Our Christmas adventures

I'm finally getting around to posting pics of our Christmas. We've had a great break but I'm ready for the kids to go back on Tuesday. Christmas Eve we decided to take the kids to the skate rink and they had a blast. I sure was jealous of Barry's skillz on 4-wheelz! He only needed an afro and some sweet socks to complete those skillz. Obviously only one of us was born in the 70s.

The kids had fun preparing for Santa and making cookies for him. Christmas morning was a free for all and all the gifts were open within 1/2 hour of waking up. We had lots of fun. That afternoon we went to some friends for dinner and games and had tons of laughs with them as usual!

Now we can breath and focus on our upcoming family reunions this summer. Sure can't wait for warmer weather....already.

Spooktacular!!!

Our Halloween this year was nothing less than fantastic. The weather couldn't have been better, the candy sweeter and the trick or treaters more spooky. I think that we may have broken some records this year in terms of weather. It makes trick or treating so much more fun if you can actually see the costumes rather than be all bundled up. Liza picked up on the in and out of Halloween real fast and was happy to hold her bag open for many treats. Payton was a blood thirsty vampire this year and really looked the part. He would even say, "I vant to suck your blood!" Jared was the Unknown Phantom. He's wanting to be spookier each year.

After trunk or treating at the church we came back to our house with some friends of our and had soup. It a tradition for Halloween night to eat soup and apple cider. It was great catching up with old friends! After dinner the dad's took the kids out and us mom's staying behind handing out candy, preparing dessert, and feeding babies!

We hope yours was just as fun!

One more

For some reason this one didn't post on my last one. One more for your viewing pleasure!

Halloween

Lots of pictures from last nights trick or treating. Jared wasn't included with Payton and Liza because he chose to go to Barry's football game instead of getting candy. His picture was before school yesterday. We had a bit of difficulty trying to figure out what everyone wanted to be this year and after a few tears on Payton's part we finally agreed that he would be a ghost. Once his face was painted he was excited about it. Liza probably couldn't care less about the adventure but sure looked cute in the tutu I was able to construct for her. The neighbor took Liza and Payton around the neighborhood and they had a blast. They had a great time and sure scored some serious loot. It was a gorgeous night and we couldn't have asked for better. For once the kids didn't have to bundle up with their winter coats.

Every year I vow to get costumes decided on and made up by the end of September but it just never happens that way. Maybe next year I'll actually do it seeing that I'll have 5 costumes to prepare. One of the things I hate about Halloween is fighting the kids about their candy. They wake up and that's what they want to eat. I can't stand it! I try to ration it out but somehow a child is able to get past me a sneak a treat. I guess if they can be tricky enough they deserve the treat right?

Due to football, as I mentioned before, Jared went with Barry after school. He had a great time being the ball boy and was busy all night long. Barry said the game was disappointing. We lost 41-7. We got mercy ruled again! They didn't score till the last 2 minutes of the game. They aren't sure if they made the playoffs yet. They should find out tomorrow.

Liza's 1st birthday!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Boy does time fly. I can't believe that a year has already passed since we first laid eyes on our sweet baby girl. She is growing up so fast. She adds such a wonderful spirit to our home and we love her very much. Liza loves to play with her brothers and they are so good with her. She adores animals and the outdoors. Every time we get ready to open the door to go out she kicks her little legs so fast and grunts. We had a great day eating cake and watching her smash it and throw it on the floor. She got lots of great gifts. Another new baby doll which she also grunts at, clothes, money, and a "Little People" Noah's ark. Thanks to everyone who helped celebrate her day!

A week of fun

This past week Barry's sister Cindy came to Colorado for a visit with her family. They got here Saturday night and left Thursday. We had a great time with them. The cousins had a blast playing together all day and sleeping in the tent at night.

Sunday morning the Easter Bunny dropped by and left all kinds of goodies for the kids. They had an egg hunt in the back yard in the snow. I brined a turkey over the night and we had a delicious turkey dinner. The brine turned out amazing. The gravy was a little on the sweet side, not sure why, but still good.

Monday we spent the day at Garden of the Gods. The weather couldn't have been better. It was almost 70 degrees in the park. We were there for almost 4 hours. I don't think we've ever stayed there that long. The kids had a great time climbing on all the rock formations and throwing snowballs at each other. They were even able to spy a couple of deer in the trees too.

Tuesday we toured to the Air Force Academy. The kids loved seeing the huge airplanes and the adults enjoyed the chapel. I've forgotten how beautiful the chapel is. The last time I was there was when I was pregnant with Jared almost 7 years ago.

Wednesday we went to Woodland Park and visited a dinosaur museum and let the kids play outside at the park upon returning. That night we celebrated Donovan's 8th birthday. We had a volcano made out of brownies with ice cream.

Thursday morning they braved the cold and went to the park one last time. I stayed home with Liza to let her take a morning nap. Her naps were pretty sparse during the week so she needed the rest. After lunch we went to Focus on the Family and let the kids play before they had to leave for Denver to catch their plane.

We had an awesome week and are grateful for the effort they made to come and see us. We made awesome memories!!!

Valentine Goodies

Last night I gave Liza a lollipop to occupy her while we ate dinner. She loved it. When I tried to take it from her she grunted at me. Today me and boys decorated valentine cookies. We had fun time, can you tell?

Feb 14 2000

Hey Barry!!! Who said it first?

I like "the long run"!

Leftovers and decorations

Hello all! We had a fabulous Thanksgiving with tons of food! We invited our neighbor friends The Bacarella's over for dinner and instead of splitting the meal preparations we all cooked everything and then brought the masses together. It really was a ton of food and have forged through the leftovers for every meal since. We've even resorted to pie for breakfast. After we completely gorged ourselves on all the yummy food, we played a few games. We introduced Boggle to Dan and Gloria, then played Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, which none of us are. Then we played Cranium to which Barry and I were victorious, no thanks to our humming skills. We had a great night and the company was better.

The following day Barry went into the deep abyss of the crawl space to gather the Christmas decorations. There was some engineering involved as we decided where to put the tree this year. The computer inhabits the the spot where we normally put it so we chose to put it in the front window. We had to empty out our huge bookcase and move it about two feet and rearrange the furniture. Barry then disappeared when the fun was just getting started to go help out a friend! Thanks Blue! Upon return Barry was not surprised to find that I had put the tree together and cleaned up the mess. As we starting stringing the lights we decided that we didn't have enough light and went to Target to get more. I suggested that 3 strands would be enough and Barry said that we needed at least 4. We got home and started stringing lights and found out that we in fact needed 4. Barry took it upon himself to venture into the blistery weather again and get one more box. We finished decorating before bedtime and it looks great!

Yesterday Barry went onto the roof to decorate the house with lights. In years past we have used icicle lights but last year we changed it up a bit and put colored lights up. Our house actually stands out amongst the other houses on the street because they all have icicle lights too. We are all set for Christmas and mostly need to purchase gifts for each other.

We hope that you are all getting into the holiday spirit and enjoying some wonderful music to put you in the mood.