Computers A OK!!

Well, Ben got around to checking out the computer and it's good as new. Not sure what was wrong as we have yet to get around to that but he said it's good as new so were are back!!!

Happy Easter!!!

It's been awhile since I've last posted as my home computer needs some daddy attention (IE... I think we have a virus-so I wont turn it on till Ben looks at it and he seems not to think this is a priority). I grabbed his laptop and thought I would check my e-mail and do a quick update so people don't think I have given up totally on my blog.

Happy Easter to all. We had a really nice Easter this year. Very different as we have always been with Ben's family on Easter and this year we were home. We had yummy sticky buns that were not part of my diet and exercise I have worked hard on the last month but boy were they yummy. The Easter bunny visited and the boys did a Easter egg hunt and found their baskets. Both boys were SO much fun. Ryan really got into it this year and loved finding the eggs, especially if they had candy or something fun inside!!!! We headed over to my brothers for Easter lunch and had a massive egg hunt with all the kids. We had dyed 4 dozen eggs and they went crazy finding them. We had 3 egg hunts as they had so much fun. I really seem to enjoy holidays more and more as both boys are getting older. They just get it now and are SO excited and seeing the faces of pure joy on their sweet faces so priceless.

I have adorable pics of Easter to come so check back. Not sure when or how to upload as the computer situation leaves me in a spot but I think with a little prodding Ben might help me out.

Growing and Changing

Spring is near and boy do we all have Springs fever. Lots of growing and changing going on in this household.
Keaton just turned four and is just an amazing little man. At his Four year appt. he was 43 1/2 inches tall and 38 1/2 lbs. As you can see his is growing fast and showing no signs of stopping anytime soon. I was so relieved to finally find a great pediatrician!! I have been to several and wasn't happy until now. She felt Keaton looked very healthy and was well ahead of the game for just turning four and didn't see anything to be concerned about health wise but she is going to go thru all test results with fine tooth comb to be sure. This of course makes me feel much better after our scares.
I just registered Keaton for another year of preschool next year since his birthday starts to late to go to kindergarten next fall. He will go three days next year as the boy loves going to school!! He is really come into his own over the last few months. He of course is still the independent, headstrong child he has always been with a side of non-stop energy but at least he is at a stage now where he is accepting (for the most part) that not everything is going to go is way, you can reason some with him and he is coming to grips with the fact that he has a brother who he has too share with and tolerate!! Three's were a very trying age in our home, so I am blessed to see that so far the fours are going pretty well, mind you were only a month in!!!! Keaton is very interested in dinosaurs and loves to read any and everything about them, he loves using his imagination and tells great stories and my most favorite is he is a great singer. Ben and I love to listen to the songs he comes up with daily. Climbing is also a great past time of Keaton's. He loves to go to his favorite park called "The Rock park", this is Keaton's name for the park as it has huge boulder all over the huge park area. He runs from boulder to boulder scaling them and flying his wind gliders off them. Overall I just want to squeeze Keaton and love him to death because he is just a great gift.

I don't even know where to start on what Ryan is doing as it's more what Ryan is not doing!!! Ryan is growing by the minute. Ryan is my little baby but sadly he is far from a baby now a days. He is almost two and showing all the wonderful gifts of a two year old. His latest is to share when he is not happy by blessing us with a mind numbing scream that makes you want to invest in ear plugs. Thankfully it's not to often or Ben and I would be insane!!! Ryan loves and adores his big brother so you shouldn't be surprised when I say that he too loves dinosaurs. He also loves Bee's. It's his favorite word to say and he just saw the Bee movie and didn't move the entire time as he was so beside himself with all those BEES! He is finally getting around to talking more these days. I have called him the man of few words as he just does his thing and could care less chatting about it. He finally has had more to say to all of us as he is learning or at least sharing new things everyday. His new thing is jumping and it's the cutes darn thing to watch as he is so proud of himself. He loves to play outside,digging, playing with balls, hide and seek and has mastered most playground equipment we have come across. There is little that scares the little guy. He jumps into most anything with two feet and doesn't look back. He is working on riding his tricycle and he's pretty darn good at it, play dough, puzzles and coloring is a big hit around our house these days. We have had a few drawings on the walls with crayons (thank god it washes off!), Ryan has also taken to collecting and carrying around all his favorite toys no matter if he has the hands to or not. He has really come into his own the last months and is such a happy go lucky kid.
Overall my two precious sons are growing up and blessing me with wonderful memories to treasure. Children truly are a blessing and a gift.

