Season's Greetings!

Just four days until Christmas Break and we are all so excited!  We've been gearing up for Christmas big time around here, with three visits with Santa already, tree-cutting, decorating, the boys' school program, and lots of Christmas book reading from the library.  Here is a bunch of fun pictures from the last few weeks:

 

Apparently, rules about preschoolers holding saws don't apply in the mountains... (it has a cover on the blade :)

We found our tree this year at the bottom of this steep boulder.

It was a gorgeous day!!  The next weekend was below zero temps, we totally lucked out, as usual, with the weather!

Immediately decorating...

The boys' school program was yesterday.  It being the first anniversary of Sandy Hook and the sad events at Arapahoe High School on Friday, I was kind of a crying mess again this year.  I didn't get great pictures, but here's Gus with his back to the audience and that's how he stayed for his whole song.  He was not interested in being a part of the group :)

George waiting patiently for the Pre-K song.

The kid right in front of George always had his dang present head band in front of George's face, so this is the only one where you can semi-see him.

Ugh, getting these two boys to take a decent picture together is going to drive me completely nuts.  This is literally the best one.  I mean, really.....

This one is sort of cute, but I really want one where they're both looking and smiling and not flexing any muscles or being weirdos.

 The best family shot.  Barf.  I look bizarre and Gus' head is completely turned around, and it's still the best.

Pretty good one of my parents with the boys.

 

Santa time after cutting down our tree.

 Terry and Marlene recorded themselves reading The Night Before Christmas a couple years ago.  The boys love listening.

 




 And reading with Daddy... Christmas books are the best.

Happy Fall Y'All!

It's hard to believe that it's already November!  Our October was busy, busy, busy with lots of late nights at work for me and trying to do our usual fall favorites.  I was so bummed that we didn't make it to the mountains this year to check out the aspens, but we just didn't get there. 

The boys were able to pick out their own pumpkins this year at a family farm owned by the friends of our good friend, Casey.  It was a gorgeous day!

 

We carved our pumpkins on a Saturday morning.  Lasting until Halloween was a long shot, but this year our pumpkins got mushy and moldy so fast!  By Thursday of the next week they had to be thrown away.  Oh well.  The boys enjoyed the first 10 minutes of scooping out the guts before Sean and I had to finish for them.

For Halloween this year, we had a party on Sunday night at our friends the Krauklis' house.  George knew he wanted to be Payton Manning for a while, but Gus changed his mind at the last minute.  Instead of being Superman, he decided that Buzz Lightyear was better so I pinned up the legs on George's 3 year-old costume and voila!

 Cuties in their jammies...

 Yesterday and today have been absolutely beautiful fall weather.  Yesterday we just had to rake so we could jump in the leaves on such a perfect day!

 

Life is good!



Our George is five years old!  He's been excited for his birthday for months now, and he's so glad he can say he's five instead of four and three-quarters!  He woke up before dawn on Friday morning, eager to open presents.  We only had the gifts from us to open that morning, and he opened the rest from family after dinner and cake that evening.  He was thrilled with everything he got!  The gifts seemed to all revolve around football, Legos,  and superheroes, so he was over the moon.  Here are some pics of George on his birthday.

I love this one because you can tell he's smiling even though his mouth is covered up :)

 My parents got him two sets of little plastic sports players with the fitting names of "Football Guys" and "Baseball Guys."  Each set comes with a felt playing field, which my parents glued onto a board that fits perfectly in our train table... genius!

 My sister has given George a costume for the past three birthdays... this year it was the red Power Ranger.

Opening his first set of Legos from Nana and Pa!  They were a big hit!

 

Gus wanted to try on the Power Ranger costume... it needed some rolling to make it fit :)

It's me, Gus!

On Saturday, we had George's party at the bowling alley.  The Crists, Emersons, Balluffs, Nichols, and George's school buddy William were all there to bowl and have fun.  It was our first party outside the home, and I think it worked out great!  The kids all had fun, they were entertained with food and games, and we didn't have to clean our house!

James and George thought it was pretty funny to use the fan to blow on their bellies.

The video games were a very close second to the bowling!

All the kids signed a souvenir bowling pin.  I was so impressed with how well they all wrote their names!

George is such a wild, smart, outgoing, friendly, rambunctious kid and he makes us proud to be his parents every single day.

•  There are times when George wants so much to be a big kid, but he still loves to hug us and tell us how much he loves us ("Mommy, I love you all the way to heaven") and he still loves to have his back rubbed as he falls asleep. 
• He adores his pre-k teacher, Ms. Ima, who says he's making great progress (especially in the temperament department) and he came home with a drawing on Friday of two stick figures with eyes and a smile and two arms and two legs and it made me cry I was so proud - he's never ever come close to drawing anything resembling anything before!! 
• He told us one night at dinner, "I think I should probably invite the girl I'm going to marry to my birthday party."  I said, "Oh really?  Who's that?"  "Julia," he said, "she's a really nice girl, Mommy." 
• Sean and George watched the first Star Wars a couple weeks ago, and tonight I told him we could watch the next one.  I told him, "Anakin is older in this one, he's not a little boy anymore."  George said to me, "I know, mommy.  Even when I was a little baby I knew that."

We love our George more than we can ever say and we're so grateful that he's ours.  Happy birthday, George!!

Gus 2.5

Gus is so funny and wild and has been such a character lately, that I really wanted to write down a few of the highlights of his personality at 2 and a half years old so we never forget. 

• Up until 2 weeks ago, Gus pronounced his favorite superhero as "Fuca-man!"
• When you say, "I love you, Gus," he replies with, "I miss you too."
• He likes to reminisce about a favorite activity by saying, "It fun in the mountains," "It fun in a el-vator."
• He uses the phrase "poopy diaper" up to 20 times a day, but never referring to his own actual dirty diaper.  It's usually referring to George or to a toy: "You're a poopy diaper!"  Ugh...
• He likes asking what time it is. When you tell him it's time for bed, he'll usually say, "It not 9-a-cyock!"
• He loves to spot motorcycle riders while he's in the car.  He announces to the car whether or not the driver is wearing a helmet: "Dat man no wear helmet!"
• He is a stealth ninja-in-training and can sneak away from us without a sound.  When we notice he's gone, he is doing his own thing, like waiting in his car seat (he scales the side of Sean's jeep with its open windows).
• He loves the car wash, rocking on the glider at bedtime, "washing" dishes, riding his balance bike, and copying every single thing George says and does.