Indian Winter!

Colorado weather never disappoints! Yesterday it was so cold, I had an an undershirt, turtleneck sweater, fleece jacket, and a down coat when I needed to go out. Last week we had this.....


Notice Aaron looked sooo warm!! Let's just say the water in the hose was NOT as warm as the 70 degree weather outside! The neighobr girls are always up for a winter swim as much as my boys....

How can you punish him?

There is something about Hyrum that just makes you want to love him no matter what! I heard the dreaded noises coming from the bathroom again... for those of you who are new to the blog you can read this post for a good laugh... water!! I peeked in to see him playing sweetly with two trains and his truck just talking to himself. Water was quickly leaking down everyplace that it could. Not only that, I had just gotten him ready for the day. Notice he's up to his knees in water! Once again, I got the "cheese".... Hyrum... you're just what I need!

Stone Mountain!!

We went to THE Stone Mountain... FINALLY!! Jessica has talked about Stone Mountain for years. It has always been quite mysterious for me though because I have never seen it!! Not even when we hiked it with everyone! We had so much fun hiking to the top of the huge mountain. Too bad we couldn't see it! When we got to the top, it was like we arrived on an alien planet! It was foggy with rain puddles everywhere in these larger craters. The kids loved it, especially Hyrum who was soaked through and through from jumping in all the puddles!

I couldn't help but think that the next time we do this hike how much older our children will be. It made me reflect how quickly life seems to pass us by. Sometimes I wish I could stop and hold on to the moment and look at it with different eyes. You don't realize how many moments you lost until you look back from the future.

I am so glad we seized the moment that day to do something that some thought was impossible! This was definitely a highlight of our trip.

Happy's New Hear 2009!

Whata day whata day! Poor Martin just HAD to go shooting with his Brother-in-laws... as you can tell, he really didn't want to go... :) Martin had an awesome time.

When the whole family arrived at the Kotters for the par-tay it was lovely chaos! At one point Charlie Brown came on and there was an immediate calm as everyone clamored onto the couch to watch it. I think there are a total of 14 people on that couch!!

Jessica whipped up some yummy hot chocolate that we all enjoyed!

I love this picture above. It is midnight, we have the tv on to watch the ball drop in NY and the kids are supposed to be holding up nine fingers for 09. Little did I know that no one was really paying attention to me because the tv was showing a whole lot of new year smoochin'!

Last year was one big roller coaster for us. Would I change anything that happened... no. I feel blessed to have been carried so many times by earthly angels and by angels unseen. I can tell that Heavenly Father is giving me life lessons that will ultimatley be for my good. This year I hope I can continue to progress and have faith that He is watching out for me and my family.

A Southern Christmas

The poor Kotter kids waited for a good hour and a half for the Michel kids to wake up for Christmas! In the end, we only had to wake up two out of the five kids! We still aren't acclimated to the time... One of the best things of the morning was listening to the cousins interact in the morning before we went downstairs. It was like the were ready made best friends. Ammon is with his two cousins that match up to Tyler and Aaron in age. Don't they look related? After we woke up Aaron and Hyrum (look at their expressions, I'm not too sure they were happy about this!) we headed off to the organized chaos. Christmas was simple, pure and beautiful.

Hyrum got his basketball hoop and was lost in it for the rest of the morning. In fact, Dad went to basketball with the Elder's Quorum this morning and after he left, Hyrum looked at me with
these big sad eyes and said, "Basketball? Dad?" He seemed a little crushed that we wasn't invited with the big guys yet but understood at the same time.


Martin gave me a very sweet rose that he made for me. The stem of it had an awesome "gift certificate" for my present. A GPS runner's watch. I'm so excited! I just hope I do enough running to warrant the price! He was surprised about the iPod I gave him and wore it all morning listening to some Rich Dad stuff that was preloaded on our computer. So cute!

There are so many awesome things about Georgia. The trees, the weather, and yards but most of all the cousins! All of my kids are having the time of their lives so much that I never see them! We are so grateful we were able to come. What a blessing! I hope your Christmas's went well. So far so good for us!

The Michel's and the Kotter's finally collide!

Finally! Four out of our five children match up almost to the day with my sister's kids in GA. The sad thing is, they have never met before this trip! We have had a blast just hangin, wrestlin, eatin, and laughin!

All the cousins put on a great nativity on Christmas Eve. If you can believe it, we are still missing one cousin in this picture!

And Martin? Well, he is in dog heaven! I am not much of a dog person, but they do have quite the cute puppers. It's a german shepherd/boxer mix and she is great! Martin keeps giving me the puppy dog eyes for a puppy himself!

I finally have a doll!

