My little Valentine is 5

For some reason, I have always felt that the age of 5 signified the loss of all babyhood. Maybe it's because kids go to kindergarten at age 5 or maybe it's simply that when I see a child hold up a whole hand to tell how old they are, it looks pretty important. Whatever the case, I had a very bittersweet weekend watching my baby turn 5.

Miss Kinley had a wonderful birthday and Valentine's Day and she has always thought it was pretty neat that the whole world celebrates love and affection on her birthday. She still calls it Valentime's Day and I will not correct her. She had a blast at her school party, even more fun at her friend party on Saturday and topped it all off with her "grown up" party on Sunday with my family. It was non-stop fun and it's a very good thing she doesn't have school for President's Day. She might sleep all day. :)

Her birthday party with friends was spent in Denver at a Children's Hospital function to celebrate Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Day, which happens to also be on Valentine's Day every year. It's something I've been involved with even before she was born and something I'm very passionate about. Close to 800 children will be born just in Colorado this year with a heart defect or irreversible heart disease and more research is needed to understand why this happens so it can be prevented.

This year, the Cardiac Kids group that I'm a part of put on a huge CHD Day carnival at Chatfield High School. There were bounce castles, games, prizes, face painting and lots and lots of prizes. I took Kinley and four of her best buddies and they had a ball! Each of the kids won a couple of cute bears and lots of other fun stuff. It was neat for me to be able to accomplish two goals--a birthday party and an awareness day. I saw lots of former patients and it's so neat to see the kids outside the hospital setting. It's also a day I celebrate Cooper's life.

We also celebrated with family and I think Kinley is now set for a very long time with new stuff to play with! She is such a joy in our family--our comedian, our princess, our snuggle bug and our extrovert. We love you, sweetheart!!

Loving her unicorn cake

With best buddy, Maddie

Starting to collect some prizes!

Enjoying lots of new Barbies

Having fun at home before the carnival

Another season in the books

As soon as February hits, my brain switches to baseball season (you should realize that pitchers and catchers report to spring training for the Rockies in 6 days), so perhaps it's a good thing basketball season for Cooper is now over. Less than three months til baseball starts for Coop.

This is the 4th year that Doug has coached Cooper's basketball team and they have continued to get better and better. He has great assistants (he would actually tell you he is the assistant) and a great group of kids. These kids play football, basketball and baseball together minus a few kids in each sport and they are getting to really know each other's strengths and how to feed off each other. It's hard to imagine that it won't be long before they are high school teammates.

Yesterday's single elimination tourney concluded the season and even though they lost 16-9, it was a hard fought game and they were seeded in the winner's bracket. I heard one mom describe the game as if our basket had a lid on it. We had shot after shot and I swear I counted five that went half way in and popped back out. Fortunately, one of them that Cooper threw up went in the hoop!

Thanks, Kris, for sharing your photos with your new fancy camera!!

Flying high

Last weekend, the kids had a sleepover with Uncle Brandon and Aunt Erika. Yep, that's right. All 3 of them, all night. I can't even begin to describe how quiet it was in our house on Sunday morning. The poor dog kept going to the garage door and waiting for someone else to come in.

We spent the evening at a party with friends celebrating the life of my childhood gymnastics coach's wife who died unexpectedly from lung cancer after having never smoked a day in her life. I saw teammates I hadn't seen in 20 years. Since Kaiya's gym is run by my coach's eldest daughter, we feel very connected to this family. Here is a picture of all us reunited with Coach Baretta sandwiched in the middle. Wish it had been under better circumstances, but it was neat to see everyone.

Earlier in the day, I took the girls to Rope World, which is their favorite place to go. It's just an elementary school gym that is converted into a place with ropes and zip cords and climbing walls everywhere. I figured I would wear them out for Uncle Brandon. Meanwhile, Cooper and Brandon spent the day at Coors Field at a Rockies Fan Fest getting to meet players, tour the locker rooms and dugouts and get psyched for the upcoming season (players and catchers report in 15 days, people!!). What a great weekend!!

Inside a Coors Field locker room

Finally tall enough for the tight rope

At the ceiling!

Working hard

Kaiya's big day

I guess I should have known this day might come. Miss Kaiya has made the gym team. The girl learned how to go down the stairs backwards before she learned how to walk and she pulled the towel bars off the walls using them as monkey bars when she was 2.

