Our New Bedroom Set

Since we got married Cole and I had been using the a mix and match of old bedroom furniture. We had my armour and night stand from growing up, a head board from his folks, and a second night stand/table that we picked up at a yard sale along the way. Sierra is growing up and has moved into a big girl bed. Some neighbors in KY gave us a honey colored bed for her that no longer matched with the mixed white and dark wood furniture of her nursery. This coupled with the fact that we're living in a rental that isn't completely up to our standards had us looking at some nice furniture for ourselves.

When we moved here to Colorado we had heard about the company "Woodley's" and their locally made, all hard wood, hand crafted furniture. We considered it but at $6,000 for just a dresser it was out of the question. As time moved along and Cole grew more frustrated with the lack of quality in our rental he was more interested in upgrading something on the inside of the house... then the 45% off coupon came in the mail for Memorial Day Weekend. With Grandma Jeanette in town to help watch Seirra (thank you thank you) we headed out to do some looking! We found a set right away that we loved... but then after examination and thought realized that the "feet" on each piece of this set would surely get busted in one of our moves to come. We looked a while longer, deciding on the wood and stain we loved but didn't find another set we really liked. Just before leaving the sales woman showed us one more set that was off in another section of the store due to space. We both immediately loved it! And it was in the wood and stain we liked so we got to really see a good example of what it would look like... with a few exceptions. So it was only a matter of deciding what pieces we wanted and thought would accomodate our stuff as well as fit well in a variety of rooms as we move around!

We put our order in and then had to wait eight weeks for it to be hand crafted here in Colorado. The last week of our California trip I recieved the call that it was ready! Yippee... so in the midst of laundry, cleaning, regrouping, playing the day after we all reunited here in Colorado we also spent time moving furniture in and out of Sierra's room, filtering through clothes, making Good Will piles... and now tada! Below is what are bedrooms look like now! My old furniture matches Sierra's bed and her room looks more complete (aside from the fact that she has way more dresser space than we can fill up... but now I can keep the next round of clothes on hand instead of in a box in the garage!) We love our furniture and "adult" room! Again a special thanks to Grandma Jeanette for entertaining Sierra so we could spend our time looking without the fear of Sierra damaging an expensive piece that we may or may not like... and then wind up having to buy it! Another big Thanks to her for her help with getting the mirror and deciding to do so... the room would be a bit awkward without it!

Here is Sierra room currently with her "new" furniture

Love the detailing on the mirror and all the furniture with the reinforced dove tailing!

Dove Tailing on the inside of the drawers

Our "BIG" bed!

California Vacation... part 1

Urgh... after five failed attempts to upload more pictures today I'm calling it quits! Stay tuned for more California trip pictures... as well as pictures from our family vaca to Estes Park and our new bedroom furniture!

On a whole... the month of July was spent on the go for the Pinheiro family! 2 July we went to a sky sox baseball game and watched the fireworks, then on 4 July we spent the afternoon/evening celebrating with neighbors and friends. We headed out the morning of 5 July for our short family vaca to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. We had a great time, got to swim, see beautiful country and wildlife, and eat good food! We came home breifly to regroup and sent Cole to NY on 8 July, and then Sierra and I headed out to Cali on 9 July.

Cole stayed busy in NY organizing and keeping track of the training of cadets at West Point as well as continuing his taskings from Colorado. Sierra and I stayed quite busy ourselves out in CA.... Having only one "down day" without scheduled events in our entire two weeks! I got to attend one of my Cal Poly girlfreinds weddings and catch up on long over due conversations, hugs, and laughter! Miss you girls =) Then we headed to Tehachapi for fun times with family... all the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins! Sierra had a blast with her cousins (of course the pics that wouldn't upload!) We took a trip to the mountains and had a great fishing trip and a trip to the ocean/beach where Sierra enjoyed the sand, water... pools and more cousins! We enjoyed our trip and are grateful to be back home as a family. Thank you for everyone who made the time to see us! We are glad we got to see you and wish we'd have had more time with you all. We're now playing catch-up from the last three weeks of go-go-going... and getting ready for some more big changes to come in the next two months as Sierra starts preschool, I go back to work part time, and Cole takes command!

