Snow Days

We have become quite the snow bunnies here in Colorado. The weather here is very different from Arizona. It can be a warm sunny 68 degrees one day and two days later it's 3 degrees and snowing. After a good snow storm the kids are itching to go out and play...

I shoveld our driveway and the kids and I piled the snow to make a snowman. It took us a good 30 minutes to get it piled and shaped into this little midget. Then Crew says to me, "Now can we make the mom and dad snowman?" HA! I told him to go right ahead!

There's our little house in the midst of the snow... I think two or three days later we got plowed with another 7 inches...it was crazy!

There was lots and lots of powdery snow coming down since the tempurature was way below zero. It covered everything in this wonderful white fluff. This is the tree just outside our trailer... beautiful!

We took the kids sledding at a hill just by our place and it was so much fun. Here is Emma standing up! She is thisclose to being a full time walker (finally)!! She stands up and takes a few steps on her own, it's so cute.

Emma and Dad after a ride down the hill. Emma loves the snow!

Here is Crew and me about to go down. Notice his eyes shut tight? He was excited to go down, and even went down two times all by himself, but every time his eyes were shut tight!

The night before all this I made some jalapeno poppers and stupidly used my fingers to de-seed the peppers. It took 3 days for the oils of pepper to get out of my fingers and I couldn't put my contacts in, hence the goofy glasses...

Kaylee took Crew down the hill a couple of times, and they both went flying each time! They plowed into the snow, got up, smiled, laughed, and walked back up the hill. They are troopers!

Emma's favorite thing is getting a sled ride on her tummy.

Xtreme Kids

Last month I took the kids to St. George so I could go on a cruise with Tasha. While I was there the kids spent alot of time with Elyza and Cohen. They got to test ride their new bikes that they got for Christmas.

Kaylee was super excited to ride. They got all geared up and rode around Becca and Alan's backyard.

It took Kaylee a little getting used to it, but she finally got the hang of it, and loved riding the motorcycle.

Crew was dying to ride. I was a little too nervous to let him ride the motorcycle since we haven't taken him officially off training wheels yet, so I let him ride the quad.

This kid is nuts behind the wheel! I couldn't stop laughing because he rides just like his dad, reckless! Alan nearly dove on top of Crew to try and stop him from driving full speed into the side of the house, but Crew turned the wheel last minute and saved it, and acted like it was no big deal... just like dad...

Emma just watched on the sidelines, no riding for her. This picture was actually taken at the park near our house here in Colorado... she's so dirty, but you gotta love the girl!

Christmas 2010

I know Christmas was awhile ago, so I am way behind on a few posts. I just wanted to let you know that although we are living in cramped quarters, we still managed to have a very Merry Christmas! I was only able to bring along a small 3 foot LED optical-lit Christmas tree, but we sure rocked it!

I didn't bring along our stockings, so the kids put out some fun socks of mine... (they were clean) Emma sure enjoyed getting a few little candies and her first tooth-brush!

Have you ever seen footage of a trailer park after a tornado has struck? Well that's basically what it looked like inside our trailer after the kids went nuts on their Christmas presents.

We were swimming in tissue and wrapping paper. It was a blast, and everyone got some cool stuff. Crew and Kaylee got some sweet scooters, and Emma got a new baby doll and stroller. Chris got a few gift cards, and a new Xbox game. I got an awesome new camera that I LOVE!

We had a simple breakfast of cereal and got all geared up to go sledding in the snow. There wasn't much snow around us so we headed to the mountains. We were so excited to use our new gear that we got for Christmas!

Here are the kiddos all ready to head out. We packed up a few sandwiches, crackers, cheese, some fruit and of course a lot of hot chocolate. We hit the road not really knowing where we were going. And 4 and a half hours later we decided we didn't plan properly and we would attempt to find snow another time... but it was a great car trip! We just enjoyed seeing parts of Colorado we hadn't seen yet, singing songs, and joking around in the car. It was a great Christmas!

Happy Birthday Emma!

Last week my baby turned 1! I think Emma could tell it was her special day. From the moment we woke up we all sang Happy Birthday to her. She smiled, danced and clapped her little hands while we did. We waited till the night when Chris got home from work to celebrate. I made dinner, and we ate cake.

