I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

We enjoyed a beautiful Christmas morning together.  I love seeing the kids come out together when they hear the Christmas music.  This might be the last year we get them both in footie pajamas. :)

 The first thing Katie saw was this sucker from Grandma and Grandpa.  The presents could have stopped right there for her and she would have been fine.  That girl is a sucker for suckers, yes, I couldn't help it.

 I love how sweet these two are about giving gifts to each other.  Katie knew exactly what she wanted to get for Eleanor and after we were lucky to find it - she promptly told Eleanor precisely what it was.  She still couldn't wait to "surprise" her with her gift.  Eleanor made Katie a little paintbrush holder for her watercolor brushes and got her new paints.  That is Katie's super favorite past time.  Seeing how much they love each other just melts my heart!

 Katie did a little better keeping her gift to Dad a surprise.  She held it in ... right up until this moment when she hands him his gift and says, "You can open your surprise - it's a Dr. Seuss shirt." Hilarious!

 Eleanor didn't ask Santa for anything.  She doesn't really play with toys that often, so figuring out the perfect gift for her was hard.  We decided on her own set of scriptures with her name on them.  I wasn't sure what her reaction would be, but this look was genuine.  It really was her favorite gift.  I'm so glad.  Especially when she told me that was what she was secretly hoping for.  Whew! 

We enjoyed having a leisurely Christmas morning followed by a great church service.  And Christmas dinner was so fantastic, I'm still thinking about it.  The kids felt incredibly spoiled by everyone's generosity.  There was lots of love for all our family, friends, and most of all our Savior whose birth we celebrated!

Christmas Eve

It was a first for us to host family at our house for Christmas!  We were so excited to have a new blanket of snow to make everything beautiful.  Once Katie discovered eating the white stuff she didn't stop.  I think it's her new favorite food.

 It was too powdery to stick together, but Eleanor and Katie managed to make some cute snow blobs. 

 Of course, time with cousins was a huge highlight!  Lilly usually prefers to play with Eleanor, but since she was unavailable - she and Katie had some sweet bonding moments together. 

Our nephew Tyler is just the cutest thing. 

 We started a hair-braiding party and pretty soon everyone was sporting them - even Tyler, who has some spectacular locks for a 10 month old.

 Our efforts at a Nativity presentation were somewhat laughable - but hey, we were having fun.  Eleanor was the angel, Katie was a wise man (she presented her balloon gift on bended knee), Lilly was Mary. 

 Matt, the shepherd, very closely watching his flock by night. 

The kids all enjoyed getting a special video from Santa that highlighted something specific they were working on this year.  Luckily, they were all on the nice list, so there was a lot of anticipation going to bed Christmas Eve. 

Christmas Traditions

We love to sent Christmas cards to our distant family and friends.  Just in case this didn't come in the mail, you can enjoy our card here!  

 Eleanor and I have enjoyed going to the Nutcracker together every year since she was about 5.  This year we checked out a different local production of it in Loveland.  It was great - and we were able to sit super-close to the front. 

 Katie has been enjoying all the fun of Christmas - epecially our daily Christmas book tradition and all the music.  Her favorite song of the year is Santa Baby and I just can't get enough of her rendition. 

We hope your Christmas is meaningful and lovely!

Giving Thanks

We headed out to Utah for Thanksgiving break.  Eleanor was out of school all week, so we figured we might as well take the whole week off!  Monday we hit lots of our favorite places: The Distribution Center, Cafe Rio, Orson Gygi and a special backstage tour of the local high school musical. 

You never know when you might need a long-handled tablespoon or this awesome #10 can size of Libby's Pumpkin, which we couldn't resist.  Yum.

Then, things took an unexpected turn. Gavin started having some horrible pain Monday night, so we went to the ER and discovered he needed his Gallbladder out. So, Gav and I spent Tuesday checking out the local hospital cuisine (well, I did) and recovering from gallbladder surgery!  Not what we planned for our vacation.

 It was a blessing to have all our family around for that turn of events.  Gavin got a blessing from his dad, his mom bailed me out with food and support just when I needed it, and we had lots of help with the girls.  Including hair do's - I've never managed to get Katie to hold still long enough for that! What awesome aunts they have.  Thanks Megan and Shannon!

 Luckily, everything went smoothly for Gavin's recovery and he was even up to eating some turkey by Thanksgiving.  We enjoyed being with both of our families and seeing my Grandma Virgin from Idaho. 

