Christmas Time again!

I'm sqeaking in Christmas before the New Year comes and goes.  I probably should have done this sooner, but what can ya do?

The week before Christmas we had our annual gingerbread house decorating, which the kids loved!  Parker was even able to decorate too this year!  I bought a gingerbread house mold this year to make things a little easier on myself.  Just press it in and bake, super simple! 

Everyone working on their houses

The finished product!

We had Christmas Eve dinner at Grama and Papa's, with lots of family.  It's nice when everyone can get together.  Papa read the kids a couple stories after dinner and then it was home to bed waiting for Santa to come.

Everyone in their new Christmas jammies!

Listening to the story.

Christmas morning the kids ripped into their presents and pulled all the gifts out of their stockings, before it was off to Grama and Papa's again for more present opening and food.  They really liked Christmas this year and got everything they wanted.  Kaitlyn asked Santa for a toy Vet kit, and Keith wanted a lizard, butterfly, and snake.  Fortunately, Santa gave him toy animals and not real ones like he really wanted.  He didn't seem to notice or mind. 

Kaitlyn's Vet kit and Keith got Transformers from Santa

 

Going through the stockings!

Helping the Puppies open their present.

Jordan got a Steven Jackson jersey.

Keith is really into Star Wars now.

Getting more presents at Grama's.

The family opening gifts.

Getting into the Holidays!

This year we drove down to Pueblo to visit with Dad, Carolyn, Sis, and Anthony.  The drive wasn't bad, at least not until we got through Denver, at which point there was a wreck some miles down the road and you could see the cars stacked up for quite a way until they went over the hill.  It was crazy!  We sat there for an hour, watched about three cop cars go by and then at last two tow trucks before traffic finally got moving again.  The only bummer was nothing to see by the time we got to the accident sight.  Not that I wanted people to be hurt and I truly hope no one was, but to sit in a huge line of cars for an hour, you kinda expect to see something.  The visit was nice though, we really didn't do anything except hang out.  Which was nice.  Good food and family, though Sis had to work the whole time we were there.  Oh, well.

The naughty trio!  Not really they had fun playing together.

We've been decorating for Christmas and generally getting into the holiday spirit since we got back.  We got out all the decorations and put up the tree.  The kids decorated cut-out cookies for the family and last Friday we went to Kaitlyn's school to decorate "gingerbread" houses with her. 

I later realized I should have put down some newspaper before they got started.  Very messy!

But the end product was worth it!

Fortunately, Kaitlyn's teacher had extra supplies so Keith could make a house too.

He was so happy!

Kaitlyn was of course the last one done out of all her classmates!

At least she was finished before the bell rang.  Silly girl!

Sadly, both kids are sick today and lazing around the house feeling crummy.  Hopefully, they get to feeling better soon, because being sick is no fun for anyone, including Mom!

Ok, it's been a while

So, don't flog me too much for not having posted in a while.  I've been so busy living life that I don't have time to do much of anything else. 

Halloween was good, the weather was beautiful!  For the second year we walked around with the kids in jackets.  It was crazy!  A stark contrast to the Halloween's I remember with blowing snow and heavy coats, where no one really knew what you were unless you had a costume that could fit over your coat.  Too funny!

Keith's pumpkins

Kaitlyn's pumpkins

The trick-or-treating crew.  Kaitlyn was a mermaid and Keith was Super Why.

 

Other things that have been going on....

Kaitlyn has been going to Kindergarten for a few months now.  It was a little rocky at the beginning, she was nervous and then was sick for a week after only being in school for two weeks.  But, now she loves it!  She has been having a lot of fun and is always talking about her friends! 

Keith has been going to preschool as well, which gives me two hours, twice a week to myself.  It is sooo nice!  He is liking school as well and is behaving himself at school, something I was a little worried about. 

Jordan has been hunting like crazy, which means nothing is getting done in my basement, but I won't rant on that now.  It's been going like it has in previous years:  no elk, but did get a deer; lots of geese; elk donated to us.  Thanks Tyler!  So all in all we have a freezer full of meat. 

He also participated in a skeet shooting competition and his team won, so that was kinda cool.  His prize was a belt buckle, which made me laugh because I can't ever see him wearing it. 


As for me, I'm tired.  I've been going hard with prepping for Jordan's hunting and making a cake for a family friend and caramel apples for Halloween that I am exhausted!  Plus driving kids to and from school every day is extremely tiring!  Who knew?  So that's why I haven't been on the computer except to check my email about once a week. 

To Denver We Go!

We loaded up and took a family trip to Denver a couple weekends ago.  Mom had a conference in Denver, so we all, Sis included, decided to meet in Denver.  We saw the Butterfly Pavilion, the Denver Zoo, and the Rockies lose, but not Dinger (the Rockies mascot).  It was nice to see everyone, even though we didn't get much time with Nana.  And Keith was really sad that he didn't get his picture with Dinger, even though we tried and waited in line.  But at the end of the game he got his very own Dinger and was so excited and showing everyone his Dinger!