After three years having having toy soldiers in our adorable Christmas program put on by our great preschool, I finally got a doll! Em looked so adorable in this great poofy dress. By the time the end of the program came around, the dolls were a little tuckered out! I had a little too much fun getting ready for this one! Woo-hoo for girls!! :)

Thanksgiving...

We went up to Wellington this year where Martin's brother and sister-in-law hosted. It was fabulous! We had awesome food, great kids, and wonderful company. We ended up staying TWO night instead of the original one night. We stayed up till 3:30 am the first night, and then 2:30 am the following night. I think my favorite part of the whole stay was giggling at the dumbest things the second night. Great-Grandma Michel who is 87 years old stayed up till 11:30 pm playing Apples to Apples, eating cheese and crackers, and tea. She is so much fun! Thanks to her, I dethroned the reigning Queen of Apples to Apples... hah Kristy!! :)


Aunt Jan and Great-Grandma were thoughtful enough to think of Ammon and his great love of rocks. They gave him a rock set that had belonged to his Great-Grandfather. What a sweet sight to see this multi-generation enjoying the same love!





Linda also wanted a photo-op with the three granddaughters in their adorable dresses she knitted. Aren't they amazing?! They have these adorable daisys on the pockets.





The highlight of the whole weekend was when Great-Grandma taught the kids how to stand on their heads. She hadn't attempted it herself since her 86th birthday. She was able to show the famouse triangle, and then help Emily finish it. What a woman!!!

Catching up one post at a time!

Hello all! Yes I AM still alive! I have been dreadfully busy for quite a while, have had lots of things to blog, but not a whole lot of time... So I will try to catch you all up with out taking too much time! I have to start off with one of the highlights of October.


Martin and I met, dated, and got engaged in Oct. 1998. One of the dates that I remember the most was when Martin took me up to Horsetooth in Ft. Collins, had a FREEZING picnic dinner, read scriptures to me, and even brought a telescope to look at the stars. For MONTHS now, I had been planning on surprising Martin and taking him back to Horsetooth and doing the date again for our ten year engagement anniversary. Thanks to the amazing help AGAIN from Matt and Kristy, (thanks again!) I pulled off the surprise without a hitch.

Who knew that you could have SO MUCH FUN on $10 bucks! We went back to CSU campus and walked around. We had so many memories there. I can't believe it was ten years ago! We walked hand in hand around the oval, walked through the buildings where Martin had spent so much time, and where we watched our boys take the campus by storm.



We stopped by the much changed institute where Martin and I met. We spent so much time playing there from Gypsy (I'm still reigning champ by the way) to playing pool. I think it's even the same table!

After the institute we went to the duplex where Jess so graciously housed me! What a throw back! I think we freaked out the current tenant because we were taking so many pictures.

I remember the first time that Martin showed me what was to be our new home. We were about to leave to go to AZ to be sealed and he blindfolded me and took me here. What a humble little home. But it was definitely home to us!

After we went to our old homes up to horsetooth we went. It was a gorgeous night with a big beautiful moon. The Colorado fall weather was exactly as it should be a night... windy and once again... FREEZING!! This time I was prepared though.

For our dinner (hence the $10 for a 3 course meal!) I brought all the food that Martin introduced me to when we were dating. Boy he has some strange taste! We had yummy liverwurst sandwiches with pickled beets on top, salad with ONLY lettuce... honest... it's a salad if it only has lettuce, ask Martin... :) SoBe drink with white powdered donuts for dessert. Yum! Martin couldn't have been happier with the spread.

I don't remember ever looking at the moon so closely before. What a beautiful sight it was. We had fun looking at all the stars, snuggling under blankets, giggling as we remembered what it was like way back when, and walking down memory lane. We had an awesome night.

Martin, I love you with all my heart. Thanks for seeing something in me that I didn't. You are my best friend in every sense of the word. To imagine life without you is no life at all. My apologies to all the ladies out there... I snagged the best man ever! You'll just have to settle for 2nd best!

I'm going private....

Hello friends, family, and strangers alike.... I have decided to make my blog private... again... I am planning on making a blog specifically for Rebecca Phoebe so if others would still like to refer their friends and loved ones who could draw strength from it, they can. I know there are a lot of people who read my blog who like to "silently" read, meaning, I don't know you come on! I would still like you to have access to my blog even if you don't publish a comment.

So, here is what ya gotta do. Reply to this post, or send me an email at rebecca.michel@gmail.com and give me your email address. I will add you to the "invite" email when I make my blog private on Thursday Oct. 23, 2008. If you don't, you will no longer have access to my blog.

Hurry, hurry and send me your email request so you don't miss out on the best blog on the block... ;)