California: Day 1

So back during the kids' Fall break, we decided to take a little trip over to California.  With Trent's new travel schedule, our family was in desperate need of some together time.  So we got all the grandparents and uncle Sean, hopped on a plane and had so much fun!

Our plane got in nice and early, so we checked in to the hotel, got a few groceries, and headed straight for the beach!

We went to Crystal Cove State Park, and they had some of the most amazing tide pools.

We spent hours looking and wading through them all.  This was all of my kid's first time seeing the ocean.  They were all enthralled with it.

 The guys and kids were all happy to be playing in the water... It was a little chilly for me though.

There were rocks everywhere covered top to bottom with mussels.

Sean decided to start a mud fight with the boys.  They were happy to join in.

Vivi kept her distance though.

Preston was okay until some of the mud being flung around got in his mouth.

We got him to smile again though.

It was a great first day.

2010 Recap

Last year was an eventful one for us, with lots of fun, changes, and growing.

In January, Preston and I both turned another year older.  We also got a dog, Cal, (which BTW I had swore I would never do again) who has grown on all of us, and we can't imagine him not being a part of our family.

In February I went on a major reorganizing spree and got almost every closet in our house in order. Vivi became a toothless wonder when she had to have two of her bottom teeth pulled, and Trent was ranked one of the top eight territory managers in his company and won a week long cruise to the Caribbean.

With March came more reorganizing projects, Preston got some new shorts he wouldn't take off, even for me to wash, Cal had a run in with a barbwire fence which required him wearing the cone of shame for 10 days, Trent and I started a rigorous workout program so we could look and feel okay in a bathing suit while on our cruise :), and I learned how to reupholster ottomans.

In April, Preston broke two locks on the door going to the garage, making it necessary for me to make several trips to Home Depot to buy new locks.  He also started gymnastics that month.  It must have snowed a lot because I have lots of pictures of snow.  This was also the month that Trent and I left for our cruise, and had lots of fun in the sun!

May brought with it more birthdays.  Trenton and Colson both turned another year older.  We added yet another pet to the family, a bearded dragon named Zion.  Vivi learned how to ride her bike without training wheels, much to our delight.

June was a big month for us.  Vivi graduated from Preschool, Trenton had his 5th grade commencement, and Trent got promoted to Regional manager, which brought with it a move to Dallas, TX, coming up in Jan. 2011.  The three oldest kids also had all of their dance recitals that month, and then, HOORAY!  School was finally over!  Vivi and I went for the first time to the American Girl store and loved it, and we celebrated Trent's birthday.

In July Vivi got to go on a trip with her grandma and grandpa Stock and her cousin Taryn.  And this was the month Trent finished his last class and earned his Bachelor's!  YAY!!!

August was spent purging and cleaning the house in preparation for putting it on the market.  Trenton started middle school, Colson 4th grade, Vivi kindergarten, and Preston started Joy school with Miss Jen.  Trent's diploma arrived in the mail in August, and his being a graduate was official.  Colson also got his braces on, and our aunt Sherril and uncle Roger moved to St. George.  (We miss them dearly!)

September was another big month for us.  Vivi turned another year older.  We found out at the beginning of the month that we are going to have another baby.  We also finished up getting the house ready to sell and signed papers with our realtor friend to get it on the market.  3 days later, we found out that we wouldn't be moving after all.  YAY!!! They changed the boundaries of Trent's region, and Denver would now be the more central location, so we quit packing and called our realtor and told him to not put our house on the market.  Since we weren't going to be going anywhere, Trent decided it was time to officially finish the basement by making it into a movie room.  I laid on the couch in the movie room almost the whole month with a bucket nearby. 

October still found me sick 24-7, and still laid up on the couch most of the time.  We spent the last week of Oct. in sunny California visiting several themes parks and beaches.

In November, Colson went in for his second round of braces.  Trent was gone most of the month traveling, so when he took the whole week of Thanksgiving off, it was a nice treat.  We spent Thanksgiving here at our house with my mom, brother, and Trent's cousin Derek.

In December Vivian found out that she is finally going to have a sister!!!  We bought a real tree this year, and got the house all decorated for Christmas.  We had lots of movie days while the kids were out of school for Christmas break, and cousin Trey came to visit for a few days, which the boys thoroughly enjoyed.  We had a quiet Christmas at home, and the grandparents and uncles came over for brunch and gift exchanging.  Steve, Trent and Cal went on a hunting trip (Cal's first) and came home with lots of yummy pheasant.  Trent also took the three oldest kids up skiing/snowboarding for their first time, and they were having tons of fun until Colson and Trenton both threw up on the hill.  (Luckily the ski school gave us a rain check :))  We rang in the new year this year with some of our best buds.

