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!