Busy Weekend!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends!  If you're reading this blog, chances are, you're someone special to our family.  We're so thankful to have all of you in our lives.  

It was a busy holiday weekend for our little Marsh Fam.  We started out the holiday at Brad and Nicole's house for Thanksgiving day.  Missy's folks came up to join us for an early dinner and great company!  It was fun to be around all the kids, especially 2 big brothers and 4 little babies who bring new light to our lives!

Carter got to check out his first drumstick!
The Marsh side of the fam!  Steve, Rick, Kathie (holding Dalton), me, Carter, Nicole (holding Gavin), Riley, Brad, and Owen (holding Payton)
All the "mens!"  Rick, Dalton, Brad, Gavin, Steve, Dad, Carter, Riley and Owen!
And the ladies! Kathie, Payton, Nicole, Mom and me!
Here's Carter with his stocking that Grandma Kathie bought him!

After Thanksgiving dinner, we met up with the Kings and went to the Nuggets game.  Steve had the Suite tickets, so we got to watch in style!  Carter got his first two Nuggets games in one week!


Towards the end of the game, we got some alarming news.  Gavin had been having a rough day, and was just not himself.  Then, when Brad and Nicole were getting him ready for bed, they noticed that his color was bad.  Brad took him in to urgent care, and they found out that his heart was enlarged.  After transferring him to another hospital, they determined that he had a congenital heart defect called Coarction of the Aorta, which is basically a dent in the wall of the aorta, causing a bottleneck.  His little heart was enlarged from having to pump so hard to get blood through that area.  On Friday Gavin had heart surgery at Children's Hospital, and is recovering really well.  We spent Friday down at Brad and Nicole's house helping with Dalton, Payton and Owen; and awaiting news from the hospital.

Yesterday (Saturday) Steve spent some time putting up our Christmas lights.  The snowfall inspired him to get festive!  It's not quite done yet, but looking good so far!  Afterwards, we went down to Children's to see Gavin.  He's hooked up to a lot of monitors and tubes, but he's in wonderful hands.  Today he was doing even better, and they're really happy with the progress he is making.
Here's little Gavin, recuperating.

Today, we went to a birthday party at the Evan's house, Ty and Tanner turned 4 last Tuesday, so it was time to celebrate and watch the Broncos!  We had a blast, Riley loves hanging out with his twin buddies!

After we got home, we decorated the tree.  Riley was super excited to get the tree all ready!

Putting on the star!
I love all the crazy random decorations we have...they're all from different places and people.  Totally uncoordinated, but lots of history!
Carter's ready for his first Christmas!  So is big brother Riley!
This is our elf named Carmelo Anthony (Riley named him!)  Parents: This is a great holiday incentive...It's called the Elf on the Shelf.  Last year Nicole gave us one, but he was a Melo casualty, so this year a NEW elf has come to visit.  He shows up in November, and is an emissary from Santa.  He hangs out at the house all day keeping an eye on how Riley's behaving (he even knows how he's doing at school!), and at night he flies back to Santa and gives a report!  Then in the morning he flies back and takes a new spot somewhere in the house.  Each morning, we find him and say good morning before we leave for school or start our day!
Back to work and school tomorrow...phew!  

Happy Birthday Steve!

For Steve's birthday we went to the Nuggets game on Sunday.  One of the gals in Steve's office was nice enough to secure the tickets in the suite for us!  This was Carter's first game, so of course he had to have his picture taken with the Nugget Monkey!

Flyin' baby!
Yay, family!
Keith and Holli joined us.
Enjoying Carter's first game!
Tuckered out!

It was a great game, very exciting, and the Nuggets won!

Here's Holly!

Here's little Miss Holly!  She is adorable!  And has reddish-auburn hair just like her mom!  She is doing really well, and hopefully she'll be going home soon!

Aunt Missy got a chance to hold the little lady!

What a Crew!

Saturday night Steve and I got a hall pass to go out with our friends for a "grown up" night.  We grabbed the gang and headed over to Splitz bowling alley!

Me and my Lanes!

H and Sterne!
Brandon and Sterne checking out B's awesome bowling score!
Below, a little video of Brandon bowling.  This was before Zach went and had them put up the bumpers automatically whenever Brandon was up.  So mean...but wicked funny!!!  Brandon's not exactly what one would call "athletic," as anyone who knows him can tell you.  But he's a great sport!  And talented in so many other ways!

Check out the form!  And the bumpers!
They had really good garlic breadsticks!

Here's B thoroughly enjoying one.  He licked it all over, then handed to an unsuspecting Zach, who popped it right into his mouth.  Ick.  Paybacks for the Bumpers!!

Zach recovered, though.

Lala and H snugglin' up!
Yay Lala!

In addition to bowling, Brandon, Steve and Zach kicked butt at the Deal or No Deal video game, winning a whopping 612 tickets!  They got some QUALITY prizes, let me tell you!

 

We had a blast, ending the night with a quick trip to the Lake Avenue Inn bar...local dive...good people watching!  And topping it off with a game of Ticket to Ride, our favorite board game!  All in all, a great night!

Welcome, Holly!

Well, she came about 5 weeks earlier than "planned," but welcome to the world, Holly Elizabeth Hartmann!  Jason called me last night to let me know that Kourt was in the hospital.  On her routine doc's visit, they realized that little baby girl was on her way!  Holly was born this morning at about 8:00 a.m.  She and mom are doing great, and I'll be posting pictures soon.  I'm going to visit them tomorrow!

