Dashing through the snow...

Last week the kids and I went sledding with the Whitelock family.

We all had a blast even though it was a windy and freezing cold day. We really tested our new winter gear which stood up to the challenge with only our faces getting a little cold.

Ashley, Zach, Alec, CJ and Dave braved the jump, while Sally, Cameron and I stuck to the jumpless sections. Although we think Cameron preferred sliding down the hill on his belly penguin style with CJ.

Christmas Recap 2007

We had a White Christmas!

Wow...we sure enjoyed the last few days. I'm a little short on pictures because I left my memory card at work and didn't remember to get a new one until John made his annual trip to Walgreen's on Christmas morning.

Saturday the kids and I did a little last minute shopping with Courtney...thought I was done last week but no...Target was crazy and I lost Cameron and Ashley twice. Then the boys had 2 friends over for a sleep over and we had a cookie making party. I let the kids do most of the work and they really did a great job.

Sunday night we had 3 of John's siblings and their families over for an early Christmas Eve. We were treated to Rachael's amazing gumbo and dirty rice and lots of cookies and yummy desserts. It's always nice having them around and we always end up laughing most of the night...usually thanks to Phil and Mark. Ashley enjoyed playing with her cousin Mikayla who will be 9 next month, they have a lot in common and are both a little on the shy side. After the party John and I took the kids to see National Treasure 2...it was great and we all enjoyed it.

Monday the kids and I spent the day trying to stay distracted before our Christmas Eve night activities. We started out the morning with a yummy breakfast at the Egg and I. Then Ashley and I went and had our nails done. After that we made a trip out to John's store to show off the new puppy, who we named Jack. Then we took Jack for a little shopping trip to Petsmart. By 6:00 it felt like 9:00 after our long day, we then went to my brother Chris' house for our Christmas Eve party. It was so fun and Rylee was hilarious...she yelled surprise when we walked through the door and she had so much fun passing out the presents.

Christmas day was so nice...I woke up at 6:45 to Courtney knocking on the front door while standing in 3 inches of new snow...yippee a White Christmas! Court and I hungout in the family room listening to Christmas music and looking at as he put it a picture perfect Christmas morning scene. By 7:00 we couldn't stand it and decided to wake everyone up and spent just over an hour opening presents. We had a yummy breakfast. Then after playing with new video games, installing software and music, assembling toys and John's 2 hour nap we were joined by Jane, Phil, Nathan and Cameron for some Chinese takeout and a night of playing our favorite board game. All the while it snowed all day and we ended up with 7 inches total. What a great day!

Ashley rockin out with her new pink MP3 player, notice the red and green nails.

Zach assembling his new pirate ships.

Cameron trying out his new art supplies, sketch book and drawing books.

Jack hanging out under the tree. He is actually Zachary's puppy but we all agree John likes him the most and as you can see the feeling is mutual.

Enjoying the moment...

The hustle and bustle is finally starting to die down. All the presents have been bought, wrapped and are waiting under the tree. The cookies have been baked and most of them already eaten. The house is clean and ready for guests. The Christmas parties have all passed and we enjoyed each one. Now it's the time I really treasure... having family and friends in my home, spending quiet nights with my 4 favorite people and best of all being able to focus on the Savior and the greatest gift of all.

Ashley and Cameron's school Christmas parties.

As of 2:00 today I will officially be on vacation until January 2nd. I’m not sure how much blogging I’ll get done during my time off but I promise to at least post some holiday snapshots for my mom and my Nanny.

Otherwise I’ll be spending my time away from work hanging out with my kids, attending Zachary’s indoor soccer tournament and trying to catch up on some much neglected activities like…

sleeping in
reading
baking & cooking
mid-day naps
cleaning & organizing
going for walks
sleep
sewing
and playing with our 8 week old puppy...who hasn't been named yet and still sleeps a lot hence his closed eyes

Wow...I think I could use a few more days off.

We hope everyone has a wonderful and joyful Christmas and a safe and happy New Year…God Bless.

"Merry Tristmas" from Rylee

This weekend we babysat my adorable niece Rylee who turns 3 in a couple weeks. She is so funny and the kids love playing with her. She’s really into Christmas this year and was so excited when she came in and saw all of our Christmas decorations. It was funny watching her discover the 4 different Christmas trees through out our house. We think her favorite was the boy’s red soccer tree. She kept going room to room counting the trees and telling us what color they are. Then she found one of our Santa hats and pretty much wore it all night. Best of all, every time I took her picture she’d smile and say “Merry Tristmas”.

