What did you do on President's Day???

Nathan ready to sled!

Justin and Bryan on the sled. :)

Bryan pulling his sled back up the hill. :)

I decided to be adventerous with my boys today so my friend and I took our boys and headed for the mountains. We went to Rocky Mountain National Park and stopped at the Hidden Valley Snow Play area. The sledding hills were not very crowded, so it was a really fun time. Bryan had not ever been sledding before so I got into the long sled with him and we went down the hill 3 or

4 times. After that he was ready to be "on his own", which I was a little worried about but he did just fine. He went up and down the hill over a dozen times and just did not seem to get tired of it. Kempton took his snowboard and took several runs down the hill on it and did quite well. Justin was the "screamer". He got so excited going down the hill that he would squeal and scream almost everytime! We were at Hidden Valley for about 2 hours and then headed to Estes Park where we had lunch at McDonald's. Needless to say we are all a bit tired this afternoon and just hanging out for the rest of Presiden'ts Day. So what did you do today???

Video of Kempton on his snowboard!!

Brickman, Beaches and Bays!

Barton and I are winding down our trip to the Caribbean and a 7 day cruise. We have had the most awesome time. First of all, this was a cruise we signed up to go on with Jim Brickman. If you don't know who he is then by all means get to know him and his music. He is "America's Romantic Piano" player and composer. We attended two private concerts, a songwriting workshop and a meet and greet. Jim is the most warm and friendly guy to his fans. He is so humble about his musical gift and just a joy to be around and take in his music as well. He was traveling with his friend Chef Jamie Gwen and she did two private cooking "shows" that were so much fun and now we are all inspired to go home and cook food with a Caribbean flair!!! We took tours of 4 different Caribbean Islands. I have to say that I was a little surprised by how "un-tropical" some of the islands were. My favorite island is most definitely St. Thomas. While there we went to Magen's Bay Beach........ABSOLUTELY breathtakingly beautiful. The water is SOOO clean and clear I could see the fish swimming around my feet. We happened to be there on a day when not too many cruise ships were in port, so the beach was "under crowded" and very pleasurable to visit.

The cruiseship we sailed on was "Adventure of the Seas" and believe me it was an adventure! The ship was so beautifully decorated and the service was splendid. The ship is like a city all in one. They serve food 24/7 and I was told the average person gains 12 pounds while cruising. I was trying to be careful to not eat too much and avoid being "average". (I think I did okay, my clothes still fit!) We made some fabulous new friends whom we ate dinner with each night and they were also a part of the Brickman group. We enjoyed each others company very much and may meet up again on another Brickman cruise. There are shows every evening after dinner and they were excellent and we enjoyed each one of them. Some were musical artists--The Nelson Brothers and another guy who was a 13 time winner of "Star Search" (can't think if his name right now) and there were variety shows and comedians as well.

Tomorrow morning we head back to the continental 48! It's been a wonderful vacation with just Barton and I getting some quiet time with each other but we both said today that we are looking forward to going back home and being with our 4 energetic boys.

Well, I guess I'm a little slow to get this one posted, but better late than never---as they say! In November of 2008 I had my student piano recital. It was a fabulous success with all of my students participating and all of them doing a wonderful job on their performances! I was so proud of everyone and happy that all chose to participate. Even my student who had some outpatient surgery the same day was able to come and perform. Way to go! Here is a picture of the whole group. There will be another recital in May of 2009.............

Card Swap #3.....

Tonight's card swap theme is "something 3 dimensional" that can hold a gift or something similiar. Since I don't have a ton of free time I chose something simple. It is fashioned after a sour cream container that you would get in a restaurant or cafeteria. Of course it is embellished with stamps, ribbon and punch outs. It is filled with Valentine candies and not sour cream though.

What do you get when you give a bored teenager a camera??? Give up? Just take a look at the pictures........

Nice, huh?

Did you know Sunbeams can fly???

As a matter of fact, they can.....at least mine can! Today while I was sitting at the piano in Primary (I am the piano sub), which is held in the chapel (and do I dare mention that the 200 primary kids FILL the whole chapel???--that's a lot of kids!), Bryan's Sunbeam teacher brought him up to me on the stand and sat him on a chair next to the piano and then she went back to sitting with her class. I hadn't seen what had happened, but apparently he decided that jumping off the bench where his class sits was an okay thing to do! It didn't really surprise me at all because he jumps off of EVERYTHING at home. So I guess that now he's a sunbeam he thinks he can FLY!! Since Bryan is my fourth boy, this really didn't ruffle my feathers. Bryan and I just had a little chat about not ever jumping off the bench again. He promised that he would never do it again...... :)

First Blog Entry of 2009.......and I just got used to writing 2008!! Oh well.

