Birthday's Galore!

It's a busy busy time around here! We had lots to celebrate recently and we are excited for all of our many blessings!

In Feb we got to celebrate Adam's second birthday and my birthday with a super bowl party with our wonderful family! And yes he does have a nice shiner on his forehead, he decided to fall into the coffee table a few days before his birthday.

We enjoyed our present of about a foot of snow and the fun times playing in the snow gave us. Shyler and her dad had a blast, Adam was a little more hesitant, but it was all in all fun times!

Also for our birthday celebrations we got to go to the CSU mens basketball game with my mom and our friends the Fourniers. It was fun and we love showing our Ram Pride! The next week we also got to go to a play area and celebrate Cam the Rams birthday too. The kids loved running around and eating pizza, and cupcakes.

I spent some time trying to be creative and made some letters for the kids room. Adam loves the balls and points them out all the time!

Shyler loves hers too!

She was so excited to finally get to wear her fancy new dress from her grandparents and loved her fancy curls Aunt Kelli gave her too!

It may not have been a present, but got some tickets to the nuggets game. 11th row!!! It was a nail biter until the finish in overtime when they sealed the deal.

A princess and her friends!

Shyler had a blast with her friends and they enjoyed a lovely day fit for a princess! We had fun coming up with a food for each princess, we played a couple games, like pass snow white's poison apple and then by then time they were done eating I could tell they were exhausted, so we watched princess sing-a-long songs! They were totally in the zone!

Shyler was the perfect little princess and we were so proud of her for doing so well with so many other little princesses. We can't believe it has been 4 years since she blessed our lives and gave us the amazing gift of being parents!

On another note, we really needed a car wash... so real quick we did the drive through wash, and Adam did not enjoy it! Silly boy, next time we'll have to remember to leave him out of that.

Where has Jan gone?

Merry Christmas!!! This is us waiting for Adam to decide to wake up so we could start our Christmas morning!!

Well you would think that with Tim home my life wouldn't be nearly as crazy, but it is!! We have been busy enjoying time together when we can after work with Tim and trying to stay sane during the day with these winter months. This week the kids had a blast at the rec center gymnastics area where they had an open gym. It was a great deal, $2/ hour and they ran around and had so much fun!!! I think I will have to take them more often, and it was a nice change for the kids too!

They loved the running trampoline they have!

He finally got the hang of running down then walking back! We all took a good nap after this!

Shyler tried out the balance beam, and the uneven the bars and rings too!

Tim survived his trip home with minimal weather which was perfect for us waiting for him on the other end. He enjoyed a stop in Omaha and a nice dinner out with his Aunt and Uncle as well. He really enjoyed his project he worked on and the people he met in Ohio, but luckily we won out and he knew it was time to come home... if we would have been out there with him I'm pretty sure it would have gone from a 6 month project to an 18 month one! He received many thank you's and made some good friends while gaining some invaluable experience so we are happy to have supported him in this. Now we are just so happy to have him home again!!!

We had a wonderful Christmas with the family and enjoyed the craziness at the Miller's with 6 grandkids aged 4 and under! It was fun having Christmas on a Sunday. Our family woke up, well i was up first followed by Tim and Shyler then we sat next to Adam until he finally woke up to us staring at him, then we opened our stockings. We had some yummy Costco muffins and enjoyed a great time at church. We came home and opened our presents then we went to spend the rest of the day with the rest of Tim's family. It was nice to have my mom with us and it was a fun time had by all!

Now we are getting ready to celebrate! Poor Tim was in Ohio for his birthday, but we celebrated when he got home. Next week is Adam's and my birthday! I can't believe is his 2 already!!!! Fun Fun Fun and a lot of craziness around here!

Surprise!!!!

We were so surprised!!!! Last weekend Tim got on a plane and came home for the weekend!!! It was a surprise for sure and such a great treat! He got to join in with his Mom's side of the family for our annual Christmas gathering and also our ward Christmas party at church and we decorated our gingerbread house! It was a great weekend together that we didn't think we were going to get. The kids also LOVED it of course. They got a fort built again, play time, and more exciting, they got their new beds set up!!!!! We love daddy!!!!

Shyler already has been in a big bed for like 2 years, but we got her off the floor finally! These beds are going to be nice when we need to save some space because they will convert to a bunk bed!!!

Adam loves his new bed and was a little sneaky the first few nights, but has been great otherwise!!! I also love that I don't have to get him out of his crib in the mornings anymore, they are sleeping all night in their own beds and then come in and join me about 7/7:30ish where I drag out waking up as long as possible! It's been nice!