Zach Tenenbaum

Last night Zach was messing around with a ribbon from one of Ashley's medals and tied it on his head. I knew I had seen this before...

He looks just like Chas Tenenbaum.

What do you think?

Christmas Card Letter

This year we changed things up a bit and didn't send out our annual family update letter, instead I just added our blog address to our Christmas card. The following is a little look back at 2007...enjoy.

I started off the year by making the best lifestyle and career decision of my life, by leaving my position at Trigon Engineering after less than a year and going back to work for Rooney Engineering again after 10 years. I’ve never been happier or felt more complete in my career. Plus in March I got to take my first helicopter ride through the Weber canyon in Utah, such a rush.

We spent our spring break vacation boogie boarding, fishing and lounging with my family in a beach house in Galveston Texas. The food was fantastic and it was so great spending time with my parents and grandparents.

This summer Ashley graduated from Kindergarten…finally all three kids in full-day school. Yippee!!

Even though I’ve been known to complain about it, I really do love that my kids play soccer. I look forward to the excitement of their games and the tournaments have been a blast. Cameron and Ashley are such a hoot to watch and I’ve enjoyed supporting Zach through the completive tryout process for the first time and watching him evolve as a player. We also loved going to a few Colorado Rapids games.

Camping in Golden Gate State Park is always a highlight of our summer. This year we took our last camping trip in our pop-up camper before selling it in the fall. With the kids busy soccer schedules and John’s hectic work load we just don’t have enough free weekends anymore…plus it’s nice to finally be able to park the truck in the garage.

We stayed pretty entertained this year…we had family passes for the Natural Science Museum and Eliches Gardens Amusement and Water Park which we used often. We also attended a few Nuggets, Rockies, Rapids and Avalanche games. But the highlight was definitely taking Cameron and Ashley to the Hannah Montana concert.

Blessed by friendship.

Last night I had the pleasure of spending a girls night out with some dear friends whom I’ve know since my high school cheerleading days. Sandi, Abi and Marcia are three of the most amazing women, wives and mothers I know (sorry girls I’m going to brag about you a little bit). They are intelligent, driven (they’re all business owners) and best of all still absolutely hilarious. I so enjoyed their company…even the potty training discussion, which just made me thankful I’m done with all that. It’s hard sometimes not being in my 20’s anymore and starting to feel…well old, but last night was a great reminder of just how far I’ve come and how great my life really is…I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’m just so thankful and feel so blessed to still have these three ladies in my life…love ya girls!

This is me...one very happy, truely blessed girl!

Who done it...

Last night we attended the Rooney Engineering Christmas party at Dave and Busters which featured a murder mystery dinner theater. This was one of those shows with 'actors' playing out the murder scene and the audience trying to guess who done it...well guess what, our table won (I must say thanks to the ladies). We correctly identified who the murderer was and their motive for the crime. I guess all those years of playing Clue finally paid off...in the form of some loaded Dave and Buster power cards. Sweet.

Oh plus the food was fantastic and the raspberry chocolate mousse was to die for!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS!!

We finally got some snow…yippee! It started falling Friday night and continued on and off all day on Saturday. Not too much, just 3 inches or so. I love how beautiful everything looks under a nice blanket of snow…what I don’t like are the icy roads that came along with our storm. Driving through town on Saturday was very scary, especially after John’s accident a few weeks ago. The kids and I were out Christmas shopping and at one point it was so icy that everyone was sliding all over the place and one car actually went sliding right through the intersection. That’s when we called it a day and headed safely home. We had Nathan and Cameron over for that night while their parents attended a Christmas party. We watched Christmas movies and had a great time making a gingerbread house…which only survived the night and was quickly picked apart by all 5 kids right after I took this picture Sunday morning.

On Sunday…John, Cam, Ashley and I hit the mall to do a little shopping for Zach. It wasn’t as crazy as we thought it would be…might have been because we were shopping during the Bronco game. Then last night we went to a super fun Christmas party with a neighborhood group from our new church. The food was great and the company was even better. We had a fun gift exchange which the kids really enjoyed.

This week is going to be a crazy one…tonight John and I are going Christmas shopping without the kids, Tuesday Ashley and I will be working on some secret gifts we're making, Wednesday is my company Christmas party, Thursday is a long waited girl’s night out with a few friends from high school, Friday/Saturday is our annual cookie baking party, Saturday night brings the Whitelock’s annual Christmas party and hopefully Sunday brings a much needed day of rest. Also it looks like we’ve got a few more inches of snow heading our way tonight to add to the craziness.

