Tales of the dynamic duo trio

If anyone is even still following this blog- thank you! I know I have been really MIA from my blogging duties but you see, I've been really, really tired. And just not feeling too great. What could be causing this immense exhaustion you may ask (well, besides chasing two very fast and energetic toddlers)? My mom would probably say that I'm tired because I don't have enough protein in my diet, which may be true. But there is another pretty good reason for how I've been feeling, something that seems to take a lot of work and never gets easier as I've learned. Right now my body is working double time to support the growing baby inside of me!

And when I say double time, don't get too excited- only one baby in there this time. Yep, the dynamic duo is about to become the dynamic trio. Conner and Elizabeth are going to have a sibling, sometime around March 14th! And Chris and I weren't scared off enough by raising two babies at the same time to keep us from going through the adventure once again. We're just hoping that it might be a little easier this time with just one. I'm finally nearing the end of the first trimester and have started to feel better and gain some energy back (hence the two posts this week). I'm not sure how much I'll chronicle the pregnancy on this blog, because the second time around just doesn't feel so novel, but I'll be sure to keep you updated a few times along the way.

Back to school

A year older, a year wiser. And the best part is this year the weight of their backpacks doesn't cause them to fall over.

First day of school- 1 1/2 years old

First day of school, 2 1/2 years old

Conner, 2 1/2

Lizzie, 2 1/2

What I did on my summer vacation- a short essay by Erin

You know what I hate? When I make promises. Like the promise I made about finally getting around to blogging about our vacation to Colorado, which happened almost a month ago. I don't know why I have felt so uninspired to share with everyone the details of our trip (uninspired being the nice word for lazy). It was a fabulous trip after all. I think the laziness is occurring because it's so hard to explain in words the beauty that surrounds you in Colorado. And as much as I had good intentions to capture the beauty in amazing photographs, I only ended up taking a few pictures of actual landscapes. But, a promise is a promise so here it goes. 

I won't recount every minute of our great vacation but instead will highlight a few activities (more like I'll tell you about the things I actually took pictures of). The first day we were in Colorado we rented bikes and rode down Vail Pass. And rode is a very loose term, since it was downhill and I think you could make it the whole way without pedaling once. We got passed by a lot of real cyclists who were climbing the pass rather than getting dropped off at the top of the mountain and coasting down :). But I would definitely recommend this activity if you're in the area. 

Getting ready to start our biking adventure

Beautiful views while riding down Vail Pass

The next day we went whitewater rafting. I wish I had pictures of this, because we all were in wetsuits! But rapids are generally not the safest place to bring your camera and we forgot to go look at the pictures taken by the professional photographers. And before y'all think Chris and I are nuts for taking two year old's white water rafting, Conner and Lizzie got to spend the afternoon at the Breckenridge ski resort kid's camp. We had a great time rafting- but next time we are going to up the ante and head down some Class IV rapids. 

The last few days of our trip were filled with less than optimal weather. One day was rainy and pretty cold so we took advantage of the crummy weather for spa treatments and shopping. Then on the morning of our last full day in Colorado, we woke up to a surprising scene. I looked out the window of our condo only to see the trees covered in snow and big white flakes falling from the sky! Seriously, snow? In June?! And of course the snow all melted pretty quickly but it made some toddlers very happy and surprised!

And that about sums up our vacation. It was great to spend time with Auntie Meg and Grannie Elaine and I know the kids had fun saying "Mountains!" at least 500 times. 

Our best attempt at a family photo

Happy Fourth of July!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Fourth. We are having a party at our house tonight with a 10 x 25 foot slip-n-slide, lots of wonderful food, three types of homemade ice cream, and fireworks to close out the night. Wish y'all could join us! Hopefully I'll remember to have my camera with and can get some good pictures. I'm especially excited to try taking pictures of fireworks. Here's a hint that I learned in my class about capturing fireworks in pictures- slow your shutter speed (if you can do that on your camera). You'll probably need a tripod to prevent camera shake but if you slow your shutter speed down enough you should be able to get the picture you are after. I'll try it and see if it works. So look for some firework photos next week and I promise I'll get around to telling all of you about our awesome vacation in Colorado that we took almost a month ago!

Happy Father's Day 2010

Lo siento!

I must send out my most sincere apologies to this little blog project of mine. I've totally neglected you! Don't think that I haven't thought about you numerous times. Just every time I thought about sitting down and writing, my mind drew a blank and I made myself feel better by blaming my writer's block on the lack of excitement in the Hatzis household lately. But, we have had excitement over the past month- I've just been too lazy to actually edit pictures and upload them to share with y'all. I must cut myself some slack though, I have been crazy busy working on a half-million dollar grant that I just submitted last week. If the grant gets funded (fingers crossed!) I will have enough money to pay my salary for the next three years and do some pretty cool science!

And here on the homefront, school's out for summer! The kids finished up school on June 8th and we promptly headed out on vacation the next day (more on that to come). It was bittersweet seeing school come to an end. We have really enjoyed sending the kids to the Montessori school this year and it gave us such peace to know that they also loved going to school everyday. We were lucky to get a quick kiss at drop-off before both of them went barreling into the classroom to feed the fish and hamster. Their teacher put together a dvd of all the pictures she had taken throughout the school year and it was amazing to see how much the kids changed over that year. The most prominent changes to occur over the year were the loss of fat and gain of hair for both kids! Funny, I think if you look at my change over the last year you would probably see the exact opposite changes in me.

Over Memorial Day we were lucky to have Auntie Amy come visit for a few days. The kids enjoyed showing Amy all of their new tricks and taking Amy to the pool. Lizzie was also very happy to have a fellow dancer in the house and she made sure that she wore her tutu at all times!

Mother's Day 2010

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Mother's Day 2010 is really shaping up to be the best Mother's Day I have experienced as a mom yet. Yeah, I know it's only my third one, but this one just seems different. My first Mother's Day is a huge blur, due to the preceding two months of little to no sleep. Last year was nice, we had a picnic in the park and Conner and Lizzie got me a massage. This year I have actually been dreading this weekend for the past week. You see Chris is on-call all weekend, which in my mind meant that I had two whole days with two toddlers who are prone to tantrums and very strong opinions. Just the thought of it made me think this wasn't going to be that great of a Mother's Day. But I have to say, I was totally wrong. First, Chris earlier this week told me he wanted me to go to Anthropologie on Sunday (score!). Then, over the past 24 hours, the kids seem to have been on their best behavior. Lizzie has even been going to the bathroom on the potty for me! Yesterday they both picked the flowers from the clover in the backyard and brought the flowers to me as a gift. On Friday when I stepped into the classroom at school, they both ran up to me and proudly presented the gifts they had made for me in school. And then, when walking to the car Lizzie kept saying, "Mama, I love you." Oh.my.gosh. All the sleepless nights and changing of dirty diapers were forgotten at that moment. And while Conner hasn't been verbally expressing his love for me, he has been very willing to give me kisses and hugs all weekend. So thank you Conner and Elizabeth- for the kisses, hugs, laughs, and love.

And of course, a big kiss and hug to my mom! I love you!