Yearly Memories - Part 2

15. The Wisconsin Dells.  We got to go on a family trip to the Dells with Rian's family for their 40th wedding anniversary.  I had heard of the Dells, but never had been there.  It was awesome!  Yes, it is a tourist town.  Yes, there are waterparks in every hotel.  Yes, there are candy stores and cheese stores all over town. Yes, I loved it.

16.  Cam loves swimming now.  Apparently all it takes is for your Grandparents to tell you swimming is fun, and then you love it!  Cam became a swimmer on this trip and hasn't looked back.

17.  40th Anniversary Party.  Rian's parents have been married for 40 years!  My sis-in-law and I planned a little party at a restaurant in the Dells.  We had t-shirts made and made a GIANT shutterfly book full of 40 years of memories.  It was perfect.

18.  My parents and Noah were in Chicago while we were at the Dells, and dropped by for a day to go to a waterpark with us.  It led to one of the single cutest pictures of the past year.  Cam and Noah passed out after hours of swimming.

19.  Olympics.  I live and die for the Olympics.  This year was an amazing Olympics, and it was so fun having a child who now understands how to cheer and the glory of victory!  He loved the swimming as much as I did, and we were especially excited for Missy Franklin who is from Colorado!  Also, we have sung the "Star Spangled Banner" EVERY NIGHT since then.  I am not kidding.  It is his lullabye.

20.  New York and the US Open.  This was on our bucket list, and we finally made it happen.  It was worth every penny.  We watched a ton of tennis, and explored NYC in the summer.  It was amazing.  Amazing.

21.  Twin's Finally Walk....and it was while we were in NYC!  We came home to two little toddlers walking up to us and saying hi.  It was a great surprise and made the sting of lost luggage fade away.

22.  The Sphinx.  Cameron's soccer team for the fall were named the Sphinx.  It is the worst team name ever.  But it was so fun!  Cam, of course, enjoyed pretending like he was a jet airplane and zooming all over the field more than actually playing soccer.  But, he wants to play again this spring, so he liked it!

23.  Twins at the Aquarium.  After the twins were able to walk, we took them to the zoo and let them walk through the tunnel on their own.  They loved it and it made for some great photos.

24.  Halloween.  Cam was a shark.  Collin was a raccoon.  Casey was an owl.  Can it get any cuter?

25.  Family Pics.  We got to get professional pics done with both sides of our family in the fall.  I love professional pics, and these two sets were no exception.  If I could, I would get them done 4 times per year.

 




 

26.  Meagan's 1st Birthday.  My little niece turned one and I made her an epic bumble bee tutu.  It was adorable.  Adorable.
 
27.  Cam's Christmas Program.  Cam practiced and practiced and told me all about his Christmas program.  But the day of the program, I had to pretend like I didn't know anything about it, because he wanted it to be surprise.  He wanted to look "handsome", so he wore his bowtie.  Obvi.  I love that kid.

28.  Santa.  You do not know excitement until you have a four year old leading up to Christmas.  Santa was EPIC!  Cameron was so excited and the first thing he said when he went down the stairs Christmas morning was "Oh my stars!"  Too cute.


29.  The bangs.  I got bangs in November.  I love them and hate them.  I get a good response from most people, but I am already ready to grow them out.  I can't imagine heavy hair on my forehead through the summer in Omaha.

30.  March of Dimes.  Right after we moved here I volunteered with the March of Dimes in an effort to get out of the house and meet new people.  That one little volunteer job has taken me far!  I am now the Family Team Chairman (a pretty busy volunteer job), and have been on TV.  TWICE!  I can't believe it, and I love it.  And I made a friend!!!!!  Watch me on TV HERE!

31.  Dance Parties.  We like music and like to dance, and we want our kids to like it too.  They do.  We have frequent dance parties, but I would have to say, Collin enjoys them the most. Check him out in the video below, especially at the 15 second mark.  That's some moves!

32.  These guys.

Casey

Cam the Hipster

Collin

33.  Moving to Homaha (the single biggest event that has happened to us).  "Why is it a favorite memory?" some of you may ask.  Maybe it isn't a memory, but it has allowed almost all of the memories with Rian to happen.  By moving to Homaha, we have got to spend TONS of time together.  And that my friends, is the best memory of the year, seeing my family together more often than not. 
 

