He Hangs

 Yesterday was....perfection.  For oh so many reasons.  Where do I start?  I'll get to the hanging part later.

*We woke up at 8:00am.  Thank you dude.   
*I got ready upstairs and came down to a mopped kitchen floor.  Thank you babe.
*Dude was giddy with glee all morning for Riley's birthday party.
*It was a drop off party.  Thank you Maria and Tim.
*My manly love and I went on a 2 mile walk through a nature preserve near our house.  We talked about baby names, dudisms, life before kids...we just don't get to do that very often.  No one grabbed my pant leg insisting that I carry them or sat their butt down, refusing to go further.  And the colors and views were magnificent. 
*We then went to Sams Club.  I heart Sams, but the fact that we bought some $10 delectable cheese is really what got me all tingly inside.
*The yellow crisp leaves fell like rain.  All day long.  And they crunched under our feet.  We didn't rake.  We just enjoyed. 
*Dude played in said yellow crisp leaves with us until nap time and enjoyed every second of it.
*The mountains were perfectly snow capped, but we basked in 77 degree sunshine all day. 
*I went to my favorite girly spot, downtown Littleton and looked through the antique shops for nursery decor.  Loved it.  It was also Trick or Treat day - cuties in costumes everywhere, which did not annoy me.  Nothing could shake my happy.
*Maria brought over a piece of Oreo pudding heaven in a bowl.  It was meant for dude, but he was sleeping. You snooze you lose.  

*We met friends for dinner at our fave, Firebowl and then galavanted at the indoor karting track with the Spoelhofs and Tebbens until bedtime.
*FINALLY, the highlight of the day.......are you ready for this?  My kid learned how to hang.  That's right.  He can now hold on to a bar with his own two hands, dangle himself in the air and not fall on his face after 0.3 seconds.  He hangs.  I realize that he's 3.5 years old and most 2 year olds have mastered this trick.  Thus why we're really pumped about that accomplishment.  And that, my friends, is another item I can check off my summer "to-do list." 

 The end.

Showered

As Dude promised in the prior post, I'm here to tell you all about my lovely and wonderful and love filled shower.  No sarcasm in this post friends.  It was a morning of joy and that's really all there is to it.  I was surrounded by some of the best women I know on Saturday morning.  Even my beautiful mama joined us after arriving to town an hour before the shower started.  And they were all there to celebrate this little bundle that we hope and pray is with us soon. 

It hasn't seemed real lately since we haven't had any contact with Brook, but that's where the hope comes in.  The hope keeps us connected to baby girl when there's nothing tangible reminding us of her closeness to us.  This shower definitely helped too.  My dear friend Cara hosted 16 lovely ladies, cooked, cleaned, organized, compiled games that didn't involve eating or smelling baby food or mimicking poop (thank you Cara), and made me feel incredibly blessed and spoiled.  Many of my girlfriends brought brunchy food, which made for a rather delectable spread.  I opened more gifts than you can imagine (my registry is pretty much wiped out at this point), chatted and drank mimosas.  The joy of adoption.  You can drink friends.  And not be afraid of what it's doing to the baby.  And best of all, there's no talk of vaginas, stitches, contractions, pooping yourself, epidurals...none of that applied to this baby shower.  Love it.

Our bambino's closet is now ridunculously full of love.  Overflowing.  As was my heart that morning.  Thank you friends for being a part of my day and a part of my "expecting."  We can't wait to share this teeny one with all of our friends and family.  

        

Dude's Weekend

If you asked dude how his weekend was and he was capable of elaborately explaining to you exactly what occurred, he would say something like this.....

"First Mom brought me to a party at school on Friday.  It was a party in honor of me (and Fall) of course.  And she didn't go home.  She stayed.  And I got to eat cheese and cookies and cupcakes.  Which isn't weird, because they always feed me sugary crap at school.  It drives Mom crazy.  All the girls were wearing princess costumes, but mom didn't dress me up, which was lame.  And so I told her I wanted to be a princess.  She said, "no."  Pretty sure we picked up the stomach flu at this awesome party, but we'll touch on that later. 

 That's my teach behind my "picture hands," Ms. Yvetta.  I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm crazy.

On Friday night I was driving Mom and Dad nuts, so we went to eat at Panera Bread.  I tried to be friends with a bunch of high schoolers that Mom said were "loitering" but I guess they didn't hear me squeaking at them.  I kept trying anyway until they left.  Mom said "Good job buddy."  Then we loaded up on groceries that we didn't end up using because of that silly flu bug I told you about.

