Picture Update... well overdue...

Here are some well overdue pictures that were FINALLY uploaded from my new camera!!!

My 30th birthday... we ended up at Riverside for dinner after we got home from Estes Park.

Winter X Games in Aspen. Good time, real cold... better vieweing from home...

New Years Eve... we started out in Aspen for the fireworks, then headed to Riverside and Bistro... I love my awesome scarf that Sherry knitted for me for Christmas!!!

My one and only snow day of the year... going for a little hike over by the dog park...

Taste of Basalt in November... Had a great time with Traci and Alex!

March 2010

Blog readers... please let me know if you are reading my blog... comments or emails are appreciated! I totally feel like I am blogging for myself these days!!! I enjoy reading my friends blogs and try to comment at times so that my friends know that someone out there is keeping up with them!!! Please share the love!!!

Thanks!

Tracey

101 Things in 1001 Days

One of my friends had posted a list of things she wanted to accomplish in various areas of her life over the course of 1001 days, this sounded like a good idea so I started to think about things that I wanted to accomplish in my life over the course of 1001 days...

Green to the right of items are items that I have started and/or have completed! I will post updates monthly of things I am working on!!! Hopefully even lists of the things I have read or made or even tried to cook!!!

Making a list of 101 things that you would like to accomplish or change in your life isn't as easy as it sounds. It took me several hours of reflecting on my life and the various areas that I would like to improve upon and the things I would like to accomplish. Here is what I came up with:

Starting date: Feb 9, 2010 Ending date: Feb. 15, 2013

Life:

1) Move into a bigger place by July 2010

2) Move all my stuff from OK to CO by Aug 2010

3) Train Kodi to stay, heel and COME when commanded

4) Do laundry weekly, fold and put away after finished --started

5) Keep house cleaner- vacuum, dust, clean rooms weekly -- started

6) Attempt to purchase a home

7) Close out storage unit (OK)

8) Have ONE night during the week for a DATE night

9) Have ONE weekend a month as a DATE weekend

Organization:

10) Find a system to organize my personal paperwork

11) File statements and receipts monthly

12) Set up craft area in office/spare room

13) Paint bedroom in OK for Kenz

14) Sort through my stuff at my parents house

15) Decorate room in OK for Kenz

16) Organize Kenz's room in OK

17) Set up family history information filing system with mom

18) Help mom organize MaAlan's storage unit

Technology:

19) Back up photos from my laptop- make CDs for me Summer 2010

20) Reformat laptop - Summer 2010

21) Make Syrina a photo cd of her life by Summer 2012

22) Update blog at least once a month...

23) Read Nikon camera user's guide -- started

24) Purchase own MacBook/Pro by Feb 2013

25) Scan MaAlan's recipes

26) Make CD of MaAlan's recipes

27) Start scanning my baby/childhood pictures

Relationships:

28) Have Girls Night Out once a month to scrap/hangout

29) ????? - To Be Revealed Later

30) ????? - To Be Revealed Later

31) Have girls come visit in Co

32) ????? - To Be Revealed Later

Health

33) Eat a salad at least once a week

34) Drink only one soda/day

35) Drink only juice/water for one week/month

36) Walk-jog for 30 min/day 3 times a week

37) Compete in a 5K run

38) Workout 3 times/week cardio

39) Work out 2 times/week for weight training/toning

40) Try 15 new recipes -- 1/15

41) Eat at home 5 nights/week

Career:

42) Organize Autism info into one file

43) Start reinvesting in 403B again

44) Organize Personal Library Index of books

45) Gather more information on Autism/A.B.A/Behavior Specialist

46) Create 5 units/lesson plans for 5 books PK-K

47) Create 5 units/lesson plans for 5 books 1-2

Education

48) Find a grad program (Spec. Ed/Autism/Behavior Spec/Reading Spec)

