Saturday, November 28, 2009

More Kasey updates and post Thanksgiving

So, Kasey now claps when you start singing and tonight she PULLED TO STANDING! Oh boy, this kid is going to be running in no time. Of course the poor thing also has a pretty bad cold, but that hardly slows her down!
Our family tradition is that on Thanksgiving before we eat we say what we are thankful for. This year I am thankful for:
-My two beautiful girls
-Susan and Zak being back in Colorado
-Friends and extended family
-Wonderful In-Laws who I LOVE
-A wonderful Hubby
-Most important, I am thankful it wasn't in the lymph nodes!!!

Courtney was thankful for:
-Aunt Suzi and Uncle Zak
-Mommy and Daddy and Kasey
-She also loves Nana, Papa, Grammy and Granddad too
(her little speech was pretty darn cute, it even made my sister cry. She said a few other things, but I don't remember what they were.)

After dinner we put up the tree and the next day we decorated outside. While putting up the tree we also decorated the kids!

Today we took the girls to see Santa! Courtney told Santa she wants a real pony and it needs to be pink, because pink is her favorite color. Santa informed her that may be a little difficult since pink ponies don't exist.

Last night I took Courtney down town to the church we go to. They were having a night they called Simply Christmas. They had about 30 crafts for people to make. They had some from simple to more difficult. There were a few Courtney could even do herself and she loved it! It was a lot of fun! And it only cost us $4.50 to go!

Friday, November 27, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving 2009

Ok, I finally have a moment to update the blog! Things have been busy here, Courtney has been keeping me busy with doctors appointments and therapy. Plus our cousin Bridget was visiting from Ireland. The day she left is the same day Hubby's parents flew in. They left this morning.

When Bridget was here we took her up to the Wolf and Wildlife Center in Divide. For those of you who were at Hubby and I's wedding, it's now just about across the street from where we got married!

Anyway, Bridget and I got in one of the pens with the wolves. We got in with 2 "puppies". Puppies as far as age, they were under a year. Not as far as size, they were HUGE! They were so cute and lovable! On of them is disabled from a rough start to life so he is a little shy, but the other one was quite playful! Micah and Nakai were there names.

We also got to get in a feed the foxes. They were adorable also!

Courtney finished her preschool at the zoo for November. For her 3 sessions she learned about bears, lions and gorillas. She will have another 3 sessions next month. It will be interesting to see what she gets to learn about next month. For the bears, gorillas and lions, the kids made them all treat bags that we then took to them and a zookeeper gave them. So the kids got to see the animals eat their treats. It was really fun!

We are testing Courtney for lactose allergies. Looks like she has some sort of food allergy, we are just trying to narrow down what.

While Hubby's parents were here, Hubby and I got the chance to escape for a night. We just headed up the road to Denver. Hubby had a free night's stay at a Marriott, so we used that up. We really didn't do anything but relax. We stayed closed to 16th street, so we walked down to a restaurant there for dinner. Other than that, we hung out in the room doing nothing. I finished my book, Hubby caught up on news, it was quiet and relaxing.

Of course Thanksgiving was yesterday. We had Hubby's parents, my parents, Suzi and Zak and Dana and Alex. Dana works with Hubby and Alex is her fiance (I don't know how to put the fancy little thing over the e). Dana and Hubby did most of the cooking. It was great! I didn't have to do much but stay out of the way! The food was wonderful as usual. But I really think it's more about spending time with family and remembering what we are thankful for. And this year I have A LOT to be thankful for.

Well, time to go put Courtney down for a nap, which means nap time for me too!

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Kasey Update

In the past week Kasey has:

-started crawling
-started sitting up on her own
-started clapping

It's been a busy week for her!!!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Patience

I know I have been a bit behind on my posts. For that I apologize. Life has been busy here. First, Bridget has been visiting from Ireland, so free moments were spent with her, and of course there were not enough free moments!

Second, we have been dealing a lot with Courtney recently. Getting her evaluated and adding services. Life is feeling a little tough at the moment. Actually, thinking about it, it's been a rough few months! And it will continue for a few more. That's just one big piece of our current puzzle. There are other pieces of course...

I do my best to be positive all the time, but if there is a lag between posts, it may also be because I just don't have the energy to be positive. To all of those who I have had gaps in communication with, I apologize, hang in there with me, I will be back one day, when I have more energy.

I will still post, and like I said, please just be patient!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Time Flies

Courtney had her last October preschool at the zoo. It was a really blustery and snowy day, but we still went. Out of the 3 families that were in the class, we were the only ones to show up. We learned about bats that day! It was pretty cool, they brought their fruit bats down to see us. Here is what we saw on our way up to the zoo that morning:

Halloween has come and gone. But if you ask Courtney, it's still Halloween. She really fell in love with Halloween! The night before Halloween her gym, named My Gym, (that sure confuses a 3 year old) had a Halloween party. We all dressed up and took her. The Zeigner's were there too. Here's the ghost, skeleton (with his party shirt on) and our little pumpkins!

The next morning we had a Halloween party of a friend of mine from High School. It's kind of odd, but we reconnected on Facebook and her best friend is another mom from My Gym and she is also in MOPS with me! What a small world! Courtney had a blast at that party playing games will all kinds of kids! Plus she lives not far from us!
That night we had our neighbors over for dinner before trick or treating. Then our two girls went out. They have a girl 6 months older than Courtney and another girl 6 months older than Kasey! Here is Ava and Courtney out trick or treating!


After we trick or treated the neighborhood, we put them in the car and went to the local senior's center. They do trick or treating for the kids too. Basically you walk in the front door and there is a table with all the candy on it, and several of the residents sitting around watching the kids come in and out. Both girls had a great time that night and the weather was pretty nice too! We ran out of candy at our house in about 2 hours. I don't think we have ever run out of candy that fast!

My MOPS group had a Mission day. Our small group and another small group went to the Ronald McDonald house. We all brought some sort of food donation and then we all raked leaves. Here we are at the end with the pile of bags, and the scary thing is that you can't even see all the bags in this picture.


Last weekend kept us busy with Esten and Julie's wedding. Friday night we had the rehearsal and dinner. The wedding took place at a lodge (like thing) up in Palmer Lake, which is about 30 minutes north of us. We had a baby sitter for that night and left the girls at home. Esten and Julie really wanted kids included for the wedding and reception, so we took them with us. Brian was an usher with Tony. Here are Brian and Courtney watching the ceremony.


And at the reception:
My mom's cousin from Ireland is here visiting! She came with Courtney and I to her preschool class. We learned about bears. And then the kids put together goodie bags for the bears! They all got to throw in raisins, and raisin bran, and prunes! Then the keepers put the goodies bags on a zip line and got them down into the bears dens. It was fun to watch the bears get the bags and eat them.
We celebrated my dad's birthday on Sunday! Hubby smoked a prime rib and it was YUMMY! We also had mashed potatoes and asparagus.

We got our Halloween decorations down the day after Halloween and got our blow up turkey up. Yes, we have a blow up turkey. He is about 8 feet tall and Courtney just thinks he is great. He "sleeps" during the day and then the time turns him on at night and he "wakes up". He also lights up inside so you can see him in the dark. It's great!

Speaking of decorations, some people are too excited about Christmas. There is an apartment complex not far from here and a few nights ago I noticed that one of the apartments already has their tree up and lights in every window and their balcony. And ON! It's a little early if you ask me...

Well, life has been busy and the house has gotten away from us. So, I guess I better go and try to take it back a bit!