Christmas 2009 Recap

What a perfect Christmas Day with just my little Family of Five.

Christmas Eve night after all the kids had gone off to 'bed'.

Christmas Morning...we all slept in until 8:00 how great is that!

We had a little morning treat then relaxed and opened presents. After that we made a great big yummy breakfast/brunch. John and Ashley made their annual trip to Walgreens. Then John and I snuggled up together and took a nice long sofa nap while the kids played Xbox. Then after a bit of clean up, the five of us sat around the table and shared a great little ham dinner on my beautiful new white dishes from John.
It was a truly a perfect day in everyway!

Ashley still looking a little sleepy in her monkey jammies with her blue DSi.

Cameron got an iPod Touch and those super cool skull jammies.

Zach scored big with an Xbox 360 and a bunch of awesome Texas Longhorn gear from his Nawnie.

Jack and Lily both got new beds (which they fought over) and some fun new chewies.

Cam also got a bunch of Bakugans...his favorite things right now.

Zach really loved his king sized plush blanket...it gets mighty cold down in the basement.

Ashley was in fashion Heaven with all her new clothes and boots.

(John relaxing in his traditional opening presents spot).

Lily wasn't quite sure what to make of the big mess but she sure loved eating all that tissue paper.

Choir Concert and Solar System Presentation

Cameron and Ashley's Choir Concert

Ashley and her friends.

Ashley's Solar System Presentation
Ashley with her 3D solar system model.

Nikki and Ashley worked very hard on their presentation and both did a great job.

It was also their Christmas Party and Pajama day so please don't mind the sloppy clothes and messy hair!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!

No words.....

Attempting to take a nice picture with my sister and my mom.

....really there are no words....

...can't type...still laughing too hard...

It's feeling a little festive around here.

We had a very lazy Sunday...well at least I did and it was SOOOO nice.

It was freezing cold and snowing out so I stayed in my comfy sweats all day.

We watched a few good football games (yea Broncos and Saints!!) and then popped in A Christmas Story (John's favorite movie).

Then Cameron and Ashley each had a friend over to play and John took Zach to basketball practice...so I took a nap with my equally lazy doggies, it was SOOOO nice.

Cameron and Ashley decorated a gingerbread house while Zach was at basketball practice but I told Zach he couldn't eat any of the house unless he let me take his picture.

This picture makes me so happy.

We put up our Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving but I forgot to take pictures. This is our main family room tree...we have 4 more trees throughout the house...I know crazy!

We ended the day watching Four Christmas's and eating warm peanut butter kiss cookies...so good!

A few weeks ago we made our annual trip to Saint Nick's to pick out our new ornaments.

Ashley picked a little gymnasts doing a back walk over...so perfect for her.

Zach ended up with a Nugget's Basketball ornament...so perfect for him.

But I just had to share Cameron's new ornament for this year...it's a beautiful hand-blown glass jellyfish. It's so perfect for our nature/sea creature loving boy than anyone could imagine.

I love Christmas!

Highlands Ranch Mansion Christmas Concert

This weekend Cameron and Ashley had a Christmas Choir Concert at the Highlands Ranch Mansion. It was pretty cold out (like 15 degrees cold) but we all bundled up...well except for Zach who wore shorts....and had a great time enjoying the music and the awesome Christmas spirit.

Staying warm on the bus heading over to the Mansion.
The Highlands Ranch Mansion.
They had tours of the Mansion and the grounds, letters to Santa station, hot cocoa, balloon animals and of course Santa was there too. Although my kids informed me that they are way too old to sit on his lap anymore.
The horse drawn tour of the Mansion grounds was really neat and the gigantic horses were incredibly beautiful.

On the tour ride...Glenn, Gavin, Zach, Ryan and Cameron.

Notice that Zach's not the only one who wore shorts.......teenagers!!!

Ashley and Trinity (Gavin's sister) heading to the stage.

The TBE choir sounded so good, they sang 5 songs and did a fantastic job.
Check out the video below to hear a little bit of them singing "Do You Hear What I Hear?".

My two stars...I love this picture.

Cam and Ash with their awesome Choir teacher Mrs. Wessel.

Christmas Choir Concert

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving 2009

The Food Buffet....man was it good.

The 21 pound turkey was so lovely and very yummy!

All the side dishes were delicious.

Courtney's clubhouse ended up being the perfect spot for our group that included 3 teenage boys, 4 kids between the ages of 10 & 5 and an adorable 6 month old baby.

Let me first start out by apologizing to my Nanny and my Mom for not taking more pictures of everyone....I was having WAY too much fun to be bothered by that.

The gameroom was awesome, the pool table was big hit with the teen crowd and the flat-screen TV showing the Bronco game was just right for the guys.

We played rowdy games of Apples to Apples and Catch Phrase...it was pretty hilarious and Sandy has the video to prove it.
Courtney sang us all a very special McHugh version of the Thanksgiving Song.

These two little ladies ran around and did gymnastics for hours in the upstairs greatroom.

This little guy was just too dang adorable for words...poor Rylan really wanted to sleep but it was just too loud.

He needs to take some lessons from his uncle John who somehow managed to take a nap under the pool table.

You don't believe it......well Sandy has it on video.

Thanksgiving Prep with Happy Helpers

Baking in an empty house is great but...

sometimes a little help can be nice and quite entertaining.

Ashley was having a little play date with her friend Allison and they begged and pleaded with me to let them help prep some of the side dish recipes for Thanksgiving dinner. We put two dishes together on Wednesday so all I had to do was pop them in the oven over at Courtney's house an hour before dinner.

First up...Martha Stewart's Baked Macaroni and Cheese.

The 3 milk (skim, evaporated and half & half) mixture makes this dish,

oh SOOOOOOO good.

My Happy Little Helpers

Next the girls helped put together the Pampered Chef Mixed Veggie Casserole.

A regular feature at all of our family Holiday dinners. There was even a little dancing action while waiting for a turn at stirring. Glopping on the cheese, mushroom soup mixture...

again the part that makes this dish oh SOOOOOO good.