A Safe Place to Land

I had an awesome conversation with a good friend of mine this morning over some smoothies....(I love how the Lord can even be in the midst of the crazy Lifetime cafe!).

We talked about that we wanted our house to be a safe place to land... a place at the end of the crazy day that is refuge and respite. And to be quite honest, we both said, we're not sure if it is right now... Especially as my kids get ready to navigate the world of elementary school, where the playground can sometimes get rough, there's lots of instructions and demands, and LOTS of stimuli. When they get home, I pray that there is space to be calm, to reflect on their day, to be listened to, and to feel loved and accepted. Many times, these days, my house looks far from it. It looks like arguing, some nagging thrown in, and some hands up in the air with a "why would you do that?" thrown in... Don't get me wrong...this will also be a place of responsibility and chores and discipline. But, I want this to be their safe place to land. Their "home base"...the place where when you are being chased down, you've got a place to call "safe!".

This led my friend and I to wonder if this was truly our husband's safe place to land? I thought of Marley and Me, where Owen Wilson sits outside in his car for a few minutes before getting up enough courage to head into his house where a tired wife and screaming kids are waiting. I have no doubt that Sean has needed to do the same, especially when there were 3 kids under 2 waiting for him. And he was always ready...walked in the door, grabbed whoever needed holding and soothed my nerves simultaneously. All without breaking a sweat... Times are different now... not as much crisis mode...more living mode... So, does he have a space when he comes home to be encouraged, to be calm, and to just feel warmth? To feel like he has left his pressure world and gets a little respite? I pray that this is so, and if it's not, that it becomes so.

I thought of Psalm 23:6...Surely lovingkindness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever...

There's no safer place to land....

Christmas

I am not going to comment on how long it's been or that I will be better about this now... but I do have a laptop..so here's hoping!

Our first Christmas in Colorado was a blast... literally, a snowy blast. We had a serious snowstorm that left us barely even able to get to Mimi and Grampy's and they leave 3 streets away!

Darn those hills!

But, it was magical. Jack got his guitar, Collin got his drums, Caroline got her dollhouse... all are happy! And the house is loud... We had so many people here for Christmas dinner and loved every minute. Back to routine now, but here are some pictures.

The Sandbox

Or beach as we call it around here! We had a lovely pond in our backyard when we bought the house. Two big reasons to get rid of the pond.. 1.) Caroline was always trying to jump in it and 2.) the dogs were getting sick from drinking out of it.

So, my mom, who always has the brilliant ideas, thought to put a sandbox over the pond.

We found some amazing landscapers who did just that! They wheeled mountains and mountains of sand in with a wheelbarrow down the steep steps into the backyard, bless their hearts!

It is literally 8 feet by 12 feet! Giant! And worth every penny...

My kids literally play in it for at least 2 hours a day. On 4th of July we had about 12 kiddos in there comfortably with room to spare and having a ball!

There is sand all over my house, but completely and totally worth it!

A couple pictures of our beach and one of our amazing view from the backyard!

Don't have a heart attack..

but I am actually posting again.. I won't make promises like my last post (2 years ago..) that said I was going to do this more regularly.. but I will try!!

My kids look a little different than in our last post.. (just a tad!)

Oh, and yes, we moved to Denver!

I truly, honestly, love it here. It's beautiful, it's cool, our neighborhood is amazing.. there is so much to do. It's really wonderful! I am always a Texas girl at heart, but I love the idea of raising my children here.

Our summer has been awesome and we never take for granted that we can sit out on our back deck at 6:00 and always feel a cool breeze... still a shock to us!

Our summer has consisted of swim and gym...the kids have swim team lessons every morning at the neighborhood pool (just a good ol' fashioned one) and then we head to Lifetime fitness where mommy works out and those wonderful people watch the kiddos!

Here are a few pictures of our summer so far!

So ready for spring!

Let's see.. February was the month of sickness at our house. Can't say that I was sorry to see it come to an end. Just for a little rundown for whoever is keeping tally, our house endured pink eye galore, stomach bug galore, pneumonia (with an ER visit!!), bronchitis, ear infections, coughs, runny noses, and probably some strep thrown in for good measure (not diagnosed but who cares? we were on mega antibiotics anyways!).

Craziness!!

Soooooo incredibly happy to have some warm weather and on our way to healthiness!

