A Day at the Park

We were off of work today so we wanted to do something fun with the kiddos. We were thinking of a movie but by the time everyone woke up from their naps, including mommy, it was too late so we settled for a trip to the park. We have a new favorite park not far from our house and right across the street from Green Valley Ranch Casino. It has so many fun gadgets and toys and it even has swings for mommy's and daddy's, they are like chairs that you can just relax on while you watch the kiddos run all over. The kids and mommy and daddy had a great time. It was a beautiful evening. We were even fortunate to take in a great sunset. The pics don't really do it justice but it was pretty. It made me miss the New Mexico sunsets we grew up with. That was one thing we took for granted, you were pretty much guaranteed the most beautiful sunsets every night in New Mexico, full of oranges, pinks, blues and purples.

All Better!

On Sunday afternoon I took Cole to the Doctor's to get his stitches out. We went back to the same Urgent Care where he got the stitches. He has some memory. The second we walked in the office door he stopped, looked around briefly and then started whimpering, "no mama no, bye-bye mama, no mama no!" He knew exactly where we were and knew that nothing fun happens in a doctor's office! We were seen by a pretty young doctor who was making me very nervous because you could see the fear of working on a child in his eyes. All went well, the three stitches came out in no time, the doc patched him up with a band-aid and then there was the good ol' lollipop cure to soothe any leftover whimpers. Hopefully he won't have a big scar, but if he does I reassured him he would be okay because like they say, "Chicks dig scars."

One of the Most Horrible Things I Have Witnessed

Just as a warning this isn't a happy story at all...


On our way to Kadee's football/cheerleading game today we unfortunately witnessed one of the hardest things for one to see. We left a birthday party and I just insisted that Charlie take another highway to Kadee's game because there would be less traffic. So along we went and halfway there I hear Charlie yell, "Oh geez!" I immediately start looking around and there I see two Rottenweilers, a mom and her puppy come running down the highway ramp onto the highway. I scream at Charlie to pull over so we could try do do something, yell at them and scare them off of the highway or try to catch them before they got hurt. All I could think of was oh great, what are we going to do with four Rottenweilers! We were in the fast lane and there were construction barrels everywhere on the shoulder so by the time we could pull over, I heard Charlie who was looking in his rear view mirror just say "Oh God!" and he hit the steering wheel. I knew what had happened. I looked back and unfortunately saw the second one get hit. It was absolutely horrible! I cannot get that image out of my head. I know this is a gruesome thing to blog about but I am sitting here unable to sleep because that image just keeps popping in my head so I thought maybe if I wrote about it I could get it out of my head. We were so far ahead of them and several other cars stopped to help them so we left, all of us, me, Kadee and Charlie with tears in our eyes. If only we could have done something, anything! I said a prayer with Kadee tonight and just asked God to make them at home in heaven, to give them really big bones to chew on, nice comfy beds to sleep on and a kiss from us!


This really hit home for us because we are the proud owners of two Rottenweilers, Brewtus and Bristol. These dogs are like family to us! They are our constant companions and we love them often more then we show! Today's events changed a few things for us Brewtus and Bristol. More walks, more hugs and kisses and more puppy treats. We love you and are so grateful to have you in our lives!

Our Visit to the Museum

On Saturday we were invited to a Birthday Party at the Lied Discovery Museum. What a fun place! The kids had a blast. There are so many fun things to do! Cole loved the water table and spent a good 20 minutes sailing the pieces through the water. Kadence loved the grocery store! She got to ring up some other kids grocery orders and thought that it was pretty cool! I also got to snap one of my favorite photos of them afterwards. They got these rock star glasses as party favors and were jamming in the car on the way home!

OUCH!!!

Kadee and Cole were up at my mom's house on Monday. She usually keeps them at least one day a week. Come about 3:00 pm I get a call at work from Grandma, "Kristi...I got the bleeding stopped but..." My heart dropped to my stomach as I waited for the rest of the sentence. Cole biffed it big time and cut open his cheek. I calmly (which I am not sure where the calmness came from) told my mom, don't worry we will be right there. Off we went from work up to Grandma's. When we got there Cole was running around like nothing really happened. However when I did ask to see his owie I did get the sad face as he pointed to the little gash on his cheek. Charlie cleaned it up and we thought it would be okay but decided to take him to Urgent Care just in case since we're not doctors.

Well once the doc saw him, he decided he needed stitches, three of them to be exact. So the bundled up Cole in a little papoose so he couldn't fling around and three stitches and a few tears later he was on his way to being mended up. He cried right up until we got to the receptionist desk and the big basket of lollipops and magically all the pain disappeared. Thank goodness for those docs who still believe in the lollipop cure!

My poor mom and Kadee felt so bad like it was their fault, however anyone who knows Cole is neither surprised, nor do they think that this is the last time he visits Urgent Care! I stayed home with him the next day in an attempt to limit his activity as the doc ordered so he didn't bang it and open it up. Wow, when you really watch this kid (not that I don't keep an eye on him normally) but when you really try to prevent the injuries...he is like a little tornado. If he isn't jumping off of the dog crates behind the couch onto the couch and coming within centimeters of the coffee table, or pushing his little table over to the TV to climb on top of the TV or better yet pushing the bar stool in the garage up to the dart board and pulling out all of the darts, then it is just not a regular day! Oh my son, my 100%, all boy son!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Halloween was a blast this year. Thursday night prior to Halloween we decided to play hookey from Gymnastics and instead took the kids out to eat and then to the pumpkin patch. This is my ultimate favorite photo op and wouldn't you know it I pull my camera out of my case and the battery is DEAD! I was so upset! The kids had a blast anyway, they rode the train, went down the slide and took advantage of some games.