So there are some of our more memorable events of the year 2010.

Catching Up To Do

I was looking back at all of our pictures from the last few months, and realized I missed blogging about a lot of things!  For example,

we had a going away BBQ or Aunt Sherril and uncle Roger, who we were very sad to see leave us for St. George.  We miss them very much, but hope they are loving their new home.

We celebrated not only Vivi's, but my mom's birthday as well.

We went to a Rockies game.

Vivi went with tiara and all.

And we got to see some awesome fireworks there.

 We also went to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo down in Colorado Springs, where we got to feed the giraffes,

and the birds, and got to see lots of amazing animals in-between.

We celebrated Halloween.  (Can you believe this is the only picture I have of Halloween this year?  I'll have to step it up a notch for next year.)

We saw the leaves change.  I love the fall.

We went on a seriously fun vacation.  (More on that later.)

We celebrated Janet's birthday,

 and my brother Dustin's birthday, who is a serious turd when it comes to letting us take pictures of him. ;)

And Colson got braces on the bottom teeth, and new wires for the top teeth.

And that is our last couple of months in a nutshell.

Six

I am seriously behind on my blogging!  I never go this long!!!  I have lots to catch up on.  First and foremost, Vivian had her 6th birthday last month.  She is growing so fast!  It seems like only yesterday we brought her home from the hospital, a brand new babe.  She was such a tiny little peanut!  She weighed only 6 lbs. when she was born.  Quite a bit tinier than her 8+ lb. brothers.  I remember putting her in her car seat for the first time, and worrying because we couldn't seem to get the straps tight enough around her.  The nice thing about her being such a peanut, she was able to wear her clothes longer because it took her forever to grow out of them.

Vivian came in to this world with quite the scowl on her face.  She didn't seem very happy or excited to be here.  When she was first born, one of the nurses in the hospital looked at her and said, "Oh, so serious!"  Trent immediately said, "She doesn't look serious.  She looks just plain ornery!"

She looked pretty grumpy for a few weeks,

but it wasn't too long before she must have decided she liked it here after all, and smiled all the time.  She was a very happy and content baby.

Here are a few of my favorite baby pics of Vivi.

 9 1/2 mon.

 8 mon.

8 1/2 mon.

And now she's six,

and growing up way too fast!!!

I don't know what we'd do without our Vivi.  It would take all of us a lot longer to find things, that is for darn sure!  I don't know how she does it, but she knows where everything is in our house!  The boys will come and ask me where such and such of theirs is, and of course I tell them, "I don't know, I don't use it."  Next thing you know, here comes Vivi, strolling in the room with whatever it is they were needing.  We always ask her where she found it, and she always replies that she saw them put it where she had found it, or she saw Preston with it earlier. (And I'm sure she made a mental note of where he put it so she could tell the boys later.)  She's one observant little girl.

Vivi is such a thoughtful little sweetheart.  She is always writing notes to others, telling them that she loves them.  And about 90% of the time, there will be a chocolate taped to the note.  My kind of girl.  I am grateful to have a girl amidst all these boys.  At least I have someone to sit on the couch and roll eyes with when all of the boys are wrestling and acting like hooligans.  Plus she is just a sweetheart.  She just adds that softness and sweetness to our home that would surely be lacking if she weren't here.  We love you Vivi!

Dentist

Good news... we went to the dentist today, and Preston's teeth are going to be A-okay. 

This Boy

 Trenton had his last track meet tonight.  Yea!  So to celebrate, (or more so I didn't have to cook) we went to Taco Bell for dinner.  Can I just tell you, Preston and Taco Bell don't mix.  I'm never going back, unless we go through the drive through.  As I've mentioned before on this blog, several times in fact, Preston is a busy bee.  He has a hard time sitting still.  So less than 10 minutes into our dining experience, he managed to lock himself in the bathroom.  What's the big deal, you say?  Well, there was no key hole or anything to be able to unlock it from the outside.  Let me ask you, who makes a lock like that?!  After several minutes of trying to calm him down enough to at least have him try again to unlock the door, to no avail, I went up to the front and explained that my little boy had locked himself in the bathroom, couldn't unlock the door, and was there any way they could help me get him out?  The Taco Bell employees all looked at me dumbfounded.  You see, there is no key for that bathroom door.  I went back to the door to hear the weeping and wailing of my youngest son, thinking we were going to have to call the fire department to come and break the door down.  (Luckily there is a fire department right across the street from the Taco Bell.)  But one of the employees somehow managed to pop the lock open, with his belt no less, and my little boy was saved!  

