5.30.11-6.5.11: 10 YEARS!! new camera!! 2 birthday parties!

Another big week for the Twiss family! Most importantly, we have reached our 1st significant milestone in our marriage, we celebrated 10 years of marriage!! What a journey its been, we've definetly had our ups and downs, but I really believe our marriage has blossomed so much! Brad Paisley's song "And I thought I loved you then" pretty much sums the feeling up! Shawn and Alissa were able to watch the kiddos and we went out for a nice dinner at White Chocolate Grill (yum!) and then went to see the movie, "Hangover 2", romantic huh? ;-) I know both of us were hoping to be on a beach. I was hoping we'd get to be in Maui (somewhere I've dreamed of going for our 10 year), but we both want to be healthy and of course, it was just not in the cards right now, one of these days, we'll get there! Chad got me such an awesome, much needed gift...a NEW CAMERA!! I had just found our old camera and the front cover was starting to come off and holding on with tape :-), we both knew we needed to save up for one, so even though I knew we'd eventually get one, this was a wonderful surprise!! I haven't had time to read the manual and get educated with it, but i know the basics and its such a huge improvement, I'm loving it!! The kids were invited to 2 parties on Saturday. We were able to make both, it was a fun day celebrating Gavin's 1st birthday party and Anabel's 6th birthday! Again, the pictures that were taken were lost, so I'm borrowing some for the time being!

5.23.11-5.29.11: End of school year, long weekend

This week marked the end of of Bray's 1st year of preschool! Its been such a fantastic experience for him!! We had no idea, having never been through this, what to expect. I would say both of us were very pleased with his school and how much he learned and enjoyed it! It was sad to see the year already at an end, but I would say that I will be relieved to have a 3 month break from having to haul multiple children to and from preschool 2 days a week, that in itself, is quite the job itself! I am very thankful Chad would go in earlier on these days so he could pick up Bray, that helped me tremendously! We celebrated with his class at Challenger Park. It was a pretty windy and chilly day, but other than that it was great! We were suppose to go to Wray for Memorial Day weekend for Roxanne & Tyson's wedding and Chad's cousin's graduation, but Bryn and I ended up not feeling that great, so that was a huge bummer. By Monday, both of us were feeling much better and we had the day off, so we ventured to Colorado Springs to go the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and Garden of the Gods! I have been telling Chad i'd love to take the kids there, I hadn't been there in years and Chad had never been. I'm SO glad we did, I have to say, the zoo was better than I remembered it. If I had the choice to go to the Denver Zoo or CMZ, I would definetly choose Cheyenne Mountain, it is well worth the drive! I had never been to the Garden of the Gods, so on the way home we decided to check it out. OH MY, probably one of the best decisions ever!! I had saw pictures, but that just doesn't do it justice until you are actually there. SIMPLY AMAZING, one of my favorite spots in Colorado so far. Can't believe I've never been here. The kids LOVED it! Bray couldn't understand why he couldn't climb the rocks like the experts that were doing it, I think we have a rock climber on our hands! The biggest bummer of all was that all these pictures from today were lost :-(( Chad reassured me its ok, just an excuse to go back, he's right, we will be back, hopefully very soon!

5.16.11-5.22.11: Santus Real, Travis graduation, Kari baby shower

A neighbor friend I do daycare for and whom also goes to our church and I were able to go see Santus Real, The Afters and Stephanie Smith at our church one night this week! It was a great concert!! I really have enjoyed getting to know Santus Real's music, but I think my favorite was The After's, they are a favorite christian band of mine now! On Saturday, we all drove down to Weldona to Chad's cousin, Travis's, high school graduation, it was nice to catch up with family you don't see much, it was especially fun to see Trav's sisters, Christine and Susie's, new babies, born within a few weeks of each other! On Sunday, Teresa and I and a few other gals threw a fun, small baby shower for our neighbor friend, Kari, who's expecting her 2nd boy in mid June, it was such a great idea (Teresa) and I think all of us mom's agreed, MUCH needed and deserved! ;-)

5.9.11-5.15.11: Mother's Day recap, Reece Colfax marathon

Really sad I still didn't have my camera this week, but it was still a great Mother's Day! I am SO honored and blessed to be a mother to 2 BEAUTIFUL KIDS, just simply amazes me what God has done for us, I didn't even know in the beginning of the journey we would be able to have even 1, simply amazing!! I could never imagine life without them, they put SO, SO much joy into our lives, always making me smile!! We did our annual outing to Tagawa Gardens, LOVE that place! Also, went to a few of the other local stores to find more stuff for the garden. In the evening we all went out to Red Lobster, love, love seafood! The next weekend, my youngest brother, Reece, was up here to run the Colfax half marathon. This was his 1st attempt at one and he finished it, a little over 13 miles, just plain crazy if you ask me, someday i'll get there, but I'm so proud of him! Wish i would of been able to go watch him, but getting up on a Sunday at 4am didn't sound so appealing!