 

The Butterfly Pavilion

Just a couple of the many butterflies that were flying.  It was hard to find ones that were holding still.

Silly kiddos, Keith didn't want to sit.

Anthony found a puddle to splash in.

Keith held Rosie the Tarantula and didn't even flinch.  No one else would do it.

 Denver Zoo

Hyenas, Jordan couldn't believe how big they were.

Kaitlyn wanted to see the snakes kept saying so until we got to see them.

Keith and Kaitlyn, now Anthony was too busy.

Horseshoe crab, very cool!  We got to touch one at the Butterfly Pavilion.

A very territorial Mud Skipper.  He was shooing the other little guy away.

The Rhino was what Keith wanted to see.

Crazy little Wild Pigs.  They look so funny!

 Go Rockies!!

Here we all are at the Rockies game, Nana took the picture.

 Family Photo Time!

Picture with Nana!

Look out for the attitude, Keith is 3!

Keith turned three on Friday and oh, my gosh!  The "terrible" two's don't seem to have been so terrible, so far his three's are hellacious!  All week working up to his birthday was.... challenging.  His attitude was getting progressivly worse.  On his birhday, however, it was awful.  Things started out fine, I gave him a hug in the morning, as usual, and told him, "happy birthday!"  He told me the same back, like he does when I tell him thank you.  Then the rest of the day I got to hear, "IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!", when ever I told him to stop doing what ever he happened to be doing at the time.  Like, just because it was his birthday he could do and get away with whatever he wanted.  Needless to say he got a few "birthday spankin's"  that day.  Then to top it off, the Leapster2 that Jordan and I got him for his birthday didn't work!  He opened it that night and while trying to get it set up for him to use it the touch screen wouldn't work properly, even after calibrating it.  It was horrible!  So there was a big ado about that.  I'm returning it for a refund and did happen to find a working one at Walmart the next day.

We had mini cupcakes the day of his birthday since the party was the next day.

Keith first thought the Leapster was in the case.  He was a bit dissapointed it wasn't.

Oh, but here it is!

 His party the next day was.... better?  The party itself was better, but the time leading up to it didn't go much better.  We smoked some chickens on the smoker that Jordan and some others from his work had built and it had spent most of the summer at the co-worker's house who spent the most time on it.  This was the first time Jordan had used it.  I'm not sure much more needs to be said about that.  The chickens ended up being finished in the oven and we ate late.  The frosting, that I made, for the cake, that I made, would not stick to the cake and generally tore it up.  I had to go buy new frosting after peeling off the original frosting.  It was insane!


The robot cake that Keith requested with a stance and look on it's face that I probably had all week.

Blowing out candles for a second time!

Keith hugging a book, he really likes books.  Thanks Grandpa & Grandma Dunsmoor and Aunty Sissy.

Keith amongst the aftermath.

All-in-all, the food turned out fine, even the cake.  Keith loved all of his presents, even the clothes which were at first opening tossed over his head as he said, "Clothes!" and moved on to the next present.  Thank you everyone for the gifts, he is still enjoying them.  And I can say with all honesty, I am not looking forward to the teenage years.

July, so far

This month is crazy busy!  We have/had something going on every weekend.  The first weekend was Jordan's birthday the big three - oh.  We didn't do anything major, but the family came over to help us celebrate.  I'm not sure how Jordan really feels about it. 

The weekend after that was the Sessions reunion up in the Big Horns.  The weather was nice, actually the temperature was nice, it rained some while we were there.  The fishing was OK and there weren't too many bugs.  The gnats got a little nasty, but not too bad.  Maggie tripped me up and knocked me on my butt, banging up my ankle a bit.  Nothing major, I could still walk on it and there was no trip to the ER, it just looks kinda nasty.  The big thing was Kaitlyn learned how to ride her bike without training wheels while we were up there.  She was so happy to get those things off!

An area where we were fishing

The stream we fished which feeds into the reservoir, and the area is covered in the State flower, Indian Paintbrush.

The men talking, not sure if that's a good thing. ;)

Kaitlyn, Jordan, and Keith riding Tyler and Cami's horses.

Even Grandpa got up on 'Mellow

This last weekend was a little bit of a breather since Jordan was on-call for work, but Duke did turn six on Saturday and Maggie turns one today. 

Duke really hasn't changed much except for some grey in the muzzle and he has some "old man" moments, especially when Maggie is feeling feisty.

Maggie is getting to be a big girl.  She now stands a little taller than Duke and is probably a little over 100 pounds and she will still be growing through the next year.  She is a sweetheart though, except when she's pestering Duke, then she plays dirty by going for his legs. 

Then, this coming weekend is the big Jackson reunion and getting ready for all of it's fun and festivities.  Crazy month!!