Saturday was the best day.  Ever.  My Dad and me drove to the airport right when I woke up and guess who was at the baggage place?  My Nanna.  AND my cousin D.  We looked at each other and secretly said "hi."  Then we started running.  And we didn't stop running all weekend long.  We played with my race track for a billion hours.  That kid loves cars!  He dug my ball machine, so I showed him the ropes with that since it's my favorite thing in the world.  He slept on the floor in my sissy's room, but mom said we couldn't sleep together.  So I slept in my big boy bed.  Every time I woke up from my nap and bedtime, D and Nanna were still there.  And it was awesome.  My mom laid on the floor a lot on Sunday and didn't move much because she got a bug.  Maybe a lady bug is what I thought.  But it was a mean lady bug.  Daddy said I couldn't jump on her, but it was okay because D and Nanna are super fun.  We went to the park and church and then pretty much didn't leave the house the rest of the weekend since Mom was laying on the floor and then I puked.  But I didn't feel bad and it didn't slow me down. 

D is my super duper cousin buddy.  And I wish that he lived at my house because we didn't even fight.  And we shared toys and ate food together and tackled each other and ran around the island and ate cookies and drank our milk and made paintings and played outside and read books with Nanna and made puzzles.  Whewwww.  We took crazy long naps this weekend.  And then Nanna didn't feel so good on Monday morning, but she didn't lay on the floor like Mom did.  Because Mom is a bit of a wuss and Nanna is pretty tough.  Mom says she's her dad's daughter when it comes to self pity.  D and I played all day long and then after my nap he left in the car with Nanna and Mom.  Only Mom came back home.  And that makes me real sad.  I sure did have a rockin weekend.  Come back soon Nanna and D!  Mom and Dad just aren't able to provide the entertainment that you guys offered." 

D and I thought it was hilarious to put our food up our noses.  And then we ate it.  I think Mom thought it was gross, but she was laughing a lot and didn't make us stop.   

"Oh yeah, Mom and Nanna went to a shower on Saturday, but I don't really know what that means.  It didn't rain at my house.  But she'll do another blog thing about that soon because she came home with tons of pink stuff and made a big happy fuss." 

gvCREATIVE update

There's a bunch of new "gvCREATIVE" photo shoots to check out at my other other blog.  Stop on by and if your Colorado fam is looking to take holiday pictures, don't hesitate to call!

Happy 3rd Adoption Day Duder

Adoption is on the brain lately friends.  Today marked one of our favorite days of the year, which happens to revolve around adoption.  3 years ago, we stood in front of Mr. Judge man and were officially deemed a family.  We didn't need said man to tell us we were a family, but it's an excuse to celebrate anyway.  And so we do!  Last night we dined at Qdoba, opened brand new matchbox hot rods from dad (their tradition), attemped to "boo" Payton and Brady, who happened to be at Target, with Halloween treats and came home to test our new mini vehicles on the orange race track.  A good night with our little blondie.  Oh how we love our little blondie.  And oh how we love adoption.      

From the Video Vault

Hikin' It & Kickin' It

We couldn't let my favorite season pass us by without a trek up to the mountains.  Despite dude's knack for getting car sick on any windy road, we forged ahead last weekend.  Note- we did not take any toys along that could possibly aid in car sickness.  And he passed friends!  With flying colors.  Not even one whisper of a pukey moment.  We took in all the fall color, hiked up a wooded trail, threw a whole bunch of rocks, ate lunch by a beautiful lake, threw more rocks, sang more annoying kids songs than we care to admit and came home with smiles.  And a very tired little man.  He who refuses to sleep in the car feels the affects. 

Next on the blogging agenda is the coverage of our "Adults Only, BYOB Kickball Game."  6 couple from our hood joined forces at 5:00pm on Saturday at our local park for a fierce game that most of us hadn't played since Junior High.  As far as "organized" sports go, this would be one of my top picks.  There's no swinging, resulting in embarrassing whiffs, no fear of being knocked out cold by a tiny, hard ball zooming in on your face, no pressure to be awesome (because it's kickball) and you can easily hold a cold beverage while playing. 

We all had a fantastic night.  Amy and Josh had us all over for pizza and Taboo after the darkness prevented any further kickballing and we went home slightly buzzed and happy.  A good night in the hood.  Thanks for playing with us friends! 

 Hottie kickballers

 Darling Linsy.

 Who's that ghetto girl with booze in her water bottle? 

 It's okay to act like junior highers when you're playing kickball. 

 Delaney did join the festivities.  She was the only kid invited. 

Pretty darn good pitching by our Amy!

My Little Nature Hiker

Dude's on Fall Break from pre-school (really-they need a week off a month into the school year?) so we had a Mom and son date day today.  At breakfast, we drafted a checklist of items to search for on our morning nature hike.  Dude narrated the list, so naturally it included tigers, frogs, the letter "B", big circle rocks, blue leaves, ants and big big sticks.  He held his bright blue magnifying glass and carefully inspected each item that he carefully placed in his cars backpack.  Those items are now sitting on the living room floor, waiting for Daddy to inspect.  I had a blast getting shots of my handsome little devil on this perfectly cloudy and cool day.  Oh how I wish every photo shoot's lighting was this perfect.  Hope you're enjoying everything Fall has to offer.   

A nature hike wouldn't be complete without some old fashion sommer saulting.

Fall color, an empty path and my dude.  Love it.