Shyler was telling Santa what she wants for Christmas at our ward party. She knew she would see Santa twice so she decided that she needed to tell him something different each time, the same two things she's been telling us though. She wants a Princess Rapunzel doll and princess cowgirl boots! She is getting the doll from her nana, but she has too many pairs of shoes right now, we are hoping she will be content with the other present Santa is planning on bringing. Also we are trying to downplay Santa a little I think and appreciate the people she has around her. We have also been telling the real Christmas story a lot and watching the new videos the church put out that are AMAZING, watch them here!!! I feel they are very accurate to the New Testament scriptures which tell about the angel appearing to Mary, His birth and everything in between.

This year I thought I would be super crafty and make my own gingerbread house. I had all of the ingredients and the store bought ones smell bad to me so we tried it.... Next year I need to be patient, wait to find a template, build it ahead of time then decorate with the kids. So many lessons to be learned each year!

Tim was great at the construction process, although we waited to put the roof on to ensure structural stability.

The kids were content to decorate their people, Adam especially enjoyed the eating part!

The previous weekend Shyler got a special treat. My sister took her to see the Nutcracker! Shyler loved it! She loved getting all dressed up, going with just her aunt, and watching the ballet. She loved the sugar plum fairies the most! Then they got me a nutcracker ornament to match the Clara I got from my first visit to The Nutcracker. Such a special treat for Shyler! Thank you Aunt Kelli!

The night before that we crashed the Christmas party with Tim's parents ward. Since Karen and Jeannette's in-laws are in that ward they went too. The four cousins that were there had a good time together and waited patiently for Santa. Of course you never get 4 little ones all looking and smiling at the same time...

It took Shyler about 2 seconds after Santa walked in to point out that it was Walter! Oops, coincidentally Santa has a helper that looks a lot like Walter. Even with the close resemblance Shyler has opted for standing next to Santa this year... note the above picture... which is getting better every year. Adam would not go anywhere near the guy.

With only 10 days left I am proud to say I am done shopping, almost done wrapping, and ready to celebrate Christmas with Tim!!! All we have left is our annual baking day which is scheduled for Sat. We hope all is well and you are enjoying this wonderful time of year as we celebrate Christ, His birth and the glorious gift our Father in Heaven gave to us! Merry Christmas!!!!

2 posts to read ;-)

Happy Thanksgiving

We had such a great time together as a family for the whole week of Thanksgiving! We stayed together and did lots of fun stuff! We took the kids to Monkey Business to play and paint, we went to the park and ran, we shopped for our trashcan turkey and went to dinner with our friends the Haynie's. Then it was Turkey day!!!!

Tim was so excited to try out cooking a turkey in a trashcan! I left him in charge of getting to his parents with the kids and starting the turkey while I went to see Breaking Dawn with my mom and his mom. It was great but I can't wait for the next one! First he got the coals cooking then loaded the turkey and set up the "dutch oven" style trashcan. When it came out 2 hours later it was ready! Well, mostly ready, maybe it could have used another 15 minutes for the deeper stuff, but the breast meat was so unbelievably moist and delicious! He had also left the turkey in a brine overnight. After we got the good stuff we just put the rest into the oven.

We are so grateful to have been able to spend the with holiday with as many family members as we did, including my mom, Tim's parents and Uncle's and Aunt, and 2 of his sisters and their families. We are so lucky to have everyone so close by and to be so close to each other. We truly are blessed not only with our family, but with our health, job, safety, a roof over our head, and the Gospel in our lives. We couldn't have asked for a better life! And we are also so thankful for friends and people in our life that have been such wonderful influences to us, and to the people that have been there to help us, especially these past few months!

After a great dinner we started our annual craziness of plotting out black friday! We were so torn this year. Why did stores have to open on Thanksgiving??? They are ruining the spirit of Thanksgiving. Instead, they have people leaving their families to go shopping! I really tried to oppose going out when they opened at 9 and 10 but I caved... :-( we had a good time getting the stuff we wanted, but we were not a fan of the long lines to get into the stores and the different group of people out shopping to get a good deal. I prefer the people who are also crazy enough to wake up at 4 and shop. We also missed our usual post shopping meal, it is another highlight, but when you finish shopping at 2am there isn't much open nor are you in the mood to hang out when you are so tired. Next year I think we will try harder to stick with our normal early morning shopping and still get the deals.

After sleeping in a little, Christmas swept through our house! We got out all of our decorations and even put up our new LED lights on the house and ornaments on our new tree! Tim went out at 5 to get some door busters at Home Depot! Then the night was competed with watching Elf!