Sean and I did manage to sneak away for one night to San Antonio thanks to Mimi and Grampy and have a great dinner and just some down time. I even slept in and ordered room service! Very nice! And we apologize for then inflicting our illness on those sweet people!

Kiddo updates:

Caroline is talking up a storm!! Can't ever get her to be quiet (that's how I knew she was sick.. not talking). She pretty much just narrates her whole day for whoever is listening!

She loves the park and still loves her brothers.. turning into a little mom.. makes sure they have their sippy cups and other necessities. She's their little slave girl and very happy to do so!

The boys are in store for some big changes soon I think... About to turn 3 and soon to move to big boy beds.. Yep, that's right.. still in cribs! they have never tried to get out and this tired mom and dad felt no need to rock the boat. But, it's probably time. I figure CPS might come out if they are still in cribs at 5?? We are going to have to strip down the room to ensure that two curious little boys don't get into anything!

And.. I think we might be on the verge of potty training.. Collin is not wanting to wear wet or poopy diapers and they are starting to get interested. Oh Lord help me!! I will be ecstatic to have someone out of diapers, but honestly dreading the process!

Jack has informed us that we are having a fire truck birthday party so mom needs to do some checking on that and I think a swingset for the backyard is in their future.

Here's to more sunshine around here!! Thank you God!!

And P.S. I know I don't have many pictures of Collin on here, but man, that kid is hard to get a picture of! Never stops moving!!

Doing better at blogging..

It hasn't been 3 months this time! We have had some good times at the Scanlan household.. My mom and Barry were here for a visit, we had some beautiful snow, and Sean and I got to get away for a night to San Antonio (thank you Mimi and Grampy!). We also had a little setback with some sickness, but I think we are on the mend now! And I pretty much think we got everything at once, so hopefully we are done (think pink eye, bronchitis, ear infections, coughs, snotty noses, stomach bug, you name it!)

Here are some pics from our trip to the Dallas Children's Museum.. loved the place and kids had the best time!

yes, it's been 3 months

So, apparently when I said I would catch up with my blogging, I lied. Let's see, what have we done since Nov. 22??

Awesome Christmas (white and everything) with the Owen clan.. the boys are now officially Claire and Katie's biggest fans. Did not make it to midnight on New Year's Eve again for the at least 4th year in a row! Boys were very happy to go back to school, as was their mama. Sean and I got a new mattess which appears to have alleviated any backaches for me.. thank goodness!

Miss Caroline is still torturing her brothers endlessly.. she was also dedicated at church and is talking up a storm. The other morning she told me "I need shoes" 16 months and using sentences still floors me! Girls...

Here's a few pictures just so we can remember what they still look like!

not my girly girl

pushing the lawnmower (not sure how she wrestled it away from Collin)


In her Longhorn gear!!



I do my best to make her girly.. I love that hat!

So, my mother is loving that my sweet little girl is definitely not a prissy little girly girl. My mom was not a girly girl and I was the most girly girl as a child, and my daughter proves to be the opposite. Of course, all she has to model and worship are two boys, so I guess that is to be expected. She can definitely hold her own against the boys and loves to tackle them... she's not afraid to take something away from them and then run like the wind! She says "mine" and "lawnmower" and makes good truck noises. She prefers to play with lawnmowers, weedeaters, trains, trucks.. baby dolls are for the birds!! I'm still putting her in dresses though and attempting bows in her hair.. .

zoo fun!

So, I'm still catching up.. we'll get there eventually... In September , (yes, I realize it's November).. Granny and Pop-pop came to visit for almost 2 weeks.. we had a blast! The boys learned how to throw balls from pop-pop, we went to the zoo and the arboretum, we ate lots of mexican food and just hung out! The boys were so sad when they left. These are pictures from the Ft. Worth zoo, which was so awesome! We will be back alot in the spring and summer.. the highlights were definitely the train ride, stagecoach, and the otters.. I think the boys watched the otters swimming for at least 20 minutes!

birthday girl!

I really didn't need to get her any gifts.. as you can see, so happy to be playing with yes, a tampon..


Does it get any cuter?

Finally some pics of the birthday girl from her big day (which, yes, was 2 months ago)

Hill Country Fun

So I'm taking us way back to August.. which feels like an eternity ago! We took a trip and visited my grandmother in Kerrville and then headed to the O'brien ranch for some fun. The boys were in heaven.. so much room to run around and a blonde harem to take care of them (Claire, Katie, jessi and Jamie). We had a great time. Ate so much good food, saw Jessi and Jamie feed the cows, and ate delicious chocolate chip cookies at Aunt Jojo's.

