We are headed home!

Well after 14 months in PA we are headed back to Colorado. The project Scott was on was cancelled, yes it was supposed to be 3-5 years. something with the PUC and a National Forrest were not going to "fly." So here we sit awaiting a house. We are so very grateful Scott applied every place and was offered 4 positions in 4 different states so of course Colorado out weighed all the others in all aspects so it was meant to be.

We have been trying to do a bit of touring we have had 2 visitors since the last blog, Bonnie(Scott's Mom) and my Sister. The winter months flew by and the winter was not to harsh and the spring was not anywhere near as wet as the previous. The girls did great in school their "first" semester, Faith made the honor roll and Hope was advanced in many of her classes (they don't give letter grades out in Elementary here ~strange. Levi is running and talking away just going and going. He does some sign language which is exciting to see him use it immediately after we teach him.

We were in Michigan for my Aunt Pat's memorial over Memorial Day weekend and were able to see family we haven't seen in years not just a few but like 30, crazy I tell you. and my sister drove back with us so we had a bit of visit with her which was so great. Mom and Faith were in Michigan for Grandparents University at the end of June and stayed for a few weeks to visit and a bit of and extra visit due to the naughty van (agh!) They got home and Bonnie arrived a couple days later. We travelled to Amish country and saw beautiful quilts, went to quilt museum, and we went to Lopez Pa where Mema grew up, it was so fascinating driving done all the roads Mema talked about and seeing her grandmother's grave was so wonderful to share with her. I think she enjoyed just hangin out with us. Bonnie and mom went back to Colorado Mom for the month of August, Jim's birthday and sister's birthday. The girls swam in our free pool and played with friends almost every day!

School has started we are trying to get into a routine but it will soon change Scott leaves Wednesday for Colorado. He will search for a house we are going to be looking everywhere for Evergreen to Brighton hopefully a rent to own situation but we will see. I think everyday of something I will miss here...today it was the flowers, there is always something blooming even in the winter. Yesterday it was my friends here and the girls friends, we have made good friends here and I hope they will come visit us someday. Well I will sign off for now I will try harder to blog more, the facebook monster takes over and I think it is enough and I know it isn't. Well Colorado friends I hope to see you soon and I will get intouch when we are settled if not before

The snowy days of winter finally

Well it has not been very snowy before, kinda of rainy weather which is so strange this time of year, but we got some good dumping of snow recently. So we enjoyed a snow delay of school and 2 snow days. The thing is that the snow is still here...a week later nothing has melted just kinda dirty. So this is the difference, the snow doesn't come one day melt the next like it does in Colorado or so warm you can go without a coat. Yes our driveway still has ice and snow all over it, we did PAY the neighbors snow blower guy to dig out our mailbox because they seriously wouldn't deliver if it was not done properly. Crazy it was a pile of ice from the snow plow for the road and it wouldn't budge. So we had total of 6 days off of school due to the Presidents day weekend and the snow days we played in the snow 4 of those 6 days we sledded and went to a "hill" at a friends and tried to build a fort. Okay so we enjoyed it I'm ready for it to melt now. The icicles are really huge the kids want to know how to get them off of the tall tall house. Hope just asked if we could ask the neighbors for some of theirs they touch the ground! So we anxiously await the meltdown!

