merry christmas!

i hope everyone is having a merry christmas. we are enjoying the holidays here in CO. it is a white christmas this year; it's so pretty. the boys are playing with their new toys/games and i am enjoying some quiet time with austin by the fire. unfortunately kyle had to work today at noon but we had a great morning together. we also had a great christmas eve together. we took the boys ice skating in louisville. they have a small outdoor rink- it is pretty cool. it was cold and crowded but we still had fun.

happy haunting!

the boys are so excited about trick-or-treating! i have Captain Rex running around AND a vampire. this is peyton's first year to be scary!

i also have the cutest baby pumpkin laying around all warm and snuggly.

they are so ready to get the party started!

i hope everyone has a safe and fun halloween!

pumpkin patch

i had to post pictures from the pumpkin patch this afternoon! austin was so cute in the pumpkin pile! ;)

it was VERY windy- but it was a pretty nice day other than that. peyton & brendan rode a few rides and ran through the corn maze. we picked out 2 good pumpkins and took a few pics. we are all ready for fall!

austin's nursery is done!

pop monkey's all over the place. this room is so adorable! i love the way it turned out. i love the monkeys and the colors. it is my favorite room in the house to be in- and it's a good thing because i am going to be spending a lot of time in this room! ;) the lightswitch even has the monkey on it.

i hope austin knows that this paint stays on the walls!! that brown stripe was NOT easy! it's pretty neutral- i bet we can find something that goes with it when he gets older... for now- it is perfect.

Austin is here!

Austin arrived on Wednesday, August 19, 2009 at 3:04pm.

My doctor sent me to the hospital after my appointment on the 17th because he found protein in my urine. At the hospital, I started a 24 hr. urine collection. My doctor started the steroid shots to help Austin's lungs along- just in case. On Tuesday it was confirmed...I had severe toxemia. To be severe, 5 grams of protein is found in the urine. I had 7.5 grams!

I got the second steroid shot on Tuesday and the delivery was set for Wednesday at 2pm. I was so scared- my due date wasn't for another 5 weeks! He wasn't due until Sept. 25th! But I started to feel much better when all the nurses told me that my doctor was the BEST! I fully trusted him before, but it's nice to know everyone thinks that way.

After a LONG night, it was delivery day. I don't think I could have been more nervous. I was so scared of the c-section. Just the anticipation was killing me. My nurse that morning was wonderful and I knew she would be in the room with me during the surgery. That helped a lot.

Once she started prepping me for surgery, I started shaking. The spinal wasn't that bad, but it took forever for the guy to get it right. Once that was done, I was feeling a little better. My doctor calmed me down a little when he came in- a familiar face. Then Kyle came in- that was calming, too. He was by my side throughout the surgery. I don't remember anything, really, until my doctor said "He's almost here". A minute later I heard Austin cry. That has to be the most amazing sound- the first cry after they enter the world. I started crying! The nurses did what they needed to do and a few minutes later they brought my new son over to me. He is amazing; perfect! I only got to see him for a minute before they took him to the NICU. He weighed 4lbs., 13ozs. and was 17 inches long. He had to stay in the NICU during our whole hospital stay, but he was never on oxygen or a feeding tube at all. He stayed one extra night in the hospital after I was released. We brought him home on Monday, August 24th.

Peyton & Brendan are both proud big brothers. They love Austin so much! He is an amazing addition to our family!

Welcome Home, baby Austin! We love you!

first day of school

the boys start at their new school today. they were pretty excited this morning! we went to open house last night. we all met both of their teachers- ms. evans (b) and ms. kircher (p). they seem really nice. the boys filled their desks with their new school supplies.

i am excited for this year. i know they are going to adjust quickly and make new friends. they got off to a great start this morning at the bus stop...:)

brendan's kinder "graduation"

brendan's kindergarten diploma- he had an awesome year in ms. koch's pm class at cotton creek. he has learned so much in one school year- it is amazing! ms. koch also made all the kiddos scrapbooks of their year in her class. the books are so neat! there are pictures of all the individual kids, the two field trips they went on, and a class picture.

we will miss this school a lot! brendan made a lot of good friends in kinder that he will miss. he is pretty nervous about moving to a new school for first grade- but i keep telling him he will do just fine.

my little boy is growing up!

