Its been far too long

So I haven't been on here in forever....I went from being a good blogger to being a never blogger again. I think I get too caught up in facebook posting and forget that this blog is what really needs attention. Anyway all is well with us Gripentrog's, nothing much to report.
My best friends mother is dying of stage 4 cancer. She was not expected to make it through the week, but she is still hanging on. I have been able to spend some special time with her lately. She is such a special lady. I have found it extremely healing to be able to be with her. It was very hard for me to be with my mom when she was sick. I have a lot of guilt that I did not spend more time with her. So it has been nice to be able to be there for Jackie and her mom.
I know in just a short while she will be up in heaven with my mom, and that warms my heart, if even just a bit....

Outdoor movie night!!!

Every summer I drag our old TV out onto the back porch so that the kids can enjoy a movie outside. We bought lots of snack and they layed out blankets! Everyone got comfy and enjoyed the movie HOOK, under the stars!!! And yes, I dragged that TV out all by myself with the help of the dolly in the background...what a mom....

What did I ever do without these girls???

Just want to give a shout out to my girls!!! These are some of the most amazing women I have ever met. We met at MOPS a few years ago, because we were all at the same table. At the time we came together on the common ground of motherhood. Over the years, however, these ladies have become my support, a shoulder to cry on when times are rough, and someone to laugh with harder than I've ever laughed before. I think that we are lucky in life to find a few good friends, but to find 8 ladies, that you can count on no matter what, well that's amazing!! Love you ladies!!

My new little addition

My little baby boy Toby!

I still can't believe she's gone.....

Tomorrow, July 17th, marks the one year anniversary of when my mother went to heaven. Its still so hard for me to believe she is actually gone. I still find myself picking up the phone occasionally to call her, or driving by her old house and think I should stop by.
Not a day goes by that I don't wish she were here to see her beautiful grandchildren as they continue to grow. Especially little Kaylee who was so young when she passed. I have a mix of sadness and relief as I miss her so much, but am glad that she is no longer in a place of suffering.
I still think about her everyday, and glance at the picture of her that sits beside my bed each night before I go to sleep. I still tell the kids stories about her, and try to keep her fresh in their little memories as well.
Yet, nothing that you do can replace that emptiness inside your chest...the longing to hear her laugh, to see her smile. I look forward to the nights that my dreams are filled with her, and if even for a minute we are together again.
I miss you mom, more and more with each passing day!
I wanted to commemarate this day by doing something...Im not really a cemetary person, or someone who wants to cry over home movies all day. I wanted to do something that could remind me forever, not just on these anniversaries. So in memory of my mom, I have created a website. http://memorialwebsites.legacy.com/donnaharris/homepage.aspx
It is just the beginning, and I hope that all of you who loved her or knew her, or even those of you who just know of her through me, will visit this site. I want as many people as possible to know who she was, and to remember her.
So please feel free to visit the site, and leave a message in the guest book, share stories about her, or pictures from the past.
As always, I appreciate your love and support....

We thought that our family was complete.......

We thought that we were finished, our family was complete....but surprised its a boy....





Little Toby Gripentrog, a 7 week old Bichon Frese, joined our family yesterday. He is the sweetest little puppy in the world, loves to be held, and cuddled. He will only grow to be about 10 lbs, and 10-12 inches tall. Best of all he loves kids and never sheds. We are so happy with our newest addition....finally we are complete.

The best vacation EVER!!

So as some of you may already know, we were in Florida last week for our 10 day vacation! I just wanted to give a few more details about our trip.
We started out Flying for COS to Dallas. Kaylee was pretty antsy on the flight, but overall she did okay, and didnt bother anyone too much. Our next flight was from Dallas to Orlando. What would you know, but 10 minutes after take off both tyler and Kaylee were fast asleep, for the entire flight! YAH! I actually got to enjoy the onboard movie, "new in town" which was really cute!
We began our vacation at the Nickelodeon Hotel, in Orlando. Wow, what a hotel. We had a great room, complete with a bunkbed room for the kiddos, their own tv, playstation and table. Then a room for Todd and I, with a queen size bed. And a bathroom, living room, and sink and fridge. The whole room was "jimmy nuetron" themed which Tyler thought was wonderful! It had 2 huge waterparks, complete with 4 huge waterslides, that even Tyler could go down himself. Grandma, and Grandpa even took a ride or two down! It had its own Mall with and arcade, food court, convenience store, shops, and 4D movie theater. We were able to have breakfast with all the nick characters, including their favorite, Spongebob! We also got a private cabana with our package, that included a ceiling fan, fridge, flatscreen tv, lounge chairs, towel service,table and a cabana girl. This was really a god send, and a great way to get out of the sun, and have a place that Kaylee could relax and play. Not to mention, Todd and Grandpa were able to catch some of the US open. This hotel was awesome, and I would definately recommend it to anyone with children. Their website is www.nickhotel.com
Next it was off to New Smyrna beach, FL, about an hour outside of Orlando. We had rented a beach house there, not knowing what it might end up being like, compared to the pics online, or what the town might be like. Let me start by saying it is an understatement to say that we were pleasantly surprised. NOt only was the house we rented large enough for our family, Todd's parents, Todd's sister and family, and his aunt vicky, it was truly a half of block away from the beach. Not just any beach, a clean, beautiful beach, that was never ever crowded, had perfect beach sand, was super clean, and the water temp averaged around 80 degrees. The house was beautiful and spacious, and had its very own pool in the backyard. It had tons of pools toys and beach toys for our use. Every kitchen utensil you can imagine, beautiful linens and great furniture. I hadn't even left and we were already planning our return next summer. To be perfectly honest, I have already contacted the owner and had him pencil us in for the same time next year....The town was so cute and quaint, with souvenier shops, and ice cream stores within walking distance. Grocery stores and even walmart for shopping only a short drive away. Everyone was friendly and kind, and the leasing agent told us that she has never locked her door once in 12 years of living there.
All around this can be described as the best vacation I think that I have ever been on. IT was so relaxing, so fun, and so affordable. So if anyone is looking for a great place to vacation with your family let me know and I will give you more info!! We are even thinking about buying a vacation home here someday......

