Cooper's Cause 5K/Fun Run

Hello friends and family! Tomorrow, Saturday the 12th, is the Cooper's Cause 5K/Fun Run to benefit families of pediatric heart patients. If you haven't signed up already, there's still time to do so! Just go to www.cooperscause.org to register. The run begins at 8 am at the trail by the movie theatre on the south end of town. You can also register at the event. Come out to support a wonderful cause and have a great time. Hope to see you all there = )

School!

Well, today the boys started at their new daycare/school. I have been so worried about the transition I have almost been making myself sick. But, thankfully, it was all for naught. The teachers and the director there are great and didn't make fun of me or make me feel silly for asking a bajillion questions, or calling several times throughout the first day to check in on how the boys were doing. When I dropped the boys off this morning I was hoping for the best, but preparing myself for a barrage of tears and pleadings of me not to leave. I was pleasantly surprised, nothing of the sort happened. Actually, just the opposite! They jumped right in to playing with the other kids and barely blinked an eye when I left. Riley was a little concerned at first because we dropped him at his classroom first. As I left to take Gage to his classroom, Riley was afraid Gage was going to get to play in the gymnasium and he was not. Priorities! But, once I explained again just what we were doing, and his great teacher told him that she was going to take him and his new friends in there after a little while, all was fine. I am so relieved! Each time I called throughout the day the teachers were so kind and explained to me exactly what the kids were doing and how they were doing. Then, when I finally got there to pick them up, I was actually in Gage's room for about 2 minutes talking to his teacher before he even noticed! So, all in all, it was a great first day and my nerves have calmed substantially. Hopefully, it continues this smoothly from here on out = ) Below are a few pictures from the night before and the big day ...

Riley looking way too old preparing for his first day of school!

Gage the night before showing off his full backpack.

Riley way ahead of us ... he couldnt' wait to start school!

On the way into the school, Gage's backpack was about to knock him over -- but, of course, he wanted to carry it himself!

Riley digging right in to the fun stuff during free play at drop off time. Gage also checked some things out while I conversed with the lead teacher. Miss Chelsea was great and really helped set my mind at ease!

Gage in his classroom. This is right after he told me, "Bye momma. See you later!" He already felt comfortable in his new surroundings ... no tears or drama or anything = )

These next couple of pieces of paper will probably be boring to most of you, but I'm sure Grandma and Papa will love them ...

Each day the teachers send home a report sheet of the days activities and little description about how things went. Here are each of the boys reports:

Riley
Gage

Also, the director sends out newsletters to keep parents up to date on happenings at the center/school. This one went out today already welcoming Riley and Gage to their new classes. We just signed up yesterday! The promptness gets an A+ in my book = ) I was also excited to read that they will be getting pictures taken soon. Can't wait!

(front)

(back)

Well, that about wraps it up. It was a super day, but I'm exhausted. The kids were also so tuckered out they even went to bed early. Wish us luck that each days goes as great as this!

Gage: Caring, Confusion, and the Creeps!

Caring: So, after all of the rain we have been having, it is not unusual to find a large earthworm or 20 that have wriggled their little bodies into our garage to escape their flooded homes in the yard. Well, the other day we happened upon a worm that was getting batted around like a ball by one of our cats. I told the boys, "Let's get that worm from Winston and put him out of his misery." Bad choice of words -- I meant get the worm and put him outside to save him from being a kitty toy. Do you see where this is going? Before I could say stop or no or anything, Gage promptly says, "I do it!" Then he runs over and squishes the life out of the poor worm with his foot. Nice. I will choose my words much more carefully next time!

Confusion: It's 8:30 am at the Huber house on a Saturday morning and we are getting ready to run our typical weekend errands. Corey is heading to Home Depot for some items and I'm on grocery duty. We let the boys decide which of us they would like to accompany. Riley opts to go with daddy as he loves checking out all of the cool "man stuff" at Home Depot; Gage chooses to go with mommy as he is a bit of a "foodie" and honestly enjoys helping pick stuff out (the free cookie from the bakery doesn't hurt either!) Anyhow, as we are heading our separate directions, Gage asks me again where Riley and Daddy are going. I answer, "the hardware store." He immediately starts bawling -- huge raindrop tears and banshee wails. His heart was obviously broken and I could not for the life of me figure out why. After all, Riley is my tool guy, Gage's interest in these items typically wanes quickly. I finally get him somewhat calmed down and ask him to tell me why he is so upset. He utters, with his little lower lip trembling while still sniffling, "I want to go the Star Wars store! I want to see rocket ships!" Awww, poor little fella! Again, I will choose my words more wisely next time!