We're back!

I realize no one is probably reading this anymore since we've been away for so long, but our camera is finally working nicely with the computer again! Yeah! I have lots of catching up to do! I'll try to do at least one a day for a little while.. since these are my only records of what happened with my children!

Costco

Our family is addicted to Costco .. Sean got the ball rolling on this before we had kids, and now continues the boys in the tradition. Yesterday when I got them up from their naps, I asked them if they wanted to go with Daddy to Costco. (they do this often as you will see by Jack's answer)... Jack said "Yes.. I need a sample."

Still no pictures...

Caroline is 1!

She is officially 1 (as of two days ago).. And birthday pictures to come.. still having technical issues, and then, as predicted by me.. we went to one week of school and all got sick, so we've been down for the week. But, on the mend now! We did celebrate her birthday though, with grandparents and Lori, pizza and some cupcakes. She got a shopping cart, a stroller, a purse, an ice cream truck, some outfits, a longhorn cheerleading outfit, and a little cd player. As of right now, the boys are definitely more interested in her gifts than she is! (but, that was part of my plan)!
She is starting to walk, takes about 4 steps at a time, and is very proud.. she practices all the time. I predict that within the next week or so, she will be off and running! Still eating everything in sight and switched to milk like the champ that she is. Nothing phases this child!
She loves to dance and clap her hands. She says some words here and there, but definitely says outside! This is a word used frequently in our house (a.k.a. -- "Boys, go outside!).. so it's not surprising she picked it up..
She "jabbers" all the time though. Still loves her brothers and wants to do anything they do, much to their dismay. She's so tough, they will knock her down and she goes right back for more!
She is the sweetest little baby and I'm sad she's growing up. Caroline fills us with so much joy and just perfectly completed our family! Happy birthday sweetheart!
Love, mommy

technical issues

I realize it's been about six weeks since we posted, but we are having technical issues. Our camera won't load pictures onto our computer right now. And I do realize that nobody actually wants to just read a blog, they want to see pictures of the kiddos.
But, we are all doing great. I survived the summer and the boys started school Monday. They exceeded all my expectations (of course we have to get through tomorrow as well, so we'll see!)
I think they will really love it, once it becomes routine. We had a trip to the hill country which was very fun and got a great new patio, which we LOVE!!
Hopefully we'll fix our issues soon because some sweet little girl I know has a birthday in one week! Can't believe it..

10 months old.. and on the move..

Jack and Mommy having a serious discussion at the table about why we do have to keep the baby...

Well, she's finally on the move.. and in true Caroline fashion, she waited until she could do it right..

one day she wasn't crawling and the next day she was crawling and pulling up beautifully!

I never have to worry about her falling, she's very sturdy and does everything very carefully!

Oh so lucky with her!

Still an amazing eater and is loving more and more real food. I believe she might have eaten at least 2 pieces of pizza the other night!

Now that she is on the go I'm pretty sure that Jack has definitely decided he is not in her fan club. Collin would never lay a hand on her and just quietly moves away when she gets near him. Jack wants to let her know who's boss, says "no baby!" and she usually winds up getting whacked in the head if mommy can't save her first (Jack has spent alot of time in time out lately). I don't blame him though, she just comes in and starts wanting to crawl all over him and take his things. Of course, which brother does she follow around more?? The one who's mean to her... she loves, loves Jack and does not even bat an eyelash when he hits her .. tough cookie!

I do my best to keep them apart these days..

We've pulled the playpen out and she spends alot of her day in there while mom has to get things done. The boys have also decided they like being in there as well (of course they screamed when they were babies!).

Still such a sweet little angel with the best disposition!!

Pool fun!

I have a confession to make that we are pool moochers this summer!!

Fortunately we have very nice friends, neighbors, and grandparents!

We spent the first part of the summer in my friend's pool swimming around and eating lots of snacks. Well, I guess she HAD to go to Canada to see family.. so, our neighbors were very sweet and let us swim around in their pool while they were on vacation. Finally, the best pool came along courtesy of Grammy and Grampy. We head up to their tennis club which has a 1 foot covered baby pool the boys can splash around in and no people! We love it! Only way to spend a hot afternoon. The kids don't need all these fancy waterpark pools, just a simple baby pool will do.

Plus, we feel more at ease when we are at least mooching off of family...