Wildfire next door!

As of this morning, this wild fire is 0% contained and burned 37,000 acres. For those of you out-of-town, this fire is in our county just West of us about 15 miles. We're hoping for a reprieve in the weather. The wind was bad yesterday, so the smoke was worse at some times than others depending on which way the wind was blowing. We were sure we would be heading to Cheyenne to stay with Jim and Debbie this morning since our house (minus the basement) seemed full of smoke last night, but it's not too bad this morning. We'll see how the day goes and whether the boys' games are cancelled due to bad air quality. Anyway, pray for the fire to contained, the people who have lost their homes or been evacuated, and the firefighters.


This was the view last night from our tree house.


Above our house...


Pretty ominous looking cloud of smoke!

Last day of school!

It's here...the last day of school. We decided to plan a surprise for the kids. Starting with a message on our chalkboard...


a banner for a theme...with some dollar store Hawaiian decor on our table.


It's our last day! Mac's teacher took some stats at the beginning and end of the school year and he's grown 2 inches and gained 9 pounds. Seems like a lot for a school year. The boys are excited for Summer.


So for our second surprise, we waited for the kids to get off the bus with water balloons in hand...


We don't usually pick them up from the bus stop, so they were already wondering what was up.


Then we started to pummel them.


We expected the kids to all have smiles like this...


but I think they were mostly confused and shocked. The bus driver gave us some honks though! They'll be more prepared next year...


Afterwards we invited the neighbors over for hotdogs and a balloon fight.




More kids showed up as their schools got let out...but I only got pictures of the Bauder kids

The kids in our neighborhood go to three different schools, so this was a fun way to get the kids all together before the Summer. We hope to make it a "Last day of School" tradition.

We've had a birthday!

My baby has turned 4! It's hard to believe that it's been 4 years with this bright-eyed little one.


This called for a party! She'd been talking about it since Nate's birthday in March. "I want a yellow and pink birthday party at City Park." So that's what we had.


In case you thought these photos came from a magazine...they were from Elly's party. I happen to have a good friend who's a photographer who appeared with camera in hand... Meaghan can make all things beautiful with that thing!


Guess what...it's my birthday!


Look at all these adorable kiddos! Elly loved having her friends with her to celebrate.


The youngest having a birthday is kind of nice with older siblings as helpers! Mac wanted to be in charge of the pinata. He almost got hit a couple times...


Nate wanted to do facepainting. Sorry to all the parents that had to scrub for hours to get that off! By the way, Elly's was done at a carnival the night before. Nate's good...but not that good! :)


Get that loot!


This is one happy girl!


Some words that I would use to describe this little one...sweet, loving, inquisitive, outgoing, fearless, chatty, loud (we know she didn't get that from me!) and on-the-go. She's a bundle of energy that's cute, likes dresses, yet a tomboy all in one. God knew the little girl that would complete our family. We just love her to pieces!

Battle of the Bros!

Mac and Nate have been playing soccer this Spring on a U8 and U7 team. Each of these divisions only have 3 teams, so Nate plays a U8 team twice and Mac a U7 team once...and you guessed it, they ended up playing each other this past Friday night. It was a great game! :)


Can you find them both intensely watching the ball?! Nate is always intense...and Mac upped his intensity this game playing against his brother.


Go Mac Go! Mac was worried that Sam wouldn't cheer for him since he's Nate's team's assistant coach. Of course Sam cheered for him, and I think both teams thought it was fun that two brothers were playing each other.


Gotta love the headband... :)


Mac hit his teammate on this one... It was hot and Mac's team in particular seemed out to lunch for most the game. Bummer for them, but it did even out the playing field for a younger team!





The boys started off the second half both playing up front. THAT was really fun to watch. They came up against each other quite a bit...just like playing in the backyard.


After the game, they were all smiles and very hot. So after a goofy picture, we went out for some ice cream!

Mac's Piano Recital

Mac started taking piano lessons about 10 months ago. He has always loved music and has had a great ear for it. Piano lessons have been great for him. He's not always the best at practicing...but he does enjoy it. :) It's been tough the past two months with soccer and piano, but I'm proud of him for keeping up with everything. One of my friends teaches him and her students do a piano recital before Christmas and then again in the Spring. They play at a senior living center which is really fun. The piano recital is listed as an "event" on their daily activity board, and I think they really enjoy the kids playing for them. I missed recording the intro to his song, but here's most of Mac playing "Morning has Broken."