The kids are back in school now and we have hopped right back into our crazy, fun, never boring routine. We had a fabulous Christmas!! Some of the highlights are:

*** Letting the boys exchange names and then taking them shopping all at the same time (what was I thinking???). We had to be pretty sneaky and creative in our shopping to keep things a secret. I had fun and the boys enjoyed picking out something fun for one another and bringing it home and wrapping it up.

***A fun Christmas Eve when my cousin and his family drove up here from Littleton. Yummy ham, yummy rolls, etc! We played a fun gift exchange game and visited and visited and enjoyed one another's company. It's nice to have family close.

***A trip to Dillon, CO and the boys skiing on "Scout Ski Day". A few days before Christmas was "Scout Ski Day" and so we got a great deal on lift tickets. Barton and the big boys bundled up (it was a high of 5 degrees that day!) and spent the day in the snow. Mom and Bryan hung out at the condo and the mall. It was a fun time. I had my first experience driving on a snowy I-70 through the mountains while on the ski trip. My knuckles were white. When I see semi trucks with chains on their tires, I don't get an easy feeling!

***Barton and I decided we were going to do way less Christmas presents for our kids and focus on other fun things and focus less on the commercial-ness of the season. It was so much less stressful that I actually I enjoyed making some treats with the kids and taking them to our neighbors, watching some great Christmas movies and just chilling out and not feeling like I had a million more presents to buy and wrap. Thanks to my friend Suzanna who gave me the idea!

***We enjoyed having family near to us this Holiday Season. The holidays in Illinois were a little lonely for us with no family near-by, so this year was a nice change from that.

Surprise Autographed Football

Yesterday we received a wonderful surprise in the mail....a football autographed by Corey Graham of the Chicago Bears. So... you're wondering what the connection is, right? Well, our house in Chicago was purchased by Corey Graham. Of course when we got a contract after six months of being on the market and praying everyday for a buyer we were ecstatic to have any buyer and then we found out it was a pro football player named Corey Graham. Not being followers of the NFL or any other sport, well except KU Jayhawk basketball (National Champs!), we didn't really "know" who Graham was, but I hear this year he is a household name in Chicagoland. So our dear neighbors from Lindenhurst, the Sassers, surprised us by sending a football autugraphed by Graham. Thank you Sassers. It was a fun surprise! What's it like to have a celebrity for a next door neighbor?

Card Swap #2

My second "card swap" is tomorrow night. The theme for November was "gift tags". I had fun making them and my sister joined me in her first creative/crafty experience. She did very well I must say.

Spoiled Rotten!!!

My sister, Susan, has been here visiting me and spoiling me for the last few days. It's been a great time....I go to drop kids off at school and come home to find the dishes are all done, the floor is swept and Susan is playing with Bryan. While I was teaching piano lessons after school, Susan was busy in the kitchen making dinner and playing board games with the boys two nights in a row. Last night she made the best chicken dish--so yummy!! She also helped Justin with some hard math problems one night. Susan is a great teacher....runs in our family! We went galavanting yesterday at Flatiron Crossing and rediscovered the Nordstrom Rack and discovered The Great Indoors--great store, by the way!! Tonight we are all going out to eat and then tomorrow sending Susan off on a plane to SLC. It has been a fun week. We will miss you Susan. Come back soon.

Scouts, scouts and MORE scouts!

This has been a week of lots of scouts stuff.

On Tuesday Kempton "crossed over" the bridge and is now officially a boy scout. At the pack meeting he was awarded a special patch and certificate for earning ALL 20 of the Webelo pins/badges! Way to go Kempton. He was also given his scout patch because he earned the Arrow of Light a few months ago. He is excited for Saturday's orienteering course that he will be doing and for the upcoming merit badge university in November.

Wednesday night was a Court of Honor where Nathan advanced to the rank of Star. I am very proud of him for keeping at it when it comes to scouts. He attended merit badge university a few weeks ago where he earned his engineering and first aid merit badges. He's doing a great job.

SSSSSSSnake!