Christmas Card Photos

After this weekends attempt to capture a decent family photo for our Christmas card, I started reminiscing over the photos that have graced our cards over the last few years. I actually shouldn’t use the word ‘graced’…we usually just default to the only remaining picture after all the horrible ones have been eliminated.

This year was no different. I took at least 30 shots and there wasn’t one with everyone looking ‘normal’ and smiling naturally. There were plenty of Cameron looking drunk, Ashley looking constipated and Zach…well let me just remind you that he recently got his bottom braces on…enough said. Oh and don’t get me started on John and I…I think we were worse than the kids.

Every year I needlessly agonize over our picture only to unpack our old cards from my Christmas boxes the following year and start crying over how much my babies have changed.

Christmas 2002, Texas

Zachary 5, Cameron 3 & Ashley 2

This was our first ever photo card. I took this on a Sunday before heading to church.

Christmas 2003 Texas

This was on my parents sailboat on a perfectly sunny day. Afterward we all went to Joe Lee's for awesome seafood.

Christmas 2004 Colorado

A fairly good picture although the lighting is bad and it looks like Ashley is strangling Caesar.

Christmas 2005 Colorado

There was no pre-planning for this shot...notice the time on the clock it was 8:30pm on a school night on the last day to order cards so everyone could get them before Christmas day.

Christmas 2006 Colorado

This one is my favorite because we had so much fun and it turned out to be a fantastic day.

Christmas Pickle

This year we decided to try and start a new tradition. It’s called the Christmas Pickle…have you heard of it? I have a few friends who have this tradition in their families and it has always intrigued me. Last weekend I saw one of these cute glass pickle ornaments at St. Nick’s and talked John into buying it. I thought it would be a nice way to celebrate his German heritage.

Glass Christmas pickles have become very popular ornaments and they usually come with a copy of the German legend printed on the box. The legend states that in Germany parents would decorate the tree on Christmas Eve after the children had gone to bed. The last ornament added to the tree is always a glass pickle. It is hidden somewhere deep in the branches. Then on Christmas morning the festivities can not begin until one of the children locates the hidden pickle. The one who finds it gets to receive an extra treat or gift left by Santa Claus.

At least that’s how the story is told here in America. The oddest part about this whole pickle legend is that it’s virtually unknown in Germany and nobody really knows who started it. So I went searching on the internet and while I did discover that most Christmas traditions originated in Germany…I didn’t find anything linking them to the pickle legend.

Although the root of this tradition is a mystery, we still think it's a cute ideas. We decided in our family that instead of St. Nick leaving an extra gift or a treat, the person who finds the pickle gets to play Santa on Christmas morning and pass out the gifts.

Boy do I wish my German mother-in-law Erika were here to set us straight on this whole pickle tradition. She loved Christmas so much and we all miss her even more this time of year.

What a fun weekend...

Friday night we went to the Town Center holiday party with Jane, Phil, Nathan and Cameron. The atmosphere was great, it was nice walking around to all the different vendors and listening to the festive music. It was freezing cold so we were all bundled up and really enjoyed the free hot chocolate and hot apple cider. The kids had a great time running around the giant Christmas tree and exploring the fire truck. The evening was capped off with a spectacular firework show that was a little too close for my taste…this coming from someone who loves a good firework show.

The kids with the Town Center Carolers

A fun night out with good friends.

Waiting for the fireworks.

On Saturday while Zach was at a Christmas party with Nathan's family and John was at work, I took Cameron and Ashley to see Santa at our local nursery, Arapahoe Acres. It was such a nice experience…no lines and live reindeer. We then headed out for a little Christmas shopping and grabbed some lunch at their favorite spot, Noodles & Co. It was fun spending the day with these two.

A few hugs from Santa Claus.

Santa's reindeer.
Sunday was a very relaxing day…we all ended up sleeping in until almost 10:00 then we made a yummy brunch and spent the afternoon watching Christmas movies. I had forgotten how much I really enjoyed Miracle on 34th Street (original version). We also took our family Christmas card picture. You would think it would eventually get easier to get a nice shot as the kids get older…but sadly it doesn’t. You’ll have to wait and check your mailbox to see the final product. We finished our great weekend off with our first trip to Cheeburger Cheeburger for a yummy dinner.

Lounging and watching Christmas movies.