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...)

Halloween festivities

A week before Halloween, we went to Manitou Springs, where our good friend took our family's pictures. Afterward, there was the big annual coffin races on the main street. We've always heard about this event but have never gone. It is HUGE!!! People REALLY get into it. The costumes we saw in just the crowd of people were amazing. We had to wiggle our way through the crowd until we found a tiny space on the curb where all 5 (and 1/2) of us tried to fit. It was long and the kids hadn't eaten , but we made it out alive and we all had a great time. First they have a parade of different groups and hearses (sp?) that are all decked out. Then the actaul races begin...

Who you gonna call?!!

Flame throwers.... Tyler's eyes sure got big with this one.

Group of people doing the "Thriller" dance down the street...definitely a crowd pleaser.

A cannibal tribe...all in good fun!

Grinch and Cindy Lou-Who

Pirates of the Carribean

Cuddled close together...

Nate and Colton enjoying the festivities. At one point a group threw out a bunch of lolli-pops to the crowd, my kids scaveneged many of them and ofcourse Colton wouldn't have any part of being left out and he made the biggest stickiest mess he's ever made (and that is quite a feat). We had no wet wipes or tissue or anything handy, so we used his shirt, luckily it was black.

My 3 lil' munchkins before our church party. Ty as a dashing pilot, Lexi as a sparklified Dorothy and Colton as a gnome (or Mr. Travelocity as some called him).

This costume was definitley a huge hit! Especially while trick-or-treating , people were going nuts. Never thought some felt and hot glue would make such an impression...ofcourse it wouldn't have had the same effect if Colton wasn't so stinkin' cute!! (Biased?...yes!)

The next night we went trick-or-treating and Tyler decided to wear his other costume, Rex from Clone Wars. We went with some friends in this awesome historic neighborhood where everyone gets into the family spirit of Halloween. It was a lot of fun and luckily not very cold.

There's Lexi and Colton with their Rock Star dad. Notice the tatoos on his arms...yeah he's changed a bit since the last time some of you have seen him. Also the crowning glory was the blonde wig that was a little more feminine-looking than Nate realized. Should I have told him it used to belong to my grandmother?........Nah! I'm glad he got into the spirit though. Overall it was a very fun Halloween season.

September/ October review

The new addition to our home, the infamous tree fort.

This is Tyler on his first day of preschool, he's sooo proud of his Star-Wars backpack that his dad used to use when he was young. And we're proud of him!

This is Tyler's teacher, Ms. Marsha and his classmates. He's having a ball at school.

Tyler showing off his school bucket that he decorated by himself (No need for ribbons, glitter and paint for this manly man).

One of the most exciting things that happened to us in September was that we found out I was expecting...again:) The baby is due on April 12th and this time we're not finding out if it's a boy or girl. Nate wasn't too excited about that idea, but now he feels he's 100% positive what it is, so he's content (and so am I). Things have been going relatively well (except for a small scare) and I'm feeling pretty good. Lexi and Tyler are so excited about the baby and already trying to be better helpers.

This was at Lexi's field day. Nate, Tyler, Colton and I all went to see her and she was overjoyed:)

I guess this was supposed to be like tribal warrior paint or something, to scare their opponents maybe??? Sure scares me!

The highlight of field day is when they had the parents jump in and help the kids out (well I don't know if they ever actually wanted the parents to help, but parents kept taking the initiative anyway). Our team was apparently crazy competetive and didn't take this matter lightly. We had several "rounds" and were never defeated. It was fun to watch some of the men become giddy with the thrill of victory over and over (OK, so the moms and kids were LOVIN' it too)! I'm in the green sweater there, not knowing how sore my arms and shoulders would be the next day - kinda pathetic!

Nate and Tyler were getting in on the action too!

Colton trying to change the obstacle course when he thought no one was looking :)

Here's Lexi with her teacher and class. They were the green tree-frogs that day and had a cheer and everything.

Here's the long-awaited pictures from inside our tree-fort that Nate's dad so lovingly finished while Nate and I were on vacation. He worked so hard to get it done! The kids LOVE it!

(Again I have a double here and I can't seem to delete it, not too savvy)

We ended up taking a trip to Arizona at the beginning of October for my grandad's funeral. It ended up being a lovely service, a great tribute for such a great man. I think many people were able to feel some closure. It was great to see family and friends. It really was a nice time, considering the circumstances.

Whenever we go to AZ, Colton has to see his girlfriend Maddy (my friend Kristen's little girl). She's just a few weeks older than Colton so it's always fun to get them together.

My mom took us to this neat park in Mesa that has a little amusement park and ducks, a few different playgrounds etc. The kids loved running around in shorts and T-shirts (b/c it was already getting cold in Colorado).

Maddy, Lexi and Colton

One of the other pieces of big news for our family in October was that we got a camper. This a fulfillment of a wish of Nate's after many years. After we bought it, Nate was as happy as a school boy (or maybe happier) :) It was fun to see! It's used, but in great condition and the price was right. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to take it for a "spin" yet b/c it's just too cold and we're wimps.
It's a little small, but does sleep six and our van can handle towing it. Hopefully we'll be able to get a lot of good use out of this for some years to come.

While we were in Phoenix, my parents took us to a neat pizza place called the Organ Stop. Apparently it's been there for over 50 years (it's always fun to go to new places in Arizona, after living there most of my life). They have this incredible organ that rises up onto this pedestal from beneath the floor and rotates and has thousands of organ pipes that take up most of the restaurant walls and have many other instruments attached to the walls and ceilings that are all controlled by this organ. The organist was....AMAZING!!!!!! and took requests on the spot. It was quite something to see and hear all the thousands of "moving parts" working in synchronization. The kids really had a ball - dancing all over the place. I highly suggest the trip for anyone in the Mesa area.
Sorry about the poor quality of the video, but it's still pretty fun - I think. You made need to turn the volume down a bit on your speakers.

Alaska trip

In an attempt to catch up just a bit on our blog, here is some information about the Alaskan cruise Nate and I took in Septemeber with my parents. There are just WAYYY too many pictures to post here, so I encourage you all (no, I ORDER you all) to click on the link to our picasa web albums in the top right hand corner and then click on our Alaska trip album. There you'll see more pictures than you probably want of our time on our cruise. There is some breath-taking scenery.

Overall, like I've told many of you already, it was a cold, wet time, but absolutely WONDERFUL! We all got a little dizzy and sea-sick at times, but not too bad. As an added bonus we were able to see some family in Juneau we haven't seen in years and years and also some good friends from high school in Skagway (of all places). So let me say THANK YOU once again to Nate's parents who came to our house and stayed with our kids all week. That meant sooo much to us and our kiddos had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa. Also, THANK YOU of course to my parents who gave us this opportunity and let us "tag along" with them on this great trip. This would obviously have never happened without either set of parents. We feel very blessed!