Catching Up.

Holy Smokes I missed a few days.

November 20 - I am thankful for my love of animals.  I have been passing it down to the girls who love on animals every chance they get, Austin even walked Ty (our oldest 120 pound Akita) around the neighborhood the other day.  I always forget how big he is until you see him being escorted down a sidewalk by a three year old.

November 21 - I am thankful for the immense amount of information I can find using the Internet.  I managed to make a Turkey shaped veggie tray, a cheesecake, an apple pie, a cherry pie, a pumpkin pie and salted caramel turtles all through recipes that I found online.

November 22 - I am thankful for Thanksgiving, it is favorite holiday and we had such a blast sitting around laughing at one another and eating fantastic food at my Mom's house.

November 23 - I am thankful for Pay Day.  Even in the digital age where my check is deposited automatically and a plethora of bills are paid within seconds, there is still something magical about pay day and it will always make me excited.

November 24 - I am thankful for Small Business Saturday.  I could never imagine participating in Black Friday but Small Business Saturday I love.  The girls and I went to Manitou got a couple of new Christmas ornaments, ate at The Keg (one of my favorites), played at the penny arcade, got custard and topped it off with face painting.  I mean co'mon who doesn't love a day in the sun like that.

Groceries

November 17 - I am thankful for groceries.  I am thankful that at any point I can walk to our King Soopers and get fresh food to make for my family.

November 18 - I am thankful for Peyton Manning who has given Coloradans some real hope for a great season...Go Broncos!

November 19 - I am thankful for my new camera, I went to Joe's work today and took some pictures of his crew and some medicine and I have to say that camera takes some truly bad ass photos.

And my Mom came and grabbed the girls so I could take the pictures for Joe...look what they came back with!

Oh yeah and Joe took some videos of Tyler's swim lessons this morning.

Here she is practicing her "starfish" which is the ability to just float on your back.  I am singing the ABC's in her ear to distract her.

And here she is doing "eyes under" which means that I raise her up out of the water and then basically push her head and body under water and up through the hula hoop.

Pilgrims And Indians

Per Charles' request...Anne mentioned that he was concerned that Austin and Tyler did not have the Pilgrim and Indian dolls that he and his sisters made and that perhaps he could send them some of theirs.  Well instead Anne sent me the link to the dolls and we made them here.  The girls LOVED every bit of it and I made a version of Bang Bang Shrimp from Bonefish Grill with a peanut twist so everyone was happy. :-)

Mini-Crystal working away at her paintings.

Mini-Joe eating her apples (which happen to be her new favorite food, perhaps because she can want it, say it and then receive it...must be refreshing to her).

Joe helping show Tyler how to paint on the paper and not in her mouth.

Ol' Long Boob and her sidekick when she was done painting.

We painted for hours...Austin thought it was awesome.

And our finished troops.  Shortly after this picture was taken our living room looked like the battle at Wounded Knee with arms and headdresses everywhere.  At least they were cute for a moment. :-)

 

Shelley

November 16 - I am thankful for Shelley, she is my Spin instructor and is just about solely responsible for my workout this morning.  The great thing about Spinning with Shelley is that I know if I show up to the gym at 5:30 AM, crawl my half asleep butt up on the bike she takes over from there.  The room is dark the music is loud and she is hootin' and hollarin' like she's been up for hours.  Needless to say it is one of my favorite workouts and I have her to thank for it.

Laughter

November 15 - I am thankful for laughter.  Let me paint you a picture of what happened last night while I was cooking dinner.

The girls were painting their Indian and Pilgrim dolls (pictures when I get them all put together now that they are dry) and Joe was taking pictures of them doing said painting.  When he snapped one picture apparently of my chest and laughed and said well that one was just of Mom's boobs but the rest were of the girls doing their artwork.  At this point Austin asked "What are boobs?".  Keep in mind I am standing in the kitchen but allowing Joe and Adam to field the question themselves just to see where we go with this.  Joe fumbles around for a bit about the fact that women have them and men don't and then Adam throws in and they feed babies...so everyone talks about the fact that both girls were breastfed and this seems to suffice as an explanation for Austin.  Then she stops and asks...so Mom has boobs right?  Everyone says yes.  She cocks her head to one side and says yeah but why are they so long?  Laughter ensued.  Ahhh yes just the adjective that I would like my breasts to be called....long. :-)

The Garden of the Gods

November 14 - I am thankful for the Garden of the Gods, today the girls and I stopped by Jimmy Johns picked up a sandwich and went for a picnic and a hike through there.  It was nice to be outside and as long as the sun is shining I never really get cold here, so when a flabbergasted women stopped us and asked if I was cold (it was 50 degrees out today and I am in running pants and a short sleeved shirt) I laughed and said not only am a native but I'm carrying this - pointed to my backpack with Tyler in it.  Needless to say I was sweating my mascara off while everyone else was bundled up.  :-)

Schedule

November 13 - I am thankful for our schedule, not only that it is relaxed but that it is ever changing.  I like the variance everyday it keeps me on my toes. :-)