Vacationing Visitors

One of our favorite messages to land in the ol' inbox begins like this, "We're coming to Colorado..." We love to catch up with friends who are vacationing in our grand state. Our most recent visitors ... Theta friend & college roomie Judy, Mike & Christy. What better way to spend the day than with a fine lunch of Borriello Brothers pizza, followed by sledding at Toboggan Hill! Darling Christy & the Leahy brothers enjoyed sledding at our favorite winter recreation spot (and even the grown-ups took a turn or two with a run down the hill!) Thanks, friends, for a fabulous day. So good to see you!

 Grant, Jami & Judy

The Pint-Sized Sledders.

(This was after sledding. It ended up being a super

warm day so they were ready to 

shed the gloves and warm gear.

At least they humored us and took a pic!)

Walk-n-Roll

Just a few days shy of turning 13 months, Grant took his first steps today! With an audience of Mom, Dad & his older brothers cheering him on, Grant was full of smiles, hugs & big steps. Watch out, world! He's ready to WALK-n-roll!

Will Work 4 Food

So ... here's a little confession. And it's about why the blog sometimes goes long spurts in between updates. Here's the scoop...

Sometimes the greatest opportunities come to you when you are not even looking. This is a story that has been in the works since February 2010. (Yes, two years ago!) I was not really looking for a "job." After all, taking care of our boys is Job #1. But it just so happened that another little side gig came along that almost seemed too good to be true, in terms of time, flexibility, and opportunity.

In the beginning, a connection from a fundraiser committee ended up turning into a meeting for some graphic design work. The client -- a locally owned restaurant group. They happen to own several restaurants here in the area, and interestingly enough, one of the restaurants has been our family favorite since moving here -- Salsa Brava. Freelance graphic design. Working from home with flexible hours. Marketing amazing restaurants. Count me in! Enter Job #2.

Over the past 2 years, I've had the opportunity to work with some wonderful people and on some exciting projects. Table tents. Print ads. Shopping cart ads (cartvertising, if you want to get fancy!) Menus. Holiday promotions. On-hold message scripts. PR for a new restaurant grand opening. Website redesign. Mass email blasts. Facebook & QR code promotions.The list continues, and each week brings a fun, new challenge. This journey into the restaurant marketing world has been full of some great opportunities to learn more in my field & expand my skills ... can't wait to see what's in store for the year ahead!

So what's my schedule? I support the marketing efforts of 5 restaurants (4 in Colorado Springs & 1 in Denver) and typically work 6-8 hours a week from home, allowing the flexibility to work around the boys' schedules. The marketing magic happens in the early morning hours, while the older boys are at school & Grant is napping, or after little toes are tucked in at night. My projects are usually short-term and quick-turnaround. The restaurant world is very fast-paced, and I love the ever-changing variety of projects.

If I could have hand-picked a job while staying home with our 3 boys, a more perfect fit could not have been found! If you are interested, check out our website: www.rockymtnrg.com.

Be Mine, Valentine!

Happy Valentine's Day! The Leahy lads would like to share their valentine cards with you. We had quite a chuckle taking these photos. Thank you to Pinterest for the idea. For the boys' school valentines, each card also featured an adhesive mustache. Who needs candy when you can have a fun faux mustache!?

Move over, Burt Reynolds.

Grant can rival your mustache.

To accompany G's sad face,

the small print says,

"If not, I'll be soooo sad."

Not even a mustache can hide that big smile!

Reid got to practice his handwriting

& sign his own valentines!

Oh, and we're pretty sure Reid's mustache

was on upside down!

 Luke had a variety of funny faces,

but he liked this one the best.

What a crack-up!

Hello there, SNOW!

When you think of Colorado in the winter, snow usually comes to mind. Except we haven't really had much snow since before Christmas! While we do enjoy mild winter days in the 50s and 60s, we also appreciate our winter climate & the beauty of the snow. After much waiting, we finally got our first big snowstorm of 2012 (which happened to coincide with the groundhog's prediction for 6 more weeks of winter!) For almost 36 hours, it snowed ... and snowed some more. When Mama Nature finally called it quits, about 14 inches blanketed our neighborhood (and 0 inches covered our driveway, thanks to 3 snowshoveling adventures). We wrapped up our snowy weekend with a sledding excursion to Toboggan Hill.

 Our polar bear cub in his sled.

Grant didn't make a peep the whole time

we were sledding. He LOVES the snow

and being outdoors. Yay for our little mountain man!

 Luke chose the path with the jumps ... of course!

 Trudging back up the hill...

 Catching some air! Woohoo!

 All smiles for sledding!

 I can't wait until I'm big enough to go down the hill

instead of just watching from the bottom!

 Two on the trail.

Our Sledding Crew

Celebrating Theta

Founders Day Celebration

with the Colorado Springs Alumnae Chapter

Honoring 142 Years of Kappa Alpha Theta!

It's fun to swim at the Y-M-C-A!

Swim-n-gym. Pool-then-PJs. Y-on-Wednesdays.

All code names for our fun new Wednesday night routine of swimming at the YMCA! 

Previously, Reid was a reserved swimmer, never risking that his face touch the water nor his lovely golden locks get wet. But tonight was different. Equipped with some mega goggles and his usual spunk, he decided that he would swim. Under water. Holding his breath. Getting his face wet. And his hair. 

When Reid makes his mind up to do something, he does it 110%. Full speed ahead. He is focused and determined and courageous. On this same night when he went underwater for the first time, he also decided to jump off the side of the pool and do a cannonball. And it was AWESOME!

Enjoy this video of our little fish splashing around.