Firing Snow Pillows

Here is a picture of precious Leah with a shiner on her eye. She got this from Jacqueline, who was carrying chairs around the basement. I was changing a diaper, and all of the sudden Leah was screaming. Our new rule in the basement is that the chairs have to stay on the tile floor around the table. I am hoping to get some plastic chairs for the play area so hopefully things like this won't happen again!

At supper, Jacqueline was asking to fire snow pillows, so we let them stay up late and have s'mores. Here's a crazy girl posing by the fire.

She ran off, saying she wanted me to "take a picture from me!" Lovely face Jacqueline! Such a clown!

She's so beautiful! I love her to pieces!

While we were roasting our snow pillows, I said we should see if Michelle and David want to come out over Labor Day. Jacqueline got all excited (which probably isn't a good thing because I don't think they'll come) and ran off to find sticks that they can use to roast their snow pillows. Here they are! (Keep in mind that ours are probably at least 3 feet long.... it's the thought that counts!)

Swimming!!

We went swimming today at The Bay water park in Broomfield with our friend Meryt and her two girls. Marissa is Jacqueline's age, and Aiden turned one in June. Seeing the differences between her and Leah are so mind boggling, just like the way it used to be with Jacqueline and her friend Jill, because Leah and Aiden will be in the same grade in school. Here are a few pictures. Both girls loved the water! There were two pools that we played in. One was only 1 1/2 feet deep and both Jacqueline and Leah, along with Marissa, had a blast playing in it. The other, I don't know how deep it got, but probably around 5 feet. Jacqueline and Marissa kept going out into deep water, mostly chest deep, and had to be rescued once from water up to her chin! She was fine, it was Meryt and I who weren't. :) These pictures were taken right at the end, and Leah was happier out of the water than in. Jacqueline would have stayed for hours more (we were there for 4) if we let her!


In this picture, you can see the black in her fingernails from scratching at the mold in between concrete squares. Yucko! We couldn't get her to stop!

Here is a video of Leah I took at the end. She was content on land.


After a day and a half of men working, our waterfall and pond are working. Not really the safest thing with kids, but surprisingly, they are really good around it. The day care kids haven't even noticed it, so that is a huge plus! We have major plans to get a cover for the pond, and fence off the top as well. The sounds are great and very relaxing. Here are a couple pictures Casey took tonight while I was at Mom's Night Out.
Leah was excited about the water.... hence the weird look, mouth open (saying "water") and pointing. :)
A pose? Not really sure what she is doing here, but it's super cute!

Pregnancy Craving #2

My new craving is Peanut Butter, Brown Sugar, and Banana sandwiches! yum! I hadn't had them in years, and then one day I thought it sounded really good, and it was! We used to eat them at our friend Tammie's house when we were little, so I don't see it as a weird craving, but it definitely does go under the category as a pregnancy craving since I hadn't thought of them in years, and decided now that I needed to start eating them again. Jacqueline likes them too. :)

I miss Sharon, Tammie's mom, may she rest in peace. And know that we all love her and miss her dearly!

New Belly Pics! 24 weeks

We went to the doctor yesterday, July 20th, and had a routine visit. My BP was 92/56 (I believe) and I weighed in at 131. That means I gained 5 pounds in 4 weeks. We heard Tina's heartbeat, and she sounded good. My belly measurement was 24/25 so right on/a little big. No biggie. It's my third, I feel huge, life is grand! :) I have been getting leg cramps, to which Eryn suggested taking Magnesium and Calcium at bedtime. So now I am taking 5 vitamins in the morning, and then a Magnesium tablet and a Viactiv Calcium Carmel Chew before bed. I have also been having occasional low belly pain, just constant pain, no cramping or anything, so I am looking into getting a belly band. I just have a feeling that will make me hotter than I already am, but the extra support would be nice. Oh yeah! The nurse gave me my yummy Glucose drink. I got orange this time. So I will be taking that test at 28 weeks, on August 16, the day after we get back from our week in Iowa. We are going about 2-3 weeks later than usual this year, but I really wanted to go to the State Fair!

Here are two pics that Casey took tonight before he left for D.C.

You can see Leah's hands as she cried and said "up" because she was not happy that I put her down! The poor girl is going to have a rude awakening when Tina comes!

