park and bowling

We have good friends that we meet up with once a week in the summer. For our first outing this year, we met at a new park for lunch.

It's a great park with fun water features but, being new, it was very crowded. The kids had fun anyway; the little ones in the water, the bigger ones playing frisbee.

Afterward, to escape the heat, we used our free bowling coupons from AMF.

Firefighter's Museum

I'm making a sincere effort to get pictures and blog posts up in a more timely manner. Today we met a friend at the Firefighter Museum downtown. It was just me, Declan and Zane since the other 4 were at Options.

Here's my cute little firefighters:

With my friend's daughter, Noelle:

Zane is still too short to be a true fireman. =)

December daily book

I really love the idea of this book so I'm working on my own. You create a scrapbook for the month of December, and work on it each day so you have a completed book at the end of the month. I was able to go scrapbooking with a friend last month and got started on it. Since then, I've found a few spare minutes here and there and got all the pages done. Now I'm taking a picture a day to put in it. The first few pages will be advent and decorating the house.

A couple of my brilliant friends planned a fun activity for the first night of advent. We got together and had a Jesus birthday party. We had cake and crafts and talked about the real meaning of Christmas.

Each of us ladies created an advent wreath to take home.

Later, the men enjoyed a few games of darts.

At home, we lit the first candle and read some verses of the Bible. I hadn't yet dug out Jotham's Journey which we usually read each night.

All this week we have been getting the house decorated and making crafts. We did a simple, homemade advent calendar which I'm filling with small treats.

I'll try to update as the season goes on.

It's snowing lightly outside; fat, lazy flakes that take their time from the clouds to the ground. I see God's magnificent mountains, the snow-covered trees surrounding them, a soaring eagle in flight.

This is from a journal entry I made the Sunday before last as I was sitting by a fireplace at a lodge in Breckenridge. I'd gone there for a retreat with four fabulous friends. We created our own weekend and it went something like this...

As we walked along a mountain path, a fox walked nearly right up to us. Later, he visited us along the walkway around the hot tub. A blue jay flew overhead. Or was it a crow? (inside joke)We watched a muskrat and huge trout race each other to devour food thrown from a bridge.

We laughed, we cried, we talked of painful things, past mistakes and the families we are all so proud of.

We planned, we shared ideas, we created a concept that's going to be so great in the lives of many families.

We relaxed, we walked, we shopped, we swam, we separated for bible study, reflection and time alone with God.

We grew closer to God and to each other.

Oh, and the views weren't bad either.

summer wrap-up

Despite the best of intentions, I didn't blog many of our summer activities or photos. So I'm going to try to condense them down to a few posts and at least get them up. That way in future years the kids won't think I kept them locked in their rooms during the summer of '09. =)

So here's June (to the best of my recollection):

• Chase spent 10 days visiting his grandparents
• Conner spent a week at church camp
• Brenna took diving lessons
• I joined a book club
• Aiden began t-ball
• We had a new furnace installed
• Scott and I attended the homeschool conference
• The older 4 kids participated in a weekly bowling league

We also went to Belleview Farm with friends, the kids always have a good time there. Here are some pictures from that:

cheap noodles

So last night Old Spaghetti Factory was running an anniversary promotion where they rolled back their prices. We thought it would be a great time to get a cheap dinner.

Apparently, so did approximately 1000 other Colorado residents. We arrived around 6:30 and thankfully our friends had gotten there at 6:00 and put their name down. Table for 14. We thought there couldn't be too many parties that large so our wait might not be too bad. However, there were at least 2 other parties of 14 called before us.

The wait...2 hours. However the kids were all great. They kept each other occupied and were well-behaved.

The food was delicious. And get this...a full dinner for our family of 7, complete with bread, salad, entree and dessert....

$20. Can't beat that! And worth the wait since we got to spend it with friends.

Old Spaghetti Factory is having another promotion every Monday and Tuesday in January, with meals being 40% off.

catch up

Well, we're in the home stretch now. One week to go according to the doctor. About 2 according to me. =) We'll see who is right. I finally started having some light contractions this weekend. With my previous pregnancies, I've had contractions for 1-2 weeks before the kiddo showed up.

I am definitely at the end of my energy. Everyday tasks are taking much longer and much more effort on my part. And baby boy has moved his big, heavy head directly onto my pelvis in the last week. Yeouch! But overall this has been an uncomplicated pregnancy so I shouldn't complain.

In other news, both Brenna and Aiden are doing well in their Options program. Brenna absolutely loves her sign language class, although she really enjoys all her classes. Aiden is doing wonderfully in his Kindergarten class. I think one day a week is just right for him.

Conner and Chase are doing well at FACE also, although Conner doesn't really enjoy all the homework that comes along with being in high school. =) He is really learning a good lesson in time management this year.

Zane is growing so fast and putting together new words everyday. I'm finding it so hard to believe that he will no longer be the baby around here!

We had a very busy weekend, Saturday was MOPS. This is the first meeting I was able to attend this year and it was so good to see everyone. We had quite a few new ladies which was wonderful. Then I went to a friend's house and had a nice chat. In the afternoon, Conner and Chase went to a birthday party, so I dropped them off and Scott picked them up.

Sunday Brenna went with her Girl Scout group downtown to hand out water bottles at the finish line of the Race for the Cure. Scott and the kids went to church while I had an unexpected surprise. A friend I hadn't seen in 2 years was in town and I got to have breakfast with her. It was so nice to catch up with each other!

Then I took Aiden to a birthday party and then church choir. It's been a very full weekend and it's gone so fast. Guess it's good to keep busy in these last weeks, right?

I plan to show Scott how to update my blog so he can post when baby does arrive.

showered with love

My sweet friend Trish threw me a baby shower this past weekend. Food, games and friends -- it was a great time with some of my favorite people.

And baby got spoiled -- these are just a few of the cute outfits he received. He's going to be well-dressed. =)

This was Brenna and Anna's first time at a baby shower. They were excited.

Three pregos and one hopeful: