Happy Birthday America!

We were fortunate enough to celebrate today in Redstone Colorado. We are at my parents place and having a blast as usual. If Kevin gets offered a job up here, we may not come home:)

It's a hard knock life at the cabin.

Had some time in the car to burn:)

My dad road his paper-boy bike in the Redstone parade this year. And tossed today's paper!

Lorelai was grumpy at the parade but put on happy face for me when we got home.

Daddy and Landon were in the parade.

The girls weren't in the parade, but they might as well have been with all the attention they got:)

Thirty

This post is a little over due.......but then again most of mine are:) Kevin turned the big 3-0 in May and I threw him a surprise party which actually remained a surprise to him! We had it in our backyard and I got him out of the house by sending him golfing (which he thought was a birthday gift, but was actually just to get rid of him for a few hours....hehehe) and while he was out all of the decorating took place and the guests arrived. I was so occupied that I did not get a picture of the set up.....but it was a Hawaiian theme and looked so cute!

His biggest surprise was the guest list.......it included some people that he never would have guessed to be at his party. Two of his best friends from Harding who live six hours away and their wives came all the way down just for him. The look on his face was priceless and it was exactly what I was wanting:) It will forever be one of those memories that sticks with me and makes me smile.

So I thought in the spirit of thirty I would list thirty things about Kevin that you may or may not know!!

1. He is the best husband and father in the world....now I've got my bragging out of the way:)

2. He is devoted to God and family.

3. He is a salesman for GES - a tradeshow exhibit house.

4. He loves to read.

5. He loves sports.

6. He continues to think that some day he is going to be on the PGA.

7. He is ready to pack up and move to a new place all the time.

8. One of his nicknames is Willy Wonka......b/c he has the most severe sweet tooth EVER.

9. He was born and raised in Bozeman, Montana where his parents still live.

10. He has two older sisters...one in Calgary and one in Denver.

11. He hates the Dallas Cowboys.

12. He was a competitive swimmer growing up.

13. He loves being an uncle to his nieces and nephews.

14. He is a big tea drinker..........a hot cup of tea every night.

15. He doesn't have much rhythm, but says someday he will take dance lessons with me!

16. He drives an older gold altima, which he lovingly refers to as 'the pregnant lady car'

17. He likes cats and wants another (we are 0-2 keeping them alive).....I continually talk him out of this!

18. He is an introvert.

19. He says that he knew I was the one b/c I was the first girl that didn't get on his nerves! Umm....thanks.....I think?!?!?

20. Favorite show - the Office. Favorite movie - Braveheart

21. He is a morning person.....thank goodness one of us is.

22. He is commonly referred to as the 'Tickle Monster' around here.

23. He is NOT a picky eater and so he is good sport about my adventurous cooking.

24. He wants to retire on a golf course.

25. He looks forward to traveling the world (with me of course:) after the kids are grown.

26. He wants to learn another language.

27. He can tell some really cheezy jokes.....I am still getting used to 'Staples' humor!!!!

28. He has a tattoo of a cross with a dove over it on his right shoulder. And wants another.

29. He thinks he works out in his sleep b/c his muscles look bigger in the morning.........:)hehe

30. He is getting LOTS of gray hair!!!!!!! He claims from me and the kids!!!!!!!!!

Thirty used to sound so old. Now fifty doesn't sound very old. Crazy how your perception changes. But one thing will never change......the fact that I will always be younger than you Kev!

Our backyard

Do you want the long version or the short? Well if you answered short, than we've been working on our backyard and here's what it looks like.

So for the long version. There are just so many funny memories that can happen when you combine me and well......lots of things for some reason. My family has nicked named all embarassing moments, 'Laura moments'........oh dear.....hope I don't pass it on to our kids:) Anyway, the backyard transformation all began when my father-in-law, Dennis, looked at our backyard for the first time and said, "A deck would be good over here on your side yard b/c this space isn't very usable right now because it sloops so much." Well he was right, it was a waste of yard, so we started planning the deck. Next thing you know I have design ready for Dennis and Kevin and they knock out the deck in few days! Here are some pics of the deck under construction.

Because I wasn't able to oversee the building of our fence, it is crooked. That was a joke by the way, I am little bit of a perfectionist for those of you who don't know me well:) So there was an uneven gap between the fence and the edge of the deck. So after much deliberation, I decided to copy my brother-in-law, Jordan, and build (ie- make Kevin and Dennis build:) planter boxes along the sides of the deck. So you will notice that the planter boxes are different widths, that was done to cover the gap! And there is a bench seat in between the planter boxes that is hard to see in the pictures.