Our last day together was Sat. We went to the Temple with family and enjoyed some time together. One the way home we went looking for a new entertainment center for when Tim gets home. We found some we liked but we took the kids back out later to check out another store... Then we completely went from looking to buying that and detachable bunk beds for the kids and a mattress for Adam! Yep we are moving him into a big boy bed! Well, around Christmas time we are. Then we opened the entertainment center box... wow what a way to finish the night. First the corner was dented, the cupboards were not closing well, and then the back was falling apart!!! Super annoying! So off Tim went to take it back! I guess we will get to go shopping again.

After a crazy, intense, and exciting Broncos game we went to the airport and now wait for Christmas to come!!! Only 3 more weeks! Time to enjoy the season!!!

Tim has been filling his time with as much things as he can. This weekend he is going to a nativity his church out there is putting on. A few weeks ago he went to the football hall of fame! He was in heaven! Here is the actual shoe and ball Jason Elam used to kick his record setting field goal.

Fight Fight Go Rams!!! and our leaves!

November was a fun month! After Halloween we only had three weeks to fill before Tim was home again. We spent some time enjoying the pretty mild fall and played outside and ran and went to the park a lot.

We raked leaves and then played in the leaf pile! Funny how we had a huge pile in the backyard, but we don't have any trees in our own yard! One weekend we got to spend in Fort Collins. We got tickets to the CSU game from our Aunt Mary and the kids and I had a Fort Collins filled weekend! First we went to the farm.

The kids loved it! I think I'll have to bring them back in the spring to see the new babies!

Then we went to the game. The kids did not take a nap so Adam fell asleep for most of the first quarter, Shyler was just being silly.

It was fun, minus the intense wind! A women sitting in front of us was so nice and invited us to go with her and her nephews onto the field at the end of half time! All of the kids in the junior ram club were invited to give the players high five as they came back out for the second half. I thought it was so cool, maybe the kids did too.

But then we left because it was just too windy and cold for me to bare. Then I lost Adam's shoe!!! He is in love with his crocs and wouldn't wear his warm boot, and running back to the car we lost one! So I loaded the kids up and poor Shyler was so upset for him, it was pretty cute. So after looking around the car I decided the only other option would be to drive as far as I could retracing our steps.... and then by some miracle we found it!!! This is the second time we miraculously found the missing croc! Then we picked one of my favorite places to eat dinner, Cafe Mexicali! I love that place, so does everyone else now apparently because it was packed!

On the 17th we got to celebrate Uncle Mel's 70th birthday! We met at one of his favorite restaurants and surprised him! It was a fun night that was finished with a win from the Broncos! Perfect for Mel! Happy Birthday!

I didn't get to watch most of the game though because I had to leave. It was the season ending tournament. The week before however we played in a few games called positional rounds and we won! So for the tournament we went in ranked and had a bye. We won our first game, and after a very very very intense and long game we lost to the other team in 3 games. I was so sad to finish the season losing, especially when I wasn't happy with how I played, but I have to remember the season as a whole. We had lots of fun, I met new people, and I got to do something that I love and something for myself! I hope I'm able to get on another team soon! I don't know why it took me this long to play!

So besides getting the house cleaned and such we were ready for Tim to come home and to celebrate Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween and Daddy Time!!!

The day Tim was scheduled to come in we received our first snow storm of the season. Six inches and none of it stuck to the driveway or sidewalks!!! The perfect storm! Well, except for the wet heavy snow that broke our poor peach tree. We hope it will survive! The kids had fun out in the snow. Well, Shyler loved it, Adam couldn't get over getting stuck in the snow and getting his gloves covered in snow. Luckily Tim got in later that night with only an hour delay and we had a fun weekend with him!

Tim came home to take a big test for work. So with him he brought lots of big heavy books and the kids loved his fort he made. He is way better at it than I was!

We had fun picking out designs and carving our pumpkins grown in our own backyard!!!

Saturday we also got family pictures taken by our good friend Katelyn Roberts. I love them!!!! There are many more that I love!

We went to the trunk or treat at Tim's parent's church and met two of his sisters there too.

The little ones had fun playing some of the games, but mostly just dancing!

Four little kids do not pose together very well

Shyler and Grandma were both brides!

Tim only stayed until Sunday night, but we loved every minute we had with him and we are super glad it is only a 3 week gap between trips this time!

Halloween is now the favorite holiday for both of the kids. They are little sugar babies and Adam caught on quickly to the trunk or treating and was a pro on Halloween. Shyler was quick to ring the doorbell at each house, but luckily they remembered their manners each time and said thank you!

Adam was a little Bronco and Shyler was a "Bride Marry Girl"!