Star Wars Invades Palmer Lake

Halloween was a complete blast and total success this year.  Kevin and I had enough foresight to start working on costumes well before the 31st and consequently completed all 3 of ours!  Mind you, this was no easy task, either.  North was adamant about dressing up as R2D2 this year, and we had no choice but to oblige.  Naturally, Kevin and I had to follow suit with the Star Wars theme so we decided OB1 and Princess Leia had to be put together as well. Kevin went so far as to make a completely homemade replica of Leia's blaster gun!

We started the festivities with Kevin and I running the Creepy Crawl 5K in Palmer Lake.  Costumes were a must but the weather was a bit frigid so we left the boys at the house.  It so happened that we ran into some storm troopers at the race, one of which happened to be none other than my midwife!  She said star wars would be at Boo At The Zoo later in the evening.  We hadn't planned on going down there, but we simply couldn't deny North the chance to meet Darth Vader, another R2D2 and various other Star Wars characters.

North had a blast, other than being freezing cold and (initially) scared of Darth Vader.  He even got to see one of the 'Sand People' and pose for a picture with a storm trooper!  Noah was dressed up as an ewok (it was really just a Saint Bernard costume but everyone else thought he was an ewok so we went with it.)  After hanging with his imposter robot R2D2 he informed me that he was 'the no noise R2D2.'  I beg to differ....

It was an eventful day and I was pretty tired considering Halloween hadn't even arrived yet!  Nonetheless, we made some structural improvements to North's costume over the next few days and we were able to successfully trick-or-treat twice on Halloween day!  Now, I'm trying to convince North he wants to trade in pieces of candy for money to buy a toy.  He seems to prefer being revved up on absolute junk food (a topic of which I'll save my ranting for another day.)  Speaking of, I best be off to play with the cute little man!

Cheers.

Baby Noah and other things...

It came to my attention, with the help of Kevin, that I haven't updated this in a LONG time!  We've been working on Halloween costumes (which are awesome) and he wanted to publish them on our blog.  I thought "Oh yeah, we do have a blog!  I don't know if I even remember the web address."  At long last, though, I found it, recovered my password, and tah-dah!

Since I last posted nearly two years ago we've had another major change in our family.  Baby Noah arrived March 25th, 2012!  As I type he's lying on the floor next to me on his belly fussing at me to pick him up.  However, I'm trying to get him to start working those little baby muscles required for creeping around and eventually crawling around.  He is an amazing baby with a temperament rivaling North's...I might go so far as so say he's an even easier baby than Mr. North was.  His personality is blossoming and he's a complete ham.  His smiles are so big his entire face crinkles.  And...his two front teeth on the bottom have broken through!  Below are newborn pictures of Noah taken by my friend Krystle Fildes.  These were taken on my birthday, March 31st.

North is amazing!  Not only is he the kindest kid I have ever been around, he is also an incredibly compassionate and loving older brother.  Seeing him become such a wonderful person has been so fulfilling to us...our hard work and loving family dynamics have definitely paid off.  He has been completely on board with the addition of Noah and spends hours every day playing with him and teaching him things.

North is also a Lego master and can build just about anything you give him.  His imagination is endless and he is always making up goofy stories.  I've started a list of some of the adorable 4 year old 'reasoning' skills he's developing.  Priceless.  I will sprinkle them in throughout my posts.  At bedtime tonight he told me: "My heart is not breaking 'cause we're together."

Kevin is doing well, just living the dream working Monday-Friday :)  He's finding a few spare moments to continue to work on his car projects, although not many moments these days.  He's enjoying all the fun projects and Lego building adventures that North always wants to do.  He's a hairy beast right now, too, as his Vikings rally beard is getting quite puffy.

I'm spending lots of time with the kiddos and taking them on fun adventures as often as possible.  I've been busy working at both my personal massage office in Castle Rock, as well as another office in Colorado Springs.  However, I'm leaving my Springs office in 5 days-yeah!!!!  I can't wait as I feel as though I've worked too much and missed some precious baby time.

From feast to famine and back again- I'll be posting again in a few short days with pictures of our costumes!!

Love to all!

Thanksgiving!

It was great seeing everybody for Thanksgiving! We had a really great time and a VERY tuckered kiddo. Next stop...Christmas!

Love to all,
Jen, Kevin and North

October Fun

North and his 2nd cousin Addison at the Pumpkin Patch

North and Addison...the pics are a little smudged from
little North fingers all over the camera...

Feeding Sammy after our tough ride!

Taking mom for a ride on Sammy

Faster Grandpa, faster! Whoa, not that fast!

Malcolm chillin'

Oops, missed the ball again!

North playing ball with Malcolm. The video is a little long but we can never get enough, right?!

North's 2nd Birthday and Beyond!

Thanks to all that celebrated North's 2nd birthday with us! We are so proud of our little kiddo and he is such an important person to us. It means so much to us to have everyone's support and involvement in his life!

We've been super busy this year so I've been a little (okay, a lot) behind on posts. We took a trip out to Seattle to see cousin Malcolm in June, went camping in September up to Tiger Run... a little brisk at night but nothing us Nynas' couldn't take, and cousin Gabby visited for the weekend a few weeks ago. School is taking up just about every other nook and cranny of available time I have, but I graduate in December so I'm ALMOST there! We also had a few wonderful weddings we attended, including Corey & Christ-Lyn's in August and Lindsey and Scott's this past weekend.

Kevin is planning on going hunting in a few weeks and bringing home a big elk for the family! When he gets home we'll be taking North trick or treating for the first time...exciting! We'll be sure to post pics of him dressed up...the votes still out for costume ideas so shoot me an email if you have a good one...

Oh, and for those of you with a sick sense of humor I'm sure you'll find a good chuckle in hearing that Sadie got sprayed by a skunk last night at 3:30 in the morning. She's feeling pretty sorry for herself today but I'm pretty sure no one else is very empathetic.

Love to all,
Jen, Kev, and North

Walking!

Some of you have had the great pleasure of witnessing our little athlete in action, but for those of you who haven't, or for anybody that just wants to watch how adorable North is over and over, here is a video of his newest skill! He's been walking for a week now, and getting faster every day! He's even getting so good now he can eat and walk at the same time...an invaluable skill if he wants to hang on to all those precious rolls!

Enjoy!

Learning To Drive