Mr. Bossy pants sweet face question asker!

Why does Santa have eight reindeer? Why do snakes live in the ground? Why do some have rattles? Why do you have to stop at red lights? Why does my teacher call me Mace? Why do I have to go to school? Why are some girls mean? Why do some restraunts not have quarters? And on and on.....

Lately my days are filled up with hoards of questions and sometimes I just don't have the answer!

And my three year old is a back seat driver! "Mom if you don't stop at the red light and go at the green the police officer will write you a ticket!" or "Mom honk your horn at that guy he is a bad driver" You get the gist. Its a constant reminder that Mommy monkey do baby monkey do...I know thats not the saying but that is the saying for my situation.

Other days go like this:
"MOM please give me some privacy I am writting an e-mail" or "DAD I told you to color with the red crayon now!!!" Or "Mom can you get me peanut butter sandwhich NOW!"

We of course love this behavior and encourage more of it!!!

But than there are a lot of  moments like these; "I am going to read Hunter a story because he feels icky, if he throws up I will clean it up, don't worry Mom!" and all the kisses, snuggles and compliments.

I guess its the full spectrum that makes him, him and for that I am forever thankful.

Heard this lovely little number a few weeks back and it was perfect for the right now of life. Its on my playlist too!

Mindy Gledhill

© 2010 Blue Morph Music (BMI)

Little boy, when you speak
I can't help but kiss your cheeks
I love the way you grab my hands
And tell me all about your plans
Rocket high, comets fly
You and I could take a ride
And fly away to Neverland
And give our best to Peter Pan
When you reach for the stars
Don't forget who you are
And please don't turn around and grow up way too fast
See the sand in my grasp
From the first to the last
Every grain becomes a memory of the past
Oh, life's an hourglass
Life's an hourglass
Stories read, prayer is said
Close your eyes sleepyhead
While angels linger in your dreams
And hold you in their feathered wings
Just like you, I was small
Not that long ago at all
I wish you all the happiness
That God gives freely if you ask

Live and let live

 Slow.Simple.Satisfying.

When there is TIME to just be in the moment and do the things on our "when we have time list"

Our January has given us that....live and let live.

 Mason and I finally made it to the Train Museum outside of Golden

If you live in the area I highly recommend it. Mason thought we were actually going on a train trip and packed his bag.

and everytime the train whistle would blow he would take off in a full sprint, worried we were going to miss the train.

I was sad to remind him over and over that these trains weren't moving. 

Playing pretend was second best. I said "lets pretend to be train engineers from one hundred years ago" and he said "yes, when dinosaurs were still here!" 

to which I said "next field trip needs to be the Dinosaur museum." 

Satisfying,making our own pizzas with olive smiley faces.

Satisfying when the renovations begin in your home because you know the end product will be worth it. 

Satisfying when the Broncos win their first playoff game. Slow, my learning curve for decorating cakes.

Simple. The love between a fury sibling and one with opposable thumbs.

Simple. When friends come for an easy Friday night dinner and bring their simply adorable one year old.

Or when we get to visit friends with new baby brothers (even though Mason got the flu 15 minutes before we arrived :-(

Satisfying. Celebrating 88 years of life with a wonderful man we get to call Grandpa.

Simple, Saturday nights spent with an Aunt and Uncle while we watched the Broncos getting their a$$ handed to them by the Patriots. Still love you Tebow!

Slow.Simple.Satisfying. January.

PS Thank you sweet friends and cousins for your comments. XOXO

Resolutions...1-5

I usually think New Years resolutions are meaningless. Why do they have to start January 1st? If you don't like something you are doing than make a decision to change it. BUT here I am listing a few of mine for 2012.
Resolution #1
The obvious resolution to be continued and taken up a notch:

I know the typical resolution for people is to loose weight or be healthier. For some reason the pressure of January 1st to start a total body change doesn't usually work for my Psyche.

Please let me toot my own horn for a minute:)

I decided last May that I was going to complete a 6-week workout tape that had sat in a box since college and with that I would eat two colorful things everyday! Its was like regaining a long lost friend, endorphins. Love those endorphins. I have always been a big outdoors person but leisure walking wasn't cutting it so I started running more. I lost weight but my body hurt.

I started to hate running. My shins hurt, my feet hurt and along with that came the wonderful emotion called guilt. I was feeling guilty because it couldn't be a workout if I wasn't running. That's when I decided to run one or two days and to hike or take long strenuous walks using an iPhone app to interval train. I combined this with some lunges, dips, and calf raises while Mason played at the park. I than dropped running all together and I was getting better results. This also made me decide that I wasn't going to let myself feel guilty by people's comments about running being the only form of beneficial cardio. I am envious of people who love to run but I accept that I am not one of them.

Than something even more awesome happened...my brother in law Nick opened a gym. I go twice a week for 60 minutes of pure muscle workout! Sometimes its boxing and sometimes its more of a cross fit workout. I get to visit with one of my favorite people while he kicks my ASS and when I leave my body and mind feel their best. Plus its pretty cool to see someone at age 29 living their dream.

I am not skinny, not even close, but I have muscles and I feel AWESOME! I am not saying I don't miss the college days of being a slender size 8 but a fit size 12-14 is ok with me. I am a foodie, I literally love all kinds of food. I recently read a great quote though that I think if I could live by 6 days a week would help "Eat for the body you want, not the body you have!" Isn't it weird as we get older that vanity takes a back seat to health? I don't want to do all this to be a knockout, I want to do this so I can enjoy my family and all the fun activities we like to do.

