Laundry Time With My Boy

The other day we had a huge pile of laundry to sort through and fold, so instead of doing it while little boy was taking a nap, I decided it was about time for him to 'help' Mommy with the chores. ;o) So, I took him into our bedroom and laid him down on his tummy in the middle of our big bed (which he loves) and began folding away. Even though it was so much fun doing everything with him there, I did find out that when he's with me I don't get quite as much accomplished... If you wonder why that is, you've got to look at these pictures...

How could you not kiss these cheeks?



And, how could you not watch for each of these expressions?





I have decided yet again that we have the cutest little boy on the planet, although I know a lot of my friends would say otherwise. ;o) His little expressions and smiles and everything he does just makes me so happy and excited to see him each day as he grows more and more into the boy and man that God has made him! (Well, almost everything he does makes me happy... lol. Not when he is crying and won't go to bed... that just makes me wish I had some super-mommy power that would help him fall asleep and not be sad ever!)

I know I'm really behind with what's been going on in our lives lately. I don't know for sure if I'll be able to have the chance to actually catch up, but I'll try this next week now that our busy weekend is over. Right now we are trying to get Daniel calmed down and asleep... He usually naps and occasionally sleeps in his swing when he just cries and cries in his crib, but we are trying to get him out of that habit. He is just crying and crying! :o( It's so hard for me to hear him like this, so Scott is in there with him trying to calm him down. It's times like these that I know we shouldn't have ever had him sleep or nap in his swing as much as we did, but then I know he wouldn't have done so well sleeping, so I don't know what we should have done! :o( Hopefully he realizes that the crib really is okay all of the time and that he can soothe himself to sleep without us always there sometimes. Poor little guy!

Goodnight!

4 month old pics

These are just a few of the pics I have taken so far of our little 1/3 year boy! :o) He's getting so big!

Already 4 months!

My little boy is already 4 months and two days old! Wow! Time is still going so fast, but we are enjoying almost every moment as a family! :o) It's been beautiful out lately, and I am looking more and more forward to the upcoming fall. I love fall in GJ! The cooler weather, beautiful trees as their leaves change colors, and all the many walks I love to take during the fall definitely make it my favorite season! It's also exciting knowing that as Daniel gets older he is enjoying looking at things around him more and more... I'm going to have to find someone with an awesome yard and falling leaves at some point to let him play in. He will love that!

Just a few days ago we finally switched him from riding in his car seat 'backwards' in the stroller to just sitting up in the stroller itself, which he LOVES! We went for a walk with Daniel, Scott, and my friend, Jenny, who was here for the afternoon, around our neighborhood and he was so cute looking out from under his little baseball cap at the beautiful outdoors around him! :o) The outdoors is definitely his favorite place to be in if it's not too hot. It started raining on us during our walk, but Daniel didn't even cry... we just draped a blanket over his stroller to protect him from getting all wet and continued our walk. I don't remember the last time I had walked out in the rain without trying to dash somewhere to get under a cover... It was AMAZING! I love the rain and walking out in it with my handsome hubby, cute little boy, and great friend was amazing! :o) Should have taken pics, but I didn't... After our walk we went to a nearby coffee shop, which we ended up having to leave after sitting down for just a few minutes because Daniel was very tired, but that was nice also... I don't remember the last time I'd been to a coffee shop, even for just a few minutes! That's the way I like to enjoy a nice rainy day... having a cup of coffee and visiting with friends! :o) (That's probably why I started thinking about the fall... having all this rain has made me really want the cooler weather to start!)

Well, I was hoping to catch up with everything going on, but little boy is awake from his nap so I need to go get him... Quick nap. He's definitely having a growth spurt! Just wants to eat all the time the past few days! :o)

Sitting in cold water in a pool = not Daniel's favorite!

