Taco time

Last night we went over to Grannies house for the traditional Christensen dinner, tacos. It was great. I love tacos. There is just something about the way our family makes them that reminds me of my childhood. Of course, the green chili was great.

We all ate ourselves silly and then the boys went crazy. The adults were all in a taco coma, but they definitely had a different effect on the kiddos.

Waylon had guacamole all over his pants and then spilled a glass of water, so they were in the dryer. It was a really great time.

Denver Children's museum

Chicago: T minus 3 days. We have 3 days left of our vacation in Colorado. Sadly, Aaron went back yesterday. He had to work, that crazy guy.

Today we (Shell, cousins Kendell and Colty, mom, the boys and I) went to the Children's Museum in Denver where we met Shelley, Charlie and their cutie Alex (bout the same age as Way baby). Sorry for the red eye, will fix later. Posting now so hubby can see the boys and mom is waiting to play some cards. They had a great time.

Playing fireman...

Scarf fight, didn't know this was possible, but it is!!

Cooking up some bacon and asparagus, yum yum!

Crawling through caves....

Hanging with cousins....

and mom...

and last but definitely not least, at least for these guys, the train tables...

It was hard to tell who was more exhausted on the way back, the kids or the adults. I'm voting for the adults. It was really crazy there. The noise level alone definitely did some permanent damage. Next time I'm bringing ear plugs. It's worth it though. That pic of Byron and Kendell pretty much says it all.

Mamama

I got my Christmas gift early this year. Waylon has started saying mama! Of course, he is now saying poppa, baba, dada, etta and something that really sounds like all done. He said all of those before mama, but he finally is saying mama! I think it's really funny that he says etta (Byron's lovey's name). He even said it (mama) when he wasn't really upset today. He has been saying it only when he is really upset, waking from a nap or something similar. I'm completely satisfied with my gift though, no more presents needed for me!

Snowy CO

It snowed a fair amount in CO last night, and on throughout the day. After naps, we headed outside to enjoy it for a while, or for however long Waylon kept on his mittens....

I love the look on Byron's face. Christmas may have a hard time living up to a 3 yr olds excitement upon seeing a huge pile of snow.

We are having a great time in Fort Morgan. It's really starting to feel like Christmas now! All the shopping is done and we even got to the wrapping this afternoon. We got way too much, but it's so fun buying for the boys. Now, we just are going to have to figure out how to get it all home. Hmmmm. USPS, here we come.

I (heart) Loveland

I love Loveland! We went skiing (boarding actually) there on Saturday. It was so great. I always forget how much I love snowboarding until I'm on the mountain. It is just a fantastic sport. A little exhileration and the great outdoors is a perfect combination. It's great now because both Aaron and I are proficient enough that we don't expend all our energy picking ourselves up from fall after fall anymore.

On top of the mountain, all covered with snow....

We headed up to Loveland from Fort Morgan in mom's little red Jetta (Thanks Mom!). We left (gasp!) the boys at home with Nana Renee and Papa Ken. For those of you not in CO, Loveland is a ski resort right at the continental divide. It is gorgeous up there. Mountains all around, evergreens and everything covered in snow.

We met Pete around 9:30 and were on the slopes by 10. No one really had any crashes, except for getting off the lift. The Pederson's are lift departing challenged (excepting Pete). I don't know what it is. I do fine going down the slope, but put a lift in front of me and I just fall down. I almost just stayed on the lift the first time up, but finally got going with a little push in the rear with the seat of the lift and then a little jump. It was kind of fancy if I do say so myself.

We all had a wonderful time. It was pretty cold, but the snow was good. We were worried the conditions wouldn't be that great since CO hasn't had a ton of snow so far. One of the best parts of the trip was the Jetta's heated seats on the say home. Love the warm buns.

Look ma, no kids!

In Colorado

We are in Colorado! Sunny, great day.

The trip went well. Taxi ride to airport, 2 hr plane ride, and 1 hr drive back to Fort Morgan all accomplished. The boys did great. Waylon slept for 1 hr of the plane ride. I got to (gasp) read. Reading The Green Mile now (nice Christmasy book, ha ha). Just finished Tracks, a book about several native American families before leaving. Byron didn't fall asleep until the drive back to FM.

We already got in some good family time. We had dinner with Scott, Shelley, Kendell, Colty, Grams, Gramps and Uncle Dick. The boys were crazy excited to be here. Byron LOVES his cousins. He is in 7th heaven. Waylon is happy having a new environment to explore.