49) Start 2nd Master's program

50) Complete Spanish 1

51) Complete Spanish 2

52) Complete 12 hours towards Master's degree

Adventures

53) Learn to ski

54) Get a weekly ski pass

55) Build Winter Wardrobe

56) Sky-dive or paraglide once

57) Purchase snowshoes

58) Snowshoe hikes once/week during Winter

59) Regular hikes at least once/week Spring-Fall

Travel

60) Renew passport

61) Get 3 stamps in new passport

62) Organize information (type up) for travel notebook

63) Print up travel notebook information

64) Travel to Scotland

65) Travel to France or Spain

66) Go on another cruise

67) Go on 5 roadtrips with Ian (Ok does NOT count) --1/5

Hobbies

68) Read 100 books --3/100

69) Learn to knit --started 02/10

70) Knit something functional --"coin purse" 02/10

71) Improve photography skills

72) Finish Syrina's quilt

73) Piece together Kenzie's top of quilt

74) Quilt Kenzie's quilt

75) Finish Kenzie's quilt

Photography/Scrap Projects

76) Update girls photo albums (07-09)

77) Finish vol 1 (09-10) scrapbook

78) Make hardback book (09-10)

79) Start/Finish vol 2 (10-11) scrapbook

80) Make hardback book (10-11)

81) Make calendar 2011- us/parents

82) Start Finish vol 3 (11-12) scrapbook

83) Make hadback book (11-12)

84) Make calendar 2012- us/parents

85) Start/Finish vol 4 (12-13) scrapbook

86) Make hardback book (12-13)

87) Make calendar 2013- us/parents

88) Start vol 5 (13-14) scrapbook

89) Update girls albums 2010-2013

90) Make scrapbook for parents

91) Make scrapbook of ????? (TBD)

92) Make hardback book of ????? (TBD)

93) Update MaAlan's scrapbook

94) Make photo book for Syrina

95) Make photo book for Kenzie

Other

96) Trade in "sports car" for "family SUV"

97) Put at least $50/mo in savings

98) Open savings account in Co

99) Close TPCU account in Ok

100) Accomplish at least 80% of list

101) Make new list! :)

Hello the big 3-0!!!

Last Monday (aka President's Day) I celebrated my 30th birthday in STYLE!!!

Prior to my birthday weekend, I went to Denver Thursday-Saturday for an amazing conference on Inclusive Education for children with disabilities. The conference was amazing and I had the chance to hang out with Kim and Traci outside of work!

Ian picked me up from the special education conference in Denver and whisked me off to Boulder for Saturday night and then Estes Park for Sunday/Monday! I am so lucky (at least I think I am) to have a long weekend for my birthday!!! Gotta love Valentine's Day and President's Day!!!

Boulder is a cute city, note it isn't a town... it is an actual city! It kinda reminded me of a smaller Tulsa, regardless, I was thrilled to be in a place that had stores that NORMAL people could afford to enter and shop! We ate at Olive Garden, a place I have been wanting to visit since we went home for Christmas. Only problem was that dinner didn't stay with me for long... actually past the parking lot... unfortunately I had a slight coughing fit and needless to say, before we pulled out of the parking lot, I had an empty stomach! We didn't go out after dinner since it had been an incredibly long day of driving for Ian (snow storm and a sidetrip to Breckenridge for my Valentine's Day gift) and a long day of conference listening. Our hotel was awesome, although I wish we had had more energy to go enjoy the hottub that night!

Sunday we woke up, visited Barnes & Noble, then headed off towards Estes Park. The Stanley Hotel is as beautiful in person as it is online and in photos!!! We still need to go through the hotel and take the official ghost tour at the Stanley. But I digress. We stayed at the Wildwood Inn in a 1 bedroom condo/apartment with a hottub in the living room, fireplace, huge bedroom with king bed and a full kitchen. We walked around town for a little bit, bought some new rocks and fossils for our collections then bought groceries for the night. For Valentine's Day we decided to have our own romantic night in, instead of going to a restaurant. We cooked steaks on the George Foreman Grill, made some mashed potatoes, and had some wine for dinner. We watched some incredibly addictive T.V. shows before enjoying the hottub in our room!

