A baby no more

My little boy, Owen, turned one yesterday!  It's been a crazy year and it seemed to have flown by way too fast.  We took Owen to a little children's museum up in Lafayette to celebrate.  His favorite thing there was a piano, he just lit up when he heard the noise he could make.  His least favorite thing was the sandbox, he started crying as soon as his little feet hit the sand.  Then we went back to Jarom's parents house where we had cake and presents.  These videos are hysterical since this isn't the usual Owen we know.  He looked at us like we were crazy people.  Riley wrapped one of his gifts and wrote such a sweet note to him (pic below).  He is such a joy in our lives and I hope he'll always be a mama's boy :)

A day at the park

It's almost always sunny here, and sometimes we even get days in the 60s like today.  I forgot to upload these pictures from a couple weeks ago.  Just a day at the park.

We've got a walker

Owen took his first steps a couple weeks ago, but this time he's getting braver and taking a lot more.  He gets super excited when he goes far and it's so cute to watch how proud he is.  He'll take the title for the earliest walker among the three.  Riley and Ella were about 13 months.  Owen's birthday is next Saturday :)

Blizzard 2012

Thursday night it started snowing, it didn't stop until Saturday morning.  We got just about 2 feet of snow!  I love how it's completely silent outside with the snow on the ground.  Saturday the sun came out again and the streets were dry and clear.  We went out into the backyard and couldn't believe how deep it was.  So here are some pictures from our winter wonderland.

The Karate Kid

This past month Riley signed up for karate after school for 6 weeks.  I think she originally did it because her friends wanted to, but in the end I think she enjoyed it.  At least she got some self confidence from it, here are some videos.  As a side note it was loud, I'd take the other two kids to watch her after school and most of the time I couldn't hear myself think!  It was quite entertaining watching all these kids with all their intensity :)

Yay for Christmas visitors!

This Christmas was how I always dreamed it should be like.  Lots of family visiting from out of town, all the kids together opening presents, a few trips to the sledding hill, lots of people in the kitchen making food!
   My parents came for a week from Ohio, my sister and her family came from Massachusetts, and my other sister came from Staten Island, NY.  We went up to Breckenridge one day and walked around and rode up the gondola, we went sledding down a huge hill up the street, we saw the lights at the farms at Chatfield (which next year we will be more prepared for the cold!!), we had my grandpa and Aunt & Uncle over for a nice lunch, we went into Denver and walked around downtown and had a yummy dinner at a tapas place.  I just wish everyone was still here.

Making cookies Christmas Eve

Aunt Erin preparing the cookies

Joey got into the fun, that's flour on her nose

All the grandkids in their Christmas jammies

The presents overflowed into the room

Tebowing! Actually he's catching his breath after pulling up Riley & Ella on sleds

Christmas time is here

The first week of December we found a local nursery to pick out our Christmas tree.  It didn't take long, it was freezing outside! They tied it to the roof of our car, which I had to take a picture.  When we lived in WA we just went down the street to the tree farm and carried it home.   This past weekend we went downtown Littleton and had the kids see Santa, it was free so we didn't get the best pictures as in years past, but the kids had fun.  Owen cried as soon as I handed him to Santa, he was not happy with this weird guy with the beard.  Riley was shy and quiet and hardly said a word.  Ella however was smiling, laughing, playing with his beard, touching his hat, and giving her list of things she wanted.  I don't know where that girl comes from.  Now we're just getting the house ready for all our visitors for Christmas!  Can't wait to have a house full of family.