A beautiful welcome to fall

 

       For a while here, we had no heat, but thank heavens we have our fireplace! We made quick use     of that, and we can't wait for a winter filled with fires!

                         Would you even think of turning such a sweet face down? I don't think so!

  
 If your house looks like this, you may be in the midst of putting up halloween decor and decorating pumpkins! Love us some fall time in the Sanders home!

 

                                      CANNOT GET ENOUGH OF THESE TWO!!!!

                    The first night of October begins many fun traditions. Glow sticks in the tub!!

                    We woke up the next morning to SNOW! The kids couldn't believe it, nor could they
                                   wait to get out in it and play. Bright and early, at 7am, we were the
                                                  family shrieking for joy in the bitter cold, but
                                                                   what fun they had!!

 
 Me and my Lucy girl! I truly am the luckiest woman in the world to have this girl for my keeping! We were heading out on a walk! C.O.L.D but SO glad to have me some Lucy time!

                        Watching conference. This is how we looked, for nearly 2 hours straight.
                    Of corse it helped that I had a massive bowl of popcorn and treats, but what a fun
                                                                    tradition we started!

                                            We live by some amazing trails. Where Jeff and I both run,
                                  as well as take the kids on walks, to enjoy the trails, streams, and beautiful
                                                                             great outdoors!

We were in Awe over this beautiful dragon fly that had been crushed! What a wonder of nature! Look at those wings!

 


Let it be said I have a great husband, who supports my crazy, hair brained ideas!
We hosted a murder mystery party, and the year it was set, 1920's.
It was the craziest weekend, but we managed to pull some outfits and makeup together.
Thanks Hun for being such a sport!

And lastly, 'we got coons'!!
2 MASSIVE raccoons for a brief period managed to make their home under our deck.
That was until we chased them up a tree, out of the tree, up again, under the deck,
where we got a few good wacks at them with a hoe.
It was a thrilling night, and we haven't seen them sense!!!!

3 weeks later

 One of our favorite parks near our OLD home in Colorado. (How is it possible we've lived here long enough to even have an old home)

                                     
                                        Hank defiantly knows how to roll with the homies!

Our last goodbye to 'the girls'
As difficult as they were @ times, they sure
were helpful with entertaining my kids while
I zoned out on the porch.

Memorial Day!
Jeff has a great friend from his mission who just by chance moved here from Georgia. Unfortunately for them, they took temporary residence in a hotel. Lucky for us, we reaped the benefits of that decision.

We made it! Although not such a great view of the house, and everyones eyes are squinty, this will serve as our first family photo, in our new home!
We've settled in fine, are getting to know our way around, and are open for visitors!

Lucy and a dear friend, Ali. The daughter of Jeff's friend who just located here. 

They have become quick besties, as I think they each were dealing with the difficulty of leaving dear dear friends behind. 

We don't get to see them much, but when we do, the princess treasures are defiantly adorned. 

                            And just lookin so stinkin cute for preschool, I couldn't help but snap a few!

Friday rolls around, and we're all ready for a picnic! 

One of our favorite parks in Littleton. Complete with ducks! 

Burn Notice!

Biggest regret: Well. There may be 2. 

First: Wish I had been able to take more pictures over the last 2 weeks

Second: Sure wish I hadn't tripped up the last step, carrying HOT WAX!!! 

I'm regretting to tell you no matter how hard I ever thought moments in my life were, these last 2 weeks have been what Hell must be like.

Tuesday morning, the day after I won 100 dollars for a personal goal, ACHIEVED, I tripped up our last step. The bubbling wax cascaded onto my hand, and onto the carpet. 

After screaming, and trying to wipe it off, I rushed into the bathroom. 

Cool water did nothing but waste my time, so what else was I to do with this hot wax, but rip it off. 

I did. At first, after seeing this, I thought, oh FEW!!! it only took the hair (lol)

 and after a second look, um.....nope. that was my skin, layers and layers of my hand. 

In a panic, I called Jeff, who met me at the trauma center, took the kids, while I had the remaining wax cut off, and my hand then cleaned and treated!!! 

