Christmas Eve

Church, spanish delight for dinner, opening one present and games.

Some Family Happenings

Lexi tries a lemon:)

Duck bill boys- uncles are great:)

Cold weather joggers- brrrr

Ben & Kam's car was parked in front of our house and our neighbor across the street backed right into their car! Not a great way to meet the neighbors, but luckily he owned a body shop and had it fixed and back to them the night before they left.

Christmas eve sleepers- notice Lexi's sparkly new earring!! That was not really planned but more a result of mom and aunt Kami with too much time at the mall on Christmas eve day! But I love the girly things we get to do with her.

Monument/Palmer Lake

Bret was at friends in Castle Rock so we met halfway in Monument (20min. away) to pick him up. We walked around Palmer Lake first- very briefly as it was very cold (but very pretty) then went to a mexican restaurant in town.

Dec. 22nd-The Arrivals

Our Tree

Our Three Little Angels

Kami and Ben arrive and are bombarded by the boys for hours.

Josh loves playing games and Ben graciously played many 5 yr. old games.

Gram, Papa, Bec and Shan arrive later that evening and the boys are in heaven again- more family and some toys that had been forgotten at Gram and papa's house in California.

We're Back

It's been awhile! We have been busy and having fun with family for the past 2 weeks. Add to that some computer issues and time gets by quickly. I will have a bit to catch up on here and am starting back on Dec 21st- Josh's last day of school. He decorated a christmas tree on an upside down sugar cone. Lexi was quite the attraction. When we entered the school it was fine outside, 40 min. later we came out to a little blizzard. Great way to start the Chrismas vacation. Don't know if I will ever get used to that quick weather change that happens here. Keeps ya on your toes!

Hey, that's Backwards!

The other afternoon Zachary came into the kitchen and wanted something to eat. He said,"I want some corn" I told him we didn't have any and seeing some cookies sitting on the table I said, "why don't you have a cookie instead." In a whiny voice he says, "No, I want corn!" I just wish Josh was a little more like that- he won't touch veggies with a 10 foot pole. On another note- we are all looking forward to our Christmas guests who will arrive tomorrow. My sister and her husband will be driving from Spokane, WA, my brother has had an extended vacation starting in Texas then spending last week in Breckenridge, CO then to Castle Rock and finally Colo. Springs. My parents and other two sisters will be driving from Santa Clarita. The weather reports say that we may actually in deed have a white christmas- yeah:) I pray everyone has a safe drive here.

Funny Boys

Josh's latest thoughts-
"Mom, should we celebrate hanukkah?" They have been learning about it in class and I guess the 8 days of gifts was appealing to him.
"God is 5 miles from here."
I had repeated a direction to him for the umpteenth time and was growing weary of it so after saying it again I said in a not so calm voice, "how many times do I have to tell you?" To which Joshua quickly replied "five"

Zachary's thoughts-
Seeing the newspaper outside he said, "santa must have dropped it for us."
Another day- "I don't want santa to get dirty in the fireplace." I asked where he should come in and he said "the closet."
He always wants his "glubs" (gloves) on to go out in the snow.

Fashionista Already

The boys enjoyed Lexi's wild and crazy hair. She actually has enough hair now that it will stand up a bit. She is also beginning to master the stairs. I used to put her downstairs so she wouldn't fall down the steps and she had no way of getting up- which was good. Well, that is only good so long as she can't do stairs. Last week I was upstairs a couple different times when I would hear a cadunk cadunk sound, look down the stairs and see Lexi laying flat on her back at the bottom of the stairs (not sure how far she had been up before falling) Then the third time I had been upstairs helping the boys come in from the snow (man, that takes forever- the boots, jackets, gloves- times two) by the time we headed back down stairs Lexi was almost to the top of the flight of stairs! She loves doing it and is getting better at it, but still at the scary could fall back stage.

Artsports

(A sideways one snuck in there and I didn't want to go back and have to upload all the photos again- deal with tilting your head, Shannon!)

Zachary's self appointed job, as usual, was to direct everyone else. The fact that he doesn't know them or that they are all bigger than he is doesn't phase him. He liked the pit where they got to jump into the "marshmallows" as he called it.

Even Lexi enjoyed it. Doesn't take much to entertain a 10 mo. old.

Dave's work has a Christmas party for adults and then a different one for kids. This kid one was at a place called Artsports. The boys had a blast jumping on trampolines, and into foam pits. Plus Santa and Mrs. Claus showed up with some little gifts and cookies and juice.

Pizza & Slumber Party

We had thoughts of all sleeping by the Christmas tree but being that it is in a room with wood floors the basement with it's carpeting and fireplace seemed a better choice. We started with a pizza picnic (which we have actually started to do every Friday night and often gets called the Plasterer pizza picnic) then the boys helped blow up the air mattress. (Us old folks are getting too elderly for floor sleeping plus we wanted to make sure it still holds air before we have family sleep on it next week) then it was a movie and popcorn. I had hopes of Miracle on 34th Street or Its a Wonderful Life but to keep the younger crowd entertained and happy Charlie Brown's Christmas won out. The boys of course thought we should continue that arrangement the next night but I think it will stay an annual or possibly bi-annual event.

Lexi & the Tree

Both the boys got decorated with christmas lights their first christmas. Lexi was asleep during light time plus these are more girly.

She spends quite a bit of time undecorating and redecorating. As do I.

She is a stander. She loves standing and her balance has gotten quite good. Until the wild and crazy brothers come around that is.

2 Hour Delay

Today was more snow! Josh's school had a 2 hour delayed start. I am not sure how that helps because today it was actually snowing quite a bit harder at 10am than it had been at 8am. I contemplated not going at all, and turns out a lot of people stayed home. They had so few kids that they joined the two kindergarten classes into one. We have learned a few things as of late-baby wipes and bottled water left in the car overnight freezes. Hard to change a dirty diaper with frozen wipes! Also learned by Dave the other day- when you turn windshield wipers on before cleaning some of the snow and ice off they very well could break. Note to self :0)

Tree Time

We finally ventured out of the house on our snowy week-end on Sunday afternoon. We braved the roads up to a mile away to King Soopers for some groceries and a Christmas tree. Josh was very excited about decorating and did most of it himself. Zach continued in his Bah Humbug attitude and didn't put one thing on the tree. He did get into playing jingle bells with his sister though.