Rest in Peace, Little Brother

After years of fighting, Doug passed away Sunday, March 20.

I love you, Doug. I miss you. Tatum talks about you all the time. She looks up at the sky and talks to you, sends you pictures through the air, and blows you kisses. I know you are getting all of them, and are loving every single one. We miss you, and it still does not feel like you are really gone... but we know that you are in a better place. I've missed you so much these past years, and it was so hard to see you and accept the way things were. Oh, brother... I love you... I miss you... we will meet again.

Ending one chapter... Beginning another...

Hi-Ho... Hi-Ho... It's off to Indiana we go....

(Okay, well we moved over a month ago, but I am finally getting to our blog!)

Yes, once again, this Carrington family has moved... back across country, home to Indiana. It was a bittersweet move for us. We absolutely loved living in Colorful Colorado, love what that beautiful state has to offer, but the one thing it was lacking, was family. And family wins over anything else. Not just the family that remained in IN while we moved around, but our core family as well.

After living in AZ for about a year and a half, we never did get to visit the Grand Canyon... we will visit it at some point in the future, but I can not believe that we were unable to go... so, as family visited us in CO, or as Matt found a day off, I had no problem with packing up the car and heading out on an adventure in Colorado... to learn why it is called "Colorful Colorado", and I am so glad we did! We took every chance we were given to hang out in the mountains, and we left with no regrets! We met great friends and had fun!

So here we go, the next chapter in our lives. Who knows what this next chapter will hold for us, but as each page turns, I'm sure we will live it up and find new adventures in Indiana... with each other :)

So long for now, Colorado, I'm sure we will see you soon!

P.S. If you notice in the photo above, the sun is in our rear view mirror... that is where it has remained... out west.... :( So, if you live out west, and are reading this, please feel free to send the sun this direction and let us borrow it for a while!

"I can't believe you're really here!"

Tatum whispers as Cindarella swoops her into her arms... The annual Daddy-Daughter Dance at LifeTime welcomed the princesses Cindarella and Belle, and T was in awe! She heard they were going to be there, but I don't think she believed they would really be there, but when she saw them.... wow... looks like it's a great year to visit Disney World!

Tatum loved picking out her dress for her dance with her Daddy, and LOVED having her nails painted. I did re-name her Tatum "Bouncing Curls" Carrington for the night... as I was curling her hair, she kept wanting to see it in the mirror, and when she stood on the chair to see it, she kept jumping to make her curls bounce! She loved it!

Although she and her handsome Daddy were all ready to dance, Tatum rather enjoyed playing with the decorations and balloons... and eating, of course! All in all, she had a great time with her daddy, and is already asking when the next one is! :)

Here we go, a-skiing!

I finally gave in.

Matt won.

Or maybe, Tatum won.

Yeah, Matt won.

For the past year and a half, Matt has been talking about getting T into ski lessons.... WHY? Why would I do that??? I can not imagine my little girl in skiis! What if she falls? What if she gets hurt? What if she falls off the mountain? (ha!) What if..... ???? No, she's not ready! She's too young! NO!!!! or is it, Mom's just not ready? Mom's scared she'll get hurt? Mom's scared to let go of her little girl's hand and let someone else teach her something... something that Mom has no clue how to do... Mom's scared to do it, so shouldn't her little girl be scared as well? Well...

If we don't show our kids to be scared, then they won't be scared! If we build something up to be exciting, it will be. If our kids see us doing things that we love, won't they want to do the same things? Of course. T has been talking to Daddy about going skiing for a long time. Daddy loves to ski, and gets to go, well, as often as he can, so of course T is interested in it. And Mom wishes she was better and had more opportunities to actually learn to ski. Sooo... we finally had the opportunity, as a family, to head up the mountain to ..... ski (or that's what it is called when anyone but me, Mom, does it).

"I'm going to ski around the mountain!!!" ~Tatum

So, off we go! We pack up the car,wake the girls up EARLY, battled the snow-packed roads, waited for the 'avalanch prevention' to complete, watch semi's being towed.... and finally reach our destination... Vail. (who had gotten 18 inches the night before) So, just the name intimidates me. Maybe that is what my issue was... but eh, we'll get to that later.

