It's beautiful out!

It's absolutely beautiful out today, so we all had to get in a good dose of Vitamin D.

I always thought the whole iPhone phenomenon was crazy but I have to tell you that I am completely in love. Did you realize that you can setup your photo stream so when you take pictures, like the ones featured in this post, it will automatically dump them on your computer...instantly. So there's no more uploading or backing up your phone. Steve Jobs (RIP) and your team of geeks my hats off to you, because that is just about the coolest thing I have run into all week.

Austin has never really understood what the basketball hoop was but we went and watched the Harlem Globetrotters the other night and low and behold something must have clicked because here she shooting baskets while I smile so big my face hurt.


Lil' Bit's first time crawling around in the grass...albeit dead grass but it didn't seem to bother her.

The weekend came and went.

The weekends seem to pass by quicker every week, this was no exception to that. What we thought was food poisoning that I picked up in Indiana was probably a bug of some sort because both Helen and Joe ended up sick. Helen was fortunate enough to get it and be better before snowboarding on Sunday but Joe wasn't as lucky and stayed home while we headed up. I drug Dane with us since we had an extra seat in the car with Joe at home sick, we all took turns making fun of him so that made me laugh pretty much the whole day. He takes it well though, I suppose that's what comes with having sibblings so much older and way more vocal than you are.

Lil' Bit eating scrambled eggs for the first time this morning.

It's 70 degrees out today so Joe took the morning off and spent it doing yard work which included blowing the leaves out of the rocks and making a giant pile to clean up. Turns out to kids spring leaves are as much fun as Fall ones.

I am absolutely certain that I just called Dane some kind of name, see how he's smiling and I am pointing?!?

Getting back into the swing of things...

It's always hard getting back into the swing off things after a vacation and made worse by the fact that I left Indiana feeling like death. Joe was amazing on the flight home and held onto a very squirmy Tyler almost the entire time as I sat there and tried not to pass out. The flight was super smooth even though they came over and warned us that it was going to be such a bumpy landing that they were making the flight staff sit down early for their safety. Luckily while we were retrieving our gate checked items the pilot got off the plane and we were able to thank him for such an awesome landing. Once we got to the parking lot and felt the hurricane force winds we understood why everyone on the aircraft was nervous about the landing. The girls are just about back to normal although Lil' Bit seems more tired but that also could be because she is a full fledged crawler now. :-)

Tyler simply has to be close to Austin, this was yesterday morning as Austin was working with some stickers...Tyler can't help but at least have her feet resting on her. Tadd and I used to call this move "Rocket Ship" but the feet resting was then followed by the person in the back launching the person in the front into an immovable object. Good times.

This morning the girls had to play blocks together. :-)

Feeding the Goats

It took a few minutes for Austin to warm up to the goats but once she did her and MaryGrace sure had fun.

Look who's crawling...

My little towhead.

There aren't videos of me growing up but I imagine this is pretty close to exactly what they would look like.

Random Updates

Joe -

The business was pretty slow for a while and was driving Joe understandably nuts. It seems to be picking up now which is great news. This industry just happens to be entirely too stressful to then also not be profitable. Other than work which is just about all consuming, the girls and snowboarding take up the little free time he has. I can't believe how many days we have been up so far this year, I think we are at like 16 days. And when you consider it takes a minimum of 2 1/2 hours to get to the mountain and a babysitter it's amazing we have even been two days much less that many.

Me -

My Dad used to tell me that I had nervous energy and the specialists used to call it ADD but I tell you what if I am not busy I can feel my soul die a little bit each minute. So on top of everything else I have decided to dabble in the stock market. I have always been curious about it and with the Internet as long as you can read you can essentially learn anything. I have been building Joe and I's portfolio and having an absolute blast doing it. Not to mention it was brought to my attention by Helen that I LOVE gambling. We took her to Cripple Creek and while she was on the edge of a nervous breakdown I was throwing money out of my pockets like it was on fire. I watched her eyes as I lost and she shook her head, I just laughed and told her that she absolutely HAS to gamble some day with Tadd then. I watched him lose close to $500 while waiting for a beer. (She assured me that this is not something that she would like to witness.) I put in for our first IPO (Initial Public Offering) purchase of stock and we will hear if my bid was accepted this week. Let's see how much this spun up monkey has learned reading Wikipedia. :-)

Tyler -

Is still not crawling although she can take a few movements and put them together she still prefers rolling. She adores her sister and will "holler" at her if she is not paying attention to her. She can sit up on her own and feed herself with her fingers. I am still attached to that damn pump 6-8 times a day so she eats a mixture of milk and solid foods. She started saying "Momma" the other day and while I can assure you that she is not actually saying Mom she is completely thrilled when I answer back.

Austin -

Is a sponge...she craves learning. So we work everyday on whatever, today was letters and words. Friday was denominations of change (penny, nickle, dime...). Everything that you can possibly teach her, she wants to know. And participates so well with you when you are working on something. She wakes up early every morning and comes into our room, crawls under the covers with me and plays with my phone. It's a nice way for me to wake up slowly and Tyler to remain in bed, not mention that it is pretty darn cute to watch this little blond mop step over each dog and crawl up our bed.

The animals and my family are just about the same, still living the dream. Helen started her new job today...YAY Helen, I am excited to hear how the first day went.

And here are some pictures.

Austin making Valentine's Day cookies...well actually eating frosting and making a mess.



The finished product. You can tell the two in the middle that ol' Austin made...just about a quarter cup of sprinkles on each.


My sister Amanda moved back and brought her daughter Liberty, so Austin had someone else to play with on Sunday while went snowboarding. And it looks like Liberty likes to swing too!

This picture is the perfect depiction of a sibling who has been scolded and one who hasn't...yet, since Amanda is pregnant you know it's coming. See how Austin gives Tyler plenty of room and Liberty is crawling over the top of her? :-)