It's (another) boy!

I went in for a 4D ultrasound on Wednesday, the 6th and we are having a boy! He looks perfect. We got a lot of pictures during the session. I've posted my two favorites. I am going back at 28 weeks so we can get some more cool pictures of him before he enters the world.

We are still deciding on a name, although I really like the name Austin. We'll see. We have time to decide. I can't believe I'm half way! It's going by so fast.

Spring Break '09

The boys and I drove to Texas for the week to see family. We stayed in Dallas for a few days and spent some time with my in-laws. We then headed to Killeen/Austin. I finally got to see my nephew, Deacon. The boys thought he was the coolest thing. We also saw my sister, my mom, my grandfather, great granny and Kyle's grandma. The boys and I spent a few hours with my friend, Jenny and her little boy, too.

The worst part of the trip was the weather! There were a few sunny days, but it was rainy for the most part. :( Oh well. We did manage to be in a hail storm, too. Peyton thought that was pretty cool. I still need to get my car looked at from that one...

Anyway- we all had a lot of fun. I'm glad I decided to make the trip. It's always great to see family...even though it involved a VERY long car drive. I survived.

Oh yeah, it started snowing the second we hit the CO state line...imagine that! ;)

Home Sweet Home

Ahhh...it is great to be in a house again! We finally made the decision to buy in Colorado. We closed on February 19th. Our house is a 3 bedroom/2.5 bath 2 story with a full basement. I think the boys love the backyard the best. They have already met the neighbor kids...they love it here! The dog does, too. ;)

We are planning on being in this house for a long time- especially if I paint all these walls. We better! :) Anyone that knows us- knows that we move quite regularly. Well, that is going to stop! I'm done!

In other great news...we are expecting baby #3. Due September 25th! ;)

Happy New Year!!!!

I hope everyone had a great New Year's! Kyle and I were able to pull the boys away from the Wii for the day. We spent the day in Evergreen, CO and in downtown Denver. The lake in Evergreen was frozen over completely and people were ice skating and ice fishing. It was really cool to see. We walked across the lake (the boys each fell a few times) and enjoyed a little hike. We had a blast walking around Denver looking at lights. We also went on a carriage ride downtown. It was a lot of fun. Brendan kept asking if we could go faster... It was ONE horse that seemed pretty lazy, to be honest. We had a hard enough time making it through the stop lights with that one! :) The boys thought getting to touch the horse was even better than the ride.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great day. Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2009 to everyone!

We have a six year old again!

Brendan is 6?? Where does the time go? Seriously. I know people say it all the time, but it's TRUE! My baby boy is 6! His party was a lot of fun. He invited a few friends from his Kindergarten class. I made my first birthday cake. It turned out really cute (and yummy!). He got a lot of really cool presents. He even wrote out his own Thank You notes (with A LOT of help from Mommy). He is getting so big.

Oh- he thinks that since he is 6- he should be in first grade automatically AND he should be able to ride the bus like Peyton did when he was 6. I have to explain how things work EVERY morning on the way to the sitter...FUN! ;)

Thanksgiving 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!
The boys and I have been busy today. We started the turkey at 8am then watched the Macy's parade. Then we went on a walk to find some pinecones for our craft- pinecone turkeys (I found the idea online). We came back home and made the turkeys. They turned out so cute! We are now going to put icing on our cookies that we made last night. That should be messy fun! Can't wait.

I hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving!

