Colorado Springs Fire Station

We had the chance to visit one of the Colorado Springs fire stations this past week.  COS has 20 fire stations and the one by us is #19.  Here are the all the kids (from church) posing with the fire truck.  Grant is in orange in the front and Matthew and Anna are wearing red.

 

 Here is one of the firemen dressed up to show us the gear.

 He let all the kids come touch his jacket.

They got three calls while we were there, and one more while we were driving away.  So we got to see the truck and engine leave a few times.  The kids liked that.

 The kids by some of the fire men gear.

Touring around the vehicles.  The kids got to walk through the fire truck.  That was cool too. You can see Matthew raising his hand to ask a question.  At least he raised his hand.  He had a million questions and comments.  That kid can TALK!   I think the fireman was trying to ignore him.  :) Whisper voice:  Sorry firemen!!

The fireman giving us a tour showed us the "jaws of life" along with some of the other equipment they use to cut into cars or houses.  I was thinking it would be pretty cool to be a fireman til I saw that.  It reminded me that those guys really use that stuff...serious business!!  I don't want to be a fireman anymore.

And the kids by the truck again.  It was so nice of the firemen to let us come visit.  They told us (after we asked) about fighting the Waldo Canyon fire this summer.  Those guys are awesome! Thank you Colorado Springs Fire Department or keeping us safe and letting us come for a visit!!

Smiles!!

Yes, there are a lot of pictures of John.  I keep trying to get pictures of him smiling, and it's not that easy.  He is smiling a lot at us lately and making little baby sounds.  He is growing bigger, but still sleeping good at night (only a few wake ups to eat).  He can sleep through sibling screams and fighting and, as we found out today, the smoke alarm going off.  Such a good sleeper.  His eyes are still dark blue and he still has brown hair.  He's about seven weeks old now - wow, has it been that long?  Anyway, here are some of my attempts at capturing his smile on camera.  Not easy!

 There's a smile

 Sort of smile

 He looks happy here

And here.  I held the camera off to the side so I could smile at him, so my pictures are a little crooked.

 

Not smiling at all...but still cute.

 

And here he's looking very serious.   He seems to have grown so long.

He was kind of long to begin with I guess.  Such a big boy!  Thanks for smiling for the camera John.  What a cooperative little guy you are!

Autumn Flowers

I've been feeling a little depressed about the state of our yard lately.  Scott normally takes care of all or most things outdoor at our house and I haven't been doing a great job filling in for him.  I tried pulling weeds once this summer, but in my uber-pregnant state in the hot hot sun it was a pretty miserable experience.  So our yard needs some TLC.  My mom has been taking care of the yard a bit while she's been here helping us and it's looking a lot better.  I wanted to buy some fall flowers, even though they will die soon, just to make the yard look a little happier.  We have this big bucket in the backyard that I have always intended to fill with flowers.  Well, I actually got around to it this past week!  We put in some zinnias and Anna picked out a flower called a penta to put with them.  I think they look nice.

 Up close

We have a small place for flowers in the front too.  We planted some things in the spring and a lot of them haven't survived the long hot summer.  So I decided to try and spruce that up a little too.  Most of these plants are perennials, so they may come back next year...maybe.  :)  Here is my amazing mom putting in some of the plants.  My mom knows a lot about plants - she actually teaches a university level botany class (go Mom!!) - so she's been very helpful with all the yard stuff.

Here is Matthew, our water boy for the day.  I think he had more fun watching the water from the hose drain into the street than actually watering plants, but he was still very helpful.

 Anna picked her own outfit.  That's all I have to say about this picture.

And our flowers in front close up.  Mums, cosmos, salvia and euonymus towards the back.  I only know the names because of my mom.  :)  So we have some color in our yard for a little while.

Baby Duck

Grant can't quite say "John," but he's trying.  He can say Anna and Mommy pretty well, but other names are harder for him.  He currently calls John, "Baby Duck."  The Duck part is supposed to be John.  I know, that sounds nothing like John.  I've also recently heard Grant call John "Baby Doc," "Baby Jit" and "Baby Jog."  So we might be getting closer.  Anyway, Grant often wants to hold Baby Duck, so we let him have a supervised hold now and then.

