Happy half-year Baby Curren!

1st time in his high chair - this morning . We finally pulled it out.

Wow! 6 months have already passed. I still can't believe it. It seems like yesterday when I was waddling around outside watching my two older boys play and having my neighbors laugh at me each time I tried to get out of our very low beach chairs. (Hey, they were great for the beach, not so great for a big prego woman!)

Curren just loves, loves, loves his brothers. It so fun to watch him try to get their attention. And it's really fun watching Aidan and Kellen try anything to get Curren to laugh. Thankfully it doesn't take much!

Here's some stats.:

Wt. - 19lbs. 12 oz. - 70% (and can you believe it? 5 oz. bigger than Kellen at 6 mos.!)
Ht. -27 in. 55%
Head Cir. - 17 1/4 in. 40%

I never thought I'd have a bigger baby than Kellen, but it seems I now do. It's hard for me to see how big he is since I'm holding him and interacting with him all the time. I know that may not make sense, but it was the same for Kellen. Not until I looked at his pictures when he was a baby did I realize how big he looked to everyone else.

Some fun facts about Curren besides his love for his brothers -

-he can sit up by himself for a few seconds
- rolls from tummy to back on his right
- giggles and laughs all the time
- naps pretty well
- is really starting to love solid foods. Apples not a big hit though.
- loves to smile at everyone...I hope that lasts and we don't run into major stranger anxiety

We all just love him to pieces! And knowing this is my last baby I'm really trying to relish every moment and enjoy him while he's little.

Happy 6 months baby, we love you!!!

Copper Mountain, baby!

Hallelujah! Is the first word that comes to mind regarding this weekend. Then, "what a great time we had!" I guess thinking worst-case scenario can make anything better than that just wonderful.

Ain't he the cutest?

We had a great time up at Copper Mountain this weekend. No traffic, great weather, Curren went to sleep no problem (slept all the way until 6am the first night), kids had a great time at ski/snowboarding school and our place was in the perfect location.

It would be so wonderful to have a place up in the mountains, to get away from the "city" for a weekend whenever you want, but since we're just ordinary folk we make due with finding great deals at great places in the mountains.

Enjoy some pictures from our weekend.

In the main village at Copper. Lots of cute shops and restaurants. Saturday evening they had some festivities Rick took the boys too. Fire jugglers, and a fireworks show. They had a lot of fun with Daddy that evening.

The main village also has a pond/small lake which they use for ice skating in the winter. We didn't rent skates. Who needs them when you have your tennis shoes? Later that evening when Rick took the boys out again they were in boots and he said the boots were way more slippery so when they walked on the ice both of them landed on their bootays!

Taking the shuttle bus to "The Schoolhouse". What Copper calls the location for all the lessons.

Kellen was soo excited for his ski lessons.

We dropped Kellen off inside at the schoolhouse where an instructor took him upstairs until it was time for his lesson to start. We had to wait with Aidan until his lesson began and drop him off outside by all these flags. One thing that was really cool Copper does is assign/attach a GPS tracking device to every child and instructor. So in case someone gets lost or separated they can find that person. Pretty cool. You can kind've see the red GPS device around Kellen's leg.

Aidan all geared up and ready for his lesson.

Getting ready to snowboard. Oh ya, and Burton/Sports Authority has this great deal where Burton allows you to rent a kids' board and boots for the whole season and gives you a free lesson at Copper for $100. Pretty good deal that we took advantage of.

On our way to pick up the big boys from their lessons.

Here's Aidan waiting his turn to go down the "bunny slope". I wouldn't even call it a bunny slope, it's so gradual, but great for beginners. I swear ski lessons are so much better than when I was little. The hills are so gradual, they have a magic carpet - a conveyor belts type thing which transport the kids from the bottom of the hill to the top - no chair lifts at this point. GPS tracking devices, helmets, etc. I remember when I tried skiing. I took a chairlift with another girl who inadvertently pushed me back against the chair while she was trying to get off so I had to jump from the lift as they stopped it. Very scary for a little girl who's always been afraid of heights. And no helments either. Wow, how did we all survive?