In the mix of this of course is trying to have another baby. This was something I was hoping would have happened sooner than later but I am learning to trust his will and rely less on my plan. My husband helps me with this too and I have to say there is no other I would want to share this life with than him. I had a miscarriage back in November at 11 weeks pregnant. It hurt emotionally and physically and still does at times, especially when Mason asks me "when is your baby going to come out!" Miscarriage is a topic people don't like to talk about and they may be shocked I am writing about on my blog but it happens and everyone deals with it differently. I thank God for my supportive Husband, Mom, family and girlfriends, they all helped me back to the other side.


Resolution #2
To not say "I'm sorry" all the time.

I was in the grocery store and turned the aisle and almost bumped another shopper and of course said "Oh so sorry!" to which he said "Why are you sorry? You couldn't see me." And that got me thinking about all the trivial times I say "sorry" and more importantly that I always assume its my fault. I think this will be challenging for me.

Resolution #3
To create a family cookbook from both sides of our families.  Food and memories go hand-in-hand and I would love to pass this onto my kiddos.

Resolution #4
To enjoy a purely Colorado adventure summer! To see places in this great state we haven't seen.

Resolution #5
To give my time to charity at least twice a month.

So I guess we will see next year how I do...

Rocking around the Christmas Tree

The festivities began on the 23rd.

Matt and Mason headed up to the mountains a few hours before me to help my Dad split a cord of wood. For those of you who don't know that is an actual measurement, its a 4-ft x 4-ft x 8-ft pile of wood.  A splitter is a loud piece of machinery that splits the wood....it has a lever,smells of gas, and requires the use of ear plugs...if you want to still have your hearing. I got to man the lever for an hour, the vibration is AMAZING, if you know what I mean:) My Dad wanted a picture in front of the pile, he is weird

but than we took a family one too and that is even weirder. Is that a word?

Any who after the wood was stacked we turned in to the warm house to sip libations by the Christmas tree.

Matt worked on his art skills

WOW  that is one excellent Santy Claus! Fridge material if you ask me....

We ate yummy dutch oven chicken enchiladas and turned in early for the night. Here is the thing about staying at my parents that I sorta dislike. They have a huge king bed in the guest room but we have a three year old who is insistent on being in it too. I love to fall asleep with him in there but about 4 hours in to the night he is perpendicular to us and kicking. SO we are always tired when we stay there....I decided about 4 hours in to move up to the couch. Unfortunately my parents are old conservative hippies (oxy moron right?) and refuse to sleep in clothing...YA so when my dad got up to let the dogs out I caught a blurry glance of a nude dude!  It might be the first time I thanked God for my really poor eye sight...my poor dad was so embarrassed. AND I WAS LIKE  "people when we are here underwear are required!"

Mom got him a robe for Christmas.

The 24th brought beautiful weather and we took advantage of it...just after my Dad and Matt finished snaking the sewer line. On a quick side note I would like to announce that Mason is 95% potty trained! Well Mason hadn't been feeling well the day before and had a massive blowout...Matt put a few too many disposable wipes down the new toilet. It took a while to figure out what was going on and when we did it was Christmas Eve morning! Luckily the guys had to return the splitter and could rent the snake, saved all of us a fortune on a plumber!

Oh the holidays....

Well back to sledding...I am a real speed demon.

And Matt is quite the louge master. Look at the use of that hand.

And Hunter is a snow maniac. He could have been an avalanche rescue dog IF he were searching for a tennis ball and weighed 40lbs less. Sorry Hunter but thanks for finding 40-frozen tennis balls under there.

Frisky pups...

After some fresh mountain air 

I put on my Christmas best

set the table by the fire

and watched my Momma find this little bling left by her Hubby for their 39th wedding anniversary! Go Dad, hubba hubba.

with these two napping at 5:30 

and this one drinking it was shaping up to be a late evening.

which is always fun because the next morning you know you will be woken much to early by that sweet voice asking "did Santa come?"...and what did we find but three new mountain bikes, a new all clad set for me, new snow gear for Matt, and a play kitchen for Mason! That Santa sure does spoil us.

After some of Mom's delicious quiche (seriously delicious) we packed up and got ready for round 2!

I stunk at picture taking this year at Dad Gilbreaths but I managed to get a few.

Sweet Ellie adores Mason and takes such good care of him.

And this little guy is the newest member to Gilbreath clan. Nick and Angie got Duke about a month ago. He is a golden-doodle and one of the coolest dogs already.

Mason got a lot of cool stuff from the fam but these were toys of his oldest cousin Luke, who turns 16 in March. Mason hasn't stopped playing with them.

Oh did I mention this guy? Love him!

Well the holidays are exhausting but were a lot of fun this year too!

The 26th was spent doing a lot of this....

By New Years we were still into taking it easy

We headed up to, yup you guessed it, my parents! Aww brothers...I love when these two hang out because they make fun of each other only like brothers can.

It was so fun to have Nick, Ang, and Duke join us.

I again did not pick up my camera a lot but I did have this little gem of a photo from their wedding I have been dying to share. Angie is such beautiful person inside and out, couldn't have picked a better wife for Nick and sister in law for me:) I love them and the way they love Mason too!

New Years was spent taking a lovely mountain walk with the dogs, babying my Dad who had shoulder surgery on the 28th, and cooking beef tenderloin and mushroom orzo. For dessert we ate chocolate covered strawberries and toasted with a bottle of Dom I had been saving for such an occasion. We all (minus Mason) made it to midnight. AMAZING!!!

It was a wonderful way to bring in the New Year!