It may be a few more days before I get more pictures up, but I promise I will. In the mean time hope you are all having a fabulous rest of the summer!

Fabulous Fun with Family, Friends, and FISH!!!!

What a Fabulous weekend with Friends, Family, Food... and Five Fish!!!!!!

Sierra and I are on a California summer vacation right now, while work has taken Cole to the east coast! Within our Cali vaca we have had several mini trips! This weekend we made a special trip up to my family's cabin in the Sierra Nevada mountains between Bishop and Mammoth mountain. Trips to this region and to the cabin were a part of my family's yearly travels for over 20 years now. At special request Papa and Grandma were able to arrange for a weekend getaway! And even better... my life long girlfriend, Courtney, and her daughter got to come along! Court and I go back to the days in the womb with our parents in the same lamaze classes!!! We are only nine days apart and grew up only a block apart. Now we have little girls just over a year apart. It was so wonderful to get to spend time together and to see our daughters play together as we once did! They busied themselves playing doctor, little mommies, princess, and pretend fishing. They loved to go on walks and hikes around the cabin... and then there was the highlight of the trip... Fishing in Papa's boat!!!

Courtney, Davery, Katie, and Sierra

Papa got the boat all ready and set out with all four of us gals on board... brave man!

We headed to Gull lake... a family friendly lake that wasn't too big and had a play ground just in case the girls needed some extra distraction!

All ready to go... they were such good sports with their life jackets despite the heat... they were both so sweaty when we took them off at the end!

Our Captain all ready to go! The girls later called him the doctor for helping take care of the fish and to get the hooks out of their mouths... if only they knew how he had to doctor them up once on land! ;-)

First line in the water and not five minutes later... we had a fish! Court was excited!!!! And it caught the girls attention and kept them interested!

Doctor Steve helping get the hook out of the mouth of our first catch!

Sierra and Davery hanging out with Papa!

The proud fisherman and his fishin' women!!!

Katie, Sierra, Davery, and Courntey... with our five prized fish!!!

Tomorrow we're off to the beach to fit in some time in the sand...stay tuned for more pictures!

Catchin' Up!

So... I'm not so great on keeping up with this blogging stuff and have lots of pictures that I've promised several of you I would post! So here it goes... in no particular order... but hopefully enough to catch you up on some of the events of the last month or so around here!

Sierra recieved a fun package from Ama Dorothy this week to get her all ready for the 4th of July festivities. She dove right in insisting I take the tag off her new necklaces and glasses! She's also waving her own little American flag around... but she was doing so with such enthusiasm that you can't see it! She already has super hand speed!

Then we got a great smiling picture! Thanks Grandma for all the goodies!

This week we also took our first trip to a fire station. Sierra's been really into her hat and the book with a song/CD lately. Then we ran into an engine crew at Costco... so I set up a time to go visit. We took her buddy, Owen, and his mommy along too! The firemen were so good to the kids and let them "ride" in the trucks, taught them about it, and most importantly at this stage... they put on all their gear in front of them so that if they ever (hopefully never) come into our homes the children won't be as afraid of them with all the get up on!

It took her a little while to warm up to them but then she enjoyed herself!

A few weekends ago we had some rainy weather... coupled with some bad allergies and a cold. That kept us in most of the time... so when things started to dry up on both fronts we went and got some froggie rain boots and had some splashing fun. I must say that Sierra was quite disappointed that Bongo didn't want to splash in the puddles and that he ran around them!

They had Iron Horse week a couple weeks ago and when we went to go see the hilocopter fly by we also got to get an up close look at some of the military vehicles! Sierra was quite impressed... although she preferred the Apache Hilocopter to the tank!

Super excited to be in the hilocopter... she didn't want to get out...

At least she redeemed herself as the daughter of an Armor Officer with her excitment over the Bradley! She didn't want to leave there either!!!!

A cute shot of Cole and Sierra with their hats on... we were out for some play time with Bongo at the Dog Park!

Last week our friend, Abby, took us ice skating! Sierra was super excited about the skates... which looked adorable on her little feet! Then the zaboni driver took a while... She made it a full lap around the ice and then was DONE! But we got to see Abby skate and show off some of her tricks!

