Merry Christmas 2012

We had a fantastic Christmas here. We started celebrating Christmas Eve with the traditional BBQ dinner at our house. It was smaller than years in the past but it was still nice to be surrounded by family on Christmas Eve.

Preston's girlfriend got to join us this year. Taylor loves Kasie. She's always showing us where she lives when we drive by her neighborhood and asking Preston if she can go with him when they hang out. Taylor is one lucky little lady that Uncle Preston's nice enough to let her tag along.

Tay got her very first softball glove! I can't wait to look out the window and see her and DJ playing catch in our yard.

And a very special treat from Daddy. She got her first NFL jersey and of course we can't get a jersey for anyone but Peyton Manning. We love him in this house.

New Christmas jammies. . .

And what family event would be complete without some type of frosting battle? This time it was with the chocolate from the chocolate fountain. Poor Great Grandma. I'm glad she has fun goofin' around with these boys!

We left cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer. We wrote our note for Santa and Taylor really hoped the reindeer would eat all their carrots this year. Last year she was pretty upset to see that one of them had left half a carrot behind.

We read two books before bed - The Soldiers' Night Before Christmas and the classic Night Before Christmas. Taylor woke up at 5:30am to tell us it was Christmas morning. We made her crawl into bed with us and fall back asleep. At 7:30am she woke up and excitedly said, "Merry Christmas! Daddy, Mommy, it's time to get up now! It's Christmas time!!". Then DJ explained to her that we had snuck up on Santa last night while he was dropping off presents for her and we got pictures of him by our tree! Taylor just looked at DJ with big eyes and said "you mean like the M&M's did"? We were so confused and she said "you know, when the red one says 'he really does exist' and then falls over". We had no idea she was referring to an M&M Christmas commercial.

She thought it was so silly that Santa left some crumbs from his cookies behind but loved that we got pictures of him next to our tree as he dropped of presents for her.

 I LOVE her morning hair. The bangs crack me up!

She was very excited to see that Santa came through this year and brought her a pink Razor scooter. But my favorite part of Christmas came when she got to see what Santa left in her stocking. She opened up her stocking, closed it on her lap, looked at me and DJ and said, "Are you kidding me?!?! 2 packs!!" She was over the moon about the 2 packs of fake press-on nails Santa had left in her stocking. Santa sure did good this year!  

I honestly think she may have been more excited about the little things filling her stocking than she was with everything she had opened on Christmas Eve. When she found the package of new princess panties she pulled them out and said "New panties! It's just what I wanted!"

A new tooth brush got a great reaction too . . .

Special new earrings of her very own . . .

And the morning wouldn't be complete without a test drive through the hallway on her brand new scooter.

Her big present from DJ and I was the V-Tech Innotab 2S. It's like an iPad for little hands. Everything she likes to do on DJ's iPad can be done on this. She can play games, draw pictures, read books, work on writing and spelling. The best thing about it is the games have different levels so they can be played up until she's 9 year old. She hasn't let it down since she got it.

After Christmas morning festivities at our house we went to Paul and Carrie's for Christmas breakfast. We look forward to this every year. After breakfast the younger kids (Taylor and cousins) get to open gifts and this year the adults all did a White Elephant gift exchange. It was pretty fun and I think everyone was very happy with what they got. Joel and Ranee got to join us this year too!

Taylor got a Barbie camper from Grandma and Grandpa. I think it was very fitting since she's always asking to go play in their real camper in the back yard! She's even made Grandpa have a camp out back there this summer! One morning he even let her eat breakfast out there after having a sleep over.

We spent the rest of the morning snacking on food, playing games and hanging out. Later in the afternoon we headed over to Paul's parents house to spend some time with that side of the family. Taylor was so excited to see her cousin Sophia. That poor girl gains an extra shadow every time Taylor is around. We are so blessed to have such great family to spend the holidays with. We wouldn't want it any other way.  

And just for giggles. . . my two loves dressing alike . . . We may have to get DJ a jersey for the Bronco's though.

Merry Christmas

From our house to yours we'd like to wish you a very Merry Christmas!

And. . .

Santa came to our house last night and we were able to capture it on camera for Taylor!

I think we may have surprised him just a little!

But now Taylor has proof that Santa can get into the house even though we don't have a fireplace!

I hope everyone enjoys the magic of Christmas as much as we are!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Last week we picked the coldest day to go pick out our Christmas tree. I think it was all of about 22 degrees with freezing wind. I swear it was honestly probably cold enough to freeze the snot in your nose!

We went to a small farmers market near our house and found the perfect tree.

Taylor got to hang our 2012 family ornament

 I love going through all of the ornaments and seeing the ones we've picked out in the past. I especially love that DJ and I have Christmas ornaments going back to 2005. It makes me look back on all the fun years we've had together and I laugh because when we are wrinkly and old and have been together for 50 years our tree may only hold Christmas ornaments from the years we've been together.

Gabby always likes getting in on the action . . .

