The Lake

Many of my favorite memories as a child happened in northern Michigan at my parents' lake house. It's always a special treat to go back, especially since welcoming children into our family. There is something very special about watching my children play in the same places I did as a child. Last year we had to cancel our trip since we were slightly occupied with getting our little guy's heart in working order. This year, after much anticipation, we finally made it back to the lake as a family of 4! We were blessed with perfect weather and a truly amazing time of fun, relaxing, making memories with grandparents and cousins, and enjoying every possible moment on the lake. I love living in Colorado, but I sure do miss the beautiful lakes of Michigan!

The boy cousins and their grandpa. I love my dad...he is such a fun grandpa.

Truett and Maren loved floating around in this little boat.

My two little blessings enjoying some brother-sister time on the back of the boat.

Maren LOVES her cousins. She had so much fun playing with Paige and Will. (Annie and Truett do their best to get in on the activity too!) We took baths in the lake almost every night. Maren thought it was great to swim and get clean at the same time!

Maren learned to knee-board! It was a hit for the first part of the week, and then she decided that she was scared. Thankfully I caught a picture while she was still enjoying herself!

In our family we get up early to ski almost every morning. Maren came along one morning.

Girls.

Grams and Maren...can you tell who enjoyed some s'mores? I know my kids loved spending the week with their grams and grandpa, but I might have been the most glad for the time with my parents. My dad spent a couple of long weekends with us, and I got to spend 11 straight days with my mom. Such a gift.

Yup...he had a s'more too. Can you believe those eyes?!

Truett had a great time in the water. He would just float around and splash all day if we'd have let him.

Brett pitched in and chopped some wood one day. Even work is fun at the lake!

My only attempt at a picture of the 5 cousins...complete with sun in the eyes. Annie (1 1/2), Will (3 1/2), Paige (5), Maren (almost 4), Truett (1). These kids are good buddies.

Our little family.

Pretending to ride the Sea Doo.

Until next year...we love you, Higgins Lake!

Truett's Birthday Trip to the Zoo

We have a fabulous local zoo, and it's become a tradition now to celebrate our children's first birthdays with the animals. My parents were visiting from Michigan, and it was a special treat to share the day with them.

Maren was in giraffe heaven...willingly feeding them their lettuce snacks. Truett was not impressed. Sorry, buddy, for traumatizing you on your big day! Hopefully he'll learn to enjoy the experience someday.

Maren loved the giraffe's purple tongue. It is a delight to watch children enjoy the world around them.

After lunch Truett discovered his favorite part of the day...chewing on a giant straw. You can't win them all!

We spent lots of time at the feed-the-chickens-exhibit. Maren was so interested in the different birds, and was sure to share the food with as many different chickens as possible.

I could not think of 3 better people to have in my family...it is an absolute gift to walk through life with these guys!

Maren and Truett with Grams and Grandpa.

The peacock...such an exquisite bird! I am always amazed by the colors. Maren loved seeing Mr. Peacock up close. He was sitting in the playground area.

Stop growing up...seriously...STOP IT!

An added perk to visiting the zoo is having the chance to drive up the mountain to the Will Rogers Shrine. I'd never been, and it was quite the adventure. The drive is not for the faint of heart...or for people from Michigan. All those steep drop-offs and switch-backs. Whoa. The view, however, was worth the scary few minutes in the car.

I sure love you, Truett! Happy birthday buddy!

Truett's First Birthday Party

In early June our little man turned ONE! We had a splash party to celebrate. Maybe later I'll share more of the creative details. For now, here's the day in pictures! We were blessed with a hot Saturday afternoon...perfect weather for the kids to enjoy some water games.

I made Truett a banner using my handy-dandy Cricut. We've used the one I made for Maren for each of her parties, and I'm sure this one will make an appearance at future parties for Truett. I hung paper lanterns from the light using yarn. That was it for decorations...simple and fun. We ate outside under tents, which was perfect. The kids ate, got wet, ate some more, got their parents wet, ate some more. It was great fun.

When the kids arrived, they each received a little water gun and a water ball...the guns were a huge hit!

I love our happy boy...he's such a delight, and it was special to have a day to celebrate HIM!

My mom wasn't originally going to be in town for the party, but since she flew out early to help after my miscarriage, she was able to join us for the festivities. Truett is so lucky to have such great grandmas...Grams and Gigi!

We started the party with a round of Duck, Duck, Splash! The kids had a soaked sponge that they squeezed onto the 'gooses' head. This game was probably the favorite of the night!

Truett loved splashing in the buckets of water...this was during a relay race where the boys and girls took turns transferring water from one bucket to another using sponge balls. I'll definitely have to post about those some other time. The kids loved them! (And they were a perfect alternative to water balloons...I didn't want tiny balloon pieces all over the yard...especially not for the party of my one-year-old-who-puts-anything-and-everything-into-his-mouth!)

Since the party occurred one week post-miscarriage, I took a few short-cuts. Enter the grocery store cake. It was really tasty! And really cute. And the kids LOVED the surfing Micky and sun-bathing Minnie.

Maren was a great helper while Truett was opening his gifts. Actually, Maren and the other kids opened the gifts...

...this was how Truett felt by the time the 3rd or 4th gift was being opened. Notice the many little helpers surrounding, or suffocating, him.