We are all excited, well, I'm not quite certain Kalina had any clue as to what we were doing besides taking a really long car ride... but the rest of us were excited! Tatum could not wait to go to her "Ski School". "Will it be like my other school?" "Um, no, Tatum. You'll get to learn how to ski!" "Oh! Yaaah! I'm going to ski AROUND the mountain!... Are we at my ski school yet?" I don't know how many times she asked if we were there yet... ha ha... and so it begins (are we there yet?)

And finally, we were... we were there. Matt grabs T, bundles her up... I grab K, bundle her up. Matt & T are off to ski school, and K & I are off to the Child Care. I meet them, T is all bundled up, ready to ski... helmet, goggles, coat, gloves, mittens, snow pants, coat, ski boots... and, of course, skiis. Looking like a real skier... our little three year old is ready to go... And ope, there she goes! No big send-off... they just took her to the back... and I didn't even get her picture! UGH!

Matt and I head off in our car, girls are going to be fine... and we are going to have fun! Together!!! So, off we go, find a parking spot, get our ski stuff on.. I'm feeling like I belong here... have my own boots, skiis, poles, new actual ski socks, goggles, gloves... etc. This is going to be great! Matt is all confident in his gear... I'm a bit nervous, but eh, I can do it! I've done it once before... yeah, it was 2 years ago, but it's like riding a bike, right?

HA! I had only gone once, and I wasn't all that great the first time... here we are in Vail... take the Gondola up to the top... get out, fix my boots (which already made my legs sore and I hadn't even skied yet) get out... beautiful, except I sort of know how high up we are and well.... if we are that high up, we have to get down somehow... can I just hop back on the Gondola and go back down and wait??? NOPE! I can do this! Okay, I see the sign... "EASIEST" ... that's me! "PRACTICE HILL" ... yeup, that's me, too! So, we head that direction.... ope, I already fall.... ha ha... Okay, wait, are you serious? This is the EASIEST???? Are you KIDDING me???? UGH! This is going to be a looooong day... So, after quite a few crashes (some done purposely), quite a few tears (I can not believe how scared I was up there)... following all of the green signs... it only took us 3 (maybe 3 and a half) HOURS to get down...

I don't know how he did it, but Matt was extremely patient with me! He gave me great advice and taught me well, and most importantly, helped me get down the mountain in one piece. We ended up at the bottom, near where T was taking her lessons, and we saw this "Gopher Hill"... This is where we should have began. Matt worked with me on my turns and going slower... but by this time, my legs were baked... I was done. So, I told Matt to go have fun and actually ski... and I hiked over to find where Tatum was and got to see how much better she is than me, already! :)

Unfortunately, I have no pictures of Matt and I... very disappointed in that... but I was too busy with my face in the snow to even THINK about taking out a camera.... and if you know me... it takes a lot to push that out of my mind! BUT, I did arrive to T's school in time to take a couple of pictures and video of her!

Be warned when watching this video... the first thirty seconds are with me walking... so, you will get motion sickness! I would start it, go look at something else, then come back to it! :) Happy Viewing!

Kalina's Second First-Birthday Celebration :)

Pocky B and Grandma Birt decided to take the chance and travel during the winter. (They are always a bit apprehensive because of weather)... and although, their traveling dates and flights were smooth, they did get stranded here because of a small snow storm...errr, blizzard of almost 2 feet of snow... in Chicago... so, their trip that was originally going to last 4 days... was extended by a couple days! I'm sure they were VERY disappointed to have a couple of extra days to visit with two of their Granddaughters!

Unfortunately, for them, the girls had both been sick for a week/two just prior to their arrival, so Mom was not interested in taking them up to the mountains to the cold and snow. Sorry! But it did give everyone the chance to just hang out, chill, relax, and visit. Oftentimes, we find that we are so busy experiencing around us, that we miss the time to actually enjoy each other and make memories. So, this was a chance to do just that. We hung out, read books, watched movies, played with cars, just relaxed. It was nice.

We were also able to celebrate Kalina's First Birthday... (with more cake, of course!)

Kalina was able to enjoy her own cupcake... The rest of us indulged in the most amazing cake... Red Velvet "Nothing Bundt Cake"... mmmm... melts in your mouth.... (thank you to R.&J. H)

I hope you can see Tatum in the background of this one! HA! She was 'helping' Kalina eat her cake!

