Scott in Denver and Days with the Kiddos

I am sitting in an organized and somewhat clean home after spending the past hour doing dishes, sweeping, cleaning off the counter-tops, cleaning toys and just getting things all ready in case we showings in the next few days. We haven't had any showings for quite awhile, but I figure it doesn't hurt to have the house cleaned and ready just in case and I'm actually enjoying making it look so nice all the time. :o) Daniel took a pretty short nap today (just under an hour and a half instead of his usual 2 to 3 hour nap) so after "helping" me do the dishes (mainly just dumping water all over the counter - lol) he is now watching his "Super-Why" show on Netflix with his Teddy. He hasn't watched a show for a few days now... it's amazing how much he loves that show! I hear Lydia just now waking up so I will go get her up in a just a little bit... Just figured I would update a bit on life with the Slades!

Scott headed over to Denver last Thursday and has now been over there for almost a week with his mom and oldest brother, Geoffrey. Geoffrey found out that he has leukemia about two months ago now. :o( He had his latest round of chemo like four weeks ago now and although he was supposed to be able to leave the hospital within a few days after, he ended up staying longer and longer because of eye pain, headaches, etc. They found out about a week and a half ago that he had a bacteria then saw that he had a fungal infection in his sinuses also... They ended up air lifting him over to Denver to have more surgeons to look into what all was going on. It was a tough weekend for him with a long surgery this past Saturday in which they scraped away a lot of the dead tissue from the sinus area and he had a team of people praying for him as we took it hour by hour hoping the anti-fungal medication would kick in before the fungus got to his brain! Since Sunday things have little by little gotten better and we are praying now that he will be completely healed of this fungal and bacteria infection! (That's a long story shortened, but I know many of you have followed my prayer requests on facebook...) Scott is planning on heading home tomorrow if the weather ends up being okay (a big storm is hitting the mountains today and tomorrow, so we'll see what it will hold) and his other brother, Bryan, will head over to Denver to switch places... Then the plan is unless Geoffrey gets to come home before then, Scott and I will go over this coming Tuesday for a few days while his mom comes home with Bryan. Please be praying for both complete healing from these infections for Geoffrey, but also for quick healing of his leukemia! Thank you!

We have had a pretty good week overall, even though we are greatly missing out loved hubby and daddy... I have tried to keep busy doing fun things with the kiddos which has been good to keep them from missing Scott too much and keeps me a bit more sane then just staying home watching TV and playing with toys. Lol. ;o) Let's see... what have we been up to?

Thursday my mom came over and stayed until Sunday morning with us. She had a scrapbook workshop Friday night and all day Saturday, but having her here in the evenings and the rest of the time was SO nice and she helped a lot with the kiddos! Friday night Scott's dad came over for dinner and a movie night with Daniel. I made soup and cornbread with peach pie for dessert which was all delicious and then we watched Shrek, Daniel's new favorite movie. :o) (He hasn't watched too many entire movies, but his favorites are definitely "Happy Feet" and "Shrek" which he has both watched like three or four times now!) He loved having a movie night because we don't have them very often at all! It was fun looking forward to it all day! He sat next to his Grandpa to watch it and then I let him eat his dessert on the couch which he thought was pretty awesome since that is definitely a special event!

Saturday we just hung out around the house and went grocery shopping (the kids rode in the little car in front of the shopping cart and LOVED it - I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to normal shopping carts after that... what was I thinking?!) and then after naps we joined my friend Jasmine and her son, Jax, and another family from our church over at Canyonview Park. We had a small potluck dinner which was beyond delicious! Jasmine made an amazing soup (I have GOT to get the recipe for it!) and Sara made homemade rolls - yumm! I made pumpkin chocolate chip oatmeal cookies which were (and are still) super delicious! After that I spent awhile on the phone updating people on Geoffrey's surgery while the kiddos played on the park equipment. Lydia slid down a slide over and over while Daniel enjoyed climbing all over the place before I swung them both in the swings. It was a beautiful evening and it was fun spending time with Jasmine and Jax!

