First Day of School

3 YEARS OLD

Mother's Day Out Preschool

Teachers: Ms. Micah and Ms. Tessa

Caroline started her second year of Mother's Day Out this year.  Her first day of school was September 4th and she was so excited to have several friends from last year in her class again.  She has never cried when I've dropped her off and this time was no exception.  She ran in the class like a pro and didn't look back.  The only crying I had was from Cooper who didn't want to leave!  As you can tell, Caroline wasn't exactly cooperative taking pictures, but I did manage to get a couple where she was looking my way.  My little one is growing up so quickly and really is such a young lady!

Daddy came home for this special morning!

Caroline's first...

Trip to the ER!

Oh leave it to my child!  The day after we arrived in Vail, Caroline kept complaining that her stomach hurt.  She kept saying she had to go to the bathroom and each time sat on the potty, trying to go for quite a while.   If you know her {and know the time we're having with potty training}, you know she does not do this willingly!  We initially thought she was dehydrated and constipated.  We gave her tons of things trying to help her go, but she never went.  Well, Monday evening we headed to Breckenridge to have family pictures taken and she just faded.  She was not happy at all and definitely not herself!  The photographer's pediatrician was located nearby and after probably 20 minutes of not cooperating at all, we decided we needed to take her.  It was 6pm and the doctor agreed to come into her office to see her.  Well they determined that she wasn't constipated, but the doctor wasn't quite sure what it was.  She said it could either be a bladder infection or appendicitis and that it is hard to tell in little ones and commonly misdiagnosed.  So off we go to the Emergency Room.  Luckily, Breckenridge has a new hospital and was quick to get in!  They got us in a room and started an IV.  It was so hard to watch having my little girl in so much pain!  Thank goodness we had the iPad with us!  The doctor there informed us that there was a 50/50 chance on what it could be.  After drawing blood, her blood work came back inconclusive.  We waited for Caroline to give us a urine sample to determine if she did indeed have a UTI.  If it was her appendix, we would have to go to Children's in Denver and have surgery right away.  They were about to put a catheter in and just then Josh talked her in to going potty!  Thank goodness!  After that, they were pretty certain it was just a UTI.  They gave her antibiotics through her IV and let us go around 11pm.  By the next day she was close to her old self and running around with her cousins.  

If you look closely, you'll see that Caroline has princess bandaids on every one of her fingers.  As we were unpacking the car, she found an iron in the condo, plugged it in and proceeded to TOUCH IT!!  We had blisters on every finger.
Needless to say, she had quite the trip!

And for a sneak peek at our Family Pictures...

Not quite sure these are going to make our Christmas card!:)

Top of the WORLD!

One really neat thing we were able to do while in Vail was to ride the gondola and make it to the top of the mountain!  I had forgotten just how beautiful the state of Colorado is and it was SO wonderful to see the magnificent mountains all around us.  They had different activities for the kids to do at the top and it was neat to walk around. Again, I still only have pictures from my sister, but the neat thing is, I'm in much more of them!  I really do exist!  :)

Best Buds!

Getting all 4 kids to cooperate was quite the task!

The Mountains!

We spent the second half of our trip to Colorado up in the mountains in Vail.  Josh flew back up to meet us and we drove up to the mountains.  Growing up, my grandparents had a time share up here and  I have so many memories of being a kid and going up to Vail with my cousins.  32 years later and they still have the condos!  SO much has changed since I was last up there (probably at least 12 years ago!!) and it was so neat for our children to experience this time with their cousins!

The weather was absolutely perfect and such a refreshing change from Texas!  The air was crisp and cool yet so warm in the hot sun!  It was fabulous!

We spent a lot of time at the wonderful parks the city has to offer!  The kids were in love!

Cooper absolutely LOVED Ellie!  These two are just too funny!

It was great to spend some time with Uncle Andy!

Thank you Grami & Pop Pop!!

The Denver Zoo

One of the highlights of our time in Colorado was going to the Denver Zoo!  This is such an amazing zoo and I have not been in probably over 10 years!!  There was a lot that was the same and then SO much more!  The kids had a great time and were very very tired when we left!  It isn't very common that all 4 children sleep on the hour car ride home!

Cooper showed off his walking skills!

Great Grandparents

We were lucky enough to spend some time over at my grandparents' house with all of the kids!  Grandma pulled out some old jewelry that the kids LOVED and supplied them with lots of cookies!

Aunt Laurie showed up and loved showing the girls pictures of Pop Pop when he was little!

We love you guys and wish we lived closer!!

Colorado and COUSINS!

We spent a good chunk of the month of August in Colorado with my family.  Josh was such a trooper!!  He drove us through the night on Thursday, August 9th and with 2 1/2 hours of sleep, worked a full day on Friday!  He stayed with us until Sunday and then flew home to work for the week.  He flew back on the next Saturday and stayed for a week up in the mountains, to then drive us home again the following weekend.  Man, what a whirlwind!  But we are finally back and finally getting back into the swing of things... and now it's Fall!!  When did that happen??

The kids did great in the car and were so excited to see Grami and Pop Pop!!  I haven't been home very often when there isn't a big event, so I wanted to make sure I used the most of my time!  We spent timing visiting Great Grandparents and family and I was also able to see my friends from high school that I don't get to see very often.  It was wonderful!  The von Goertz' join us the next week and we all headed up to Vail for the week.  

We had a such a wonderful trip!  However, I pulled out my camera the first night we arrived only to find that it would not turn on AT ALL!!  I love taking pictures and love having it available for anything that might come up.  So I have had to borrow all of my sister's pictures from the vacation.  At least I do have some pictures!

Cinderella and LADY BUG GIRL!

Kisses for Ellie!

Movie Time!  Complete with pajamas, blankets and individual popcorn bags!