he's figured it out.

we went camping last night and on the way home were singing, "the wheels on the bus." the kids like putting everyone in our family's name in the song and making up something that that person "does" on the bus. (you're really missing out if you don't know this song!) today they started adding gran, pawpaw, aunt susu, etc. we hadn't used the extended family before so the kids were having to pick new lyrics. when it got to "pawpaw on the bus goes-" norton asked, "what does pawpaw say?" and townsend said, "money, money, money!"
pawpaw, i'm sure you are getting a kick out of this!

overheard conversation

yesterday i was lying on the couch while the kids took their naps. it was about time for them to be waking up and sure enough i heard marin's door open. she was whimpering a bit for "mommy" and i heard her go into the kitchen and look down the stairs to our bedroom. norton was in there with the door closed so she didn't go down. she went back into the hallway and i soon heard townsend's door open. he came out and this is what i heard.

townsend- "marin, are you scared in your room in the dark?"
marin- "yes, i'm scared of the dark."
townsend- "why don't you just pray to God to ask you to not be scared?"
marin- "help me not be scared."
townsend- "no! pray to God to help you not be scared."
marin- "God, please help me not be scared."
townsend- "i'm not God!"

they continued on with new conversation about animals and such. it was so fun to hear them having an actual conversation. i can't believe how big they are. :)

summer vacation

i have always appreciated the fact that norton likes to go on vacations. every summer since we've been married we've gone on some kind of vacation. we decided to do a 5 day camping trip this summer. which was a bit risky. marin does not have a great track record when it comes to going to sleep and staying asleep in a tent. (we can barely get her to sleep in her own bed!) but we chose to accept the challenge. we headed northwest from denver and camped the first night at chambers lake. we have a book with the "best" campgrounds in colorado and this was one of them. our site was right on the lake. notice the smaller blue "boys" tent in the far background? well, the campground host came by right after this picture was taken and said that we would have to move the tent. it wasn't within the wooden boundaries. norton was so bummed. they had to repitch the tent right in back of the car since our "girls" tent took up most of the tent pad.
norton spent a lot of time fishing. can you see that gigantic trout that he is reeling in? really? you can't? well, it's right there. promise.
the kids enjoyed standing on the edge of the water. throwing rocks. getting dirty. the usual.


we brought our bikes and took a ride through the campground.
norton caught a mid morning snack for us.
the pan is about two feet in diameter. just to give you more perspective on the size of the fish. :) this was actually my first time at cooking a fish that had just been caught. kinda weird. i was more worried about the kids choking on a bone so they had to eat "flakes" of fish. but it was really yummy.
we continued north and ended up at steamboat lake state park. daddy was very gracious and put marin in his tent while we were there. so townsend slept next to mommy.
just relaxin'
the reason we chose this park was because in the book it said that all of the forest rangers voted this the best campground in colorado. it talked about the big shady trees. wonderful lake. etc. as you can tell from the picture, there were no trees in sight. unfortunately, this mean ol' pine beetle has been killing pine trees all over northern colorado. apparently last summer they cut down all the trees in the campground. there were big stumps all around our campsite. we were left to imagine what it must have looked like in the past. and to sweat alot as the sun beat right down upon us. sad. sad. sad.
our one little haven of shade.
once again, we camped right by the lake. norton fished and caught one trout. he left it on a line in the water until dinnertime. when he went to get it, about half the fish was gone. gross. we suspect an otter or beaver got at it.
after spending a couple of nights at steamboat we headed north again into wyoming. there was this really pretty lake that we came across so we stopped. as you can see there was some snow surrounding it.
the girls.
for our last night we stayed at this ranch. after going four days without a shower/bath we reeked! mommy stood in the shower and daddy handed her the kids one at a time to scrub down. felt so good!
BIG swings that the kids loved. unfortunately, there were a ton of mosquitos so we didn't stay outside too long.
our little cabin was right on the water so daddy caught several fish. but he threw them back.
this was the little card waiting for us in the cabin. a nice touch.

