February Fun and our new ride...

After the death of our much loved Honda Pilot we went on the search for a replacement... and this is what we got.

It's a not new but I love it!

Tally learning how to express her emotions with the emotions stick

Today's word was Hysterical

Tally's bracelets

Sand fun

Jon and Courtney with the kids

Should i drill or vacuum?

Awww.... Jon and Courtney

The snow man

Oh February... February was crazy to say the least. It started with a fun visit from Jon and Courtney where we rolled and totaled our Honda Pilot in the mountains. As a result i spent the entire month putting around in our Chevy Impala rental car. We were all sick most of february. I battled a sinus infection- bad cough- and currently back in the sinus infection stage. Aricin is also on meds for a sinus infection and Tally currently has a double ear infection. Aaron has some how managed to avoid all of us and our germs. Oh yeah and we (aricin and I) got pink eye a few weeks ago. Fun times. The good news is as of two days ago we have another car. Truth be told i had my eyes on another expensive Honda Pilot but my somewhat wise and savy husband talked me into the idea of buying a cheap car that we could pay cash for and not have to worry about a car payment- especially since we've been and will continue to spend 3 months out of the year in Scotland. Having said that the search for our next car was ugly- we looked at a lot of cars i hated and finally came across some Range Rovers and Land Rover Discovery's that i fell in love with. We know they can sometimes be lemons (Certains years and makes) and that if you take it to a dealer they can be uber expensive but we have a mechanic that works primarily on British Motors so we're ready. I'm super pumped that it has a heated windshield (no scraping ice off baby) I'm also stoked it has two moon roofs, heated seats, and two jump seats in the back that fold down from the walls if we should need them. It sits super high which is fun for me and is rated one of the safest cars around (earning it a gold star from me) - in case we should roll again. There are also buttons inside for incase we take it bouldering up a mountain or need to cross a river. It's way more hard core then we are and i'm sure we will never used most of the buttons inside. Aaron's excited to take it camping and i kind of am too. If these things can keep Lions out while on safari then i can camp in it.

The kids are growing so fast and are at such fun stages. Tally loves to follow Aricin around and do whatever he's doing. She's very dramatic but also likes to laugh, clap, and dance. Aricin surprises us everyday with words like disgusting and gorgeous. He cracks us up and is so fun to have around. We are looking forward to taking off to Te-Te-Tennessee in about 10 days on a mini reunion with some of our friends from when Aaron was in Seminary in southern california. It should be fun to catch up and hang out with old friends.

HUGE PRAISE...

We had a bit of a crazy weekend. My younger brother Jon and his girlfriend, Courtney flew in from San Diego on friday. Friday we brought them to the New Belgium Brewery to check out where Fat Tire Beer is made- they got a bunch of samples and had a lot of fun.

On Saturday we got a babysitter and headed up to Copper mountain Ski Resort. I Skiied and everyone else boarded. Did i mention it took 4 hours to get there (It usually takes under 2) but there was a bit of a blizzard going on. Copper got almost a foot of snow on Saturday and despite having wind chills of about -4 the conditions were great, lots of powder. On our way home, about 10 minutes after leaving Copper we hit some black ice. We skidded for about 250 yards before skidding sideways off the road in between the two lanes of traffic where we rolled and came to a stop upside down. We were all hanging by our seat belts when the car stopped moving. Aaron stayed calm the whole time and I freaked out pretty quick when i realized we couldn't open either of the front doors because they were smashed from the roof which was below us, i started to feel a little claustrophobic. My brother Jon opened his door and we all crawled out unharmed- no scratches, no bruises.

God had his hand on us is pretty much how you can sum it up. Everyone we talked to from the Firemen, to the highway patrol, to the tow truck all said we were incredibly lucky. The Firemen told us that where we crashed is a super common place for accidents because of the snow pack and black ice, the tow truck driver had already seen one fatality that day, and the high way patrol said our tires were pretty bald which didn't help things. All and all we feel completely blessed to still be alive and pretty content to stay in Denver and out of the mountains for a bit. The highway patrol said our car was totaled- we're still waiting on the official word from our insurance. We're currently driving a tiny 4 door rental car provided by our insurance and starting to look for another car, I've got my eyes on another Honda Pilot based on how safe it kept us. Although ultimately God was the one that kept us safe.

January 2011

Sledding in Breckenridge...

The Ice Carving Festival (Our 3rd time coming)

We threw a Moustache themed baby shower for friends of ours...

Name that Milk Moustache Game...

We brought this back from California, we had it in our old house

Aricin fell asleep during dinner time

I recovered our ottoman with super fun fabric i found

Tally and the Komodo Dragon

At the Zoo...

January was fun. We went to the zoo with friends, threw a fun Moustache themed baby shower for friends, and spent a weekend up in Breckenridge. Breck has become one of our favorite mountain spots - every year we make it up there for the ice carving festival. This year we stayed the weekend up there and brought the kids sledding. Aricin loved sledding and kept giving us the play by play- "I went so fast, then it jumped, and i went sooo high! Let's do it again." Both kids have been fighting colds, fevers, runny noses, and coughs. They seem to be getting better however i think i've gotten their germs as i'm starting to feel crummy. It's snowing right now and the high tomorrow is supposed to be -4 (yes the high) Aaron's hoping for a snow day and i've gone grocery shopping so we don't plan on leaving the house for the next couple of days. All and all things here are going good, I have a work out swap going on with a fellow mommy (Every tuesday we watch each others kids while we take turns going to the gym). Aaron's been busy teaching Spiritual Formation and Apologetics and his hands in a couple of business ideas he's working on. And... we've started only eating organic meat as a result of watching the documentary Food Inc. Oh yeah and we've switched our deodorants to non-alumnium ones (no we're not totally hippies just trying to make small changes).

So... I've been thinking a lot about Highlands Ranch, where we live. It's 12 miles south of Denver and has earned a reputation as being one of the best planned communities in the country. It was started in 1981 by developers from Mission Viejo, CA and It totally has a California feel to it. It was recognized by Forbes as one of the top places to move in the nation and In 2010, Business Week named it one of the best places to raise kids. Needless to say with all of it's parks, trails, rec centers, and amenities it feels quite perfect and safe. We basically live in a little bubble out here which is nice (especially having lived in a Grand Turino like neighborhood where our house got ransacked and broken into 10 times by Asian gang members). So safe is nice. But is it good? I mean on the surface it is, I love it here, but do i really want my kids to grow up in a community that's 90% upper to middle class white people? I'm glad we travel every summer to Edinburgh because the kids get to see how other people do life. I guess i've just been wondering how "Good for us" the easy comfortable life is. After all the bible says it is when we go through challenges and suffering that we are given the opportunity to grow and be stretched. Now, i'm not asking God for challenges or suffering I guess i've just been thinking about how good it is to really have it good? I want my kids to grow up sensitive to other cultures and loving people and i hope we can give that to them.