 Most of our fun plans for the week got put on the backburner, but we did make it to the brand new Museum of Natural History with the Paynes.  The girls loved all the cool dinosaur skeletons and especially "digging" for dinosaur bones. 

We're getting a little weary of surprises when we travel, so Christmas is at our house this year!

A Very Important Date

We had a great time celebrating Halloween this year!  We decided to redo a theme we first used six year ago and went with Alice and Wonderland.  It was Katie's turn to be little Alice, so Eleanor took on The White Rabbit.  This was the first time we've had complete strangers ask to take our picture and it happened twice!  So, who knows where we're floating around the internet today. :)

Talk about a perfect night for Trick-or-Treating!  It felt like fall in the air, but no jackets required.  There were nice crunchy leaves all around (who would have guessed they were buried in snow last week?).  This was Katie's first year really getting into it, and she did a great job shouting out her "Trick or Treat's" and "Thank You's." That was probably because I told her if she didn't say thank you loud enough, Mom got to eat the candy.  She kept reminding me she said it loud enough, so no candy for me!  They got plenty of treats going up our street, so we came home to hand out candy and watch The Adams Family and The Munsters. 

Just for comparison sake, here is our last go at Alice in 2005! 

 I got to find my own costume for a friend's party this year.  Gavin found this awesome string of pearls, so I went for Audrey Hepburn.  Even tried fake eyelashes for the first time.  It was great fun!



Fwinter in Telluride

We took a little fall getaway trip to Telluride a couple weeks ago.  Thanks to finally having local family (anyone else planning on moving to the state, we promise we don't abuse that too much) we got to go kid-free!  I didn't think we were lucky they were getting their first snow of the season the weekend we were there, but it turned out great.  We got the best of both worlds, fall color and snow! or FWinter as we called it.

One of my favorite shots from Last Dollar Road.

I don't know how they did this, since I spent an hour knocking snow off my aspens.  Theirs just plastered the evergreens and the ground!

Telluride has the coolest public transportation system ever - Gondolas!  Our hotel was up on the mountain, so you could ride these to the top (10,500ft) and then down into the town.  Awesome.

The mountains around Telluride were some of the most beautiful I've ever seen!  It's a little box canyon just surrounded by huge mountain peaks.  This is the view from the end of Main Street.

Proof that we were both actually there.  I always forget to include people when I'm in the zone.

This little aspen grove had every color!  Usually we only get the gold, so I appreciate a splash of red.

Talk about a perfect weekend.  Camera time, hubby time, 5 star hotel at a Groupon price.  Fabulous!

The virgin Virgin Reunion

I guess it's a sign that my family is growing up! Most of my siblings are married and we're spread out in 3 states and 2 countries, so we don't get to see each other that often. This summer was our first Virgin Family Reunion. My sister-in-law hooked us up with this sweet Ranch house in Star Valley, WY.

Eleanor's writing the Bunk House rules: no snoring, keeping people awake, etc.

It was great to see Jessica, Blake and little Charlotte from Australia. They win the prize for the most miles traveled to get there.

Having 4 babies under 1 didn't slow us down much at all! These are mad skills for a new dad, David!

We did a lot of rock-skipping in the creek and here's Matt harvesting the power of the sun!

We went on a lovely hike up to Intermittent Springs, yes with me in my boot!

Katie suckered Grandma into carrying her for awhile. I don't think Grandma minded too much.

Eleanor enjoying the natural air-conditioning from this huge snow pile - in August!

It was great to have a whole week together. Plenty of time for kite-flying, games, lounging on the porch, going swimming, playing ping pong, golfing, and having your cool aunt braid your hair!

Jessica started us on this game where you try to find safety pins in a bucket of rice with your eyes closed. Amazingly hard!

I think my favorite event of the week was the family talent show. I knew we were a creative bunch - but even the little ones brought their summersaults, clapping, and toe-eating skills to show! Add that to some juggling, 100 push-ups in a minute, splits, singing, handsprings, poetry readings and it was a pretty entertaining night!

Megan was prepared to teach us all how to tie-dye. This was actually my first time, and it was really fun!

We had a great time in a lovely spot. The weather was perfect at a steady 76 all week! I sure missed that when we came home to the 90s for another month.

Seems like those years between hanging out with all my brothers and sisters as teenagers, when we really enjoyed each other, and moving on to our own families have gone so quickly. I'm glad we took the time to get together this year. Looking at these pictures makes me miss you all!