pre-holiday stuff

baking with Uncle Steve/Auntie Heather's

meeting up with our dear TX friends at a popular Denver restaurant

Lauren wanted her ears pierced for her "big" Christmas gift this year- so cute!

school parties, Christmas play at Cherry Creek, lovely Christmas Eve service 

snow!

sledding on the huge hill right next to our house

Merriest to you!

Through HOPE and prayers, God’s GRACE led us to a PEACE and we are finding great JOY and so in LOVE with our new life here in Colorado. Merry Christmas!

Who likes stressful family picture time? 

Not us. We aren't raising our hand on that one. 

For the past 4 years or so we tickle our creative bones and think of a few things to do and

grab the camera. 

This year we headed to one of our favorite places to hike here. 

 A great memory and some sweet shots to remember 2011.

Christmas creative

How fun it is for me to be around two groups of women 

who desire to get creative once a month! Joy. Joy!

This month we:

glittered up

twirled up

stamped up

toasted up 

hot glued up

twisted up

stacked up

wrapped up

Hannah's dinner party

She's growing up. She's texting. She's got an email account. She's getting more independent. She's got a mind of her own. Speaking her own. She's lovely. Smart. Easy going (most of the time). A peace maker. Fun. 

Oozes kindness.

Makes me smile.

She typed this paper below for a Language Arts class this week. (!)

She's totally Daddy's girl.

(Judist Priest? yep. All other 80's heavy metal bands deleted on her Ipod.... yikes!)

I am having a dinner party. Why I am having it is I want to meet

the people I am inviting.I came up with the idea when Mrs. Taylor

first told me about it.It will be fun and everyone will be friends with

eachother.

The people I am inviting are:Myself, Ellie, A Beatle, Chris(from

Coldplay), Judist Preist, Mrs. Stewart, Mrs. Karlovetz, C.S. Lewis,

Eric Carle, and Will Ferrell.I invited Ellie and I because we are best

friends.A Beatle, Chris,and Judist Priest because they are all good

artists.I love their music too. I invited Mrs. Parsons and my mom because they both love art. Mrs. Stewart and Mrs. Karlovetz because they are my favorite teachers. And I invited C.S. Lewis, Eric Carle and Will Ferrell because they would have a funny conversation together.

I had my dinner party at a mountain resort because it is a very scenic place. It might be a little chilly though. This place is special because I love the mountains (because I came from Texas). Then after we would go skiing.

I carefully chose their seating places too. Myself and Ellie are BFF’s and we would talk a lot. Judas Priest, a Beatle and Chris Martin would talk about music and probably play some too. Mrs. Stewart and Mrs. Karlovetz would talk about teaching and kids. My mom and Mrs. Parsons are great artist and will talk about art. C.S. Lewis, Eric Carell and Will Ferrell will talk about their books and acting/theater.

My dinner party went really well and we all had fun. Also wish them luck on the rest of their lives. It was very pretty and we all were full and happy.

all pics taken by her from her ipod:)

giving thanks

we thought about, talked about and wrote about what we are thankful for

we hugged and loved

we gave thanks for being together

we prayed

we ate

we enjoyed awesome food from Wes/Dawn's home and ended the night with giggles from game time

Breckenridge

Our new awesome friends here invited us to a huge beautiful lodge home for the weekend in Breckenridge. It was a perfect get-away that was a "thank you gift" to their family from a business deal...aaand they graciously invited us to join in the fun. The home had 30 ft ceilings, heated floors...the works. Yea, we didn't hesitate one bit!

Went tubing at Keystone- so much fun...my heart dropped into my belly a bit from the ride(s)!

The sweet kiddos had a blast along with the big kiddos.

It. was. coooold. But so beautiful.

hot cocoa on the gondola just topped off the day

That night us adults went downtown to a small and trendy restaurant; listened to the jazz band, tried escargot, saw a famous snowboarder (Louis Vito, on the Bachelor/Dancing with the Stars).

we laughed a ton- ate incredible food- we danced like college kids at an old tavern bar...

we had snowflakes on our faces... a delight

the two big hot tubs outside the home porches that everyone enjoyed for two nights...especially the ladies!! 

silly. silly... and I can't say that the guys made us do this