To say Truett enjoyed his first taste of cake would be a major understatement. So many of my friends commented on how they'd never seen such exuberance from a one-year-old enjoying the first cake. He would've gladly eaten every last bite if I'd have let him.

We sure love you, happy boy!

Coming back...coffee punch made me write

Well friends, it's been a long time since I've written, and wouldn't you know that coffee punch is what finally dragged me out of my non-writing slump.

Before I share the recipe with you, let me catch you up on the past couple of months in our lives. Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to actually write something meaningful about all of these things. For now, I'll share a teeny tiny glimpse into where I've been. And then I'll share a recipe that you will want to make tonight.

In May I found out I was pregnant...we were shocked, but so thrilled. At my 8 week appointment we learned that our baby no longer had a heartbeat. This was devastating. My third miscarriage. It is a terrible thing to lose a baby. A lonely, heart-wrenching, horrible loss to experience. My mom flew out to be with me during the worst of it, and I was so glad to have her here. A week later my dad came, and we enjoyed a week of touristy fun around Colorado Springs. Sometime during that week our sweet boy turned 1. I cannot believe it has been a year since Truett joined our family. And almost a year since we walked through his heart surgery. Apart from a fading scar, you'd never guess that our happy, silly, active little boy was ever sick. God is so good. We celebrated with a splash party. It was a perfect day. Last week, our beautiful Colorado mountains caught on fire. On Tuesday the fire crept down into our city, and so many families lost their homes. We've had friends evacuated and friends lose everything. We had a family staying with us for a few days. It was so hard to wait and watch as over 300 homes burned to the ground. I cannot imagine what the next days and weeks will hold for the families who've lost so much. It's been a difficult week for our little city. I am so glad to serve a God who is very much in control, even when things around us seem to be falling apart.

Which brings me to today. Strangely, on Tuesday night as so many were fleeing their homes, I was hosting a baby shower for a dear friend. If I'm honest, it seems a little trivial to share a recipe for coffee punch in light of all that's happened in our lives recently. But, this is where I'm starting. I just don't have the energy to write much more on real life stuff. I hope you understand.

I adapted a few recipes I had, and this is what I came up with. It is delicious and was a huge hit...hence the sharing. It's worth it, trust me.

Coffee Punch

4 cups of strong (cannot emphasize the 'strong' part enough!) coffee...I used my French Press and let it steep for several extra minutes
10 teaspoons of Swiss Mocha
1/2 pint of original creamer
1/2 pint of flavored creamer (I used Coffeemate Italian Sweet Creme)
1 quart of whole milk
2 teaspoons of vanilla

1. While the coffee is still hot, mix it together with the Swiss Mocha
2. Combine coffee mixture with rest of ingredients, mix well, and freeze
3. Thaw to a slush and enjoy

*If you prefer a sweeter taste, you could add 1/2 cup of sugar in with the coffee and Swiss Mocha.
**I doubled this recipe for the shower.

It's good to finally be back. Hopefully you'll hear from me again soon...happy weekend to you!

This weekend

Brett's been away this weekend at a men's retreat for our church. The kids and I have had a bit of a rough time alone. Both of them got sick mid-week and their illnesses have been lingering much too long for my liking. I never like being apart from Brett. This weekend I have been especially thankful that I'm not a single mom or a mom with a husband that travels. I have a few friends who are military wives, and I have an entirely new appreciation for the sacrifice made by our military families. When the kids are healthy, we really miss Brett when he's gone. When the kids are sick, it is awful to be alone.

The bad things about the weekend: lots of middle-of-the-night wake-ups, dreaded nebulizer treatments for Truett, cancelled movie-night with a friend, and missing Brett.

The good things about this weekend: enjoying some moments of quiet while the kids play together, snuggles, movies at home with the kids, and ice-cream.

And to top off our weekend-of-not-so-much-fun...this is what we woke up to this morning! SNOW! All over the pretty pink buds on the peach trees and the rest of spring's early blooms. Colorado weather is such a tease...yesterday we were wearing t-shirts!
I still have some catching up to do on the blog...maybe this week I'll get around to posting about some recent projects and fun things we've been up to. Happy Sunday! {It's a very HAPPY SUNDAY for us...Brett comes home in just a couple of hours!}

Happy Easter!

We had a lovely time celebrating the resurrection of Jesus this weekend. I'm hoping to post a more detailed account later in the week. For now, here's my two gems all ready for church. Brett and I both sang in the choir, so we left the house at 6:50 am. It was an Easter gift to capture such a sweet picture of these two so early in the morning. We enjoyed a beautiful day with friends and family. I was thankful to share this day {and every day!} with Maren, Truett and Brett. They are the most amazing gifts...after a risen Savior, of course!

Checking in

I wanted to pop in to say that I haven't forgotten about my little blog! We've just had a very busy month with things going on that have kept me away from the computer. I've got several fun things to share and some great pictures to post, but for now, Truett will have to hold you over.

He's getting so big...standing up all the time, waving, clapping and playing other 'baby games'. He and Maren are becoming fast friends and Brett and I realize each day how blessed we are to call Maren and Truett our children. God is so good!
We've got company coming to visit from Michigan this week, so I'll likely not get around to another post for a week or so. I hope you're enjoying your spring!