Christ: The Real Gift of Christmas

Christ: The Real Gift of Christmas
I saw this video on an LDS website and wanted to post it because it is such a cute video. Take a look at it, it really reminds us what Christmas is truly about and what we should be teaching our kids about Christmas. And I love President Monson's little statement at the end. So check it out!

Disney On Ice

On Friday night we took the kids to Disney on Ice and our neighbors and their family went also. They LOVED it, especially Reese. I was a little worried about her getting bored but she liked it more than Elle did I think. The whole night she was waiting for Tinkerbell to come out, but by the time she did at the end Reese was getting antsy and tired so she didn't even get to appreciate it. I loved the show also. I swear you could pay all your bills with what it costs to buy stuff at those things though. So we limited them to popcorn, a drink, and cotton candy, $20 later. They had a really cute pre show with Cinderella and Tiana and other princess dresses. The shows were Cars, Lion King, Little Mermaid, Tinkerbell, and Minnie, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. There is a bunch of pictures to follow, we got a little camera happy, as usual. And this is only a few of the pictures we took.

Posers

I swear, our kids are the biggest posers (or hams, whatever you want to call it). They are constantly asking me to take pictures of them. I guess I should be grateful, right. At least they don't run from the camera. These are just some random pictures of them setting up a little modeling shoot and getting all their things in order.

Thanksgiving

We went to Colorado Springs for Thanksgiving this year to spend it with Ryan'a sister's family and his parents were also in town. The kids had fun playing with their cousins and I had fun playing with their baby kitty, Snowflake. I love that cat, she would just climb up and cuddle in my lap. I had to get a snapshot of waht it is like after Thanksgiving dinner, hence Ryan sleeping on the couch. Except, oh wait, funny thing, that was BEFORE dinner. Yeah can we say LAZY? :)




On our way to Katie's house we made a pit stop at Garden of the Gods and got some family pictures. I was dying of heat because, go figure, it was like a heat wave that day. It was super sunny so we were all squinting, but you get what you get and you don't throw a fit, right?

Happy Thanksgiving

I just wanted to do a quick post and tell all of our friends and family how grateful I am for everything they do and are for us. We are so blessed to have all the people we have in our lives and I am so grateful for that. I am grateful for he free country we live in, even though we may complain too much sometimes. I am grateful to be a part of the gospel and the blessing that it has been in my life. I am especially grateful for my Savior and the sacrifice He made for each of us. I am truly grateful for my two beautiful girls and the blessings they are to us. I am grateful for Ryan and the hard work he does and the things he does to provide for us. I love this time around the holidays because it gives us a kick start to remember how many blessings we have and how grateful we need to be for everything we have been given. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and remembers all the wonderful things they are blessed with from now until next Thanksgiving:)

Getting closer

Okay, so the basement is getting so close to being done, YEA!!!! So I thought I would post some pics. The purple and green room is the kdis playroom and I have one big purple wall that you can't see here. Any ideas of how to spice that one up? The bathroom counter is obvisouly not done yet, Ryan is building a tile top for it. The mirror is MIA becuase I have not found one yet. Other than that, just some painting and window sills and carpet left and we are there! The purple and green look a little different on here than they really do in the basement. And while I am at it, I just have to say how impressed and proud I am of Ryan for doing the whole thing. I never could have figured out the electrical and all of the other stuff. He constantly picks at himself if one tiny thing is wrong, but I think he did an awesome job!

Cause Dressing up is fun to do

So these two girls love to dress up and play around in their dress clothes. This time, Elle was Supergirl and Reese was a butterfly. Notice the lovely Sunday morning hairdos we have goin on.


This picture was just random after playing hard, I guess Reese got worn out becuase she laid down on the couch and put a blankie over herself.

Santa, what?!!!

So apparently we have fallen into the whole Christmas before Thanksgiving trap, which is so sad becuase I love Thanksgiving! We went to Bass Pro Shops last weekend because the kids wanted to see Santa and, lo and behold, there he was! It was actually pretty cool. They have "santa's Wonderland" all set up with an "ice skating" rink, games, a picture with Santa, and free kids meals at the restaurant.
Below are some pictures of the whole experience.






Reese was not having ANY part of the whole scheme. She cried and would not go up there. FINALLY, I bribed her and told her she could sit on my lap on the side of the chair, that she didn't even have to touch Santa (the evil villain:)) and she conceded. But, AS SOON as they snapped the picture, she was outta there and took off running. Fun times!

Happy Hauntings

Well, Elle's favorite time of year has now come and gone. She loves Halloween and wanted to be "Minnie the Mouse" this year, as she told everyone. Reese got into the spirit this year and said "Chick cheet" at every door and trunk at the ward trunk or treat. At 5:00 our church had their halloween party and "trunk or treat." After that we rushed home to make the neighborhood rounds before it got too late and cold. So it was a fun and very crazy night.




While I was at work in the morning, Ryan took the kids to get pumpkins because we, being the slackers we are, had not gotten any yet. They had to drive all over creation to find any decent pumpkins. But, alas, they found three and came home to carve and bake seeds. And, better yet, the mess was all cleaned up when I got home from work!!

Old Man Winter

So, we thought it was supposed to be fall, my favorite time of year, but apparently old man winter decided to come early this year. We got a couple feet of snow around Denver last week and skipped right past fall. Although, now it is nice this week, so you never know what this crazy town is gonna give you weatherwise. Elle and Reese LOVE to play in the snow, and Elle and her friend were having a blast being buried in the snow Ryan was shoveling. So, all in all, it was not too bad. Hot chocolate, no work, fun in the snow, it all adds up to a pretty fun couple of days!

Creepy Hollows

I love this costume, Reese looked super cute in it. She got a ton of compliments, and one kid even said, "Dude, that's a tight costume!" So Reese was the hit of the party I guess.

Can you say Evil? or is it goofy? We have Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde here.


"Creepy Hollows" at Dick's sporting goods park. The commerce city rec center put this cool little thing on. They had a bunch of fake doors set up all along the stadium and the kids got to knock on the doors and get candy. At the end, you got to go on a hayride with scooby doo and solve a mystery. It was really cute for the kids.

Ryan's company had a summer family picnic up at Heritage Square and the kids got free ride passes. They loved that, but Reese was a little sad because they had some stringent ride specifications and she could not ride a couple things that Elle did. Although, it was a little crazy because they let her ride the fast roller coaster, but not the banana airplanes in kiddieland.