Peace and Quiet

Sometimes in life you recognize that your having a monumental moment and this afternoon is my moment. Many days as a stay at home mom I am consumed with my children's constant needs and have little down time but after a rocky start of both kids up before 6am (what is going on there????) and Keaton spilling my coffee all over, right as we were leaving to drop him at preschool, I have been given a gift. What is it you may wonder, well.......... PEACE and QUIET!!!! You read it right, my house is peaceful and has been for over close to 2 hours. The boys have been playing together and separate for awhile and I just realized that I haven't had to referee any sharing issues or spatial issues!!! No one is whining or crying it's just a wonderful chatter amongst brothers and mommy that is wonderful tranquility to my ears. It's a moment that could change any second so I better go and continue to enjoy!!! Oh the moments that get you through another day!!

My baby is 4 years old!!

I am having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that my baby is actually 4 years old. We had a big Dino-mite party this past Saturday with family and 9 other neighbor and school friends and boy did we have a houseful and alot of fun. We got wise this year and had a plan of attack as with all these kids letting them run wild was not an option , so we did a sticker foam craft, daddy and mommy made a dinosaur bean bag throw, and we had pin the nose on Triceratops. Overall, I think things went well, the kids seemed to have a great time and Keaton was on top of the world the entire day. It was weird for Ben and I, as it was our first Birthday for Keat here in Colorado, but we couldnt have asked for a better day and a better group of people to share the day with. It was 60 degrees out and sunny and everyone was in good spirits and we had ourselves one dino-riffic day!

Party Party!!

Keaton had his first Valentines party /class birthday party yesterday. I was lucky enough to be the class mom for the morning and boy did we have fun. Daddy then came home and we had a wonderful lobster and New York Strip steak dinner, we then topped off are already full bellies with cake. We had a great night, no meltdowns and lots of laughing.
We are now preparing for the big Dinosaur birthday party tom morning. We are expecting 13 kids and boy are we going to have fun. I hopefully have prepared enough games and crafts to keep all these kids busy or this place will be nuts. Pictures will be coming after the big event. I still am in shock that my little baby is going to be 4 years old tomorrow. Where time has gone I have NOOOOOOO idea. He is such a little man now, and become so independent and grown up. The year should be interesting as the 3's were trying and I've heard and felt already that 4's are going to be even worse. I guess we'll see hugh.

Babies come by Mail !

Keaton has been asking for a baby sister for a few months now!!! Yes, you read that right. Ever since Amelia visited us last month has has been asking even more now for a baby sister to keep. He wants a baby brother Ryan and a baby sister too. Today he asked again for a baby sister and I told him he would have to ask daddy about that and he stated " No mommy, we don't need to talk to daddy about that, we need to talk to the mail carrier about it, daddy has nothing to do with it!!" So folks, as you can see we have not had the birds and the bees chat and my sweet boy thinks babies come in the mail. Sure would be easier than 9months of pregnancy hugh. Thought this was tooooooo cute and others may get a laugh. I am not laughing to hard as he still wants the sister no matter how it gets here.Hmmmm, not sure about that yet.

First parent teacher conference

Today was my first Parent teachers conference for Keaton. It was a new role for me as usually I would be the one giving the conference so this was different, and thank goodness it went well. I cant believe how grown he is and how far he had come over the last few years. The teachers are smitten by him and love his very descriptive and animated stories he loves to tell. I have to take a moment to brag as I feel the need, so bare with me. The teachers said he knows all his letters from A to Z by sight and sound, along with numbers to 20, he can write his name by himself, he knows his shapes and how to draw the shapes by himself. He is very good at following directions and solving problems,escpecially when it comes to working with friends. Of course I could go on but I should stop as not to bore you all. I am a proud mommy as you never know what you may hear and after all he's been through this last year with all the changes I wasnt sure how it would all affect him but overall he seems to be doing great. He is going to go 3 days a week next year with the same teacher (I hope) as he loves school so much. He is growing up fast and I am trying to cherish each and everyday.

We weathered the storm!

