WOO HOO

I would just like to take a second to brag that as of this morning I have lost all my baby weight!! I feel I can do this without being annoying b/c it took me about 1 1/2 years to lose it with Darcy and I have worked hard this time around. So, yea!!!

Business is So Good, We Bought a Guest House!

The FitzSimmons have been in the market for a camper, but it just never seemed like the right time to spend $6000! So we held off and held off. Then suddenly, a guy Lance works with mentioned that he has an old camper that he would sell us for $500! True, it is celebrating its 40th birthday this year (its a 1968!!), but as Lance says, it doesn't look a day over 35. I'm actually pretty psyched about it b/c I have a $500 "redecorating" budget as well. I love all the HGTV design shows, but I am scared to do anything drastic with our house. The camper is pretty low risk, so I am going to try and make it awesome! We are going for a "Retro-Diner" feel. I'll post the before and after pics when we get it done.

I did not buy this camper b/c of my love of camping, but rather as a mobile hotel. It is our "catalyst for adventure"!! There are so many cool places around here to go visit, but they are all at least 3 hours away. This will allow us to see Colorado on a budget, which means we'll get to go more often! We can even take it to Denver for our big shopping weekends and for all of our races and events next summer. Anyway, I am totally excited and can't wait to try it out!

Mommy Meltdown

I'm not really into Thankless jobs. I really prefer jobs where I get lots of recognition, promotions, praise and enough money that I don't have to keep track of it on the back of an envelope. Being a mom is one of those thankless jobs. Today Darcy said thank you for something and Gwen asked why. I said something about it being nice to thank people when they help you. Gwen replied, "Well, you don't really ever help people. You just clean stuff."

The other thing I am currently hating about staying home is never, EVER getting to be alone. E-V-E-R. And not only am I not alone (ever), but I am constantly being touched, pulled at, sucked on, talked at, screamed at, etc. To someone like me, who values some good old fashioned "me time", this is sometimes TOO MUCH. I am completely over-stimulated. I remember when I went back to work after having Darcy. I called lance one day from my office and said, "Guess what? I'm sitting in my office by myself, and no one is touching me!". In a normal city, there are places to go if you just need to escape. For example, you can go to the bookstore, go get a coffee, go to panera and read a book by the fireplace, go to Target and shop for things you don't need, etc. Up here, the only thing opened past 3pm is the grocery store, and grocery shopping is not fun, or relaxing. All I need is a high paying job where I get to sit in an office and surf the internet by myself. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK!?!?!?!

My Babies are Growing Up!

When I just had Gwen, I must admit that I was concerned about the whole Milestone thing... When they happened, if we were ahead or behind, etc. Having Darcy has really taught me to take a step back, relax and just celebrate life when it happens. And it has been happening for sure!

In the past 2 days, Gwen has learned to ride her 2-wheeler without training wheels. Hooray! We kept telling her it would just click, and all the sudden it did! We only have a very small paved area in front of our house (recall, the dirt roads : ) so she just keeps riding around and around and around!

My baby Darcy is also growing up. For one thing, she just started answering questions which has been exciting and funny. For almost 3 years my questions have been met with silence. I am so used to talking to myself that is suprises me every time she answers! We went to a meeting at church the other day and people kept asking her questions and she kept answering!
"Darcy, how are you doing today?", "Good."; "Darcy what color are your sunglasses?", "Blue", "And what is your favorite color?", "Pink" (which is hilarious b/c she doesn't know her colors, she just knows what words are color words, so her sunglasses are not blue and she doesn't really know pink); "Darcy, how old are you?", "Six" (again, she knows number words, so she just throws out whatever number she feels like!). I am very proud of my little sweetie b/c answering questions is a big cognitive development and we are thrilled!

One more milestone for Darcy, she is now pacifier-less! This girl has never slept without her "B" and the other night she couldn't find it. I said "Darcy, do you think you can go to sleep without your B tonight?", not really expecting an answer, and she replied "Yeah". So I left the room, expecting the screams to start any minute and she just went to bed! It has been 3 nights now and she hasn't mentioned it since! Its funny how often I have stressed out about taking her B away, only to have it be totally simple and painless. GO Darcy!

Lance's Tri - part 3

Not to be outdone by Gwen, Lance also completed his 1/2 Iron Man last week. 1.2 mile swim/56 mile bike/13 mile run - ugh!!!
He did awesome! 5 years ago (pre-gwen) he ran the same race in Columbus, OH with our friend Randall in 5:56. This time he ran it, with 3 kids (not that the kids came out of his body like they did MINE, but still) and at altitude in 5:24. Not too shabby!

I was sitting a little bit before the finish with all the kids just in case he wanted to carry the kids across the finish (he did not - he said he was barely carrying himself across the finish!). Anyway, the plan was to watch him pass by and then run to the finish and meet up with him, hopefully watching him cross. I accidentally left the video camera running in my mad dash for the finish. We watched the video and it was hilarious (too long to post). Basically, I had Beckett in one arm and was holding Darcy horizontally in the other arm with her head in the front while I was running. In the video you see Lance pass and hear me say "Woo Hoo!! OK lets GO!!" and try to herd the kids. Then you see a scuffle and suddenly you can see Darcy's hat bobbing up and down in the corner of the screen as I hold her and run. Then you hear me yelling to Gwen "JUST RUN!" and then a few seconds later I yell again, "I DON'T CARE, JUST RUN!!". It is pretty funny.

So anyway, WAY TO GO LANCE, and now you are done starring in my blog for a while : )

A-POPIATE

A funny thing happened in our hotel in Boulder - where i spent the night with all 3 kids by myself and then had to get us all out the door at 8:00am to watch Lance in his triathlon. Anyway, now that I have Beckett, "poor" Darcy is forced to walk (I know, she's almost 3!) when we go someplace with all 3 kids. That morning she was not happy about it and decided to throw an absolute tantrum in the hall of our hotel at 8:00am. She was kicking, screaming, rolling in the floor, etc. and I was down the hall with Beckett so couldn't get to her immediately. When I finally got us all to the elevator, Gwen looked at Darcy, rolled her eyes and announced, "Darcy. You are NOT being a-popiate (appropriate)" and then gave me a knowing look, like she could feel my pain and we'd deal with Darcy together. I told Lance about it later, which only reaffirmed to Gwen that she was particularly smart and witty, so she again told Darcy on the drive home that she was not being "a-popiate". Darcy, thinking appropriate was a bad word kept screaming "I NOT a-pop-u-late!!!!!" at the top of her lungs, and then Gwen, offended at the innacuracy of it all, felt the need to scream back at the top of her lungs, "I KNOW you're not a-popiate, that is what I am SAYING!!!", to which Darcy responded.... You get the picture.

The Results Are In!

Actually, the results are not in because the event was not timed, but nevertheless, Gwen is a triathlete! She liked it so much she's decided maybe she'll be in the Olympics. This event was so cute and I was so proud I kept tearing up the whole time! There were 500 kids that participated and they made it very official - complete with swim caps, race t-shirts, body marking (they write your race # of your arms and legs for the swim) etc. As you can see in the video, she got off to a killer start on the swim (she is in the orange suit and purple swim cap). She is hoping that her race number never wears off so she can continue to show people wherever we go. Oh yeah, and she also thinks that she won b/c she got a medal. For a second she questioned why everyone got a medal and realized that maybe she didn't actually win, but she quickly dismissed that thought and went back to her original assumption - that she was the champion. Here are some pictures... This will definitely be a yearly event for us!