Double Digits

My beautiful little girl turned 10 on Sunday. I know it's a cliche, but where, oh where, has the time gone?? One minute she was this loud colicky love of my life baby and now she is this young girl with thoughts and ideas and such a crazy fun spirit. Too fast...

Here's a journey through the big day:

Kaylee always talks about wanting $100 so Jimmy and I thought it would be fun to give her a $100 bill for her birthday. She was very excited (the boots in the pics were her present from her Mamaw and Papaw).

Here she is "thinking" about where and how she can blow the money the fastest!

Jagger remembered that it was Kaylee's birthday as soon as he woke up in the morning. All day long he kept singing to her and giving her big hugs. She was actually very tolerant about the whole thing....must be growing up!!

She decided she wanted to go shopping at Justice and get some new clothes and other fun stuff. She also had some money from her Nanny and Papa and a coupon for Justice (wonder where she gets that from??). She found the cutest little Snuggie. Here she is testing out the "snugginess" of it (sorry about the quality of the pic).

And the birthday cake...

Do you see that smile on my face? Do you?? That is pure excitement about the fact that I made my first birthday cake in Colorado that didn't explode!! Apparently the trick is to add 2 extra TBSP of flour and bake 25 degrees hotter. Sooo happy!! (I would also like to point out how skinny I look in this picture...great camera!! HA!)

Kaylee made a wish on each of her 10 candles.

Well, it was a nice day. Kaylee is still wild and moody and has her moments that drive me wild. But she is also funny as heck, creative and has a beautiful giving heart. God blessed us so much when he placed Kaylee in our care. I pray that she grows up to be all that God has planned for her and that she has an impact on the world for God that surpasses all of our expectations.

On a funny note, Kaylee went to her well-child visit today. She has been trying to get to a certain weight for 2 years and has not gotten any closer than within 4 pounds. Today...she hit it. She weighed 60.0 pounds on the dot! The excitement and happiness that came out of that girl was hysterical. I'm happy she made it to her goal.

My 60 pound 10 year old...could the world be any brighter??!!

Trip to Canada

Okay, so I've seen people with donation buttons on their blog so that you can buy them a coffee, pay for their credit card bills or help them pay for college. So, here is my spin on it:

I want to go home to Canada. I want my whole family to go. I haven't seen my mom in over 2 years and it's been 3 years in March since my kids have seen my mom. Toooo long! And other than my mom, there are my 2 sisters and the 2 new babies that were added to their families in the last year. I want to go pinch those babies cute chubby cheeks! I want my kids to know their new cousin and second cousin.

When we moved to Denver we had no idea that plane tickets to go home were so much more expensive from here. Where I was paying $350 from Houston, it is closer to $600 from here. So, it would cost $3000 for our family to fly and rent a car for one week.

I'm starting this as kind of a joke really to see if I can do this. We are taking Financial Peace University and we are budgeting and saving like crazy. However, this $3000 trip is not even on the budget for the next year. So, let's see what happens. If we receive a couple hundred and no more then we would probably fly my mom in and wait to see the babies. If we made half of the money then maybe we could fly 3 people here. More than that but less than the $3000 then we could fly up without my husband. No matter how much is received, we will use it to go home!

So...I'm excited to see what happens here. Let's see how many people pass through this blog...how long does it take a girl with a big dream to raise what seems like an impossibly huge amount of money?? Thanks for stopping by and here's hoping we make it to my mom's for Spring Break...or maybe even Christmas Break if this surpasses what I'm expecting!!

The Donate Now button can be found on the side bar, top right.

Brighton Blade-Veteran's Day Column

I am Canadian. I am very proud to be a Canadian. I am also very proud to have an American husband, two American- born children and one Russian-born child. I love this country that I live in and very seldom can I sing the Star Spangled Banner without tears in my eyes. However, I rarely think of the price that has been paid for me to live my happy life in this great place.

I avoid most conversations about war. I want to be naïve. I am not a fan of war but can understand that it is a necessary evil. I have not been directly affected by someone fighting for my freedom so war has been easy to push into the un-thinking parts of my brain.

One of my new friends, however, has a son, 22 year old Private First Class Anthony James Wolfe, that came home before being shipped off to serve our country in Iraq. She kept posting on facebook about all of the yummy meals she was making for him and how much she was enjoying showering her son with love before he left. I read the status updates and thought it must be an emotional time in her life and then, sad to say, was able to jump back into my life without thinking of it again.

On the Sunday before Tony was deployed he went to church with his family. They were sitting a few rows in front of me and over to the right. At one point, while we were standing and singing, Tony had his arm around his mom and leaned down and said something that made her laugh. It was such a sweet moment. But then, after the laughter had faded, mom turned her head so Tony wouldn’t see, and wiped away a tear. The pain that I felt in my chest in that moment was something I have felt very rarely in my life. In that instant I had an idea, and I’m sure it is nothing compared to the real pain, of what it must be like for a mom to send her child off to war.

For the first time in my life, the war, the soldiers, all of it, became real to me. It became part of my life. I couldn’t just go on with my life and pretend that I hadn’t seen that moment, or felt that pain. There are men and women that are fighting for my freedom every single day and I have promised myself that I will never let myself forget that again.