For Valentine's Day, Ian gave me the BEST gift EVER!!!! He stopped on his way to Denver at Breckenridge at the shop that we always visit and bought me a sock monkey hat and glove set. The gloves look like sock puppets!!! The set is sooo cute!!! For my birthday, Ian had arranged for me to have a massage and facial with his cousin Berkeley! I get a day of being pampered by one of my favorite people in Basalt!!!! I am so incredibly lucky!!!

Before leaving Estes Park, we stopped in town again and had our picture taken at the "old time" picture place at the "saloon." I feel like I am the luckiest girl!!! Thirty is going to be fun!!!

We celebrated my birthday for the entire week! We had dinner on my birthday at Riverside with our favorite bartenders, Dave and Donna... then on Friday had dinner with Berkeley, Russell, Traci and Jeri at a small Italian restaurant in El Jebel!

Good-bye 20's... HELLO 30's!!!!

February...

Welcome to February... once again, I am sick on the first week of the month... for the past 5 years I have managed to get an upper respiratory infection or bronchitis/pneumonia type virus the week of the 100th day of school!

This week has been a stressful week. Not only have I been sick, but I had a meeting with my supervisor with BOCES (my employer) on Friday. I found out that it has been requested that I be removed from the school I have been serving since August. I am thinking that a lot of the issues are more political than directly aimed at me professionally, but it is still hard to not take what has been said to heart. I have thoroughly enjoyed working in that building with so many wonderful kids, teachers and para-professionals. I am going to miss them terribly. I hope that the decision to place me in 3 middle schools (grades 5-8) and 1 high school isn't set up for me to fail. I know I am a good speech therapist and that my heart is in the right place when it comes to my kids.

This week is going to be a weird week. I am starting my new assignment, going to Denver for what I hope to be an AMAZING conference on Inclusive Education and then to Estes Park with the boy for my 30th birthday!!!!

I will post soon with my 101 things that I hope to accomplish in 1001 days... thanks to Bethany for the idea!

Happy Holidays!

This past week, Ian and I made the 15 hour drive back to Oklahoma to visit our families for Christmas. We had a wonderful time getting to be with our families, even if it was only for 10 days! While we were home, Oklahoma was hit with a blizzard. Yes, I said a blizzard!!! Who would have thought that we would come home from Colorado and actually have a WHITE Christmas!!!

My nieces have grown so much and are still as precious as ever! Kenzie has started learning how to play the violin at school. So... on Christmas Eve, Ian and I got our very own, private violin recital! I will post pictures and videos soon!

Kodi enjoyed playing with Zoe and Gracie at both of our parents homes. I think she is in withdrawal now that we are home and she just has us to entertain her.

The drive home was as uneventful as the drive to Tulsa, which was a blessing after the snow, sleet and ice we had experienced. I am looking forward to New Years Eve in Aspen and a wonderful 2010!!!

It is so nice to look forward to a new year rather than dreading what is to come! How things have changed in my life from this time last year to today! God has a way of bringing people together and putting us where we need to be at the right times.

I hope that everyone has a blessed and happy new year! I will see you in 2010!

December Update

So life has been rather hectic and crazy for us lately... hence the monthly updates!

We had a snow day last week after it started snowing on Monday. Apparently it dumped between 4-6 inches (or more) in various parts of the valley. I didn't mind as it meant that I got to spend the day at home with Ian and Kodi! We went to the dog park and played for a bit before going for a short hike.

This week we are preparing to come home to Tulsa for a week to visit our families. So much to do and so little time to get it done around our jobs and all. We did manage to get our Christmas cards out this week... Ian got the pictures uploaded and "cleaned up" in photoshop so we could print the pictures and stuff the envelopes! He is wonderful, have I mentioned that lately?

Reasons to be thankful

November is traditionally the time to count your blessings and share with the ones you love the things that you are thankful. So here goes...

* I am thankful that I have the most wonderful man in my life... he is understanding, patient, loving, caring, and even a bit goofy... he understands me and knows when to give me a hug and reassurances and when to just let me vent... He even tolerates my crazy, random, OCD tendencies!

