Our Life Lessons: March 2017

Sweetheart writes:

How the weeks fly by! I cannot remember everything that has happened since we wrote last. I'll just try to do a few highlights.

Last week at work I had an idea for a new project. My boss liked the idea and he helped me write a one page proposal. It was funded within 48 hours and I have already ordered the hardware for my new project. The project is small, but it's great to have my own little program. This sort of thing would never have occurred at Raytheon.

A few weeks ago we went to a nursery to learn about what grows in here in Colorado. I was sad to learn that the only cherries we can grow are sour-pie cherries. I was hoping for sweet cherries. We can grow strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. We assembled our garden beds on Saturday. We're excited to start growing things here.

We finally ALL got into our hot tub. We've only been here 6 months. The hot tub is about 10 years old but everything works. We drained the water (it took all day!) and refilled it. We hope to enjoy it in the coming year.

Underfoot participated in the Pine Wood Derby. He took third overall.

He researched and designed the car, and we worked on it together.

He's not competitive at all. ;)

His overall time was 222, which is the same number as our Grandpa Kirkham's LCI during WWII. We like the reminder that we have family rooting for us in the next life! Many thank to Craig Earls who shared his tools and expertise. We miss our Tucson friends.

I've started reading the Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy to Underfoot and Hurricane. At first they weren't very interested, but now everything they build out of Legos seems to be a submarine. It's been fun for me to read it to them. It is one of my favorite books.

Hurricane's baptism is going to be held on Saturday, May 27th. We are excited to host family and friends for that special event.

Wendy writes about Underfoot:

We only have 1 person in our house that is still in the single digits for age.

Last Day as a Single Digit

Underfoot celebrated his birthday!

He asked for a Lego cake. He wanted either a Lego head or a whole Lego man. I got to choose which cake. I also decided to try making and using fondant.

It turned out okay. Underfoot was surprised and liked his cake.

We missed our Tucson friends because they couldn't come help us eat the cake. We invited new friends to come and eat it. Sweetheart took the rest of the cake to work the next day, and it was gone.

Underfoot performed in his first orchestra concert.

He went to a practice with 6 other elementary schools. He really had fun and said he wanted to be in the high school orchestra.

A few weeks ago I got a call from the school saying that they suspected that Underfoot had a concussion. We took him to the doctor, and it was confirmed.

He spent 2 days home and was on academic and recreational restriction by the school for 2 weeks. He spent time sleeping.

We made cookies. Underfoot hid them in his bed for easy access.

The hardest was he couldn't read. He had no screen time. He's better now.

Now something else besides Underfoot....

We painted 1 1/2 bathrooms. YAY! The boys were so happy the purple bathroom is a different color.

After - Print from Grandpa Hoggan. Two Grandpas were Navy men.

When we showed them pictures of our house, they said that the color needed to change.

Before

Funny boys. There isn't much that is girly around here.

We had a surprise visit from my parents.

They flew into Denver on a layover. We went out to the airport and talked with them for an hour! What a great blessing!

We've attended 2 free food events. IHOP hosted a free stack of pancakes day.

It was the perfect after school snack. Today was Dairy Queen's free cone day. We are so happy the DQ here participates because we would miss it from Tucson.

The reality is that after we ate our cones we were cold here.

Spring break has begun, and we got the Mile High Cultural Pass. It has 7 museums. We hope to see at least 5 of the 7. Today we went to the Colorado History Center. We had hoped to go to the Denver Mint but must get in line by 7 am to get a ticket into a tour.