HOLIDAY CHEER!

I can hardly believe that the holiday season is upon us already! I think I am the furthest behind in shopping, cards, cookies, and decorating that I have EVER been! But hey, I just remember when I am stressed out what the true reason for the season is!

I have been super busy with Kaitlyn's school functions! I headed and worked the Santa's Secret Shop at her school, which meant I was there for 6 hours every day....WITH KYSEN! I was a champ and all the students were so excited to buy things for their moms and dads! It was a lot of fun to see those smiles on those kids' faces!

I had a cookie exchange with all the ladies on my block....9 dozen if you are wondering how many! Lots to bake, but hey you get that back in return! It is a lot of fun!

I had my MOPS Christmas party today...what an inspirational time...It is the first event that TRULY got me in the Christmas spirit this year! Our leader, who happens to be a friend of mine, spoke of Mary! I think that Mary gets fortgoten about during this time! Katie made the point that this young woman was 12-15 years old when she was approched by an angel telling her that she was pregnant with the Savior...and yet her words were OKAY I will do this with honor! Can you imagine being that young having a child having not been with a man! I know I would beg for mercy and plee that it was not me that this was going to happen to! Under the circumstances that they were in, poor, young, and kids themselves can you imagine what was going through her mind! What a strong woman she was...a woman that I would love to be like! In our daily lives, we may not be approached by an angel telling us that we are going to be the mother of a Savior, but we are faced with other challenges that God places in our hands and we must handle them like Mary did...without hesitation! God challenges us to make us stronger people, he challenges us so that we may grow in faith just like Mary did! So this Christmas season I challenge each of you to be a Mary!

I hope all of you have a blessed Christmas season and a blessed New Year! Safe travels to all and God Bless!

BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!

Eight years ago was the best day of my life....this was the day that I married my best friend, the man I laugh with, the man I live with, the man I love, and my soul mate! It almost seems impossible that it was this long ago! So much has changed in our lives....two kids, new houses, new states, new furniture, new attitudes, but one thing remains my devotion to only him! Without him I am nothing, without him I have nothing...but with him, I am whole and happy! Thank you my love for 8 wonderful years...I look so forward to spending a lifetime with you making memories!

LOVE YOU!

In Memory of Grandma McCune

September 4, 2009, my beloved Grandma McCune passed away from a stroke. She was such a wonderful woman! A woman who was strong, a hard worker, a great cook, a caring and loving lady, a nurturer, and most of all a WONDERFUL GRANDMA!

It seems that when loved ones pass away memories start to flood our minds and the only memories I have a good ones. I most of all remember all the Christmas Eves we did at her house. We would walk the block and a half to the church, worship Christ's birthday, then walk back to her house and enjoy sitting around the wood burning stove sharing stories with the whole family. It was a large family(10 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren). We would open presents, sing, eat until we rolled around with our full stomaches, and just be a family!

I also remember the fried chicken dinners and homemade pumpkin or apple pie! Best I have ever had and of course it was ALL made from scratch.

I always remember going to her house a little kid and walking across the street to the swimming pool or going in the back yard where there was a wooded area and we built a fort. She was always there for her grandkids and her family. I don't think she missed one single concert or play that my brother and I were in! She always made the 23 mile trip from Clay Center to Hastings to support us!

I remember that her favorite color was purple and for some reason I can always picture her in her purple jacket with her broach so nicely pinned to her lapel and a scarf to cover her just done hair that she had done at the shop every Friday!

I will miss you Grandma! I will miss your famous "Hello" when you answer the phone and I will miss your great stories! But I know that after 23 years of living without the love of your life, you are up there together again, watching over your family and guiding us to live a life as great as yours!

Rest In Peace Grandma McCune! I will always love you!

Where Does The Time Go?

Well it has been a couple of months almost since my last post....I blame that on the busy schedule that we are following! So here it goes, a little recap of what is all new in the Mohr household.
Kaitlyn started 2nd grade a couple of weeks ago! Can you believe that! She is the same age I was when my family moved from Colorado to Hastings, Nebraska! I am just baffeled by that idea! She is doing great and it is amazing how well she is reading from this summer! Kaitlyn is just a blessing to me, she is so caring of others around her...that makes a mommy happy. I guess Don and I have done something right. She gets in trouble everyonce in a while at school for talking but hey, I would rather it be for talking then hitting or being mean to others! She takes after me in this category! She also got glasses right before school started...they are pretty spiffy and she sure can see a lot better! Now she has no excuses why she cannot see to pick up her room! HAHAHA!

