New Years 2016

News years was really great. We woke up on New Years eve and put away the Christmas tree. It was not as bad as I thought it was going to be since it was so huge. We then cleaned up the house and got ready to go swimming. We were out the door by 10 amand went swimming at the Arvada APEX center. They have an amazing free play house with awesome Wifi and three hug pools with slides and ropes course ... so we went swimming and the girls had a blast. Sydney has really taken to the water and her swimming skills. She loves using her goggles and she was even able to kind swim by herself. She is not at all scared of the water which is great. 

After swimming the entire family showered at the Rec Center, then we had a home made lunch at the lobby. After we played in the tree house while Tyson worked. 

So for 3 hours we paid $23 which is awesome! Then the girls took a nap on the way home. We got home and just chilled for the rest of the day. We had the Blakely's over for dinner at 5 pm. I made my ribs with mashed potatoes and brocoli. I gotta say I am so happy to be learning the instant pot! It's really helped me became a better cook. We watched Storks and hung out until 9 pm - then we did the "count down" and banged on pots. We had some martinelis and some carrot cake and then everyone went home. 

So we put the girls to bed at 930 and we stayed up until 10:30 and then we were exhausted - so off to bed we went. 

The last week my stomach has been hurting. I keep thinking it just cramps from my period about to start but nothing has happened yet. It keeps me tossing and turning at night. So the result is that I am in bed at 830 and wake up at 630 but I am SOOO tired. I hope it goes away soon. 

2016 Recap

We are 4 days away from the new year. 

2016 has been such a wonderful year. The biggest success was that we moved into our first home. That has been wonderful in so many ways. I love our home, the look of it, the function of it. I love my small kitchen - it has made me really scale back. I love that we all sleep downstairs, I love my family closet, I love my upstairs and how social it is. I love my office - a real office with a real stand up desk.

There are still little things we need to finish but I am so proud of us for designing a house that gives us the lifestyle we need. I love my neighborhood. We have a REAL one - with sidewalk and mailboxes and parks. Oh how we love the parks. I love that I can walk the library, Khols, the store - and int he summer I spend pretty much all day in our bike. 

I love the people around us. They are good people who are all so different - but so willing to help each other. 

 

Our little house came with a big price - but I am grateful we did it. I would never do it again, but I have learned so much from it. 

Another big mile stone was Tyson leaving ESS. After 4 years of working hard, he was offered 2 promotions - but both were not leading us the to the kind of life we wanted. So we took a risk and he quit! By the grace of God, my clients stayed when I raised my prices and my new client showed up after Lucidity tanked. So many little ways that the Lord showed us that this was the right thing - but man was it scary. RefactorU has taught us so much and yet has been so hard. 

Tyson busted his butt and yet needed to go back. I've learned to cope being on my own so much more. CCAP was recertified and again - the Lord paved the way. 

The girls have really changed this year. Sydney has blossomed into the sweetest little girl. She is so loving and playful. London has so much attitude and spunk and yet she loves to be alone and play with her babies for hours.

It feels like 2016 was a big year to reap the fruit of my work in my business, which is the reason Tyson was able to quit. Who would have ever thought that? That's crazy right - No that's the Lord for you. 

I hope that 2017 proves to be a sowing year for Tyson. That he finds a job that fulfill him and challenges him. I want him close to home - I don't want him to have a long commute - but IF NOT, we will still have faith. The Lord has always looked out for us, even in the midst of trials.  

Christmas 2016

Christmas Eve was really chill. We woke up and had breakfast. 

After I took the girls to visit Olivia and Evie. We played for an hour and then we came home and packed up. We headed to the Zoo. It was a beautiful day - gorgeous weather and hardly anyone was there so we got a killer parking spot. We lasted an hour and then we went to on a drive to have the girls take a nap.

We ended up on 16th street mall. Sydney and I walked and tried on some parkas while London slept. We lasted an hour and then we went home. 

We got home and watched a show, then we got ready for our party.