I've been POO'ed!

Oh man...I don't get paid nearly enough.  This afternoon, around 2:05, as I'm sitting on my teaching stool at the front of the room, watching the kids finish up their math, I become aware of a pungent smell.  Oh no.  Poop.  I think to myself, "Maybe it's just gas.  It will go away."  Hmmm...nope.  Nope, that is definitely poop.  Maybe someone didn't do such a good job cleaning themselves up.  Sure, that must be it.  Nope.  That is DEFINITELY poop.  So I discreetly glance under the desks near me, looking, dreading, wondering where the offending surprise would be.  Nope.  Nowhere to be seen.  So I stand up and take a few steps back, thinking it's somewhere I can't see from my chair.  Then...I see it.  Brown smudges on the carpet.  One, two, three, four, in a little trail leading to...MY FOOT!  AAAHHH!  In horror, I lift up my foot...and there on the bottom of my FAVORITE "shooties" is a glob of mushed SHIT!!  At this point there is no discretion.  I couldn't help my reaction.  "AH sick!  There is poop on my shoe!" I exclaimed.  "UUUUGGGH!" screams 19 fourth graders.  (Hey, one is missing...wonder who THAT could be!  The culprit, perhaps?)  So I hobble to the back sink, remove the shoe, at this point I'm dry heaving, and with about 10 paper towels I attempt to wipe this hideous glob off my shoe.  It is NOT GOING ANYWHERE.  Dumping the paper towels, I now hold the sole of my shoe under the faucet, my eyes watering at the stench.  Finally it softens to the point that I can wipe the rest off with some towels.  Sick.  Can't put that shoe back on for a while.  Hobbling to the phone, I call the office for custodial attention: "Meg, I've got a code brown, repeat, that's a code brown."  "Oh," says Meg, "Tigger's friend has paid you a visit?"  "Yes, that's right.  I've been poo'ed."  So, as I'm attempting to calm the children...learning is done for the day...I wait for someone, anyone, to come down and get the poo out of the carpet.  Finally I call back down and get Karlene, "Karlene, can you let them know that it's not a log sitting on the floor, it's actually mushed into the carpet because I STEPPED in it before I saw it!?"  Eventually Phil comes to check it out.  He can't help right away because, guess what!?  He's in the bathroom cleaning up another poo mess.  But right after the bell rings, Javier will be down with the carpet cleaner.  Thank God it's 2:25 at this point!  Ugh.  Ugh. Ugh.  So many questions roll through my mind.  The biggest one is: REALLY?  REALLY?????  Fourth grade???  It's not like I chain them to their desks.  If you gotta go, please, by all means, go!  REALLY??????  And how did the thing roll UNDER the overhead cart for my unfortunate right foot to encounter it???

Oh yuck.  I hope I can bring myself to wear those shoes again, I really like them...

Just some cute pics!

General and his boys!

Riley helping Carter with tummy time!  Carter's not a big fan...
He gets mad!  But big brother helps him feel better!

Growing so fast!

Riley's really taken an interest in letters, numbers and words these days.  He surprised us on Saturday by writing his name in no time flat!  He wrote it twice, then my dad wrote "General."  Using that as a model, Riley copied General correctly on his first try!

On Sunday he wrote his name again, and then wrote Carter as I dictated the letters to him.

Pretty dang good!

Big Laughs!

Carter's first real belly laugh!  Sorry about the weird angle, whenever I try to video him talking or laughing, he gets mesmerized by the red light on the camera and stops what he's doing, so I had to do it from the side.

A little silly vid of Carter

He's silly!

Six Grandkids!

All of the triplets are home, safe, healthy and sound! We headed down to Brad and Nicole's house Tuesday night to see them.

Here are the big brothers with their little sibs! On the ottoman from left to right are Dalton, Gavin, Carter and Payton. Carter is just shy of 3 months older than the trips, but he looks HUGE compared to them! And Carter is just a little bean!
The Jolly Green Giant and his little cousins!

Payton wasn't too happy about being squished between her brothers. She's a fiesty one!

Carter, chillin' out!

Grandma and Bubba with ALL their Grandkids!

My first time holding Miss Payton

Steve's already wrapped around the little girl's finger!

Gavin, the littlest triplet, with Carter!

Me-n-Gav

The trips are tiny, but look even tinier when Uncle Steve's holding them! Steve and Gavin.

We're so glad everyone's home and doing well!

Baby Hartmann's Coming Soon!

Last weekend I hosted a baby shower for Kourtney at our house.  It was a really nice afternoon!  Kourtney and Jason got lots of fun things for baby, and it was great to see her, her mom Peg and Jason's mom Glenda!  Kourt looks awesome!

Our theme was books, and everyone brought books to get baby Hartmann's library started.  The cake was a scan of "Guess How Much I Love You," which is one of our favorite books, and I decorated the table with more of the books that Riley and Carter love.  

We also included "Oh the Places You'll Go!" since Kourt and Jason love to travel so much!
From college roommates to married ladies, to mamas!  Kourtney and I have been friends since our freshman year at CU, in 1992!
Kourt and her mom, Peg!
Kourt and Jason's mom, Glenda; and grandma, Arlene.
We can't wait to meet Baby Girl Hartmann!