Go Ra Rocks!

Ra Rocks is what Averi calls the Rockies.  Last weekend we went to a game and had a great time. 

 Arielle and Cayla...BFF's!

 Arielle loves cotton candy!

Averi didn't go to the game but she stayed home and spent quality time with Grandmom and Grandpop.  Here is a picture of her in her "new" vintage desk that I picked up at a garage sale for $5.

I'm a giveaway WINNER!

I just found out that I won a GIVEAWAY from The Shabby Nest! Wendy is sending me a Scrabble Tile Necklace from her Etsy shop. How cool is that?!?!

By the way, we've been busy this weekend {by we I mostly mean Zak}. Almost done with Number One on my To Do List for May. Stay tuned!

~Momma to Bug n' Bear~

10 things that make me happy

Nikki at Nikki's Nacs tagged me in this fun blog award!






To accept this award I must list 10 things that make me happy and then pass this award along to more fabulous blogs!

10 Things that make me HAPPY are as follows:

1. Date nights with my husband

2. Girls Night Out with friends

3. Sleeping in

4. When both of my kids are asleep

5. When both of my kids are laughing

6. Getting pampered (haircut, pedicures, etc.)

7. Days off of work

8. Weekends

9. Starbucks

10. Shopping


Now pass it on:

Sweet Pea and Beans
Mommy + Me
Baby Cerm is on the Way!
Bam Bam's World
Little Man on the Go!
3 Peas in a Pod


~Momma to Bug n' Bear~

A Beach Cottage Giveaway

Sarah at A Beach Cottage is giving away an Anthropology gift card. All you have to do is leave a comment on her AWESOME blog to enter! Who couldn't use a free gift card?


~Momma to Bug~

A letter to my blog

Dear Blog,

Please don't be mad at me for not updating you lately. I wish there were more time in the day {week} {month} so that I could write to you. If there were more time I could tell you all of the exciting things that have happened to us in the past few weeks. To start with, I would have to mention the last two weeks in December when cousin Theresa stayed with us and was so much help at such a busy time of year. I would tell you about the time that she stayed with the girls while Zak and I got to stay at a fancy hotel downtown for the annual work Christmas party and another time when she and Arielle built a snow-woman after we got several inches of snow just before Christmas! I wouldn't forget to mention Christmas Day and how nice that turned out to be. We took family pictures around the tree; in fact we took lots of pictures that I am dying to share with you.

Next I would tell you about how Averi turned {two} three months old and has stolen my heart! Oh and I can't forget about the time when she went from sleeping 7-9 hours at night back down to waking up every 3 hours and that is what she has been doing ever since. It couldn't have been better timing since I had to go back to work full time on December 28th. Now that I think about it, this coincided with when she got another cold one week after starting daycare. This time it was worse then before so I took her to urgent care only to find out her temperature was 102 degrees {apparently I wasn't using my thermometer correctly}. The poor little thing had bronchiolitis and an ear infection.

And since I'm writing a letter to you now, I thought I would let you know that Arielle went skiing today for the first time in over a year. I didn't get to go but Zak texted me and said I wouldn't believe how well she was doing skiing by herself down the beginners slope. He even sent me this cute picture of her and friend Olivia. Don't they look cute? He is going to show me a couple videos that he took and maybe I can post those too!

There has even been some decorating that I would have mentioned such as the new curtains that I hung in the living room. It took me over three years but I finally bought them and hung them up. Boy do I love them! This inspired me to purchase a new console table which I can't wait to accessorize but first I have to find a new home for the pack and play that Averi has grown very fond of...that could be a challenge. Plus we rearranged the furniture in our study and it looks like a whole new room with a lot more space on the floor and on the walls. I'm still trying to figure out how to fill it up. Lastly, I got myself this gallery frame for Christmas. Can't wait to {order pictures} put pictures in it and hang it up on the wall!

Alas, being a full time working mother of to two little ones has really chewed up my free time and creativity. Hopefully I can adjust to this new way of living and find time in the {near} future to let you, my dearest blog, back into my life.

Sincerely,

~Momma to Bug~

Out on the Boat

Last weekend we went out on the lake on our friend's boat. Arielle had a blast! She was so well behaved for being in such a confined space with nothing to do but eat and occassionally go in the water. She got to ride on the tube with Daddy and didn't even panic when they sank in the water when the boat slowed down!

