****Memorial Weekend****

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I know we did! (Even though it rained off and on the whole time)
Ryan and the boys finally got to go ride their bikes. They went to a track in Pueblo. Our friends Allison and Chase went with them. All the pictures are from her. Thanks!

Addison

Ryan’s bike

Ryan and Peyton

Mr. Chase

Peyton

Peyton already riding with no training wheels!!

Peyton, Mr. Chase, Addison and Ryan

Addison and Daddy

Peyton

Addison and Daddy

All the men getting ready to take off the training wheels. They had to keep taking them off for Peyton and putting them back on for Addison.

Ryan and Mr. Chase

A view of some of the track

Addison

Mr. Chase

Ryan and Addison

Peyton

Ryan and Addison

Ryan and Addison

Ryan and Addison

Addison asking Peyton when is it his turn

Amanda

****Mother’s Day****

I had a wonderful mother’s day. Ryan put sod down in the back yard and I cleaned the house. I know that doesn’t sound very exciting but to be able to clean without anyone in the house messing it up behind me was great. Plus the backyard is actually looking like a backyard. We still need to put the gazebo back up. We had to take it done during the winter because of the wind and snow. We didn’t want it to break.

Before we did the sod

****Peyton’s 8th Birthday****

May 16th was Peyton’s 8th birthday. We had his party the same day at the bowling alley. For lunch we went to Red Robin. (I think it is a unofficial tradition that we go there for the boys birthday). Peyton had a great day. He loved bowling.

First thing in the morning

His cake…He wanted a Bakugan themed cake to go with his party theme. We were unable to find a Bakugan cake so we made our own. We just bought a store cake and then put Bakugan on the cake. Of course we had to buy new ones because I didn’t want him to put ones he already had on his cake. Who knows where those have been.

Being silly with Daddy at Red Robin

Another picture of his cake

Addison bowling

Mr. Cliff helping Justin and Kelly

The birthday boy

Ryan helping Addison bowl

Mrs. Natalie helping Angie bowl

Mr. Ben, Alix(pink stripes), Angie and Addison

Mr. Cliff, Kelly, Mrs. Jaime

Justin waiting for his ball

Lilly, Liam, Peyton, Grant, Addison, Kelly, Hailey, Justin, Diego, Angie and Alex…The kids sat there for about 5 minutes letting us all get pictures.

Opening presents

After his party at the bowling alley we went back home to hang out with our neighbors. We brought out the dirt bikes. It was the first time that the boys got to ride their new dirt bike.

Addison

Mr. Chase helping Peyton with his helmet.

Daddy telling Peyton where everything is on the bike

Angie riding the bike

Addison’s turn

Diego’s turn

Alix’s turn

Addison getting ready to ride Angie’s bike

Mr. Chase

****Sunday May 17th****

We had Kelly’s 6th Birthday party to go to on Sunday. She had her party at ArtSports World. It was a pretty cool place. The boys had a blast.

The birthday girl

Justin

Addison

Peyton

****Soccer Pictures****

A few weekends ago we had great weather for the boys soccer games. Ryan got some great pictures.

Addison running with his coach

****Random pictures****

Ryan in all his riding gear

I have some more pictures to post. I will make this a two-part blog entry. Part two to come in the next day or two.

Amanda

Easter 2009:

The community center near our house had an Easter Egg Hunt Saturday before Easter. It was rainy and cold. Addison got his socks and shoes wet so he was ready to go after 5 minutes of looking for eggs. They both had fun.

Addison wasn’t very happy

Getting ready to go to the Easter Egg hunt

Being silly

The boys with the Easter bunny

The boys coloring while they waited for the egg hunt to start

Addison getting a tattoo

Peyton getting a tattoo

Addison finding eggs

Peyton finding eggs

Saturday afternoon we dyed eggs. The boys had a lot of fun.

Peyton dying eggs

Addison dying eggs

Sunday we had our neighbors over for Easter dinner and egg hunt. It snowed all day so we had an Easter Egg Hunt inside. It was our 1st ever egg hunt inside. We did one downstairs for the younger kids and upstairs for the older kids. They had a blast. They ended up with way more candy then I planned but it was fun.

The boys Easter baskets

The eggs downstairs had to be easy for the younger kids

The eggs upstairs were a little harder

Very clever

What is that under my bed?

