3 Years!

And he still takes my breath away!  Love you Chaddycakes!  Thanks for always making me happy :)

Birthday Bonanza!

Chad had a birthday on the 26th.  I wish I could say we partied hard core, but birthdays are just not as great as they used to be.  Jordyn and I let him sleep in, gave him some colts stuff for his office, and got an awesome DQ ice cream cake.  We are still enjoying it!  Happy Birthday Daddy Chad!  We love you so much and are so grateful to have such a great man taking care of us!

Now, let me just say that I love my husband.  But somehow, Jordyn's birthday totally trumped his!  We did not take a single picture of Chad's birthday, but took about 100 of Jordyn's.  She had a great day, as documented below!

She started the day with a morning snuggle with mommy and daddy.  Obviously, she still has morning face in this picture.

Then she had breakfast.  Yogurt is her favorite food.  She will eat one of these big tubs of yogurt in like 3 sittings.  And she cries for more every time.  Not sure that much yogurt is good for such a small girl.  She loves to 'pretend' to feed herself.  I love it too cause she stops crying for more yogurt.

Then we watched Sesame Street.  Love, love, love Sesame Street.  A big thanks to PBS and viewers like you.   Sippy, blanket, and the street is all you need. Chad's family will recognize the 'staring at the TV' look. Chad has the same face.

Then we played balloons.  We are still playing balloons.

We took pictures.  Lots and lots of pictures.



We opened presents

And of course, we ate cake.  She loved the cake!  A little questionable at first, but after she realized she could eat it, she dug right in!

Finally, after a day of partying hard core, this little birthday girl is tuckered out.

BIG GIRL!

I am probably going to be posting a lot of videos so Jordyn's grandmas can see what a big girl she is.

I cannot believe she is big enough to walk!  She seems to little to be this moble.  Her birthday is next week and you can bet there will be plenty of pictures to share!

Yet Another Move

We moved into a new apartment about 2 weeks ago.  So let me break down our addresses since July.  We started the summer living in Payson.  In July, we moved to my mom's house in Gunnison.  In August we moved into an apartment near the technology center in Denver.  In September we moved to another apartment in Centennial or Englewood.  We can't exactly figure out just what town we are living in at the moment.  We finally got our stuff out of storage, and for the first time since July, we are living with our stuff.  Sleeping in our bed.  Sitting on our couch.  Cooking with my pans.  It's great.  Sort of.

There is still another move in the works, mostly likely to happen in October or November.  We have put an offer on a house in Castle Rock.  It is a short sale, which is fortunately unfortunate.  We are getting the house way under value, but we have to deal with the short sale process and the wait.  As of now, the first bank has accepted our offer, but there is a second lender attached with the deal and we are waiting for them to accept the offer.  I suck at waiting.

So because there is another move in the works, we are still living in a temporary state of mind.  We don't really want to unpack all the boxes cause we will just have to box everything up in the weeks to come.  Plus, to stay in our rent budget, our appartment is not exactly five star living arangements.  There is not room to unpack the boxes.  There is 1 drawer and 3 cupboards in the kitchen.  Well, these pictures explain a lot.

This is Jordyn's room.  She sleeps in the closet.

This is the dining room.  There was no room for a table, not even the card table.

It looks like those hoarders that you see on TV.  We are anxious to get out of here!  But on the same note, we are so grateful to be here.  We are grateful we could find an apartment with a month contract.  We found an apartment in our budget and we are liking the neighborhood, area, and nearby shopping (we live behind a Hobby Lobby :))  I watched 'Pursuit of Happyness' the other night and was suddenly very grateful for this squishy little apartment.  And most of all we are grateful we know it is only temporary!

All Fun and Games

Playground Picnic

On Labor Day weekend, we tried to get out of the house and enjoy the beautiful weather we were having. On Saturday, we went downtown in Denver to the Taste of Colorado. It was a little fair with all this great food from great places in Denver. There were games, rides, marketplace booths, and of course food. Walking around was free, so that is what we participated in. Also, we discovered that all the museums have specific free days. Saturday happened to be the Art Museum's free day so we checked that out too. It was a great afternoon to spend together. We stopped at Pizza Hut on the way home cause the cost of a whole pizza was equivalent to a gormet hot dog downtown. Great day. No pictures.

Monday, we drove around. We have been doing a lot of that. We checked out the temple, which is closed for contruction. We found a nearby park and let Jordyn play around. She still does not like slides or swings but I think that with enough force we will get her to enjoy it and not just shake with fear. It worked with water! We also walked around home depot for a couple hours just hoping that some day we will have enough money to make our house awesome!

Growing Wiser...

What I have learned about Denver:
1.  There are bunnies everywhere.  They just sit out on the lawn and nibble away.  I am torn cause I want for me and Jordyn to sit on the lawn and play with them, but where I grew up, you did not so much play with bunny rabbits as much as you chased them with bats and stuff.
2.  Dogs.  Everyone has a dog.  There are family parks in Utah, and dog parks in Denver.  In Utah, I saw everyone running with jogging strollers.  Here they just run with their dogs. 
3.  A GPS is a necessity.  And even with that, I struggle.  Is it really that difficult to number the streets?  Also, we live on South Monaco Street.  Not Monaco Parkway, not South Monaco Parkway, not on Monaco Street.  All of which are apparently streets in the Denver area.  They need to become more clever with street names if they insist on naming them instead of a much smarter numbering system
4.  There is not a Wal-mart on every corner.  I have yet to see a Macey's, Smiths, or Albertsons/Fresh Market.  There is however a plethora of Safeways.
5.  People here are not quite sure what to do with babies.  Jordyn is the only one in grocery stores, restaurants, the post office, swimming pool etc.  People play with her and talk to her like a baby is a rarity.  In Utah, I felt like not having a baby was the rarity.

What I have learned about being a stay at home mommy:
1.  I have little patience.  You think I would have learned this as a teacher, but it is different.  I think it is cause I am in my house all day.
2.  My body still wants to get up at 6 to get ready for work.  I had slept in all summer, but the day that I got to Denver happened to be the day I would have started back at work and I am back in a familiar sleeping pattern.
3.  I love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  Special Agent Oso songs get stuck in my head.  Little Einsteins is not near as cool as Baby Einstein.
4.  My baby poops. All. The. Time.  I sometimes wonder if something is wrong with her.
5.  I thought I would become a gourmet chef.  My cooking is still extremely mediocre.

Thats it.  I am now so much wiser than before.  And I have only been here two weeks!