Can't believe the year is almost over...

How is it almost 2010?? I cannot believe how fast this year has gone by...it's brought so many changes, challenges and blessing to our family. I started off the year with no job, Evan did too...sort of (he started a new job on the 5th of Jan.) we were unsure of what our plans were and the future looked a bit rough to say the least in the finacial department. But we made it and the year ended pretty great. We celebrated our first anniversairy in March with a fun stay at the hotel we got married in, I started a new job in May after 5 months of solid searching, Kaitlyn turned 2 in July and we were blessed with a positive pregnancy test in September. Evan started a fantastic new job in October that while tears him away from the family for a few months at a time he is loving it and making excellent money to the point where I will be able to stay home comfortably with our kiddos for at least the next 18 months, a dream I've had since Kaitlyn was born.
2009 had many ups and downs but I think we've ended on a fantastic note and am looking very much forward to 2010.
We have many things to look forward and will be faced with many a new challenge I'm sure! Our biggest challenge we are to face in the next few weeks, deciding what state we'd like to live in and buy a house in...at the moment we are leaning towards to Omaha but still have a few pro/cons to decipher through.
We are anxiously and excitedly awaiting the arrival of our baby boy on or around May 18th and I am looking forward to the challenge of an almost 3 yr old and newborn...praying hard my almost 3yr old will still enjoy her 1.5 to 2 hr daily naps!
Lots to relfect on and lots to look forward too, life is pretty grand ain't it!

Goals for 2010 include taking some cooking classes and sewing classes and making sure my gym membership is put to GOOD use! :)

Kaitlyn's Birthday Week!

Well 4 days really but who's counting...Her birthday celebrations started on the actual day, Wednesday the 29th donned in her cute "Birthday Girl" t-shirt she had yummy cupcakes and a little celebration at school, we had her favourite for dinner (the infamous mac and cheese) and then I headed out to pick up Aunty Andi from the airport and ice cream. Wednesday night we opened family presents....I think she made out pretty well!

Oh and don't forget the 55 gal fish tank, curtosey of Grandma and Grandpa!

Thursday the festivities continued with a trip to see The Wiggles, a team of 4 guys from Australia who are EXTREMELY talented and it's all for kiddos! We met up with Luca and Courtney and headed to Broomfield Event Center, taking a picnic dinner along. I was very impressed with the show, they kept it going seemed to do a little improv when it didn't completely work out and the show was colourfull and entertaining for kids and adults! It lasted an hour and a half and we didn't have any whinning or boredom, from 2 two year olds that's pretty impressive!

The kids had a blast dancing and attempting to sign along with all the songs! It was money well spent and I would go again :)

Friday I took off work and we headed to the mountains with my sister. It's about an hour and a half drive to Breckenridge, unfortunately it took us closer to 2 since we seemed to hit every traffic bump on the drive. We found ample parking though and it was nice to get out and stretch our legs, Kaitlyn was definitely happiest and I'm still riding on the fact that she may have inherited my car sickness since she seems to get very unhappy on a drive longer than 30mins. We found the BEST pizza place for lunch, a tiny little shop...something that started with a "G" and was very italian...it was delicious pizza and Kaitlyn ate half a slice of a huge slice! (I'm telling you anything with cheese for this kid) After lunch we wondered around, avoiding the rain in various tourist shops and stopped to partake in the free gold mining event going on...nothing turned up but it was fun to try and sift through all the sand and rocks!

It started to rain a bit harder so we headed up the mountain, took a few pics at the scienic view spot, got lost on the back gravel roads for about 30mins and then started the drive back home! This time, although I hate to admit, I turned her car seat around :( it was a much better drive for all of us and think that we'll just have to do that for the longer drives.

Arriving home around 4:30pm we met up with Evan and his parents and made plans for dinner at Champs that night.

My sis and I then let Kaitlyn have some time with grandparents while we snuck off to do some shopping at the Park Meadows mall.

Friday night we attempted to start the birthday cake...failed miserably the first time but after a quick run to the grocery store at 10pm we managed to produce two quality cakes ready for icing the next morning!

PARTY DAY!! Saturday was the actual party and it was a BLAST! we had about 20 people come over with 7 kids total. I served bacon wrapped stuffed jalepaneos, chicken dip, 7 layer dip, and homemade mac and cheese for the kids and for a side. Evan manned the grill and we had brawts and burgers for everyone else, coolers full of beer, soda and juice and of course the fantastic cake, decorated my me and Andi! The kids played in the blow up pool and with the water table and by about 1pm kids and maybe some adults where ready for a nap! Andrew and Kylee bought Kaitlyn a 6 week old little black kitten to play with who is VERY cute and very playfull! I sadly had to duck out and drop my sis at the airport (which we later found out her plane had been delayed!). When I got back Kaitlyn opened all her presents from our fabulous friends, took a brief nap and we headed out to dinner at Chili's. A very spolied little girl with a very festive few days! Thank goodness there is a year between birthdays:)

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY KAITLYN!! xoxo

where has the time gone?