We has several people from Refactor U come, Chris and Anna and the Ashby's. 

We had lots of yummy food - sandwhiches, hot wings, veggies, cookies, cakes ... it was so much! But so good. We played minute to win it games and then we watched "Prep and Landing". 

It was a great time. The kids played well, and they loved the Minute To Win It games too. 

Everyone left at 830 and we took 20 minutes to clean up. Then we started to put the kids to bed. We were SO tired that we ended up in bed at 930 am with the girls. We set the alarm for 1 am but it never went off -so at 3:30 am I woke up and got Tyson up to get everything set up. 

We fell back sleep at 5 am and slept until 8 am. The girls finally got up and came to cuddle with us in bed. Then we went upstairs and the girls were SO excited to see all their presents. 

We opened up our stockings and quickly got ready for church. The service was AMAZING! We had a whole choir program and it was so good. We left an hour after and made it  home just before the wind picked up. The wind was CRAZY - some places 70 - 80 mile per hour gust and you could feel it. Thank goodness for  warm, safe home. 

We opened up the rest of the presents and watched movies. At 3:30 we started to get the food ready - Instant Pot Mashed potatoes, my best ribs, salad and appetizers. We had 3 elders come and honestly it was one of the best missionaries dinners ever. The message was so wonderful and then we gathered around and said a prayer on our knees. It was really really great. 

The left at 5:30 and we cleaned up. Then we watched the Football game. It was a chill Christmas - but it was filled with good people, good food and love. 

The next day I took the girls to the mall so Tyson could work and then we came home. We took a long walk to Khols and then came back and watched Storks. 

Finishing Up School

Baby It's Cold Outside ...

I never posted about the girls Christmas program - it was too cute. Goddard does a great program every year. Abuelita got the girls these super cute dresses for the. The girls really loved the. London got Antlers for her program and Sydney was a reindeer. The girls finished out their classes. Sydney finished her "Writing" book and was so proud of her progress.

We also got a chance to build a snow man. Tyson got all bundled up with the girls and made a very impressive snowman - sadly someone knocked it down 2 hours later :( Some people are just mean.

Overall this Holiday season has been really chill. With Tyson being at school all the time we are just staying at home and not really doing anything huge. We have also really enjoyed our new Christmas Tree. Since it's the only decoration we have up we have loved having it up since November 1st. I love having it up for a long time - I feel we really get the magic from it. I especially  love how it automatically lights up every day at 5:30 pm. I am very grateful for it.

This weekend has been SO cold in Denver. On Saturday we had a high of 8 degrees. Man! Thankfully our heater stayed on. We hit two records for being the coldest temps on Saturday.
Sunday church was freezing! We got there at 9 am and we all had to wear our coats. Thankfully the primary room got warm.

The 11 am and 1 pm church were canceled because it was so cold.

December 2016

December so far has been really chill.

I can't believe it's only 9 days until Christmas. Tyson has been gone pretty much every day to school. He is really loving the material. It's hard but he really sees the potential.

The girls finished their last week of Swimming and Gymnastic classes. They have really loved both! Sydney passed her swimming class and London will need to repeat it but I can see SO much progress on both girls.

I have really enjoyed being able to walk during those classes. It's been so good for me to be active. I have also been busy really learning my Instant Pot. I've had it for 3 weeks and have cooked so many things on it - ground beef, chicken, mac and cheese, pork chops, ribs and my 1st thing that I did was brown rice. I've successfully replaced my rice cooker and have also used the slow cooker function several times.

Christmas shopping is done and it feels SO awesome to just enjoy the holidays.

Some fun highlights:
Dinner with Jay and Sarah
Visiting sister Leacock from church
Goddard Christmas program
Church party
Visiting Santa several times (London want babies and Sydney wants  a go kart)


So the rest of the month will go fast. I am busy with work and feel so grateful for my clients - I know I say that a lot, but seriously, I feel like the luckiest girl to do what I do. I sometimes pinch myself. My clients are such good people and they really want to do great things in life. I feel really lucky to support them.