I don't know who was having more fun! :) T was such a great helper! She was feeding Kalina cake... later, Kalina, being a good little sister, shared her cake with Tatum and fed HER!!!

T was definitely staring at 'her' cake... (the Bundt cake)

Walking with Pocky B

SURPRISE! Tatum asked Grandma Birt to READ!

Kalina's Big Oh-One pics!

Here are the pictures I took for Kalina's First Birthday!

This girl is definitely a happy girl! She definitely keeps me on my feet, and knows when she is doing something that she shouldn't be doing. I'll say her name, and she just turns around and flashes those pearly whites and bright eyes at me... it's hard not to just return the smile :)

Looking Back at 2010

2010 was a great year for our family! We had some ups and some downs, but all in all, it was a good year. We started the year off with a newborn and a 2 year old. I was a little scared to see how we were going to juggle two little ones, but Kalina has been one of the happiest babies, and T has been such a great helper from Day 1! I could have not asked for more!

Unfortunately, as T grew older, she had an allergy pop up and get worse and worse.... a dog allergy. This was probably the worst part of the year, I still get upset when I think about them... we had to find Jackson and Hunter a new home. As most of you know, they were our babies from our first year of marriage. We did find them an active home full of love and full of life- together. I have been in contact with their new 'mom' a few times throughout the year, and I know they are extremely happy! On to our next sad part... we found a dog, Dexter, whom T had no reaction to for quite a few months.... then it came... with a vengeance.... Dexter was rehomed to a co-worker of Matt's and is really in the best place he could be! So, no dogs for our house :(

On to good things!!! This was definitely the year of babies!!!
K was born in 09, but just a few days out...
Alex (Carl & Samantha's baby) was born in March
Alivia (Elisabeth's baby) was born in August
Liana (Dan & Kim's baby) was also born in August
What a wonderful year!!! Family is definitely growing and I'm loving it!

My sister moved in with us in April. It was so nice to have her around and the girls definitely loved it! We shared many mornings with some coffee, and too many trips to baby/kid clothing stores!!! :D Liz did share the most amazing experience with me... the birth of my niece, Alivia. Life is such a beautiful thing, and to be there when one 'begins'... hearing her little cry... amazing. Thank you for sharing, Liz. :) Unfortunately, Liz had to move back to IN in December. Too many miles between us, but thank goodness for Skype (and smartphones).

We also had another big change... another move... from Westminster (north of Denver) to Highlands Ranch (South of Denver). Matt did another Grand Opening with LifeTime, and I'll have to admit, that as much as I dislike grand opening months and the hours he has to work, nothing can compare to this past summer/fall that we all got to spend a lot of quality time together. We took a trip to IN together in May, headed up to the mountains quite a few times, including a beautiful trip to Aspen in the fall.... Wow, was Aspen beautiful! Matt was also able to enjoy playing softball in the Spring and Summer.

The girls...
K is just growing like crazy- and as happy as can be! You can't help but smile back at her, even when she's doing something she knows she's not supposed to be doing, when she gives her devilish little grin! She has not been much of a crier (until she began teething), and really just smiles a lot!She has been a cuddler and I can't say that I was upset about that! One of my favorites this year, was around Halloween, when she had just her fangs on the top... her smile was absolutely adoarable. She is our little miss curiousity and likes to get in to EVERYTHING! So, she is definitely keeping me on my toes!

T is just beautiful inside and out. She has been quite the helper with K and absolutely loves her! She really, never did the 'jealous' thing, and always wants to hold/hug/kiss/play with her sister. This year, T has just loved learning! Learning everything and anything. She likes to know what things are, how they work, etc... very interested in everything, and loves helping me in the Kitchen! We enrolled her in Pre-School for two half-days, and she absolutely loves it! She loves the learning, loves her teachers, and loves playing with her friends. She also goes to Tumbling once a week. This year, she fell in love with Melman, from Madagascar, and only recently set him down for a bit as she became obsessed with the movie Cars. The other day, I asked her what her favorite thing was.... her answer.... shopping.... UH OH! ;)

Throughout the year, we had quite a few visits from family. I can't really tell you how much I really appreciate everyone coming out here! It is so nice to have family come visit, and the girls absolutely love it! (I love having a house full as well) Thank you!!!!!

All in all, 2010 was a great year, and we are looking forward to 2011!!!! Hope this next year treats your family well!