Happy Birthday, Brinley!

My first child was born two weeks early. 

So of course I figured that my second would also be two weeks early. 

Nope.

After what seemed like the World's Longest Pregnancy, Brinley Claire arrived!

Brayden's world was about to be rocked.

Not too sure... 

Wait for it...

Welcome to the family!

 Sometimes they fight and sometimes they are sweet to each other.

Denver

This is Denver.

When I heard that the Cheley winter office was in Denver, I pictured an office in a tall building. I was pleasantly surprised to find the office in this residential area in the historic district. This has been the winter office for camp for three generations. Very cool!

Colorado Christmas

We celebrated a white Christmas in Colorado with a little pink tree. 

Then we carried everything from this truck...

...up three flights of stairs to our new place...

...where Bristol sleeps in our walk-in closet

Our friend Tim and his two nephews helped us so much with carrying up boxes and furniture!

Then we played with boxes,

Snuggled for story time

Rode our bikes (and Brayden learned to ride without training wheels!),

And had a LOT of family time.

Road Trip

We had a very long road trip in December from Virginia to Colorado. My mom flew to Virginia and drove with me and the kids, which was wonderful. Kenny was in his car, which was loaded down with the last minute stuff and all the things we forgot to put in the moving van.

My grandmother has pictures of trips where she'd make my dad and his brothers and sister get out and stand in front of the welcome signs at each state. I thought this would be fun!

Our first stop, West Virginia, was cold and rainy and muddy. The kids were not excited about being dragged away from the DVD player for a group photo.

After that, I gave up on the group shots and just hopped out myself for a quick picture.

We spent our first night in Santa Claus, Indiana. 

 We stayed in a cottage that had a Murphy bed (pulls down from the wall). I still remember staying at Disney World when I was 8 and how cool we thought it was that the bed came down from the wall. My kids were equally impressed!

We mailed postcards at the Santa Claus post office and drove through Rudolph's outdoor light show.

There wasn't a welcome sign in Missouri, but we stopped at the arch.

You ride in this little (and I do mean little!) capsule up to the top of the arch.

At the top you can look through those tiny windows in the middle of the arch.

  Also no welcome sign in Kansas. It did have a ton of windmills. And one blizzard. We spent a long afternoon/evening at a hotel in Kansas. It did have a pool, which all the kids loved.

We finally made it to Colorado!

1616 miles with 27 hours and 43 minutes of driving time!

Let's not do that again for a long, long time.

Moving

With the help of friends and family, we got our truck packed and ready to go. We used U-Pack, a division of ABF Freight. They drop off a tractor trailer, you pack it, they move it, and you unpack it. We started with this:

And ended with this:

They put freight in the unused space and you only pay for the portion you use. We had a great experience, after two bad experiences with U-Haul (now referred to as "Boo-Haul" in our house) and we would totally recommend them!

Then, we had no furniture. So we watched tv on the floor and had picnics in the living room for a few days before the Fun Road Trip began!

Santa

Santa came to visit at daycare and the kids had mixed reactions. 

This was as close as Brinley would get, with hands in her mouth.

Bristol loves mascots and animals, so I thought she'd have no problem with Santa. Wrong!

Brayden was happy to sit with Santa! 

Finally- I think this is the first Santa picture of his that I have not been in!

The Best Part

This kid never ceases to surprise or amaze me with his antics. Last week he was in time out and his head was "really itching," so he rubbed it on the carpet repeatedly and gave himself a rug burn. Just in time for the first day of school on Wednesday.

The first day of 1st grade in August was "terrible," so I was bracing myself for a rough transition being in a new school where he knew no one. Turns out he had a great day! The worst part was "nothing." And the best part of his first day? "Everything!"

10th Anniversary!

The Story of Us

February 1999: We met while working at MSU's Dance Marathon, a 24 hour fundraising event for LeBonheur Children's Medical Center. For Kim, an 18 year-old freshman, it was love at first sight. Unfortunately, the timing wasn't right, so I kept stalking him waited patiently. 

November 1999: First date at Old Venice Pizza Company where you could draw on the paper table cloths with the crayons provided. We still have that table cloth.

December 2001: Kenny proposes at center court of the Humphrey Coliseum. He worked in the building and had help with photo and video from friends Jill Bender and Robyn Felton. 

January 4, 2003: We get married in Tupelo, Mississippi. 

Fast forward ten years and we've got three babies and a house full of chaos and a lot of love! Can't wait to see what else the future holds for us!