Kempton is the proud and happy owner of a Ghost Corn Snake. "Phantom", as he is named, is a very friendly snake and likes to be held. He eats mice (frozen and then thawed) but will not eat in front of anyone as we have found. You may think I'm crazy, but I think he makes a great pet and I don't mind petting him, although I have yet to hold him! Phantom is the attraction of the neighborhood. The Lowry and Ahlstrom boys have been over a number of times to pay him a visit as well as Kempton's classmate Zack. I would definitely take a pet snake over a rabbit, lizard, turtle, hermit crab or fish anyday!! Phantom likes to slither into Kempton's shirt via the armhole as you will see in the pictures. It's pretty funny and Bryan thinks it a riot when he crawls into Kempton's shirt!

What have we NOT been up to???

To answer that question.....not much!!! We have had some summer indian like weather that has allowed us to enjoy the last of Kempton's football season and take a short trip to Miller Farm (about 3-4 miles away!) to pick some great vegetables, herbs and pumpkins. A friend told me about Miller Farm and it sounded like too much fun to pass up. We had a total blast riding the hayride to the corn field first where we loaded up on indian corn. Next it was out to the potato field where we dug up some nice red potatoes then onto the onion patch where we picked onions the size of grapefruit. (No kidding). When we got to the carrot patch the boys wanted to find the biggest carrot out there. They sure found some big ones, but I don't know if they were the biggest. We loaded up on squash, gourds and pumpkins as well. They had pedal tractors that the boys rode and big tractors and an airplane for kids to climb on. The boys had a blast and we are eating lots of squash, potatoes and onions lately.

Birthday Boys!!

Bryan is officially 3 now and as cute and ornery as can be! We celebrated his birthday last night with a fun cake (pictured here) and a few presents. He loved the part about the cake and presents, but not the throwing away of the binky. It was even harder at bedtime. He cried a lot for the binky, but I held out and didn't dig it out of the trash. Hopefully today he will do better.

Since Nathan will be going on the "turkey shoot" this weekend with the Varsity Scouts, we celebrated his birthday last night as well. I told him he didn't have to "share" his birthday, but he said it was no big deal. Maybe that's because he is turning FOURTEEN!!! He loves to make fun of his parents' old age.....little does he know. We really aren't that old. We're still in our thirties. Old is when you turn 90+.

We had a wonderful time last weekend camping in Mueller State Park just west of Colorado Springs. Unfortunately I have no pictures of our adventures because my camera didn't cooperate. So yesterday I had to "break down" and buy a new camera so I could take birthday pictures. The camping was kinda chilly, but that meant lots of big fires and hot chocolate. We took a hike on Sunday after going to church and had a great time until Bryan got tired and wanted to be carried. He did really well for the most part, but the last 30 minutes of the hike was all uphill and his poor little legs just couldn't go any more. Plus we were at an altitude of 9,500 feet.....kinda hard to breathe when hiking uphill!! The aspens were absolutely gorgeous, but sorry no pictures.

I had an interesting parent teacher conference with Kempton's teacher a few days ago. His teacher described him as an old man in a young man's body. Interpret that how you'd like, but I can see how he would say that. I do have to remind myself that Kempton is still only 10 sometimes even though he acts much older. Let's hope we can keep a good balance of the young and old with him. He's a brilliant kid and loves to be challenged. Challenges don't seem to phase him one bit. He takes after his dad a lot!

Decorating on a budget.....

I have been anxious to do a few things around my house when it comes to the decorating. The walls are a plain color, the carpet is brown, the furniture is brown....all a little blah to me who loves COLOR. Nothing major. No painting, no wallpapering or complicated stuff like that that would put me over the edge. I just wanted to redo a floral arrangement that I had made several years ago. I got the floral stuff half off and re-used the container I already had. So here is a picture of my new arrangement along with a round mirror that I got for 75% off at my favorite place....Hobby Lobby!! Nothing like getting a great bargain that you can put to good use. Moving on to the next project......

Here is the card I made for my very first "card swap". The theme was black and white and I used the "Friendship Blooms" stamp set from Stampin' Up. Everything else is just black and white.....no need to give details!

Rocky Mountains reflecting on Bear Lake
Rocky Mountain National Park

Tiny squirrel eating pine cone. This squirrel is about half the size of a squirrel in the midwest.