Saturday we went to Vienna's 5th birthday party over at their place! It was a lot of fun, although I can't believe my niece is already that 'old'! I can still remember the day my sister called to tell us she was pregnant... it was my freshman year while at a Christmas Progressive Dinner. Seems so long ago! I hardly can remember when Vienna wasn't around! Anyway, we had so much fun watching her and all her little friends swim and slip-n-slide in their big backyard! Daniel had gotten a swimsuit from my uncle and aunt, so we bought him little swim diapers and decided to try it out. :o) WELL, let's just say he LOVES baths, but that is probably because it's nice, warm water. He didn't like the cold swimming pool water much at all! :o( We got some cute pictures, but I didn't keep him in there very long at all. I moved him over to the slip-n-slide to see if that was any better. He liked it for a few minutes and then decided that was too cold and weird also. It was either the water or maybe he wasn't enjoying the fact that he was practically a celebrity with tons of people and kids staring at him and taking pictures! Anyway, here are some of the pictures we took. :o) He really was so cute in his little suit and diaper... I'm guessing next summer he'll like it much better!




We ate yummy snacks at the party that my sister had made and enjoyed visiting with everyone. My grandma, Nanny, was there, also, which was great! It was fun talking to her and Daniel loved her right away! :o) She gave him a little cowboy book and cowboy 'doll' which used to be my dad's. It is such a cool book even though it is quite old. Scott already read it to him the other day... They both love it! :o) Definitely a cute little boy book. Vienna received many, many gifts which was fun watching her open. She got her first American Girl doll from my parents and quite a few clothes and other accessories from the rest of us. We had a great time and it was a beautiful day!

Pictures From the Week

Nanny is coming to GJ!

Before I go on and say anything else, I have to say that I am SUPER EXCITED, because Nanny, my grandma, is in CO right now, heading this way! She got a ride up to Durango from Ft. Worth, TX and my parents went to go pick her up today. They should be on their way back now... We won't be able to see her today, but tomorrow is my niece, Vienna's, 5th birthday party, so she'll be coming up for that. I haven't seen her since Christmas, I think, which seems like such a long time ago, AND she has not met Daniel yet, which makes me even more excited to see her! :o) I have been telling Daniel all about his great-grandma, so he is pretty excited, too. She'll be the first great grandparent he's ever met!

This past week has been pretty good. Last Friday night we had an Hawaiian shirt BBQ over at our friends, Sean and Kacey's, house. It was a lot of fun and amazing chicken, pineapple, and other goodies kabobs. There were many of our friends there and some other people that I met for the first time. Definitely good fellowship and fun hanging out with everyone in their beautiful backyard. Plus it was fun because there were four little babies there, so Daniel was not alone, and their changing table was definitely being well used all evening. I love going over to their place because they have all the fun toys, swing, changing table, and nursery for their little Connor, so we hardly have to bring anything! :o)

Saturday morning was Bekah's memorial service, which was SO good! It was hard at times, of course, but over all it was very encouraging hearing from just a few of the over 400 people who came... Both Dwight Burgess (a man from their church) and Tim King (her dad) talked, and had so many great things to say! Tim talked all about the need for us all to make sure we don't fill the "Bekah-sized hole" in our lives with self-pity, anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, and so on, but that we need to make sure we fill it with "things that come from the hand of God" such as his love, grace, mercy, hope, peace, and forgiveness. It was amazing how much God has already begun working in her family and how they are already on their way to forgiving the man who was drunk and drove the truck who hit her. It's so crazy and makes me wonder if I could do that, also... I know it could only happen because we have a mighty God!

That afternoon we hung out with my family for lunch and then went home to rest before we had dinner with Nate, Christine, David, and Jessica. Us girls spent some time together looking through the wedding pics and talking while the guys (including Daniel) went frisbee-golfing. It was nice to hang out with them, especially to have the chance for some girl time! :o)

Sunday was church and our 'family dinner' over at Drew and Andrea's. We ate kabobs outside and enjoyed the evening again. Daniel still loves to sit with us as we eat together at the table, and he had a lot of fun with everyone! After dinner, we hung out there awhile with everyone talking and remembering things we have all gone through together as friends. It was so much fun! :o)

This week went by much faster than last, which was nice, because we were pretty busy! Monday night we did laundry and I was able to go grocery shopping for the first time in awhile. Daniel finally started napping better by Wednesday this week, but ever since last Tuesday he has been hardly napping at all, so I hadn't gotten the chance to get much done at all because he had been incredibly fussy and just wanted his mommy all the time. He is my first priority during my day, so that meant the shopping had to wait... But it was very nice to finally get it done, and I've been enjoying finally cooking again and not having to do quick stuff or eating out.

