Christmas Recap 2015

 Like I said in the previous post, Lulu is absolutely the best Christmas gift:

But the rest of the Christmas gifts and general mayhem were good too:

Lulu Marshmallow McCarty

 I don't know how it happened.  I truly don't.  I've never, ever been an animal lover.  But at some point I started looking up small dogs online and couldn't stop. So here we are, adding a fur baby to the mix.  Lulu Marshmallow McCarty joined the family and we are so in love with her! 

We carefully picked out her little carrier and the other day made the drive to a local breeder to bring Lulu home. None of us knew how to handle an animal.  We just stared down into the (what now feels like an enormous) carrier to admire and marvel.  She is SO TINY!  At some point we had to stop for gas so while Patrick manned the gas pump, us girls carefully scooped Lulu out of her carrier to see if she needed to pee.  We walked over to a small patch of grass and plopped her down only to discover that the grass was almost too tall for her tiny little legs.  We oooh-ed and ahhhh-ed at her for a bit, waiting to see if she would potty.

She chose to save the potty until we got home.  Promptly upon release from the carrier, she did a giant poop in the middle of our kitchen floor.

The girls set up a play area for their new little sister:

Lulu, for a new puppy, is on the mild side but does like to lick and sniff which had the girls giggling:

Notice how Maggie is barefoot and Caroline has big boots on.  So far, as much as Caroline is enamored by the dog, she still gets easily freaked out by her and will run and jump on the couch to escape and keep "safe".

She is absolutely the best Christmas gift ever.  I've never had a dog.  I have no idea how to care for or train one.  I've overprepared with lots of reading and YouTube tutorials so we'll see how useful they are when I'm on midnight potty duty. So far I'm grateful for puppies being extra sleepy and for hardwood floors that are much easier to clean than carpet!

December Recap 2015

This month had a lot of big events that deserve their own post.  So this is all the other stuff.

We took the girls to a fancy French restaurant in Boulder--Brasserie Ten Ten. We we were so worried about their behavior but they were champs.  They had paper covering the beautiful linen tablecloths and the staff provided some crayons.  That's all it takes to keep my girls quiet and happy.

We checked out some fossils at Dinosaur Ridge:

Another day, another carpool gang:

Harlow and Nessa with my girls, all showing off their animal hats:

Caroline is weirdly money motivated.  But not because she wants to spend it.  She likes watching it grow.  She finally saved up enough to get a $100 bill. She was so proud.

And finally, we picked out a new little member of the family: 

November Recap 2015

 Darling Caroline lost a tooth.  We love our little tooth pillow.  It has a tiny pocket on the back to hold the tiny tooth for the Tooth Fairy to take and leave some cold hard cash (cause that's what this girl is after).

I had a tiny "reaction" to something, we didn't figure out what exactly, which put me in the hospital for about 24 hours.  The girls came to get me the next day with Get Well cards in tow.  They shared my lemon sorbet and deemed it the best thing they'd ever tasted.

Games and fun with the Witzaks:

And it's finally time decorate for Christmas!

Friendsgiving:

And a girls movie night:

October Recap 2015

 Nutella is gooooood:

Maggie got sick. I hate when my girls get sick.  I am a worrier by nature and it really tips me over the edge with anxiety.  I check their temperature often, I hover.

These two are school friends AND gymnastics friends:

We always hit a pumpkin patch in October.  Caroline is cheating at the corn maze with that view:

School dress-up day.  Egypt:

And we did Trunk-or-Treat with the karate studio:

Family Photoshoot October 2015

 

We did this years family photo in Boulder.  Colorado is so beautiful.

September Recap 2015

Twin Peaks had their fundraiser run.  My kids aren't exactly runners.  They do, however, take a pretty cute running picture with their spindly little legs:

Darling little notes I found:

September did bring us some visitors.  My brother Randy and his wife Amanda came to Colorado.  Both being in wheelchairs didn't seem to deter them...but had me in knots!  They were do easy going while I was stressed out, running around trying to make sure they were safe and had fun.  In fact I was so freaked out they were coming I flew my sister, Ellen, out on an emergency basis because I was convinced I couldn't handle them alone!  Ellen has always been my life raft.  

They took the Greyhound bus from Utah.  Randy even packed a portable commode knowing that would be his only means to using the bathroom.  They had shared their plan to stay in Longmont at a, shall we say, SKETCHY motel known for drugs and worse.  I flipped out and Patrick put them up at the Marriott instead.  We had a few small bumps like running out of wheelchair batteries on Pearl Street in Boulder.  We had to drive to the hotel, grab their charger, drive back and plug them into a public outlet right there on the street.  We ordered food from the Cheesecake Factory that was just a few feet away and I held the to-go cartons of food under Amanda, acting as her table so she could eat. 

The day they were to leave, Ellen and I helped get them to the Grayhound station in Denver. Ellen carried the portable commode, stained and all, through the check in process then we all waited for the bus.  At some point Amanda needed to use the restroom and asked if I could assist.  I followed her into a women's restroom and we entered the last stall in line--the big handicapped stall.  As we were finishing up (in a pretty delicate situation) we start to hear a woman yell into the stall that she had left her purse in there and we'd stolen it.  Flustered, we screamed back that there was no purse at all in the stall and we didn't steal it.  She got more and more agitated, screaming loudly, insisting we had her belongings.  We screamed back that we didn't.  Multiple times she tried to crawl under the stall door to get to us  Trying to finish up with the bathroom situation while being screamed at by a clearly methed out lady is something for the books. We scooted past her and out the bathroom door, grateful she didn't follow.  Unnerved, I sat down in the waiting area next to Ellen willing the bus to come.  But the bus had a while before it would arrive and we instead got to watch a clearly unhinged lady carrying on a full and complete conversation with multiple invisible people.  She talked animatedly to each of them, play acted various activities just like a mime.  It was something.  We sat on the edge of our seats hoping this lady didn't get aggressive like the lady in the bathroom.  Luckily, no, she just had herself a good ole afternoon with her imaginary friends and we were able to get Randy and Amanda off to Utah.  I'm still in shock they made it home safely after seeing the various bus patrons they'd be making the journey with! Randy and Amanda are nothing if not brave and adventurous.