Cruzie does Preschool

My blogging is lacking as of late. I've lost my blogging mojo once again. Things are still happening. I just don't have the desire to blog about it. I must though because I know I'll regret it down the road if I stop. I really do enjoy looking back and reading posts from long ago. That's really what it's all about.

Our baby boy started preschool last week and transitioned like a champ. He's at the "Y" and goes 3 mornings a week. Thanks to the beauty of living in a small town, he knows most of the kids that go there already. Including his best buddy, Rocco.

Here's an interview in the car ride home after his first day;

Me: What was your favorite part of today?
Cruz: Eating gummies.

Me: What else did you do?
Cruz: Say hi to people.

Me: Do you love school?
Cruz: Yes, it's so awesome!

Teeth

I doesn't seem like that long ago that I was writing posts about new baby teeth and now I'm posting about them falling out! Coop has lost 3 teeth already and he's got a 4th hanging by a thread. He's the type of kid that let's them hang and dangle and wants them to fall out on their own terms. His bottom two dangled and his permanent teeth were completely out before they finally fell out.

He sure looks different. And it sure seems early to me. Before you know it, I'll be blogging about braces. It really does fly by!

Holiday Recap

We closed out 2013 with a visit to St. George and a quick stop in Salt Lake on the way home. We couldn't imagine spending The Holidays without family so we made it happen. We had a great time filled with football, food and fun and a couple of day excursions to surrounding parks.

The only negative is that I managed to leave Grandpa Pat with a parting gift of bronchitis. He is now on the mend and I am grateful for that.

Santa 2013

We haven't had much success with happy go lucky visits with Santa in the past. But we finally got the kid that will gladly sit with him!! You'll be able to tell from the (extremely-blurry-phone) pics below which one of our kids it is. One of our kids loves the dude and the other kid is firm on his opinion----not a fan (of his lap). The one that is not a fan has watched from afar and would rather 'send him an email' instead. He also states that 'maybe he'll be ready when he's six'.

The kiddo that is a fan has requested that he bring him 'a candy cane' and 'iron man socks'. He may very well be the only kid on the planet that has ever requested socks for Christmas.













I love how different our boys are from one another. I'm proud that the each stay true to their convictions. In this case, one makes for a much cuter photo op ;)

(Edited to add the following photo;)





This is the photo that was posted in our local paper. They did a full spread with every kid that sat with Santa. We thought perhaps being in the paper might be enough of a draw for Coop but we thought wrong.

Thanksgiving 2013

Today we went on a beautiful sunny Thanksgiving hike. We are missing our family but are thankful for each other and thinking of you all from a far.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween 2013

Hey, that rhymes.

Another fun (but chilly) Estes Halloween in the books. Coop dressed up as "Aladar", a dinosaur from a movie released in the early 2000's. He discovered the flick when we went to WA and stayed with Aunt Jennifer over 2 years ago. Not many kids know who Aladar is. I think the movie went straight to video when it was released ;). Thanks to EBay, the costume was easier to come by then I would have thought.

Cruz was "Super Hero Tuxedo Man" with his best buddy, Rocco. They were actually Harry and Lloyd from the movie, Dumb and Dumber. They of course, didn't know this but their Mother's sure ate it up. An added bonus is that Rocco's mom majored in costume design! This is probably the last year I can have any type of influence in what either of our kid's costumes will be and I went with it. Before you question my motives, I'll have you know that Cruz LOVED his costume and still wants to wear it daily. They had quite the fan club too. Numerous people wanted to take the duo's picture. Coop jumped in several of the pictures too. Cruz and Rocco quickly learned that people could take their picture but they wanted candy in return. Smart kids!

Coop also had a super fun class Halloween party that we all got to be a part of. I've included a few pics of his kindergarten parade as well.





























"Ninja Turtle" fan club. These girls asked to take their picture and shrieked like giddy High School girls that D & D is one of their favorite movies. Who knew? I don't think they were even born when the movie came out. It just goes to show that classic potty humor knows no age. The boys were just as star struck to be surrounded by TMNT's. Totally win-win.

Hello There

Well hello there blog, it's been awhile. There has been quite a bit going on since my last post. Enough stuff that I just don't have the energy to catch up in full detail. A quick synopsis doesn't do any of these events justice but perhaps one day, I might have the desire to dedicate more time to some of these events. Until then, here's a recap (in chronological order NOT in order of importance;

-Coop lost his first tooth.
-We put an offer on a house.
-We said farewell to our sweet boy, Targhee (after a month of waiting for him to tell us 'it was time').
-We witnessed a '1000 yr flood of Biblical proportions'.
-I got involved in a t-shirt fundraiser for flood relief.
-We proceeded with the purchase of our home.
-We moved into said home.
-Both boys completed a season of soccer.
-We eagerly await the moment when we can finally flush our toilet like civilized human beings in our new home.




































That's pretty much it.....