***What we have been up to.

It has been a crazy month. Isn’t December always a crazy time and it blows by so fast?  It is a mystery to me.  It is so hard to believe that Christmas is only a week and a half away.  No matter how much we try and enjoy the season, it seems to speed by in a flash of red and green.
So…..here are some pics from the last couple weeks.  Warning: these pictures are *SOOTC. No editing was involved in the making of this blog post.

* Straight out of the camera.

Scott’s parents are here visiting for a week.  They got to see the stores today and check out the kids’ school.  Last night we attended the school holiday program.  It was very cute and so worth the third row seats.  I, of course, still had on my crazy parent hat on and got to the school gym 25 minutes early to get some decent seats while all the other parents came strolling in at the suggested time and got their seats with no worry. I gotta lose this hat, like seriously throw it in a ditch full of snow. Oh! Did I mention it is snowing?  We love snow.

I hope you are all having a fantastic and blessed Christmas season.
Love, Jennifer

Our annual hunt for THE Christmas tree started out really well. We were actually hunting for two trees this year, a large one for the basement and a smaller one for the front window.  We found the smaller one pretty quickly but the hunt for the daddy tree went on longer than four kids can handle.  After quite a few tears and a stop back at the car to warm up hands and toes, THE tree was found.  Alice and Scott did the honors of cutting it down.  We hauled both of the trees on top of the car and headed home (well, Scott hauled them on top of the car but I was there to take pictures and moral support so I am going with WE).  Here are a few of the many (113 to be exact) pictures I snapped.

I hope you are having an awesome Saturday!
Much love, Jennifer

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….a big huge mess, that what.

This morning I finally got our family room organized and cleaned up. This afternoon, we made a visit to storage and hauled over about 8 big boxes of Christmas “stuff” and now it is sitting in my clean family room.  Lights and ornaments and angels, oh my!

We made a really good effort to cut down our Christmas tree today but that didn’t work out.  Hopefully we can get the tree next weekend or else we may have to visit the dreaded Christmas tree lot.  Scott’s least favorite place during the holidays 🙂  He REALLY enjoys cutting his own tree.  And it is a lot cheaper.  A lot.

The three older kids all got a couple hours on their skis this weekend.  Scott took Sam and Alice yesterday and Paige got her turn this afternoon.  It was perfect weather for hitting the slopes, sunny and warm.  Hopefully one of us will be able to ski with Mason sometime this week.

Sewing has been on my mind a lot lately and I am hoping to get to it this week.  All that fabric, so little time.  I have a couple projects started that really need to be finished.  I could really use a couple more hours in my day.

I haven’t taken any pics in the last couple days so I thought that I would find some on the old hard drive that I didn’t get a chance to post.  Actually, these are some that I took for my mom as a birthday gift. This was on one our last days in Colorado Springs before moving on up to the mountains.  It was a gorgeous day and I could have stayed out all day snapping pics of the kids.  Not sure if they were equally as excited as me 🙂

Happy Sunday night!  Have a great Monday!
Jennifer

We have been blessed with the love of family and great friends and we have so much in which to be thankful.
Yesterday, we had a wonderful day with our family in Colorado Springs.  The weather was beautiful and the kids had a blast playing with their cousins outside.  Many thanks to my sister (in-law) and brother for such an awesome Thanksgiving dinner and also to my parents for putting us up at their home for part of the week.

…..a winter hat with tassels is stylish year round.

….you can wear snow boots anywhere anytime with any outfit.

….you can wear snow pants anywhere anytime with any tasseled hat.

….the check-out guy at Target greets you with a What’s Up, Dude?


….your vocabulary starts to include words such as shred, fatty, avie, to name a few.  Let’s just say shredding has nothing to do with cheese.

….you have to pick up your mail up at the post office because there is too much snow for home delivery.

…..you go to pick up your sick kid from school and the last child to be signed out before yours was signed out to go shredding (again, nothing to do with cheese).

….the amount of SUVs totally outnumbers the amount of mini-vans in the school pick-up line.

….long underwear is just referred to as underwear.

We are getting some serious snow today.  We have has pretty nice weather and awesome blue skies but that came to a screeching halt this morning.  I love the nice days but snow is really good for business.  So, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.  This morning Scott and I had our first of many live spots on the local news channel.   I don’t think that a career in television is in my future.  Probably because I sat frozen for four minutes and didn’t utter a sound except for a tiny thank you at the end of the interview.  Scott did great and he will definitely be back on next week.