The next day was Halloween. It is also Nevada Day so Charlie got the day off of work. The kids stayed home with him and they carved their pumpkins. This is Charlie's favorite thing to do at Halloween. He buys one of the pumpkin carving books and goes to town every year. He usually does one and I will do one, however, since I had to work he let Kadee do one and she did a great job!

After carving pumpkins they decked out in their costumes and headed over to our babysitter's house for a Halloween party. Kadence was a Hollywood starlett. I have to make mention that this was the first year I let her pick out her very own costume. Naturally my daughter picked out the PINKEST, most girly girl costume in the store! But she loved it and that was all that mattered! We decided Cole would be a boxer, which made me a little nervous only because I was afraid he would play the role a little to well! And sure enough at the babysitter's he nailed one of the bigger boys who sometimes likes to pick on him right on the nose!

When I got home from work we went over to some friends of ours so all of the kids could have pizza and little bit of playtime together before hitting the streets trick or treating. After pizza we went back to our neighborhood to do some trick or treating. I go all out on Halloween and have lights everywhere! It almost looks like Christmas however in orange and purple instead of red and green. My mom was gracious enough to hang back at the house to pass out candy which I think was a workout for her because our neighborhood got hit hard! We went around the block and the kids got lots of goodies. I took Cole in his little push car because I thought he might get tired by the time we were done. He was hilarious, I wasn't sure if he was going to get the trick or treat thing or not but after a couple of houses he caught on real quick. If we got to a house with a light on he immediately turned to me, pointed at the house and said Mama Mama Mama in his frantic voice. I wouldn't be able to stop quick enough before he was climbing out of his car and running up to the front door with his sister! They had a blast and we now we are stuck everyday looking at our candy bowl, full of goodies fighting the temptation! That's what we love about Halloween!

Cole's Birthday

We didn't have a big party for Cole. Instead we chose to take him somewhere really fun that we knew he would enjoy. The night of his birthday, October 3, we did take him to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate. Then this weekend we decided to take the kids to Bonnie Springs Ranch for is official birthday party. So us along with my sister, her hubby and my niece and nephew all loaded into the Excursion and away we went. It turned out to be such a cute place and the kids loved it. There was a pretty large petting zoo that had pot belly pigs, billy goats, chickens and sheep walking around that you get right up to and feed. Then they had a ton of animals in cages that you could get a great look at. Some of our favorites were the Lynx, the deer, the wolves, the llamas and the wallaby. The turkey's kept us entertained for a while as well. I swear one turkey had a full blown five minute conversation with Kadence and Cole. They kept going back and forth gobbling to one another, it was hilarious! After the petting zoo we wandered over to the duck pond where we had our first casualty. One of the swans actually bit my nephew, broke the skin and all! There were a ton of turtles that Cole got a kick out of and the kids loved feeding the ducks. From there we wandered over to the Ghost Town where the kids got to participate in one of the shows and earned their deputy badges. Cole thought his was pretty cool and felt the need to point it out to everyone! We hit the candy store where Cole picked one of those long colorful suckers. Needless to say in no time he had multi-colored stickiness from top to bottom! We ended our visit with a train ride that the kids really enjoyed.

After our trip we met my parents back at the house and had cake and opened presents! Cole LOVED his cake. We had it up on the counter so it was out of his reach until of course he scooted the chair over to the counter and got a few fingers full of icing prior to us cutting it. Little stinker. He got lots of great "boy" toys - I say that because we really haven't gotten him too many toys lately so he had been playing with Kadence's toy a lot lately. I was starting to get nervous because my son was constantly carrying around a pink Barbie guitar! He loves all of his gifts and got to stay up a little late to play with them!

Pizza and a Pajama Party

Charlie returned from training in Albuquerque on Friday night and the kids were totally excited! They had really been missing him so during the week I told them that on Friday we would have a Pizza & Pajama Party after we picked Daddy up from the airport. We got home, immediately got in our PJs and ordered Pizza and movies. It was so much fun, I made a bed for the kids on the floor which the kids loved! They were jumping and doing somersaults all over the place. We just hung out all night watching movies and eating Pizza! What cheap entertainment!

Who Needs a Pillow?

So bedtimes have become quite a challenge for us with Cole lately. He used to be great, we would put him in his crib, tell him goodnight, and he might whimper for a minute but he would be out in no time. Well Daddy has been out of town a lot this month so I have been letting the kids sleep with me. Which of course was a big mistake but oh well. I love having the time to snuggle with them and don't even mind the stray kicks in the middle of the night. Well, Charlie had just gotten back from one of his trips and it was time to put the kids to bed, in their own beds! I read them a story every night and this night we decided to read it in Kadence's bed. Well I was really tired and decided I didn't want to fight with Cole so I let him lay down with his sister to go to sleep. It worked great, they were actually quiet right away, which rarely happens. Because this is so unusual, Charlie went up to check on them. Next thing I know he's calling me upstairs and of course all I am thinking is uh oh, what now. I got up there and immediately had to go grab my camera for this shot. Cole basically decided, who needs a pillow when I can just use my sister!

Go Team Go!

Kadee decided she wanted to give cheerleading a try so we recently signed her up. She cheers for the Trojans and really seems to like it. She has had a few games already and has learned quite a few cheers. However, I think my social butterfly's favorite thing about cheerleading is just hanging out with the girls!