* I am thankful for my adorable puppy Kodi, who is growing like a weed!!! She is so much fun and such a happy dog!!! I can't imagine our lives without her!

* I am thankful for my family, my blood family, my extended-adoptive family, and Ian's family. I have never felt so loved before in my life. Ian's family has accepted me and made me feel like one of the clan, something that I haven't felt by a significant other's family in a long time. My blood family can be dramatic at times... but they are my family and I love them. My adoptive family (and you know who you are) love me for who I am and for that I am thankful.

* I am thankful for my grandmother, although no longer with us in life, she is still with us in spirit. I made her fried chicken the other night and it turned out wonderful!!! I didn't even cry as I made my grandma's famous fried chicken.

* My friends. I have the craziest and most diverse group of friends... and I love them all!

I know that I have left a lot of people and things off this list that I am thankful for, however, those things are no less important to me than the things that are listed.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Updates soon...

Hey everybody! I am sooo sorry that I haven't updated lately... my life has been sooo crazy! Kodi is definitely keeping Ian and I on our toes! She is a cutie-pie and is growing like a weed. I need to convince my other half to upload pictures from his camera to his laptop so I can steal them from him and update them on here and on facebook!!!

In other news... I am now a contract therapist for a small town nearby... google Marble, Co... population 85... one room school-house, literally... and I am serving students that are attending private schools that are eligible for speech services in Aspen/Snowmass.

Christmas... hopefully I will have our Christmas pictures printed soon... we need to get our acts in gear and start sending home our gifts so we have less to pack in my car for the drive...

Keep your eyes open for picture updates soon!!!

Much love to all my Oklahoma family!!!

Kodi Bear Stiller

Welcome to the family Lil' Miss Kodi Stiller! This week Ian and I "rescued" a little puppy that we have officially named Kodi. She is adorable and so far pretty laid back and easy going. We have found that she is VERY smart and is very curious about the world.

We got her from a guy in front of the grocery store on Monday, Oct 5, 2009. She looked sooo precious that we couldn't say no! The next day Ian took her to the local pet store to get her some goodies. Apparently one of her siblings had been in the store and was not in as good of condition as our precious angel.

We took her to the park the other day during my lunch hour. She is sooo tiny!!! We were told that she is a chow-shepherd mix... however... we are starting to question that label. Her tail curls like a chow (or like an akita or any dog in the spitz family), she doesn't have the purple on her tongue like a chow, nor the really long hair... her paws are tiny as well... she is fuzzy and cute and has a little white spot on her chest. She looks like a little bear, hence the name...

Last night Kodi let us sleep through the night. This was a first time experience for Ian and me. To say the least, we were beyond estatic that we only had to wake up at 5 am and then again at 9 am to take her out! I guess the meds from the vet are helping her. The vet said she didn't think that her label was accurate either for her breed. The vet also doesn't think that she is 9 weeks old as we were told... she is thinking that we are closer to 8 weeks old than 9. She was tested for parasites and bugs at the vet, only to find out that our lil' girl had a host of parasites living in her intestines as well as some sort of bacteria growing there. She is now on 2 different medicines and a bland diet and she is doing great!!!!

Ian has some other pictures on his camera that haven't been uploaded yet... so be prepared for more adorable pictures of our baby girl to come!!!!

Snowmass Balloon Festival

Last weekend was the annual balloon festival in Snowmass, Co. Ian got up early Friday morning to catch the first day of the balloons... I must say that he took some AMAZING shots, I have included some of my favorites below. We went Saturday morning and saw a lot of balloons as well, some he saw the morning before and some he hadn't seen. That night we went for the night glow. I hope you enjoy the pictures!!!!

August and September Updates... Picture version

Ian installing our new and improved shelves in the bathroom... the finished product to come soon...

Our newest rubber duckie from Jazz Aspen...
The newest generation of babies... The one hen has 14 chicks sprouting from it while the other has at least 4...
Breckenridge, August just after my visit to Denver for the Rockies game...

Crystal Mill, Crystal, Colorado... just outside of Marble, Colorado... beautiful Jeep trail... just don't fall down the hill...