5.2.11-5.8.11: Muffins for Mom, Its a GIRL!, Haidyn birthday

This was a busy and exciting week for us! On Wednesday we found out that Shawn & Alisa are having a GIRL!! VERY excited to be a 1st time aunt, the kids are just so excited too! Bray keeps asking when Miss Camdyn is coming out and if she's still cooking! ;-) I made lasanga with fixings and we went over for dinner to find out what they were having. Alissa & Shawn had put some pink socks and cute pink bath towel on their table letting us know what the gender would be! Camdyn Claire will be her name, how cute is that?!? On Thursday, Bray's preschool class had "Muffins for Mom" even in his classroom! I got to enjoy muffins, lemonade and they all made their mamas a homemade trivet, absolutely the best gift you can get from your child, it will be cherished forever!! On Saturday, the kids and I went to our little neigbhor girl, Haidyn's, 1st birthday party and on Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day, more on that next week! Unfortunetly, i was still missing my camera at this time and some pics were taken on my other phone which i can't retrieve right now, so not many pictures this week, just memories! All in all, a busy and fun week!

excuse the quality and lack of, pics...

Bray has been really sneaky about getting hold of my camera, he really enjoys taking pictures on it and then hiding it from me. Recently went missing for longer than i wanted, to a point that I was getting worried what happened to it, it was at least a few months. One afternoon, while packing the kids lunch in a insulated cooler i use quite a bit, I opened one of the pockets, and guess what I stumble upon? Yep, MY CAMERA!! It had probably been there the whole time, geez.....What a sigh of relief! I'm so glad i went with my instinct and held off on purchasing a new one. I've had a few experiences where I've went to buy a new item of the one thing that's missing, only to turn around a few days later and find it! I'm hoping one of these days, we will have saved up a little to get a new camera, its definetly time to upgrade!

4.25.11-5.1.11: my birthday, Lily daycare welcome, scrapbook retreat

You know its going to be a great week when your birthday starts off the week! Chad had worked 60+ hours last week, so he sweetly (and more deservingly) took the day off with the kids and I. I decided to also take the day off from daycare as well! We had a fun day, we ended up going over to the mall around noon and walking around and then eating lunch in the food court. Afterwards, we went down the road to the movie theatre and saw Disney’s “African Cats”, cute! After the movie, we met up with Shawn & Alissa and had dinner at the Rio! All in all a great birthday! The fun really began this weekend though when I got to escape everyday life and go on a scrapbook retreat down the road with my friend, Kirsten! I was certainly ready for a girls weekend after a very crazy week. Our neighbor is back from maternity leave, so I now have Miss Lily and Rocco full time now! On Thursday I had 7 kids, on Friday it was 8…simply insane and exhausting! The last few times I’ve came I haven’t been able to scrapbook. All my stuff is still in boxes from basement construction, so since I am so far behind on my blog, this has been my project both times! I really hope next time I come, I will actually be able to scrapbook, I’m itching to do it badly!! It is such a blast to get away, clear my mind and to have a break! We slept in until 9am this morning, uninterrupted sleep, I haven’t done that since we were here last November, it felt incredible!! Then to top it off, to walk down to have breakfast made for you, especially when you are the only cook…amazing!! There is a free happy hour each evening for a few hours as well, we take full advantage of that! We also have brought some of our own drinks and snacks, went to dinner and a Starbucks run! It has been a great weekend, I’m officially caught up and made my goal, it feels so good! To reward myself, I’m going to go get a chair massage in the next hour, I should feel like a million bucks here soon and sleep like a baby again! I’m so thankful to my Mom, who graciously was suppose to watch my kids last night and today. She ended up getting pretty sick, so Chad ended up taking over early this morning! Definetly something he really hasn’t done for that amount of time, so I’m sure he will be ready for me to be home tomorrow! What a perfect birthday gift, thanks Chad!!