I'm so torn--gymnastics is a sport I loved down to my bones and yet now it's my bones that ache because of it. So much of who I am I owe to my years as a gymnast and yet I wonder how much I missed. I guess it's all premature to worry about at this point, but she was quite excited and I like the philosophy of her gym and her coach. They practice fewer hours a week than most gyms so that they can have a life outside the gym.

I guess for now, we'll just see how it goes. She moves up to be on the team right after Valentine's Day which means 2 hours of practice on M/W/F with competitions beginning in the spring.

The video is the last skill she needed to make team. It is sort of the hallmark of gymnastics--everything else builds on it. I really thought she was months away from doing this by herself. Guess I thought wrong. The smile on her face was pretty priceless.

Kinley's new adventure

So, Miss Kinley decided she wanted to take a dance class. The girl likes to boogie and perform (just ask anyone who will watch and listen), so dance class seems to be a perfect fit. She started last Monday and wakes up every morning asking if it's Monday yet. We have all been scolded already if we aren't watching her newly learned moves with enough intensity.

Kaiya did dance several years ago and while I loved what it taught her, I have never been a huge fan of the recitals. They are expensive, long and the whole make-up thing makes me think of the Jon Benet Ramsey videos. Ugh. But, this really does seem to be Kinley's niche, so I will bite my tongue come recital time in June.

Here are a couple videos and of her in performance mode. They were taken during various family gatherings when she had a larger audience than just us. She now thinks Bennett should quit baseball and become her cheerleading spotter. :) Sorry it is a sideways video--I have no clue how to rotate a video so just turn your head to the left!

11th emotional birthday

You would think after 11 years, I would quit getting emotional on Cooper's birthday. No such luck. Poor Cooper has to listen to me every year recount the hours and days after his birth and watch me turn into a crying fool. Perhaps working in the field now and watching four families lose their precious kiddos this last year has made me that much more appreciative of his life. He might want to remind me of that when he is terrorizing his sisters and I'm about to lose my mind. :) When he was born, we knew instantly that something was wrong. He was blue as a popsicle and didn't cry. After being rushed to Children's, the phone call came that something was very wrong with his heart. He had a cath lab procedure by noon all while I was stuck in Greeley. It was the one and only time in 15 years of marriage that I saw (and it was only by phone) Doug openly cry. We were new parents and young and scared out of our minds. By the grace of God and good doctors, we brought Cooper home 8 days after open-heart surgery to switch his two main arteries that were coming off the wrong ventricles. The photo above was taken a few hours post-op.

He will kill me later when he reads this for being all gushy, but I am so proud of this young man. He is becoming a very responsible, mature person. I really think God has special plans for this kid and I'm really glad to be his mom.

This is an "off" year for a party, so we are just going to enjoy it as a family and then again with extended family this weekend. We love you, Coop!

A-little-of-everything-week

This week has been one of those with a little of everything--drama, pain, excitement, relaxation and fun. Such is the life with three busy kids, I guess.

Last Friday, Kinley and I got to go see the Colorado Ballet perform the Nutcracker with her bestest buddy, Maddie and her mom, Kris. It has been years since I've seen a professional ballet and it was impressive to say the least. So was the fact that these two little girls sat almost without moving through the entire show!

Sunday, we hosted my extended family at our house, which meant 20+ people. We ate too much, chatted all afternoon, watched the Broncos throw away their season and had a great visit.

By Sunday night, however, Cooper had a horrible toothache that kept him up all night. He cracked his permanent front tooth in two a couple of years ago and we've always known the root was iffy. Well, it got infected down to the bone, so he bought himself a root canal on Tuesday. This kid has had heart surgery and staples in his head and yet watching him in pain in the dentist's chair was almost too much. The dentist was never able to get him completely numb, so the tears just streamed down his face (and mine) during the procedure. He was so tough and kept apologizing to the dentist (who does that?) Anyway, it's over and we are thankful for good pain meds! New Year's Eve was spent at our neighbor's house and we had a blast. The kids made it til midnight, which was a first, so they were feeling pretty proud. I think they were asleep by 12:05, but they still made it. We love having great neighbors! Today, we capped off the break by venturing out to the local ice skating rink. Kaiya has been begging me for a long time to go and she was a natural. Kinley surprised us by being very brave and non-whiny in the face of something new. She used the little walker and did great! Cooper and I limped along, but had fun anyway. We stayed for over two hours, so the rest of the weekend will likely be spent on the couch! I think I might need a vacation from our vacation, but it has been a great couple of weeks!