overall, i think it was a successful vacation. marin slept well in the tent 50% of the time. the kids did well during the driving and pretty well during the camping. it rained some and mommy hadn't brought alot of things to play with in the tent but oh well. mommy had a bike accident with ellory on the back. but except for being scared, ellory didn't have any scrapes or cuts. (mommy had several that marin kept wanting to kiss.) sometimes i felt like all we were saying was, "move back from the water!" " quit eating dirt!" "take your shoes off before you go in the tent!" "shhhhh! it's 6am and people are still sleeping!" so i hope that the kids remember the "fun" times more than the nagging. we learned some lessons to make the next camping trip even better and look forward to doing lots more!

is she a genius??

marin and i were playing with the magnetic letters on the refrigerator. all of a sudden i noticed that she had grouped all of the vowels together! oh my goodness! marin is a genius! and i didn't even teach her this. it's supernatural! from God!
then i looked above the vowels and saw that she had grouped other letters together----by color. i guess she's not quite the genius after all. but she can sort by color. that's pretty good for a 2 1/2 year old, right? semi-genius?

clean livin'

our girls share a pretty small room. both of their cribs turned toddler beds run along opposite walls and there is a dresser in between. there is just about a foot between each of their beds and the dresser. perfect for a...........shower! of course!
today i walked in and they were standing in their respective "showers" with two chairs acting as the doors. they were standing there scrubbing their little bodies. it was so funny. marin would get "out" of the shower and go over to their desk which has a little light under the top of the desk. she would put her hand there and pretend that it was dispensing soap. then go get back in the shower to continue cleaning. it's just so fun and funny to see them use their imagination.

townsend turns 4!

the first picture we ever saw of townsend. we were in love.
we had chocolate waffles for dinner on townsend's birthday. yum!


grandma and peepaw drove in on the morning of townsend's birthday. their van was loaded with presents for towney. courtesy of aunt susu of course.
townsend had just had a bath-hence the slicked back hair.
we also celebrated a couple of days later with aunt ann, uncle jim, james and julia. townsend wanted a cake with blue icing. blue is his favorite color.

aunt ann setting up the rocket shooter. i think half of the rockets ended up in the neighbors backyard within a few minutes. :)

dear townsend jose,
you are now four years old. our big boy. at your four year checkup you weighed 33.5 pounds (50th%) and are a little over 40 inches tall (30th%).
somewhere during this past year you developed the ability to hold an actual conversation. you have lots of questions about everything. and your memory is amazing. you also have very large ears-not physically. but we have to really watch what we say because you hear EVERYTHING. even when we spell words you have an uncanny knack for figuring out what we are saying.
you don't take a nap anymore but you do have quiet time in your room and you do pretty well at playing by yourself. at times you come out and try to engage mommy in conversation thinking that i won't "notice" that you are out of your room. sometimes i'll think you have fallen asleep and peek in your room and find that you have pulled out all of your puzzles and put them together one after another.
you continue to be very orderly and love to put cars, blocks, etc. in nice neat lines.
you still love thomas the train but have also added the characters from "cars" to your favorites list. in fact, most of your birthday presents this year were "cars" items.
you are a pretty good eater. not too picky. thank you.
you play fairly well with your sisters. when it's just you and one of them it's even better. lately you and the girls have been playing "family." there's a mommy, a daddy and a baby. i've noticed that you are usually the daddy or the baby.
i love that you still like to cuddle with mommy. and you love when daddy tickles you. :)
we are getting ready to go to guatemala and you are so excited. the other morning you came into our room, closed the door and said, "i am so excited about going to guatemala!" i told you to not talk about it too much around the girls. you asked, "will it make them jealous?"
you love to go camping. and for bike rides in the carrier attached to daddy's bike.
we think you are the cutest little boy in the whole world. we are so thankful that God made you to be our son and us to be your parents. although you still haven't asked any questions about being born in guatemala i know that at some point you will. maybe sometime this year. maybe the trip to guatemala will put some wonderings in your mind.
we love you so much townsend jose! happy birthday!

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!