Mom's Trip 1

 Our rec center had an egg hunt and bounce house the saturday before Easter.  Mom took Olivia there while I was at the fire station hiding eggs for the fire house egg hunt.  Mom brought Olivia by so she could hunt some eggs in the field with some friends.  Then we got our picture with the really pink bunny.  Then mom tool Olivia back to the bounce house for another hour while I cleaned up.  What a great day to celibrate no on Easter. 

Easter Day I had to work.  Mom and Olivia went to church and then came to the FIre house for a Easter dinner.  What a great day to celibrate with family.

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This is Olivia's first types writing paper.  She is so proud and she did this all by her self!  I am so proud as well.

Betsy Ross

Betsy Ross maker of our flag made great contributions to our country.  She doubted her gift of sewing, even though she was the most amazing sewer in Philadelphia.  She clearly preformed her best and it paid off.                          

Betsy Ross had an amazing and wonderful life story.  She was born in 1752. She had 1 brother and 7 sisters that intensely loved her. She loved school because she good at all the stuff involved with it.  She got married twice and had three children.  She past away in 1898, when she died she didn’t die poor she died proud.                                                Betsy Ross, who is the maker of our flag, was a very strong person.   Her loving mother taught her to sew at the age of 5 years old, and she loved it automatically.  There was a sewing contest at the fair, in Philadelphia.  In her project she had stars but the six pointed stars never looked right.  Her mother taught her how to make 5 pointed stars.   When she grew up, she started a sewing shop sense she loved to sew.  George Washington came to her shop and kindly requested her to make the American flag.  On the picture they had 6 pointed stars then she showed him the 5 pointed stars.  He liked her idea so he decided to change it.  She made the American flag and became famous.       

Betsy Ross had very strong character traits. She had a lot of perseverance. She never gave up, she thoroughly worked hard and did not complain.  She was a hard worker. She worked hard and did her best, because she new it would pay off. Betsy Ross had many others such as courage, love, faith, and grace.                                                                     Betsy Ross was a wonderful person who made great contributions to our country. She worked intensely and let nothing distract her.  She did her best and succeeded in many things.  Betsy Ross brightly preformed great strength, she was brave and never gave up.                                                                                   

Quinn's

The weather is warming up and the daylight is longer.  We are back in the swing of Jack Quinn's runs on Tuesday.  This was Olivia's 12 run, and she wants 100!!

Update on Cabo

 While in Cabo, Jonathan and Kristen took us snorkeling.  They took amazing video and I was able to get a picture of Olivia First time Snorkeling.  She was a little scared but Kristen was there to talk her through it with great patience.  Thank you Kristen!

Jon's Birthday celebration

 Jon's birthday os over spring break so I decided to celebrate it before our trip out of the country and after.  He opened his presents the night before leaving and took him out to his favorite dinner, Sushi.
Olivia gave him trekking poles for hiking and I got him a football jersey.

 While in Cabo, my parents got a sunset dinner cruise for all 5 of us.  We ate, drank and danced the night away.  We sang him happy birthday and he got birthday spanks from most.

 When we got home I bought red velvet cupcakes with trick candles.  We sang again and he blow out the candles.  He has had two weeks of birthday fun.  Happy 48th Birthday.

St. Patrick's Day

 I had to work this year on St. Patrick's day so green cookies were made at the fire house and then delivered while no body was home.  Make the house look like a leaparcon came in and made cookies but he was too small to clean up all the mess.  He even kissed the milk green in the frig. 

Olivia thought it was cute, I think she is starting to catch on there is no fairy tale people.  lol

Cabo San Lucas 1-2

 We went to Cabo for spring break week this year.  This was the view from our room.  The fish below we saw dead on the beach.  I saw one almost ever morning on my am walk.  We think it is a porcupine fish or a blow fish.  Not sure

 Sunday we got up and went for a walk to play in the ocean.  Olivia is still a little scared of the ocean and the waves.  That is ok by me!

Sunday afternoon mom and dad arrived to enjoy the sun for a couple of weeks as well.

 Jon and mom bonded with a little horse play in the water like normal.

Mom and Dad went on a time share and got 5 free tickets to do a dinner sunset cruise.

They did this for Jon's Birthday night dinner. 

 Thursday we went on another time share, this one had beautiful look outs into the ocean and also a waterfall. 

 We even played tennis, and here is where Jon is teach Olivia how.  She looks thrilled.  but our last day she wanted to play again. 

I am having issues getting pictures downloaded so I will post another one later.  We had a blast with Skip and Janet, Tim and Ruth, Kristen and Jonathan, and Mom and Dad for a week trip.  Thank you too all for the company, great cook dinners, the transportation, time shares, and the wonderful company.  We need to do this again. 

couple of things

 This is my cat Zoey, when she is Happy, she sticks her tough out!

 This is Everett and Jon having fun in Lowe's

 This is Olivia playing math games at school.  

You can play it at home with your kids.  Helps with adding

Get a deck of cards, take out 7's, A's and K's

2-Q's, J=11, Q=12

Place 10 cards in front of each person.  Get two dice.

Roll the dice, if a number comes up that is in front of you then you can flip it over, if another play has the card they can flip it over.  Only one person can flip so you better be fast.

If you get a 7 you pass the dice to the next person.

 This is Everett playing outside again.  Oh yea he is a boy I baby sit for a friend.  We switch off child care.  He is our red headed step child!  He is 2 and potty trained.  Well for 90% of it he is, I am happy no more dirty diapers, just baths!

And this is my theme house for March.  February was red, white, red.  It's fun.  Happy time!

