Thanksgiving

 I WISH that I could flood the blog with pictures of baby girl. That is one of the top five hard parts of foster care for me. She is so cute and I just want everyone to see that. Especially with COVID being a thing her whole life none of Ray's family has met her in person and most of my friends even here in Parker haven't met her. Who doesn't want to show off the cutest peanut on this side of the Mississippi?

The boys are still in school which is about 10 weeks longer than I thought the would make it. So thankful to their amazing school and all they are doing to make school a wonderful, happy, safe place for the boys.

With Thanksgiving so close and with COVID so constant their is a lot of down time with my thoughts. I am thankful for a lot. I'm thankful for our house that has so much room for us to all escape to our own comfy spot and being away and together all at once. I'm thankful for our neighborhood and greater Denver community. It is truly insane how connected we are to this town. Any time Ray goes on a run or me to the grocery the first question is; who did you see when you were out? I'm thankful for this baby. She is a distraction from the pandemic. She gives us all a lot of joy, smiles, laughs and entertainment. I'm thankful for the boys. I couldn't do life without them. They are SOO good. They know our expectations and so rarely disappointed it's insane to Ray and I. They are each others best friend and don't ever ask for anyone to come over (which is good because we haven't allowed anyone into our house in months). I'm most thankful for Ray. He has been home working everyday in the basement and never complains, always helps, always jokes and always wants better for me. None of this life would be what it is if we didn't have our faith in God. Life is good. 

Happy Thanksgiving to you!

Love, us

Sometimes Facebook is really cool. The lady in the grey sweatshirt I hadn't seen since 1998. She was in town for her husbands work and messaged me and asked if I wanted to get together. Heck yeah. Cross Country at SHS wasn't even talked about all that much but we picked up right where we left off. 

In third grade the big social studies topic is the Roman Empire. They did a smaller unit on Roman Gods. This is, Mars God of War.

The double Boppy. This trick is new to me and baby girl loves her double Boppy. 

Someone is 4 months old. She has her first tooth and we can't tell if that is causing the fussy times or if it is that she startles herself awake all the time so doesn't often get a nice long nap in. Love you little girl. She goes to the dr on Monday but our guess is close to 11 lbs. She can roll over both ways, but doesn't do it often. She just today found her thumb (something we have been working on for months). She LOVES to coo at us using the "ahhhh" sound most often. She eats every four hours a 5 oz bottle. She gets up 2 times a night but has slept through the night three times in a row but then never again. She can't sit but if we put her in a seated position can hold if for 1-5 seconds before tumbling over to a side. 

Big Brothers

These two boys love you fiercely! You would much rather the boys hold you then Mom or Dad. Super baby with Ryan and "boops" to your nose from Connor. 
 

Baby Girl Stats

 So I don't forget:

You were born 4 lbs 15 oz 18 inches

You came home weighing 2517 grams which I think is 5 lbs 8 oz.

At one month you were 6lbs 6 oz

At two months you were 8lbs 6oz

At two and a half months you were 8lbs 13 oz 22 inches long

Foster baby girl is here

 

Okoboji During Quarantine

 We were sooooo lucky to get to go to the lake this year. We all had our fingers crossed but didn't think it would work out. We went for two glorious weeks of unwinding. 

This was the first time we had spent much time with Nat & Neil in years and Auden is THE BEST baby in the world. We worked on high fives, waving and "where is my nose". We introduced him to TV and gluten. :)

The boys loved the swing, the NEW front sleeping room, Auden, swimming to the neighbors island. We drove to Jefferson to see GG and we got one day with Lizzie. Ryan tried skiing and wake boarding, he got up on both but then freaked out and dropped. They both drove the jet ski with dad as the passenger and LOVED that!

Ryan John Is 9!

 Happy Birthday Ry Guy! You have grown so much this summer. You are catching your brother in height and foot size. Your a size 3 shoe, and 50% for height and weight. You weigh 61 lbs and are 4ft 4inches.

For your birthday Grandma and Grandpa were here a few days early and they bought you Confetti Bundt Cakes and gave you every color under the rainbow of Duct Tape to create all that you create.

On your birthday we sat in the dining room and you opened all the rest of your presents. We got you a frisbee golf set and your BFF Shane came over and we all went up to the pool park and played. I was a ball of nerves to go get your new baby foster sister. I totally forgot to put sunscreen on all of us, but I seem to be the only one that got burned. After golf we went to Sonic and all got lunch. Shane got picked up, I went to go get baby from the NICU and Dad took you and Connor to the Dentist. No cavities, yay!

You said you knew you were going to get a baby for your birthday! You told us back one night in April that this was going to happen and you stuck to it. Thanks for sharing your special day with your little sis!

Golden Eagle Camp Grounds

We made sure to get at least one camping trip in. If it were up to Ryan we would camp every weekend.
Sierra and Mike called us the day before and said they found a place that had last minute reservations that was only 50 minutes away. We were in!

10 weeks

We did it, one semester, 10 weeks of virtual learning. My kids are truly brag worthy. Every single day they got up and got it done well before lunch time. Now do we want to do it again (actually I think they are fine with doing it again). Mama needs a break kids. What I mean is, I need some alone time. Should I build a shed shed with a lock that no one but me knows the code to?

School officially ends on Friday.

Quarantine day 57- Con got a haircut

Command Cuts is open and Con really needed a haircut.
They were only doing two stylists and two customers at a time. The hair dresser wore a mask and Connor wore a mask. I waiting in the car with Ryan. Only took 8 minutes.

Before

After

 The taught become the teachers

I was digging out a plant when I hear something behind me. 

Ryan's First Dream

Ryan for the first time ever remembered his dream (he's almost 9). He said he was in bey blades and kept wining.

Stay at home orders

Same old same old over here. We have found our rhythm of home school work and grocery shopping. The boys have been waking up around 7 and rocking out all their work by around 9. The weather has been beautiful so while Ray works in the basement the boys and I spend most of the day in the back yard or in the front yard on their Hover karts.

 Amazon sent ray this for his birthday and nobody has said it is from them

Corona virus quarantine

 New bedroom curtains for Connor (replacing the very first nursery ones)

 Sunny days make us so happy

 Started watermelon and pumpkins way early this year; why not

 Virtual classroom learning is going amazingly well.

 Tiger Kids bags a show on Netflix has kept us entertained

 Tiger King’s

 We attempted to learn how to solve Rubik cubes

 Lots and lots of catch in the backyard and hitting practice

 Art project that Ryan was assigned this week

 Raymond’s 38th birthday

 Baking. Although I’d like to bake more but butter eggs and flour have been hard to find