Kysen sure misses his sister when she is at school. I dropped her off the first day and not 2 minutes later he goes I miss sissy when does she come home...lets go pick her up! It was way too cute. He got to be a ring bearer in his Aunt Candi's wedding in August! Can I just say HEART BREAKER!
He has been so fun lately (except for the fact that those 2 year molars are coming in!)
I have probably had the most change in my life. I started to work at home again doing medical transcription for a physical therapy office! I LOVE IT! I don't have to pay daycare and it is a little extra cash in these hard financial times. I also took on the duty of Fundraising chair at Kaitlyn's school and now the financial head for the MOPS group I go to! It all keeps me busy and that is good!

Don is doing super duper with his job. It should be done here in the next 3 months or so! Hard to believe that he started that project in April of 2008! Time flies!
Well this is just a little recap and a few updated pictures....enjoy!

Prayer Request

The blog world not only acts as a way to share family stories and pictures with friends and family, but it is also a way to reach out to other bloggers who are in need of prayers. This happens to be the reason for this entry. In a previous blog of mine I wrote about a young family that lost their 10 month old to cancer. I regularly check their blog now to see how the family is doing and to let them know that I am praying for them. Yesterday in her blog she had a prayer request for a young girl named Kate from Arizona. She is a five year old girl who has a spirit for life. Her family is dedicated to their faith. She started to have tremors in her right hand one night so the next day they took her to the hospital to have an MRI and she was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer. The location of the cancer in her brain is where the communication takes place. She underwent surgery to remove 50% of the tumor which in fact was cancerous. She has not had much movement in her right arm and hand since the surgery. You can read about the rest of her story on this website www.caringbridge.org/visit/mcraekate
After reading this journal, I once again was brought to tears, not only because a five year old girl is going through such a tramatic experience, but because not once have the parents questioned why God has lead them down this path. They instead are asking how they can take this experience and use it to show God's unconditional love. In one of the mother's journal entries she tells of a time a few months ago before they knew about the cancer. She said her three children would all be calling for "mommy" and as any parent gets, you sometimes just say to your children to just leave mommy alone for a few minutes. She said she told her kids that for 10 minutes they could not say mommy. Now she is sitting in a hospital room with her five year old who just had major brain surgery and could not say mommy. She said she would give ANYTHING to hear those words out of her mouth! What a word I take for granted most days! I was suddenly relaxed as both of my kids were asking for me. Their voices are so precious and their fire for life is contagious. We never think this is going to happen to us, but it can.

I ask you take a few minutes to read their story and include them in your prayers. I know that you don't know them, and neither do I, but she is a child of God and our duty in life is to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Another Hodgpodge Post!

I just had to start out with a story! We had a garage sale the other weekend and so I did not have a constant eye on my kids like I usually do. Well, this all came in to play today when I went to go load pictures off of my camera to our computer....while I was selling stuff, my kids got a hold of my camera and here are a few of the 20+ pictures that I was suprised to see....because I sure did not take them.



All I have to say is....thank goodness for digital cameras where you can delete the ones where all you can see is boogers in the nose...but I did keep quite a few and will always have them to look at when I need a laugh.

We have had quite the storms in our town lately. Last night, it was clear skies and within about 30 minutes from out of no where a HUGE storm system built up over our town...and I mean HUGE!! I told my grandma that it was as if the skies opened up and God was just letting the heavens explode with tears. We all stood outside for awhile and watched the pouring rain come down, and then the lightning started to get REALLY bad and the thunder was so loud that I thought pictures were going to fall off the walls. The kids, needless to say, were cuddled up to us! We lost our satalite connection to the tv, phone, and internet, so it was as if we were shut off from the world. I was outside just watching a cloud bank rotate....thinking it could have funneled at anytime...but I figured the sirens would go off if I need to worry....BOY WAS I WRONG! I learned this morning that our town does not have sirens! Are you kidding me? Do they not think that we don't have tornados in this area? Did they forget that a tornado wiped out a whole area of Windsor last year that is just about 10 miles from us! I was floored to find this out! I guess I won't rely on that next time! Well the hail and rain fell for about 2 1/2 hours total and I think we got like 2 1/2 inches or something like that!





