Fall Fun

 On Monday we decorated pumpkin cookies and delivered them to 3 different families as part of FHE.

 Saturday (yesterday) was a busy day.  Doug had to go conduct at two baptisms in the morning and get the font filled etc.  So I got the house cleaned and made carmeled apples.  I put the girls down for an earlier nap and then we had lunch.  The boys went to a neighborhood Halloween party for an hour then we all packed up and went to the Denver Aquarium.  We went last year and found out that kids get in for half price on this weekend if they wear costumes.  So we decided to go again this year.  The girls loved seeing the fish and they signed it constantly.  We let them out of the stroller toward the end and they loved walking around and looking at everything.  They boys loved the sharks and other fish as well.  We all even got to touch the Sting Rays at the end - much squishier than I had anticipated.

 This fish in the background is huge, note the pumpkin in front of it.  Probably as long as Tyler and much fatter. The shark in front is pretty big as well.

 Jenna

 As a side note, I put the girls' hair is bigger pigtails one day, not just the top hair.  It came out pretty fast, guess their hair just isn't long enough yet. (this is Kaylee)

A couple in our ward really gets into Halloween.  We went as Facebook and a Like button last year.  This year we wanted to be more involved.  We we found this costumes on sale last year after Halloween.  Don't you think we make a cute Hippie Couple.  I was sure we were going to when the 'Best Couple's Costume' contest, but we didn't.  Oh well, maybe next year.  We will have to think of something else that will be fun.

Photo class 2 and 3

 In my photo class we have learned about shutter speed and aperture during the past 2 weeks.  So I tried to get some stop action shots with a quick shutter speed.  And the with adjusting the aperture to a low F stop you can get your subject in focus while blurring the background.  I think I will look into getting a new camera lens for Christmas so that I can have some lower F stop options.

Look-a-likes

 Some pictures of the girls, their similarities and differences:

Pretty similar here: Kaylee/Jenna

The girls usually watch something while I do their hair - zoned. I think Kaylee looks like her cousin Courtney sometimes - longer face, smaller eyes, and more narrow forehead. (Jenna is in green)

 They like to suck the water squirt gun that I use on their hair.

Jenna/ Kaylee - tried to let their hair be curly after bath. 

Tried for a photo op of the kids, yeah, boys don't hold toddlers very well. 

Sunflower update

 So you remember Tyler's sunflower from Kindergarten, well we picked the seeds and roasted them.  We ate a few, but then realized not all of the shells had seeds in them, and I think I needed to add more salt - so we probably won't eat all of them.  But there were a lot of seeds - Damon and Chris had fun getting them out, though Damon didn't want his picture taken.

Trying to calm everyone down before bed by reading a book.

Photo Class

 So through a Groupon I signed up for a Photography class to help me learn more about our SLR camera and how to use it.  This was my first week and we talked about white balance and ISO.  So I took some pictures of the girls and got some fun shots: (not on AUTO :) )  I took well over 100 pictures, so chances are I would get some good ones right?

Emily- every once and awhile Jenna will get a look that reminds me of Maggie when she was little, these two did.

Jenna

Kaylee

Jenna is signing Frog - there is a statue of one in our neighbors yard

I am excited to see what we learn about this next week!

iPhone pictures

 So I only upload my pictures from my phone every few months, so here are a few shots of what I have taken on my phone lately:

Doug changed the oil in the van for the first time (I can't remember if I blogged about that or not), anyway the o-ring wasn't on right and all the oil ran out.  I was grateful that it happened while I was picking up something from a neighbors house and not at the store or somewhere else.  We just went home and Doug came back from work and fixed it the best he could - however it started leaking a little bit a few days later and he put on a new o-ring and hopefully it is fixed now.  -messy clean-ups

 Trips to the zoo - I like having a zoo membership.  It takes about 35-40 minutes to get to the zoo, so not too bad.  The girls really enjoyed the Tropical Discovery exhibit this last time.  You can't have strollers in there, so Jenna could walk pretty well and we tried to shepherd her in the right direction.  Kaylee wasn't very independent yet, so my friend and I took turns carrying her.  She has a set of twins a year older than mine.

