from an impromptu trip to Utah with just the kids. I hate road trips. I especially can't enjoy them while juggling 3 little ones for 9 hours each way. Good thing the kids were wonderful. Addie is SOoooo ready for kindergarten! I can't keep up with her inquisitive nature, and she need exposure to kids her age in the neighborhood. Plus, I need some alone(ish) time with Max. He is so sweet, and his speech is getting better so his temper is getting better, too. Our year has been so full of change that I haven't been able to tackle pottytraining yet, but hope to hit it hard this week. My mom is coming to visit, but we just got back from visiting her last week so I won't feel bad about not entertaining while camping out in the bathroom. I have a week and a half before our next road trip (back to Utah) so wish us luck on going down to one child in diapers!! And that leaves Hudson. What a character! He started walking (kind of) on his birthday, but mastered it while Corey's mom was in town. What a treat! The worst part of living far from family is that milestones are never witnessed by those that really matter. Hudson is also starting to talk, way earlier than even Addie. He is also my naughty boy, knowingly looking at me from over his shoulder while doing something I'm yelling at him "no!" for. But he's smart. And I love him to pieces! Corey loves his job, and I love our house, and I'm running out of batteries so I'll sign off.

So lame

Spent the evening catching up on blogs that I haven't looked at in weeks!! That's the ticket, wait awhile, then there's a plethera (sp?) to indulge in.

Sort of gave me the fever, so I'm at it again

Here's our little update...

We're buying a house!!

After two long months of looking, we found just (about) what we're looking for. We traded in the big yard on Vogel for a small lot with tons of inside square footage (our only concession). And we close next Thursday, so we are very excited.

Very excited to get our things from Milwaukee, very excited to sleep on our nice king-sized mattress (hate hate hate the flimsy queen we're sleeping on here at the rental, plus the springs are pretty much shot on my side so I'll say hasta la vista, baby to stiff body in the mornings), very excited to have the kids' bikes to play in the lovely weather we've been blessed with here, and very excited to have my kitchen things back, especially my knives! Is that dumb? I don't think so....

Here's a couple pics, but will surely be adding more when we move in. Did I mention this place has a hot tub?! Hope it's not a clunker!

From the outside, sorry I didn't feel like running across the street for a better picture

How am I going to paint these second story walls?? Better buy a bigger ladder, I guess, cause beige doesn't cut it in my world!

Kinda dumb, but I'm really excited about this garage. It's 2 1/2 car, so there's room on the side for storage. Plus, the cabinets were redone inside, so the old ones were repurposed as storage in the garage (and in the unfinished basement) instead of being trashed!! Here's Max, looking for treasures!

I can't wait!

The Kids

Here's a little update on our little grippers





Addie is forever and always into dressing up. She has always loved clothes, whether they are for her or someone else. I can even get away with giving her clothes for Christmas that I bought on clearance for the next season because she loves them so much.



She misses school SOOOO much (almost as much as her mama does). Because of this, our days are long and full of drama. We are getting better at making it to the playgroup in our new ward, and making new friends. And this helps. But, since she's a 4 year old girl, she's always on the cusp of another crying jag. Limbo is a terrible place for her, because I don't want to commit to any classes (dance, gymnastics, music... whatever) until we know where we will be living. We pray every day for a sense of permanence.




Max. Oh, Max. Mad Max. It's so hard to remember that he's still, in a sense, a baby. I know I thought Addie was a baby at 2 1/2. But with a little brother that is progressing so quickly, and a body the size of a 4 year old, we expect so much of him. He is such a sweet little man, and loves to give kisses and hugs. But his speech is still behind (but progressing), so his temper flares when we don't understand or give in to his demands. He is a funny little guy, and he LOVES his baby brother. If he notices that Hudson isn't around, he starts calling, "Baby! Baby!!!" until I tell him where he is. Usually he's napping, and I have to make sure Max doesn't run into his room to wake him up to kiss and love him. Hudson loves him too, as Max will let him crawl all over him and drool on his face and pull on his ears or nose. With "Baby," Max has patience to spare. That kid! He loves to copy Addie, too. Good when Addie is good, but BAD when she's not acting her best. This is a pic of what I found right after breakfast one morning. See the problem?