Sierra and Abby... her "big girl" friend that she adores! =)

This past weekend we wanted to get out and go do/see something different in town. So we headed down to the Farmer's Market in Old Colorado City. I have to admit, coming from California it was a bit dissapointing not to find the huge street lined market like I'm used to... but none the less we had a good time. We walked around through some shops and found a great date night dinner spot, "Dat's Italian," ran through the park, found some great fresh local lettuce for only $1 a head and some other tasty treats. We finished the morning off by sharing this yummy cinnamon and sugar pretzel from one of the bakers.

Here are the long awaited pictures of Sierra's first fishing trip!!! Here she is sitting like a little lady just observing those around us. This was just before she needed to go pee and we had to head for the car... but by this point she was more interested in her "fish" crackers than in fishing! Wish she could have waited just two minutes more... in the time it took me to take her potty the guy right next to us caught a fish! We think she'd have found a whole new interest had she been able to witness it!

A little while earlier... carring her pole down to the lake

Finding her pole in the store... deciding on the pink and purple Dora option (over Barbie... yipee!) and then giving it a test cast the way daddy does!

Mom, this one's for you... I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post it. This is a picture of me dressed up a bit on Mother's Day. My mom was so kind as to help me shop for some newer dressy clothes when she was out in March... I need to show proof that I'm wearing them! I just don't usually leave them on long at the house (as you can see this was taken at church!) With Cole going into command soon and having become a mom I'm working at looking a little more like a mom and professional person! Ha ha! I know many of you that know me are probably laughing! I've still got those deep tom-boy roots!

And in other news... Our neighborhood is becoming run over with critters! Stay tuned for an update on all the furry legged friends... hopefully without picture proof!

Happy 4th of July!

How do you number the days!?

On this day, June 18, six years ago I had the great opportunity of joining in marriage with my best friend of already nearly five years at the time. That now brings us to a total of nearly 11 years together since we started dating back in High School. However... there is also the time spent "going out" from back in elementary school (5th/6th grade)... and how do you factor that in!

In our years spent together we have had the opportunity to enjoy and endure many great things. How simple things were back in High School and the many movies in the park, long conversations on the tail gate of my truck, all the way through the long distance of college years and on into the real Army life. Marriage paired with the Army brings about another marriage in and of itself... a joint marriage to the Army. The Army is Cole's career and the provider for our family... and I can either choose to join in the marriage to it and life a happier, fuller life... or fight against it and bring termoil into our marriage as well. This has brought it's own challenges and rewards that not all marriages face and I am so glad that despite deployments and time apart we have weathered it well!

When we wed six years ago we had a plan... oh boy oh boy were we planners! I'm pretty sure God can count on us for a good laugh! Our five years wait for a family quickly went out the window when we saw the impact of deployment and how precious life is first hand... and along came Sierra Grace. Our timeline wasn't involved in her arrival but God had things worked out.... as well as with our future! We have made five moves in a five year period and met many wonderful people, families, and enjoyed great laughter and sorrow with them. We do not know what the longer term holds for our family right now, but we do know that God is at work in our lives and he is blessing us here where we are at!

I cannot say wether we have changed all that much over the years. We often wonder where the time went, why we were so worried about life back then (ha ha) and are we living in a dream... because surely that little one in there is not truly entrusted to us! Are we really old enough to handle the responsibility! Some say we still look the same as we did back then... but I'm sure if you looked closely you would notice the gray hairs popping up and the added wrinkles setting in! However... I cannot think of a person I would rather grow old with! I'm so glad that we are doing it together!

Hope you enjoy a little journey down memory lane with us... I sure enjoyed looking back through pictures... too bad I don't have any from elementary school!

Building our bridge together in HS
Prom Night

West Point Ball

Ice Skating at Rockefellar Center

Last WP Ball... Graduation Time!

The BIG event...

Saying our Goodbyes for Deployment I

Saying Hello after Deployment I

Hail and Farewell in TX

Regimental Ball in TX, Brave Riffles

Family Day on the Range (with a little pnut on board... didn't know it yet)

8 months prego and saying goodbye for Deployment II

R & R and becoming a family! Brings tears to my eyes!

Cole's Cpt. Career Course Graduation

Current day Family... minus Bongo!