 Jenna and Kaylee loved the fish, they can sign it and say it - and were very excited to see them.

 two sets of twins

 On Fridays the gymnastics place has open gym where kids under 8 can play around.  This was the first time for the girls since they have started walking.  They had a lot of fun on this tramp.

 Chris liked to jump into the pit and build towers.

 Another trip to the zoo with a different friend.  This time the bear stood up and scratched his back, then came right up front, sat down, and smiled for everyone.  It was pretty entertaining, see next photo.

 Back when t-ball was going on, the last practice they had a family friendly game for fun.  The dad's had to bat on their knees and on the opposite side.

 The library brought in some big truck for all the kids to get a hands-on experience.

 It was bright!

Colorado Flood of 2013

 So Monday, September 9th, it started to rain...and it rained...and it rained.  We woke up in the middle of night Wednesday hearing the rain pound on the house and windows.  Then we woke up at 4:45 with a phone recording from the school district saying that school was canceled for Thursday due to potential flooding and bad road conditions for the buses etc.

Thursday it continued to rain and rain.  Doug came home early because it looked like the bridge that he crosses to get home was going to be closed down - which it was later.  The roads in our neighborhood were covered in water, but the drainage system work fairly well and we could watch it all run down the road to the  gutter.  Many roads in Firestone were closing down as well.

Friday school was canceled as well as it continued to rain.  We started watching the news more and heard stories of places that were seriously flooded.  Boulder and Longmont were hit hard and homes near Boulder Creek, Big Thompson River, and South Platte River were covered in water.  Doug had already planned to have Friday off of work for the ward's father and sons camping trip (which of course was canceled). We all just chilled at home and Doug helped out at ward members houses who had had some flooding in their basements.

Saturday we saw a bit of sunshine, it was good to have a break from the rain and assess the damage.  Lots of homes had flooded basements near us and lots of roads were closed, but we were just grateful that we were staying dry.

Sunday it started to rain again - hard.  I had to drive home from church with the kids because Doug stayed for a meeting.  I had the wipers on the fastest they could go and I still had a hard time seeing because it was raining so hard.  The roads all had a layer of water on them so you couldn't tell where the deeper spots were.  I was very glad to get home.  We took some precautionary measures and put rocks and some of our #10 cans on our window well covers to help seal them better to keep the rain out.  Doug also siphoned the pool of water that was growing under our deck out to the street.  He also dug out some pathways in our flowerbeds and rocks to keep the water running down to the gutter.  It was crazy how much rain had fallen, the ground was so saturated - the lawn was so squishy and had pools of water in the low spots.

Monday it still rained a bit in the afternoon, but the storm was mostly over and Tuesday we finally had a clear day.  The results of this storm were devastating.  There were some deaths and so many people lost their homes - mostly in the cities 30 minutes from us and up the canyon.  So many roads are closed because they are still under water or washed away or damaged.  The main road to Longmont Hwy 119 is still closed - a week later and it has made many peoples commutes much longer.  We had to boil our water for 5-6 days because some of the water lines had been compromised.  School was canceled until Thursday - so five school days off total.

The clean up efforts are now in full swing.  Doug is there in Longmont now helping with the ward cleaning up.  It will be a long time before things get back to normal in the area.  Crazy how much destruction can come from just too much rain.

I feel our lives are almost back to normal, we just can't go to town very easily, but we can still go to our local grocery stores and other cities.  Doug can get to work fine which is a relief and his building was safe.  So grateful that we were protected and out of the worst of it.

Doug dug out the area by the downspout making sure it was connected so it wouldn't pool by the foundation.

I didn't take too many pictures, didn't want the camera to get wet.