I love this kid, even though he's a handful, armful, and full body workout!! He's strong!



Hudman standing on his own after a late-night bender. Trying to find the toilet to take a leak.
(Nice, Dad!)

Hudson and his dad took this latest Vikings loss very hard. In fact, his face stayed like this for three days after Favre's interception. (Kinda hard to tell, but he's yelling, not happy) His dad nearly punched a hole in the bedroom ceiling of the rental house, if it wasn't for that darn deposit money. Anger management classes may be on the horizon, family discount perhaps?

He is getting SOOO big!! He loves to play games with Mama, and thinks I'm the best comic around. He started crawling right when we moved, and he's very curious. Often, I have to go find him when I realise he's not anywhere close. He pulls himself up constantly, and has started standing unassisted for a couple seconds before falling. Of course, he couldn't roll over until a couple days ago. So funny to watch, he'd just flop his feet on the floor as loudly as possible so that I'd come and rescue him. What is it with my kids and their funny development?!

Here are my sweet boys loving each other's company...

Red Rocks

Okay, this is mainly for you Mike (Corey's dad). I guess if Grandpa is complaining about lack of pictures, I need to get back on it.

Yesterday we had a great day. I went out in the morning with our realtor to look at more houses, then came home to find a house full of people ready to go exploring. I had read online about a place called Dinasour Ridge, not far from here. Seemed to be a good place to take the kids on a nice day (51* yesterday), so we headed out. CLOSED!! There were tears, and drama, but we were right next to Red Rocks, a concert ampitheater that I had visited years ago (the only other time I'd spent time in Colorado). They keep it open for visitors, so we went exploring.

Here's what we found...

See the building built right into the rock? COOL!! Corey doing Daddy duty, it was a steep hill!

People practicing a hula-hoop (I'm not joking) routine, while others were doing laps up and down the bleechers.




a little out of order, heading up the hill. Outside the ampitheater



and up, and up, and up....

A view from the road

Max loving being on stage!!


Imagine sitting between these HUGE rocks for an awesome concert!!!

Corey and Addie went to to very top, Max wasn't interested

A view from the top. My sweet kids

Boy howdy, Grandpa, if this doesn't make you want to come visit I don't know what would. See you soon!!!

Aren't I lucky?!

Mommy's little helper...

I made it nearly all day without having to feed Hudson, until he rejected his dinner and made it hard for Addie to keep feeding him. I can't believe how much time I had on my hands. Not only was she making him happy, but she was too busy to be asking me for something to eat, do, watch, or talk about. Man, she's exhausting!

Here's another of Hudson's new tricks...

He has started wandering into the kids' room where all the toys are, and he'll play forever!! Or at least 20 minutes before he starts whining for me. It's great!!

And this is the only footage I could get of Max.

Corey's really enjoying his new job, but I don't have any footage of that for you. We're busy looking for a new home, and getting to know our new city. Life is interesting, with the kids getting used to the new changes, and with everyone finally getting healthy again (Hudson's got the last of the boogers). Hopefully we're on the upswing.

In case you didn't know....

WOW!! Has this been a crazy year! I have precious little time for the computer lately, so I will just do a quick post to get rolling again.

Where to start... many of you know this, but I will just lay out the timeline of our VERY interesting year (2009).

March- Corey and I planned our Hawaii trip right before finding out we were expecting, so I enjoyed the trip while 35 weeks pregnant. While in Hawaii, we each received messages that requested an appointment with our Stake President as soon as we were back in town. So, the day after we came home, we were sitting in the Stake President's office for the third time in 5 years.