The tree we got this year is much more round than the trees we've had in the past so we sort of ran out of enough lights. At the end of the season I'll have to buy some extras. But we weren't about to take all the lights off again and start over.

Taylor loves Disney so it was only fitting that she picked out a Disney ornament this year. We have her name and year written on the back. 

Gingerbread are my favorite at Christmas time. This may just be my new favorite ornament.

Next on our Christmas list is a date with my Mr. to go Christmas shopping and a trip to see Santa. With only one present under our tree I think it's about time we added more.

Weekend Recap

We had a great weekend. Sometimes they just don't get any better.

Saturday Taylor and I went  dress shopping. Again. This time Ranee and Joel went with us. I thought it was so sweet of my brother to go wedding dress shopping with us girls for 6 hours. Yep that's right. 6 hours! We went to three stores and tried on about 20 dresses. I am so happy to finally be able to say . . . I found THE DRESS. 

After trying on so many dresses I was starting to get nervous that I may not find the right dress and I would end up feeling like I settled for one that I just liked. But I knew as soon as I tried this dress on that it was going to be the one. I have fallen in love with every detail of the dress. I think I could honestly just sit and stare at it all day - or just wear it around the house - I love it that much! I can't wait to share my dress with the rest of the world! And Taylor was so cute throughout the entire experience.

After dress shopping DJ met us down at The Ale House for lunch. It was so nice to sit and relax and just talk over good food. I think we both needed that. After leaving dinner we went to St. Nick's to buy our annual Christmas ornaments. I'll post pictures of them when I post pictures of our tree. I love that store and I think if anyone is lacking that special Christmas magic this season they should just take a trip down there. It did the trick for me! I found the perfect ornament for myself too . . .

We bought our Christmas tree Sunday morning. I love the way it makes the house smell and it is beautiful when it's all lit at night. I must say though, this year our tree is just about as perfect as it gets. This little guy was there. I think I should have brought him home with me . . .

Sunday was an extra special day for us. Joel and Ranee were out in our area and stopped by for a bit. We ended up spending the whole day together hanging out, snacking on food and playing games. It was so fun to watch them play the xbox Kinects with us . . .

I swear our living room has pictures and stuff on the walls! These pictures made it look so bare!

I wish we could have weekends like this every week. In my book there's nothing better than spending lots of quality time with family. It meant the world to me to have these guys close with us all weekend!

Putt-Putt

The weekend we had to surprise party for Paul was just super hectic. But poor little Taylor is such a trooper. Man, I can't believe how well she was through all of that. I crammed in homework every possible chance I got, we did a lot of cleaning around the house, Preston had a football game, there were decorations to be made and hung. So the following Monday we made it a low key family night. First we got to go to dinner at my favorite Chinese restaurant - Heaven Dragon. Gotta love egg drop soup!

Then we headed to Boondocks to goof off for a little while.

 I think I have to agree with Taylor when she says she is a "very stylish girl".

 At first we tried explaining to Taylor how she needed to hit the ball, DJ would help her line up,

And we both thought after a couple of holes she would have had the hang of it.

Then we both remembered Taylor has a very strong mind of her own. We were cracking up the whole time because she would hit the ball, then run down to stop it. But she wouldn't just do it with her ball. She'd do it with all of ours. Needless to say, we didn't keep score.

I absolutely love this picture because Taylor is trying to explain to DJ why she kept picking up her ball before it even stopped. She was so exasperated when she said, "it's just not going where it's supposed to". We can't help but laugh at her sometimes.

She has a golf swing like Happy Gilmore

After golf we rode the go-carts and then headed inside to play her all time favorite - Skee Ball.

I was so thankful that after such a crazy weekend, and month, we were able to just relax as a family. They are times I never want to take for granted.

Day With The Train

Taylor loves trains. Who wouldn't when your Daddy drives trains for a living? There is a railroad track behind our house and Taylor loves watching the trains pass out the back window. DJ used to take the trains to Sterling and he would pass the house all the time. Taylor and I would stand on the back step and wave when he passed. Taylor LOVED doing that. Now his train doesn't pass the house but we still watch the trains. She likes to tell me the names of the trains - The Hudson, Amtrak, a coal empty, a coal train, or the Z train. She is so funny and her daddy taught her well. She always said she wanted to go inside a train though. . .

. . . so we took her to the Colorado Railroad Museum.

DJ got to show her how the dispatchers work the switches, control some trains and communicate with Daddy when he is on the train. Now technology is a computer system - not this switching board.

How cute are they together? Just melts my heart.

I had to throw this next picture in for Paul. He and DJ always give each other a hard time about who works harder. Paul, you might have to find a sign like this about your job so you can one up DJ!

Old, old train . . .

We were showing Taylor that this is where all the cooking would take place. I would have died back then. The ceilings were too short to fully stand and there were no windows. I like cooking with the AC on.

It's hard work throwin' those switches but someone needs to do it. . .

Now one day Taylor will be able to explain to other people exactly what her Daddy does.