He's boarding! Even if it was just for a few seconds! Way to go!

Kellen riding up the magic carpet I explained earlier.

Such a big boy. Poor little girl behind Kellen was crying. I think she had had enough for the day!

What a cutie too huh? I didn't get any good pictures of Kellen skiing down the hill. He was farther away from where the parents were allowed to stand. (We broke the rules with this picture and stood in the snowmobile lane.) Plus there were a TON of skiers so he had to wait, and wait, and wait his turn. He was so patient though. I'm sure he loved riding up the hill the best. His teacher said he was smiling and laughing the whole day.

An exciting, yet scary FHE

Hmm, interesting picture, right? And post title? Well last Monday evening while driving back home from getting ice cream for a Family Home Evening activity we were hit by another car who while trying to pass us on the right, and driving too fast for the road conditions (we had received about 6-8 inches of snow that day) fish-tailed and slammed into the front passenger corner of our car. We were hit hard enough that we landed on the median.

Thankfully we are all perfectly fine. Of course we are innocent parties so now our car is in the shop to get fixed and we received some money (very little) to replace Curren's car seat and a little extra. Only caveat, we have to sign a release that we won't go after the insurance company for any medical compensation.

I miss my car. We're driving a Chrysler Aspen, nice car, but it drives way different. It's very floaty as Rick says so I can't feel the road very well. Plus, although it's supposed to be a full-size, 8 passenger SUV, it's smaller than our Sequoia. Oh well, better to be a little inconvenienced than to have any of us hurt from the accident.

Family Fun/Parents = LOSER

I've been in a bit of a funk. Not an emotional funk, I'm perfectly happy, although some days I must admit I feel like I'm going insane, but all is well at the Scott camp.

However, yesterday I finally had a chance to read/browse through my Family Fun and Parents magazines and boy do I feel like a failure. I've been so unmotivated to do fun creative things with my kids. I guess I'm laying blame on poor little baby Curren, Aidan's homework, a really great series of books I've been reading, and taking time for my new exercise program. I only get little snippets of free time and I use those to catch up on emails/facebook (yes I've become a bit of a facebook junkie), reading and working out in my beloved basement.

Anyway, I digress. The above mentioned magazines have some great crafts in there which I know I won't attempt to do with my kids right now. And they have some really great family time ideas which I must admit I really wanted to do tonight, but once again didn't do. (We had to go to REI to get some must needed items for a trip we're taking this weekend.)

So to make a long post even longer I'm feeling a bit guilty for not being creative with my kids. And I pledge to make a change to that soon. We are taking the kids to the Copper Mountain this weekend and truly I must admit this weekend is dedicated to them (and Rick). Aidan will attempt snowboarding for the first time, Kellen skiing for the first time and Rick will get another chance to go snowboarding. Me, well, I'll be hanging out in the hotel room with Curren. It's all good, but I'm just hoping and praying Curren sleeps (goes to sleep mainly) well in the hotel room. And that he's manageable at the restaurants. He's been pretty hard to take to restaurants lately and I just dread going. Stay tuned on our latest weekend excursion and say a little prayer or send good thoughts my way this weekend, I'll need it.

And since I hate posting without adding a picture here's one of our goofy cat Pico. His new favorite place to sleep these days.

Christmas time

So far we've had a great Christmas break. It's nice to have my mom and step-dad in town, good weather (albeit cold) and fun time with the kiddos. (We've hardly had any snow, but thankfully the mountains are being pounded with snowstorm after snowstorm. Great news for all the ski resorts.)

Some highlights thus far:

Mr. Biggs fun center in Littleton - lots of good times for the two older boys. An air ball, fun house-type place...not sure what they call it, but it's where Aidan and Kellen spent most of their time. They have all these tubes you suck the balls into so you can shoot other people or have them gather in a huge bin that eventually drops a ton 'o balls once it's gets too full.

Miniature golf, laser tag, Twister ride, bouncy houses. Like I said we spent the majority of time in the ball area and then Rick and the boys played a round of miniature golf.

