So This is Christmas!

And what a weekend it was! We spent Christmas Even with my family, which is always fun. This year, Derek and Sierra were with us so it was fun to have little kids around, they make everything so much fun! Love to watch them get so excited about their gifts. My Mom always makes "Hot Dego's" Which is an amazing italian sandwhich with sauce and marinara. She also makes italian sausage and meatballs. YUM-MY! There is always an assortment of food laying around, though the kids for some reason all gravitate toward the cookie table :)

Side note: My Mom is an amazing baker, as my Grandparents/parents owned a bakery and she worked in it for years when she was growing up. She makes and decorates the best cookies. I somehow missed that gene, and have perfected the art of burning and forgetting ingredients in my baking masterpieces. Fun fact - my parents use to also own a Winchell's back in the 80's. Anyway, I digress.

Christmas Day - Christmas Day was a WHIRLWIND of excitement. First we opened presents from Santa and each other at our house, then went to Rose and Jer's (Matt's parents) for MORE presents and a very yummy Christmas lunch. (Turkey with crab stuffing? YUM)

We spent time with some of Matt's family who came to lunch and had a good time visiting with everyone. We were spoiled by Matt's parents and received some very nice gifts!

Later in the afternoon, we went back to my parents and opened even more gifts there! Phew! We finally made it home after a very fun and long day, and started tackling the organizing and putting away all of our fun new gifts!

I have never seen so many toys in one place. Matt tackled upstairs and I tackled the playroom. Not sure how that worked out. An hour and a half, 3 full garbage bags of packaging, boxes and twist ties, we got all of our new toys organized, played with and put away.

Matt, who was a pretty good boy this year, got a PS3 from me, so he has been playing that tonight and having a lot of fun.
The highlights of the kids presents were:
Kitchen set - fake food - shopping cart and a really cute blender with pretend ice that "blends" for Hallie, along with dolls, Minnie Mouse toys and some new cars (she loves cars right now)
Adam received more train sets, which he loves, along with a really cool remote control car and helicopter, games, books, and track expansions so we can make the biggest railroad track ever!

Girls Party!

Every year all the girls in the family (who live local) and friends get together for the "Girls Ornament Party". It is really fun to get to see everyone, and eat yummy food and get a new ornament for the tree!

November Randomness

November was a busy month, and as always it went by so quickly! We visited Santa, took Hallie to see her first movie in a theater (The Muppets), went bowling, saw Grammie and Grandpa, started our Christmas shopping and had a nice week off together since Matt and I were able to have the week off after Thanksgiving from work! So fun!

Botanical Gardens

I love looking at Christmas lights, and we found some really fun neighborhoods that went all out for Christmas! Adam's favorite was the house that was "Cars" themed, and had a HUGE Lightning McQueen light up car on the roof!

Hallie just had fun saying (or yelling) LOOK AT THAT ONE! LOOK!
We ended up at the Botanical Gardens to walk through and look at the lights there. They were very pretty, and the kids had fun "catching" the snowflake lights. We decided we liked the zoo lights better, so will probably try to hit that up one more time this year!

Also, Hallie can Levitate. (This was taken at the Botanical Gardens so I figured a good spot to put this picture. I have NO idea how I captured this!)

From photos for blog

Fort Kirwin!

Adam and I decided we were going to build "The Biggest Fort Known to Man".

We took all of the extra blankets (and thanks to Pearly aka my Grandma) we have about 6 or 7 gorgeous afghans she has crochet and given to me every year for Christmas. We set up our Fort in the dining room with our table as a base and with the help of some very strong packing tape, we were able to build a HUGE fort, with a window and a door. We had a fun afternoon of playing in our fort, and having a picnic in there.

From photos for blog

Christmas Cookies!

I am an excellent cook. I love to cook and make appetizers and try new things. One thing I am NOT good at however is baking. Luckily sugar cookies aren't too tough, so we make them for all the holidays. I think the most fun part is I always borrow my Mom's very large container of cut outs. These cut outs are ones my brothers and I used when we were kids, 30 years ago! It is so fun to see the cut outs and remember my favorite ones. They are also amazing quality, don't get dough stuck in them, and some of them, I don't even think they make anymore with out special ordering them.

The only bad part about this process is trying to clean all the flour and dough out of the cracks of the table because "someone" forgot to cover it with paper first! Ooops! :)

From photos for blog

Zoo Lights and Benihanas!

We went with our friends the Benik's to the Zoo, to see the Zoo lights! As members, we get to see the zoo lights before it opens to the public (it's a great perk)! Luckily for us we picked a night that was both not too cold and not too busy! The kids literally could run around and not into anyone. They had a great time checking out all the lights and finding their favorites from previous years.