Can't wait to crash tonight. It has been a long day, but a good day. Nana Renee coming over the mountain tomorrow.

Cutest thing ever

There is nothing cuter than a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds dressed up in their holiday clothes singing Christmas songs. We went to Harper's school Holiday party this morning. Harper is up on the stage in the middle sporting a red and white striped shirt. Harper did a great job and actually sang and did all of the motions for the songs. You can tell his parents are artistically inclined. :)

Byron got to sit with all the other preschoolers after the program and get a snack.

Then it was time for some dancing.I'm not sure what that move with the hands in the mouth is called. Faye is in the plaid dress. I just love those girls dresses. They are so adorable.

Waylon enjoyed a candycane.
Harper is quite the ladies man. The girls were fighting over him.
Birth announcement! Mike and Katie called this morning and are now the proud parents of baby boy Gavin. He was born yesterday and all are doing well (in Boston).

Pump it up!

Pump it up used to be a song that Amber would do the running man to at our apartment in Rams. How times have changed. Now it is a kids indoor playground made of big, air filled, jumping structures. Byron likes to call it "the bouncy place". I've been promising to take the boys back there ever since we left last time. It was cold, cold, cold today and the boys desperately needed to go run around so it was a perfect day for a visit.

The boys had a great time. I really like it there. They have a junior room for kids under 3 (maybe 4?). It's big enough for them to run around and have a great time, but it's still easy to keep track of both of them. That's a problem I've been running into lately. Waylon is so fast and isn't necessarily one to stick close to me. Going to the zoo this past month was crazy. I felt like I needed a mood altering drug after that. Today was great though.

Maximum energy expended by the boys and minimum worrying by me. :)

Early Christmas in Chicago

Pete and Caroline visited this weekend. We had an early Christmas with them. It was really fun.

Byron was so excited. He kept saying "I'm such a lucky boy". When he got in trouble for something (or just wasn't happy, a little of the grandma hangover effect) the next day he would say " I guess I'm not such a luck boy anymore." That kid cracks me up.

Byron helped Aaron play Santa, and helped everyone open their gifts.

Gift for Byron.....

Waylon.....
Nana Caroline.....Pete......and Bryon again...... (love the action here)
Waylon was the observer. He was getting pretty sleepy. He did have a good time rolling around in the paper..

He has another tooth! That's a total of 8 now, 4 on the top and 4 on the bottom. These last two have been pretty easy peasy.

We are leaving Thursday for Colorado for the real deal. We will be there through the 31st. It is so cheap to travel on New Year's Eve! With kids this age, it really doesn't matter to us either. It'll be plenty of excitement to stay up to 12 and celebrate the new year with a couple of movies and a glass of wine.

New glasses!

I ordered my new glasses this morning. I found a great pair at Visonworks with my fashion guru's help. Thanks Pamela! I was able to pick up the sunglasses today, but the glasses will be another week or so. I'm hoping to get them before we head out to Colorado on Thursday.


It's kind of hard to tell what they look like with the glare. I ordered the non-glare coating.

My park, beach, and pool glasses.

Momisms

Here are some things I've found myself saying lately, that I never thought I would.......

"You may not like it, but no is not a bad word"

"Do not blow raspberries on your brothers bottom!" (in bath, I can't wait to remind him about this one once he's 12 or so, he he)

"It's not my job to be nice to you, I'm your mom." (Lately when we do something he really likes to do, like to go Harper's he says "You're being so nice to me, mom.")

"I don't think I like the attitude you've had lately."

"Do not hit your brother on the head" (implying that hitting any other place on the body is open season)

"It doesn't matter why you (insert activity here), just don't do it again."

....or on days where I'm not so on my game "I don't care why you did it, we DO NOT do that!"

Byron has really keeping me on my toes lately. Conversely, he's also really affectionate. He tells me "I like your shirt" when I have on my grungiest gym gear. When he comes up to me and says "I love you" and "you're so pretty", it just melts my heart.

Love that guy!

Waylon update: Another day, another tooth. Lower left side. His 7th tooth. Eye is looking great.

I've started working through some of the pictures I've taken lately (through November) and I've posted them to our shutterfly website. The link it also now on this page (over there ---> ).

Ouch!

Waylon's head had an encounter with Pamela's coffee table today.


Poor guy, the coffee table was fine for those of you who were wondering.

Thank goodness for the conveniences of the internet and iphones. I had no idea if I should head to the ER or not. He has a cut about 3/4" long right above the crease on his left eyelid. It bled quite a bit in the beginning, but quickly stopped. Thank goodness we know a good MD. We called Aaron and Pamela took a pic of Way-baby's eye with her phone (won't post here, may be too graphic for those not steel stomached). The verdict was to wait and see what it looked like after some antibiotic ointment, gauze, band-aid, and a nap.