Skiing...exceeding our expectations

I was just talking to a friend about expectations of our kids, in the activity sense. I was telling her how there have been times that we are geared up to have a good time...and then our kids whine the whole time or whatever else a 3, 4, 5-year-old may do...and yet you just have to keep trying. You have to keep taking them hiking, on road trips, whatever you love to do and in the end, you hope for the best. You learn to give them grace because of their age, but also keep pushing them.

Honestly, I think Sam and I fly by the seat of our pants enough, that we don't think of what could happen, or how terrible it would be to camp with a newborn...we just do it. It hasn't always turned out the way we hoped (there was a camping trip that we almost drove home at midnight), but most of the time, it does. I think we've also learned that since you can't expect kids to always have a good time, to not let your expectations put you in a grouchy mood...thus having a whole family of grouches.

Anyway, this past weekend we went skiing, and it was one of those times that I would say our kids not only met our expectations...but exceeded them. I can tell they're growing up!


The boys had Monday off of school, so we headed up skiing on Sunday morning. Not the best conditions with wind...but the kids didn't mind. I think the boys were excited to help teach Elly, and Elly to learn, that they just went with it.


Sam had Elly on a tether, so she couldn't get away from him. I honestly thought her little legs wouldn't last long, but I should have realized with all her running these days, they're stronger than I thought! Sam had to hold her right between his legs quite a bit with some fresh powder being deeper in areas, but she got the hang of it. I loved hearing her repeat Sam's directions and just giggle. She giggled a lot! You could tell she had a great time. I don't know if being the third, and not wanting to be left behind skiing (she's old enough now to remember how many times the boys have gotten to go and she's been left behind) she just kept going...never complaining. She doesn't make turns yet, but more than anything, I was just impressed with her attitude.


Nate was preoccupied most of the time with helping teach his sister. He stuck by her and Sam most of the time trying to help her out. It was very sweet. I hadn't seen either of the boys ski the last couple times, so it was fun to see how much they improved. They do a great job on blues. Nate does a great job staying in control. He likes to try to bomb down the mountain,but always practices his turns.


This kid really seemed grown up this weekend. Mac has a great sense of direction and used it by leading the charge down runs. He just seemed so grown up leading us! He'd look at the signs and always wait at a good distance for everyone to catch up, never getting too far ahead. There was one time that Mac and I took a potty break and then tried to catch Sam, Nate and Elly on a run, so I led and would fly down. Whenever I stopped to let Mac catch up, he was literally right behind me. I was shocked. One time he crashed about 10 feet above me and said "I got going a little too fast on that one!" He also requested a mogul run one time and when he got down to the bottom, he looked at me and said "11...I crashed 11 times on that one." A couple years ago, Mac would have wanted to stop after crashes...but now it's just part of skiing...not a big deal...to be expected.

Mac and Nate have hit an age where they enjoy skiing, and don't need a ton of help. When they fall, they get themselves back up...they hike out of powder by themselves (we had a lot the second day), and they prefer to ride the chairlift by themselves (and amazingly, this doesn't worry me). My little boys aren't so little! Sometimes...that is! :)

Here's a video of Elly with her brothers following behind...she's usually on the tether.




You would have thought we were going to Disneyland with how excited the kids were to stay in a hotel! Mac actually said, "We're staying in a hotel with a lobby!" With the wind our first day, we only skiied for a couple hours. Sam and I knew how excited the kids were to stay in the hotel, so we headed back checked out our room and went swimming. While the kids took showers, Sam got dinner and a movie...and here we are...all eating on the bed together picnic-style! It was a great family trip!

March madness!

Life is full! We love it! It's definitely a new season of life with two grade school boys in the midst of sports and everything else. I rarely keep up, often think of what I meant to get started with two months ago...but it's alright. That's life. Here goes....


We hope you had a nice Easter! We had a quiet Easter, spending some much-needed quiet time after a busy week. I hope my legs didn't really look like this!




We got a dog! A chocolate lab named Hudson. He's fit in well and quickly became part of the family.


He hasn't been around kids much, so he hangs out in Sam's office when really little ones are over...but he sure loves Elly. She often lays down by him.


We had a great time with Beth, Bill and Gus. Can't wait to be with all the Glasers in North Carolina!


The boys are enjoying cub scouts. This is Nate's tiger den, he's on the end.


Mac's group got to do the flag ceremony at their Blue and Gold banquet. Mac is in the front saying all the commands. I'll try to post the video of this one.


The boys started soccer about two weeks ago. It keeps our evenings busy. They practice on opposite sides of town on Tuesdays, together on Thursdays and then have games in the same place on Fridays. They've been doing great for their first season, (Mac played in kindergarten, but this is a whole new experience, as he had no focus then!) it's fun watching them and they're having a great time.

We're doing well and will send more soon!