Have a great Saturday!
Jennifer

Today Mason started preschool at the elementary school.  He was so excited all morning and could hardly wait to eat lunch and head out to school.  When we arrived, he quickly hung up his coat, put his snack in the fridge and got busy learning.  He didn’t even look back at me. For a split second I was a bit sad that he just skipped off without so much as a kiss or wave.  And then I was thrilled.  He knows that he can go to school just like Sam, Alice and Paige and that I will be there at the end of the day.

When I asked him what he had done at school, this was his response.  Let’s see, I had a nack, lurned, behaved and haved and haved, even I did an obstacle course, just stuff.  It was super fun.

Well, that sounds like it was a good day. At least he haved.  Good havior is very important.

Jennifer

P.S.  While Mason was at preschool, Scott and I took a break from work to get out for a short trail run.  We got some exercise and enjoyed the beautiful views of Lake Dillon.  Now that is very good.

Every night at the dinner table we take turns giving our highs and lows of our day.  We go around the table and everyone gets a chance to speak.  Today, Paige’s high was that she figured out how to tie her shoes. She said that her new friend Ivy was getting pretty tired of tying her shoes so she decided that she would tie them herself. And she did.  After dinner she continued to practice and practice and practice…..  After she had mastered her own shoes, she tied Mason’s….over and over again.

Way to go Paige!

I guess that when you have to do the shoe/boot exchange a bazillion times a day, you figure out how to tie your shoes pretty quick.

It probably helped that she found out that her slightly younger cousin could tie his shoes first.  Immediate encouragement.

Really, a week?!!?!?! It’s been one week since I have blogged. I am trying here, people.  Really.

We have had a crazy week. I know you get tired of hearing it, but seriously.  The good news is…..we found the snow pants in storage.  Well, it might not be too exciting to you but it was fantastic news to my kiddos who have been asking for their snow pants since their first day of school.  See, the kids have to wear snow pants to recess.  If they don’t wear them, they are restricted from the playground field.  So, they are thrilled and even though there wasn’t much precipitation last week, they wore them every day.

Now, let’s talk precipitation.  Yesterday we had to go make the two hour trek to Colorado Springs for one more load of garage stuff.  Can we get a collective UGH? Where does this stuff come from????? The weather in COS was beautiful.  It was super windy but really really warm.  I like warm.  Today we were under a weather storm warning in Frisco and since we were hauling a trailer full of stuff, a long ladder and a bike, we wanted to beat the storm.  We resembled a traveling band of gypsies.  We did beat the storm, just barely 🙂  There was that one spot when we were coming down the pass and the Cruiser started sliding toward a cliff…..but we made it safe and sound.   Luckily, we are now a settled inside our warm house while snow is falling and accumulating quickly.   Winter in the mountains.  Only six more months of snow. Oh boy.

The kids are good.  Sam was a bit emotional as we were leaving today.  It is hard for him to see the house empty.  He is adjusting so well to his new surrounding but leaving home is tough.  We went around the house once more and took pics with our murals in the basement.

I don’t think I have opened another box since the last time I blogged.  That is the bad news.  I am really getting too old for this moving thing.

On a positive note (my running partner will appreciate this) I did get out for a run this week.  It wasn’t as much fun by myself but I had fun exploring some of the paved trails around town. I am going to definitely have to update my Ipod tunes.  I don’t think that I need to post my mileage.  It was pretty measly.

Scott and I are good too.  Really good.  We are adjusting well and loving this new place.  We miss our friends and family terribly but really feel like ultimately it will be a great fit for our fam.  Scott has already skinned up/skied down at Keystone and he is in heaven.  I am looking forward to getting out on my snowshoes very soon. Hopefully this week.

I know that I promised house pics but my camera battery is dead and I have no idea where that silly charger is hiding.  Probably in one of those boxes that I have yet to open.  Guess I better get busy.  I know you don’t want to read my drivel for much longer.

Have a great weekend.  We are thinking that we will try out a new church tomorrow.  Please say a little prayer that we can find a home to worship that fits all our needs.

Snow snakes and ski bunnies,
Jennifer