Rick and I went on a date with our friend's/neighbor's The Joneses. It was SOOO nice to be a party of 4 ADULTS!

Finally a picture with all of us -Sunday before Christmas

We spent Christmas Eve (in the afternoon, that is) at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. I have to say this is one of the best museums I have been to...ever! There is so much to see and so many things of interest for the young and old. We spent 3-4 hours there and barely scratched the surface of the place.

Leaving cookies for Santa and new Christmas jammies

Christmas day...well I'm sure you can imagine. Thankfully the kids slept in - until 7-7:30am, thank goodness. Aidan was super excited Santa brought a Wii. He's barely stopped playing it and had his friend's over playing for the last 2 days. Everyone received lots of great gifts and we had a fabulous dinner (if I do say so myself) of Prime Rib, twice baked potatoes, garlic-almond green beans (thanks Annie), holiday salad (thanks Thomalee), rolls and ice cream cake (thanks Cold Stone). I'm not a huge fan of Prime Rib, but it was pretty good and tasty.

New coaster/plasma car - thanks Grandpa

playing Wii - surprise, surprise

Curren's new Christmas jammies and being cuddled by Pop Pop

Rick got to go to a Nuggets game last night with his 14er buddy and one of Aidan's buddy's dad last night. Nuggets won - way to go!

Today we drove down to The Springs (or for you not in the know it's Colorado Springs) to The Garden of the Gods. It's an amazing place, but unfortunately we picked a VERY cold and windy day to walk around there. We made a quick loop around the major rock formations and left. I can't wait to go back and hike some of the trails in the late spring or summer. Beautiful! Truly one of God's greatest creations.

We were hoping to head up to Copper Mountain so Rick and Aidan could go snowboarding and Kellen could attend ski school, but Aidan's snowboarding pass is blacked-out during the holiday season so Rick will go next week (he has a 4 day pass that is good during the holiday season) and we'll plan a weekend trip maybe with our friend's the Joneses:) if they can make it. They have a son close to Kellen's age and it would be fun to have them in the same ski lesson.

Not sure what the New Year will bring us, but I can tell you one thing. I won't be up to ring in the new year if I can help it. (Although knowing Curren I will be up feeding him while half-asleep.)

Happy 5 months baby Curren!

On Christmas Day Curren officially turned 5 months old!

Some highlights:

-Loves people, especially family. He's always trying to get our attention

-Loves to smile and giggle

-Loves to be carried in the Ergo baby carrier

-Has started to really enjoy rice cereal (although his first feeding doesn't look like it. He was too tired to enjoy it.)

-Is trying to roll over, but hasn't mastered that skill just yet

-Can sit-up unsupported for a few seconds

-Still isn't sleeping through the night. Usually wakes up 2 times to eat. But many mornings he sleeps in:)

Happy 5 months baby Curren, we love you!

The most perfect afternoon...if even for an hour

With the hustle and bustle of the holidays and the hustle and bustle of having an infant and two other rambunctious boys I've been feeling grumpy, depressed, stressed, overwhelmed, trapped, etc. (You get the picture). So yesterday while hanging out in Curren's bedroom with my boys I told the two older ones to get some books and I'll read to them. Aidan decided to grab some of the books his reading tutor gave him over the holidays. So between the two of us we read to Kellen and Curren. It was so wonderful to see Aidan feel confident enough to read to his brothers. When I noticed Curren rubbing his eyes I put him down for a nap and then Aidan, Kellen and I moved to my bed and finished reading stories and cuddled under the blankets.

I've really been missing those days. Aidan, Kellen and I used to always cuddle in my bed and read stories. I can't wait until Curren gets older so he can join us.

It was such a wonderful afternoon and I actually felt human again. I know some of you may be thinking? What? you can't handle 3 kiddos? But when the youngest still doesn't sleep well at night and knowing 3 is your limit, yes I've been feeling overwhelmed and a little trapped. Yesterday afternoon with my babies made it all worthwhile.