The Creeps: Each night, somewhere around 4:00ish, Gage makes his way into our room to "nuggle." Even though I often lament this habit, I secretly love it, too. Especially waking up and seeing his cute little angel self zonked out beside me so peacefully. Plus, if he wakes up before me, he usually says "love you momma" and gives me a big ol' hug before announcing he needs a snack or sausage or eggs or lucky charms, etc. (Did I mention this kid is a bit of a foodie - yeah, it's almost always the first thing out of his mouth each morning right after his greeting.) Anyhow, yesterday morning was different. As I'm laying there already awake, trying to make my body get up to go exercise at 5:30 am, I notice Gage intently staring up at the ceiling. I ask him what he's looking at. He says, "Momma, there's a man up in that wall." What? I try to get him to clairfy as I see nothing that could even remotely resemble a man. "Momma, there's a man up there with a brown hat on. He's up there working." Ok, so now I'm officially freaked out and am staring up into the air conditioning vents. I wake Corey and tell him about this and he looks at me like I'm crazy. I ask him to please check the attic. He now looks at me like I'm even crazier and assures me no one is up there. I know Corey's right, but it still gives me the heebie geebies regardless. Guess I've seen too many scary movies. In the meantime, if I'm not blogging for an extended period of time, you may want to tell the police to look for a guy in a brown hat!!!

Colorado Rocks!

What an awesome trip! It was so good to see Tracy and do sister stuff = ) For the last couple of years -- basically since I became a mom -- we haven't really had much time to hang out and have real sister time as I am usually being beckoned by one of my little ones for something or other. So, as much as I missed my kiddos (and talked Tracy's ear off about them) it was equally nice to have conversations to our hearts desires without 10,000 interruptions = ) I am so proud of my sis for making this move out to Denver. I know it had to be very scary to pick up and move somewhere new where you know only a handful of work associates, but she has done it and is being such a trooper about it. Her new home is gorgeous and the area she lives in is lovely. It really reminds me of Overland Park, but with mountains = )

Here is the view driving to her house.

There was a storm moving in ...

the picture does not do it justice!

One of our adventures was taking a trip Red Rocks for a hike. This area is so amazing and the weather cooperated magnificently. It is really cool to see the different types of terrain converge ... it's like a combination of desert, mountains, and prairie all together. Awesome. We had a great time hiking the trails and taking in all of the sites. The altitude did get to me a couple of times though. One minute we'd be chugging along just dandy, then all of a sudden I'd be extremely light-headed and need to take a moment to compose myself. But all in all, it was wonderful. I'd love to hike that area every day!

Me in front of one of the spectacular rock structures.

Tracy and I sweatin' it up, but still smiling!


This capped off the end of our hike. We came around the corner to find this lovely doe grazing. She came within about 4 or 5 yards of us. Nature's beauty!

Another of the great sites we visited was the Denver Aquarium. It was awesome! I soooo can't wait to take the boys there, they will have so much fun! It was amazing viewing all of the sea life there, especially in the glass tunnel where you are surrounded on all sides by fish, sharks, sea turtles and more. Beautiful. I won't bore you with the plethora of pictures I took, but here are a couple of my faves ...

Ahhhh --- about to get chomped!

"Swimming" with the fish

Eerie ghostlike like jellyfish.

Other than that, we most just hung out, ate at great restaurants, did some shopping, and bonded while playing board games and enjoying cocktails (yeah, my hubby made major fun of us for that last one, but whatevs ... we had a great time!)

As much fun as I had visiting my sis, it was also wonderful to come back home. Corey greeted me at the airport with a warm hug and kiss which was lovely. It was so nice to have that friendly face waiting for me! After I got home and unpacked, I headed to daycare to pick up the boys. Gage spied me right away when I walked in the door and starting jumping up and down yelling "momma's here, momma's here ... look, there's my momma!" Riley quickly followed with a "moooooooooommmmmmm!" and huge hugs and smooches and a million stories. Perfect. Of course, once we headed home and I mentioned there were presents waiting from Aunt Tracy and me, that took center stage over my arrival. Ah, the attention span of toddlers = ) Regardless, it's great to be back home!

THE FAIR!!!!

