Christmas '09 celebration

Before leaving for AZ, we had our own little Christmas at home opening some gifts from Nate's family. Colton decided he was a better present and promptly tried wrapping himself up in the wrapping paper (he's a wise boy)!

Lexi and Tyler took turns being Santa, so they stuffed thier shirts with a pillow and wore a long red stocking on their head (incase you were thinking they had gained an incredible amount of weight in a short time). Lexi looking over her new book from Grandma Lincoln.

Here's our jolly Tyler tripping over the wrapping paper.

We then made the journey to AZ and made it there just in time for the kids to be tucked in on Christmas Eve. The next morning, they woke up to the wonder and amazement that it is Christmas Morning:)

Stockings first...

I tried to capture the excitement of the kids as they first beheld their eyes on all the goodies left by Santa and other loved ones. Let's just say they were not lacking...

One of Colton's favorite gifts was this little airplane that Grandad Butler got him.

Lexi showing off her new Barbie from Gramma Butler.

Tyler loving this really cool boat/ submarine and all it's accessories. This too was a BIG hit too!

Coltoin with his crazy possessed car (as we like to call it). Don't let his extreme exciement in this picture confuse you :).

Tyler enjoying one of his favorite passtimes with Grandad!



While we were in AZ, Nathan and I celebrated our 10th anniversary (crazy). It was fitting to be there since that's where we got married. The last 10 years have definitely flown by, but a lot has happened. We both feel very blessed in our lives with each other. I know it sounds cliche, but I do love Nathan so much more than even when we got married (although I didn't think it was possible at the time). Here's a picture from our wedding, with my parents next to us. Yes, we look a little different now....

Here we are 10 yrs. and almost 4 kids later (not the greatest picture, as we took it with our phone, and the lighting is misleading, Nate's hair really isn't THAT gray), but atleast it's documented. We were able to go out to dinner and a movie (which doesn't happen often or next to never), so that was fun. We also wrote letters to each other which I'll treasure always. We look forward to our long future together! Love you honey :)

November/ December review

So, just to wrap things up a bit from last year...here's what went on in November and December.

In early November, I got to go see Wicked with some girlfriends in Denver. It was amazing! The talent was overwhelming and it's a very entertaining show. Besides getting a little lost afterwards...we had great time.
Here are my friends Mel and Rachele as we filled up at the Cheescake Factory beforehand. YUM!!!

For Thanksgiving, we went to Utah to stay with Nate's family. It was a nice time with ALL the family. All the kids always have so much fun when they get together. After discussing what we are grateful for and realizing we are so blessed, we decided to do a family service project on Turkey Day. We came up with raking up the leaves for an older lady who just had surgery. Just about everybody pitched in, even the little ones, and I think we all felt good about it. Afterwards we did a little geo-caching (treasure hunt hike with a GPS) in the neighborhood. It proved to be a little trickier than expected and took a lot of keen eyes to find the "prize", but in the end we all made it and had a grand time. The picture above is some of our gang overlooking Saratoga Springs.

After we got home from Thanksgiving, we started the endeavor of decorating for Christmas. Colton was a big help :)

All bundled up ready to party in the snow.

We went over to our friends house to decorate gingerbread houses. They were actual REAL gingerbread houses, not just the graham cracker excuse for a house. Little did we know our friend used to make, decorate and sell gingerbread houses when he was younger, so he was a bit of a professional. The kids had a lot of fun and we all pigged out in the process.

Colton had lots of fun having his share of the "decorations" (as he continued to do at home when no one was looking- until they were gone).

The finished products...

Tyler just couldn't help himself:)

Here's the little recital/ party for my children's music class. It was just a casual get together to show the parents what the kids had been working on. The whole semester was a big success and we enjoyed teaching it very much. Unfortunately we didn't get quite enough kids to register for the second semester to make it work, but we do plan to do it again in the future.

For our church Christmas party, there was a "Grinch" theme. Everyone was encouraged to come decked out in their best "Who" - apparel and do's. There were a lot of little girls running around with their own interpretations of Cindy Lou-Who hair. It was a lot of fun! Unfortunately, a lot of the smaller kids were absolutely TERRIFIED of this crazy, hairy green man running around (including Colton). It actually was quite entertaining.

Our Lexi Lou-Who with her fun hair (although you can't really see it) and Colton making sure the green monster doesn't come any closer :)

We had some old friends come into town right before Christmas. They were part of our old FHE group (Family Home Evening), consisting of four couples, when we first moved to Colorado Springs. When we started, none of us had kids......now just look! 11 kids later and 2 on the way. It was so fun for all of us to catch up. Tyler and and the girl in pink in front were actually born on the exact same day.

Lexi started taking piano lessons from a friend this last fall, so we had a little piano recital for the few students to show off some of the Christmas songs they've been working on. We also celebrated by going out to ice cream afterwards. Every occassion is better with ice cream!

For Christmas, our plan was to travel to AZ....well, then weather happened. We ended up having to postpone the trip a few days. What better way to make the day go quickly then play in the snow? Luckily (or not so luckily) our street is a pretty nice little hill, perfect for sledding. Lexi's above with her sneaky "I'm not trying to make a snowball to throw at you" look.

Tyler, not being as sneaky :)

Our little snow angels.

Colton making a nice snack out of the abundant snow (after Lexi showed him the ways).

As you can tell, Colton was not so excited about this sledding ride, but Daddy sure was!"

The next day (Christmas Eve) we were able to finally make our trip to AZ to see my family. (More pictures of Christmas to follow in the next blog...)