 Here is Grant holding John.  John looks a little apprehensive about this.

Grant looks at John so sweetly when he holds him.  It's very cute.  Usually the holding only lasts about ten seconds.  This is a short attention span crowd.

As sweet as Grant is about holding John, he usually wants to give him back pretty quickly (thus the ten second holding time).  They both look kind of happy that it's over.

Back in the arms of someone who can actually support his weight.  It's a good place to be.

 

Happy!

 

 And here's another Johnny holding episode

Grant wanted to hold him...then wanted to give him back. 

John always looks nervous when the kids hold him.

Anna wanted to hold him too.  John does like Anna talking to him and singing to him, but he didn't like being held that day.

Then Grant and Anna had to have a fight about who would hold him.  When one kid holds John, everyone else suddenly wants to hold him too.  Poor Johnny!

In all seriousness though,  John really seems to love the company of his siblings.

Just not in this picture.  :)

Soccer!

I feel like at this point in my life I spend a lot of time trying to work my way through things I'm not very good at.  It can be pretty demoralizing sometimes.  But there is at least one thing in life I know how to do well.  I know how to play soccer.  It has been refreshing being able to take Matthew to his soccer games and pass the ball around with him and shag balls during the practices.  Thanks Mom for making it possible by watching the younger three!  It feels good to spend time doing something I like AND can do well...even if its only a short time. 
Here is Matthew's soccer team getting their team pictures taken last weekend.  The picture lady was a little taken aback when we told her the team name was "Tiger Legos."  I guess she hadn't heard that one before.  :)  Matthew is standing in the back next to the coach.  Our coach this year is great.  He is funny and great with the kids.  When the team couldn't decide on a team name 'cause half the team wanted the name Tigers and the other half wanted Legos, he's the one who came up with the compromise, "Tiger-Legos" and suggested our mascot be a orange Lego with black tiger stripes.  He reminds me a little of my brother in law, Dana.  Hi Dana!

Sorry some of these pics aren't great.  My camera broke so I'm borrowing from my mom and don't know how to use it too well.  Still learning.

 Here are the kids playing.  Matthew is in a blue jersey with his arms kind of up.

 Points if you can spot Matthew here.

He had a lot of fun playing.

 Half time

 They play six minute quarters, so the game gets done pretty quickly.

It's long enough for them though.

 Matthew was very excited because he got to play goalie for a quarter.

He did a great job and stopped a lot of balls.

 And got to do a lot of goal kicks.

 I tried to encourage him not to get tangled up in the net

Here he is doing another goal kick
Good job Matthew and Hooray for soccer!!

Fit and Fun Run

Matthew's school had the Fit and Fun Run today.  It's a little fundraiser the school does to raise money for PTA and the "specials" programs at school (Art, Music, PE, Spanish and Computers).  Matthew was very excited to participate.  Here he is during the run.

 

Here they are getting ready to start.  The teacher in the blue shirt is the PE teacher who was running the show.  He did a great job!

Only three classes were running at a time.  The kindergarteners were the last to start.  Matthew is in the grey Batman shirt.  Go Matthew!  His PE teacher and kindergarten teacher are on the left in blue and black respectively.

 Here he is during the race.  Such great form!

 And running so fast!

 Here he is getting his laps marked off on his back.

 Extra points if you can spot him here.

Here he is coming in after another lap.  Each lap was probably somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 mile...probably closer to 1/8.  I don't know for sure but that's my guess from my years of running track. ;)

I love running so I was excited for him too.  I wish I had dressed up to run with him like some of the other parents did.  I didn't know we were allowed to do that and came with the two little boys in tow and wearing jeans and flip flops...maybe next year.

And here is Matthew after the race was over getting his laps tallied up.  They ran for about 30 minutes and he did 12 laps.  Good job Matthew!