OFF THE WALL LIFE

Coldplay and Wine to celebrate Nick's 31st!!

2008-11-24T07:36:00.000-08:00

Friday night we sent the kids to spend the weekend with Grandma and Granddaddy so we could have a full weekend of activities to celebrate Nick's 31st birthday. We started off by going to dinner at the Hacienda in Denver with our closest friends, Robby and Joanna Kurtz.

After a yummy dinner, we headed up to the Pepsi Center to go to the Coldplay concert. If you know Nick, this is not exactly what he wanted to do being that he is not a huge Coldplay fan, but he did it because he knew I would LOVE it (what a great guy)!!!!! We had such a great time and the concert was, well to say the least...AMAZING!! I think even Nick might join the Coldplay revolution! After the concert, we went to a restaurant and did not get home until 2:30 in the morning! It took me lots of coffee to get everything prepared for Nick's wine party the next day!!

Here we are at the concert.

Then on Saturday, we had some of our closest friends and family over for a night of wine, food and games!!

Nick, Byron, and Steve...

31 candles is a lot of fire!!!

Darren, Stephen, Dave, and Curt

David and Heidi

Happy 31st Birthday Nick!!! I LOVE YOU :)

Jaedon's 1st day of preschool

2008-10-02T12:15:00.000-07:00

So, today was Jaedon's 1st day of preschool at Ranch Creek Elementary!! He has been so excited to start school and had been on a wait list for a couple of months, and last week we finally got the phone call that he would start Oct. 2nd!!! Everyday he would walk out the front door and tell the kids waiting at the school bus that he too would be going to school...and today was that day.

I walked him to Miss Katie's class and gave hugs and kisses to my growing up little boy. I got in the car... and cried. It is so hard for me to think that only 4 years ago I was giving birth to my first precious child, and today I was watching him detach a little more from me. Time just goes by way too fast!! He only goes two days a week from 8:30-11:30, so it's not full day yet. When I picked him up, he was playing on the playground with other children and had such a big smile on his face. He said he had such a great time at school and LOVES his new teacher, Miss Katie. I took him to Chik-fil-A and he wanted to roll his window down and tell the lady on the speaker that today was his first day of preschool!!! I am so proud of my little man :)

And so it begins....

2008-09-03T08:19:00.000-07:00

Aww, I love when Fall is on it's way. There is something about waking up to a crisp chill early in the morning, somehow I feel it kind of slows and calms everything down. I grab my cup of coffee, put on some warm sweats and sweatshirt, light my candles, eat warm banana bread with melted butter, and read my bible. I love home...I love Colorado!!

Ok, your turn. What do you love about the beginning of Fall?

Kids say the cutest things

2008-08-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

The other night, Nick and I stayed up to watch the Olympics and when we went to bed at 10:30 (i know real late night for us!!), Jaedon was still awake in his room. He came out and was crying and this is what he told us, "Mommy, I have been trying to go to sleep for so long, but my toys keep wanting me to play with them. I am soooo tired, but i just keep playing with my toys!!" I couldn't help but laugh, this was the cutest thing ever.

Then last night Nick was wrestling with the boys and Jaedon told him, "Daddy you squished my heart and squished Jesus." I always tell Jaedon that Jesus is always with him, that he is in your heart...well I think Jaedon LITERALLY thinks he lives in his heart!!!!

I LOVE being his mom!!!

Tornado Scare

2008-08-15T07:58:00.000-07:00

So, I just have to say that I have NEVER seen a tornado and last night we went to Nick's parents house in Calhan to celebrate his Mom's birthday when I had my first tornado scare. Well, we were hanging out when all of a sudden a very loud siren went off and let's just say, I panicked!!! I ran downstairs with the kids and hid in a doorway with my tail between my legs :) Nick's whole family was upstairs looking at the clouds swirling above our heads...I am just not that brave! Luckily after two different times of sirens, the tornado dissipated. Then when we got home, the storm at 3 am in the morning was a little scary too. Needless to say I am feeling a little bit like a coward this morning and only got 4 hours of sleep after laying in bed wide eyed from all the loud thunder and lightning!!! I don't remember ever being scared of storms when I was little!! Why am I such a big chicken now??? Oh well, I will never live in Calhan :)

Monday, Monday

2008-08-11T06:31:00.000-07:00

So, here it is again...Monday!!! Here is a little of what we did...

Picked up my new iPhone on Saturday morning. I have been so excited to get this, but after we got home Saturday night, I spent HOURS on the computer trying to load everything and was very frustrated. Maybe I am just not "tech savvy." Finally got everything up and running for the phone and I LOVE IT! It does so many things! I loaded this app called restaurant nutrition and it will tell me the nutritional value of the foods I order when dining out!! So cool. I also loaded Pandora, a pedometer, just to name a few! This is just so fun and Jaedon LOVES watching YouTube (especially the baby laughing)!!
Saturday we took the boys up to The Aquarium in Denver and had a blast!! Then hit Park Meadows Mall on the way home to get the boys some clothes from Gap since they closed the Gap Kids store in the Chapel Hills Mall a long time ago :( Good time with the family!
Yesterday was a very hard and sad day for me. My dad has a buyer for my mother's house, so I went there yesterday with my sister and dad to go through the remaining items of my moms. Nick and the boys came for a little bit to help too. It was such a difficult time for me, but am feeling like maybe this will help some in the healing process too. On the way home, Heather and I saw the most beautiful rainbow. It was the brightest rainbow that I have ever seen. My Mom used to tell me, "You have to weather the storm to see the rainbow," and we both felt so at peace when we saw it. It was also a reminder that God will always take care of me. When I got home, I felt so emotionally empty and drained and just wanted to take a quiet drive, so I went to Borders and picked up this book that was highly recommended by my cousin called Motherless Daughters.
Well, that was it. I hope everyone has a beautiful day and a great week.