Daniel has been so much fun the past few days. I've loved just watching him as he plays with his toys, 'talks' to them, and as I read books to him. Amanda and Vienna brought over some material and touch and feel books a few days ago for him, because he is in that stage where he wants to bring everything up to his mouth and/or touch everything, so after he almost ripped his first paper page on a book, I decided maybe it would be best if he had some new books. Vienna had all these when she was little, so they brought some over and he has loved them! I will sit him in my lap or beside me on the couch and read away. He's so cute! :o) He hasn't rolled over in like a week and a half now, which is so sad after he was rolling over every day for almost a week! So confusing... I know that one day he'll really get it, but I don't know why he keeps confusing us so. Silly boy!

Tuesday night Scott stayed with Daniel and I was able to go scrapbooking with a group from church. I love those evenings, and was able to get 7 pages done in his album! I have many more pics to do to catch up, but I am finally scrapbooking those from when he was a few weeks old. It was great hanging out with the girls and talking, talking talking. Although after about an hour of getting one page done and talking a ton, I had to cut back on the chit-chat awhile because I knew that otherwise I would never get anything done! :o) I was planning on staying until midnight, but missed my boys so much that I had to leave by 11. They were both sound asleep when I got home, but at least I could see them. ;o)

Last night was Scott's birthday party, and it was an awesome time with the families! We went to Sherwood Park, our favorite park near here, and just got a picnic table under some trees where we put all the pizzas and watermelon everyone brought. All of my family and his were there (except for Tyler and Geoffrey), so it was fun talking and eating together, celebrating Scott's 22 years of life! ;o) I had made a carrot cake for him which did not end up turning out so well. It tasted delicious, but for some reason TOTALLY stuck to the pan (I even sprayed them!), so I ended up crumbling up the cake and doing layers of cake, cream cheese frosting, cake, etc. and it was DELICIOUS! We played some beanbag toss game and Bocce Ball, and watched Vienna and Daniel play with one of his new books on the ground for awhile. I love watching Daniel with his cousin. They are so cute together! :o)

Well, Scott is home early - he didn't take lunch - so I better go! :o) I will post pics later!

Not sure what to title this...

I'm not sure how to start this post... Let's just say that in the past nine days since I last wrote there have been quite the high and low points in my life and those around me. I guess I will just write about everything in order of when it took place...

Last Thursday night (the 29th) was David and Jessica's bachelor and bachelorette parties, which were a lot of fun for everyone! Us girls had so much fun with Jessica playing miniature golf, going to her apartment and playing games, eating food, and opening presents, and then going to Weaver's - a local bar - for their Karaoke night. It was so much fun! I had some friends watch Daniel while I went to the bar with them and many of us girls went up and sung different songs. My sisters, Amanda and Lelia, and I went up and sung "You're So Vain", which has been our all-time favorite song to sing together as sisters!

Friday night was their rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner which was fun to go to. I love going to rehearsals, seeing the happy couple as they begin to realize that they REALLY are going to be married the next day! :o) Scott, Daniel, and I didn't stay super long at the park for the dinner because it was super hot, but we did for awhile and then headed home to rest before our busy weekend continued.