Diego finding eggs

Alix finding eggs

Alix getting helping from her daddy

Diego and his daddy

The race is on

I can’t reach it

It was eggs under my bed

****Soccer****
The boys are both playing soccer for the Youth Center on base. They had their first game Saturday. It was rainy and cold. They both did great. It is really good for Addison’s anger issue. He went after the ball with all his aggression. He made one goal. Peyton also made one goal. I hope that next weekend we will have better weather so I can get some better pictures of the boys.

Addison at practice

Addison was wore out after practice one day. He fell asleep on the floor.

Addison eating an orange slice during half-time

Addison with his best bud Dylan

Peyton getting ready to play goalie

****Great book****
I just read Fireproof. AWESOME book. I asked Ryan to read it too. He loved it. We also watched the movie. We highly recommend this book and movie to everyone.

***Paint****
We finally painted some rooms in the house. Ryan has been wanting to Peyton since we moved in. I have been alright with white walls. We finally painted the living room. We just painted an accent wall for now. We also put up curtains. We also painted the kitchen.

Ryan’s new t.v.

This year for Spring Break I was actually off. YEAH!! Ryan had two days off but I had to work one of the days he was home. It was pretty relaxing.

****Saturday****
We went to Helen Hunt Falls. We were going to hike up to the falls but we have already done that so we went on another trail. It was so pretty. First we had a picnic lunch and then we hiked. I am not sure of the trail we went on but we were able to see Seven Falls. It was iced over though.

On the way to Helen Hunt Falls we saw this doe. She crossed the road and then crossed back over. We just stopped in the road and starting taking pictures.

At the foot of Helen Hunt Falls. We took some pictures and then went on another trail.

Addison

Peyton

Ryan and I

Peyton eating his lunch

Addison

Ryan eating his lunch

Me

The boys with their hiking sticks

A view of Colorado Springs from our hike

****Sunday****
We went to Bass Pro Shop-Denver. It is the coolest store. We just went for something to do. We spent three hours there just looking at everything.

Addison at the restaurant

Ryan and Peyton at the restaurant

The boys were able to get on stuff and try them out. They thought that was awesome!!

Some of the neat things to look at

Peyton looking at the fish

The deer bench

The boys

A moose that someone actually shot!!

Addison and I

Peyton about to rock climb…Addison was very upset that he couldn’t but he wasn’t tall enough

He went all the way to the top

Peyton shooting. This was awesome. You shot at the target which would make something happen. A coke can would go flying if you shot at that target. The turtle would spin. The frog would crock. It was really neat.

They had tents set up that you could go in and try out. The boys found the ones they liked.

****Tuesday****
A friend I used to babysit came to Denver for work. We went and met up with her. It was great to see her. We went to the Park Meadows Mall in Denver.

Mrs. Christine and I

Addison- A little blurry but I like them

Peyton

Peyton- a little blurry but I like them

Addison, me, Peyton and Mrs. Christine

****Puzzle****
We we went to Bass Pro Shop we let the boys get something. Addison picked out a gun. Peyton wanted a stuffed animal. We told him no so he got a 550 puzzle. Next time we are going to let him get the stuff animal. Ryan and I did most of it for him because it was to hard for him. Here is the finished product. Took us 4 days!!

Our week has gone by so fast. It was nice to be home and just relax. Monday we go back to work and school. Ryan leaves again on the 2nd to go on another trip.

Amanda, Ryan, Peyton and Addison

Wow!! It has been another month since I have updated this. I am so sorry.

****Peyton****

He has been having some trouble in school lately. Not academically but with his behavior. His teacher sends home papers every now and then. We received a stack about four weeks ago. I wasn’t impressed. I asked him about them and he knew what to do but during class he had rushed through the directions and didn’t do what he was suppose to do. I wrote the teacher and asked her how he was doing. She said that he was rushing through his work and not behaving in class. I told her that he was grounded until we saw an improvement in grades and his behavior. I still don’t understand why she didn’t notify us of the problem before the papers because according to her he has been this way for awhile now. Anyway. She notified us that the class is boy heavy. 17 boys and 8 girls. She said that he likes to be the class clown. At first I wasn’t happy with Peyton for the way he was acting. I knew he could do better. After being grounded for 2 weeks with no word from the teacher, I e-mail her to ask how he progressing. She tells me that is papers are a lot better but his behavior is only a little better. Ryan and I talk about what we can do to help with the problem. We both agree that as long as he is doing good academically we aren’t going to fight the behavior problem. We think it has to do with having a class full of boys, being pregnant (she is pregnant) and lack of organization. We tried the grounded him because of the behavior but he didn’t improve. He isn’t being mean he just does things that are annoying his teacher. Plus we figured that if it was a huge problem she would have come to us. We are still working on having him be better in class but we aren’t grounded him because of it. We are picking our battles.

