Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Happy Anniversary to us!

Wish us a happy anniversary! :) Jeremy and I celebrate eight years of marriage today. After the kids went to bed on Saturday night Jeremy's mom came over to sit with them while we went out for dessert and to see The Bourne Ultimatum. It was a very late night but it was fun! And our plans for our actual anniversary today? Story time, watching Rhyann this afternoon, Logan's swim class, and a softball game. How romantic! Haha :)

Here are some more pictures of the boys with the Jeep. They both love riding in it!




Today is also our one year blogiversary. Yep, one year ago today was our first post. It's fun to look back through them all occassionally and see all the fun things we've done and how much the boys have changed.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

It's Fall!

Ok, so it doesn't officially arrive for another 3 hours but it's close enough :) I LOVE FALL!

We went to the last ArtWalk of the season last night and had fun. Connor got an orange M&M painted on his face to match his orange M&M shirt and Logan had a puppy painted on his arm! The picture of Connor is from just before we got to ArtWalk - showing off his spiky hairdo :)



Today was a wonderful day. We started off with Connor's swim class and then drove up to meet Grandma and Papa for brunch. The restaurant where we were planning to eat in Ward was closed so we drove to Nederland and made several stops along the way to enjoy the scenery!

Here's Connor with his bear ("Blueberry" - or is that "Blue Beary"?) and some pretty leaves


Jeremy turned Logan's car seat around this morning and Logan loves his new view! He also discovered the joy of having wind blow in your face!


I'm not sure what Connor's thinking here but it's quite the pose :)


Papa and Logan


Logan and Connor


Beautiful!


We stopped for a short hike and passed by a lake




After brunch in Nederland we drove down Boulder Canyon and stopped for the short hike up to Boulder Falls


This pretty much sums up how we all felt afterwards!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Boy stuff

Just sharing some fun pictures from the last few days...

The Gomez Family (minus Heather) came over for a quick dinner on Tuesday and the boys played at the park. The estrogen was in short supply with 2 dads, 5 boys (age 4 and under) and me! Here are Keegan, Avery and Connor under the play structure...


Logan enjoyed some spaghetti for lunch on Wednesday


The weather has been so nice the last couple days that we can't help but spend lots of time outside!


Teaching lil bro how to say "High Five!"

Logan has been crawling into the Jeep while it sits in the garage lately so we finally decided to give him a ride in it. He LOVED it so much - he had perma-grin! :) Connor was very protective and was trying to be as gentle as possible when starting and stopping. He explained everything to Logan including how the radio works, not to touch the gear shift and that he had to wear his seatbelt. Connor is an expert driver now and can follow the sidewalk all the way around the park, though he loves going off road too. Every so often the Jeep says "I'm a Jeep Kid!" and Connor imitates it each time :) They were adorable!





Elementary 24 boundary meeting

I went to a community meeting at Altona Middle School on Monday night. I know, this on top of a City Council meeting last week? What has become of me??? Anyway, it was hosted by the school board with the purpose of getting community feedback on the three boundary options for the new elementary school in our area. The meeting has been advertised in the paper, mentioned in each of Eagle Crest's (the current neighborhood elementary's) weekly newletters and on the front page of the school district's website. I say all this to point out that if you're a resident in the affected area and particularly if you already have school aged kiddos, there's no way you could NOT know about this meeting!

Anyway, the new school will open in time for the 2008-2009 school year, but Connor won't go to kindergarten until the next year because of his December birthday. And no matter which plan they choose, Connor and Logan will be going to the new school, but I had opinions on which plan was best, so I wanted to be at this meeting! I got there 5 minutes early and was directed to write my name on a name tag and have a seat. As I wrote my name I scanned the room full of about 15 people and was surprised to find that at this community meeting I was the only one (so far) with a handwritten nametag - the rest were school principals, school board members and members of the long range planning committee and they all had nice engraved name tags. :) Way to be early, Nikki. Anyway, I met the principal of the new school and she seemed very nice. Slowly other community members arrived, but all told there were MAYBE 30 people there. Thirty? There are over 650 students at Eagle Crest Elementary School (which is only K-4 right now - the 5th graders are at Altona Middle School because of overcrowding) and I'm guessing at least that many kids aged 0-5 in the surrounding neighborhoods. Only 30 of us could make the time to go to the meeting? Terrible.

