Happy Mother's Day!

I love this woman! She's such an inspiration to me. She loves me unconditionally and now she loves my son in a way that is even more special and meaningful than the way she loves me!

This was L today. He marched around the house saying 'Hut 2, Hut 2, Hut 2" holding his blankie that was 'lost' for a week. (It was actually still in the washing machine from LAST week...oops.)

Clearly, this little man's imagination is bigger than the bowl-for-a-helmet he wears and watching this military display is one of the reasons I LOVE being a mom.

Back to Grammy....as a mother, I can now appreciate her in a way that I never understood before having a son. Like the quote I've heard so many times before...having a child is like having your heart walk around on the outside of you.

Mom, I get it now. I really understand and I love you for your example in my life!

Odd Talents or Blackmail Material?

I was going through a few pictures ..and ran across these from late December.

They speak to the fact that living with a 4 year old is an adventure. You never really know what he's going to try to do or say.

Carlos and I looked over at Landon on the couch and saw him ...well...

I'd like to say I was a sophisticated mother who told him to take his toe out of his mouth and remind him that it's rather dirty. But, nope. I grabbed the camera and really couldn't stop laughing at him.

As I was posting this tonight, I showed the picture to Landon and told him he has he has 'issues'. His response? "You mean like Mommy issues?"
(Be quiet, boy, and stop channeling your father.)

So, the way I figure it....if I don't like the girls he starts to date in about 10 years, I've got a few pictures to threaten him with. Just saying...

New Year, New Posting!

Christmas was a quiet one for us at home. No extended family and no travel through busy airports. Just spending time together enjoying family and the birth of our Savior.

Traditions still in place like, the magic jammies dropped on the front door by the elves on Christmas Eve, baking Santa's cookies after Christmas Eve service and late night marathon wrapping.

For a moment eh-em, Mrs Claus thought the jammies tradition may be spoiled because in her efforts to help the Elves she hid the jammies so well she couldn't find them.

After a last minute trip to Kohl's on Christmas Eve just an hour and a half before church and a near lost temper the tradition survived another year.

Landon also got to open his gifts from the Monge's on Christmas Eve because their tradition is to open Christmas gifts from Santa and the family on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning was a little like the commercials of the kids screaming in delight and excitment with every gift!

We put pictures of Grammy, GranDaddy, Aunt Samantha and Uncle Stephen on the gifts so Landon would know who they were from.

And Grammy and GranDaddy got to watch Landon open his gifts thanks to Skype web cams!

The Bumble Bee helmet and blaster from Grammy and GranDaddy were a big hit!!

From Santa, Landon asked for a Bat House. (seen below) He was very specific about what he wanted this year, which included not only the Bat House, but also Legos and a Bumblebee tranformer that turned from a robot into a car. Santa delivered and we settled in for a lazy, yet beautiful time together as a family.

Let me in coach...I'm ready to PLAY!

T-ball and Transformers are the name of Landon's game in his first season on the baseball field.

For his first game, we took all the essentials: the uniform, bat, glove, cleats and Transformers who had to be placed on the bench to watch the game.

Landon didn't love Soccer that much, but he really seems to enjoy baseball and it a more of a natural at it.

He hit a Grand Slam in his first game and a Homerun. And then in his second game he hit a few singles.

The only way I can describe T-ball...or at least the first game Landon played was a cross between a kids chasing the candy and an Easter egg hunt. If you can imagine that and 10x funnier than that!

About the only problem with the season is the "early" game time!

We have to be out the door by 7:45 am, which isn't that bad except for the fact that we leave every weekday morning by 6:30am. So, sometimes I just wish I could bum around the house.

But, let's be real...there's no bumming around with a 4 1/2 year old boy in the house!?!

Landon started Pre-K this year. I had to work and wasn't able to take him to his first day in Mrs. Treirweiller and Mrs. Taylor's class. But, Daddy did a good job getting him dressed and ready to go!

He found his cubby and his spot in circle time. He was a little aprehensive at first and there were a few little tears, but when he got to go out to the playground he was juuust fine.

This is the same school he went to last year for Pre-School, Bethany Learning Center. We just love the program here! He's learning a lot and also getting Chrisitian instruction. We are really hoping to be able to keep him there for Kindergarten next year. They have a private elementary school on the same campus and we have some close friends who have their daughter there.

Landon has grown so much in his pre-school lessons and his understanding of God and we're excited to see where he goes this year!!

Can you say ...Dramatic??

Landonism:

We're hop in the car to drive to Daddy's gym yesterday and it was not parked in the garage so it was really hot when we got in. Especially considering it was already over 100 degrees at 10am.

Landon says to me:
Mommy? Why does God have to make it so hot??

I replied:
Because it's perfect for lizards and cactus-es. (Didn't think he'd know cacti.)

He says:
I don't like it!
It's destroying my world! ...my life, my dreams. (sinks his head down in sadness)

This was the conversation...verbatim. No embellishing. No exaggeration. No lie.

Landon van Gogh

If you ever wondered what we look like through the eyes of a 4 year old...wonder, no more.