Saturday was the big day - our very good friends, Jessica and David, were getting married! I have known David for five years now and Jessica for the past two. It was so cool watching them begin dating and all throughout their time together so far... We were so excited for them as they were finally beginning their lives together as a married couple! That morning I went over to their reception place to help decorate the place and get last minute things ready. Then all three of us headed over to their wedding at River of Life (our church) at 3:00 p.m. I video-taped their ceremony as I tried to keep from crying so I wouldn't shake the camera more than I was already just from holding it so long. It was such a beautiful ceremony and it was so cool to see how much in love they are. After the ceremony, we hung out with some of our friends while we waited to get our 'family dinner' picture taken with them. It was so cool that they wanted a picture of our family... :o) I'm excited to get a copy of it myself! We went over the reception place after dinner and watched the wedding party's awesome entrance that started out a very fun reception. We had food, great fellowship with lots of friends, dancing, and more dancing. It was so much fun! Then they left for their honeymoon and we headed back home, exhausted...



Sunday we had church that morning and then hung out with Nate and Christine that evening for dinner and games. It was a good day to relax some from our busy weekend. :o)

Monday was a normal day around here... I stayed home so that Daniel could have some normalcy in his life again and then since it was cloudy that afternoon and evening (it's been raining a lot lately - I LOVE it - which has cooled things off quite a bit), I took Daniel out for a walk that evening as Scott played frisbee golf with a friend from work. I watched them for awhile and then headed home while they got pizza and ice cream for dinner. It was good hanging out with Matt - having dinner and playing Phase 10. We had a great time, but now thinking back on that evening, we had no idea how sad that evening would be later on...

I woke up at 5:20 in the morning to my mom calling me on my phone. I didn't answer at first because I was half asleep and didn't see who was calling. After the call ended I pulled out my phone and noticed that I had a text. All I saw was that it was sent at like 1:50 and was from my friend, Hannah. The only part I could see as I was pushing on it to read it was "Bekah was killed..." and my heart dropped! :o( It really seemed like a dream as I read the rest of the text... "Bekah was killed in a car accident tonight. Please pray for our family." I woke up Scott right away as I was calling my mom back, knowing that that was probably why she was calling. And, I started to cry... I couldn't believe it! My mom had to have Dad talk to me as she started crying as soon as she answered. He told me that they had just heard from a friend from my old church (Hannah's dad is the pastor of that church... I have known their family since '99 when we moved back to CO). He said that he told them that Bekah King, Hannah's youngest sister, was killed the night before around 9:30 in a car accident. She was leaving her parents' house heading to a restaurant to hang out with friends from work and was hit by a truck with no headlights on, being driven by a 28-year-old drunk driver.

That started what has been a really hard week for my family, the King family, and so many other families all over the country. We were able to go see their family Tuesday for a little bit, and other than that I have talked to Hannah a lot over texting throughout the week. It's been so sad thinking back on Bekah's life. We knew her from the time she was 9... I still see her as such a young girl. It's hard to believe she was 20! Tomorrow morning is her funeral / memorial service, which should be a good time for all of her friends and family to get together and share their memories of an amazing young woman. Hearing different things from her journal and quotes she had put on her facebook has been hard... she was such a deep girl and her writing was amazing! I am taking pictures tomorrow for the family of everything at the memorial service. I know it might be a hard at times taking pictures because I know I'll be crying like crazy, but I have felt so hopeless all week wanting to help in any way I can, so this way I feel like I can do something for them. I can't even imagine how Hannah and her sister, Sarah, feel right now, let alone how their parents feel. Having little Daniel now and being a mom makes that even harder! It's amazing how life can change in a second. Makes me really want to enjoy every moment with my loved ones and to always make sure they know how much I love them!

Yesterday was Scott's birthday and even though he was feeling sad and down all week because of everything with Bekah, I was determined to make it a great day for him, so Daniel and I met him at McAlister's for lunch and then last night when he got home from work we both dressed up for an evening date. We dropped Daniel off at our friends', Jesse and Rhonda's, where he had a great time with them while Scott and I went to dinner at the Olive Garden (amazing!) and then drove around looking at houses! It was a lot of fun just hanging out together! We had a great time and overall he had a wonderful birthday! This next Thursday will be the time for all our family to get together to celebrate his birthday with gifts, pizza, cake, etc. at the park. It will be lots of fun!