We were planning on going swimming this weekend so I could see Arielle swim under water as she started doing last week at Water World. However, the weather was actually on the cool and breezy side so we went to the zoo instead. I knew my feet would be in a world of pain by the end of the day but it was worth it to be out and about with Zak and Arielle. Zoo pics to come later this week!

~Momma to Bug~

Cruising right along!

Wow, I can't believe how much time has gone by since my last post. I feel like such a slacker but really I'm not. Work has been so busy and it's not going to get any less busy for at least another month. Arielle finally agreed to spend some time behind the wheel of her Jeep this past weekend. I wonder if she will ever master the concept of "steering". First she will have to comprehend the meaning of the word but we are working on it!

Taking pictures these days seems to be the last thing on my mind which makes me feel sad. I have had plenty of opportunities for pics but sadly I haven't remembered to take any. Arielle on the other hand has gotten a hold of our camera a few times the past month and has taken plenty of pictures for all of us. Some of them are actually quite good! Here are a couple of my favorites:

The nursery room is coming along quite well, it's nearly complete except for a few more things to hang on the wall. I have found lots of great polka dot accessories at Hobby Lobby. I am trying to reuse some square frames that I painted brown (they were black). Finding prints that match the bedding (or anything that is framable at this point) but it's not so easy. I might have to resort to scrapbook paper but that might just be the best idea. I have saved lots of money on this makeover which I am proud to say! When I post the final room pics I'll break out the costs so you can see how little I actually spent. Here are some sneak peaks before the reveal:

A couple of weeks ago Zak and I went to Red Feather Lakes to attend one of my oldest friends wedding. It was a nice getaway and we enjoyed some quality grown up time together. Do you see how big my baby bump is getting?

~Momma to Bug~

Snow Day!

This morning we woke up to a blanket of snow covering the ground and it still falling down! It was great to see snow after we have had such a long dry spell but as usual traffic came to a stand-still. After we spent 50 minutes in the car and only got four miles away from home, I decided to turn around and go back home making today an offical SnOw DaY!

Lexi was pretty thrilled to have playmates in the backyard once again. Here she is ruining all of Arielle's snow angels:

~Momma to Bug~

I got the idea for this post here and thought it would be fun and help to get everyone even further into the ChRiStMaS sPiRiT!

My 5 {Christmas} Addictions:

1. Silver & Red decorations. I can't live without these two colors when decorating for Christmas.

2. Wrapping paper and ribbon. I need lots and lots of different wrapping paper and ribbon choices before I can begin to think about wrapping up presents.

3. Home. Although there is a distinct possibility that a time may come where we may need to travel for Christmas, I can't imagine what it will be like. I have never been away from home for Christmas and I very much like it that way.

4. Coats. I think I can say this with certainty but for the past several years, I have made sure to purchase {at least} one new winter coat. For some reason it isn't Christmas season if I haven't bought one.

5. Returns. Who out there can't relate to this one? As much as I HATE to wait in lines, having a return makes it all worth it.

Anyone else interested in sharing their addictions?

~Momma to Bug~

7 things about me

This is a FuN diversion from my normal everyday life which almost entirely revolves around Arielle. I have been TaGGeD by a good friend of mine, Megan, who has the two cutest little boys that I have ever seen. She and I used to work together and (by chance) we got pregnant with our first kiddos at the same time. Well, not only was something in the water at that place but whatever it was it gave us both very HEAD-STRONG, TALKATIVE & SELF-ASSURED gifts from above...GOD love them!


The RuLeS of this fun little game are simple, short and sweet...just the way I like em' so here it goes:

FIRST: Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.

SECOND: Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

THIRD: Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

FOURTH: Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

7 THINGS about ME:

1. I am an only child. So is my husband. Our daughter does not have any biological Aunts or Uncles (technically this is three things but they are all related).

2. Before I got pregnant my hair was naturally CURLY; ever since my daughter was born it is not.

3. In college I was a member of DELTA SIGMA PI, a co-ed business fraternity.

4. I can remember EXACTLY where I was and what I was doing when I met each of my three closest friends...one from sixth grade orientation and two from my freshman year in college.

5. I have lived in three different states, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Arizona.

6. My mom and three out of four of her sisters were pregnant at the same time and each of them had girls. One of my aunts decided that they were going to name their daughter DESIREE (the name my mom had chosen for me) if she was born first. I beat her out of the womb by 14 days but if I hadn't then my name would have been THERESA.