Now on to the 'stone' patio. This was no little task people. We had to call in a professional, who luckily for us was a dear friend. Kevin's friend from birth, literally, they are one day a part in age, came up all the way from Austin to help for three days. You can check out his website here and if you live in the Austin area and want any kind of concrete or rock work done, Andy is your guy.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the patio in construction, but I do have a story. So it is day two of the patio. The design is dug out, the forms are in place, the road base is down (I sound like I know my stuff....don't be fooled...when asked to call around town and get pricing on road base, I forgot what it was called and asked for road kill...:) the guys have been waiting on the concrete truck for hours and it has finally arrived at the worst time possible for me!!! I had to take birthday treats up to Landon's school at a specific time that day and I had been told that the concrete was coming first thing in the morning and that Kevin would be available to watch the kids after lunch, well that obviously wasn't going to happen since it was 1:30 and the concrete truck had just arrived. So I had Liam, Haylee (Andy's four year old), and the girls had just gone down for a nap, and treats that had to be at Landon's school in 15 minutes.

So Kevin says, "just put on a show for Liam and Haylee and they'll be fine. We'll keep on eye on them through the window." Moms...you know what went through my head, Kevin and Andy and my dad by the way, very busy with the concrete forgetting to check on the kids, and Liam and Haylee jumping on the bunk beds or deciding to take a bath. Ya right am I leaving them with a show, even for 20 minutes. But the girls, safe and sound in their cribs, yes I can handle that. So I gave them the baby monitor (even if the girls woke up 30 minutes into their nap and I was home, I wouldn't get them up!)
So I scramble to get Liam and Haylee ready and out the door, grab the treats, and decide I better tell the boys we're leaving. Well that was a bad decision. They had starting pouring the concrete and right when I opened the door, Minnie slipped out between my feet and literally ran straight for the concrete. It was like everything went in slow motion, I'm running after her yelling as she leaps off the deck and lands smack dab in a mound of fresh concrete. I can't lie, a four letter word did come out of my mouth. Okay, so now it is 5 minutes til treat time at Landon's school, so I grab her up by the back of her neck and mouth to myself the whole way back inside, "Why now? Why me?" So I decide to deal with her later and I leave her in the laundry room covered in concrete. I go to get the kids in the car and hummm....what do I notice......the concrete truck is blocking my entire driveway. So I stop and say to myself okay, you can either cry right now or laugh, which is it going to be? Laugh I decided. Thankfully my dad's truck was parked on the street and so I did have to move a carseat and booster seat of course, but who cares at this point? We finally got into Landon's school and we were ten minutes late, as I opened the door to his room one of the less polite boys in class says, "Finally. We've been waiting forever." (He may have gotten the smallest rice krispie treat..) Minnie, by the way, was nice and crusty when I got home and cutting and brushing all the concrete out of her VERY long furr was so fun.

Now on to funny story number two. It's my mom's fault for finding these ridiculously awesome chairs and table for $30 at a garage sale.

They were a blah wood color and so I decided they needed some spice. I thought I was just super lucky when I found the exact color I wanted in a spray paint can (they only give you like 20 choices.....like how's a girl supposed to work with that?) Well, I wasn't lucky come to find out and here is why! I, like a good little spray painter, wore a little mask over my nose and mouth and did it in my empty garage with door open for ventilation, with drop clothes down and old clothes on. I thought I had my bases covered right? Oh no. After getting half way done, Kevin comes out and says, your face looks blue. And your arms. And your legs. What? That's not good. There must have been more wind than I thought. This is oil-based paint folks. Yeah, paint thinner gets it off, not soap and water. So I get in a panic, totally unlike me, (another joke, I panic often) and start rubbing paint thinner on my arms and legs, then I read the back of the paint thinner. It basically says, 'Don't put this directly on your skin and we are not liable for brain and nerve damage'. Well, I have had to use paint thinner before, but never had to basically bathe in it, so I hurry through what seems like a whole roll of paper towels. And yours truly did this bare foot so my feet looked like smurf feet and I had to soak my feet in paint thinner!! So I started feeling light headed and then I noticed that my pointer fingers were numb. That's it, I have had this on my skin too long. I'm an idiot and I now I have nerve damage to prove it. So I half yell, half cry for Kevin and he comes to calm me down. (My mom and sister were so glad to pass along the role of helping the basket-case! My sister loves to tell the story of when I thought my eye was going to be swollen shut for the rest of my life) He helps me realize that my fingers are numb from holding down the button on the spray can for so long:) But then lets me know that my face is still blue. I draw the line on the painter thinner right there. I AM NOT PUTTING THAT ON MY FACE. And you know what is crazy? My face was the most blue WHERE the mask WAS. Ya. I guess when I would breath in, it actually forced more spray paint in. So no more masks for me. At least not cheap ones. So I have decided to go blue until it eventually rubs off, when all of a sudden I get the greatest idea. Finger nail polish remover. And it worked!!! It burned a little, especially on my chapped lips, but hey no pain no gain right? JK. It was a horrible experience, but I learned:) I spray painted these pots a few weeks later, And I completely covered my whole body and made peep holes through an old t-shirt and wore it as a mask. Good thing none of my neighbors saw me!!!My tomato seeds are sprouting. I am going to transfer them to a hanging tomato bag and hope for juicy little tomatoes very soon. I also planted rosemary in my planter boxes and if it goes well, I would like to try more herbs and vegetables next year.


