around the house

deer are spotted in the yard almost everyday but thankfully this sight is rare.   i looked up from my breakfast this morning and saw (in my dad's words) a big freaking bear.  he had a great time going through the neighbors trash before wandering away.  

a more typical sight is caroline being a little "helper."  power on. power off. power on.  power off.  

this pic was taken when her help was still endearing.  before my dad asked me to take her far far away.  

this has been added to my mom's collection of awesome garage sale finds.  

this has been added to one of my favorite garage sale finds ever.  i have grand plans to rig it to the car seat to buy us some precious minutes on our upcoming 25 hour drive.   i did it without dvd's.  so can they.  

i am totally and completely kidding about withholding god's greatest gift to traveling parents.  we are preparing for a disney princess movie marathon.

full disclosure

when this transition is said and done, i will mostly look back on the awesome time spent with my family.   i've been taking pictures of nearly every memorable moment and interaction with the people we will miss.  we have had a really amazing time with them.    i've been studying the mountains and loving the weather.   

however.

it has also been pretty darn difficult without having ben around.   here is the ugly (and in hindsight, quite funny) truth of us being apart for 45 days.

mr. i hate facebook himself decided to begin a twitter account.  here are some of my favorite tweets over the course of his absence.  

Fact: it takes 24 hrs and 19 mins, 80 ozs of wild cherry pepsi, 12 reeses pb cups and 1 bag of funyuns to drive from denver to charlotte.

30 days in this hotel is going to feel like 300. Everyone here is on a first name basis and whistles at me when I walk by#ShawshankSuites

If drinking whiskey cokes on the Duke campus was on my bucket list, I'm happy to be able to cross it off.

Just leaving the office at 11:20 pm on a Friday. I thought this was a promotion.

U knw u've reached a level of greatness in life when u've had dinner at the Dragon Buffet 7 of 9 psble nights. I sneezed fried rice today.

I'd say that eating an entire box of Oreo Cakesters while watching Les Miserables qualifies as hitting my low point.

I'm just so tired of this stupid hotel. #enoughalready

and now for my walk of shame.   here are some of my texts to ben:

may 17: if i survive this it will be a miracle. a miracle.

may 17:  hard times here in CO

may 18: at urgent care with c.  maybe swallowed a paperclip.

may 21: my nights are miserable. up since 2am.  guess i got my standard 4 hrs.  

may 22:  its 4:30am. hi hallie.  nice of you to join c and i.  

may 25: come get us. we belong together.

may 30: it was bound to happen. i've hit my breaking point.

june 3: getting up at 5 yesterday was unacceptable. 4am just plain sux.

june 23: emotional and physical low.  

i feel bad for ben when i reread through those.  yikes.  poor guy must have felt pretty helpless 2000 miles away.  i suppose i tried so hard to have my game face on for the girls that i needed to release my troubles somewhere.   

and, in an attempt to redeem myself a bit, he also received some texts like this:

june 24: really great day. C waves and says mama!  H&K spending night w cousins. miss u!!!

we miss him and them already

this was a weekend of goodbyes.

ben came to town for several days which was beyond wonderful.  i didn't expect to be so emotional when i saw him but the tears were flowing.   it had been a long long time.  he was smitten over the girls and couldn't take his eyes off caroline.  when she first saw him, she studied his face intensely and looked him over with her mouth half ajar.  it didn't take long for her to show off all her tricks and feel completely comfortable.  kinsley and hallie craved his attention.  they only wanted him to buckle the car seats.  him to sit by at meals.  him to do bedtime.  so on and so on.  they were just so happy.  

he is now on a plane headed back to charlotte.  10 days until he returns to bring us with him.  it was a sad goodbye indeed.

we also got to bottle up some time with our friends.  it was the last time we will see most of them.   it is hard to even type those words.  i cried the whole way home and said profound things like, "this is stupid." or "it's just sad."  

i have been immeasurably blessed with amazing friends.  i love their kids and thankful that their husbands have been perfect matches for my husband.  these kinds of bonds can't be duplicated.  sorry charlotte folks, you can't possibly hold a candle to our colorado peeps.  stay tuned for pics of our girls trip to charlotte...coming fall 2011.

here are the babies that match the above picture:

caroline will miss her friends.

i love the way isla and caroline are chatting in this picture.  

kinsley and hallie will miss their friends too.

 
kinsley asked if this was the last time she would ever see mason.

it was sad.  no way around it.   plain old sad.  

poor dorthy

i have always always known that ben goes above and beyond with the kids.  he remembers things like mundane medical history facts and many many parenting duties have settled into his territory.  things like bathing them, brushing teeth, clipping fingernails, applying sunscreen, distributing medicine.   the list goes on and on.  we are on day 28 without seeing him and it is safe to say i fully realize what a blessing he is.

we are trucking along and counting down until he comes to visit.  i have not neglected their teeth and they don't cry anymore when i wash their hair.  i clip their nails--but i don't make it nearly the comedic performance that ben does.  

ben will be pleased to know that after a successful extraction, i can now take over the responsibility of splinter removal.  however, dorthy's tank still has not been cleaned.  that duty will forever remain his.  

now for another picture of what caroline looks like without a nap:

happy as ever.  the fussy and irritable one is on the other side of the camera.  