At first she didn't really know what to do. All of this cake for her?? She kept looking at me for approval. With much encouragement from all of us, she slid the cake toward herself and sunk her little hands into it.

She sat there like that for a minute, then slowly put her face right into the cake. Classic.

By the time she was done, it was a mess. But she had so much fun we didn't care.

Her next favorite thing to do is take a bath, so that was on the list of activities right after the cake. (For more reasons than one).

Once she was all spic-n-span and smelling cuddly like babies do, we showed her her presents. She climbed on top of them and claimed them as hers. Then Crew showed her how to open them, and it was a whole new world.

I think she will do just fine come Christmas morning! She enjoyed opening her presents, and playing with all her new toys.

Happy Birthday little squeaker! You sure are a handful, but one of the cutest handfuls I've ever seen! We love you so much and are so blessed to have your spirit and light in our lives.

Naughty or Nice

We went to see Santa at the mall today. Kaylee informed me that it is not "the real" Santa. I confirmed that he is just one of Santa's helpers who reports back to "the real" Santa on whether you have been naughty or nice {and also what present you would like}. The set up they have here in Colorado is amazing. It's sort of like a "fast-pass" at Disney Land. You check in, they give you a time to come back, and when it's your time you see Santa. No long lines and kids going crazy! I loved it. Much more enjoyable!

This was the photo that was taken with Santa. I had to choose between three different ones. The first one Emma wasn't looking at the camera, Crew was smiling, and Kaylee was doing something funny with her arm. The second one all three of them weren't looking at the camera (pretty sure they were looking at me {oops}). The last one is the one I picked. I feel bad because Kaylee looks like she doesn't want to be there at all. But I promise she was the most excited one. Emma is just happy to be out of the stroller, and totally loving the balloon snowman she got from the elves.

This is our family photo that we got taken while we were in Utah for Thanksgiving. It's going on our Christmas cards, so if you want one of these beauties in your very own home, just let me know!! Aren't we a handsome bunch??

I have tons of pictures to post of Emma's birthday. She was such a sweetie for her big day. I love that girl! Can't believe she's already one!

I'm still alive...

I just wanted you to know that.

It's been a crazy last few weeks. We spent time with family in Utah, and Arizona over the Thanksgiving holiday. We moved from Kansas to Colorado. The kids and I just barely got into Denver yesterday and we are trying to adjust to the cold weather. Emma refuses to wear socks. So I got a few comments from the locals today when I went to get some groceries. What do ya do? Just a couple more days and she'll be one, where does the time go?

I'll have more details to blog about soon. I still have so much to sort out with the move, and catching Kaylee up with school. Gotta love the trailer life!

Along came Mr. Alligator...

This Halloween was different than any Halloween my kids have ever experienced. It was COLD! We celebrated our Halloween on Wednesday at the ward's Trick or Trunk. It was cold, windy, and dark. I was not able to get any good pictures of the kids due to these circumstances. But have no fear- I have plans of dressing them up and getting some good pictures soon. (Who doesn't love to dress up and take pictures?)

We did however go to the little zoo here the week before Halloween. They were having a Halloween thing, where kids dressed up and got candy. It was warmer. It was nice actually, mid 70's- beautiful! It's crazy how fast the weather changes! Here is our little Wonder Woman Emma. She is getting so big!

I recently took her to a doctor for an ear infection and they weighed her in at 17 pounds. She's a little on the small side (like all of our kids), but they measured her head (twice) and she has one big brain in there! She was in the 95% for her head size! Yup, she's a smarty! A petite smarty to be exact.

**I had to mention this before I forget**

This morning while eating breakfast Kaylee and Crew were talking about alligators and crocodiles. Kaylee said that they were the same thing and I told her about the difference in their snouts. Crew said, "yeah, and they can climb trees too." I paused, looked at him questioningly, and was about to correct him when he said, "they snap monkeys out of the trees!" I almost fell out of my seat laughing! We sing that Mr. Alligator song by the campfire all the time! Kids are so cute!