Kyle is 2!!

Our little boy is growing up so fast. It's hard to believe that just over two years ago, Jeremy and I had just celebrated our first anniversary and we were getting ready to welcome our first child. Now we've been married for three great years and have two boys... sometimes it feels like our house has sure gone crazy!! It only seems to get crazier as the days go by and Kyle gets older. He loves to sing songs like the B-I-B-L-E, Deep and Wide, and his ABC's. His favorite song is from Elmo's World. He knows most of his colors, shapes and letters; it is so amazing to watch him learning right before my eyes! Here he is enjoying his birthday party this past Saturday, the 30th...

We couldn't get him to eat any cake or cupcakes, he was too excited to go back and play on the playground! He did blow out his candle at least... he blows at every candle he sees, whether it is lit or not.

He did well opening presents with Aunt Amy's help. He got a lot of great gifts from friends and family including a Little People farm set, a Thomas the Train set, a Larry toy, and some great clothes and books.

Daddy enjoyed doing the "Dad thing" with the new camera we bought. Jer had gotten a camera for a good deal before we were married, but unfortunately it was a piece of junk, always telling us the lens cap was on when it obviously was not. Ugh! Praise the Lord we were able to get a new one to capture all the great and funny things the boys have been up to!

Here's Kyle enjoying his elephant chair that some friends got for him.

Here is the little guy playing with his new train set in the boys new room. As you can see, he is a true boy in the fact he couldn't leave the train set together... he kept taking it apart and trying to get it back together.

He loves to play with his trains. Every day since his birthday he drags the box out of his room and down the hall to ask me to set up the track for him. Unfortunately, he's already lost Thomas... so he doesn't have a train to drive around the track. I'm sure we'll find it one of these days... in a random drawer or under the couch...

Bryce had such a great time at the party that he wore himself out! Here he is snoozing in his swing.

God has truly blessed us. We didn't plan on having kids so quickly after we were married, but God had a different plan and I'm so glad He did. Kyle and Bryce bring us such joy and are such a blessing. We love watching them grow and learn.

We're still here!

I know, it's been a little while. Things have been pretty busy for us lately. We traveled to NY at the end of July to visit my family for two weeks. It was the first time Jeremy and I had flown together since Kyle was born. I was so excited to finally be able to travel with someone and to have help, but unfortunately, we were traveling with two lap children and we couldn't sit together. There is only one extra oxygen mask per row on each side of the aisle, so we didn't get to sit together at all!! I was really bummed, but the boys did great, including Jeremy. :)

The first week we were there all energy was focused on getting ready for my sister, Missy's, wedding. It was a great time, but a wee-bit hectic. Kyle was the ring-bearer and he did a great job, except for when the church got quiet just before Missy came down and he decided to start singing his ABC's. Here he is trying on his tux before the wedding.


The boys are so much fun to watch together. They love to laugh at each other and play. Here they are watching Veggie Tales together and holding hands.

Kyle was able to go swimming a couple of times while we were there and he really enjoyed it. It rained almost everyday that we were there, so it was nice to have a few hours of sunshine here and there to enjoy the pool.

Bryce is getting bigger and is such a good baby! He is sitting up, rolling around, and loves to play with his big brother's toys. We're working on trying to get him back on a schedule for eating and sleeping. With all the craziness we had doing the wedding, he got used to falling asleep while eating and napping in someones arms.

While we were in NY, my parents treated us to a night out for our anniversary. Jeremy and I headed off to Lake Placid to browse the shops and eat at one of the Mirror Lake Inn's restaurants. It was such a blast and a beautiful evening to be out. It was the second time Jer visited there and we have yet to check out any of the Olympic venues (the games were hosted there in '32 and '80). Maybe next time...

One of the funniest things during our visit (there were many) was Kyle and this racing wheel that my dad got for his xbox 360. Jeremy really enjoyed racing on it and Kyle watched him a few times, often yelling "Go, Daddy." One afternoon we realized it was too quiet and we hadn't seen Kyle for a few minutes. He had gotten out the wheel and pulled it onto his lap and was saying "I racin." Over the next few days, if he disappeared, this is where we found him.