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated but boy things have been insane at our house. Last Thursday Keaton came down with a minor cough and didnt think much of it until late Friday afternoon when that little cough turned into a 102 degree fever and a very sick boy. We fought a fever of 102 to 103 for 5 straight days. We headed to the doctor on the 3rd day and found out thru a chest X-ray he had pneumonia in his lungs and the doc also said he felt he had another virus he was fighting. Yikes. May I add that by Sunday night Ryan had a fever and horrible cold too so not only was I dealing with one but two very sick children and on top of that company (Aunt katie , Uncle Ron and Uncle Andy) flying in to see us for a long weekend. May I say, I was put to the test last week. I was really worried about Keaton as his cough was horrible and his fever just wouldnt let up even with meds. Needless to say we weathered the sick storm, had a great visit with family who we pray we didnt infect but will be suprised if we didnt and are looking forward to a healthy week! Oh I forgot to mention that I got a cold and have been fight it but no rest for the weary ya, know!!!

New Photos are posted --Check them out!!

Good times, Great friends, sad goodbyes!!

We were blessed with a long weekend visit from the Mc Cormack family. Mo, Dave and Amelia flew in on Thursday nite and stayed until Monday morning. It was so nice to see friends from Raleigh. It made me feel somewhat normal you could say. Ben and i had to laugh as each time someone has visited us we have gotten a blast of very cold winter weather which seems to make it much harder to entertain as alot of Colorado activities are outside activities. On the brighter side our heater didn't decide to have problems so at least we had heat this time around.

Ben, Dave and my brother Brandon headed to Copper Mountain to ski on Friday and had a great time. Mo and I hung out with the kids and went a little crazy but it was so darn cold out there wasn't alot of options. By the evening on Friday we had gotten about 2 to 3inches of snow which made Sat. morning slow going as the roads needed time to be cleared and now that we have the van we aren't so confident driving in the snow.

We did get a chance to drive by the Garden of the Gods, play at Mr. Biggs which is a kids play land, and have date night (thanks to mom who babysat) at a Sports bar named Frankie's where we watched the playoff game in peace. To bad the Packer lost!!! I wish we could have gotten more activities and sightseeing in but it just didn't work out this time however I know I really enjoyed just spending time with great friends and watching the kids play. Amelia is so sweet and It was fun to get to know her again. I was sad to say good bye when Monday came but I now look forward to the next visit which I hope will be us heading back East soon!!

My Ryan is BACK and so am I!!!!

I don't even know how to express my week last week other than saying CHALLENGING!! I was seriously thinking about heading back to work as it would be much easier than staying home and losing my mind. Ryan has had a cold for a good two weeks and on top of that he was getting his last bottom eye tooth. My normally easy going good natured child was a bear to deal with and it tested every bit of patience I had. He wanted to be held, but didn't want to be held, he wouldn't eat much of anything all of last week which of course as a parent disturbed and frustrated me, he wouldn't play for more than one second without running to me and clinging to my leg and whining. I felt bad for the little guy as his nose was runny, he was sneezy and just didn't feel well but I am human although my children and sometimes my husband think I have an endless ability to tolerate insanity. I felt I was becoming insane so thankfully Ryan awoke on Monday morning to his usual cheerful,funny self. The last few days have been so peaceful (I am comparing it to last we so that doesn't say much) and I actually am enjoying being stay at home mommy again. It was a close one though I have to say, working at McDonald's was sounding pretty good at one point so you know I was close to losing my mind!!!!

Christmas 2007

Santa Claus came to town along with grandma and grandpa Kley and boy did we have a great holiday. Ben's mom and dad flew into town on Christmas Eve and where time went after that I don't know. We hosted Christmas Eve at our house this year as my parents were scheduled to move into their rebuilt house the day after Christmas. I went crazy cooking as I hadn't had any food for days from the stomach flu, needless to say we weren't lacking for anything to eat. All my family joined us and we had a wonderful evening. Keaton and his cousin Skyler spent the night tracking Santa on the computer and it was the cutest thing I've seen in some time. Skyler just turned 9 and still believes so she and Keaton couldn't get enough of watching Santa's journey all around the world. They were begging to go to bed as Santa was getting near!! Keaton and Ryan left cookies, carrots, milk and even a letter for Santa and his reindeer and off to bed they went. Santa scampered around and really enjoyed the goodies and left a letter in return!!! Ryan of course was up at 7am but Keaton must of been really tired as it was almost 9am and we decided we should wake him up. Ryan was indifferent to the whole Christmas morning business however Keaton bounded downstairs with a huge grin and sense of excitement, it was truly priceless the pure innocent bliss he was feeling. Santa had brought the boys a fish tank, play kitchen and lots of other fun stuff along with a tool bench from Aunt Katie and uncle Ron. Keaton was so excited that he just stood there speechless. After a fun morning of opening gifts and having a late breakfast we headed over to my brothers for more good company, more eating and lots more presents. It was a great day had by all and it went way to fast that's for sure. Something also has to be said about being in your own home over the holidays when you have kids. It made it such a relaxing and fun experience.

