I <3 my little girls

Addy comes sheepishly into the kitchen tonight while I was cooking dinner. 

“Mommy- I have something special for you.”  From behind her back she pulls a “bouquet” of spent geranium stalks that I had dead-headed earlier.  “It’s how I say “I love you!”” 

Melt your heart, right???

…Then Piper runs from the house yelling “Me toooooo!”

About two minutes later, she comes in bearing a nice big branch of the LIVE geranium plant.  “Love you, too, Mommy!”  And skips away.

Not sure which was my favorite.

Munchkins in space!

You know, just your standard early-morning-cartoon-watching-in-our-rocket-ship-that-we-colored action.  And Addy has her spaceman headband on. 

And yes, Cody had just raided my kitchen and was walking around with the pancake maker. 

All before 6am…

A-Hiking We Will Go!

I can't believe summer is already coming to a close.  I have no idea how that happened.  Piper goes back to school a week from Monday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm simultaneously ecstatic, and mourning the loss of slimmer schedules, lax bedtimes, popsicles, swimming...  We ended the year last year in a whole wad of stress.  It’s been so freeing watching the girls blossom this summer.  Now that everyone is in bed asleep, it’s easier for me to say “I just don’t want summer to end!”  …but wait until 10am tomorrow.  My tone may be a tad different…

“Bugs, Addy!  In the cave [hole in the log]!  Look with the magnifying glass!  BUGS!”

So, on our countdown to the school year, we took the kids "hiking" this morning up toward Boulder.  This trail head was awesome with three small kiddos.  No grade, flat path ("sport wheelchair accessible" wins big in my book...), massive amounts of shade, and a stream.  What more could you want?

“See ya!” may be my least favorite Piper-ism to-date.  If she weren’t so dang cute when she said it.

We had an impromptu dinner picnic at the pool on Friday night, so the kids were up late, and were a little tired today.  But we have only four weekend days left before school starts, so, frankly, I didn't care.

Why yes, yes that is my child petting a ladybug.  Gosh I love her!

Piper cared.

Poor munchkin was asking for "lunch at home" by about 100 yards in.  And it was 9:45.

But, she toughed it out (with a few tears) and we made it through.  The many dogs we stopped to pet helped tremendously.  We've been working with the kids on "dog etiquette"- we have two major babies for dogs, and the girls just don't realize that not all dogs like kids.  Piper did great asking "I pet your dog?" and everyone understood her.  It's the little things.

I promised the girls that on the way back, we could go river walking.  Some of my favorite memories are walking the rivers up in Yellowstone with my mom.  (Not my dad.  My dad's bare feet have never seen the light of day.  River walking is not a sport in which he partakes.)

Cody, ironically, could. not. wait.  He was the only one in non-water-friendly shoes, so he got to go barefoot.  He loved it. 

Until he got cold tooties.

Addy couldn’t get enough.  I think she would have hung out all day long if she could.  She’s ready for Wyoming, Nana!

Piper, on the other hand, wasn’t a huge fan of getting into freezing water, thankyouverymuch, and she was more concerned about how much longer until lunchtime (it was now 11, mind you.)  And because she was tired, her sensory issues came into play with the “but we don’t wear shoes in water!!!” argument.  And since Cody didn’t have to wear shoes…  It was a little rough. 

But not as rough as it was when she biffed it slipping on a rock and ended up soaked in said icy water. 

It was a good end to the day.  But nothing a spare mommy shirt that was left in the nice warm car couldn’t solve

The girls and Luke are currently asleep in a tent in the backyard. 

I’ll keep you posted as to how that turns out. 

Yippee!

We bought our house new, which means that certain things aren't included.  Like curtains.  There are a lot of windows to cover in a new house.  Just sayin'.

We also had to finish our backyard.  And after a surprisingly, uncharacteristically, wet spring, "landscaping" is even less fun than it sounds.

I'm happy to say that as of last weekend, the yard is DONE.  Minus a bit more rock we need, and we need to paint the fence, but it's DONE.  1000 feet of sod, 20 tons of rock, sprinkler, 40-some fence posts...  We're SO glad to be able to use the yard now!  

As happy as Luke and I am, the kids are ecstatic.  It's so nice to be able to eat dinner outside and just PLAY!

Anything you can do...

Third kid syndrome- "Sure, honey- you go right on ahead and try out your sisters' bike that's too big.  I'll just sit here and take your picture."  That's cool, right?

Ended well, yes?  Cody's so awesome, though- he tries, he falls, he cries for a second, and is off trying to figure out something else to do.

He thinks he can do anything his sisters can do.

And dad.  Surely anything Dad can do, he can do too, right?  Who doesn't want to use a drill???

PS- We have pretty strict "you must wear your helmet to ride bikes" rule at our house.  He tried.  

Fourth of July!

Happy Independence Day!  It's so fun now that the girls are getting old enough to enjoy some of the fun parts of holidays.  We're about a thousand feet higher elevation than Denver, and we don't have a whole lot of neighbors yet, so we figured we'd be able to watch some of the municipalities' firework shows from our back porch.  It'll probably be the only year we'll be able to see Denver so well (next year the area will be totally built out.)  Besides, I wasn't sure that the kids would be okay with the crowds, the sounds, and being up WAY past their bedtimes, so this seemed like a good option.