Yearly Memories - Part One

It's my birthday week!  I thought I would try something one of my favorite BLOGGERS does, and do a favorite memories over the past year post.

Because I am turning 29 again, I will give you 29 favorite memories with a bonus 4 memories.  A total of 33 favorite memories over the past year! 

1.  Rams basketball game with Cameron and Lindsay.  Cam and I were recovering from the stomach flu, it was Leap Day, it was a last minute decision.  But we did it.  We drove to Fort Collins where Lindsay met us from Laramie, and went to one of the most exciting Rams basketball games ever!  We had a blast.

2.  Going away party.  While I cried a majority of the time, and ugly cried the rest of the time, it was a great party.  All of our friends and family came to wish us well and we got to see so many smiling faces before we left.

Noah and I at the going away party.

3.  Collie's blowout on the ACTUAL DRIVE to Omaha.  Poop a good memory?  Not the poop itself, but the hysterical laughter Megan and I had as we confused the guy at the gas station bringing in one twin and then the other.  Also, I had to buy Collie his very first Nebraska shirt because in all of the packing and haste, I didn't pack extra clothes for my kids.

Collin's 1st NE shirt.

4.  St. Patrick's Day Nonsense! Megan was still here from the move, my parents and Noah were here, and Megan told us that Lucky the Leprechaun had to make a naughty mess at our house.  She put everything together, and it was worth it!  Cam and Noah freaked out and Cam STILL talks about the naughty leprechaun who ruined my crochet (he pulled a bunch of yarn all over the house from an extra roll I had).


5.  Exploring new parks.  We moved here on March 14th.  The next day it was 70 degrees and spring was here!  We were wearing shorts and tank tops in April.  It was great!  The boys and I explored tons of new parks almost on a daily basis.

6.  1st Birthday Bowties.  I ordered them from Etsy, and they were perfect!  Everyone loved them, including the boys, and they still like to wear them every once in a while!

Collin

Casey

7.  Twins 1st Birthday Party.  I had a family birthday party for the twins the weekend before their birthday.  Both of our families came along with Lindsay and Megan (the twins nannies for the first year).  The food was delicious, the decorations were awesome and we had a blast.  The weather did threaten us with tornadoes and hail for a while, but it passed!  

8.  Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium.  We knew before we moved this place was legit, but now that we are frequent visitors, it is amazing!  We took Rian with us on a Sunday last spring, and had an absolute blast.  We haven't been so much over the course of the winter, but we have plenty of trips planned for spring and summer.

9.  Cam get's new "Sport Shoes".  Rian and I finally decided that we needed to spend a little bit of money on Cam's shoes.  We had just been buying whatever sports shoe Cam preferred at Target.  Cars, Toy Story, whatever.  But the kid has super high arches like his Daddy and I do, and the Target shoes wear out in about 2-3 months.  So I bought him some Nikes.  He put them on in the store and proceeded to run up and down aisles because he thought he was so fast.  

10.  Cam HATES swimming.  We signed Cam up for swim lessons for the summer.  It was awful.  Crying, shivering, more crying, negative attitude, even more crying.  That was just me.  Poor Cam was even worse.  Things turned around though, stay tuned.

11.  The Safari.  The zoo here also has a Wildlife Safari Park that you drive through!  It's awesome!  You see elk, bison, tons of birds, deer, etc.  We literally went there 8 times over the spring, summer and fall since we moved here.  It is a perfect place to go when Rian is out of town, the boys need to get out, but I want them contained as well.  You only drive 5 mph through it, and Cam loves to sit in the front seat, tell me where to go as he looks over the map, and take pictures of all the animals.  This fall, later in the season, we went one more time before they closed for the winter.  We may have been the only ones there, and the bison must have known.  As our car was coming down the hill towards them, the entire herd ran down the hill and blocked the road for 30 minutes!  Cam and I were in heaven.  It was too funny thinking we might be able to drive finally, and then a bison would just stop. look at us in our car, and then take a giant bison poop.  



12.  Cam's Summer Sports.  We signed Cam up for summer baseball and soccer.  The parks and rec department here is awesome, and for the little kids, it is more like a summer sports camp.  It goes for 8 weeks.  The first four weeks they practice one day a week and learn different skills.  The last four weeks they play little games against the other "teams".  Pretty funny, and Cam loved every second.

