What Cowgirls Do

Isabella LOVES to dress up.  I'm not sure I can remember the last time she didn't have on at least one dress-up outfit during the day.  She rotates between being a princess, a flower girl, some kind of scantily clad girl, and the other day she ran across her pink cowgirl boots, and found an outfit that fit the part perfectly!

You see, cowgirls always wear vests.

They also pose like this when getting their picture taken by their daddy.

Well sweetheart, giddy-up!  We love you and your imagination!

Memorial Day Weekend

We have been so fortunate to live in the United States and reap the benefits that our military has fought so hard for.  We spent Memorial Day Sunday at church and then with Grandma Becky, Grandpa Vinny, Aunt Abby, Uncle Jared, Aunt Andrea, Madalyn, and Colt. 

On Memorial Day Anthony found awesome tickets to the Rockies Game - in the shade (mostly).  We really enjoyed our time together as a family, and the weather was stunning!

Memorial Day Sunday

Celebrating with Cousins

Daddy's Girls

Game On!

The View from our Seats

A true Daddy's girl

And a Mama's girl

Waiting for the game to start

Not a fan of the fireworks...She spent most of the game this way

The game interfered with nap time...She spent the game snuggled on my lap

But getting out of the sun for a snack helped everyone feel better - thanks Gramma Nellie!

The perfect way to spend Memorial Day!

Our Not So Little Girl

We knew this day was fast approaching, but it finally happened.  On May 23, 2012 our little Isabella graduated from preschool!  This means that come the middle of August, she will begin kindergarten!  Grampa Mike and Gramma Nellie came out from Iowa for the big ceremony, and Grandma Becky was there to cheer her on!  Auntie Abby and Auntie Andrea came with Madalyn and Colt.  Aunt Betty and Janie wouldn't have missed it for anything.  We were also blessed to have our dear friends Nick, Christina, and Emily there to help Anthony and I wipe away our tears!  Thank you all for helping us celebrate!  We are so proud of our little (big) girl, and so excited for her!  Love you sweetheart!

Before the ceremony

Waiting with her classmates

The Graduate

Ms. Zeigler

Mrs. Blodgette

Our proud family

So sweet!

Father's Day

Fifth Father's Day - 2012

We celebrated Anthony's 5th Father's Day yesterday!  I have been blessed with a wonderful husband, but our girls have been abundantly blessed with an amazing father!  Thank you, Anthony, for being such an incredible man and leader of our family.  We love you so much, and can't wait to see what the next 5 (or 50 years) bring!

Isabella - September 2007

First Father's Day - 2008

Second Father's Day - 2009

Catherine - November 2009

Third Father's Day - 2010

Fourth Father's Day - 2011

Tourney Time

It's Selection Sunday, so you know what that means....time to fill out your bracket. I am usually pretty lousy at filling mine out. My m.o. is to fill it out quickly, picking the first team that comes to mind. This year I deviated a little bit. On the picks I could have gone both ways with, I had a guest picker help me out - Isabella the Sage.

I had her pick all of the play-in games (the NCAA calls this the First Round, but we all know these are just play-in games). We picked Western Kentucky, Iona, Lamar, and California. I'm not too sure about the Cal pick. They were pretty inconsistent this year. We'll see.

The next step was the main bracket. My first tough call was Iowa St. vs. UConn. Grandpa Mike will be happy to know that his granddaughter picked the Cyclones. (Truth be told, I was tending toward them as well).

We ended up with Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio State, and Kansas (Isabella picked the Jayhawks over the Tar Heels) in the Final Four. Kentucky and Ohio State (Sorry Aunt Abby and Grandma Becky) in the championship game. I then chose Kentucky to win it, while the Sage picked Ohio State.

This is arguably the best time of the year for a sports fan, and possibly the most frustrating because by the time Friday evening rolls around, my bracket is shot. At least this year I can blame someone else for my poor picks.




And by the way: Go Buffs! Go Rams! Colorado is representing in the Big Dance!

Wii Love Game Night

On Friday night we decided to have our first Family Game Night!  We've done movie nights before, and thought we would be hunkering down for a quiet night with Curious George, but Isabella had other ideas!  She had her eye on the Wii, and we ended up having a lot of fun!