Sunday we had church in the morning which was fun. It was Mission's Week even though I didn't realize it before (we haven't been to church in two weeks because of going to Breckenridge and then we went to Scott's parents' church the weekend before). A missionary couple who had been serving in Mali, I think it was, for the last 23 years were there sharing. It was very cool hearing from them and it was nice getting a little break from the kids who did great in nursery! After naps we went over to Scott's parents and hung out with his dad for about an hour before we went to dinner at Drew and Andrea's house. Had a yummy fajita dinner over there and had a lot of fun laughing uncontrollably at Lydia who decided to really enjoy her dinner! Lol. I had taken her shirt off after she was making a complete mess of her clothes (gotta love when we have no highchair for her!) so she ended up standing up in her chair throwing food onto other people's plates and grabbing other people's food for the most part... all while making her really funny expressions. Lol. ;o)

Monday morning we went grocery shopping for two things and then I took the kids to the library/rec center here in Fruita so they could play on some indoor play equipment that they LOVE! That was a fun way to pass 30 or 45 minutes before lunch and I love that we live so close to it! I made a meal for some friends from church who just had a sweet little baby girl and after taking that over to them in the evening we went over to Lelia and Wayne's to eat dinner with them and hang out! It was fun eating over there and letting the kids play while I caught up a little with Lelia. We need to hang out with them more often... :o) The kiddos love their Aunt Lelia and Uncle Wayne. Lydia, especially, gave SO many big hugs to her Uncle Wayne when he got there and played with them! So cute!

Yesterday morning was so much fun! We met my friend, Kacey, and her little boys, Connor and Caleb, over at Barnes and Nobles for their story time! I never knew they did story time there, but it was really fun and I'll definitely put that on our list of things to do whenever we don't have things on Tuesday mornings! Daniel loved sitting on the little benches with the other kids listening to the story (while Lydia crawled all over the place as normal - she will NOT sit and listen to stories!! :o( ) and after they read their little book they did a little craft. He made a ghost with a sucker and a kleenex tied around it... Then the kids played with the train table there for awhile before we used the little $1 coupon for milk and cookies and got cookies for the kids and chocolate milk for the two older boys. ;o) They had such fun! Kacey had us over for lunch afterwards which was also fun although crazy loud... how those boys have so much energy is beyond me, although I guess they had just had a cup of chocolate milk and a cookie... Lol. ;o) Let me rethink that! Yesterday evening Bryan came over for dinner and to hang out with the kids. I made little tortilla pizzas and had veggies for dinner which was yummy and the kids had so much fun playing with their Uncle Bryan and looking at his pictures on his phone of some bears he saw while hunting last weekend...

Today we haven't done much. Before dinner last night we had gone on a little walk in the beautiful fall weather so that Daniel could pick up lots of leaves to do a craft with! I brought their little picnic table inside this morning (a bit too windy and chilly outside) and they glued leaves to some construction paper. I put contact paper on it during their naps and now they have placemats! I probably needed to flatten it out a bit before putting contact paper on it (or I might need better contact paper) because it's not super well done and flat, but it'll at least last for a few weeks! They had lots of fun making their craft, although Daniel enjoys it much more than her... Lydia just liked throwing the leaves everywhere and pulling them off of her paper after I glued them on. Lol. ;o) I am about to put a meal in the oven for dinner (Andrea made us a couple of meals for this week - she is AMAZING!) and then we go to small group tonight! Although we need to spend some time cleaning up the now VERY messy living room. Lol. We have Legos and toys EVERYWHERE! (So much for the clean house of an hour ago...)

Well, I want to write again soon to update a little on my now 2 1/2 year old Daniel, as of two days ago! But that'll have to be another time... Hope everyone is having a wonderful week and enjoy the beautiful fall weather!

Softball Nights = Great Memories

We were able to go watch two of our family and friends' softball games tonight! This fall season has been the first season in probably three years or so since Scott hasn't played with the team (we were saving money and trying to open up another evening for ministry appointments), so I'm SO glad we were able to join everyone in the dugout tonight! I did realize halfway through that I should have brought my camera, though! WHY have I not recorded one of these memorable softball games in the past several years?! I have NO clue! :( But it is definitely a past-time that I'll miss once we move to Denver and a time that I'll always remember!

