Merry Christmas

There is snow on the ground, school is out, the class Christmas parties are over, most of the presents are wrapped or at least bought so now it is time to pack for Cheyenne. We are always excited to go home for Christmas!

Christmas Party

Friday night was our Ward Christmas party. The primary did a little play and Zach played a cold beggar that needed shoes. Natalie talked to Santa Clause for the first time and Madeline got a chance to talk to him as well. Zach as usual avoided Santa. I think that he has talked to Santa only once in his whole life (besides letter communication.) It was a fun night and the kids had fun with their friends.

The Nutcracker

Zach had his 4th grade performance of the Nutcracker yesterday. He was a dancing candy cane flute. He was pretty cute if I do say so myself!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

The Christmas Tree is decorated! One of our Christmas traditions is that the kids get their new Christmas p.j.'s when we decorate the tree. Then we all decorate in our pajamas. Instead of P.J.'s Molly the dog received new antlers. Brig called her Hollidog. Then Zach played us some Christmas music on the piano and Madeline made some of her own ornaments. Maybe next week I will be posting pictures of the outside of the house with lights. We haven't put outside lights up in over 5 years. So maybe this year is the year!

Happy Thanksgiving

We just got home from our trip to Cheyenne so I thought I would post a few of our Thanksgiving pictures. It took us a while to get home today. We had to wait for the interstate to open before we left Cheyenne and then the last hour of the trip ended up taking about 2 1/2 hours. Here are some pictures that I took from the car. The snow was beautiful!




We ended up staying in Colorado Springs and had Thanksgiving dinner at our house. My sister asked if my cousin could come and then my Aunt Gwen decided to come and then my cousin Ethan decided to come as well (I had not seen him in over 12 years)!


I cooked for 2 days trying to get things ready. We had a great dinner with homemade stuffing (thanks Aunt Gwen) a 20 pound turkey, casseroles from my sister and chocolate chip pie. We had pumpkin pie too but I think Zach was the only who cared about pumpkin and went to our traditional thanksgiving movie. We also made a diaper cake for my sister-in-laws baby shower.

All the family left Friday morning and then we headed up to Cheyenne. I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures from Cheyenne. Maddi and I went a baby shower for Brig's sister Meredith. We are so excited for her baby. The kids had a great time playing with cousins and Natalie loved playing with Grandpa Bruce's 2 kittens. We saw all of Brig's sisters and his cousins and Aunt and Uncle from Arizona. Brig's mom made us the best Mexican dinner and we ate way too many of her pumpkin cookies. The diet starts again tomorrow! Brig and the kids made it up to Laramie to watch some cowboy basketball. U.W. even won the game so Brig was a happy fan.

We had a great weekend and we are very thankful that we were able to spend time with so many of our family members!

Still Painting & Celine

Last January for my birthday, Brig bought me Celine Dion tickets. I was soooo excited but the concert was 11 months away. So here it is November and I have patiently waited for my big night and then two days before the concert I get an email that it has been postponed until February 24, 2009!!! I was pretty disappointed. So, in honor of Celine, I have added a few Celine songs to my playlist.

In other news, I am still painting the living room. I think I started this project in August but I finished another wall this week! Natalie loves to paint with me although after getting the roller on the carpet she now sticks to watercolors.

What a WEEK!

What a crazy week we had last week. Brig had meetings all week both in town an in New Mexico. The kids had Tuesday off from school for Veteran's Day. It was odd having a day off in the middle of the week. Natalie had not been feeling too well so we stayed home on Tuesday played games, made pretzels, watched the Sound of Music (the kids had never seen it before) and tried to teach Molly some tricks. Natalie pretended that she was baby Molly and Maddi taught her tricks too. It was pretty funny.


I found a good deal on cut pink dresses that I thought I would save for Easter. So I made the kids try on Easter clothes in November. In the event that they don't fit in the spring, I at least got a picture with them all dressed up.




So when Brig goes out of town it is guaranteed that one of us will get sick and it usually snows. We did better than the one of us getting sick - we all got sick and it snowed! Even Brig got the flu bug on his way home and joined the rest of us.Only Molly was able to play in the snow. We had planned a fun weekend. On Friday I was suppose to go to lunch with my friend and then start with my new articulation client. My sister was going to watch the kids Friday night for us and then we were going to go to the BYU vs. Air force game on Saturday but we missed all of it! I think it will take the next month just to catch up on the laundry from being sick and from Natalie recovering faster than the rest of us. Bad things happen when parents are too sick to follow their two year old upstairs.


Since I was up all night for several nights with sick kids I was able to get a little reading in and I finish reading the 3rd Twilight book which Brig's mom gave me a couple weeks ago. I was a little disappointed and I'm not sure if I'm going to spend the time to read the 4th.

Everyone is feeling better now and I am actually glad that it is Monday and a new week! Plus Brig is staying in town this week!!

SUPERMAN

This is Brig at his "work meeting" in Denver yesterday.

GO POKES!!

Wyoming 13 Tennessee 7

OH DEER!

Natalie and I came home from our walk to find this Deer across the street. Then Madeline counted 29 deer while we were waiting for Zach at Piano. Zach said that living here is AMAZING!

Introducing Molly

This weekend we bought home a dog from Cheyenne. Brig's sister gave us her Golden Doodle named Molly. Molly is only one year old and such a nice dog. She is a mix between a poodle and a golden retriever. She has the easy going golden retriever personality and the wavy poodle hair and she doesn't shed!!
The kids are so excited to have a dog. I thought that the fish that the neighbors gave us would satisfy the need for a pet. I was wrong. Maddi said that Molly is the perfect dog for our family.

Happy Halloween

The kids do not have school for the rest of the week so today was their Halloween parties at school. Then the ward Trunk or Treat was tonight. It was a long busy day but we all had a lot of fun. Zach was Matt Holliday from the Rockies, Madeline was Super Girl and Natalie was Curious George. Brig was the Man in the Yellow Hat - his yellow hat turned out kind of green so he ended up wearing Zach's cowboy hat. I ended up being a prom queen except I didn't have time to finish making my sash - luckily I had a crown. This is actually the dress I wore to prom when I went with Brig almost 15 years ago.

Our night ended up with tired kids, a ton of candy and a car battery that died in the church parking lot.

Handball & Halloween Costumes

Here is a Video of Zach. He was in the 18th annual Chipeta Handball Tournament! This was his second year in a row to be in the tournament. There were only 15 boys in the whole school that made it in. Last year he was one of only 3 third graders to make it. He won the first two games and then lost the third (it was a debatable loss) to the kid who took 2nd place in the tournament. We were proud of our boy! Brig's mom came down for the tournament and brought the kids Halloween costumes. Every year she makes the costumes for the kids. Natalie is going to be Curious George and Madeline is going to be Super Girl. Zach is going to be Matt Holliday (his favorite Colorado Rockies baseball player.) Zach did not try his costume on so I only have pictures of the girls. Don't they Look Great!