Snow days

March is always the snowiest month in Colorado.  We've had quite a few good snow days lately, so much so, that we've even pulled out the snowshoes a few times this month.  We used to snowshoe often when we lived in Monument but not so much since the kids were born.  Elizabeth is now old enough that we got her snowshoes of her own.  She's been doing really well.  And it's super good exercise. Andrew gets pulled along in the sled.

And what is snow without sledding!   We have some pretty good hills down the street that the kids love. Just watch out for the yucca plants and rocks!

For some reason, it's really fun to throw snow balls at the photographer.

Weekend in Breckenridge

We had an amazing opportunity to spend the weekend up in Breckenridge and enjoy the high country at its finest!  Its always tough to get everyone packed up and in the car but we finally got it all done on Thursday afternoon only maybe an hour later than we had planned.  We stopped at the Buffalo restaurant in idaho springs on the way up for some good dinner, then it was a smooth trip to the condo at Breck.  

 In the morning we headed over to Keystone to head up to the ALWAYS incredible Alpenglow Stube on top of Keystone Mountain.  Dinner is crazy expensive but lunch is a real special treat and almost affordable considering the entire experience - two gondola rides just to get there, the warm slippers you get when you check in, and the food that is indescribably good. 

 Between the parking lot and the gondola are all kinds of fun things for the kids.  I sure don't remember Keystone being this kid friendly but it was fantastic.

 The kids loved the Gondola rides as well as the snow castle built on top of the mountain.

 The next day we got the kids out on skis.  Amazingly it only took about 3 runs down before they were ready to do it on their own and then there was no looking back.  Neither of us could believe Andrew!  He just went for it and never looked back - he was amazing.  Elizabeth also did a fantastic job, she even is working the snowplow!

 We even got to see our dear friends Lee and Shirley on this trip who joined us for dinner one eveing!  What fun!  Lee introduced me to some spectacular Irish whiskey called Red Breast - it was amazing!  And they also joined us with the kids skiing on the bunny hill for the afternoon ski session.  It was a blast!  We all got a pretty good workout taking turns as the human T-bar getting the kids back up to the top of the hill so they could go down over and over again!

Here is the view from the AWESOME condo!  Hard to beat that!  We can't wait until our next visit!

 

Blog Under Construction - Testing, Testing....1,2,3???

Now that we are settled in to the new house and starting to get into the swing of things I thought it was time to give the blog a bit of an overhaul to allow us to show photos a little better.  I loved the old colors and patterns of the old format but needed something that would allow us to post larger photos... so hang in there as you might see some changes as I fine tune the blog...

I'm still trying to figure out an efficient method is to resize ridiculously large photos down to something that looks good on the web without making them all soft - any solid tips from you photogs out there and I'd be interested... I've been using a Photoshop action that I created but maybe there is something that is a little better... and thoughts out there?

More to come on our fun weekend at Breck

The odd goings on in our house...

So we are pretty used to the kids surprising us with new and different things but this takes it to a whole new level...  Actually, as you have probably guessed, I couldn't resist a little Photoshop fun!

Here is the full, un-cropped shot!

Christmas 2012

We had a wonderful and fun (and food) filled Christmas!  My mom and dad came out for the week and we had so much fun with them.  We started out Christmas by attending the Nutcracker Ballet.  Andrew wanted to come with us girls this year and he was such a good boy.  The kids loved it!  They often dance around the house to Tchaikovsky so they knew all of the music and characters before the show.  Elizabeth follows the story line very closely and sat on the edge of her seat the whole time.  Andrew liked "all the pretty girls" and the Chinese dragon.  Elizabeth loved everything.  Grandma got the kids little snow globes at the Nutcracker which they just love.

 And so the Nutcracker theme extended throughout all of Christmas, similar to last year.  Elizabeth painted her own Nutcracker with grandmom and was fascinated with cracking nuts.  She would still be cracking away if we were not all full of nuts!  While Elizabeth made a Nutcracker, Andrew constructed a clay gingerbread house.  His attention span is still fairly short but it came together good enough to declare "home" for Stink Bug.  And yes, Stink Bug is in capital letters as that is his official name.  As it is too cold outside to let him go, he has permanently taken residence in our house.  He has his own little cage and gets water and lettuce everyday.  I'll keep you posted on how long he lives this winter as now I'm really curious.

A favorite activity during the month of December was to watch the Christmas tree lights and the fire while drinking their milks warmed up.  It does not get any better than this!

The kids did their Christmas shopping at the dollar store using their allowances.  It was quite precious to participate in the purchases as there are many decisions to be made when picking out dollar store presents.  Daddy's gift was the funny face which turned out to be a big hit.  Everyone wanted to wear it!

And here's Andrew, showing us his favorite Christmas gifts.  His favorite toys right now (and basically since birth) include anything that make noise, has multiple buttons/switches or includes some sort of water feature (e.g. squirt bottle).  The howling dog guitar, play drill and portable music player all fit the bill. 

Jan outdid himself cooking this Christmas.  Let me say, we ate very well!

Merry Christmas family!  We look forward to our next reunion!

Andrew's 3rd Birthday

Our little buddy is 3!  Andrew was so excited about his birthday.  He decided that he wanted a yellow fish cake for his birthday so we had at it, thanks to a little help from Martha Stewart.  Andrew's cake didn't look at all like Martha's when it was all said and done.  With the help from Andrew and Elizabeth (and some proportionality issue help from Jan) it looked even better!

Andrew is such a wonderful and loving little boy.  He tries really hard to obey and be good; some days he is more successful than others.  I think a lot of that is competition with big sister.  We like to play with the kiddos one on one sometimes and when you get Andrew alone, he is very good.  He is such a happy and goofy little guy who is always making us laugh and smile.  As for his favorites  looking back on last year, they've changed quite a bit!   Favorite food - scrambled eggs, candy- lollypops,  game - building tents, hide and seek, movie - Veggie Tale's Little Drummer Boy, activity - playing drums and guitar and taunting sister in some way shape or form, book - Look and Find, stuffed animal - turtle and Nemo, song - changes weekly