Fun at the pool

We just joined Villa sport healthclub last week, and we are so impressed!! They have a huge variety of classes...Alexis and I did a mother-daughter fitness class, and I did a aqua fit class, and a step class this week! All of them were excellent. The pool is wonderful, and the kids had a blast!! A bit on the pricey side, but so glad that we did it! The childcare is awesome too, and all of the kids really enjoy going while we work out!! Definately recommend it to anyone!!

These things only happen to us.......

So it all began on Wednesday morning when I was looking out into our backyard and saw a strange animal in the grass. From first glance it could be best described as a beaver. I call Todd and he looked outside too, and said, "is that a beaver?" We proceeded to go outside to get a closer look, but the "beaver" ran into the front yard. As we headed toward the front yard, it popped out of no where and charged Todd. He proceeded to pick up a patio chair to apparently beat it to death or something.... That wasn't needed as right before it go to him, it darted away. We followed in the direction that it ran, but it was no where to be found. We have a large wooded area across the street from our home and figured that it must have ran over there.....So we thought that was crazy enough..............
But the story was not over.....Todd and Alexis were on their way to home depot in his truck, when he heard crazy noises coming from the engine. We have been having some issues with the truck, so he figured that something needed fixing. When the arrived at home depot he opened his hood to discover this creatures tail sticking out of his fan belt.... Apparently it had crawled up into his engine before when we had thought it ran away. He didn't want to tell Alexis, because he thought it would freak her out that their was a dead creature, with its tail stuck in the fan belt. So he decided to go into home depot and decide what to do when he was there. Finally, he decided to tell alexis, because he knew he needed to get it out of the engine before they drove home. They went back out to the truck popped open the hood and the creature was gone....he looked high and low, crawled under the truck, but it was gone....couldn't believe this story had gotten even crazier. We went home and searched the internet and found out that the creature had to have been a Marmot...which is crazy because they live in the mountains...not colorado springs...But at least it was gone.
Or so we thought......
Todd checked again that night to make sure that the creature was not there, we stuck some things down in the hood, shook the truck, everything and there was no sign of it. He drove to work on Thursday morning...no problems, no noises... He worked his normal 24 hour shift and was getting ready to leave on Friday morning to come home when he spotted something underneath his truck....

Yes folks, that is a Marmot fetus.....
Todd went in and got the other firefighters to have them figure out what was going on. As they were all standing there discussing....slowly 3 more fetuses dropped out of the truck.....

At this point they had figured out that not only was this Marmot still in his engine, but it was giving birth....After looking around they could see that the mother was still hiding up in the fan....They proceeded to call the dept of wildlife. While they were waiting for them to arrive, one of the guys that Todd works with Josh, decided to put on his bunker gear, and his structure fire gloves and try to remove the Marmot, so that my husband could come home.
After a few scratches and bites, he was able to pull out a very, very angry mother Marmot.


The dept of Wildlife came and picked up mother and babies and are relocating them back to the mountains.. They believe that someone in our neighborhood had recently been camping. This marmot hitched a ride back with them to Colorado springs, and then decided to make a home in my husbands truck and give birth....
There you have it folks....these things only happen to us!!!

pa-sghetti.....

Kaylee had her first bowl of spaghetti, which we like to call "pa-sghetti" Usually I feed it to her, but this time I let her go wild..as you can see she enjoyed it....thouroughly!

Summer Break, take two

We begun our 2nd day of summer vacation, even earlier today. The kids decided to get up at about 6:45am, at which point they begun asking what we were going to do all day. Eventually, the question changed to what time can we go outside, and continued about every 10 minutes, until finally I gave in at 9:00AM. Today was more of the same, Trampoline, forts, lots of playing in the basement, because again the 70 degree weather was just "too hot mommy". Today they decided to race the wagon down the driveway, across the street, before running into the curb. At lunchtime they enjoyed grilled cheese, watermelon and chips...which they ate as fast as possible, as to not miss a single outdoor minute. By 5:30PM, they were all in trouble for running through the neighbors sprinklers, and getting completely soaked...we ate dinner, and decided to award their "great behavior" with ice cream again....Can we say, Mommy is a sucker! There was a few more last minutes of playing outside, before everyone was in the bath and is now quietly sleeping at 9:00PM. I have forgotten how exhausting my children can be, but trust me, I wouldn't give it up for the world...every day is another memory, another page in our family storybook of life!