Jaedon's 4th Birthday

2008-08-04T07:29:00.000-07:00

It is so hard to imagine that 4 years ago, I was holding my first little baby boy, Jaedon Isaiah Wall. He came into this world after 10 and a half hours of labor and 2 hours of pushing!!! He was born 8-2-2004 at 7:57 am weighing in at 6 lbs. 12 oz 19 inches long. He has changed so much and is such a little man now and will be starting preschool this fall.

So to celebrate his 4th birthday, we had friends and family over for a little "Spiderman" celebration. Here are some photos from the day. It is a Wall family tradition to wake the birthday person with a donut and a candle early in the morning and sing "Happy Birthday" to them. Then they get to open their gifts from us and do whatever they want the rest of the day. Jaedon was thrilled to eat a very sugary donut and watch cartoons for a long time :)

We had some pinata fun!!!

And ate lots of more sugary cake :)

So, happy 4th birthday my precious son. I love you to the depths of my heart. You are so very special to me...Thank you for making me a mommy!!

Monday headlines

2008-07-28T07:38:00.000-07:00

So, once again, Elias is running a fever and is not feeling very well. I am hoping it is just from teething again because he also has a pretty bad diaper rash and runny nose :( I just hate it when my kids are sick, but I love "mothering" them back to health! I feel like we just did all this not that long ago (2 weeks ago to be exact)!

We had a very good weekend. Nick and I actually got 2 date nights thanks to Nick's brother Stephen! Friday night we met up with our wonderful friends Joy & Delray Wannamacher for a relaxing evening at the Flying Horse. We sat out on the balcony next to the outdoor heater and enjoyed a very delicious dinner, wine, and dessert. That place is so beautiful, where we were overlooked the lush green golf course! We had such a great time and didn't get home until 11 p.m.! What a late night for us party animals :) Then Saturday night we went to dinner with some really close friends Tucker and Julie Wannamaker. We went downtown to Phantom Canyon and enjoyed great food, dessert, and great company! We felt so spoiled getting to do this two nights in a row! It was such a treat to catch up with friends and spend some quality time with them without having to inhale our food, talk over screaming or crying kids, or leave early just before one, or both, have a meltdown :)Ever since we had kids, date nights and nights out with friends are few and far between :) If you have kids, then you know what I mean!! We were so grateful for this time with friends!

I ordered the new 3G iphone on Saturday after using a cheap prepaid phone for months after little Elias threw my phone and broke it. I am really excited about it and hope it comes quick. They said it would take 10 to 21 days! Which, I feel, is really not that bad. I will be able to just take that to the gym instead of my phone and ipod.

Refinanced our house on Friday. Actually, this wasn't planned, but our mortgage company called me a month ago asking if we would be willing to refinance if they lowered our interest rate to 5.5%, payed all costs, and sent someone out to the house to close! I couldn't believe it! This lowered our mortgage by $260!!! What? Of course we will refinance :)

Jaedon's 4th birthday is this Saturday August 2nd! I can't believe my little baby is already 4! He is growing up way too fast and is becoming such a little man. So, I have lots of preparing to do before Saturday.

Went to church yesterday and listened to Jimmy Evans speak. What a vivid reminder to stay in the protection of God and His word. What an incredible sermon!! Everyone who didn't go should download the podcast from itunes...it is worth listening to! Came home only to find our microwave broke :( How will I live without one for a while?!? Nick got some alone time with his brothers and went to go see the Batman movie while the kids took naps and I got some quiet time.

Also, we hadn't received our stimulus check yet, or our tax returns, so I spent time on friday doing my favorite thing in the whole world, talking to the IRS!! Come to find out, they sent the checks out in June, but the post office sent them back because Nick never changed his address and they wouldn't forward it!!! They said they had the checks there and would put them back in the mail, but it would be 3 to 4 weeks!!! WHAT?!? Why does it take that long? Oh well, I am just glad I called because they would've never contacted us. We might have to buy a new microwave with it, so hopefully it will arrive sooner than later :)

Well, I better go do something productive!! Have a great day and enjoy the sunshine :)

Beach Day in Colorado?!?!