After our zoo adventure we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Benihanas! Adam's favorite part is when the chef makes the onions look like choo choos and then a volcano. The kids love the food there, and how can they not? It's sooo good!

The kids were fast asleep before we even hit the highway to get home!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Getting the tree up was no easy task. Our living room isn't user friendly when it comes to re-organizing the couches so we can put the tree up by the window. But, after a lot of huffing, puffing and working out our arm muscles, we figured out a new layout so we could fit in our big tree! Adam and Hallie helped Daddy put it together and we organized all of our new (and old) ornaments in a row so we could get them all hung up! Adam got to put the star on the top and he was up pretty high on Dad's shoulders to get it on! Hallie found a Santa hat in the box of Christmas fun and walked around with it on (tilted sideways) saying "Ho Ho Ho, Merrrrrrry Christmas". She and Adam then took turns sitting on each others laps and telling "Santa" what they wanted for Christmas. It was hilarious and so cute!

We also picked out stockings and put them up over the fireplace. This year Adam chose Cars, Hallie picked Tinkerbell and Matt and I had our same Snowman stockings from last year. Can't wait to see what fun surprises Santa leaves for us in our stockings!

Building a Rollercoaster, in the House!

It makes me laugh that Adam is terrified of roller coasters, and will not ride one but one of Adam and Hallie's favorite things to do is to take all of the pillows, blankets, and cushions and build "roller-coasters". Essentially it is lining up all these items in a long long row and then "riding the track" from start to finish.

So the beds get messed up and the cushions are all over, but hey, they have fun, and it keeps them busy for at least an hour. I will take a messy room any day if it means the kids are having fun!

From photos for blog

Guess How Many Seeds are in 6 Pumpkins?

I don't know why I let Adam and Hallie decide things for me. Probably because they are so cute and it's hard to say no!

For example, I asked Adam how many pumpkins we should carve and he said "six". Six it is! Well, it sounds better in theory than it does when you have to scoop, clean and carve all 6 of them. We got through 4 and decided the last 2 would just look pretty sitting next to all of the carved ones!

From photos for blog

A Turtle and a Mouse are in the House!

I can't believe we are in the last week of October! This month has flown by. The last couple of weeks we have had early Halloween fun. The kids were able to dress up in their costumes and we went trick-or-treating early.

We went bowling, and I have to admit, the bumpers make it harder to bowl! I did beat Matt (even though he gave me a 100 pin lead), it still counts!

We have had very busy weekends lately, going here, there and everywhere! Adam wanted to wear his costume everywhere we went, and I let him. I love Halloween, and they so rarely get to wear their costumes. Plus, kids should be kids and if wearing his turtle costume makes him happy, it's a win-win for everyone. :)

Happy Halloween!

We Like to Make Messes

A couple weekends ago, we decided to make Halloween cookies! The kids had a great time cutting out the shapes and doing the sprinkles. However, with all cookie making activities, usually the first batch is fun, the 2nd loses its ability to keep them entertained and the 3rd batch I decorated on my own.

From photos for blog

The end product was cute and the cookies tasted great!
Saturday morning, we let Dad sleep in, and the kids and I painted about 30 paper plates. The kids love to paint and paper plates are more fun than plain old paper. We like to do crafts in our house. :)

From photos for blog

Hitchin a Ride

Hallie has this idea that we are all her own personal horses, and she loves to climb on us and make us give her rides. (It's so hard to say no to her) Adam indulges in this request the most, and it's hilarious to watch him carry her around, given that she is only 2 lbs lighter than he is.

From photos for blog

Children of the Corn (Not the scary 80's movie)

There is a myth that if you are in a maze, corn or otherwise, and you keep your hand along the right hand side wall, you will find your way quickly through the maze to the end with out bumping into detours.

Well, we tried it, and they tricked us. It was all lefts. We found this out after an hour, and many wrong turns.

We went to the Corn Maze down near Chatfield, it was a great time. The kids had fun "leading" us, although Adam figured out right away the "shortcuts" to take through the stalks instead of staying on the path. We made him stay on the paths and we eventually found our way out. I suggest if you plan on doing this maze you wait until a cooler day. It was way too hot out, but we had a lot of fun. If you have older kids there is a trivia map to go along with the maze too!

From photos for blog

I'm a Big Kid Now!

We started potty training Hallie over the summer and she wasn't too interested. Then one day she just decided that she was ready, and we haven't looked back since!
She is fully potty trained now, no accidents and wears her big girl undies, even at night! No more diapers!! :)
So proud of our Big Girl!!