Signed up

Olivia asked last week if there was kid triathlons.  

I told here there was.

Then she asked if I could look them up and if she could do one.  

Ordinary Mortals May 10th   We are going a FAMILY Triathlon.

Olivia will be doing, Run 1 mile, Bike 4.4 mile, Swim 150 yrds

Jon and I will be doing Run 3.1 mile, Bike 12 mile, Swim 300 yds

Now we are training as a family.  

Party Fun

 LAst Sunday Olivia went to the twins 10th Birthday Party at hous of bounce.  They had a great time and a great way to burn off the sugar.

 The girls made there cake and it is a pop up cake, kind of cool but there mom said hard to make.

Happy 10th Birthday!

Swimming

 January Olivia asked to be on a swim team.  Yeah, I am thrilled but she could not swim.
We had her do two months in swim lessons at the rec center by our house.  Now she is doing great.
As long as she still loves it she will be on the swim team called Falfin's in September.
So Proud!

Visitors

 Kristen and Jonathan came down for a wonderful visit.  We took them to the top of Pikes Peak.
Jonathan Free Boarded down most of the mountain.  Olivia was amazed and loved watching him, he even let her try it her self.  What a wonderful patient cousin!

 Then we headed to Garden of the Gods, there second time there, just wanted to show them the siamese twins.

 Jonathan had a wonderful setting on his photo he took this amazing picture of Olivia and I.  Thank you

Then last we headed to the Olympic training center.  

 Love my cousin wish they stayed longer.  Thank you for coming down for a visit!  You are welcome back any time.

Phoenix

 January 18th Olivia and I flew to Phoenix AZ for my first and last marathon.  My mom and dad met us there.  On the 18th I needed to check in for my race and then we looks around and got FREE stuff.  There was games, activities and food there.

 The morning of the 19th, my mom dropped me off for my race.  This picture was taken just before take off.  My team, Mom, Dad and Olivia cheered me on and passed on food during my race.

 I finished in 4:35.55  I was proud and very sore.  After the race we walked to the car there was a wonderful river with this old bridge we took a couple pictures by.

 Then we came across these wonderful trees for a 10 year old to climb in.

 We all went for a hike to the hole in the mountain, and drove around town.

 Then 20th we went to the Zoo and then flew home.  Mom paid for Olivia's first Camel ride.  she loved it.

Thanks Mom and Dad for coming down and cheering me on.  Had a wonderful weekend.

Bounce house

 A couple of weeks ago, we had some bad weather and it kept Olivia out of school for a total of 5 days.

 I got board in the house so we went into town to a indoor bounce house.  The little boy in the above picture was a random kid that liked playing with Olivia and her friend Jaden.  If you look close he looks just like Jon when he was a kid!  Olivia came running up to me, can we adopt him, he looks like daddy!

We had a great day inside.  

Adoption update

We met with our new adoption case worker two weeks ago.  Yes a sigh of relief!  

We are now on the waiting list for 1 to 2 kids, boy or girl or siblings.

From 5-10 years old and we are open for younger.

In the mean time, I get to make a photo book to give to the future kid, and 20 hours of training classes.

Jon and I already knocked out two hours by watching the movie Martin child.  

Olivia enjoy the movie as well.  

Now we just wait.

Durango Skiing

 Last minute trip to go skiing.  Jon choose Durango.  None of us have ever been there before so a new adventure.  Weather was the warm, snow was great and smiles were every where!

Dec 2013

January 25th we flew in Jon's sister and niece, due to weather they did not arrive till the 26th.

Olivia arrived home on the 27th.

We celebrated Christmas by going to Olive Garden Thanks Mom and Dad, coming home to open presents.

 Olivia got a Bike and a Furby

 Jon and i got company from Family

 They went to Garden of the Gods again, Wolf center, Olympic training center, and the pool.

Everyone seemed to enjoy all.

 Merry Christmas as today is the 12th day of Christmas and Happy New years!

2013 year sum up

2013 was stressful over all but I thing everything turned out even better then we expected.

We moved into our beautiful dream home.

January and February we went skiing once each.  not a good year for snow.

Then end of 2012 we finished fertility treatment and was unsuccessful. 

February 2013 we started to look into adoption.

The end of February started a long ordeal of a custody issues.

March Jon and I took a week vacation to Canada, which was amazing and stress free.

April we started the adoption process in Denver county 70 minutes north of us. 

May we traveled to Virginia to see Jon's family for a week. 

Then my parent came for two week visit, Jon went to California for military training, and we got full custody of Olivia!

June, my parents were still here for the very to close for comfort fire2 miles from our house.  Olivia celebrated her 10th Birthday and got a huge party.  We traveled to see my parents for a week vacation.  Olivia attended her first Lutheran Camp for a week.

 Olivia left for the summer to see her mom in Alabama. 

Jon and I went camping and attended a friends wedding.   

July worked a lot!

August Olivia came home, school started and she loves 4th grade.  Jon and I finished all 12 of our adoption classes.

September was adjustment month for all of us.  Olivia attached to her Best friend even more. 

I took them both apple picking at the end of the month.

October we had our home studies and house inspection for the adoption.

We attended our Halloween family run as Pirates this year and won best family again.

Jon got diagnosed with degenerated disc disease in his neck. 

Took Olivia Trick or treating for the first time.

November had issues on custody plane flights.  Jon was patient got us through this.  Olivia got a good plane ticket to see her family for the holiday, bitter sweet!

And finally just got the letter stating we got approved to adopt a kid in Denver county. 

One last month of this year and looking forward to the next 31 days to come.

Happy End of the Year.

2013