Kailee's Family Birthday Party Cake

It looked beautiful and tasted fantastic!

It's a hit

Happy Birthday

Look at that cute 5 year old!

6am Curious George TV Coma...

...complete with drool.Guess this happens when you have a cold and get up several times a night for a few days....and I think we have about reached our snot limit for a 2 1/2 year old....wait...is there a limit???

The kids wore me out!

Today, "Daddy was the Mommy", as Nate described it. Melissa went to help my sister and her family get ready to sell their house. I had a day of activities planned for us to help us get through.

The morning started out with breakfast "birthday cake" waffles. Not as big of a hit as the first time. They did eat so I am saying I won. Sadly both kids had a runny nose today and Nate had a rather nasty cough. You know the kind, it kind of hurts their throat so they whine at you and cough in your face at every opportunity to make sure you understand how they feel.

After breakfast I finally got them dressed and got snacks, drinks, lunch, diapers, jackets, backpacks, shoes and car seats set up and we were off for our adventure (once Nate was done with his 8th time out of the morning for hitting). To dinosaur ridge and red rocks.

Look at all those dino footprints! Kailee really enjoyed it and wanted to hike to all the sites.

"Daddy that 3 toed dinosaur must have been big!"
At Red Rocks, I even parked at the top so they wouldn't have to climb the stairs after they hiked all of dinosaur ridge.

But that didn't matter, they immediately climbed down to the stage to check out all the action. You can see in the photo they were very interested in the show. Kailee decided she needed to workout and got her Yoga on in the first row. Then they ran the stairs back to the car while I chased.
Nate crashed hard for a nap and Kailee went to play with the neighbors when we got home. I am still trying to recover.

The end of a hard day

Mmmmm

But not that hard

cherish the calm....

Sometimes it seems that my entire job is being a referee for my two kids antics....(well and the full time housekeeper)....
....don't play in my room..
...don't touch that...
...that is mine...
....I was going to play with that....
....mom....he took my ______....
I love the moments when they play together...or just quietly in the same room.....Even if only for a moment.....

The Family...50%

Seems every year I have intentions of taking family photos...since everyone is together and mostly happy. Seems I either forget totally in the furor of excitement and kid noise...this year I remembered at the Bonfoey house and forgot at the France house....well 50% ain't bad!

Watch out for that chainsaw

Nate was getting jiggy with his Christmas present last night. "Dad
I'm going to cut your leg off". What?

6:30AM Snuggle

Not everything can be called success....

Today we decided to take a trip to the sled hill...optimistically since it has not snowed in a week or so....on the way Nate decided that the sled was "his" and no one else should ride it....and it all went down hill from there...
Nate then refused to put on his coat or hat....
Once his coat was forced on....he refused to walk up the hill ...mostly crying this whole time....
Then he sat in the snow and took off his boot....still wailing about something...not even sure what...
Then he was lovingly place back in his car seat to watch us all sled down the hill....still wailing...snot flowing...etc....
Finally he capped it all off by crying almost all the way home...until finally falling asleep near the driveway.....
Kailee had fun!
Ah.
Happy New Year!