I am thankful for all of those that gave their life for my family’s freedom. I am thankful for all of the men and women that are serving our country and protecting our rights as we go on with our busy lives. Today, Veteran’s Day, I will stop and I will remember. My heart will ache for those missing their family members. My hands will come together in prayer for all of our soldiers. And my lips will say Thank You to Private First Class Tony Wolfe and the many, many others that are risking their lives for you and me. Thank you!

Stuff Christians Like

So, if you look at the side bar you can see the blogs that I like to follow. Way down at the bottom is "Stuff Christians Like". It's funny!

The author of the blog, Jon, felt led, by his 6 year old daughter and God, to raise money to build a Kindergarten building in Vietnam. He is working with Samaritan's Purse (I believe that is the name) and they are controlling the donations. They need to raise $30,000. He states that his family is all in and are terrified because they want to do this before December 31st and that amount feels like a million to them. So, Jon posts it on his blog to get others to help donate.

He posted this on this morning. I checked at 11:30 am and they were at $17,000!! I just checked again at 3:30 and they are at $22,000!! IN ONE DAY!!

I just am amazed and humbled by my God. When He puts something on someone's heart...He definately puts the means on their path!!

Go to the blog, read it today, and let it encourage and bless you and remind you that we serve AN AWESOME GOD!!

Trick or Treat Smell My Feet!

And here are my little monsters.

Jagger as Spiderman.



James as Jeff Gordon.


Kaylee as a zombie...I love this picture! She did her make-up herself and she did an AWESOME job!

We went Trick-or-Treating with a bunch of friends. Here are the beautiful children that went with us.

And here are all the adults having way too much fun....courtesy of the witch's brew in our cups!

Our pumpkins at night.

And here they are checking out their loot.

Jagger has a bit of a crack...I mean, chocolate addiction!!
This was probably one of my favorite Halloweens ever! What wonderful friends we have been blessed with! The whole night was filled with chaos and laughter and I loved every minute of it. I'll be counting down with the kids until next year!

Pumpkin Carving

This year we were invited to a Fall Festival by our Realtor, Cheryl Solko with Remax. It was a lot of fun and each of my children left with a free pumpkin. And I LOVE FREE!! We waited until Halloween Day to carve them because Jimmy's mom flew in to celebrate Halloween with the children. It was chilly outside so we moved the dining room table and spread some newspaper on the floor. It ended up being cleaner than when we do it outside...I think we just began a new tradition! Anyways, as always, the kids really enjoyed carving their pumpkins. Here are the pics:

Jagger was having no part of sticking his hand into the pumpkin this year.
I believe his exact words were "THAT'S YUCKY!!"

Kaylee got right into this year. She also did all of her cutting herself for the first time.

Yipppeeee...this is sooo fun!!

I love when I can catch moments of Kaylee helping her brother on camera!

Look at this awesome pumpkin that I made everyone else do but I'm now claiming as mine!!

James drew his face by himself. He was so proud that his vampire pumpkin was missing a vampire tooth. Adorable James!

Kaylee modeling herself...I mean, her pumpkin!

Brighton Blade 10-28-2009

I’ve always enjoyed football. I loved the Dallas Cowboys back when they had their dream team (Aikman, Smith and Irvin). I stayed with Dallas until Aikman retired and then I just kind of wandered in and out of the games.

Then I moved to Denver last year. I just happened to arrive at the beginning of the football season and I caught on to the Bronco spirit. I loved, and still do, that when I showed up to church on a Sunday that the Broncos were playing, that at least half of the church showed up in their Sunday-best Bronco jersey. It’s awesome.

I became a complete Bronco fan. I faithfully watched them play every Sunday. I didn’t even mind Cutler too much. I did think he was kind of ugly though (for you guys that thought I was so cool for liking football, I’m still just a girl!). I even have a favorite player in Peyton Hillis.

Last weekend my husband surprised me with tickets to the Broncos vs. Patriots game for my upcoming birthday. I was so excited. It was my very first NFL game to see live.

We left for the game at 11:30. I asked why we had to leave so early and my husband just said that this is what you do when you go to a football game and that it’s fun to walk around. Having now done this I have to say that I still don’t understand it. It just meant that I had to freeze my hiney off for an extra two hours!

It was a fun weekend to go since they were celebrating 60 years of the NFL and 50 years of the Denver Broncos. The end zone was done up with old retro diamonds and the players were wearing old school brown and yellow uniforms. They even went all out and put the game on the screens in black and white.

Invesco Field is a pretty awesome place. I loved that it was all open (even though with the wind factor it felt like 20 degrees outside!). We had high seats, only 10 rows from the top. Other than the fact that we all know I’m terrified of heights by now and I was sure I was going to fall and end up in pieces on the field, it really was the perfect spot to watch the game. You get to see all of the players and plays perfectly from that height.

The game itself was incredible! Broncos won! And was there anything better than Josh McHottie’s celebration at the end of the game? Now if that’s not a reason to jump on the Broncos bandwagon then I’m not sure what is.

Here’s hoping the end of the season is as great as the beginning has been!