Bugling Elk in Estes Park, CO

I cannot get over some of the beautiful places there are to see in Colorado!! I am loving the mountains and the wildlife that you get to see when you drive up there. We took a Sunday drive this past weekend and went to Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. There is a short hike of about 3300 feet around the lake and the sights are just breath-taking. The water is crystal clear and you see trout swimming around. There are the smallest squirrels I have ever seen munching on pine cones, and "squeakers" as my kids call them--- known to the rest of us as chipmunks. We saw a herd of deer and lots and lots of elk as we drove through the town of Estes Park. The bull elk were bugling which is a sound you wouldn't expect. They are so big and tough looking but their bugle is a high pitched sound that the kids described as "sounds like they are doing that sound into a PVC pipe". Here are a few pictures to enjoy. Some look like postcards, but they are just amature shots taken by me or Barton.

A few snapshots of our summer..............

Thayne, WY Ralph and Ann Simpson's golf cart

Barton and boys--Estes Park, CO

Ben Delatour Scout Encampment for Nathan June 2008, Red Feather Lakes, CO

Barton's "mancation" rafting on the Arkansas River July 2008

Day Camp 2008--Ann shooting BB Guns (on the end)

Kempton Day Camp BB Shooting (red hat on the end) June 2008

Justin at Day Camp June 2008

Our Bear sighting in Grand Teton National Park Aug. 2008

Yellowstone, August 2008

Justin's Baptism June 21, 2008

Singing the Blues.......

Well it's back to school for everyone! Nathan's first day was today and he was singing the blues about being placed in choir class. He didn't choose that class when he chose his electives, but all the other electives were full so he was placed in choir! The school counselor told us that AFTER Labor Day he might be able to switch! What?? That's TWO WHOLE WEEKS away.

Kempton and Justin are attending Centennial Elementary and say they like their teachers. Kempton has a male teacher and he seems like a really cool guy. When dropping them off at school yesterday for their first day they were their usual independent selves and when they got to their pods turned around and looked at me and just said "goodbye". That's it....no walking them to their classroom door, no nothing! Independence can be a good thing because then there is the other end of the spectrum which you hope your children aren't.

Bryan and I with our new found freedom of just the two of us at home took a bike ride this morning and stopped at the park to play for a few minutes. It was a fun time on a nice cool, sunny morning.

Barton told me Sunday night that he needs to apply for a passport. "For what?", I said. His reply was that it's only a matter of time before he's traveling to Europe to work on the sales departments for Sunrise Medical over there! So much for a "non-traveling" job. It lasted a few months. As for the passport, I told him, "Well then apply for one. Walgreens does passport photos."

Bryan is on the "Potty Train" as of yesterday. With some "Cars" and Mickey Mouse underwear and some gum and skittles for positive reinforcements, so far it's been somewhat disasterous. He wakes up dry in the morning but is too moody and will not go potty. So we have to wait until later to get him to go. Today he pottied on the laundry room floor and on the garage floor and in the toilet once. Oh, what fun!

It has been some time since I put anything on my blog. Today I dropped off Nathan, Kempton and Justin at the rec center to swim.....so just Bryan and I are at home. He's playing in the kiddie pool while I work on this.

We have settled nicely into life in the West. It has been very warm and we have not had a drop of rain since we moved here. That is definitely something we are not used to. We miss the Illinois rains that can last for days at a time. We are finding it a little tricky to manage our lawn here. So far about half of it is dead due to a fungus we believe. Not much can be done but just to let mother nature run her course and hope it will come back to life here soon.

Nathan attended scout camp back in June. He had a wonderful time and even earned a few merit badges. Kempton, Justin and I all went to day camp the same week. It was great too and we all had a good time.

This week Barton is on his annual "mancation" with Dan and Kip. His Arizona friend, Rich, was unable to come this year. I'm sure they are having a fun time mountain biking, and whatever else they had planned to do. They are in Dillon, CO (i think??) at a mountain campground enjoying high altitudes, sunshine and cooler temps.

Today I took the three youngest boys and went to Ace Hardware here in town. For my boys that is like being in a big toy store. Kempton, Justin and Bryan could have stayed in there for hours checking out all the "stuff", but we had to head home with our hardward to repair a fence and some sprinklers.

How many dishes, pots, pans and utensils are dirtied when Nathan cooks shrimp cakes and pasta for dinner? ALL OF THEM!!!! This picture is after I washed all of them.

Nathan likes to get a little creative in the kitchen and decided to cook something a little complicated and new. While he fried up his shrimp cakes he told me to let him do it on his own and that I could go lay down and "relax". Yea, right. As grease was splashing everywhere I was supposed to relax on the couch and hope that they kitchen would be all right after he was done. Well, it all turned out, but he says he's never making fried food again. I agreed and told him simple meals are good too.