The neighborhood had a bicycle parade in the morning.  The girls had a blast decorating their bikes.  And they looked awfully cute, if I do say so myself.

Some pre-bike ride sibling love.  And bickering.

Piper's new wheels.  It's a Weehoo- and she LOVES it.  It's just like the hook-on bikes, but it's recumbent and has the back for support.  We're hoping this will allow us to take longer bike rides as a family (she and Addy can trade off if we need.)  She likes to go FAST.  But when they're staying still?  Not her favorite.  (Side note: kind of majorly bummed that I didn't close the garage door.  Pardon the mess- we're in the middle of fencing and back yard finishing.  Goody.)  

Addy's bike.  There's no such thing as "too many bows" for this child.  The route was a mile long, up and down hills (because remember- we live near the foothills now and there's no such thing as "flat.")  Addy rode the WHOLE WAY.  We had a few mishaps when she'd get distracted by the other people (HUNDREDS) and forget to brake, but ya know.  

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Even Cody's bike was decked out.  He was less than enthused at the whole thing, but he survived.  

By the time the fireworks were starting, the kids were exHAUSTed.  We could sneak a peak at some that were starting, but we didn't stay out too long.  Maybe next year we can see the REAL ones.  But this was a pretty awesome Fourth.

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Two years, eh???

It’s been TWO YEARS since I’ve blogged.

I miss it.  A lot.

Let’s give this whole thing a go again, shall we?  The Reader’s Digest version of the past 24 months:

Piper’s now SIX.  How?  How can that be???  Her hair is long (although still as blond as can be- she calls it her Rapunzel hair), she’s tall (considering she was my kid who barely touched the Down syndrome growth chart for years, I can’t believe she’s about 60% on there now…), she’s hysterical, and she enjoys life.  She loves anything artsy- she can sit and paint for hours if I let her.  Confidence is not her strong suit, which is hard to watch.  She still won’t let us watch her work at something until she knows she can do it.  Depending on the environment, she can be fiercely independent or horrendously resistant.  We try to foster the former.  I still know of no kid who gets more attention from strangers; no one can resist her smile, wave, or “HI!”




Piper is best friends with little sister, Addy.  Addy just turned four and is a spitFIRE.  She started preschool this year at a FARM.  She has sheep, chickens, peacocks, goats, ducks, and a bunny named Jack.  Best of all, though, are the ponies that they get to ride.  How cool is that???  She just started back at gymnastics after a eight month hiatus and she’s in heaven.  Sometimes I worry that she (and us!) put too much responsibility and pressure on her.  She’s rather mature for a just-turned-four-year-old, and we have to remind ourselves that she’s still little.  In the last year or so, I’d say, she’s slowly started taking over the role of Big Sister.  She seems to hold herself accountable for the wrongdoings of others.  She gets mad- no, more than that, it hurts her heart- when she doesn’t do things to her expectations.  She seems to worry.  We’re working on it.  She is also the most genuine, loving kid I know.  Her compassion for others is far beyond her years.  She has a sparkly personality, and I’m loving watching her grow up. 


Perhaps the BIGGEST news of the past two years is the addition of Cody James.  Cody was born in March of 2014.  The girls are smitten.  Just when they didn’t think it could be any more fun to have a baby brother, he’s gotten big enough to play WITH them.  Life is good.  Cody is ALL boy.  He ooo’s-and-aww’s over the fancy cars.  He loves big trucks.  Anything with wheels are awesome.  He likes to hammer.  He’s a block-stacking master.  But there is nothing cuter than Cody walking around caring for his baby dolls.  He is a sweet hugger and gives the most disgusting kisses.  

Last summer, Luke had a chance to take a job with a start-up in Boulder working on data storage.  We hadn’t planned on moving until at least this summer, but between adding another body to the mix, and Luke’s now three hours of commute each day, we decided maybe we’d start looking sooner.  Luke got his job in August.  We thought this spring would be a good time to move.  But then maybe Christmas break would be better. 

We moved in October.

We started willy-nilly looking at houses mid-August.  Found a house we loved the first week of September.  We signed a contract on Saturday morning.  We packed our house Saturday and Sunday, and had it cleaned, packed, staged, and ready for photos on Monday.  The house was on the market Wednesday night, and we had it sold on Thursday.  We closed on both houses in less than a month.  Still not entirely sure how it all worked out so quickly.  We doubled our space, added two bedrooms (and an office!) and what feels like a never-ending line of toilets to clean.  We love our house.  We’re at the base of the foothills which is awesome.  The community will have two swimming pools (one of which will be lap lanes indoors), two rec centers, a dozen parks, a community garden…  They have concerts and movies in the park, community picnics, Easter Egg Hunts and Santa Claus visits.  We feel very blessed! 

Life has certainly changed.  We’re exponentially busier.  Life is chaotic.  But it’s OUR chaos, so it’s all good.  I look at the kids and can’t figure out how they got so big so quickly.  As much as I hate to see each stage phase out, I’m always tickled to see how they grow.  I’ll never know how I got so lucky to have the three of them!