NewVember

November 15, 2015

Living in South Dakota is new for us. Living 30 minutes away from base is new for us. Being a stay at home mom is new for me. I've been trying to find my way through all that is new right now and aim to see the positive and good in each new day.  More new is waiting around the corner for me and for us. God has a plan for which direction my life is going to turn and so I trust in Him each day and let go of any mixed feelings, anxiety, questioning. Today, in this moment, I have faith that I am exactly where I am supposed to be.

Veterans Day

November 11, 2015


My tribute to Darren on Veterans Day.  Bradyn and I are proud of our every day hero for making sacrifices for us and this country.  We are thankful he is safe with us at home and our hearts and prayers go out to those who are missing their loved ones today. 

October Catch up!

October 2015

   So, Darren continues to work mids, but may be going to swings soon. When the weekend comes, I enjoy a little down time while the boys play! We also bought a new electric fireplace. We had to leave the other one in England. It definitely helps heat the downstairs quickly and looks nice with our tv/entertainment system.

Field Trip! Bradyn and I at Dinosaur Park-Rapid City

So much to see and do right in our own "backyard"!

The weather has been very nice lately. There is a small glimpse of a rainbow in the picture below. Lately we have been going outside to shoot darts with the NERF guns. We are definitely getting our exercise with all these hills!

Playing school and using some of my teaching supplies. Mom on a budget!

Vegas Reunion 2015

September 28, 2015

We met up with Ross and Lindsey in Vegas before they head to Massachusetts!  Lindsey and I had the idea to recreate some of the pictures from Vegas Trips past. Too much fun!

They also hooked us up with a sweet resort just a few miles down the strip.

Great view and a beautiful place to stay. 

Perfect backdrop for morning yoga!

This trip was a lot different for us with a 3 year old in tow,
 but we still had a blast!

Now watch me whip!

VIVA LAS VEGAS!

Around the House

September 16, 2015

Just some things Bradyn and I have been doing around the house while Darren is at work or sleeping. He's on midshift, so we don't really get much family time in during the week.


Playing with play-doh

Learning letters and sounds, counting

Making crafts (Darren's birthday card)

Garden work-picking tomatoes, peppers, corn

Riding the UTV to get the mail

Playing frisbee golf

Putting puzzles together

Playing with trains and playing with trains some more

Baking, cooking new treats-Like fresh popcorn on the stove with coconut oil!

Some of Bradyn's current questions and phrases:

What says, Mommy? (He's so ready to start reading!)

Just a little bit? (When he wants some chocolate milk and I won't budge.)

What talking about?

Do you want to play trains with me?

Do you want to play in my room?

Or what? (sassy remark)

Geez, Mommy!

You're mean, Mommy!

Haha, that's funny! I'm so funny.

Ew, that bug is nasty. (We have a lot of crickets.)

I love you. (My favorite.)

My Lil Helper

September 14, 2015


  Now that I am at home with Bradyn all day, I have been trying to encourage Bradyn to start eating healthier. He would drink his weight in chocolate milk if I let him! So this week, we tried homemade apple juice. He drank the entire glass, so I guess you could say it worked; but in true kid fashion, he changed his mind pretty quickly and wanted something from the fridge. At least for a day I got him to try something organic.   

 He gains more personality every day. Here he is working the camera!

First sweet pepper from our garden.

We do pizza night at least once a week in our house. Of course, Bradyn wanted to play with the dough and make a mess, so I let him have a little fun.

Not bad for his first pizza!

B is for Broncos

September 13, 2015

So we ventured to Denver-AGAIN-for a family weekend. Since Darren's supervisor wanted him back for role call Sunday night, we left a day early and stayed at the Embassy Suites near Aurora for a couple nights, with the main purpose for the trip was for the Broncos Football game.  We love staying at the Embassy Suites because it is child friendly, has a great breakfast buffet and free happy hour! Bradyn likes it because he enjoys riding up and down the elevators!