2008-07-19T20:38:00.000-07:00

So today, we drove an hour to hit the beach!!No we didn't move to California!! That's right a beach in Colorado, hard to believe I know! Well, to be honest, it is not like a "real" beach, but it is the closest thing to a beach Colorado has. Our small group all met down at Pueblo Reservoir for a fun, and HOT, family swim day!!! We had such a great time and so enjoyed our time with our friends. The water was a little cold, but actually felt really good in the 101 degree heat! Elias would crawl to the water and then keep crawling in the water until he started to go under!!! He is such a little fish and just LOVES to be in the water :)

Nick and Jaedon went down a water slide (1st time for Jaedon) and he actually did great!!! When I asked him about it, he simply stated, "Mommy, I didn't like it too much because we went super fast and I forgot to plug my nose, but next time we go I will plug my nose and then I will like it." I was so proud of him for trying something that even Nick said was really fast and high up!! Then Jaedon floated in this boat thing for hours and played with the girls (Hannah and Jenna)! He says the girls are his bestest friends :) I just love him to pieces!!!

There was even geese at the beach and the children all had fun looking and trying to chase them in the water!! Thank you so much Nick, Sara, Robby, Joanna, Becca, and Rich! We are so blessed to do life with you guys. We had such a great time today thank you for sharing it with us and for all the laughter. I don't know if any of you got sunburned, but I am FRIED :) Love you all!!

Dishwasher Duty

2008-07-19T05:32:00.000-07:00

So, every morning when I am loading or unloading the dishwasher, little Elias LOVES to come stand next to the dishwasher and help take all the forks and spoons out and then put it right back in again!! But this morning as I was putting things away, I turned around and found him like this...

I guess standing next to the dishwasher was no longer an option for him and that sitting directly in the dishwasher was much more convenient!!!! I thought is was too cute!

Jaedon had to get in on the action too!!!

He sat there for a good 30 minutes with his little heart content on taking the spoons out of the basket, then gently placing it back in. I just LOVE how kids are so content with the little things. It is amazing how much our kids teach us and ground us :) We have a gazillion (i know not a word!) toys, and he loves to play with spoons :)

Maybe this is the start of Elias loving to do the dishes?!?!? What do you think?

Texas Family Fun

2008-07-17T09:43:00.000-07:00

So, we decided last minute to take our first family road trip and drive 15 hours straight through the night to go visit Nick's grandmother in Waco, Texas. We left Thursday night around 7 p.m. and made it to Waco around 10:30 Friday morning!!! The kids did great and basically slept the entire way :) We got to spend a lot of time with Grandmother and got to see the retirement home she is living in. We even got to play the Wii with her!! It is one of the activities that all the residents there love...I thought it was so cute seeing all these old men and women competing in bowling and staying active!! Thank you Nintendo :) They also play ladder ball...so cute!!

We got to have a BBQ (indoors because of the Texas heat and humidity) with all of Nick's aunts, uncles, and cousins on Sunday and Nick and his brothers even got to play some football in the street. I don't think the vacation would have been complete without a little football in 102 degree heat!! I think he lost about 10 pounds in 45 minutes :) We spent a lot of time in the pool at our hotel, it felt so good to be in the water and the best part was you didn't even need a towel when you got out, the hot sticky air kept us warm!!!

Then Sunday night, Elias ended up getting sick and ran a 102.7 fever until Monday night. Then the fun really began when Jaedon ran a fever Monday night into Tuesday. We had planned on going to a water park all day Tuesday in Arlington and then heading home, but instead we decided to just eat breakfast and head home since Jaedon was sick. So we hit the road about 12:30 Texas time and Jaedon ran a fever until about 7 p.m. and was throwing up :( It broke my heart and all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and hold my baby! And now I am sick, but what is a vaction without eating way too much junk food, staying up way too late, and coming home sick and tired :) So here is a pic of us driving home at sunset. This was the most beautiful sunset. The picture really doesn't do it justice, but the sun was so bright red. We were in Kansas at this time, and trust me, this was the most exciting thing to look at!!!!

So, all in all, it was a fun trip and it was so good to see his Grandmother,

who by the way is 93 years old and looks fabulous!!! I am glad to be home in the cool, crisp, mountain air again and need to go start unpacking and doing laundry :)

Nike+ Fun

2008-07-08T12:23:00.000-07:00

So, as most of you know, I have been working out for about 3 1/2 months now. Well...I still feel like I have not lost weight and feel kind of stuck at the point I am now. I go to the gym every morning and do weights with Nick, and some days just take classes (i.e. spinning, step, and turbo kick-box)!! So, today after kick-box and weights, I decided to purchase 5 personal training sessions and bought the Nike+ armband to help track miles, pace, and calories burned. I am excited about all of this and can't wait to start. I am hoping to lose some left over baby fat from my pregnancy with Elias a YEAR ago before we decide to try for another baby :) If anyone else is doing the Nike+ thing, maybe we could challenge each other :) I always do better when I am challenged! I also get a nutrition makeover when I start my personal training next Wednesday!! That is the part I really need help on ( I love guacamole burgers!!!). Time to get burning :)

Here we go...

2008-07-07T07:57:00.000-07:00

o.k., so I felt so out of the loop not being a blogger, so here we go. I cannot promise that I will be very good at it, but I will try to keep it interesting!!! I have now entered into the world of blogging...