Levi turned 1

Levi turned 1 on January 29th, wow a year already? It doesn't seem possible that little guy has been in our life that long. The 1st birthday is a big one in our house we usually have large family birthdays and of a couple of cakes one just for the 1 year old. So how does one celebrate in a new place? Well we celebrated 3 times! Friday was his actual birthday so we went to Chick Fil-A to the play land that he has never experienced before you might say "hmm interesting, they are always at Chick Fil-A." I know but mostly drive thru of course and with him walking it seemed okay now to let him play. So dinner and brownies and ice cream all around, yum. Then Saturday we had planned on meeting one of Scott's co-workers at Chuckie Cheese's, well they cancelled so we still went. On a Saturday night we must have been crazy... it was insanely packed. The kids got tokens played the games we ate a not very good pizza and got the heck out of there. Then we we went to Friendly's which happens to have awesome ice cream just not good service so way past Levi bed time we finally got sundaes and ate the quickly as Levi was melting faster than the ice cream (okay all of us were melting). Phrew what a weekend of celebrating but we didn't do the cake! So the next weekend we make the cutest train car cake (thanks Lana for the pan) We all decorated and Levi was not very patient for that event as he was sitting in his high chair watching us with candy and icing he was angry we we not sharing so we rushed and got his done sang happy birthday (finally) and very fast took the candies off he couldn't eat(after the pics were taken) and he had lots of candy and cake well we continued to decorate the other train cars. Ah what we do to make ourselves feel like we celebrated this event properly.

The forgotten BLOG

So the blog falls by the wayside, sorry. I found it was a bit easier to post a bit on facebook. But was recently reminded my blog is better (thank you Sister & Debbie). I guess I have been avoiding it as it seems it would be to much to catch up on. So I decided I will do one post for the past and try to remember how important it is in the future.

So I think the last thing was the Aunt Julie in July, which seem so long ago. In August Mom went to Michigan to visit, we all stayed behind and got ready for school and enjoyed the rest of the summer. We went to Conneticut for Scott's employee picnic we passed through New York and on a clear day we may have seen the statue of liberty. Scott and the girls did tubing Tuesdays at the Wildlife Reserve down the road, Scott went once and swore he would never go again, but the girls went a few times it was fun to actually ride a ways in river that runs behind our house.

September we started school with Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School, an online public school. We had tons of great field trip opportunities, the girls loved the laptops they were loaned and the curriculum kept us very very busy.

In October Dad and Barb visited on their way out of the country to Italy. We had so much fun showing them around we went to Hershey Park again (you really can never get enough frankly) we did the chocolate tasting this time, the tour and the 3-D movie, which is a little crazy interactive. We also took them to our Farmers Market which has great selection of anything you could imagine. It was so nice to see familiar faces.

In November we traveled to Colorado for Thanksgiving. Wow 33 hours there and 26 hours back was enough car to last anyone awhile. We had a great time visiting friends and family of course there wasn't as much time as we wanted. I can't tell you how strange it is to not be at home for a holiday, even in years past if we went somewhere we would end back at home but it was different going to a hotel room after that Thanksgiving meal. Mom and the kids and I drove out and Scott and the kids and I drove back so as you can see Scott wasn't stopping for nothin' and everyone was sick and we just wanted to get home.

December was a little more difficult than I would hope we were all home sick and were having a hard go at holidays with out the craziness that usually surrounds it. We also made a tough decision and enrolled the kids in public school. We had heard great things about the school district so when we checked it out and felt pretty good about the schools it was just time. I think with all of the changes we have incurred in the past year it was just a better choice for right now, who knows what the future will hold. We had high hopes of going to New York to see the holiday decor but the couple times we tried it just wasn't in the cards, maybe next year.

Ah and here we sit in January, wow I caught up fast. The girls started public school they both take buses which is so exciting for them (I'm sure this will wear off soon). I think Faith was most excited about the smorgasbord she could choose from for lunch more than anything. Hope was excited about the kids she was going to play with even though she was out numbered with her being 1 of 2 girls in a class of 12. They really are enjoying it and learning which is what matters. Our little Levi has started walking and really expressing himself. Just today the dog stole his cookie(which happens frequently) and turned around and swatted her. It is just amazing how fast they grow, I have taken such joy in really watching him grow into a little boy. Well we had a mishap today and I was a in a car accident, yes with the new van. My fault completely and all I can say is the Tom Tom lady said "to turn left" she did not say to look you are on a one way street there could be someone next to you. So thank goodness no one was hurt due to my ignorance, the kids weren't with me and I have insurance. So there you have an up to date some what blog. I will do my darnedest to update this and please feel free to nag.