What a week it was!

Last week was quite a week!!! My good friend from Tulsa sent me a text asking me if I was interested in going with her to the Colorado Rockies game and staying the night with her. Being a fan of baseball, I agreed to make the voyage across the state from Aspen to Denver to see Sasha on Wednesday. This was my FIRST SOLO adventure, just me and Sammi... for 288 miles! We made it to Superior safely and onto the game without a hitch.

The score board at the baseball stadium. I didn't take many pictures (shock I know) but I was having fun catching up with one of my favorite childhood friends!!!

The next day I left Superior but not before making a very important pitstop at the local Michael's for more scrapbooking paper... then onto Breckenridge to see Ian!!! We decided to meet at "our place" in Breckenridge for a few days to get away from the real world. We met at the Lodge and had a great two nights there in town.

THEN... on Saturday when we drove home I thought that someone had it in for me... I had not one but THREE cars try to change into my lane and car without so much as looking in their mirrors to see if there happened to be anyone nearby...

I have never been so happy to be home again... in one piece...

August in my world...

The date was set... my stuff packed and moved out of my former classroom in Claremore... my goodbyes said in Claremore to my favorite faculty... then came the hard part... parting from my precious babies at the church and leaving my family. But before I left I had a lot of packing to do... lots of boxes shipped via the postal service, lots of stuff moved into my storage, the storage all sorts of arranged and rearranged and my car loaded down, literally...

The backseat of my car (above) and my trunk (below)... all creatively packed with love by Ian and his amazing dad Rick!

Ian and I managed to find room in my little Civic for ourselves and off we went in search of the infamous yellow brick road to Aspen! Once again we found ourselves getting along nicely on the cross country trip and enjoying ourselves on the drive. Ian made sure that we didn't stop at many (if any) of the "Points of Interest" along the highway in Ks by being sure that he was the driver... punk... alas we made it to Limon in one piece...

We drove with some assistance from our newly acquired GPS that I have lovingly named Samantha Stiller (we need a good middle name that starts with O for her... suggestions?). Sammi gave us ideas for places we could stop for food, gas, lodging and even shopping! There are so many things that she provides for us in the car!!! Entertainment is another feature that she provides us. Ian has decided that he wants to create an app for the GPS that would allow it to do more than just voice recognition, but also talk back to the voice heard... wouldn't that be fun...

The gas station we stopped at... it says 24 hour fuel... but it is closed... have no fear, there is an antiquated credit card machine between the pumps to assist in fueling up when the place is closed...

Me on the road again... very happy about the car moving!!!

Once arriving in Aspen, I realized the wonderful things I had been missing out on in Oklahoma... like being able to wear JEANS and not melt in the heat... even when the temps got up to 90 and above jeans were comfortable! We have had dinner with the family, played softball with friends and had a BBQ with friends since I have been here.

Now to begin the transformation of the BACHELOR PAD to the COUPLE PAD... more details to come...

Adventures in Breckenridge

On the day before I was to leave Colorado, Ian and I set out on a quest to visit the quaint town of Breckenridge. Armed with my luggage and the COLORADO magazine and address of our hotel we set off on hwy 70 towards Frisco, Silverthorn and Breckenridge. We stopped and ate pizza in Silverthorn before visiting the gigantic outlet mall... then headed back into Breckenridge. Mind you I had read the comments on the hotel itself the day before and THOUGHT (key word is that I THOUGHT) I had even called the hotel to confirm our reservations... I knew that the hotel was "a little outside of town" and that is was even "somewhat difficult to find." But, we are young and invincible...we can find it... besides, my boyfriend will google the directions before we leave right??? WRONG!!!

So picture this... Ian driving and me in the passenger seat (been there most of the day) looking at the Breckenridge map saying, "Honey, it says that the hotel is in quadrant H-1. See... over here... in this corner... just go through town and we will see it..." This led us to end up in Blue River City, the OTHER SIDE of Breck before we knew it. Now rather giggly, I call the hotel (or what I THINK is our hotel). Here is how that conversation went...

