"this is awesome!"

ahhhhh....the first couple of days after a big exam always feel soooooo good! i am so happy to not have to tell the girls i can't play because i am studying :)
I guess the exam went pretty good, as far as those thing go. We spent the evening hanging out in downtown Manitou Springs. There is this super cool area called the "penny arcade" that has arcade games that are from the 1950's (maybe older!). There are very few games that are actually a penny, but there are several that are a nickle or a dime, and we all had so much fun exploring the arcade.

Cris' go-to game....and he even sacrificed a few of the balls for his girls to try :) One of the best parts of the arcade is an entire section full of old (and new) quarter rides for the kids. The girls loooove this section, especially because we hardley ever let them ride the ones at the mall or other stores (unless it's Big Lots....which is only a penny! haha!!!).
Here Juneau is making her "tough face" while riding the motorcycle.

oh yeah, she's soooo tough!!!!

Nova's cute little wink...

Nova stil has a bit to grow before she can reach the controllers herself.

the classy little joint :)

somehow they always find something to climb to the top of!

even better if you can slide down after you climb up...

One of the best parts of the night was sampling the water from one of the ten mineral springs in downtown. I had always wanted to try out some of the spring water, but had never actually done it. I thought Juneau would love getting to take a drink right out of the fountain, so i held her up to try it out....cris missed the picture, so i had her do it again, but she really REALLY didn't want to. I was like "come on Juneau! take another drink!" but she refused. Finally I tried a little bit of the water, and it was litterally like drinking straight sulfer! haha! no wonder she didn't want to drink more of it!

Finally we headed over to "Marilyns" for some pizza. It was SERIOUSLY possibly the very best pizza we have ever had! can't wait to go back.!

i cannot tell you how much Nova LOOOOVVVEEEESSSS hugs and kisses and snuggles. She seriously will give you a big huge gigantic kiss anytime, anywhere...as you can see below!

What's a night on the town if it's not finished off with a giant ice cream cone!!!! About 3 bites into her cone Nova announced "This is AWESOME!!!" Ahhh yes, baby girl, this is awesome.

Juneau has been totally obsessed with Mint Chocolate Chip, ever since she tasted her first Andes Mint a few weeks ago. Nova, on the other hand, will always pick "PINK!!!"

Our Good bad goodbye

Posted by: Cris

We are proud of mommy for her recent promotion to Major: The Army pomp and circumstance:


When I was so young I can barely remember it, on Father's Day, Coral and I would make breakfast in bed for our dad then sneak upstairs and put on a little show or sing him a few songs while he ate breakfast. This year, the 2 most beautiful little girls brought toast and hot chocolate up to my bed on Sunday morning and sang the most awesome version of "You Are My Sunshine" I can ever imagine. The awesomeness was topped off by the card that Nova had insisted on Emilie buying which on the front had a picture of a bee with the text: "I would totally throw myself on a bee for you" then when you opened it up played "Birdhouse in your soul" by They Might Be Giants...She's been trained well.

After breakfast in bed, we headed up to Denver to help the Goods pack up the moving truck, to celebrate Jackson's birthday and to just generally goof off and enjoy hanging out for the last time for quite awhile.

While Travis and I successfully packed most of the contents of their house into a 24' moving truck, Emilie and Laurie supervised all sorts of fun:

The "Eating Fruit by the Foot Roll-Ups" contest:

You can see Jack is already finished as he circumvented the spirit of the game by just shoving the whole thing in his mouth at once.

"We Ate The Whole Thing!"



Jack, the birthday boy, paraded his entourage around the neighborhood.
After packing, we broke out the inflatable waterslide.

The beauty of this next picture requires explanation: Travis and Laurie live across the street from the HGTV Green Home (that's it in the background). It's kind of a big deal and people actually PAY to come tour this house since it is on TV and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

In fact, driving by in the white van in this picture are some of said people who have just paid to tour the HGTV Green Home and on their way out, are being treated to the the view of the "low-rent" portion of the community complete with an inflatable water slide set-up on the sidewalk and a buck-naked Finley sprawled out on the side of the water slide.

That explanation should make it clear why the 3 of us are laughing at the whole scene.

Jack had a blast...Juneau had to work up her nerve a bit.
One of the highlights of the night was the Pinata - Nova was ready to go!


The birthday boy put a hurtin' on Lightning McQueen...