It was a beautiful evening tonight! It didn't get chilly until the last 30 minutes or so, and it was beautiful watching the sunset during the game! Our team also won both games which is always fun to see, and they all played awesome! I hung out in the dugout with the kiddos... watching them run (and crawl) up and down the stairs, looking on as they climbed up on the fence to watch the game side by side, encouraging Lydia as she stood on her own and clapped for our teammates, and just enjoying our cute little ones! I also loved just hanging out with the other spouses and friends who came to watch the games. 

Daniel was sad when we got home because he wasn't able to play any of the game... I think sometimes he just wants to grow up already! We told him it would be a few years before he could play, but hopefully someday he can play baseball and have a wonderful time! And maybe someday he'll be able to play on a team with us and our family and great friends... I'd love for our kiddos to have memories like I do of evenings filled with the lights, sounds, and fun of family softball nights! 

That was a bit random, but just wanted to share some great times! I hope everyone has a wonderful week! This has been a great day for us and I'm excited to see what the week will hold!

13 Months Old!

Dearest Lydia Grace,

Hello my little, sweet girl! You are 13 months, 4 days old and getting to be such a big girl! We just got back from three days in Breckenridge with Pappy, Maw-Maw, and all of that side of the family! It was such a wonderful time and you started doing and saying so many new things! First of all, you are now standing up on your own again and again without pulling up using furniture of someone's legs. :o) It was SO cute watching you figure it out! Vienna and Daniel were dancing in the living room on Saturday and you started moving back and forth, trying to dance also. Then, before we knew it you crawled to the middle of the room next to them and stood up. You bobbed up and down and swayed back and forth a bit, and then lost your balance and fell down. You repeated this over and over and you'd stood many other times since then... mainly to dance, though. Lol. You are TOO cute! Today you tried taking one step towards your Aunt Lelia, but the second you lifted one foot up you sat down... I think you are still a bit scared of taking that first step! But I think you are definitely close! 

You also really enjoyed climbing up onto the stone in front of the fireplaces in our rooms up in Breckenridge...  Little girl, you are definitely a risk taker already and LOVE climbing into things, on top of places, and doing other things that your brother never would have dreamed of doing at your age! :o) I love seeing how different the two of you are!

Lydia, you are also LOVING talking and have started saying many new words! Your favorites lately have been saying "hi" and waving to almost everyone you see, even complete strangers in the street or a restaurant! (And you don't quite understand if they don't wave back!) You also say "hi" and "bye-bye" whenever you see yourself in the mirror which is cute. :o) You LOVE doggies, so you always say "Hi dog!" whenever you see a dog lately. :o) I know there are some other words you have learned this month but I can't remember them right now... 

You have been very attached to your teddy and doll lately! Sometimes when I come and get you in the morning, you hold onto your teddy so tight that I just let you take it around with you during the morning! You give teddy such great kisses and hugs. It's so cute!

A week and a half ago we took you up to the Grand Mesa to be able to see the fall colors up there for the first time in your young life! Your favorite thing was crawling around in all the leaves and playing with them all! You are quite the lover of the outdoors and anything that could possibly get you covered in dirt is something you'd like to be a part of! ;o) You will love going to a park sometime soon to play in more leaves! 

Mommy has really enjoyed dressing you up in your new outfits you got for your birthday, especially as it has gotten cooler outside! And, this weekend Pappy and Maw-Maw got you you first pair of black leggings which will be SO cute to wear this fall and winter with some of your dresses and skirts! Can you tell that I LOVE dressing you up?! I just wish you enjoyed wearing pony-tails and bows more... Each morning I'll put your hair in something, but I usually have to hide whatever I put in your hair because as soon as you realize you have a bow within reach you yank it out and there goes that! ;o) At least you are still cute, especially because your hair has gotten SO long! It is beautiful!

I'm so excited to see what all this next month holds for you! Love you, my dear, beautiful little girl!

Love,

 Mommy

Here are just a few of the cute pictures we took of you this past month... All taken up on the Mesa! :o)