  On our way to the hotel, we stopped to see Michael in Ft. Collins, where we were wined and dined during Comunity Hour at The Kitchen. Ahhmazing service, food and atmosphere. Every single drink and dish we were served was delicious.   We were very impressed and Bradyn still comments, "Michael is in the restaurant." :D So cute.

 Sunday was the big game. Since we only had two tickets, Darren decided to take Bradyn and I was able to get a little time to myself.  It was painfully hot-90 degrees with no clouds in sight. We found a fundraiser parking lot and saved 50 bucks by parking away from the stadium then pregamed together outside Mile High for a couple hours before the boys went inside. Bradyn loved everything accept the heat and fell asleep in the second quarter.  He slept with his football that night and even though we had to drive back right at half time, it was still a great trip. We have tickets for a November game, which should give me some time to forget how long of a drive that is for a quick weekend!

I love this face. Mr. Attitude

Garden Update!

September 1, 2015

   Today on this first day of September, we harvested these beauties: our first ear of sweetcorn, the first cucumber and the first batch of Gretel eggplants. (What are those? :)) We are truly blessed by this garden. We never in a million years thought it would produce so much food. I've frozen and canned green beans and made delicious zucchini bread.  This week I am on to tomatoes and made salsa and  stewed more tomatoes today and have a couple pints for later. I got lazy with some of the riper ones and just froze them. Experimenting is fun and is taking up a lot of my time. Bradyn is helping with the picking. Darren should be helping with the eating, but he's more of a sweet corn and salsa person and we don't have a lot of that yet. :). All this work is going to pay off come winter. Beyond blessed!

The Pressure Cooker XL-must by!

I Expected the Rockies To Be A Little Rockier Than This!

August 28, 2015

  You know us. If we have the opportunity to get away on the odd chance there is a three day weekend and Darren doesn't have to work or stay in the area, we are gone! So what do we do? Darren always thinks big. A 6 hour road trip to Denver to see the Rockies play. We actually made it in great time  considering we had never done the drive before and stopped a couple times to refuel the tanks. (Our bellies and the car. :)) We also hit some heavy traffic about 20 miles outside of Denver, but not too bad.  We found our hotel easily-the Holiday Inn Express in downtown Denver. Great location, about 1 block off 16th street shopping and restaurants. We quickly put our bags down after checking in and started walking to the stadium. Asking strangers for directions. Everyone was friendly and the streets were very clean. Impressive.  It was about a 15 minute walk and the weather was perfect.

Darren had planned on getting a baseball jersey or shirt outside the stadium, but we ran out of time. So he walked away with an autograph bat signed by Charlie Blackman.

You won't be able to see in the picture below, but it was Star Wars night. Darn! Wish we would have known. I could have been Princess Laya. haha!

   About 20 minutes into the game, Bradyn started to get antsy. We sat in the outfield and we weren't seeing much action-it is a baseball game after all. Some guy in the row below us threw him a small soft baseball and he thought that was pretty cool, but that high wore off quickly. We decided to take him to the playground just behind us and let him run around while we watched the game on the tv screen nearby. Not even 1 minute later we heard some loud cheering, A hit out towards left field. The Rockies scored three runs. Of course it would happen right after we got up!

 Unfortunately the Rockies lost to the Mets 14-9, but we still had a great time. We departed early to beat the crowd and spotted a bike taxi driver who said he'd take us back to our hotel for 10 bucks. Yes, please! He was a very nice guy who took us all around the hot spots and was pretty good at driving around pedestrians and cutting through traffic. YIKES!

  We did some shopping the next day in Loveland and spent a night at the Embassy Suites. We love this hotel with free happy hour and snacks and an amazing breakfast with made to order omelets in the morning.  I also took Bradyn swimming while Darren watched-chicken. The water wasn't that cold.

  Later that night we got a message from Michael saying he lived close to Loveland-we had completely forgotten he was in Ft. Collins working at "The Kitchen". So we met up with him for a few minutes on our way home. Next time it will be longer! So great to be able to visit these places AND see family.