Mile High Vogels: Catchin' Up

My ability to blog regularly has been squashed by a number of schedule related obstacles in our life lately, so here's a catch up in photos for all you lovelies. You ready for this?

There's been a whole lotta Lego building round here lately. Dude was gifted with a number of new sets for his birthday and is rather enamoured with mastering the art of reading directions and creating masterpieces. He has no desire to keep them assembled when he's done. It's all about the challenge.

The Kindergarten class mascot, George came over for a sleep over one weekday. We all know and love George, so you can image the excitement at our house that night. Dude made a special space on his floor for the monkey to rest his banana loving head.

Oh the many ways I love this girl. She stayed like that for an hour.

Tim was pleased when I came home from a consignment sale with this beauty.

Among Dude's interests and budding talents is drawing. This is his rendition of the Pillsbury Dough Boy. He has me beat in the art category. By a mile.

Tim and I have been "over-focused" on projects, both indoor and outdoor the past couple months. We always feel guilty defying the kids of our attention for stuff like this, but we should be done for a while. We spent one weekend re-mulching the back and front. Totally worth it much needed. We like to add new plants each year, slowly but surely. And we also went on a random Home Depot splurge and purchased a pergola to set up on the patio for more shade. Losing that massive tree last year killed our shade vibe.

And there's this one. See for yourself. She's our dainty princess.

Here's the indoor project I mentioned. Before, this room was under-used and rather "blah." The black 80's couch, the random fireplace on the useless blank wall, the 90's TV that was never viewed....bring in Mr. Brad Lanser and bam! Beautiful space. We'll slowly get rid of the 80's couch and replace it with new furniture. The TV was given to the front sidewalk, which swallowed it whole after a "free" sign was taped to it. Anne and Kevin graciously came over to help us paint, which was much needed as Kevin will tell you. I'm the queen of drips and Tim has zero tolerance for the task. Zero. The walls are now gray and the backdrop of the bookcase is deep gray. We love.

Through our construction process I discovered "Lamps Plus," my new favorite shopping destination. Oh the beauty. Lowes and Home Depot don't hold a candle to this place when it comes to lighting. The lights we chose are my favorite item in the room. Well, that and the molding above the fireplace. And the dark gray backing. I will note, the tile will need to be replaced, much to my husband's chagrin.

And there's this guy. He and I got 5 days together when Tim and took Squirt to Chicago last week. He HAD to stay at the Ritz for 5 days for business meetings and fancy dinners, so my parents took Squirt. I had my first choir concert for a Denver based choir I've been dedicating a whole lotta time to, so I didn't want to have to deal with four little feet. Two was just enough. Especially after Dude plunged off his bike and created what you see below. Complete road rash. From head to toe unfortunately. And boy did I hear about it for the first 2 days. Poor kid couldn't even eat he bit his lip so hard. It wasn't pretty. But I'm glad to report that he looks like an average 6 year old again and I no longer get evil looks from strangers. As if I rubbed his face into the pavement. Because I was mad.

Prior to the bicycle incident Dude and I were blessed with a few days full of fun. We went to a live animal show at the Nature and Science Museum, followed by an absolutely amazing 3D Butterfly iMAX show. We rented a couple movies, spoiled ourselves at the candy store, ate popcorn, drank chocolate milk, went flower shopping and just hung out together. We don't get to do that very often when there's a 2 year old Diva in our tracks at all times.

That's a sloth. It was awesome. And sloth-like.

Squirt had the time of her life at Nana and Papa's for 5 days. In fact, she's still recovering from the fact that she's not the center of the universe any more. It's been a shock to her sweet system. One of the most amazing aspects to Tim's trip was our new precious niece being born, just 2 block from his hotel. Kira and Ross and our nephews, D and Hudson welcomed baby June Harper into their world. Tim was the first one to go see her. How cool is THAT? She's unbelievably beautiful and I can't wait to hold her and get a face to face introduction.