Oh, the fair. We came, we conquered - we laughed, we cried, - we had fun, we had stress ... it was quite the roller coaster and I'm not talking about the one made of steel! But, all in all it was a great time. Little Gage was a bit concerned with the large crowd and wanted mommy to carry him everywhere. Riley was the exact opposite. He was mister independent and wanted to run all over on his own. Very stressful for daddy to keep up with! Thankfully, though, a good time was had by all for the most part = )

Riley and daddy loving on a goat at the petting zoo.

Gager feeding some goats.

One of the few rides Gage enjoyed. He likes the ones he could ride with big brother. This particular one was a helicopter, so it was definitely a favorite!

The police department had one of their cars at the fair for the kids to get in and check out. Heaven for Riley! He climbed right in and drove like a police man. They even let him turn the siren on for a microsecond!

Gage's turn in the police car. He was scared to death. He wouldn't get in it without mommy 'cuz he didn't want to go to jail. He actually cried. Let's hope he always has a little bit of this fear in him = )

The boys on the pony ride. Probably the favorite event of the evening. Gage kept saying he wanted to ride his horsey out of the gate ... nice try buddy = )

Oh poor Gager, he wanted to ride this so bad ... but got scared and cried and cried and cried. We finally abated the torture when the ride worker was nice enough to stop the spinning for a moment so we could remove him = (

Riley, on the other hand, dug every minute of it. Oh the difference a year makes!

Riley on his "Harley" -- he had so much fun on this ride, it popped wheelies and had a little ramp on one side ... he was one bad motorcycle dude!

Ahhh, the merry-go-round, the traditional toddler favorite!

After this, we had about as much fun as we could handle, so we started home. On the way out we encountered a band that was playing. They were all dressed like 70's and 80's characters - Tina Turner, Madonna, Wonder Woman, Kiss and played music from those eras. We stayed to listen to a couple of tunes because the kids loved it! If it hadn't been so late, we probably would've stayed longer. But, truthfully, Corey and I were more pooped than the kids! However, we're still looking forward to doing it again next year!

Oh the things we do ...

We have been so busy since my last post! I left off last with Riley's less than prime behaviors. He has been getting better with some strict discipline, but our little man definitely still has some room for improvement = )

Last weekend we enjoyed celebrating our dear friend Patrick's 1 year birthday. It was a blast and it is always so cute to see a little one enjoy his first cake! I think Riley and Gage may have almost given Shawn and Kari a heart attack or two with their rambunctiousness, though. They are still used to only one quite little dude who doesn't talk yet and is just learning to walk. The constant motion and jibber jabber from our boys was definitely a break from the norm! Riley also made good friends with a little girl at the party named Kiley. They were all smiles, sharing cups, playing hard, and many hugs. Such a ladies man -- too cute! Not so cute was Riley throwing a ball up into the ceiling fan and a football the full length of the living room. Luckily, nothing was damaged. And thankfully, our gruesome twosome must not have scared them too bad as we all hugged when we left and I'm fairly certain we're still welcome there = )~

That evening we had quite a scare with Gage. He has been enamoured with Riley's fishing pole as of late and enjoys working on his casting skills. Well, he thought it would be a good idea to climb to the top platform area on his swingset and cast from there. He was doing quite well and having a good time, so Corey and I didn't think much of it and we just sat back at the table and enjoyed a few minutes of uninterrupted conversation. Then, I see Gage sliding down the slide and then stop halfway down and grab his neck. I immediately freaked out and sprinted over there. Somehow, he had managed to get the fishing line tangled around his neck and the pole was wedged behind the wood slats on the platform. The poor little fellow just about choked himself to death! The line was so tight it cut into his skin a little and left a mark for a couple of days. So scary! It happened so fast. I'm so glad we were outside or this could have been so bad. We rarely leave them outside alone at this age, but it does happen occasionally if I am cooking dinner or need to run inside for something. And Riley, of course, was oblivious to it all. We are just thanking heaven that we were so fortunate this time and pray that nothing like this ever happens again! However, with our little no fear adventureres, I doubt we'll be that lucky!

I don't know if I've ever expressed on here how much of a chocolate fanatic Riley is. He is not a big fan of most other candy, but the kid seriously enjoys chocolate in a huge way. The other morning after Corey had already left for work, the boys were playing while I was finishing my hair. I noticed it was eerily quiet in the house ... you know what that means ... someone's into something they're not supposed to be. Well, below is the scene I walked in on:

Riley had decided he wanted some chocolate and couldn't reach the "chocolate raindrops" -- so he opted for the next best thing in his little mind. He opened the fridge, grabbed the chocolate syrup, and poured himself a bowl! He was quite pleased with himself! Boys!!! I guess I should at least be happy that he took it upon himself to drink his big bowl of chocolate at the table -- that's some manners, right? = )

Below is a pic of one of the other favorite things right now -- bean bags! I always wanted one of these as a kid because they are just so cool. When I saw these on sale at Target the other day I just had to get them. The boys love chilling out on them and having their evening snack before bedtime. What a perfect fit!