First Preschool Christmas Program

Keaton had his first Christmas program at Preschool and it was absolutely adorable. Keaton said his line without any trouble and they sang lots of Christmas songs and did little skits. As you can see Keaton has lots of ladies to choose from as he is one of 4 boys out of 15. Good odds hugh!

Yummy, yummy

I am behind on my updates but will try and catch up this week. The Sat. before Christmas we had a Christmas cookie party and boy was it a good time. We made Sugar cookies, Chocolate Candie Cane cookies, and Peanut Butter Kiss cookies. Lots of fun was had and yes, many cookies consumed before they made it to the plate but the kids and us adults had a great time and it really put us into the Christmas spirit!! Check out the pics to see some of our work.

Health is everything!

There is alot to be said about ones health. To be be healthy is everything. I had the stomach bug for 8 dreadful days. I finally went to the doctor who said NO solid foods for the next few days so on the liquid diet I went and to my relief it helped as later that night I felt a bit better and by morning I felt alot better. I still am eating very little as I am scared to death to start the whole debacle over. Trying to find the bright spot in all of my misery I found I lost some weight as all my pants are big and I fit into a pair that I hadn't since Ryan was born!! This is nice and all but I would never want to experince it again no matter how much weight I lost!!

On a more important note, I would like all of you to pray for my Aunt Vicki. She undergoing a liver and kidney transpant as I write this and she and family could use all the prayers she can get. It's a big operation and recovery. By the grace of god she recieved a liver and kidney from a donor, It is a true Christmas miracle and blessing from god.

Down and Out!

This past week has been a painful one and I hope to not repeat it EVER! I ended up with the stomach flu and have been down and out since last Wed. and I still am not 100%. I am able to eat a little and keep things down so I am delighted. Poor Ryan has now caught the bug so I am watching him closely. Everything in comes out so I am worried about him getting dehydrated. Ben has been queasy and tired but so far so good overall and Keaton hasn't had any problems as yet so I am crossing my fingers. All this sickness as put me behind on Christmas shopping, housework and everything else. I have alot to do over the next few days so I hope Santa brings me a new body!! This one is worn out!! I hope all of you are healthy!!

Winter is finally here in Colorado!

For awhile it has not felt like winter as it's been in the 70's forever but the table has turned and it finally feels like December. This past Fri. was a white out, it was so foggy we couldn't see the neighbors house across the street, then mid day it began sleeting and then the snow began and it kept coming off and on until last night. Thankfully we braved the weather Friday night and got our Christmas tree. It was our snowed in weekend activity and it really made it feel like Christmas. I haven't had a real Christmas tree in years and I can say it smells sooooo good and it's beautiful. Decorating this year was pretty funny as Keaton was great at it and Ryan was a maniac. He stuffed the ornaments into the tree or hurled them as hard as he could. I think we lost quit a few in the tree somewhere. It was comically yet a little frustrating to be truthful. Our tree looks a little funny as the lower half of the tree has only lights and very few ornaments as Ryan has removed or I have so he couldn't. Keaton loves to turn the tree on the first thing in the morning and circles around it telling me we only have one box under the tree. Yes, one box!!! I cant put much else out as yet as Ryan thinks ripping paper is fun so any gift under the tree that is wrapped is a goner. I am going to slowly put some out and hope he grows tired of the activity but I doubt it! It really does feel like Christmas now with all the snow. It's absolutely beautiful outside, and everyone is in the spirit with lights on their homes and their yards decked out. I am hoping we get to see Santa Clause this weekend that is if the next snow storm doesn't keep us home.

Santa is watching!

Keaton is really into Santa this year and we have been known to use this to our advantage when he is acting naughty. We tell him Santa is watching to see if your bad or good, so you better be good for goodness sakes! Well he showed us how smart he is by asking if we could shut the blinds. When we asked him why he stated " I want to hit Ryan but I don't want Santa to see me!" Hmmm..... I think we are in trouble!! Ben and I thought this was pretty funny, however we did not shut the blinds and he had to restrain himself from hitting his brother. What will we do once Christmas is over?

Incredible Sunset!

Just wanted to share the beautiful sunset the kids and I witnessed this evening. More pics to enjoy in our photo collection site. Will write more later if I ever have more than a second of free time.