Lady: Well where are you at?

Me: Somewhere outside of Breckenridge... (giggle giggle giggle)
Lady: What road are you on?
Me: I dunno... Main street??? (More giggling)

Lady: Are you still on Main Street?

Me: We never turned off of it so I would hope so!!! (Continuation of uncontrollable giggling)

Lady: Ok, come back to "downtown" Breck, when you see South Park off of Main street you are

going to turn left and... (I didn't hear the rest I was too busy laughing about there being a

SOUTHPARK street in Breckenridge... too much time in a car for sure!!!)

So about 15 minutes later, Ian and I are still driving in circles, finding all sorts of other hotels but not ours... so HE calls back... shockingly enough, he got the same directions I got (hahaha! To think he was threatening me with not being the navigator again!!!) So after driving around for a little longer, I looked (yet again) in the Breckenridge magazine for some miraculous guidance... it was then that I realized that I had called the WRONG hotel... no wonder the lady's directions kept taking us to the GREAT DIVIDE LODGE and not the LODGE AT BRECKENRIDGE!!! Once I composed myself and could talk, I called the REAL hotel to get directions. Here I am laughing so hard I can't sit up and am crying while Ian is in the front seat about to kill me... Ian got the directions to the hotel, which lo-an-behold we had driven past the intersection for the hotel a few times...

After an extended drive through Breckenridge and back, we find the hotel and it is amazing!!! Looks like a huge log cabin!!! We go check in and go up to our room... Which was adorable as well... we changed clothes and headed out to adventure in the town of Breckenridge. We had dinner at the Kenosha Steakhouse which was fantabulous! We could have split either of our meals, which he chose a grilled chicken dinner and I had the pulled pork bbq sandwich! After eating we hit the streets. Most of the shops were closing by this time so we went into the ones we could and decided to come back again!!!

The view from our porch/deck/balcony...

The view of the front of the hotel, the lighting stinks but what can a girl do when she only has one chance to take the picture lighting or not...

Colorado in July

My trip to Colorado has been all kinds of exciting and busy!! I arrived on the 1st with enough time to relax briefly before we ran over to the cousin's house for birthday dessert for Sheridan. The dessert and conversation were amazing and I really like Ian's cousins!

While we were relaxing on the patio before leaving for Berkley and Russell's for Sheridan's birthday party. It was warm enough to shed my jacket for a while!

Fourth of July found us in Aspen in the morning watching the parade down main street. The parade was amazing. There were motorcycles galore... a massive herd of children on decorated bicycles, firetrucks covered with kids and family members... then the most impressive part for me was when the veterans passed by. There were vets from WWII, Vietnam, Korea, Normandy Beach, Okinawa, Iraq, Afghanistan, Gulf War, and any war in between... There were HUNDREDS of veterans, in uniform, with signs denoting their particular theater/tour of duty. It was amazing the support that these men (and some women) received from the crowd that day. Having friends in the military, and that have served in the Middle East in the last 6 years of this ongoing war, it brought tears to my eyes and a chill down my skin to see all the vets. After we painted an office for a while, we came home, took a brief nap then headed to Glenwood Springs for fireworks. Above is a picture of me waiting for the fireworks to start while enjoying the Glenwood Springs Symphony.

Some of the fireworks that we were blessed with watching! I love fireworks!!! I also enjoy the amazing freedom that is signified by them on the 4th of July...

Sunday we drove to Crested Butte... we made a brief pitstop in Redstone on our way. We checked out the old coal coke pits and then attempted to drive through Marble to Crested Butte... the Marble idea went out the window when the road became muddy, bumpy, rocky and incredibl narrow. I was enjoying our offroad adventure, however, Ian was not so we turned around and decided to take the OTHER route through the Paona Reserve. That drive is amazing!!!

After walking around in Crested Butte on our way home we stopped to admire the various wildflowers that are on the side of the road. Ian got some amazing shots of the flowers and a few pictures of me in the process.