Cam's team was the "Twins"!

13.  Papillion Days.  This is the annual fair that our little town puts on.  It is so fun, and so much more than we expected.  It kicked off with an outdoor concert on Thursday.  The fair started the next day and we went that night.  Cam loved the rides and we loved watching him.  They also had a giant parade down the main road in our town.  Just writing this is making me excited for next year's!

14.  Cameron's 4th Birthday.  We knew we would be in Denver for Cameron's birthday, so I asked him what he would like to do.  He said, "I want to eat nuggets at Chick-Fil-A and go bowling."  That is exactly what we did.  Our friends and family met us at Chick-Fil-A and then we went bowling.  Cam had a blast and that is exactly what a 4 year old should be doing on their birthday.

STAY TUNED FOR MY YEARLY MEMORIES - PART 2

Project Life - Weeks 2 and 3

Here are weeks 2 and 3.  Week 2 was an especially busy week, so there are 4 spreads.  Enjoy!

Week 2.1 left side

Week 2.1 right side

Week 2.2 left side

Week 2.2 right side

Week 3 left side

Week 3 right side

 

Project Life - Week 1

I love working on my Project Life album!  I get so excited when I print my pages out and slip them into the album.

Here is Week 1.

Week 1 - Left side

Week 1 - Right side

I Make Things

I like to make things.  A lot of different things.  My PINTEREST profile description is "Wife of One.  Mommy of Three.  Crafter of Many."  It's true.  

So hopefully every Tuesday, I can update you on what I am working on.  I am ALWAYS working on more than one thing.  Always.  

Here are this weeks.  They both happen to be crochet projects, which I do a lot of.  Senior year of college I taught myself how to crochet, and I have been going strong since.  I love doing it.  It keeps me calm.  It let's me be creative.  I get an awesome finished project at the end that I get to give to someone.  My main gig is blankets (we call them Kiki's), but I like to make hats and scarves and other smaller crochet projects. 

The first is a college graduation gift I am making for one of my former students that I still keep in touch with.  She is an awesome girl and graduating from Pepperdine in April!  Her favorite color is purple and I was inspired by this picture (I tried to get the link to credit this pic, but Pinterest said it was a suspicious link.  The bottom of the pic does say cutestfood.com, so we'll go with that.) :

So far, I have just started the cream, but these are the colors that will be used throughout. 

Purple ombre graduation Kiki. 

The second is a baby blanket for someone special (who will remain nameless until she decides to announce).  They are Broncos fans, and probably not going to find out the sex of the baby.  I thought this baby Bronco yarn was perfect!  I am going to go with a polka dot pattern, I think.

Bronco baby Kiki.

The Dairy Queen Kid

Today was a good day. 

The boys were behaving, we needed some shoes.  So we went to the mall.  I'll admit, we do not venture out to much like this.  It is hard for me when Rian is not home to load everyone up in the car, into the stroller, into the errand, back into the car, and back home, all by myself.  But, today I did.

Cam got some shoes.  I got some shoes.  We looked for a Valentine's present for Daddy.  Because the boys were being so good, I decided to get them a little treat at the food court.

Check out my new kicks!

Two high school kids were working at the Dairy Queen.  I was a tiny worried at first, because they were texting when I walked up.  But, they were nice and agreed to make Collin and Casey's shakes in a cup with a full lid.  (We do NOT do the dome lids.  Milkshake would be everywhere in 2.5 seconds).  Cam got a Blizzard and was just so excited.  We were giggling a little about his fast shoes and we were wondering if we would be able to see the kid making Cam's Blizzard.  

Vanilla milkshakes.  Best ever.

He handed Cam his Blizzard and said these words (of which I will NEVER forget),
"You are such a happy Mom.  I wish my Mom was like you."

I needed that.  

Days get long with traveling husbands.  I cry at the end the night sometimes because I am worried that I am being too mean to Cameron, or that he is going to resent me because I am the only one who punishes him regularly when he is being naughty.  I worry about it, all the time.


So this high school kid said the perfect thing to me at the perfect time.  It made the rest of my night go easier, and tomorrow when I am tired and the boys are pushing the limits, I am going to remember it.  Thanks high school kid!