One more 4 week visit, then I will be going every 2 weeks. I have my appointments set up for Mondays through the September, and at one of my next two, I will probably set up my 1 weeks appointments as well. I told Casey I will be seeing the new doctor that is starting in the practice in September, so hopefully he will start going with me again so he can get acquainted with all of them again, as both Jacqueline and Leah were delivered by Eryn and she will be on maternity leave when Tina comes. New delivery doctor, here we come!

Kid Spree!

Today we went down to Aurora (southeast suburb) to KidSpree. An all kids' day in the park with 50+ free activities for kids to do. The girls had a blast!!

First place we went was "Candy Land."

You can see the colorful tiles in this picture that were representative of the game board.

Then Jacqueline found her way through a maze. She had so much fun taking all the turns and having to back track to find her way out.

Next was the giant sandpile. Jacqueline loved it and climbed right in.

Leah was the skeptical one who didn't want to play in it if she had to sit or stand in it. :)

We did some fingerpainting in the State Farm tent, which actually had 5 different activities, but I didn't realize this until we were moving on. Jacqueline's finger painting ended up being a big brown blob and I threw it away as we were leaving the tent.

Leah's finger paint was awesome! We brought it home (very carefully because it was wet!) and I am hoping to frame it! Both girls ended up with paint on their clothes, and I don't think it's going to come out. :( I'll have to keep trying.Next, Jacqueline and I went through Hi Ho Cherry-O. You got a bucket, and all the trees had "cherries" on them. You spun the wheel and took that many cherries. We ended up with a full bucket and we didn't even go to all the trees.

Here is Leah playing in one of the Little Tykes houses. This was probably her favorite area!

Jacqueline made it to the dress up stage and had a blast! In this picture you can see all the brown paint she got on her pretty dress. :(

I love this one!

After we left the park, we went to lunch at BJ's, and then stopped by Guys and Dolls, a kids' furniture store, so now we have to decide who is going to get new bedroom furniture, Tina, or one of the girls? Do we move the crib, or let Leah keep it since she doesn't really want the toddler bed? Hmmm! Decisions, decisions, decisions... and we really need to make them soon! :)
Then went to Tia's 30th Birthday Party. We got to see, but not hold, Tia's 10 day old baby. Just too many people to let everyone hold her, but she is adorable! It makes me really excited for Baby Tina to come along!

Lazy Park Days

We had three days this week that were just for me and the girls! We went to the park each morning.... Monday and Wednesday we went to the same park (a new one for us!) and on Tuesday we went to a different one, but that one was also new to us. We had a great time! On Monday and Wednesday, there were no swings, which was heaven for me because when there are swings, that's all the girls want to do! I did convince them to play on the equipment, but it was hot, so they didn't really like the slides.

These are the Tuesday park pictures. It's a great little park with lots of open space, and even bathrooms. But it isn't big, which really is fine by us. :) When we first got there, we were the only one there, then two families showed up, each with one kid, and as we were leaving, one more family with one came. One lady did say that it is usually busy, but it was nice and quiet for us!

This is the Monday/Wednesday park. Here is our "I see you. Do you see me?" picture. :)

She didn't go any higher, but she thought it was fun to try climbing.

Jacqueline was awesome on the climbing wall!

She was happiest when no one was helping her rock the bird.

Our crazy rockin' chick!

Run, Leah, Run!

At first she thought this was for climbing up, and really, it does work much better as a ladder than a slide!

We really don't make it to the park very much, but when we do, the girls and I have a great time! We really need to go more often!

The Belly Moves!!!

Well, it has been an eventful couple of weeks! We have been really busy at our house. Casey's mom and grandma were here until Wednesday, and his dad will be heading back to Iowa in the next couple of days. It has been so nice having them here! They help with everything from baths to dinner, cleaning to all the work that needs to be done around the house. Casey's mom dead-headed the roses a couple of times, pulled weeds out of most of the yard on multiple occasions, helped with Jacqueline's big girl room, made dinner, washed dishes, and gave the girls baths most nights she was here. Plus she helped out some with the day care kids! Casey's dad helped Casey with the fence, tree trimming, drywall patching of multiple holes around the house, dog walking, grocery shopping, and probably a number of things I can't even think of!

