The Goings Ons In The Clinton House

IN-LAWS
My wonderful in-laws were here to visit last week. We did a bit of sight-seeing and lots of SkipBo playing and tons of eating. It was wonderful to have family filling up our house with love and laughter. And would you believe that I only picked up my camera once...to capture the old people taking a nap on the couch!! hahahha

JAMES
My James has been having some discoloration going on around his face. All up the side of his face and neck. I tried to scrub it off by rubbing him raw with soap and a face cloth and that didn't work. So, I assumed it was a pigment change (since we have no family history of his biological family this made sense to me). On Friday we went to the Dr's just to be certain. She took an alcohol swab and rubbed the affected area...ya, he was just dirty!!

Stop laughing!

Apparently James has some oils on his skin that are trapping the dirt and no amount of soap and water can get it off. So, he will have to be wiped down with some rubbing alcohol every so often. And I guess a bath every couple of days wouldn't hurt!

Ugh...between swollen penises and dirty faces...the Dr will probably be thrilled when I come in for just a run of the mill cold!

JIMMY
My adorable husband has left me to go to a Men's Advance this weekend (because real men don't retreat!). He is in the middle of the Rocky Mountains with a bunch of Godly men zip-lining, hiking, scratching their....well, you know, whatever it is that men do on those things!

My sweet James wondered this morning how bad it must stink in the morning when all of those men wake up and have their morning farts. HAHAHHA I almost died laughing. However...SOOOO TRUE!! Stinky boys.

Without sounding too condescending, I just want to say I'm so proud of Jim. He really stepped out of his box to go do this thing. He did take his own vehicle though in case there was too much man hugging going on (his words, not mine). He wanted to make sure he could escape!! Oh, the people in this family make me laugh!!

ME
I've begun taking a couple of new classes. One is a Beth Moore study; Believing God. I loved the intro and am so excited about what lies ahead.

I've also started Financial Peace University. If you haven't heard of it, go google it. It's Dave Ramsey teaching us how to handle money within a biblical perspective. I just did my homework which is a quick budget based on how I've spent my money in the last month. Ya, that was fun. I'm really excited about all of the saving and undebting I'll be doing over the next 12 weeks...however, not so thrilled about what it means for my spending habits. Ugh!

COMMUNITY
Our new library opened up today. That was terribly exciting to our household. The old Brighton library sucked. It was like walking into a time-warp building from the early 80's. And they didn't have very many books. And those they had were in horrible conditions. I was not a big fan!

I have been counting down for the last month to the grand opening. So much so that the first words out of Jagger's mouth when he woke up this morning were "Yay! The library opens today!!" Such a good little four year old!

We met up with our friends, the Bainbridges (sans Bill because he is off man hugging with my husband this weekend). We made it in time for the ribbon cutting. We also took our kids to a Sticky Fingers Food Demonstration where they got to make gazpacho ( no idea how to spell it). The kids enjoyed the chopping and stirring...not so much the eating. We went into another room where local restaurants were giving out samples and chowed down in there (the fried pickles from the Brighton Depot rocked my world!). We checked out about a million books and five movies and truly enjoyed our time looking around and enjoying the new space (although I'll enjoy it much more on Monday morning when it is waaayyy less crowded). All in all though....sooo thrilled with the new building and the new books. Can't wait to spend hours of fun in the new space.

Okay...I guess you're tired of reading now. Hope you are having a wonderfully blessed weekend!! Till next time....

The Love Shack

I can't believe it's taken a year but we finally got The Love Shack painted! And I LUURVE IT!

Excuse the fan in the window but we love the cool Colorado nights!

We haven't hung pictures yet...we'll do that tomorrow. It took 10 hours to do just the painting today! The bedroom matches our bathroom (and if you look close enough you can see the cute little rugs we found for the bathroom too!).

Now I just have one more hallway to paint and the entire house will be done....yahooooo!!

Berry Patch Farms with Friends

My best friend Julie and I both have two older children in school all morning and just our younger ones home with us. So, I suggested we make a playdate and go berry picking with our boys. And what fun it was! And soooo quiet and relaxing. Don't get me wrong, I love going berry picking with the older children too...but it's so nice to be sibling-rivalry-free for a couple of hours!

Look mom...raspberries...and they are sooo yummy!!
Jagger was younger last time and did more eating than picking. This time he was my little farmer...I think he may have done better than me!