And another month later and no posts from me...blogging just hasn't been a priority. I started my masters on June 29th with CSU Global and so far it's great. I initially thought about doing the organizational leadership program but have since changed to teaching and learning. The ultimate goal is to become a Director of program development for students in a K-12 setting, although that may quickly change to college level. I'm only in my first class so we'll see where the journey takes me. It's nice being back in school, of course juggling Kaitlyn, work, homework, being a wife, keeping the house in some sort of organized chaos can be tiring but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger right...right?

Kaitlyn's 2nd birthday is next Wednesday...I cannot believe my baby is going to be TWO! When did she get so big and where did two years go? Her Aunty Andrea (AA) is coming into town for the celebration and we are going to do a family dinner Wednesday night, Thursday night we're off to the Wiggles concert with Luca and Courtney, Friday we might go to the zoo or something fun with my sis and then Saturday is the party! We are doing a beach theme and I'm making the cake again, this year we'll do a sheet cakes with a beach scene (waves, sand, umbrella, towel and lots of fishes). I'm pretty excited to do it and hopefully the vision in my head is close to the vision we'll have at hand :) The IL's will be coming in as well, not sure on what day but I know my MIL is eager to help out, which we are grateful for...

Sleeping has become a nightmare again, I swear this kid will get it right one day! She did sleep through the night last night, but woke up GROUCHY! tonight is an early bedtime, that's for sure! Andrew has been offering his excellent culinary skills to us for the last two nights and supposedly the rest of the week since we watched their 205lb Mastif for 10 days while they were in Florida. It's amazing food, but we haven't been getting home until 9:30 and that's WAY late for miss Kait to get to bed. Tonight we might skip it, so she can get some sleep and I can get some homework done...plus he is potentially going to a concert.

Maybe one month updates will be easier for me to keep track of and remember:) although I think i'll post some birthday pics next week...just that memory of mine that needs some grease!

26 years later...

Happy Birthday to me...(yesterday) It was a so so birthday this year, no extravagent party, no huge dinner, small gifts, and no new outfit. Not sure how I feel about all of that, I did get a ton of very nice birthday wishes on facebook from all my lovely friends and felt special that way. I guess birthday's have always been such a big deal, even Dad asked what presents I got and besides the gift card from he and Mum and the gift card from MIL & FIL and some flowers from Evan I didn't get any other presents...Dad was shocked :) lol God love him for always making our days so special growing up!
Maybe the older you get the less extravagent parties need to be? I certainly don't think they are any less important!
Goal is to do 26 right and enjoy each year as it comes, this year I'd like to lose 25lbs...and then put it right back on my getting pregnant! lol we shall see what the year has in store for me!

Bubbles and Bows Boutique

My awesome friend Cara has an amazing business she runs, all hand crafted, home made items for babies, kiddos and parents! She has made a couple of items for Kaitlyn, including a wet bag that is a life saver when we are out, a cute cloth diaper with her initials on it and a wipe case, another life saver!
Cara also makes sweet t-shirts, nursing covers, bows and tons of other items! She is super talented and affordable ;)

Check out her website: http://www.bubblesandbowsboutique.com/

This is why I never kept a journal...

I'm HOPELESS at writing and remembering to update! everytime I think about it I'm at work and well can't really do that ethically...

Lets see...first 2 weeks of work have flown by and can't believe I'm almost done with my 3rd. My boss has been out of town for the last week and a half and will be back in the office tomorrow! I've finished most of my projects and think I successfully handled the office while he was out, guess I'll find out tomorrow lol :)

Chicago was...in a word...interesting! I had a great time with Jules and seeing the city was fun. We had some other issues that arose making the weekend a bit difficult at times but overall it was a really fun trip and I can't wait to do it again!

Toddler bed is still a miserable experience...Kaitlyn has resorted to sleeping by the door still and climbing into our bed btwn 1 and 3am, she feels the need to sleep ontop of me or right in my back making the rest of the night slighty uncomfortable for me! We're going to try again this weekend at keeping her in her own bed...wish us luck!

I'm going to aim to get on her and update every 2 days or so...but clearly can't make any promises since my last post was 2 weeks ago!

goal: get better at blogger ;)

A sense of ones self?

I'm reminded of a conversation I had with my Mum not too long ago about outfits and being/feeling put together. Now keep in mind my mother is a mere 112lbs and about 5'4 she, in the body sense, has nothing to worry about...after 3 big 8lb babies and for being 57 she looks quite fantastic, but who am I to say since she is my favorite person in the world!