On our trip back we flew through Chicago and Kyle got to see dinosaur bones in the airport. He was so excited that when we came home I brought him to the museum on their "free day." I have since decided it is worth the admission price because there were so many people with strollers that waiting for the elevator took a while, and we didn't even get into the dinosaur exhibit because it was so packed. We did enjoy ourselves though. Kyle loved looking at all of the animals they had. One of his favorites was the bears.

I had brought some snacks for the boys when we visited the museum, but Kyle was more interested in snacking on his brother. Here he is, trying to take a bite of his brother's foot. Bryce looks a little concerned. (If you look close, you can see Kyle even has his tongue out!

Since then we've been busy moving our apartment around. We decided the boys need to share a room, so we swapped all of our rooms around, trying to maximize the space in our 750 sq. ft. place. Once everything has found it's place and I can get the camera battery charged, I'll post some pictures!

Keeping Busy!

You know that you've entered the world of adulthood when you can't wait for summer to be over because, quite frankly, it is way too busy and you find yourself without the time to enjoy the nice weather. (If you can call Colorado's 90 degree-plus days nice weather.) Things have been crazy!



We celebrated our three year anniversary on July 10th and we were able to get away for the night to have dinner and go to an improv theatre. It was a blast, but since then we've barely seen each other!! Jeremy and his band, Crossfire, are playing in a large, music festival this coming Saturday and the band has been busy getting ready, so I've found myself playing the role of a single parent many days. Then, this past weekend, I was gone most of the time doing some painting for the school, so Jeremy got to be a single parent. We are leaving on Sunday and heading to NY for my sister, Missy's, wedding and we'll be gone for two weeks. We are so ready for a break! Here are some pictures of the boys from the last few weeks. They are so much fun and are always making me laugh!



Bryce visited the Dr. for his four month check and we found out he weighs 10 1/2lbs! Unfortunately, according to their percentages and charts, he isn't even on them because he is so small. Soooo, we've been feeding him a lot and are taking him back to the Dr. tomorrow to see if he measures up to their standards. I'm not too worried because he started out small and he seems pretty healthy. Also, he is the same age that Kyle was when he hit a growth spurt and I couldn't keep up with feeding him, either. Bryce has been zooming around in the walker lately and just loves it, as you can see.

Kyle is my entertainer. He woke up one morning with his shirt like this. I have no idea what he was doing in his sleep to get like this, and it happened several days in a row. Jeremy was telling me that yesterday, he and Kyle were watching part of King Kong where he is on the Empire State building, roaring at a plane. Kyle jumped in front of the TV, yelling "ee-pane, ee-pane! ROAR! ee-pane, ROAR!" He is so funny. He loves airplanes and one of his new discoveries is dinosaurs. He often walkes around roaring like a dinosaur.

Here are my boys in a rare state: all clean! Well, almost clean. Kyle has stinky feet. Very stinky feet. He was in the tub and I SCRUBBED his feet a couple times and when he got out, they still smelled. I think it is because he is a boy. :) I'm always telling Jeremy, girls aren't smelly, nor do they do gross stuff like boys. Oh well.

4th of July

I love the 4th of July. This year was exciting because we were taking Kyle to the fireworks. (We went last year, but there is only so much a 10 month old can appreciate.) The festivities started with a family BBQ; I made a lemon-berry tart. I was very proud of it, especially because its colors were patriotic. We had a great time hanging out and eating homemade ice cream! Jeremy was feeling a little under the weather, but he made the most of the evening. Here he is with the boys, all decked out in their red, white, and blue.

Here are Kyle and Collin playing with some bikes that were randomly piled in the middle of the grass.

Here is our little family passing the time before the fireworks. Bryce was hanging out with Nana and Papa Polson.

The field where we watched the fireworks from. Where I grew up, there was only one place to go and watch fireworks. Here, we have to pick from one of about five local shows. Usually, where ever you go you can see at least one of the other shows as well. This year we went to Broomfield. From there, we were also able to see Westminster's show to the south, and to the east, there were Northglenn's and Thornton's. It's all great fun, until you realize that maybe one of the other city's show is better than the one you are attending!!

