Trip to Steamboat, Day One

Last Wednesday our family embarked on our first winter vacation. We went to Steamboat Springs, Colorado and just had to best time. Our adventure began with a plane ride from DFW to Hayden, CO. The big kids were so excited about this and Miss Lila was game for anything.

After playing with her toys, eating some snacks and then playing with the seat in front of us,

all the kids fell asleep. Too bad it was literally three minutes before we landed!

Jackson kept asking over and over when we were going to land. Guess all that excitement just wore him out.

After taking a shuttle to our condo, these two maniacs were in full effect. They love the snow!

The adults enjoyed a nice glass of wine, courtesy of the condominium staff, and had a toast out on the balcony. We were right on the slopes and the view was amazing.

Jackson was so into his Mighty Machines dvd (thanks, Memaw!) that he just propped himself up and watched it. This would have been just fine, but we were in Colorado for goodness sakes! As soon as I could, I bundled the kids up and remedied the situation.

We all got our ski clothes on...

got out the sled that we'd found in the closet...

and headed up the little hill outside of our condo.

We wanted to get the most bang for our buck, so we climbed way on up there.

First up, Maddie. She and I slid down the hill and both hollered a bit! Then it was Jackson's turn, so I slid down with him, too. After a few rounds of taking turns, they wanted all three of us to go down the hill! I must say it was a bit hard to steer the sled--probably due to the fact that I am a novice sledder--and it got a little harder with one more of us on there. No prob, though! We just flew down the hill and into a big pile of snow. There were smiles all around.

While we were sledding, Lila was watching with Gigi from the balcony. She chose to wear her fur coat! Love it.

Right after the last time down the hill we trapsed back up to our room and got these two munchins in the bath.

After bathtime they both enjoyed being in the miniature robes that were provided by the resort. Jackson was pretty chilly, but Madison loved being pampered! So fun! They slept in a room by themselves for the first time and did great. After a good night's sleep they were ready to hit the slopes. Stay tuned for Day 2!

Steamboat 2011

Steamboat 2011! Oh my, what a fabulous trip!

There are many more pics to come. Here's a sneak peak, though, of us five up on the mountain.

So I found this great train that was Jackson's in our garage the other day. He got it for his first Christmas when he was 10 months old, so I thought it was the perfect time to get it back out for Lila to enjoy. Needless to say, she is a fan.

Whenever she spots it across the room she does some super-fast crawling and gets right over to it. She grabs onto the yellow part and pulls herself right up. Soon after she takes a few steps and then falls to her knees. Not to be detered, she pulls right back up and does it again. It really is endless entertainment for a 10 1/2 month old girl.

Every now and then she gets really brave and lets go! About .2 seconds after I snapped this pic she did a serious faceplant into the carpet! Not to worry, this little girl popped right back up and was all smiles.

Of course, it's hard to get pics of just one kid. Very soon Jackson and Maddie were both right in the mix. I chose to include this pic because it just makes me laugh. Madison was really trying so hard to get Lila's bow to fit around J's head. Now my son has been known to walk around in Madison's pink high heels sometimes, but at least he draws the line at pink bow wearing!

" Thank goodness! Those pink bows are all mine!"

Just look at all those teeth. She is now up to 7 and is about to get one more on the bottom. No wonder she's developed a new love for big people food. Gotta put those teeth to some good use.

Gym Time

Madison started gymnastics class a few weeks ago and has been having so much fun! After doing their warm-up and stretches, they do some handstands. After handstand time, they move on to this fun activity. It begins with a forward roll down the pie mat.

She can do this great by herself, but her teacher spots all of them for some reason.

Then they move on to a very beginner cartwheel....

and then do a big roll over this mat. Not sure what it really teaches them, but it sure looks like fun!

After that Maddie puts out her "Wonder Woman" arms and leaps onto and over this mat...

and then finishes things off with a backward roll.

Whew! Now that's a workout!

ABCs and 123s

Full of goofiness all the time. I took this crazy cat to the doc and he did so well. I was a proud mama!