7. I RAN the entire Bolder Boulder in 2002 in spite of having recently developed exercise-enduced asthma. It is one of my proudest achievements.

TaG...you're it!

Mommy + Me

Princesses & Pearls

Baby Kemler

Bam Bam's World

H-Squared

Little Man on the Go

~Momma to Bug~

Slippin', Sliding and Bike Riding

The weather was perfect this past weekend in sunny Colorado! Arielle got to experience her first time ever on the Slip and Slide! She couldn't quite bring herself to jumping on her belly so with a little push from Daddy she was able to slide all the way down. Arielle even went for a swim in the pool to practice her BOBS and show us her newly discovered BELLY BOBS. Zak and I gave the dogs a hose bath and I furminated them too. For those of you that don't know what the FURminator is you should check it out because it's truly the best deshedding brush in the world! Both of our dogs are half german shepard and malamute/husky so you can only imagine how much hair covers our yard when we are done furminating them. After all that we still had enough energy to take our first bike ride of the year {it only took us until August to do it}. Arielle was so happy to get back into Daddy's bike trailer and ride through the tunnels! She just laughed the whole way through them and it made me so happy to hear her enjoying our bike ride together! I didn't take a picture of our bike ride but this one is from last year. Her head touches the top of the trailer now so I'm thinking this might be the last year that she can ride in it.

"Take me out to the ballgame"

We got to take Arielle to another Colorado Rockies game today and nothing could have made her happier! Last year, when we took her for the first time she got a "Dinger the Dinosaur" stuffed animal. She could not wait to bring it back to meet the "real" Dinger and have it autographed by him. We all tried to have fun at the game despite the fact that the Rocks were still on their losing streak. Then there was the weather; it was very hot at first then felt like it would downpour at any minute. There were some highlights from the day like when Arielle got to eat a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone all by herself for the first time (not really though because Zak and I kept licking the sides so it didn't drip all over her). Then every time a song would come on at the stadium, Arielle would cover her ears up because she said it was too loud! She even got to play at the kiddie playground and go down a sliding pole for the first time. She told me not to help her on it and she did it herself! She definitely had lots of fun at the ballgame!

When we got home, after Arielle ate dinner and played with her friend Imani for a little while, she had a total meltdown. For the first time ever she cried and cried when we told her it was bedtime and kept saying, "I don't want to go to bed" over and over again. I'm sure the combination of missing a nap and eating loads of sugar all day had just caught up to her and she couldn't handle it all at once. Now that she is sleeping and not screaming and kicking, I can look back and say it was a fun day but at the time I was really regreting taking her out to the ballgame.

Elitch's

This is the third year in a row that we have had the pleasure of taking Arielle to the Six Flags Elitch Gardens amusement park. Every time has been a lot of fun for all of us but this time was especially memorable because it was the first time Arielle got to ride on the Roller Coaster and Bumper Cars (although we didn't make it on the Ferris Wheel this year which was dissapointing but the line was too long and slow). We ended up being at the park for nearly seven hours...and Arielle was very good pretty much the whole time. It was only just before lunch time that she got crabby but once she ate it was smooth sailing for the rest of the day.

The roller coaster ride to me seemed like it would be very scary for a three year old. They got to go around the track three times and each time the operator would stop them and ask if anyone wanted to get off. I saw some kids that were obviously older than Arielle getting off after the first run but Arielle stayed on for all three runs! Each time she went around I know I saw the look of fear on her face after they went down the first hill but she hung in there and told us how much fun it was and that she wasn't scared. You can see the look I am talking about in one of the pictures if you look close enough.

The bumper cars had us rolling with laughter {if only we had brought the video camera and not left the camera in the car when we changed for swimming} and it was so fun to watch Arielle enjoying them! Zak and I both knew that she wouldn't be able to steer because we've seen her in the Barbie Jeep at home and she just doesn't have the ability to steer yet. The operator noticed it too because he kept trying to tell her what to do. All she did was go around and around in circles in her bumper car and every time someone bumped into her she laughed so hard!

I loved seeing Arielle enjoy all the rides that day; the teacups with Daddy, the kiddy rides all by herself and the water park slides with both of us. It definitely brought back memories from my childhood that I hadn't thought about for several years. What I remember the most was how afraid I was of the roller coaster. It wasn't until my early teen years that I actually got on one and figured out that it was actually fun, not scary. I'm already looking forward to going again next year when she is a little bit older and perhaps tall enough to get on more rides.