So, I leave Friday morning to go visit my sister in Denver. I'm so excited! I'm already packed and ready to go. Yes, I know it's only Tuesday, but I'm just trying to be prepared = ) I'm also a little scared as this will be my first time to fly by myself and I'm really not a fan of flying to begin with. I know everything will be fine, but still have the butterflies. I'm also already missing my kiddos and I haven't even left yet. Is that weird? Probably, but I can't help it -- I just love the little creatures so much! But, mostly I'm just looking forward to seeing Tracy's new home and city and getting to spend some sister time together. Corey on the other hand is already worried about spending almost 4 days alone with the boys. I keep telling him to chill out as they can smell fear = ) They'll do fine, I'm sure. Corey sat down and wrote out an agenda last night so as to make sure their days and nights are full of fun activities. Should be fun!

Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs ...

Well, more trial and tribulation than anything, but we're hopeful the triumphs will come soon enough! Our oldest, Riley, has really been a pill as of late. Seriously, the terrible 2's have nothing on the terrifying 3's! When he is directed and focused, he is the most loving and helpful little fella that a person could ask for. However, this is not how he chooses to spend the majority of his time as of late. Instead, he favors spitting, saying naughty words, and telling everyone he is going to punch them in the face. What? Seriously? Ugh! All of my parenting books tell me to be a good mom and help direct him with these activites as they are just a phase that will pass when the novelty has worn off. For example: for saying naughty words the advice is to have him go in his room and let him say the words as much as he wants, but then he cannot say them anywhere else or in front of others. Really? Do people get this to work? Hmmmm, tried it, didn't help our cause. Next - spitting. The books say let them spit all they want into the sink, but nowhere else. Sounded ok, so I tried it. Still didn't stop the little rascal from wanting to spit all day long. Oh if only the SuperNanny could come visit my house, then maybe we could have the sweet Riley around more than his disobedient alter ego. Don't get me wrong. You all know I'm not a total prude. I understand "boys will be boys" and all that, but his actions have been to the extreme and are often done in direct defiance, not in jest. These are times when my blood boils! I just keep telling myself, yes, this too shall pass. But, in the meantime, I'm sticking to my guns and not letting these troublesome mannerisms slide. If any of you out there have any suggestions, I am all ears. I am willing to try just about anything at this point!

I guess there is a bright side to all of us this. Our elliptical machine and the Wii Fit have really been getting put to use lately. When I feel my top just about to blow, I have been going to exercise to release the steam. It really has helped me discharge a lot of tension which is good for everyone in the household, because as the old saying goes ... If mom's happy, everyone's happy. That is very true at the Huber house!

Ok, enough griping. Otherwise, things are going pretty well. We went to see my parents in their new house last weekend, which was a lot of fun. The boys love it there and have asked to go back every day. Although, Gage is sometimes worried about the monsters there. Monsters? Well, you see, the cable had not yet been hooked up yet during our visit. We were aware of this beforehand and decided to bring several videos for the boys to watch during their down times. The favorite movie of the weekend was Monster House. In hindsight, this may not have been the best show to pick when staying at a new house for the first time. At bedtime each and every little noise became a monster in Gage's imagination. Now, for those of you who don't know, my parents are avid hunters and trap shooters. They have an arsenal in their home that could easily defend against a small army. So, I tried to aleve Gage's fear by explaining that if, by any chance, a monster made it into the house, it would not be there long as Papa or Grandma would surely be able to take care of it. This seems to appease him for now =)

Speaking of Grandma and Papa, here's a few pics of them with the boys at the new house:

Hangin'

Happy Happy

I also got to spend some time with a handful of my dear cousins last weekend. It is always so good to see them and easy to be around them. It's nice that we all got to grow up so close and spend so much time together ... lot's of memories. It's also just as nice to get together as adults and make new ones!

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully my next post will be full of happy pictures and me reporting that Riley has come full circle and grown into a new wonderful, obedient, and perfectly respectful little man. In the meantime, just in case this doesn't happen, I am really sincere about passing on the parenting advice to me. Seriously. Thanks! = )