Jackson's 4 year old check-up was yesterday and he passed with flying colors. He has 20/20 vision, did fantastic on the hearing test, and has a blood pressure of 94/59. She looked him over from head to toe and declared that he is as healthy as a horse.

After taking a few minutes to warm up to Dr. Betty, he was able to identify and draw the letters and numbers that she drew. He now can identify all the letters of the alphabet, uppercase and lowercase. He was then able to identify and draw a circle, square and triangle all very well. He told her his full name, complete with spelling "Jackson Hays, " and then wrote his first name for her. He counted to 59 for her and told her his ABC's at the speed of light. He can now dress himself and buckle himself into his brand new booster seat, both nice perks for me! He can also do some small math problems, such as "If I have two apples and then someone gives me three more...how many do I have?" He thinks about it for a sec and then shouts "5!" I feel qualified to coach him at this stage in math. However, when he starts with the pre-cal, I will have to defer to his daddo! He can also read a few words: Lila, Jackson, Madison, Mom, Mommy, Stop, Go, Dad, Hays and Gigi, so Dr. Betty suggested that I buy some books in a series called You Read to Me, I Read to You. We'll certainly give it a shot!

He is still at the top of the growth charts, coming in at 41 lbs (90%) and 43 inches tall (95%). At the end of the visit he had to get 3 shots and did not even shed a tear. He is so darn tough. It was still hard to watch, though. When we walked out of the doctor's office he got to choose a new Hot Wheel and then picked out 5 big stickers to take home with us and was very pleased with all of his prizes.

Perhaps my proudest recent moment came at the dinner table the other night when Jackson said, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16" I must say, I was not expecting something so profound!

I still can't believe that he is four...pretty soon I will have a kindergartener! And that will really be nuts.

Birthday Bash

The four year mark has come and gone. Jackson has been wished Happy Birthday many, many times! We had his birthday party at ASI Gymnastics yesterday afternoon.

I was so happy to get at least one fam pic of our crew before the madness began.

The kids kicked off the party with some tramp time, which was a big hit.

Jackson did take a timeout, though, to welcome one of his girlfriends, Mia, to his party!

While the big kids were jumping and running, Lila practiced her crawling and climbing skills.

She spotted Mia's little brother and crawled right over to say hello, just grinning the whole way.

There were lots of little boys at the party, but here's a pic with J and most of the girls:)

After tramp time, they went over to swing into the pit. Jackson loved this...

and took lots of turns doing it. It took a few tries to get the timing right. The first time he dropped too late and ended up right back where he started on the mat!

Miss Maddie was next and got her share of the pit fun, too.

The huge grin says it all:)

While the big kids played, Memaw hung out with Lila. She did some good crawling up these stairs.

"Well Hello Simeon!" Looks like she found another suitor at the top!

After flirting with Simeon Martinez, she spotted Sawyer across the floor. Thank goodness she refrained from petting him this time!

I think we may need to install a pit in our next house. These kids would have stayed in there all day!

And I'm pretty sure the big kids may have wanted to hop on in, too.

Lila got tired of all that crawling and decided it was time to practice her forward roll. Good thing Gigi was there to spot her.

The last activity was the parachute...

and then it was time for some cake!

Jackson chose a Mickey Mouse theme for his party. Random since Mickey is not really one of his faves. He really liked the Mickey Mouse ears--I'm thinking this is what hooked him into choosing this theme--but when it came time to wear them at the party, he refused. Go figure. His head was a sweaty, hot mess, so maybe that had something to do with it!

Nothing says Happy Birthday like having your face covered in blue icing. He was so thrilled about it!

After chowing down on his cupcake and icing, he attacked his presents with a vigor. I'm pretty sure he got through opening them all in about five minutes.

I was in the middle of the present opening mania and honestly didn't even know who had Lila. I looked up to see her asleep on my mom's shoulder. Sweet girl just had so much fun and was worn plum out.

By the time we got home all three kids were asleep in the car. Only Madison stayed asleep, though. These two popped right up and had so much fun checking out all the new presents. Happy Birthday, Jackson. I can't believe you are really 4!!