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? :-)

Aunt J.

So Aunt J came down and spent the WHOLE weekend with us...not sure who was more excited me or the girls, but it was awesome to have her around. While I have a 2 1/2 minute break from my 16 jobs let me just post how freaking cute the girls were in anticipation of J's arrival. They are wearing their new "princess dresses" that she got them.

And look who can sit up on her own, she still falls over but is getting much better about catching herself...well at least until a very excited Austin knocks her over. :-)

Motherhood.

I have played basketball for what feels like forever now and with every passing year it becomes that much more difficult to build a women's team. Girls play the same amount (or nearly as many) sports in school as boys do but we get out of school and start down different paths. One such path is motherhood. I believe this is one of the main reasons that I can't build a complete basketball team now that I am 32. Somewhere between trying to change diapers and create healthy meals we lose what we once were. Most aren't bitter by that fact, it is more of just a life change...something that some of us welcome. But it holds true that when little girls dream of big sports they rarely have women athletes past a certain to look up to. Teens and early twenties are easier to find though even they drop off the more dangerous sports early on. Freestyle skiing lost a legend a week ago, Sarah Burke died while training for the X-Games. She was nearly my age and was one of the ones that kept pushing on...I can only imagine how hard it was every year to continue to strap on those skis and compete against young girls that don't wear wedding bands and aren't trying to start a family. The price of failure only multiplies with each thing you gain. I know every weekend as we head up to the mountain I feel sick to my stomach, what if this weekend will be the one where I wreck and can't get up. That's what we are all thinking, all us moms. We strap on our helmets and boards because it is more important to be the role models that my daughters will need to see that life is scary and hard but sometimes if you try really hard you can keep up with the boys.

Our drive up...

The only bad part about snowboarding is in order to get the good snow you have to drive in this...