I think the world may have tilted a little to the right during this picture...

I promise he had lots of fun...I have no idea what this face was about!

Awwww...a mommy and her son. So special.

We took a wagon ride out to the strawberry fields after we finished picking raspberries.

They told us that strawberries were slim picking...ummm...I think we did pretty good!

Again, he was a pro!

On the way back we got to ride the hay wagon which is usually for school field trips..but she was heading back and let us on. How fun! And very very bumpy!!

What a fun day! I think Jonathon and Jagger are going to be the best of buddies!

Last Camping Trip of the Summer

A couple of weeks ago we took our last camping trip of the summer. We went to Echo Lake which is 10,600ft up. It is also right beside the fee station to drive up Mount Evans (and NO!, I did not try the drive again!!). It was beautiful and secluded and everything we needed to relax before starting the new school year.

However, we did not bring the extra camera battery and we only got two shots before the batteries we did have died. Luckily they were some pretty incredible shots (way to go Jim!).

We do not get to see sunsets here in Colorado....the sun sets in the west which is just where the mountains happen to be. But we do get some pretty awesome shots of the sun going down behind the mountains.

Enjoy!

Isn't God awesome!!

Grave Digger In Brighton, CO!!

My friend Cassie called this morning and left a message that Grave Digger was at Advance Auto Parts just down the street from me. I was in the middle of cleaning the house and we all needed baths so I just thought we would go later.

And then I forgot about it.

Until Cassie called me back ten minutes before they closed.

I was speeding.

And we made it to see Grave Digger!! We didn't get to go inside because that part was already closed but Jagger, my monster truck enthusiast, was excited beyond crazy!

So, this was only 10 minutes of their entire weekend but I'm sure it'll be the only 10 minutes they talk about all week!

Emergency Hair Appointment!

So, I'm on the phone with my mom tonight and we're talking about some pretty serious stuff. Then all she hears is me...."OH MY GOD...KAYLEE JUST CUT HER HAIR AGAIN!!"

What can I do but laugh??

Here she is thinking she is sooo cute.
Notice she cut the sides. She couldn't reach the back which is what caused me to call the hairdresser's at 7:45pm and beg them to stay open until we got there so that they could fix her mess.

And now she has a cute little cut.

I'll use the straightener on it in the morning.

It's sooo short!!

It's all funny because if I don't laugh then I might do something very mean. However, this is the fifth or sixth time doing this...so there are consequences. Kaylee will be paying me back with her allowance for the $10.95 haircut plus the generous $5 tip I gave the nice lady for staying open for me. She is also not allowed to have the sleepover she was going to have this weekend.

Oh, and it just so happens this is the weekend for Jimmy and I to clean out the garage...and we just got an extra helper. Yay us!

First Day of School

I made it!! 3 months with my kids and no breaks...and they are all still alive!! Yay me!

The kids were very excited this morning. Kaylee didn't fall asleep until 10:45pm because she was so anxious last night. Everyone got up at 7am though and couldn't wait to get their day started.

Here are some pics that I took at home before we left. Jagger doesn't start pre-school until noon today but he wanted to be in the pictures with his big brother and big sister!

Aren't they adorable?!!

James is very proud of his Super Mario lunch kit....look at him showcasing it!

I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!

James did great when we got to school His kindergarten teacher moved up to 1st grade and we were lucky enough to get her again this year. He's even in the same classroom. The only change for him is going from half days to full days. He was super excited when I dropped him off at the playground and went right to business playing with his friends.

Kaylee was in a portable last year and I had the liberty of being able to walk her in and out of her classroom whenever I wanted. This is her first year in the school building. We had to find out what door to go in and then find out where the line is when the bell rings. It was easy enough and her teacher was outside on playground duty so we even got to chat a bit before school. Once Kaylee got in line she told me bye. I was soooo sad that she was ready for me to go. I hugged her and loved on her and thoroughly embarrassed her...then I left.

Jagger and I went grocery shopping after dropping them off and I can't tell you how much I enjoyed shopping with only one child!! Crazy fun for me!

Right now I'm enjoying the quiet sound of Jagger eating some yogurt. Oh I love the sounds of a single child!!! hahhaha I love it but I'm anxious to hear how my big kids' day is going!!