The pinata put up quite a fight but finally, the pay-off:
Happy 5th Birthday Jack Jack!
Mmmmm...Ice Cream Cupcakes


The goodbyes at the end of the night were very sad as we know it will be quite awhile until we get to have another day like that with the gang, now that the Denver Good's have become the Milwaukee Good's.

But, before we said our last goodbyes, Emilie and I were EXTREMELY touched by Laurie and Travis asking us to be Godparents to this adorable little Finley girl: (Copyright infringement - picture stolen from Pho For Five)

Emilie and I, of course, were extremely honored and talked on the way home how funny it was that we end up becoming Godparents for this awesome little girl that we so affectionately refer to as "Nova's Evil Twin". Emilie and Laurie were pregnant with these 2 at the exact same time and watched each other progress throughout pregnancy via their blogs when they were still just "internet friends." Though Nova is more reserved and Finley more outgoing, these 2, who we always swear could pass for sisters, are 2 of the sweetest girls you'd ever want to meet and I'm blessed to have one as a daughter and the other a God daughter :)

yikes!!!

posted by: emilie

we are still here!!! it has been a long time since our last post (especially for those of you who had gotten into the routine of a daily update for the last 6 months!)

Things are a bit crazy, but shoudl settle down next week (i have my OB/GYN boards next monday, so i am spending every free second with my face in my books).

VERY brief synopsis of events over the last week:

1. we are slowly unpacking the 1 billion boxes that we moved out of the storage unit and into the new house.
2. we found a nanny!!!!! after several weeks of very intense (and stressful) searching, and MANY ups and downs, some very amazing things fell into place, our nanny-prayers were answered!!!! More to come on that....but we are thankful and excited!!!
3. father's day rocked (even though it involved a VERY sad farewell to our dear friends, The Pho for Five Gang...although technically this should be Pho for Six, or I guess Pho for Four...oh geez, it's too hard to keep up with these guys, and whose really counting, anyway!)
4. Captain Stickley was promoted to Major Stickley in a very eventful ceremony, completely dominated by a full fledged fit by a certain 3 year old whose name rhymes with Lova and starts with an N.

my brain is pretty much fried from spending the day surrounded by pregnant women, the evening surrounded by 3 year olds, and the night surrounded by OB/GYN textbooks. The girls have definately noticed that I haven't been playing with them as much as usual, and I am studying a lot. This evening Nova said..."Mom can you hand me that Snow White Book? I need to get to my studying".

Friends!!!! part 2!

well, i definately haven't been able to keep up with Cris' super-star daily posts! Life is crazy (as usual!!!) but we are loving being together. The girls have been truly phenomenal. They completely adjusted to life with mommy without a hiccup. Juneau has really been tuned-in to some of the upcoming changes...I think she is actually really stressed about what she knows is happening (she understands that Cris will be leaving to go back to Hawaii at some point).
anyway, here are some more cute pictures of the girls with their BFF's....Jackson, Shane, Fin, and Baby Griffie.
We definately needed more time with the Denver gang, so we headed up earlier this week to hang out. We spent some time at the little outdoor fountain nearby...Juneau and Shane were like Fountain Maniacs. These two jumped right in! Shane is truly one of the sweetest kids ever. The kids had found a snake (now named Freddie) in their yard, and Shane was sooooo excited. As soon as we got out of the van he ran right up and started jabbering nonstop about how they found a snake, but it wasn't a rattle snake, it was a garden snake!!!

Juneau, of course, had to get her bottom in the fountain!

Nova took a while to jump in on the fun, but eventually she had a great time too :)

Cuddled up in a warm towel after the cold fountain

ahhhh...one of Juneau's many super-sweet-poses

She thinks she is just tooooo cool :)

The girls loved tickling and playing with Baby Griffie...luckily he was a great sport, and there was lots of giggling....

Crazies....

The whole gang....can you believe we caught six smiles at one time??!!!! I absolutely adore every single one of these kiddos....Each of them are so incredibly sweet and unique...

We finished off the evening with a stop to one of those trendy frozen yogurt spots....each of the kids made their own "creation" complete with gummy bears, sprinkles, chocolate chips, oreos, and other sweet treats....They LOVED it!

Then all the girls piled into the stroller (yeah, this is actually a single stroller...definately not meant to hold 3 three year old girls!) Once again, there were hugs, and tears (some more emphatic than others - Finley!) when we said goodbye.

The rest of the week was pretty busy...I started back to work this week. It's nice to be back in familiar terrority, and practicing OB/GYN again...I am excited to finally get to actually deliver a baby one of these days!