The poor guy took it like a champ. He is really a bruiser. All is fine now as evidenced by the dancing with brother in mom's boots.


...and strolling across mom's new rug.

I think I feel more disturbed by the whole thing than he does. I followed him around all afternoon trying to project a maternal force field of protection around him. I don't think I could deal with anymore drama. He probably thought, "Mom, what is UP?? Let a baby be." I'm off for some Twilight therapy.

Laughs

Click here for a good laugh. Click! Worth the extra click, I swear!

BL Finale

Biggest Loser finale is on. He he. One of my guilty pleasures. Aaron and I are guessing the weights of the final contestants. So far, I've been pretty close. Not much time to post, have to get back before the commercial break is over. Here's a cute pic of the boys playing together.

Christmastime in Chicago

It's really starting to feel like the holidays in Chicago. Traffic is terrible. Don't even think of going to Target if you value your sanity at all.

We woke up to snow. Byron let everyone within a 4 block radius know by shouting it out as soon as he woke up. ( at 7, heaven!)

Love how you can see Piper in the lower left corner of the pic. She loves the snow.

Byron also had a great time.

We made a construction paper holiday chain for our tree. Idea taken from Maggie last Friday. Thanks Maggie! Kept the wild men entertained for at least 10 minutes.Love the holidays.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday dad! This is for you. I hope you have a great day.



Love you!

Little victories

It was a good Saturday.

I have a tendency to... ahem... accumulate lots of "stuff" on top of my dresser. Well, it had gotten a little out of control. I unpacked my clothes from Thanksgiving, but hadn't put them away. I also had switched out my wardrobe for the winter, but hadn't put those away either. My half of the room was a mess. Well, this morning I organized!!! I feel ridiculously proud of this pic.
Next, I attacked the oven. I even used the self cleaning feature I'd noticed now and again. It worked! Not on the top obviously. It's not nana Renee clean, but it's close!
Last, the microwave. When we moved we put our microwave in the pantry. It works great, but the bad thing is that it's completely out of site when I'm cleaning. The out of site, out of mind adage definitely applies. I don't think I'd cleaned it once since we moved in July. I think someone must have at one time, maybe mom or Caroline. So, it really needed to be cleaned. Ta da!!!!

...and I definitely did not let Waylon play in the recycling bin while I worked on the microwave. Nope, not me!

First snow!

First snow of the year. Didn't stick. Byron can't wait to build some snowmen, or snowwomen.


Waylon just had a good time climbing the stairs.

Preschool! AAAAAAH!

So, I spent most of the last 2 days, while not napping, playing with the boys, cleaning, cooking, running to the bank, or going to the park because it's really nice out researching preschools. Ahhhhh! It seems kind of confusing. I did get some recommendations, so I'm focusing on those first. I wasn't impressed with the 2 that were the most recommended though. One has a list of what the kids should be able to do at the end of the 3 yr old class year, and Byron can do all of them already! Hmmmm. Smarty pants.

The other doesn't have much information on the web and I haven't been able to contact them yet. OK, I called when the boys were napping today and they told me to call back tomorrow morning. This is a little nerve racking though. I want him to go someplace that he likes, but where he'll actually learn. Aaron is of the opinion that what he doesn't learn at school, he will learn at home. There is another called Maggie's place that sounds promising. I also left a message with them. I guess there's some bad weather in Savannah today, so everyone went home early. From what I gather, it's raining! (gasp!) He he.

On a good note, I made a great curried eggplant and sweet potato soup last night. It was sooo yummy. A little labor intensive, but it was worth it.

PS- Waylon has his 6th tooth! It broke through this Tuesday. Now the sleepless nights last Wednesday and Monday make sense.

Thanksgiving recap

Had a great time down in Murphysboro. Waylon did great on the way down. He even zoned out for a bit.
Byron did not want to leave. Byron started pouting as soon as he realized we were leaving on Sunday. It was only relieved when Byron realized that the tent Caroline bought for them got to come back to Chicago.

Byron did everything except sleep in the tent, although he tried. This is technically taken in the tunnel that came along with the tent.

Waylon liked the tent, but his heart belonged to the fridge. My boys are all ruled by their tummies.It was actually beautiful in the boro this last weekend. The boys both got their last bout of sunshine until next April.

Thanks for the great weekend Pete and Caroline!