michelle comes to visit!

my best friend, michelle, managed to get a week long layover in denver on her way to england this summer. it was so fun. daddy watched the kids so she and mommy could go to vail for a night. and it was just nice to have extended time to talk and hang out. it had been a year since the kids had seen her and the older they get the more that people impact them. it was a bit funny. my friend, mary, came out in april. then another friend,beth, came out at the beginning of may. the kids kept calling beth "mary." well, when michelle got here the kids kept calling her "beth." i guess the next friend to come will be called, "michelle." on the day that michelle left, the kids watched out the living room window and cried. so sweet. and that afternoon when i got marin up from her nap the first thing she asked was, "where is your friend?" i told her, "she's on a plane going to england." marin started crying and saying, "i want to go to england!" i think my friend needs to get a job in denver. :)

the real marin

we take all these pictures of our kids and sometimes you see one that makes you realize that most of the pictures you have taken don't really show the "real" child. i just love this picture of marin. it's her real laugh. and she's messy. and a cutie.
now this picture is also cute but not in the same way. it's kinda goofy. but obviously not a genuine smile. she's actually saying, "CHEESE!" which she says every time you tell her to smile. even if you are not holding a camera. also, you will notice that this picture is a couple of weeks old because marin isn't in diapers anymore. she is pottytrained!!!!

our little athlete

yes. it's ellory.
when she came to us at 6 1/2 months old, she couldn't even turn over. at 10 months old she still couldn't crawl. and she didn't walk independently until she was 17 months old.
now, here she is at three years old spending 30 minutes at a time playing basketball. by herself. dribbling. shooting. over and over without stopping. the girl can sweat, let me tell you. it has been so fun to watch her find an activity and really stick with it. she also loves to throw a ball back and forth. or play soccer. i know that norton is really hoping that his "boy" will be an athlete of some sort. and i'm sure townsend will. but right now ellory is taking the lead in the sports department. and i'm so proud of her.

potty training marin-take two

six months ago we tried to potty train marin. didn't work. not even close. i had been starting to feel like it was time to try again and as her diapers were running out i decided that when that happened, into the panties she would go. so on saturday, june 19th, we woke up marin, took off her last diaper and sat her on the potty. nothing happened. so we put her panties on and told her to start peepeeing on the potty. by about noon she had peepeed everywhere except the potty and was on panty #15. i put her down for a nap and was very discouraged. we had a busy sunday planned and i just didn't have the energy to keep going. norton encouraged me to decide how long i was going to give her and be patient. i decided she had the rest of the day to show even an ounce of improvement. well, something happened during that nap. from the time she woke up she has been peepeeing on the potty and even pooped once. i have not had to clean up any messes and she wakes up dry from naps and nighttime. now if we let her lay too long in bed after waking up she might wet her underwear but overall she has been amazing!!!! i am so happy. she is so cute in her little underwear. maybe i should be sad that our "baby" is growing up. but in this case i'm not. i am happy, happy, happy, happy, HAPPY! yea, marin!

marin starts preschool!

well, marin finally started preschool. the other two have been going since before they were even one year old. but for some reason we just never put marin in too. the preschool where townsend and ellory attend has a summer preschool for six weeks. once a week. so we decided to put marin in along with the other two. so for six weeks, every tuesday. from 9:30-1:30. mommy gets four whole hours to herself!!!! but i digress. this post is about marin! she was very very excited to go and be with her brother and sister. we bought her a rolling princess backpack. gran sent her a cute bear lunchkit. and she was ready to go!

this is her classroom. one of her teachers, ms. brandi, was townsend's teacher this past year. i think that made it a nice transition for marin since she was used to seeing brandi all year when we dropped off and picked up townsend.
she's in the puppy class.
i have looked in a little on her during the past three weeks. once she was sitting and doing a craft with ms. brandi and the other times she was just playing. today i asked brandi if marin is ever hyper. like at home. brandi said that they do lots of movement-dancing, singing, playing outside. so marin excels in those areas of course. brandi did say that after lunch the kids are supposed to go sit on the rug and read a book while the teachers clean up. apparently marin doesn't approve of this activity and makes her displeasure known. so brandi told her she could read or go lay on one of the pillows. marin went for the pillow. she has a mind of her own. that's for sure.

our trip to the sonnenfelds

don't get the wrong idea. marin was very excited about going to the mountains to stay with toni and bruce. i think mommy had just told her to quit biting on her big toe. you'll see what i mean in a second.
townsend and ellory just chilled in the back seat while watching some barney during the ride to lake george.
marin has decided that her teeth are good for clipping her toenails. argh!
it was time to take down the flags when we got to the house.
the kids had to help, of course.
don't let the flag touch the ground!!!
the sonnenfelds wonderful house.
lots of fishing poles and nets.
toni and the girls at the lake.
mommy and her girls.
daddy teaching townsend how to fish.
my favorite boys.
toni helped ellory with her pole.
the patient fisherpeople.
bruce and marin. toni and bruce were so awesome with the kids. it made the weekend that much better for norton and me.
i tried to help ellory with the pole but she kept wanting to "do it myself."
toni taught the kids to play, "red light, green light" everytime we went walking.
we took a little hike around the property. it was beautiful. from one side of the house there is an unobstructed view of pikes peak.


climbing the big rock!


relaxing on the porch.
our second try at fishing. this time on a little river. the kids just played with sticks in the mud.
daddy caught a.......stick!

another good marin face. she is so expressive. it cracks us up.

we had such a fun time with bruce and toni. the kids played with the kitchen timers. good thing there were three of them! we kinda tuned out the beeping sounds after awhile. there were also puzzles and some building block type things. and stairs. up and down. up and down. after the kids went to bed each night we played triominoes. bruce won the first night and norton won the second night. and we ate lots of yummy food. just a fun getaway. thank you sonnenfelds!!