Goodbye 2011

We had a great year and are looking forward to what 2012 will bring.  We look forward to a year filled with family, friends, fun and of course lots of laughter!

Christmas Morning

The kids actually stayed in their beds until almost 7am this year.  Of course, I think they were awake before then but they did manage to stay quiet until close to the agreed upon wake up time!  Lots of presents to open and everyone was thrilled by their gifts.  As usual the kids made each other homemade gifts.  JP made the trio personalized hot cocoa mugs, Ryan made everyone bubble bath, Caitlin made mustaches & Madison made playdough.  We spent the day just relaxing and playing with toys.  Before bed, Madison and Caitlin started crying because they didn't want Christmas to be over and a few hours late JP did the same thing.  I think that means it was a success. :)

It begins!

 Opening stockings!

Opening gifts.  Ryan was so excited to show me what he got he pulled the camera away from my face!

 JP excited by his Harry Potter DVD collection Santa brought.

 A new Wii from Nana & Pa!

 JP trying out his homemade mustaches from Caitlin

 Madison testing out her new kitty piano from Santa

 JP & his haul

 Caitlin with gifts piled high.

 She loved the cupcake set from the Lees

 A new telescope from Grandmom & Pop!

The aftermath: 

Ryan trying to maneuver both a candy can & his new bike!

Christmas Eve

I did a really bad job taking photos on Christmas Eve.  We once again had Wigilia at our house with Carolyn & Paul, Jean, Sean & Anne and of course all the kids.  It was a great night and everyone had lots of fun.  The elves once again dropped off pjs for all the kids and they looked so cute in their Christmas red & white.  Many presents were opened and great food & company made the night even more special.

 George (3), Gus (1), JP (8), Caitlin, Madison, Ryan (3), Willa (3)

Eloise made a beautiful cake.

 At least the O'Reillys remembered to take a family photo!
 

 Present Time

 Madison operating on her polar bear with here new Bandaids and doctor kit from the O'Reillys

Ready for Santa!

Holiday Fun

Here's a bunch of photos I took right before Christmas.

12/4 We got an Elf on the Shelf!  The kids named him Roderick and were up early every morning to see where he moved overnight.  I absolutely loved this little guy.  He promoted good behavior & I never had to drag JP out of bed in the morning for school!

   
12/10 Trying to get the perfect Christmas Card shot!

A close 2nd

The winner!

12/11- My friend Kate hosted a Mother/Daughter Christmas brunch.  It was so fun & Santa even showed up!

 

12/17 Decorating cookies: I let the trio help decorate for the 1st time this year.  It was definitely an exercise in patience & there were sprinkles everywhere!

12/19 Annual Trip to Bass Pro & see Santa: No tears this year!

Playing with the trains.

Ryan in heaven.

Go Buffaloes!

Girls jeepin!

Telling Santa everything we want this year for Christmas:  JP- a telescope, Ryan- a Chuggington train, Caitlin- a magic wand & Madison- a kitty cat piano.

12/22 Snow!  It was a White Christmas- 9 inches fell a few days before.

 JP & Madison having fun

Two Holiday Shows

On the 12th we attended Park Hill United Methodist's preschool program and then followed it up 3 days later on the 15th with JPs.  Each class at the preschool sang a couple songs and we were out of there in about 20 minutes!  It was really cute, but we were in the big church and for some reason the acoustics were not the best so it was hard to hear.  I think the trio was a bit shell shocked performing in front of everyone, but they did great.
For JP's they did a musical play about Christmas at the OK Corral.  It was a cute story and all the kids were dressed up as cowboys.  JP was part of the crowd most of the time, but then did go to a group that did a special song as well.  The music was really catchy and everyone had a fun time.

 

Ready for the show!

Sorry the camera kept getting so blurry!

 

Cowboy Joe!

The Trio's 1st Field Trip

The trio took their first field trip to the Denver Firefighter's Museum.  They got to ride on the Preschool bus for the first time and Ryan was beyond excited.  When we first arrived, they showed the kids 2 short films on fire and fire safety.  That was it for Madison- she was so scared that a real fire would break out.  She spent the first part of the trip telling me she was sick and wanted to go home and then when she did calm down a toy fire alarm went off and she about jumped through her skin.  Actually out of all the kids there on Maddi and Ryan broke into tears when the bell went off.  I remember JP being scared of fire alarms too, so I guess it runs in the family!

Happy Guy on the Bus

 Ready to go in.

 

Miss Eboni holding firefighter Caitlin.

  Cool wall of patches.

Madison's favorite part of the day- getting back on the bus!  I love how they held hands as they walked.

Oh! Christmas Tree

Yesterday we went on our first ever trek to the mountains to pick out and cut down a Christmas Tree.  Sean & Anne get the required permits and go every year and this year we were invited along.  Everyone was looking forward to it.  We were all up, dressed and out the door a little after 8am and headed off to meet The O'Reillys, The Balluffs and several other of their friends.  On the way there, we listened to Christmas music and talked about how big of a tree we were going to find.  It seemed like it was going to be so much fun....

Sometimes you win, and well...sometimes you don't.

When we reached the approved cutting location everyone bundled up as it was only about 34 degrees outside.  We started walking through the forest looking for a perfect tree.  We had warned JP that these trees will be nowhere near as big and full as he was used to, but I think he thought if kept looking he would find "the perfect" tree.  Unfortunately, after about 45 minutes or so "the perfect" tree had not appeared and the girls were getting cold and tired.  We tried to get JP to decide on a tree and when we wouldn't let him keep searching he had an all out temper tantrum/breakdown.  Wow, we did not see that one coming.  He eventually pulled it together, but by that time the girls were in all out crying mode.  As soon as the tree we picked was cut and hit the ground I walked the girls back up to the car.  I felt so bad that I could not carry them, but since I could not carry both of them I had to make them walk.  Ryan stayed behind with the boys to help carry the tree up and he really was (as we call it in our house) the All Star of the day!

JP has now told me twice that he thinks he is on the naughty list this year and I have told him that he has 29 more days to turn it around.  One other thing I should add is that he has been throwing up with the stomach flu all day today so that may have contributed to his behavior, but it was still unacceptable.  Joe said it was like The Blair Witch Project- he just wanted out of the woods! :) Not the happiest memories in the forest this year, but we do have a nice (tall) tree that we are looking forward to decorating in the next week.  The one thing I know, is that if we do go again at least one of our children that will probably have near perfect behavior! :)

Our caravan of cars heading to permit site:

JP having fun at first:

Best behavior award:

You can tell Caitlin still wasn't feeling well from being sick a few days before:

Maddi was actually having a blast at first.  She kept showing me her favorite tree- she had many...

Ryan and George played on one of the only patches of snow!

I had to sit JP on a stump for time out.  I told him that this was sad that this was how I was going to remember this day & Joe took a picture of it (I guess to help me remember)

Our tall tree.  We're definitely going to be cutting quite a bit off the bottom.

Here's a video of the tree getting ready to fall. I was trying to distract the girls from crying by trying to get them to sing...it only worked on Ryan!

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Bringing the tree to the car:

The day wore everyone out. Hopefully next year will be a different story!