1st day of summer break....

So its the first day of summer break. Not only did the kids wake up at 7:15am, instead of sleeping in, but they were ready and rearing to go! By 9:00am they were dressed and begging to go next door to ask their friends to play outside. Between building the fort, riding bikes, playing on the tramp, taking a lunch break of mac and cheese and hotdogs, playing in the basement because they got too hot, racing down the driveway on skateboards, having a sword fight, getting ice cream, and finally cleaning up, we just got inside, (7:45PM) and as I write this I can hear all the kids screaming in the bath tub as daddy washes their hair, minus alexis, who is already out of the shower and complaining that she may or may not have gotten sunburned....Wow, its going to be a very long, long summer break.
Good luck to all you mommys, its only the beginning!

My poor little Tyler.....

I want to start by thanking all of you for your concern, well wishes and especially prayers. I have had a lot of people asking for more info regarding Tyler's condition, so I wanted to give an overview.
Tyler started with croup about 2 weeks ago. He has asthma, so he had to be given steriod shots and oral steriods to take care of it. It went away, along with all of his symptoms for a few days. Then his fever returned and it has not gone away since. He has no other symptoms except for the fever, ranging from 101-104, and he been complaining of stomach pain.
We returned to the pediatrition on Thursday afternoon, because his fevers were getting so high, especially at night. The pediatrition did blood work up, cultures, urine test etc. One of the tests came back showing that he had severe inflamation in one or more of his organs. This caused his pediatrition to ask that he be admitted into the hospital for more tests.
We went to the hospital on friday morning, they did every test in the book, including a chest x ray, abdominal ct, kidney ultrasound and more. All the test came back showing no problems except for a bit of mucas in his lungs seen in the chest xray.
99% of the time a high fever in a child is a sign of infection, and they cannot find the infection that is causing his high fevers. He is still running a fever of about 104, and is taking both motrin and tylenol regularly. They did a test for tuburculousis, and we wont have those results until Monday. They want him to see an infectious disease specialist in hopes that they can determine the origin of the fevers because they cannot just let him have fevers forever.
They agreed to release him from the hospital because there was nothing else that could be done until we meet with the infectious disease specialist who is not avaliable until monday.
They sent him home with an extrememly high dose of antibiotics in hopes that maybe they will kill the infection that is hiding in his body. We are in hopes that maybe that will work and his fevers will magically disapear. It is so hard not knowing what it wrong with him. We just want answers.
But for now, we are just happy to have our little boy in his own bed and back at home. He is glad to be home as well and is doing fine, as long as we keep up with the tylenol and motrin.
I will add another update as info becomes avaliable, hopefully by monday. There are a few other blood test that we are awaiting results on as well, that could still show something.
We have been blessed to feel the friendships that we have with so many of you, and are so thankful to have people like you in our lives. Please continue to pray for our little one...

Love,
Laura

Happy Mother's day to me!

So the night before mother's day I spent the entire night taking care of both tyler and alexis while they were throwing up. Not in the toliet of course, in their beds, on our living room chair, and of course the carpet. Then I spent all of my mother's day throwing up and laying in bed too! Yuck!! Everyone is better today...Im demanding a Mother's day do-over!

Weekend getaway

Had a blast up in Breckenridge this weekend...my first trip without the kids. I was a bit of a mess at first, but I did fine, and so did they. Spoiled by their Aunt all weekend! We were able to have some kid-free dinner, sleep in, see a movie, do some shopping. It was totally worth it, but glad that we are home. Happy anniversary to us!!! 5 years!

Ladies night

No matter what I do with these ladies are time together is always filled with laughter and fun! Thanks for another great evening ladies, you guys are the best!!1

EASTER 2009

We had another busy holiday, running around all over the place. we spent the morning having brunch with todd's family and the afternoon having dinner with my familiy. Lots of great food, laughter and love!!!

Weight loss update....

so apparently, I haven't updated this thing in a century or so!! I have now lost 20 lbs!! Todd and I are still enjoying P90X, and it is still kickin my butt!!!! Only 10 more lbs....maybe 15...then I'll be happy!!!

Its Official People

As of today I have lost ten lbs. I started my diet on January 1st, so I am very proud of my progress! Only like 20 more lbs to go....

Yah for me!

My sneaky little girl....

Today while I was taking a shower I set Kaylee down in front of her toys on a blanket. I could still see her, but obviously wasn't paying enough attention. When I got out of the shower she had managed to pull down a package of rice cakes off a nearby chair take on out of the package and She was munching away...what a sneaky little thing!!!

I think I can....I think I can....I think I can....

Kaylee is so close to crawling, she gets up on all fours but can't decide what to do...then she gave up and decided it might be easier to just learn to walk first...