Superstar Brendan

Brendan's kinder class does a Superstar each week and it is his turn this week. We made a poster yesterday with pictures and some of his favorite things written on it to share with the class. So- I went to his school this afternoon (after I was informed that "ALL the other mommies come to watch their kids talk") to watch Brendan present his poster. He was so cute standing up at the front of the class with 20 kids crowding his space. I swear these kids were sitting on Bren's feet, they were that close. ;) Anyway- he talked about each picture. We put a soccer pic on it, one of our dog- katie, one of the fam, one of Brendan & Peyton and one of daddy in his uniform. Brendan also talked about his favorite things:

Color: red

Food: hot dog

Sport: soccer

Movie: Star Wars Clone Wars

Book: Power Rangers Ninja Storm

After he talked about his poster, he picked 5 friends to tell him what their favorite thing was about his poster. One little boy said "I played Soccer, too, but inside". Brendan's response...."Ooooookay". It was pretty funny. Another little boy said "I like your dog". Brendan said "thank you".

He was so cute! He wasn't shy at all. It's like he couldn't wait to tell all his friends about himself. He was super excited that I was there, too, which made me really happy! A lunch break well used!

Fall in Colorado

Fall is my favorite season. I have learned that living in CO. I love the leaves changing and all of the different colors on the trees; the weather. It is an amazing time of year.
This day, we had gone to the park. The boys were having such a fun time playing in the leaves- I had to take a few pics. We tried to get a big pile of leaves together, but the wind had other plans. It was fun trying, though.

Halloween 2008

Peyton and Brendan after trick-or-treating. they had a blast. Peyton wanted to keep going, but Bren was ready to go home. they couldn't wait to survey the loot. i don't know how many times i heard the song, "trick or treat, smell my feet.....". enough until next year, i guess. ;) the boys crack up after they sing "i'll pull down your underwear". gotta love it.

congrats, kyle!

kyle made a career change- from retail to law enforcement. we have been back for over a year now- we are going to look for a house soon and settle down permanently. things are falling into place- Finally!

Christmas Day, '07

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

We had a great day! We went to the base of {Long's Peak} to go sledding, which is very tiring!! lol

Oh, how we missed Colorado!!! We are so happy to be back here.

Merry Christmas & (if I don't post again) Happy New Year!

Newport Beach, CA & MaLiBu

Our first family trip to CA--

So- we are trying to move back to Colorado. We wanted to get a trip in to Cali before we moved, so here we are. Newport Beach is beautiful! This was Brendan's first time at the beach- he LOVED it! The boys played in the water, played in the sand and went boogie boarding. The weather was perfect while we were there. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend! On Sunday- we drove the Pacific Hwy up to Malibu. So pretty!!! We ate at Gladstone's on the beach. It was a really cool place with an amazing view. I wanted to stay longer- but we had to get back.

**the family pic was taken right outside of Gladstone's. Brendan was having a meltdown, so we got the top of his head. Bummer- it would have been a great picture otherwise.

Thank you Chris & Janeen for watching Katie girl! We owe you one!!

peyton's kindergarten graduation

Peyton's Kindergarten graduation- May 31st- at Trailside Point Elementary in Laveen, AZ.

Grandpa & Grandma Sharp flew in from Dallas for Peyton's birthday- and they were able to come to his graduation celebration, too.

Peyton had a great year- even though we moved from CO to AZ- he had a smooth transition, considering...

He is turning in to quite the reader. He also loves science and math (who's child is this??? lol).

We are very proud of this big boy!

fUn in the sUn

We went to a friends birthday party yesterday at West Chandler Aquatic Center. The boys had so much fun- they were worn out last night. ;) They are becoming quite the little swimmers. If we stay in AZ- they will turn in to little fish! It's the only way to beat the heat outside.

This aquatic center was awesome- it had a lot of small slides and two pretty big slides for the older kids and adults, spray things all over and a huge playscape for the kids to play on. It is a great place to hang out at. I'm sure it isn't our last time here!

Spring Soccer for Brendan!

Brendan did such a great job playing soccer this Spring. He LOVED playing goalie. He got to play goalie the majority of the last two games. He did great.

Brendan made a few friends on the team- they had a fun end of session pary at Peter Piper Pizza. All the players got participation trophies. He is SO proud of that trophy- he has even slept with it the last two nights! lol