Who Doesn't want a Hibachi Grill in their Kitchen??

This has been a very fun weekend and it isn't over yet! We decided it was time to update the kids' bedroom. We started off by getting the new bunk beds put together Friday evening, thanks to Matt and Jerry (we know I should be nowhere near tools, and/or sharp objects). We also got new pictures for the walls, new bedding for each bed, and a new bookcase!

Today we went to the Colorado Railroad Museum where we rode the Thomas the Train. Adam, if you don't know by know, ADORES trains, was very excited and was loving every minute. During the train ride we met the Train Conductor who punched our tickets, just like on a real train! (So says Adam, and I am inclined to believe him, having never been on a real train).

We walked around and got to meet real Firemen and the kids got to climb inside a real Fire Truck! Hallie loved it and Adam wanted to stay put and view everything from the ground and safety of behind Dad's legs. They each got cool fire hat to take home.

There was a miniature train set up that we checked out and the kids loved. Adam asked if we could get one. I don't think we have the room for one.

After we left the museum we picked up Grammie and headed off to take the kids to their first trip to Benihana's! (Matt and I's favorite restaurant) Adam loved the part where the chef threw the shrimp tails into his hat, he called it "magic".
The kids loved the food, and we had a great time! How cool would it be to have this grill in your kitchen? Imagine the meals you could whip up!

Hot Fun in the Summertime!

What better way to cool off in the summertime than running through the fountains? Adam had so much fun! Hallie wanted nothing to do with the fountains and stayed attached to Matt a good distance away.
Adam's favorite part was trying to "stop" the water from squirting up, and then letting go and running away as it sprayed everyone around him.
Such a fun day!

Week of the 4th - of July

The 4th of July has always been one of my favorite holidays. I LOVE fireworks. All my brothers and their kids come to visit, and it is fun to have the family all together. We do a lot of fun activities while everyone is in town!
To start the week off, we went to Water World. The kids had a BLAST as did the adults. My brothers, Matt and I decided our favorite slide was the timed racer slide where all 6 of you can go at once and it times you to see who is the fastest. Well, Matt won EVERY SINGLE TIME. We all decided that if we every win the lottery we are installing that slide in our backyard. It is so fun. The toilet bowl slide (The completely enclosed pitch black one) was pretty scary, and it was hilarious to watch each of us get "dropped" into blackness, and then spun around and around only to be dropped into ICE COLD water. (If you watch from the bottom you can see everyone go through it, though while in it you can't see anything). Not a ride for the weak at heart. We got there right when it opened and stayed until close!

Another day we thought it would be fun to go to Hammond's Candy Tour. (It's okay, nothing super special, but the kids had fun so that's what counts). The kids LOVED all the candy in the candy store, and each picked out some very fun treats!


We also took a ride (in 3 cars) up to Red Rocks to show the kids some of the mountains, and the amphitheater. They had a blast running up and down the stairs (not so easy coming up)! and climbing some of the smaller (kid friendly) rocks. They wanted to see a concert there, so hopefully next year there will be a good one playing we can all go to.


On the actual 4th, we had a big get together at my parents house. It is a open house, everyone invited kind of event. We had so many people over and stopping by, it was so fun to see everyone. Scott and Meg were in town so it was fun to have them over, too! My Mom kind of goes all out for this event, so we had pretty much anything you could want. TONS of food, and drinks, and she had set up a table for the kids to make cotton candy and sno-cones. Zayne was in charge and had so much fun making them for all the kids. I am pretty sure they were all on a very high sugar rush the entire day, but they had so much fun, they were outside running around all day, playing at the park across the street and in the yard. My parents live across from 2 big parks, which is really nice for the kids, and even better, we all walked across the street at night to go watch the fireworks. Didn't have to drive anywhere, and we saw 2 different displays, perfectly!
We also walked over to the fields where they have a huge outdoor event of tents, bounce houses, kid activities, face painting, balloon animals, etc. The kids had a great time, even though it was so HOT!

Zoo Day!

I am not sure why it suddenly seems to get about 10 degree's hotter whenever we decide to embark on a family adventure OUTSIDE. We thought going to the zoo would be fun, because it was suppose to be low 80's, perfect zoo weather. But, since weather people can keep their jobs even if they are wrong, as soon as we arrived, it got to be about 92 degrees. I suddenly realized what the wicked witch of the west felt like when she said "I'm Melting.....".
We had fun anyway, the kids had a blast seeing their favorite animals, and we ended the day with a swim at Grammy and Grandpas.