My poor baby had another reaction to dogs Sunday. We mostly try to avoid dogs because we know what will happen. A few weekends ago we went to our friends house. They have three weiner dogs. I told them that I may have to leave because of Peyton but we would at least give it a try. He did great. No reaction at all. Saturday night they have a party so we go over there. We are there about an hour when he starts having a reaction. We leave. I give him Benadryl and make him take a shower. He goes to bed. He was up and down all night. When he usually has a reaction the night it pretty hard on him but by morning he is fine. Sunday morning he isn’t doing any better. I give him more Benadryl and make him take another shower. He tells me that he isn’t doing any better. I can tell that he needs more than I can do. We go to the ER. On the way there he vomits all over the van. We get in and of course we are seen immediately. His oxygen level is at 85. (Not good normal is 90-100) He gets oxygen on right away and starts doing a lot better. The doctor comes in to see us an asks what happened. I tell him the whole story. Then he asks has this happened before. I tell him yes. He then asks me what they usually do. I tell him we usually have to do a breathing treatment, steroids and inhaler. He says that is what we are going to do this time. He starts doing a lot better once he gets the breathing treatment. We had to stay a little bit longer just to make sure his oxygen level didn’t dip back again. He asks me for some food. I had brought snacks for Addison so the nurse tells me I can let Peyton eat. He eats some peanut butter crackers and feels fine. They let us go. On the way home, I have to stop at Walgreens to drop off his prescription and he gets sick again. Poor boy. I am not sure if it was the motion or the air from the windows being open. (I had to because of the smell from earlier) We get home and he does great. His reaction is gone. He got sick one time last night and wasn’t holding solids down so I stayed home to keep him home. He is doing great. We won’t be trying the dog again. I hope one day he will out grow this reaction.

****Addison*****
He is the big 5 now. I can’t believe that my baby is 5. The time flies. We celebrated three times. He was very confused. He kept asking me if he turned 6. Ryan was gone for his actual birthday. We were off from school and work so we went to Red Robin for lunch on his actual birthday. Some of our neighbors met us there. He had a great time. On Feb. 18th we had his class celebration and on Feb. 28th we had his party. He basically celebrated the whole month!!

Getting ready to leave for Red Robin. Addison telling me he is 5 today.

Waiting for Red Robin to open

Showing me his bakugan. These are the in thing now. They are taking over our lives we have so many.

I don’t know what Peyton was doing

He told me he was 5 a billion times.

Peyton telling me he is 7.

They were singing “Happy Birthday” to him

Being goofy with his spoon for his sundae

Allison and Amanda

Peyton kicking the soccer ball.

Addison kicking the soccer ball

Addison’s class party

He was happy I was there

Classmates

Getting his pizza

My big boy

Addison and Daddy at Pump It Up

Listening to the rules

Going down the slide

Friends

Valerie and Diego

Peyton

Justin

Diego

Peyton

Diego and Hailey

Diego, Kelly and baby Hailey

Addison’s cake

Opening presents

Blowing out his candle

****Valentine’s Day*****
Ryan was gone for Valentine’s Day. We bought the boys some chocolate’s. We had to run errands that day so the boys bought me lunch. Ryan and I celebrated this past Thursday. We were both off, amazing. We went to Pappadeaux’s in Denver. It was alright. No one can dress a po-boy like back home. Then he took me to the mall in Denver. He stops there a lot on the way back from his TDY’s because they have a big food court. It was so pretty. I can’t believe I had never been there. I wanted to go into stores to look for stuff for the boys but he wouldn’t let me. It was all about me. I got my new phone. I love it. I also loved having a day all about me. Sometimes, well most of the time, I put myself last. It was a great change. Our next trip to Denver will be to eat at the Cheesecake Factory and go to Bass Pro Shop.

Peyton with his Valentine

Addison with his Valentine

The Valentine’s basket I received from our friend Allison

We had such beautiful weather on Valentine’s. NOT!!

****Ryan****
He has been gone a lot on TDY’s. One of the drivers that work with him can’t drive anymore so that means that the other two drivers have to pick up the slack. The most he is gone is two weeks.

My sister sent me some pictures of Jenna so I have to share.

Adorable

She looks just like my sister did when she was this age.

Big blue eyes!!

I hope everyone is well.