We're All Even

Tonight we had an early birthday celebration for all 3 of my girls. Their birthday's will all come quickly after we move, so we celebrated here. It was a great way to have all our friends together one final time. We took over Monkey Bizness with 29 little ones and all their moms and dads for playtime, a pizza dinner and cake. My girls were so happy and it was good to just be with our great friends here. I am glad we decided to do it.

Precious girls willing to pose for just a moment before the party room doors open up!

Reagan is just sure that she is 4 now....doesn't quite get the early bday party!
Almost 6....I can't even think about it!

Baby girl was already on her way to the playplace and up the slide before I could catch her.

Sweet, sweet, sweet!

Reagan and one of her besties....Juju (Juliana).

Sarah, Gabriella, Gracyn and I

Addison making her way up the rock wall.

Gracyn on the slides with Mommy.

Making her way up.

Reagan is really to young for the rock wall, but they let her try. She is amazing! So strong for her tiny little body....she got twice as high as most of the big kids!

Gracyn is feed-up with me and my camera!

Leave me alone, let me play....no more pictures!

Big hugs from Lila! Poor Lila came straight to the party from the ER, after falling earlier in the day and needing stitches in her lip. It didn't slow her down any!

Cake and snacks.

We're all even this year.

My pretty girl.

They picked a Tangled cake, but someone took Rapunzel off before I got the picture.

Birthday aftermath at home. Funniest part of the night, as we were leaving the party and carrying everything out, Gracyn said, "Birf-day par-dy All done!". Cute girl. I am thankful for a great night.

Update

Life is a little crazy in the Guess household right now. Come to think of it, it always is, this is just an extra dose of the crazy!!! Our house finally sold!!! We had an offer last Tuesday, ironed out the details and came to final terms on Thursday. This was not a moment too soon, as we would have been accepting the company buyout offer on Friday. Praise the Lord for getting it sold. We are actually enjoying living in it now.....free from showings. It has been so nice to play and eat here, without worrying that it always look perfect. And, since 4 out of 5 of us had a stomach bug on Friday, we were extra thankful to be done with showings.

Tommy is mid-way through his FINAL week of travel. This one is a long way.....he left around 4:00am Monday and won't be home until around 11:00pm Friday, but we are glad it is the last. Next week we are squeezing in final doctors/dentists appointments, good-bye events with friends, an early birthday party for the girls and last days of school. The movers will be here packing on Thursday and loading on Friday. Friday night, we will spend the night with some friends, attend one final birthday party here Saturday morning and then fly out Saturday afternoon.

We are taking a break those first few days in Ohio, and taking the girls to Great Wolf Lodge for a day or two. We are excited about some water park fun. From there we are closing on our new house Monday with carpet cleaners, maid service and painters ready and waiting. We will be getting acquainted with the girls schools (can't decide if I should send them right away, or give them a week off to get settled???), looking for a church and preparing for our things to arrive. Wednesday or Thursday our goods should be delivered and the unpacking can begin. I am a little tired just thinking about it. Next week will be an emotional one, with all of our Colorado lasts, but we are definitely ready for our next chapter to begin and ready for some normalcy in our lives!!!

Gracyn Faith ~ Almost 23 monhts

Pretty girl dressed for church.
Sharing some Fro Yo with Mom and Dad.

If her sisters have goggles, then she shall have goggles too!

Since her birthday is March 30th, Gracyn doesn't really have a 23 month birthday. And, since I will be in the middle of moving to another state throughout the next two weeks, I am posting her update now. I can't even believe she is 23 months old. When my other 2 where this age I perceived them to be big girls. They were in big girl beds and were welcoming baby sisters. Funny how that changes with the last. We call her the baby, I have no intention of moving her out of her crib and, though she wouldn't agree, she is just our little one. She speaks in full sentences and makes us laugh all the time! Here are my favorite of her current phrases.

~"Where are you?" she calls when we are in another room.

~"I nee go pee-pee bad."

~"No worry, I got it!"

~"I no nee nap, see, I wake-up."

~"That my new ones!". Funny, girls recognize new clothes even before they are 2.

~"Daddy go O-HI-O!!!"

~"I go O-HI-O, too". Just hearing her say the word, pretty much makes moving worth it.

~"Sissy take-a my _______!" you can sub any of our names and whatever item we might have taken from her. She doesn't like when we mess with her stuff!

~"Mommy no spank me!"

~"One more, ka???" She says this every night when we are ready her bedtime stories.

~"Gha-ma like coffee!" She tells me that at the bagel shop.....everytime!