Well, here's the best part of our backyard. Enjoying it. If you are still reading this, I'm impressed, this was the longest post ever. Here are some pictures of our little angels and some close-ups of my favorite flowers.

Sweet Brother. Sharing. And Six!

Liam is working on being a sweeter brother to his sisters. He thinks they are out to get him!!! He can't stand that they don't know how to share yet and that they don't follow his directions. Landon went through this with Liam when he was this exact age and then at about 18 months it got so much better. So we are only a couple months away, but until then we are working hard on Liam. It is tough for him because the girls are all up in his business all the time and there are two of them!! But we are slowly making progress, and he does have lots of tender moments with them. I happened to capture the one below. He asked for me to take a picture of him with them.
We must be raising some 'ladies men' because Katelyn has decided that she wants to marry Liam (she is in his preschool class). And he agreed. He sometimes forgets her name......minor details I guess when you're engaged at age three:)

They are fenced in because a Petting Zoo came to their preschool!

Baskets and boxes are popular at our house. The girls get rides down the hall all the time and since there is never a shortage of laundry at our house, there are always plenty of baskets lying around for them to choose from! I caught a very average moment on camera with them yesterday. They both look at the basket, turn it over together, try to get on together, but then disaster strikes and a fight breaks out!! But mommy steps in and makes everyone happy as you can tell. Sharing is hard for toddlers, but these girls are going to master it earlier than normal out of necessity:)

We have a six year old. What? Six? Yep, it's hard to say but it's true. He had a great celebration last weekend with friends, family, and some classmates. His two best friends, Margo and Keran, are sitting right next to him. He and Margo still plan on getting married....but Keran is next in line I guess! He had a Magic School Bus cake....and let me tell you that it is hard to find Magic School bus stuff these days. I remember watching that show.....anyway he loved his party. He told someone when they asked if he felt any different now that he was six, 'that he didn't...but he did feel better treated.' What a goof. If only it could be your birthday everyday right?!?!

Landon is such a ham that I didn't even have to pose these pictures. He had his own ideas.

He is just as handsome on the inside as he is on the outside. We are so proud of him. He talks about God and Jesus and Heaven all the time. He (and Liam too actually) tell us a few times a week that we are the best parents in the world (good parenting is such a challenge and trust me we feel like we mess up all the time, so it is nice to hear that they really do value what we are doing despite our shortcomings) and that they never ever want to loose us. They say it to each other too, which makes me want to cry every time. Landon is setting a wonderful example of how to be sweet to Kallie and Klaire (now we just need Liam to follow:), he is so giving and thoughtful to his friends, I could just go on and on!

This and that.

Artichokes anyone????????????????????????

Yep, that's a slug you're looking at and yes he did come home with me from the grocery store. I about chopped my finger off when I saw his little head peeping out at me. And then I almost loaded everyone up to go back to the store and give them back our special gift.....and if I didn't have all the kids I would have. I didn't want to chew anyone out or anything, I just wanted to see what they would give me!!! Even though I washed the artichokes and steamed them I couldn't eat them....but Kevin and Landon did!!!

Guess I will be washing my produce a little better now!!!!!!!!!!!

These are Liam's cowboy muscles and they grow every time he takes a bite. Just wait until you hear his cowboy voice......he takes his southern accent to a whole new level!!!!

Double and Trouble or Pip and Squeak in their their don't pinch me St.Patrick's day outfits:)
These girls are keeping me on my toes. They want to play with everything they shouldn't and they are sneaky too!

I forced them into these outfits and they paid me back by not smiling in any of the gazillion pictures I took.

They love to play with daddy and anyone else who will lay down on the floor and let them pounce on them!!

All four of them were watching something.....so cute to see all of them together. The boys usually go off and play on their own, so when Kallie and Klaire get to have them they are very excited. Notice how Klaire is pulling Kallie's pony tail out.....ya that happens every day. And Kallie is actually worse about it than Klaire.