Kyle finally wore himself out before the fireworks started. I was starting to worry he would never slow down and want to run all around while the fireworks were going off. Here we are, waiting patiently.

Fun in the Sun

We went to Water World today! I have lived here for several years now and this was my first visit, and man, it was fun!! Jeremy and I spent the morning with Kyle in the little kid area and we had a blast with him. (Aunt Amy was gracious enough to keep Bryce for us.) Then Nana Polson took Kyle home with her so he could have his nap and Jer and I could explore the rest of the park. Here are some pictures of our morning with Kyle.



He looks a little scared, but he was having a blast. All he kept saying when it was time to go was, "side, side, side!"

The water was quite loud in certain areas, but Kyle's screaming from this tunnel could be heard over all the noise the water was making! I don't know why, but this boy loves to scream!

If he wasn't screaming in the tunnel after riding down the slide, he was trying to climb up this net. By the end of the morning he was doing it all by himself.

Lunch time!! Kyle was smiling, but you can't really tell because of all the food he stuffed in his mouth.

Family fun, sliding down the "side." Pretty sure Mommy won this race!

The Friendly Skies

As some of you may know, my dad is a pilot. Growing up, my family was able to travel a lot and I grew to love airplanes and flying. I love to travel, but even more, I love to fly. I get so excited when I hop in the car to head to the airport. I almost dread coming home just because I usually don't know when I'll be able to go back to the airport and get on another plane. There has been a handful of times Jeremy looks at me like I'm crazy because I've told him that traveling and flying is like therapy!

Most people wouldn't agree with my comparing flying to therapy. The airline industry isn't what it used to be. It's hard to find someone who really loves what they do and enjoys serving people when traveling these days. I feel like I'm inconveniencing people whenever I ask for something or need help, even though it's their job! Plus, it always seems like my fellow travelers checked their manners with their luggage.

Well, my Dad called on Friday and said he would be flying into DIA and then repositioning the plane to a smaller airstrip south of the city. He wanted to know if we wanted to come and catch a ride and fly down with him!! I was so excited for three reasons: one, I get to see my Dad; two, I get to fly; and three, I get to fly out of a private terminal on a sweet plane. I didn't really care that the flight would last all of ten minutes. I would be flying!! As for the sweet plane, Dad works for a charter flight company and flies very well-to-do people around, thus, it is a nice plane.

Here we are, enjoying our "therapy."

Thanks, Dad!!

Good Intentions

Sometimes I feel like my life is full of just good intentions. It carries throughout many areas of my life, but for this post I'm only thinking about my intentions for staying in-touch. I love people and I enjoying knowing what is going on in others' lives, yet I'm horrible at keeping up relationships with all the people that I love. Let me explain. I had started a blog one month after my first son was born.... and I did one post. I have a Facebook account... and if I check it once every two months and update it once a year I'm doing well. I also have a MySpace account, which a friend just commented the other day how she wants to see updated pictures of Bryce (#2) because he is 3 1/2 months old, and I only have newborn pictures up. I think you're getting the picture.

I'm not going to make excuses for myself. Sure, I have two kids under the age of two. Yes, I'm working part time cleaning at the school to help out the family financially. I'm also trying to keep up with my household chores as well. I guess I just feel like in the grand scheme of things, outside of my relationship with God, my husband and kids, the next important thing should be my relationship with family and friends. That's what has value and is worth investing in, not whether or not there are dishes in my sink or laundry in the dryer. I know that Drew's recent departure to be with the Lord has played a big part in me wondering where my priorities lie.

So this is my attempt at doing a better job of keeping up with friends and family. I'm great at checking others' blogs, so hopefully I'll do well at keeping up with mine!! For now, enjoy some pictures of our little family from the past month.

Kyle got a new haircut for the summer...

Daddy's day...

Kyle kissing his brother...

Walking in the woods near Silverthorne...