Anyway back to the conversation, Mum has a pretty good sense of style despite those Mum jeans she often sports the lady is always nicely dressed, yet claims to feel like she's never really well put together. Funny because I often feel the same way...those leggin's and long shirts seem to look frumpy on me but fantastic on friends, jean skirts show off my white, chunky legs, but make someone elses legs look like a mile long.

I thought maybe I'd do better for Kaitlyn, but alas today she has on capris that are too long, white socks because she has a blister and denim sneakers...somewhat of a vagabon style.



So is it really that way though or is it a poor image of ones self? I for one am not a downer, I know I ain't the skiniest girl in town but I don't despise my body and hey we could all use a little work couldn't we? So why do I think that the long shirt and leggings look great on anyone but me? Why can't I just throw on that chunky necklace with the cute button down shirt tucked into a high waisted skirt and look like the lady walking down the street...or maybe I do...is there someone walking behind me thinking the same thing, gosh I wish I could wear that?



Where does that sense of style come from? Do we all just need to "get over it" and wear what we want? Something I ponder as I pack again for our girls weekend in Chicago...after I tackle the loads of laundry staring me down!

What a weekend...

WOW...pretty much all I say to sum up the weekend. After so much stress and overload from the last, wow gosh year I guess, we all just let loose and went a little crazy. Starting off with pretty strong drinks from a friend that shall go nameless ;) for now, we kicked it into high gear. Ended up visiting EVERY open bar in Vail, horrible margaritas at the first followed by a shot of patron...my stomach is turning just typing about it...then some techno bar with a loser DJ who wouldn't play anything but techno because his girlfriend liked the music, ugh. Some random guys asked us to come to another bar that their friend owned...more shots and drinks passed around. Thankfully my brain functioned enough to stop accepting drinks after the first bar. Our other fabulous friend who shall also remain nameless did not...we had a crazy, crazy time.

Woke up to puke and blood from the last friend who shall remain nameless. After moaning, groaning and putting down a lot of gatorade we threw on some sweats and schlepped up to the gorgeous spa!!! A detox body wrap and massage was just what the liver ordered! if I could afford to have one of those every weekend, Vail would be my second home. After enjoying the wrap, massage, jacuzzi, pool and serenity room we decided that 4pm was way too late not to have any food in our bellys and headed back home. After lots of puking and a bad, bad headache I took friend who drank too much and smacked/cut open her head to the ER. Can I just say that if I had to pick an ER to visit it would be Vail during mud season. They were ready to take her back before we even finished checking in...now that is service! After 2 bags of fluids, some anti-nausea meds and a CT scan we headed back home to some DELICIOUS homemade crab cakes and my ER friend managed to put down two and a glass of milk...after puking all day I don't know who does that but she did. We were too old and tired from Friday nights mishaps so by 9:30 were all in bed with the telly's turned off shortly after!

Sunday was clean up, pictures, a quick walk around Vail Village, Starbucks then off to shop the outlets in Silverthorne...I did find two new shirts, a cute skirt and new kakhis for work!! shhh don't tell the husband!

It was a great weekend, we should have controlled our craziness a little bit more on Friday to actually enjoy the spa without feeling like death but we had a lot of fun:)

Vail here I come!

I'm in the process of packing...you'd think this would be an easy task for a weekend in the mountains but I am not good at packing! It involves a process of pulling out and laying out outfits, wondering about and checking weather, and sometimes making a list...sigh I always forget something even with this ridiculous process I go through! Usually it's the important things too like pajamas or toothpaste. So far I think 2 pairs of jeans, three going out shirts, a t-shirt and skirt, pj's, black heels and flip flops, swim suit *2 and comfy clothes for schlepping around the spa in...

Anyway Kylee, Morgan, Jenny, Lindsey and I are headed to Vail tomorrow afternoon for a weekend of fun! Nights at the bars and a day at the spa...a much needed vacation before heading back to work on Monday! I can't wait:) Oh and I hear Jenny's crab cakes are too die for so dinner Saturday night should be delish!

Trials of a toddler bed

Easter Sunday Kaitlyn climbed out of the pack 'n' play...
April 27th she climbed out of her crib...
April 27th I moved her crib down to the lowest level...
May 10th she showed me how she could climb in and out of her crib...
May 10th I switched her bed to a toddler bed!

So far she has yet to actually fall asleep in her bed...everynight around 9pm I find her with her pillow, "mi-mi" and "raddit" sleeping next to the baby gate.
She is also refusing to nap making afternoons very trying for all involved!
I'm hoping she'll soon get the idea that bed is WAY more comfortable than the floor...but if she's going to sleep in her room who am I to fight it!