We had turned the Wii on a few days ago and she practiced her baseball and bowling skills, but Anthony and I decided to try a different game this time, and she LOVED it!

The dueling game was her very favorite, and she is very proud that she knocked Anthony off a few times.  Catherine entertained herself by dancing around and clapping and cheering her big sister on!  And, I'm not sure where her pants are...we're kind of potty training...(I'm going to use that excuse).

Attempting to Canoe...tricky...

Taking a thumb-suck break

CHEESE!  We had a chocolate snack.  And yes, that is chocolate in her teeth.

Daddy's girl

Mama and her girlies

Isabella "fighting" Daddy

By far her favorite game!

Daddy won!

Biker Chick

Santa brought Isabella a bike for Christmas.




We brought it downstairs for her to practice before we dealt with the pressures of being outside. In two days, she's gotten pretty proficient. The bike is just a little too big for her, but I think Santa thought she could grow into it. Santa knows best.




Here's a video of her cruising in the basement. Her idea of braking at the end is interesting. Her sister was pretty excited too.

We Love the CMAs

The CMAs are on tonight. We love it because it's full of high quality music, generally conservative views, and an overall good time. We had it on and the girls kicked it into high gear. It started out with Catherine dancing during the opening song (Footloose). After Isabella saw Carrie Underwood looking "so beautiful", she went upstairs and got her princess crown. And Catherine quickly followed suit.




Then Isabella got her microphone.




And Catherine followed suit.




The grand finale came right before bedtime.




And those were our CMAs.

Field Trip on the Plains

Isabella's school planned a field trip to the Plains Conservation Center. I took the day off and was able to go! It was a very cold morning, and being on the "plains", it seemed even colder. I think it was about 38 degrees and windy. Crisp to say the least.

Here's Isabella bundled up waiting to go inside.



Here we are, inside (warm), matching animals with their homes.



Here's the Tiger Salamander - awfully close. Maybe a little too close for my liking, but I was brave.



We ventured back outside (cold) for our nature hike.



And here are all the kids gathering around a prairie dog mound.



Isabella did great at spotting all of the wildlife. She saw hawks, prairie dogs and a thirteen-lined ground squirrel.

Since it was so cold, mom had a special hot chocolate treat waiting for us when we got home, complete with whipped cream, chocolate chips, marshmallows, and apples! We had a really great time!

It's a Date!

I found super inexpensive tickets (4 bucks each) to a Wyoming football game, so I decided to take Isabella and make a date of it. Off to Laramie we went! Isabella and me dressed in our Brown and Gold!


The game started at noon, so we left our house a little after 8. Here's a picture of Isabella during the ride - watching a movie.


It was a beautiful day, so we got off I-25 at Fort Collins and took 287 up to Laramie. Here are a couple of pictures I took while driving. Not too shabby at about 75 miles per hour, if I do say so myself.


We got to Laramie, found a place to park, and then had our lunch we brought from home - in the car. Our version of tailgating.


After walking through the tailgate hang out area, we made our way to the stadium and our seats. After getting settled, we got something to drink and walked around the stadium a bit. We had to take our picture in front of the bucking bronco.

And Isabella in front of the huge boot (it was a little windy).


Before the game, here's the band playing Ragtime Cowboy Joe with everyone standing and clapping along - quite the site. They love their Cowboys.

Wyoming jumped out to a 20-0 lead but let UNLV back into it to end the half at 20-14. Isabella wanted to go see the cheerleaders at halftime, so we walked down to say hi. She even wanted a picture with one of them, and this girl was sweet enough to lift her over the rail and pose with her on the field.

Wyoming took it to them in the second half and wound up winning 41-14. And to my surprise, we made it through the entire game! Here's proof.

I had a little help from the licorice rope, soda, and popcorn. They were strategically placed to get us through.

Isabella and I had a great time. The weather couldn't have been better. It was a great game. The fans were such friendly and nice folks. And it was a great atmosphere. A perfect date!

Here are a couple of more pictures of my big girl at the game!



I love you Isabella!