So they started the meeting off with Ms. Perky addressing the "crowd" (I don't know her real name but you can picture her, I'm sure: the blonde ex-cheerleader turned "Director of Professional Development" who enjoys silly ice breaker games...but I'm sure she's a very nice woman LOL). She showed us a 4x4 grid and asked, "How many squares do you see here?" (forgive the representation below - I didn't take the time to make them perfect squares but you get the idea - it's just a 4x4 grid)



Immediately someone yelled out 16 and she encouraged people to keep thinking. People shouted out different numbers - 17, 20, 22, 25, etc. After few minutes she said, "You're all right." What?! She went on, "My question was, "How many squares do YOU see here?" YOU see 16 or 17 or 22. You might like to know that the answer is 27, but that's not important. What is important is that we all have different views on the same problem and that we should all appreciate each other's insight. No one is wrong here tonight so I want you to remember that. As we break up into small groups to discuss the pros and cons for each boundary option, remember that none of you are completely right and we need to respect everyone's opinions." Or something like that. I'd say this is new math gone completely wrong. :) I hope no one ever asks Connor "What do you think 1 plus 1 equals?" because he could answer 4 and apparently be correct because that's what HE thinks, right? I know, it was just a silly demonstration of how we all see problems from different perspectives but at least she could have given the correct answer. 27 is not the correct answer, so I'm sorry if that's your answer because I'm telling you you're wrong :) Oh, your poor self-esteem! See this kids math site for the answer...


Anyway, I got to add my opinion and, though I'm sure it won't make a difference in the grand scheme of things, I was happy to be there speaking up for two kids who aren't even in kindergarten yet! :)

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Super Saturday

We had a very busy but fun day today! But first, a couple pictures from yesterday. We all played outside after having a yummy dinner to celebrate Grandpa Mark's birthday.



Playing football


A bubble goatee in the bath

Connor had swim class this morning and he's learning so much! His teacher said he's doing great and all he needs to do to move up to the next class is work on his back float! Wow!

While all three boys were at Connor's swim class I watched Rhyann so her family could have a garage sale. When the boys returned we took Connor's Jeep to the park. Our neighbors Quinn and Darwin joined us so Connor got to experience one of every teenage boys' dreams, right? Driving a Jeep surrounded by cute girls :)





More of Connor and Rhyann hanging out...


Logan pretty much avoided the big kids but here's a shot of him :)

After a nap we went to a birthday party for our friend Travis who is now 4 years old! His party was at Bounce Town and we all had lots of fun. Here are the few shots that I was able to get of Connor as he jumped, bounced, ran, giggled, screamed, flipped and zoomed around me :)



Logan loved the rocking horse!


Eating and trying to share pizza with new friends


The birthday boy enjoying his CARS movie themed cake

Friday, September 14, 2007

Funny names...

I haven't done one of these for a while and this one I saw on Goodyblog seemed fun... :)

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car)
Tiffany Santa Fe

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
Cookie dough oreo

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)
N-Dea

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Blue Giraffe

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Lynn St. Petersburg

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)
Dea-Ni

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)
The purple margarita

8. STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy)
Lavender Snickers

9. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names )
Sue Lee

10. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)
Richardson Raleigh (I think her last name was Richardson - we actually called our teachers by their first names at that school so it's hard to remember!)

11. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower)
Autumn Daisy

12. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) Banana Jeanie

13. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree)
Oatmeal Aspen

14. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”)
The Scrapbooking Summer Rain Tour

That was fun! Your turn! :)

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

How a City Council meeting is like a visit to the dentist

Hmmm....they're both mind numbing, you have no idea why they're taking so much money from you....

Well, ok, they're not really all that similar, but I went to both today! :)

Connor and Logan had back-to-back dentist appointments this morning. At Connor's first visit six months ago he only let them clean his top two teeth and then didn't want to allow Mr. Tooth Tickler back into his mouth. This time he knew what to expect so it wasn't as big a deal - he let the hygienist clean all of his teeth, floss, apply marshmallow flavored fluoride (yuck) and even take top and bottom x-rays. He doesn't have any cavities but does have a small chip on one of his back bottom teeth. The dentist said it was nothing to worry about but they'll call that tooth "Chippy" from now on. Connor loved that :)

Logan's part of the appointment was much less interesting. The one year old visit is free and all they do is count the teeth (he has 6 but I guess it looks like many more are coming soon) and make sure there isn't any major decay. Everything looked good!

The City Council meeting was good - lots of moms and even one Dad talked about the merits of Discovery Days so I lucked out and didn't have to speak! I've never been to a City Council meeting before but I was able to pick out the regulars right away...they just have that look. :) I met two guys who are running for City Council who of course promised that if they were on the council right now they would save Discovery Days. Uh-huh. :) One mom was really funny - she managed to tie all the issues together in her 3 minutes by saying that her 4 year old son loves Discovery Days and can't believe they're getting rid of it so in its place he asked to learn how to play hockey but the City Council is going to shut down the outdoor ice rink so that's out. And since he can't learn how to play hockey and take out his aggression in an appropriate manner, he'll likely break the law when he's a teenager and be sent to jail instead of getting probation and rehabilitation (the Council is trying to cut the majority of probation services). It was funny and yet...possibly true :) I'm not sure if any of the comments actually got through to any of the council members but at least we tried, right? And it was good to observe our city government in action...or something like that. :)

Here are a couple pics of the boys playing in the sandbox today. Yes, they're wearing matching shirts at Connor's request. :)