Not something I thought we would be doing this early in the game, 21 months old and in a big girl bed, tear! If you can keep your kids in their cribs do it for as long as you can!!
p.s I know there is some tent thing you can but to put over the crib to keep them in but I just cannot get onboard with that idea and this had to happen sooner or later may as well deal with it now before I head back to work and sleep deprivation is more of a pain than it is now!

Last week of being a SAHM...

I accepted an offer...and I'm excited about it I think:) I'm sad about not seeing Kaitlyn all day and not having our morning snuggles watching Elmo and sitting in pj's until just before 11am when Evan came home for lunch. I'm sad I don't get to sit in the sun with her and draw in chalk on the back patio and play in the water table. Kick the ball around or play tag. Sad we don't get to walk to the park and play on the swings or take lazy naps together in the afternoon. BUT there is the weekends and I know bringing in more money for our family is the smartest and best move I can make right now. Who knows maybe Evan will start hitting the big accounts in the next year or so and I'll be back home without the stress of figuring out what bills to pay when and not have any late:) Until then I'm back in the office working for Lerner Financial. I'm lucky I am going to get the hours I want, 7:30am to 4pm allowing me to spend more time in the afternoon with my crazy family:) I'll be dealing with clients as the "Client Relationship Manager" a job I feel I will truly enjoy with a boss who I feel will be more understanding, easier to communicate with, and a pleasant change from the last year and half of misery I endured.

Kaitlyn and I have spent the week together and it's been fantastic, although I could have done without all the "no!" s today offered, but thus is life with a toddler! She did get a new rash guard long sleeved shirt today and life vest for the proposed venture on the boat this weekend with "Anny" and "Dadda". i'm sad I don't get to see her first trip on the water but hope Evan will take some pictures for this photograph crazed Mum! I also snagged a new swim suit for myself today, actually two. One for sunning and one for working out in...ha you might say to that last statement but I would really love to get back in the pool this summer with some strenuous workouts! For now Courtney and I have decided to get Denver city park passes for the summer to take the kids to the pool and get a workout in...we'll see what the next couple of weeks brings for our decision process.

Job hunting...

Beyond frustrating to search for a new job for 5 months and then all of a sudden recieve FOUR offers in the span of two weeks. None are ideal, none pay what I want (but what job does), none are going to get me anywhere but to the bank with another paycheck. And thus the decision is harder...two would be a lot of fun, two are what I have been doing for the last year and a half. One would require moving Kaitlyn to a new daycare; I looked at it today and do really like it! It has a great curiculum and seemingly very kind teachers plus our friend "Yucca" attends as well and "Titi" and "Yucca" could play on Thursdays...which would be great! This same one would allow me to work with a great friend too and part time too a dream of this Mum for awhile.
Evan's answer is do what you want babe just don't kill us financially...lot of help that is...Dad has talked to me a few times about it...Courtney, Jen and Kristen are tired of my rambling about it.
Lindsey said take what will make you the most happy...
Sigh lots to think about and pros and cons to be considered, tomorrow I might just make an old fashioned list.
Hey maybe Evan will close a big account soon and I can just be the best housewife/mama instead:)

Decision needs to be made by Friday...I'll update once my brain smooths itself out and comes to a conclusion I'm happiest with...

Welcome to our world!

I don't know how to start this since this is not a particularly special day and hopefully those that are reading actually know who I am...but since this is the internet who knows, lol:)

Evan's sleeping on the couch (my husband of over a year yikes), but what's new on a Sunday afternoon. We seem to argue Sundays now because I always want to get out and to something and he wants to watch t.v and sleep! grrr
Kaitlyn (my little trouble maker who'll be two in July) is asleep, going on an hour hopefully she'll give me one more...only I would like a shower before meeting Ashley (one of my besties for 4 yrs) for ice cream at 4, hmmm be stinky or let the kiddo sleep? Shouldn't be tough but since we don't have anything to do tomorrow it won't kill her to get up a little bit earlier from nap. Maybe I'll get lucky and she'll sleep through the shower noise...it's been done before:)

I bought a bike yesterday on craigslist...my gosh I LOVE that site! It was $40, bit smaller than I should be riding I think, I found another one for $10 cheaper that I might go get tomorrow and then just re-sell the one I bought yesterday, hmm. The old "diet starts monday" scheme is back but this time I'm serious! I would love to get back into those size 4 shorts from last summer...don't ask where I'm at right now...but a good 20lbs should do it! It'd be nice to lose it before my trip to Chicago in 3 weeks but unless I duct tape my mouth shut and tie myself to a treadmill that's not going to happen:)

Mish mosh of random brain farts today, but the goal is to blog as much as possible to keep a personal record of our crazy lives and maybe give some of you something funny/entertaining/interesting to read once and awhile...or bore you to tears so you can fall asleep at night whatever works! :)