Today, we loaded the four of us and Casey's dad into the Highlander, where I squeezed in between the girls (bad idea... I was way too squished!!), and went down to Littleton to the Colorado Celtic Festival. They had lots of good music, plus an Irish dancing competition. Jacqueline loves the Irish dancing, and I think if it fits into our schedule, we are going to start her in it this September!
The guys put the girls on their shoulders so they could more easily get the bubbles that more often than not were as high as the girls, if not higher!

I think chasing bubbles was a favorite activity of every kid there! Well, that, the water mist tent or maybe the playground!

I got Jacqueline a wand and crown. She loves them!!!

At the end of the day, we let the girls stay up 2-3 hours past their bedtime and we roasted marshmallows. It was Tom's last night, and we had planned to do this, and didn't until now.

Roasting marshmallows is a family affair. :)

Jacqueline turned out to be quite a mess!

On to baby news..... Baby Tina is moving all the time! And today I saw the movement!!! I was watching the end of The Tour de France, and I saw my belly popping out in different spots! I couldn't believe it! I will be 23 weeks on Monday, but I feel like this is early to be seeing the movements. Just like Jacqueline and Leah, when a hand is on the belly she calms down, so feeling the movement is a very rare thing. I am so excited, but also getting nervous because I have two more appointments until I start going every 2 weeks. Everything is going by so fast, yet so slow. It's crazy!!!

In Leah land, she is talking up a storm! Yesterday morning I was changing her diaper before we left for the Springs. Baxter, Casey's parents' dog, was in her room with us and he was running around all excited, and she said "Baxter, excited!" I couldn't believe it! New words are coming out all the time!!!
Here is a picture of Leah peeking over her snack bowl while sitting in a big girl chair at the table. She's so tiny!

Colorado Springs

Today Casey and I loaded the girls in the car, left his dad home with the dogs, and headed to Colorado Springs for some family fun. Only fitting when Casey took 2 weeks off work and spent all but 1 1/2 days working on the house/yard. But before we went, I decided to make breakfast, which turned into an all girls thing. Jacqueline loves to help, and in turn, Leah does too. If one wants to do something, so does the other, isn't that how it always works with kids?
We went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, which is seriously on the side of the mountain, and they have about 12 giraffes, if not closer to 15. And you can feed them too! When you start out, you are elevated at the giraffe's height, and they all hang out because they know they can get treats. Their tongues are really long!
Jacqueline caught a bird in the aviary! So did I (on my head!), but didn't get a picture of that one!
There was a tunnel sort of thing for the kids to play in and Jacqueline had fun playing in it.
After the zoo we were going to see Seven Falls (7 waterfalls with hiking trails, I've heard it's really neat), but it looked like it was going to rain, so instead we stopped at a Visitors' Center that had activities for kids to go to the bathroom and change a diaper. It ended up being a good choice because we would have gotten a soaked while seeing the falls.
I think this was the first time (at least in a long time!) that I have seen a hippo out of water! At the Denver Zoo, they are always either in the water inside, or out. This one was on his way to the water, and then later we saw them inside, out of the water, eating.
It was a long day, and poor Leah was too tired to stay awake for the monkeys and penguins!
This orangutan, and the other in this cage, had shirts that they were wearing. It was so funny!
After we left the zoo around 2:30, we hadn't eaten lunch, so we stopped for subs from Jimmy Johns, and shared them with the girls in Garden of the Gods. Leah and I lost Jacqueline and Casey after we ate because they took off before we did, and Leah wanted to walk, so we were pretty slow. After searching for a while, I took the opportunity to pose Leah in a few spots. This was on of my favorite pictures!
After we found them, and were walking the long way to the parking lot, I offered to take a picture for a family vacationing from Omaha. Their camera battery died, so I took the picture with my camera and emailed it to them. When they moved on, Jacqueline wanted me to take her picture too. I love her cheesy smile!
Casey was going to take a picture of me with the girls, but a nice lady offered to take a picture of the 4 of us. The matching wasn't all planned.... I put Leah in purple after I was dressed, but Jacqueline and Casey just happened to match on their own. :)
On the way home, the girls and I fell asleep, which is very typical on car rides for our family! :) We had a great day and I look forward to future trips to Colo Springs because there really is a lot to do there! And honestly, Garden of the Gods never gets old!