He must have learned his lesson to not run off and lock himself in bathrooms because he stayed on the bench after that.  His lesson learning was not over yet though.  I guess he still had another lesson to learn, and that is called, "Do not use the top of the Taco Bell benches as a balance beam, or you will get injured" lesson.  You see, Preston goes to a gymnastics class once a week, (which I'm starting to wonder if it has been more beneficial or harmful?) and he thinks that everything has been made for him to jump, balance, climb, or do flips from.  Hence the bench becoming a balance beam.  So, yes, he ended up falling.  I managed to just barely grab his arm before he went crashing to the floor, but my grabbing his arm ended up swinging him around into the bench, mouth first.  It totally bent one of his front teeth back, and he has a huge sore on his gum just above the tooth.  It doesn't look pretty.  I think we'll be calling the dentist in the morning.  But I think he did learn his lesson because he sat on mama's lap the rest of the time we were there (which wasn't long btw. I couldn't take any more lessons).

Braces Boy!

Last week, I took Colson in to the orthodontist.  His dentist recommended that I take him 6 months ago, but, being the procrastinator that I am (although not nearly as much as I used to be), I just recently made an appointment for him.  So we went in for a consultation last Tues...

and today he came home with braces!  He has been anxiously awaiting this day!  Seriously.  I thought he was going to explode, he was so excited when he found out that he not only was going to get braces, but that he was going to get them so quickly.  When Trenton got home from school this afternoon, Colson could hardly wait to show him.  He told Trenton, "Just call me Braces Boy!"  Hopefully he'll keep his enthusiasm through the whole treatment!  ;)

Cute as a Button, Even Though

This boy has a bit of a screaming problem.  If anything bothers him, he screams.  If he gets frustrated, he screams.  If he's mad, he screams.  You get the picture.  Well, on Friday, I was busily going about my day.  I happened to look at the clock and noticed it was a little bit after noon.  Then it occurred to me.  I hadn't heard Preston scream once all day!  As the afternoon wore on, I kept listening for it.  I was sure that at any moment he would find something to scream about.  He lasted until just after 4:00.  Which, by-the-way, is just after his two older brothers get home from school.  Think there is any correlation between the two?  I am curious to see as the weeks of school wear on.

First Days of School

Each one of my 4 kids started school on a different day this year.

Colson started 4th grade on Aug. 16.  He was so excited to go back to school!  He is such a social kid.

 Preston started preschool at Miss Jen's Joy School on Aug. 17.  He has been waiting all summer to start school!

He gets to go to school with this cute bunch of kids.  And I get to go every Tues. and help in his class.  They are seriously so cute!

Vivi started school on Aug. 18.  Her first day of Kindergarten!  Her teacher's name is Mrs. Winkler.  The first week, Vivi had a hard time remembering her teacher's name, and kept calling her either Mrs. Twinkles, or Mrs. Winkles.  Too cute!

Trenton's first day was Aug. 23.  He started Middle School this year!  He is loving it so far.  When I asked him if he wanted me to drive him to and from school, or if he would rather ride the bus, he chose the bus.  He's getting so big!  And I'm feeling so old!  Shouldn't I still be 24?  And not old enough to have a child in Middle School?  Such is life.

And this is the first time in I don't know how many semesters that Trent didn't have a first day because he's done! Done! Done! DONE!

After 13 years of taking lots of classes, a few Major changes, and more classes, he has finally finished!

We got all of the family together and went to celebrate at a new restaurant downtown, Japoix.  (Pronounced Ja-pwah)  Super yummy food and amazingly beautiful atmosphere!  (I highly recommend it!)  Colson took one glance at the menu and knew immediately what he wanted... Frog legs and Le Duck.  I kid you not!  That's a frog leg he's eating there.  This kid is definitely adventurous and not afraid to try anything when it comes to food.

We are so excited that Trent has finished school, and that we can move on from that phase of our lives.  Next up, MBA. Way to go babe!  Thanks for working so hard to get it done!

Well, we are excited that a new school year has begun, and we can't wait to see how the kids learn and grow throughout the coming year!