This week is supposed to be in the 90's for the most part so we are just trying to stay cool and lather on lots of sun screen! I always think it is funny when Coloradoans are complaining about the 55% humidity! I laugh and tell them boy I think it feels pretty good compared to the 90% humidity we are used to in Nebraska! I was eating my words today when the air conditioner in my car when kapooie! So we get to deal with that now! But, when all else fails and I start to get discouraged with all that, I take my kids outside in the pool and just relax...and laugh at how silly they look in their new goggles!





We hope all of you are enjoying your summer as much as we are...so far!

Summer Fun!

I can hardly believe that my daughter is now out of first grade. It seems like just yesterday I was taking her to her first day of kindergarten. She has grown up so much the past two years. Kysen sure likes having his sister home ALL day! I think he is actually getting on her nerves because he does not want to leave her side all day. We have so many things going on this summer that I am seriously having to look for a week where we can head back to Lincoln and see all of our family and friends.

God has blest Colorado with so much rain these first couple weeks of June that we have not had to water the grass and flowers....however, it is hindering the outside time my kids so desperately need. So we have been finding indoor activities to do and we have also seen ALOT of movies the past two weeks. I am ready to get that pool out and so are the kids. But, we will not complain about the green grass and all the beautiful flowers that have bloomed at our house.

Don's job is going really well. The inside of the building should be done within the next couple of months. The whole job is scheduled to be complete around November. Hard to believe that it has been over a year that he has been working on this project. It is amazing to see it go from flat land to a helicopter hanger for Blackhawk helicopters. AMAZING!!!

We took the kids camping with our neightbors over Memorial weekend. Don's brother and his girlfriend were down that weekend, so they tagged along with us. We told them to pack some warm clothes...she only brought shorts. I guess they are not used to the Colorado cold spring nights!!! It was pretty chilly out and rainy, but we enjoyed ourselves for a night. I was amazed at how well the kids did. They especially liked the idea of sleeping in a tent. I wish I would have captured more pictures, but I was more worried about watching for bugs and having a blanket over me to keep me warm. We only stayed one night but had a lot of fun. I am more of a cabin person, as is Don, but the kids would stay in a tent again....we will have to see!






The month of July will bring about several fun activities and birthdays! My birthday always kicks off the month on the 1st and then Don's grandpa Don's birthday is on the 2nd. We plan on enjoying the 4th of July right here in Wellington. I guess they have a whole day of activities planned and then we will BBQ with the neighbors and watch the fireworks show from our street! Should be a good time. Then my Mom and Grandma are coming out that next week to visit. Then, Don's birthday is next on the calendar on the 20th. The last weekend in July we are going to take the kids on their first plane ride to Omaha. We thought that would get their feet wet with flying...since it is only an hour and a half flight. Don's sister is getting married on August 1st. We are really excited for this. Kysen is going to be a ring bearer for the wedding. Imagining Kysen in a tux just makes me smile! He will be too cute! We are then going to drive back to Colorado and bring Don's other sister with us for the week while Don's parents go on a short vacation. They are then going to fly back into Denver and stay with us for that weekend......and then a week and a half after that, Kaitlyn will start school again.

Our summer is definately full of activities! We are more than excited for all the fun stuff we have planned to do. Hope everyone's summer will be as fun as ours. I will get some pictures posted once I get them off the camera. Our computer got zapped by lightning here so I have to get the program reloaded to do all that.

Easter Extravaganza...And A Birthday TOO!!!

Easter weekend was pretty quiet for our family....with family all in Nebraska and us in Colorado it was hard to get to travel back there, so we enjoyed it with each other. Our events started on Saturday...Cheyenne has a huge Easter Egg Hunt Extravaganza....and I am stressing the word HUGE! They have a helicopter drop around 40,000 plastic eggs out while in the air onto a HUGE field! I thought it would take FOREVER to get all those picked up. Boy was I wrong....it took about 2 minutes TOPS! I would say there was 3000 or so kids there. It was quite a sight to see. The kids really really enjoyed it! It was super duper cold out, so we did not stay long after that! We then went home and dyed Easter Eggs with the kids. Since there was only 4 of us eating them, we only dyed like 8 eggs, so it did not take that long but we had fun anyways. That night we suprised daddy with his Easter present. He has been wanting this hat he found (he calls it his Colorado hat) and so Kaitlyn and I snuck out of the house and got it for him...he was pretty pleased. Sunday we went to church and then we came home and either watched the Masters, or took a nap. It was a quiet day but the time we spent with each other was great.