I thought I had seen pain, and can't even imagine how people endure burns greater then this. 

I couldn't even look at the burn with out feeling pain. 

Even water lightly touching it would send me into a frenze. 

It remained elevated, above my heart, until just yesterday, from the great pain that would shoot into it. 

I began to worry if I'd regain any use of any of my fingers, if I'd develop carpal tunnel from the constant cramp my had was forced to surrender to. 

If my fingers would ever function as they would....

The next few days, I took 2 naps a day. Each over 2 hours.  

The pain was so intoxicating!  These last 2 weeks are now a blur. 

I wish I was kidding when I say it was horrible, but it was.

It was truly everything a nightmare could be, and more! 

I think some of it I may have been in a coma. lol

It was perfect timing that we just moved here, have meet only a select few people, barley know my way around town, have no friends, neighbors, family to help...just made coping all that more difficult. 

This is day 12, when I truly began
to wonder if I'd ever get my hand back!

BUT, we are onto the 16th day, and I am so happy to report an improvement. 

Like I said, my biggest regret was not documenting these last 2 weeks. 

Really, I was on survival mode! I'm just lucky all 5 of us are alive!!

(Most likely you are thinking 'what a baby' and you can think that! Think whatever you like! I know this is not a fraction of pain and suffering people endure, but for these 2 weeks, this was all I knew. I am just SO grateful it was not over more of my body, or a damaging accident occurred. I was unfortunate to have it happen, but so fortunate this was all that happened!) 

We missed documenting some great things!

* Like not doing my hair for 14 days STRAIT!!! 

(Hats and scarves can only look so good for so long. In fact, Jeff even said kindly 'so, when do you think you'll do your hair again?')

*An AMAZING family trip to Boulder (oh GOSH can't wait to go back for a girls trip in OCT!!!!!)

*trips to the zoo

*the colorado bike race

*the dinners we ate over 2 weeks (one of which was McDonalds!!! Never before has such a feast been had in the Sanders home! The kids were in heaven)

Jeff was a super star helping with the kids, food, cooking, cleaning, and putting up with the emotional train wreck of a woman that had eclipsed his former wife. 

BUT we did document some great events

LUCYS FIRST DAY OF PRESCHOOL!!!

Story:

So, we live in Denver. Proper. Right by the zoo. 

We bought a house in Centennial. 

Technically, thats just 13 miles to the south! BUT, in morning traffic, it takes over 45 MIN to get there. 

SO.....to get Lucy to preschool by 9am, we leave at 8:15. 

Here is Lucy on the first day of Preschool. 

CORRECTION:

In my coma state, we managed to go the wrong day!!! 

This is Lucy, @ her school, at what was suppose to be the first day. 

She was heart broken, and devastated! 

I felt horrible! 

But THIS, this really is her first day! 

She was over the moon! 

What we have been doing is riding ourselves silly around our streets. 

We have great flat sidewalks, and our back entrance leads to an ally. (all the homes have back driveways/allys) it makes for the perfect place to bike!!! And we truly spend hours out there. 

We have amazing sunflowers in our yard, so, we harvested them, soaked them, and roasted them! 

What a yummie treat to have home grown sunflower seeds. 

While Lucy is @ preschool, the boys and I have 3 hours to kill (instead of driving home for 45 min, then driving back, only to drive home AGAIN) so this day, we went the littleton museum and farm. 

They loved it !

AND- not to forget our first camping excursion.  (this was BEFORE the burn) 

We headed to the highest (in elevation) city in the NATION....Leadville 

we LOVED the cooler weather, the festival, roasting marshmallows, hotdogs, climbing, 

fresh water lakes, a BUG FREE great outdoors, and our first camping trip in the great state of CO! 

Have extra peanuts? 

Why not turn it into homemade peanut butter? 

What our evenings look like around here. 

A shot from the patio, after dining outside, which we do daily. 

We haven't stopped yet!! 

In just 12 days, we'll move into our new home! 

We can't wait to see what types of adventures may follow!! 

Cheers.