and now for a shout out to my niece and nephews for jumping/flipping off the diving board!

and a shout out to my mom and dad.  even though we have overstayed our welcome tenfold, they love us so unbelievably well.  

small fry and small pox

 this is an amazing girl.  pretty sure she has my heart.

 with the biggest smile you ever did see.

she must taste everything she sees.   i am constantly taking small things out of her grip.  and i must check both hands for she tries to be sneaky hoping i will not notice.  little stinker.

this is how she acts after a day without a nap.  yep...still smiley and delightful.  it's impossible to be frustrated with her.

 she tugs on her ear all the time.  doc says it is perfectly clear but it makes me wonder.

 she wears a collection of clothes i wore as a baby that my grandma made.

 she rides to the pond in a wagon like a big girl.

she has sisters that are up to no good when i put her to sleep at night.   kinsley said she wanted chicken pox.

all is well

we have made it through day 15 without ben.  we miss him terribly and will be so glad when we are all together again...whenever that may be.   life is not nearly as fun without him around.   the girls thankfully are handling all this change well.  in fact, better than i ever could have imagined.

they (we) love it here....in the place i grew up.  my home has again become my home.

we keep busy (my mom is my calendar keeper and likes to make sure we get out and do things).  i usually obey her and go on outings but i am a major homebody and never mind staying put.

caroline crawls everywhere, prefers to stand up and puts EVERYTHING in her mouth.  i've never seen anything like it.  even with all of us on "safety patrol" she still manages to find things to eat.   here is a sample of some items swept from either her grip or inside of her mouth: small light bulb, twigs, rock, dime and a paperclip---which got her some x-rays at urgent care.  the little babe has made my heart stop more than once.

sarah and baby brennan came to visit for several days.  i fell for her when i got her all to myself after my kids went to bed.  i was overcome with love love love.

cousin (2nd cousin) max came to play.  i wish these pictures could capture the monstrous laughter coming from the kids and the spectators.

i love this...hallie's deep concentration.  kinsley laughing in the background.  and max--full of joy.

my dad joined us for a day at the denver aquarium.   great day.

i grew up here.  beginning in elementary school i met my friends at this pond everyday.  we would climb trees, hunt for frogs/crawdads/salamanders and explore.   the very things my own kids love to do there.   just about everyday we have made the short walk down and the girls have had such fun.

it was magical

we planned this trip in october 2010.  at the time, we had no idea what god had in store for our family and that his plans included charlotte, north carolina.  the timing of this trip was nothing short of divine.  we did not choose any of the following dates and i smile at how perfectly it came together.

house closed on may 6th

left for disney may 8th

returned may 13th

ben left for charlotte may 14th

disney gave us a chance to celebrate making it through the past few months and most importantly gave us concentrated time together before we are separated for the next month.  

before suitcases were unpacked, swimsuits were on and the fun began.  

i had big expectations of disney and the details and charm did not disappoint.   we walked onto many rides and even found ourselves grumbling when a wait entered the 25 minute mark.  we were rather spoiled.  no complaints.

how many moms ask their kids if they want a certain character's autograph then turn to their husband and ask the same question?

 walking up the swiss family robinson treehouse.  mental note to have a movie night.  kinsley loved this place.

 the jungle cruise is a classic.  it was my favorite as a child and i LOVED watching the expressions of the girls.

hallie shed a couple tears on her first ride on pirates of the caribbean.  after 3 times she was a pro and now sings, yo ho yo ho a pirates life for me.  

 near this little nook is a baby care center that i was able to escape to for nursing...hello air conditioning.

the curls drew comments from strangers and made my heart pitter pat.  lovely lovely curls.

thank heavens she is not too big to do her classic crazy grin.  she can't do it without clenching her fists and bringing them to her chest.

hallie has a bladder the size of a walnut.  that is probably an exaggeration...it is more like a bean.  this was a common scene.  many many many trips to the potty.

cooling off in a sprinkler.  can you see the joy?

caroline became a speedy little crawler on this trip.  she also got two bottom teeth.  she was an amazing travel companion.

i'm impressed with the form of these jumpers.  (each square was a different instrument)

hallie has always had sensitive ears.  this is how she watched the fireworks.

"it's a small world" gets a bad rep.  we were going to skip it but when there was no wait how could we refuse. (however,  ben sacrificially volunteered to wait with caroline while she napped so he missed out).  surprisingly, it stands out as one of my favorite memories.  riding on the boat hearing the girls point out all the sights was special and the details were amazing!

we realized we were snobby when we were waiting 30 minutes for peter pan and felt annoyed.  at least it gave hallie time for a tiny nap.  hello sweaty curls.

a million thanks to my wonderful in-laws!  the attention and love they gave the girls was priceless.

tom was constantly carrying someone and was always on the lookout for characters/princesses/anything the girls would like.  i loved listening to jane's conversations with the girls.  they giggled and shared many sacred moments.

they also gave ben and i a chance to sneak away on several occasions.  we went on rides together and also went out at night.  by ourselves.  it will be a long long time before that happens again and we relished every minute of our time.  we played in the pool, soaked in the hot tub, and enjoyed late night dinners.   thanks so much!