Kaitlyn celebrated her 7th birthday on April 8th! It is hard to believe that she is now 7 years old. She has grown up to be such a polite young girl...at least to other people. She can still be a little sassy to Don and I! We celebrated her birthday a couple of times. The butterfly cake was for a little get together we had at Pete and Shara's house. We also had the neighbors over to eat some cake! She got a new camera from us, which she absolutely loves. Talk about expensive tastes, she asked to have grilled steak on her birthday! WOW....along with the Olive Garden meal she asked to have the weekend before her birthday! Anyways, we love to spoil the kids while we can!





I am also posting pictures on here of the job that Don is in charge of in Cheyenne! These pictures do not do it justice....the place is huge! It hold 8 or 9 Blackhawk helicopters just to give you an idea of the size. Then, there is also an education center where they will do teaching and stuff. It is quite a sight! They are hoping to be done with it in October or November! It will be exciting to see the finished product!





Other than that, we have just been getting ready for spring, attending Kaitlyn's end of school stuff, and just enjoying the nice weather that we have finally had! We hope all of you had a wonderful Easter weekend with friends and family!

A Hodge Podge Posting

Well time has once again gotten away from me and I find myself needing to blog about several things that we have done in the past month. The beginning of March brough upon a much needed weekend getaway for the family. Kaitlyn's teacher owns a condo up in Winter Park and she was nice enough to let our family rent it for a weekend in March. Coincidently, my mom was going to be up in Winter Park also, with a youth ski trip that she was helping with for her church. So our adventure began on a Friday night. We made it up the Berthoud Pass and arrived at our condo and kicked back for a relaxing evening. The next morning, we headed to the nearest grocery store and picked up doughnuts for the kids to eat in the car while we took a short drive around the mountains. Needless to say, we used a whole pack of wet wipes after the breakfast feast was complete.

We then went downtown Winter Park and shopped in the stores.

Later that day we met my mom at the ski resort. Kysen walked the whole time.....and no nap! WE had a nice visit with my mom and then the snow began to fall, and fall, and fall and we decided we should head back to the condo.


As if this was not enough, Kaitlyn begged me to take her swimming in the condo pool...still no nap for Kysen. About 7:15 that evening, Kysen FINALLY crashed and so did Kaitlyn. They both got to sleep in bunk beds so they thought they were pretty special. WE crashed soon after.


The next fun event we had was a St. Patty's Day Feast at our house with some of our neighbors. I made Irish Stout Stew, Irish Soda Bread, Green Cupcakes, Green Punch, and then all the neighbors brought dishes to share also. We all wore green and we bought all of the female guests green tiaras and all the male guests green hats. We had so much fun. Here are a few pictures of that event. You would think this was Kysen's first birthday cake since most of the frosting found his hands and his face and NOT his mouth.




Lastly, I was tired of spending $15 every three weeks to get Kysen's hair cut. His hair grows super duper fast. So instead, I invested in some shears. I figured I would be able to do the "Fade" thing on his hair, but it was too out of control, so he got a buzz cut. It turned out pretty cute, and hey we will save $15 dollars each time! Those shears will be paid for in no time at all!

Other than that, we are just enjoying the spring like weather that we have had. WE made a trip to Denver to see some family the other weekend and ended up buying a Garmin GPS so we can get around without arguing about directions.....great investment. April 8th will bring a big 7th birthday in our house. Kaitlyn will turn 7......wow how time flies. Seems like just yesterday she was born. I will post pictures of that when the events take place.

True Beauty!

Well, one of the best things about living in Colorado by the mountains is the short 45 minute drive to Rocky Mountain National Park. We officially went up there last weekend and got our park permit for the year. We decided to drive a little ways in......I stress the word LITTLE! The park ranger told us that some of the roads were a little slick so drive with caution...he was not kidding! I had permenent white knuckles half way down one of the trails and finally turned to my husband and said I am turning around. We did that on two trails....I remind you, that there are no guard rails on those trails, so one spin out on the ice and we were toast.....HOWEVER, we did manage to get some beautiful pictures. Some of these were taken by Kaitlyn so some of our heads are cut off...I apologize. I hope these give you an idea of why we call this country out here GOD'S COUNTRY! We miss you all and hopefully all of you will be able to visit and we can take you up here to see the beauty for yourselves because pictures do not do it justice.