April- Two weeks later, Corey was sustained as the Bishop of our newly split ward. YIKES! Oh, yeah, we'd just found out Hudson was breech and I'd have to have a C-section (bummer).

The following week, Corey was laid off from his job. Pretty crummy, except that meant he'd be home the whole time I was recovering. Thankfully, he was blessed with a good severance package, so we had some time. Good news for our kids!! And for me. I was able to adjust to his Bishop time requirements easily because I had him around all day.

June- We enjoyed a nice spring and beginning of summer with our daddy, and about the time I was getting sick of having him around 24/7, he took a contract job at a local bank while still looking for something permanent.

November- After having a rough time with our kids while traveling last Christmas, we declared that we wouldn't be traveling for Christmas this year. Because of this, we planned a week over Thanksgiving to be in Minnesota. The day we left for our trip, Corey received an offer for a great job in Colorado. Thank goodness!!

December- Corey's job is to start January 4th, so he was going to hit the road on the 1st and I'd stay back to get the house sold. Not ideal. So, when Corey found a furnished house to rent... month to month... 4 miles from his work, we jumped on it! Christmas was wonderful, I loved being in our own home -- for the first time in our marriage -- and I loved ripping Christmas down as soon as the kids were in bed so we could get our house ready for showings. I'm sure our neighbors thought we were a couple of scrooges, as our Christmas tree was on the curb the morning after Christmas!

Ha ha, good times. Now we were on a countdown. We decided to take off New Year's Eve, so we'd have 3 days travel if needed. We had our carpet replaced on Tuesday, and were trying to wrap up all the packing on Wednesday so we could take off Thursday before noon so we could make it to Omaha (8 hrs away) Thursday night. Side note, this is tithing settlement time, so much of Corey's time is dedicated to this. This Wednesday was the last chance ward members would have to meet with Corey, so I was left to fend for myself. The kids were not cooperating, and I was just trying to make it to bedtime so I could get things done after tucking them away. After yelling at Max for the third time for getting out of bed, I was at my wits end when Addie came out crying. I found her covered in vomit and shaking. Max was standing next to her, and started choking. Remembering the new carpet, I whirled him into the bathroom and make it just in time for him to hurl all over the floor. I spent the rest of the night running in to catch Addie continually throwing up into her little bucket, and if Max was awake while she was doing this, he happily joined in... in his own bucket. Did I mention that I've NEVER had vomiting kids?!? Boy, was I nervous for our drive. Fortunately, we arrived in Omaha shortly before 11pm without incident.

Too bad our luck didn't hold. The next day, while driving through Nebraska, we stopped for gas and I needed to feed Hudson his cereal. The gas station had a Subway attached, so we bought a couple chocolate milks for the kids so I wouldn't feel too guilty sitting at their table with kids running around like crazy. I took Addie to the bathroom, then mixed Hudson's cereal. As I started feeding him, Corey noticed that Max was leaking out of his diaper. Aargh!! Of course, this station didn't have a diaper changing table, so I took him out to my car. We were packed to the rim, so my seat behind the wheel was the only open spot. I laid Max down, and realised the wet stain on the outside of his pants was oozing a yellow substance. This can't be good. Poor boy had major diarrhea. Seven or eight wipes later, during which Max discovered my stash of licorice bites and going to town on them, I escort him back into Subway so I can go wash my hands. The SECOND I walked back into Subway to get packed up, Max starts puking again... right into my hands!! Those poor saps that were stuck working New Year's Day got more than they bargained for. We cleaned up the best we could, I went into that stinky bathroom for a third time to wash up again, and we hit the road. Fortunately, he didn't have any other trouble, and we were driving through Denver around 7pm!! We've had the whole weekend to get settled in, and since both Corey and I got a taste of the same bug (without the puke), we didn't make it to church so we haven't met a single person since we got here.

Wow, major rambling. Okay, so it wasn't quite a quick post, but it's gotten me current. Hopefully I'll be better at blogging, and I may include pictures next time.