She has tons and tons of funny phrases, I can't remember them all. And, she ends almost every sentence with "Ka" or "huh". She turns everything into a question. Also, she recently shortened Addison from sissy to sis. It makes me laugh. Love this little girl......always my baby.

My Colorado Love List

~Sunshine....constant, bright and warm
~The Circle....I have the best neighborhood ever
~Cherry Hills
~Blue Skies
~Afternoon playdates
~Einstien Brothers Bagels
~Our back patio
~Walking Trails
~Red Tail Park and the Tot lot
~My master bathroom
~The rec centers
~Mountain views
~Daylight at 5am in the summer
~Afternoon walks to the bus stop
~Weekend trips to explore new places
~Summer....it is short but beautiful!!!
~The daylilies in our backyard
~Riding bikes around the gazebo
~Colors in the fall
~The Denver Zoo
~Winter Wonderlights
~The Stock Show

Snow Day Fun

I admit, when we woke-up Sunday morning to piles and piles of snow.....again.....my attitude stunk. The girls and I had already been home several days (alone) that week with freezing temps well below zero and snow. It really hasn't snowed a ton, just slow and steady all throughout the week, and just enough to keep us inside. Thankfully, with Daddy's encouragement, we all suited up and headed out to play in the slow. We ended up having a great time. And, hard to believe but after 3 years of living here, this was my first time to go out sledding. The past 3 winters, I have either had a little baby or been too pregnant for sledding. I have been missing out....it was fun times out there!

Gracyn was up to her knees in snow, but loving it anyway.

I have never bought any snow clothes....I am pieced together with Austin's (my 10 year old nephew) pants and boots. He has them here for his visits.
Can't really fit on the sled with her anymore.

We bought these skis when we first moved here, so the girls could practice in the drive-way. They have gotten really good, and can go most of the way down the hill behind our house, without falling. Addison DOES NOT in anyway still fit in these ski boots, but she CRAMS her feet in anyway. Tommy was their personal ski lift, carrying them back to the top of the hill each time. His legs were on FIRE that night!

Reagan, ready to go!

She crashed this time!

Pretty Girl.

Daddy and Gracyn sledding down.

Mommy and Reagan....I love that Addison is carrying Gracyn up the hill in the background.

Glad we made the best out of another day at home. And, glad I finally got to join the winter fun. I will be back out there soon!

Outdoors

I have no real pictures at this point, only Iphone pics that I don't know how to resize, but that is our new back patio. Your are looking at the deck that sealed the deal on our new house. It is a huge covered deck, with a beautiful wood ceiling and fan, and even a Mama bird and her baby in the rafters. I honestly can't remember a ton of details about the house we bought, but I do know we look forward to some great weekend time out there.

Snowboots and the Third

Poor Gracyn, the life of a third child truly is different than the life of a first. Not bad, just different.....character building, perhaps. Gracyn has been wearing evidence of her birth order most of the winter. You see, we have several large buckets of shoes in the back of her closet. They range in size from 5 to 12 and are hand-me-downs for her or Reagan. Any shoe that the girls have outgrown, is in decent enough shape to save, and doesn't currently fit someone is in the buckets.

Well, several months back, during one of our first winter storms, we were rushing out the door for something. I was helping the big girls get dressed and we were loading everyone in the car. I told Tommy that he could find snowboots for Gracyn in the buckets and off he went to search. Now, in his defense, he is generally not in charge of wardrobe for our children, and probably until that moment didn't' even know the shoe buckets existed. But, he headed upstairs with Gracyn, found her some snowboots and loaded her in the car.

The snow continued and Gracyn wore the boots several times throughout the week. I did notice that one continually feel off when I carried her, but I didn't think anything of it. Until, late in the week, after a playgroup, we were sorting through the piles of boots at the front door trying to match up boots to our 11 collective little girls. Target has basically sold two styles of snowboots for the last several seasons, which means we all have the same boots. After a few minutes we had boots matched to girls with the exception of Gracyn's bare feet and two boots. One a size 5 and one a size 8.

Poor girl, we have those boots in 3 different sizes and Tommy had grabbed a left foot 5 and a right foot 8. That size 8 was several inches to big and is the one that kept falling off. Funny though, when you held them side by side, you really couldn't tell.

Here is the where the 3rd child thing comes in. That was back in December that I discovered his mistake, and I didn't switch the boots until this week. I would always forget about it until we were in the need of the boots and rushing out the door. If it is snowing that much, I am usually carrying her anyway, so I just kept putting them on her. No harm done, I suppose, but finally as of this week, Gracyn has two size 5 boots that fit her well! The 8's are tucked away, back in the buckets and will reapper in a few seasons when her feet have grown.