March Madness 2013...

Easter Pic

 Aricin Skiing- He's a little speed Demon- the only way we got him to slow down was to tell him Uncle Rondo (who's the head of Ski Patrol) might give him a speeding ticket.

 So thankful Aunt Cindy (who's an amazing ski instructor at Powder Horn) taught our kids how to ski.

 Aricin and Jeremiah

 What do you do the day after you turn 18 months... Learn to ski :)

 All the Colorado cousins

 Aricin exploring at Uncle Rondo's house. A few minutes after this we found A and his 3 year old cousin on the roof. They were looking for the cat and climbed up some stacked wood. Crazy! I know

 Cuddle bug working on his molars- teething is never fun

 3 year old Ballerina's working on their form 

Yes, we all have converse, kind of ridiculous and fun 

 Looking for Trolls

 

Buzz Light Year

 Best part of going to the grocery store, the free pony ride 

 Surprise visit to my bestie who's been on bed rest for the last 6 weeks

 buddies

 Me and my mini me

 Aricin is now 5!

 The Denver Aquarium

March was a fun and packed month. I officially started my job as Local Child Care Coordinator with Cultural Care Au Pair. Which has been a lot of fun. I manage a case load of 11 families and have to check in with them via phone or email once a month and I have to organize a get together with my 11 Au Pairs to check in with them and see how they are doing. For March we went to a Colorado Avalanche/ San Jose Sharks Hockey Game. It was a lot of fun and I'm enjoying getting to know the Au Pairs most of which are from Germany, other western european countries, and south america. 

My Grandfather passed away and is now hanging out with Jesus in a body that is free from Pain. I was able to fly out to California and go to his funeral which was sad but good. Good to hear stories about him that I had never heard and good to remember that he's with Jesus. He and my grandmother had been married for 60 years. What a privlidge to be able to walk life with a best friend for that long, I pray that Aaron and I will have a love story that lasts as long as theirs. While i California I got to spend some time with family and drive down to Santa Barbara to surprise my good friend Zoe, who has been on bed rest for the last 6 weeks. When I got back from Cali I met Aaron in Mesa, Colorado and got to spend some more sweet time with family. We brought the kids skiing for the first time at Powder Horn and Aaron and I even got to get a few runs in. 

Life here has been busy. Good busy, but busy. I'm the director of children's ministry at our church and lately it seems we've had lots of people not show which means i plug in. It is what it is and I do enjoy hanging out with the kids. Aricin just turned 5. I can't believe my baby is 5 and will be starting Kindergarten in the fall. I can't believe we moved out here almost 5 years ago. Things here are good, although I feel some major transition coming on. Beth and Bryan will be moving out of our house June 1st and the lease on our apartment is up mid September. Last week we were approached by an agent with a potential buyer for our house, we hadn't thought of selling but apparently right now in Highlands Ranch the supply is low and demand is high so it's a great time to sell. Looks like we might be selling our house, kind of crazy. A few of our friends have put their houses on the market in the last couple weeks and their houses sold within hours. How crazy is that! Change is hard for me, but it's inevitable at this point some I'm both anxious and curious to see what God does. As much as I love to be in control of everything all the time. I'm trying to let go and let God do his thing. Obedience is tough and so is patience. 

A Fabulous February...

 Testing out our new Snow Shoes

 Cliff Jumping...

 Valentines

 Painting... Oliver got hungry 

 Swim Lessons

 Oliver with a baby

 A

Western Day at Pre School 

Denver Aquarium with the Sammons 

 T

 A feeding crickets to the fish

Fun Times with the Sammons 

 Snow!

 Denver Beer Co.

Face Plant in the snow= Rosey Cheeks 

O's Tumbling Class... 

 A and Atlas

February flew by as time has been doing to quickly. Oliver has enjoyed his tumbling class, Talia is still super into her Ballet, T and A are in swim lessons and Mommy has started a new mid week Bible study. Highlights of the month... Jeremiah (our dog) ate a small tablet that when submerged in water turned into an animal shaped sponge. He ate it and then we called the doggy ER who said we needed to induce vomiting. Aaron fed him tons of salt and got the sponge to come back out- gross i know, and yet this was our Valentines Day :) I had my 4th annual panty party with a bunch of fun gals- we did a white elephant panty exchange, ate yummy food, and laughed a lot! 

I just finished the book "The Dovekeepers", it was a pretty intense read, not they typical british chick lit that i seem to devour- this book was rooted in deep history (70AD) and rich info in the Hebrew culture and life at the fortress of Masada. What made it extra cool was that when I was in Israel I got to go to the Dead Sea and Masada which in some ways made the book come more to life- anyways I'm in a book club and looking forward to discussing the book with a bunch of girls over a Jewish meal this week. I've also started reading 7 by Jen Hatmaker. I'm sold on Jen Hatmaker and have proclaimed the Beth Moore of our generation- if you haven't read any of her books I HIGHLY RECCOMMEND her. I loved her book Hearing God through the Static and 7 is pretty awesome so far. Wednesday night i met with a few girl friends to discuss the first chapter. I've also started a new job. I'm a LCC (Child care consultant) with Cultural Care Au Pair. I have a case load of about 12 families and their Au Pairs that i'm responsible for checking in with once a month as well as planning a monthly get together for my 12 Au Pairs. It seems like it's going to be a very minimal amount of work (all of which i can do when Aaron's around) and i'm excited to get to know my international girls and encourage them. 

I also started doing family year books for us, I'm taking all of our pics for the year and putting them in a photo book with a summary of every thing that happened that year and printing out a year book for each of the kids, So far i've just finished 2012 and 2011, I still have 10,9, and 8. Our sweet friends Troy and Becca came to visit us as they are on furlow right now. They've been missionaries in Kenya for the last few years and will be going back soon. It was soo good to hang out with them and their sweet girls- we love them and hope to visit them in Kenya sometime. We just went out with our good friends Jeff and Katie for Restaraunt week in Denver. We went to Kevin Taylor's at the Opera House and it was Amazing! First course was a pork belly in a dirty rice, for the second course i got the salmon while Aaron got the steak and for dessert I got the Creme Brulle while Aaron got a Peanut Butter Torte- so yummy and all for 52.80- I think Restaraunt week is my favorite week of the year!

Looking ahead, we are hoping to ski sometime this spring with the kids, make it to the Western Slope to visit family in Palisade, and Breathe! We are still planning on moving back into our house in June, when our friends move out and this summer is filled with lots of weddings. One of Aaron's closest friends is getting married in southern california in June, my cousin and brother are getting married in southern california both in July, and Aaron's old roommate is getting married in Scotland the end of August and we're hoping to make it. God is so good and continues to provide and fill us with the energy and love we need to pour into our kiddos.