THIS is Mommy:

(notice I'm smiling)

THIS is Daddy:

(notice the extra circles? they're glasses)

Mommy: Landon?

Landon: Yeah.

Mommy: Why does Daddy have so much hair?

Landon: Because his hair is so caaa-raaaazy.

Daddy: Watch it, buddy.

Landon & Mommy: (giggle-giggle)

* * * * * By the way, Landon still has both ears in tact...for now.

Tour de Colorado

Seriously, this was just beautiful. Can you see the snow on the caps of the mountains in the distance??


On this day, I think I was a bit, distracted...well, maybe seduced by the surroundings, when I agreed to bike 16 miles from this lake, all the way to a park on the other side of Vail!

I asked Carlos about the distance and he said, "oh honey, it's all downhill and it will go fast!"

Okay..so he was only part right. We started at 10, 600 elevation and went down roughly 2,000 feet. But it was NOT downhill coasting! I locked up my gears at least 6 times, maybe more and of course, Carlos was happy to laugh at me then...and still now.

Carlos had to pull Landon and he was huffing and puffing too! ...so I didn't feel THAT out of shape. (I'm totally lying. I thought I was going to die.)

Having said all this...the views? My goodness! Everywhere we looked was a picture. I took 350 pictures on this trip....but from what I saw, I could have easily taken 3500!

The temperature was ...cold! Must have been in the upper 50's. But, we were working so hard the cold air felt, cool at best. Landon was all bundled up in his little chariot.

We joked that he had a party back there, with a pillow, blankets, toys, snacks, coloring books, drinks, you name it! No DVD though. I had to draw the line somewhere.

We stopped in Vail Village to eat lunch and buy Landon a little toy at a toy store there. I've never been to a Swiss Village, but this is what I imagine it would look like. TONS of families there and in Beaver Creek too!

We were really surprised at how well Landon handled the ride...we took off around 11am and rode until aroud 5pm. After lunch we found a little park in Vail Village to let him play at. There are more pictures in the slideshow below.

This is where we biked to ...a beautiful park on the other side of Vail called Donovan Park.

We had the company that we rented the bikes from pick us up from here. If only parks in Arizona looked like this! Landon had a much-deserved good time with some other little kids after handling the 16 mile, 6 hour trip!

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Halfway to Heaven....Hiking

The first day after we arrived in Beaver Creek we took the chairlift to the top of the mountain for a little hiking. The views, as you can imagine were breathtaking and the weather was a wonderful breezy & 70's.
Landon enjoyed yelling his name at the top of his lungs to hear his echo. Carlos almost had him convinced it wasn't an echo, but instead another little boy who was also named Landon yelling back!
This picture was an interesting one...I propped up our backpacks...set the timer and ran downhill to the picture. I almost couldn't stop and kept running down.

We had a beautiful time, Landon looking for bugs for his bug catcher that he brought all the way from home, Carlos marveling at the sights and for me...it was a mecca of picture taking opportunities!

Here's a slide show of the pictures from our hike. To see the caption with the pictures put your cursor on the picture, it will temporarily stop the slide show and then the description will appear. Move the cursor off the picture and the slide show starts again. All the pictures have captions.

Beaver Creek Beauty

Here are just a few pictures to show you just outside our hotel. The pictures were taken either from our window in our room or just outside the back door of the hotel. You can hear Beaver Creek run when you open the door to our room and imagine pine and fresh air and you'll know exactly what it smells like here.

This is the center of the Village. The building on the right is the Beaver Creek Hyatt. The outdoor skating rink is open at night. We plan to skate a little later this week.

Pictures of our trip up to the top of the mountain and Landon's FIRST-ever football game up there are coming soon.

An Anniversary Date With Dinos

8 years has gone by in a blink of an eye!

And while, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science isn't the moooost romantic place to celebrate the milestone, we approached it with a great sense of humor about where we have come as a couple and family since August 11, 2001!

We were really impressed with the size and scope of the dino exhibit, especially one which was made of 80 percent actual fossils ad the other 20 percent were created in an on-site lab.

This Dino was giiii-nooormous. They had a chart to measure yourself against the dinosaur. Landon came up to his foot. I was up to his ankle. Can you imagine? I don't think you can tell but the tail goes to the upper left hand corner of this picture!

There was also a Human Body Exhibit. We were able to put on coats, gloves and glasses (actually were were required to)...and walked through a step by step process to collect cells from the inside of our cheek and look at them under a microscope. Landon wasn't that interested in this, but Carlos was into hamming it up.

What Landon WAS interested in were the hearts. In his hand in the picture below he was holding an actual sheep heart cut in half. Cold, a big squish and generally rather 'ick'.

We also were able to watch an IMAX under water movie which was pretty fascinating.

After leaving the museum we drove 2 hours to Beaver Creek and checked into the Beaver Creek Lodge.

This little community is gorgeous. Very charming and family friendly. I already know I'm going to wish we had more time here.

Here's an annual family Anniversary picture taken in the Village at Beaver Creek, CO. Temperatures overnight in the mid-40's...but at dinner time around mid-60's.

If you want to see last year's anniversary picture, click on older posts and look under August 2008.