Our K-State Girl

Brynlee is a big Wildcat fan (and let me PLEASE clarify that I'm talking about the KANSAS STATE WILDCATS, **NOT** the kind from Tucson)! She gets a lot of K-State gear from her cousins Maverick and Madelynn who's momma, my cousin Holly, went to Kansas State. Here's our future cheerleader!

Funny Farm

The weather in Denver has been so beautiful this week! My dad suggested we take the kids to the Littleton Historical Museum. The museum itself is not much fun for the kids, but if you venture outside you'll find an 1880s-era farm. In addition to the barn, there is a furnished home as well as a schoolhouse that looks like it was time-warped from 1885. My dad said the smell of the house reminds him of his grandparents' home. Seems when we went to the farm yesterday that it was feeding time for the animals. The kids thought they looked funny when they eat!

New Beginnings

Tevin is officially a Preschooler! He was so excited about the day that he could barely stand still long enough for me to take a picturein front of St. Luke's Little School. He was soon off playing with the trucks (who would have guessed?). Brynlee, Hippo, and I headed off to Starbucks to secretly mourn the loss of familiarity. It was strange only having one baby again! We took Hippo because I knew she would be lonely at home. After all, she's been Tevin's lovey for over 2 years. Guess it really shows how much he's grown -- he picked a macho "Car Pillow" over his sweet Hippo Girl! Don't worry Hippo, we'll get through this together....

Labor Day Weekend in Kansas

We hit the road on Thursday in The Hulk for our big late-summer road trip to Kansas. The kids did so well in the car for the 6-hour drive, and Tevin kept his pants dry the entire time! We had lunch with Grandma, Granddad, and Grammy and then played in the backyard. Tevin named all the states for Grammy, and Grandma painted Brynlee's fingernails purple (in honor of the Wildcats!!)

On Saturday morning, Darren and I left the kids with Randy and Sandy and drove up to Manhattan. After stocking up on the "necessities", we got to the parking lot around 2 p.m. for 4 awesome hours of tailgating. We had such a fun time doing what we used to do before the minors came along. :) We did miss the kids, but it was nice having a night to ourselves for once!
On the way back to Dodge City on Sunday morning, we passed several wind farms. This one was in Spearville, KS, about 15 miles northeast of Dodge. I was amazed by the sheer size of these turbines. Research said 328 feet tall and sweeping a full acre of air! Kind of creepy and alien-like, but amazing nonetheless!

Monday morning, we said goodbye to Grandma and Granddad after a great weekend with them. We will see them again in October when they make their Fall Pilgrimage to Phoenix for the winter.

SUCCESS (for the most part)!!!

Tevin is potty trained! :)

After getting to the point of sheer desperation (realizing it was a matter of weeks before preschool started and Tevin was REQUIRED to be potty trained), and after having a serious talk with my dad, I buckled down and got serious about helping Tevin lose the diapers. My dad helped me decide that I needed to commit to it 100%. So the next morning, Tevin and I gathered all of his diapers, put them in a box and taped the box up, and then wrapped the box in pretty gold paper. We wrote, "To: Babies, From: Tevin" on the box. Then Tevin put his own artistic rendering on the paper. We "sent" the box away to the babies because they needed the diapers way more than he did. He enjoyed it very much. At last, I was able to turn in Tevin's enrollment paperwork at the preschool! (Tevin still has accidents from time to time, especially when he is heavily immersed in play. He is also wearing pull-ups at night. We're all VERY proud of him nonetheless!!!)

About 3 weeks later, we got a letter from Tevin's new teacher, Ms. Carol. It was so sweet! The letter was addressed to Tevin and it welcomed him to her Teddy Bear Class for the fall semester starting September 3rd. Tevin even gets to take his favorite stuffed plaything to school on the first day for a Teddy Bear Hunt. He posed with his Pillow Car (the lucky plaything that gets to go to school) and the letter we got from his teacher.

I cried as Darren read the letter out loud, because I couldn't believe my little guy is "big" enough to be going off on his own for a couple of hours to school. I am amazed every single day by Tevin. Sure, preschool is only 2 1/2 hours a day, 3 days a week.... but that's 7 1/2 hours (or 450 minutes, or 27,000 seconds) that I will miss his smile and his unbelievable spirit.

Cousin Sarah

Sarah is my favorite cousin -- she has always lived in the north part of Denver but that has never stopped us from hanging out or getting together. Since I'm only 6 months older than she is, we've always been close, no matter what the physical distance is or has been. We spent the morning a few weeks ago at my aunt's house and went to the pool. Sarah has two kids of her own (Tayla, 17 months, and Kyler, 6 years). She's holding Tayla, who is 5 months younger than Brynlee. Sarah and I hope that our girls will always be as close as the two of us are!

Tevin decided he didn't need us girls and motored around in his pink floating car for about an hour. He was HAPPY AS A CLAM!!

"Heat" Wave

Brynlee loves coats. Regardless of what the temperature is outside, she wants to wear one if she sees it hanging on the coat rack. For whatever reason, the coats were out of the closet one day, and of course, she had to wear her pretty pink one. At the time, we happened to be in the middle of one of the longest heat streaks in history (97 degrees that day) and she went outside with this coat on. I didn't let her wear it for long because I was afraid she'd get heat stroke! I also didn't get the pictures of her having a temper tantrum when I made her take it off (I'll save you that drama).