A "Cousins" Christmas: Part 2

After we spent a few days in our home, we headed up to the mountains for some skiing, snow, and sledding! We stayed at the Snow Mountain Ranch, YMCA camp near Granby, CO. We had a cabin with 4 rooms and got cozy all together! Staying at a YMCA camp was awesome with kids. They had a gym where you could rent roller skates, tricycles, and balls to play basketball, pool, foos ball and ping pong. There was an indoor heated pool (though we only got to use it for 20 minutes because of bad timing). And, there was sledding galore!

This was our cabin. Notice Little Brother's facial expression. This is what happens when he doesn't get enough sleep. Precious, isn't it?

The first full day up there, the adults went skiing with the three of the kids. I stayed back with Little Brother and his sweet little cousin. Big Brother has skied a few times and was so excited to have his cousins learn for the first time. I wasn't there, but I heard that there were some good times and some not so good times throughout the day of learning!

Before and during skiing!

On our last day, we did a couple of hours of sledding. The snow was not that great at this point in the season, but it was good enough to send us all flying down the hill! It was a long trek back up each and every time. The littlest ones usually got pulled up, but the oldest 3 were on their own!

The last run of the day, the kids wanted to be tethered together down the hill. They had a blast!

It was a great time, and as you can see from the photo above, we had a lot of fun and a lot of noise and energy leading up to Christmas. The cousins went home the day before Christmas Eve, but we were able to do a small Christmas celebration together. We felt blessed to have their family visit with us for the holidays this year.

A "Cousins" Christmas: Part 1

We were blessed to have Kevin's brother and his family come to visit us the week before Christmas. We had a busy week and a busy house: 5 kids- ages 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7! We kept busy playing in the snow, watching movies, skiing, sledding, shopping, eating a lot, and just hanging out.

The kids headed for the snow as soon as we pulled into the driveway. Poor AZ kids- so deprived of the seasons!

We got a kick out of passing around my Halloween wig! Lady Gaga- step aside!

We also enjoyed visiting Santa. Well, most of us did!!!

Cousins Christmas: Part 2 to come...

Winter Ball

We're full swing into basketball season for Big Brother. He's playing on a new league and a new team, thankfully much closer to home than the team last year. In fact, some of his games are played at his school. I've been shooting video, but as you can tell from this neglected blog, not much is happening with video or even pictures for that matter! So, for now, this is it!

I happened to be taking photos when he made this shot. He loves the sequence of getting the rebound, dribbling, setting up, shooting and scoring. However, I was too busy cheering for him to get the final picture of the ball going in. But, trust me, it went in! I promise to figure out this video thing one day and add some real footage. I'm just not really on top of things right now! I'm sure my family would rather have clean laundry than edited video of bball games!

Did he get dressed by himself?

That was the question all the Moms up at school asked me about Little Brother this morning!

Besides church and a couple extra days each year, our boys pick out their clothes and get dressed on their own every day. Most of the time things go pretty well. They don't always match, but it's doable. Every once in a while, my kids are the talk of the "drop-off Moms" at school. This happened to be one of those days! He was so proud of wearing his cowboy boots and told me, "I look really special today!" 

How can you fight that?

A few Christmas Preps

We did all of our normal Christmas traditions this year, but I didn't always have the camera out! We did, however, make a gingerbread house and celebrate with parties at school.

This year we had to tag team the school parties since they were at the same time in the same building. Little Brother's class party was a little more "family-friendly", so we ended up in there a little more. They had a potluck, story time with the principal and a little singing show, complete with the "12 days of Christmas". They got to wear their pajamas and decorate train cookies since it was a Polar Express party. We don't get to volunteer or spend much time in his class, so it was our first time seeing him in action. We realized quickly that not much stays private for him! He tends to just blurt out whatever is on his mind. I think we're gonna be in trouble down the road!

The big kids have to keep their parties a little more "educational". So, during the days leading up to the party they had $3 to spend on treats with which to decorate a gingerbread house. I got to be part of the store that "sold" the items to the kids. Unbelievably, not one kid in the class spent their entire $3! They planned out their houses and on the party day they got to assemble them.

I'd hate to see what $3 of decorations looked like!

After the parties, we were off to the airport to pick up Kevin's brother and his family. They came to spend the week before Christmas with us. But, that is another post entirely!

Fall Leaves

Yes, I know the leaves are under a few inches of ice and snow now, but since this blog is really to document the life of my kids- you'll have to bear with me as I catch up from late November. Little Brother's birthday weekend ended with some yard work! It was a nice warm fall day, so we headed out to clean up the leaves. The kids have a blast running and jumping into them every year. This year, they decided to do some warm ups before they started. I guess that's what going to PE teaches you in 1st grade. So, after some jumping jacks, push ups and step ups, they were ready for the fun!

Did you miss us?

I almost forgot my log-in for the blog, so I realize it's been quite some time. I'm going to try to get caught up on some Christmas memories and then get back in the game here!


One of our traditions is to cut down our own Christmas Tree. We usually go over the Thanksgiving weekend. We were blessed again this year with a nice day, no snow and a great tree! This year we even had a couple of extra helpers to get the tree chopped down and carried to the car!

And here it was all decorated for the season. Every year we underestimate the size of the tree. This year we had to decorate the top half while standing upstairs! The bigger the better to us all!

A Tom and Jerry Home Depot Party

We just got home from Little Brother's 4th Birthday Party at Home Depot. He chose a Tom and Jerry theme, which is perfect since he watches it every day after school. He invited a few friends from school and a few more family friends. All the kids had off school today for the Thanksgiving weekend, so it made it the perfect day for a party! Daddy took a long lunch and brought over the pizza to celebrate with us too!

Tom and Jerry isn't an easy theme- so we improvised and made it ourselves!  First off, I made the invitations and had them printed at Costco:

The "cake" was cupcakes from Costco with Tom and Jerry characters I bought on Ebay. A few birthday candles and sprinkles and there was one happy little boy!

We heard that Home Depot did birthday parties, but had never been to one. It turned out to be the perfect place for our celebration. They gave us a room for 2 hours, 2 helpers, and building kits of the kids' choice (about 6 to choose from). In addition, a woman volunteers to decorate a special hat and apron for the birthday boy and each kid gets their own apron to take home (as well as their finished project).

The kids had to wear safety goggles and listen to some directions before they started their projects. Ironically, the man in charge was named Jerry and he shares the same birthday as Little Brother! The kids listened, learned their safety lessons and went to work!

Big Brother wore 2 pairs to be extra safe, I guess...

Little Brother made a Home Depot race car and Big Brother made a spy periscope.

Here are all the kids with their creations. Little Brother got knocked in the head just before this photo, so there were some sad eyes!

Little Brother agrees with the balloon above. This was the best party ever!!!

Fun Run and Limo Ride

Big Brother's school does an annual fundraising event each year. They ask friends and family for donations and run in a 45 minute Fun Run. This year, our family rallied, and he raised almost $400 for his school. Considering our bond and levy just failed in the election, we need all the fundraising support we can get.  Little Brother and I met him up at the school back in October to "donate" our laps to his class. He was pretty grouchy- so no photos of the little guy!

As a reward for raising over $200, kids got to go to lunch in a Hummer limo last week. It was his first time ever in a limo. He was in line to get on when I got there to pick up Little Brother from pre-school. (He's in the camo jacket and blue pants) It was fun to see his reaction. They put the girls in his grade in one limo and the boys in another. He loved that there were mirrors on the ceiling and the limo driver played really loud rock and roll music the whole way there. He had a great time and we are so grateful to everyone who donated in order to make this day happen for him.