Here is one of pictures that I took while standing/sitting outside the sunroof while driving home. Ian is completely rubbing off on me... I typically don't take pictures of the sky, clouds, and scenary... but now...

And last night... he brought me flowers... He had been working in Aspen and I decided to stay home to relax... when he came home he told me to close my eyes as he walked in the door... so I closed my eyes and attempted to cover them, but he took my hands down from my eyes and put this beautiful bouquet of flowers in my hands!!!!

Just in case I haven't mentioned it lately, I love my boyfriend!!!!

Soccer Camp

This past week McKenzie participated in the British Challenger Soccer camp out in Sand Springs. Although none of her teammates were at the camp with her, she had a lot of fun. Both of the coaches that were running the camp were amazing with the kids! I picked up on a few ideas to use with my students from them in the two days I went with Kenz!!! Their teaching method totally reinforced to me that my philosophy of learning through play is a good idea! Kenzie was super excited about all the "cool soccer tricks" she learned each day and was ready to go back the next day, despite the heat and her apparent likeness to me with heat stroke readiness...

Here's a picture of Kenzie on Friday after she started to have a heat stroke during camp. She felt terrible, but she didn't want to leave. She really wanted to be out with her group playing!!! I just liked how I was actually able to capture all the feelings she was displaying in the picture!!!

Here is Kenzie with her coach Nick on Friday. I think she has a crush on him. She told me several times that she would like for him to move to Oklahoma to coach her team... as if he doesn't have a job in London or his own soccer team that he plays on there!

Each day the coaches had homework assignments for the kids. Everything from creating a juice drink, to looking up information about UK online, to bringing dress up items to put on the coaches... Nick took off part of his attire for the World Cup competition before camp ended, but here he is with Kenzie looking all sorts of silly.

The entire camp. The photographer from the Sand Springs paper came out and took their picture for the paper... if anyone happened to see if it made it in the Sunday paper let me know!!!!

Kenzie is super excited about starting her fall soccer season and learning more soccer skills. I am thrilled that she is pumped about the sport!

Happy Birthday Baby!!!!

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART!!!!

In honor of Ian's big 3-0 birthday, I thought I would list 30 things that I love about him and him being in my life... so here goes...


1. He makes me SMILE, all the time with the silly things he says or the things he does for me.
2. He does LITTLE THINGS for me that mean the world to me!
3. He LISTENS, wholeheartedly.
4. He is CARING and SHOWS his CARE for others
5. He will text with Kenzie, even when he is busy and/or tired!

6. He COMPLIMENTS me, on my cooking, how I look, without cues.

7. He RESPECTS me and my ideas, goals, values

8. He is SUPPORTIVE of my goals and dreams

9. He enjoys being ACTIVE, can't handle being inside too long...

10. He's a HORNET!!!

11. He enjoys taking PICTURES.
12. He is THOUGHTFUL of others
13. He is GOAL DRIVEN
14. He will take pictures WITH ME
15. He is usually SMILING



16. He strives to be MORE, to do MORE, to see MORE
17. He loves to TRAVEL
18. He LOVES... all things, photography, animals, sunsets, clouds, ME, rocks, plants
19. He has FAMILY VALUES
20. I can TRUST him with all of my being



21. He shows AFFECTION... in his words, his deeds, his actions
22. He steals KISSES in public... and let's me steal kisses
23. You can tell that he LOVES me by the way he looks at me.
24. He is incredibly PERSONABLE and EASY-GOING.
25. My family (dramas) don't SCARE him...


26. He wants to get to KNOW my family, especially my nieces.
27. We have a lot in common, while having a lot of things different
28. When he tells me he loves me, he makes it PERSONAL and you just KNOW he means it!
29. He wants to have a FUTURE with me!!!
30. He is just overall... AMAZING!!!

I hope that your special day is all that you hoped it would be. I can't wait to be there and to celebrate with you... I love you so very much and I am so thankful that God put you BACK in my life after all these years! Thank you so much for being everything I had dreamed of and then some! I know that you are the ONE for me... it seems OBVIOUS to me now after this week. I LOVE YOU!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!