Our New Ride

Check it out!!  Yes, we love Ford Explorers (I think this is our 4th one to date) and we graduated up to the fancy model that has heated front seats!!!  Gosh, do I enjoy pressing that button!!

It's not brand new of course - it's a 2010 model - but for us that's NEW!!  We'll be selling our old 1996 model - it's served its purpose and there's no way I'm going to keep 3 vehicles and a pickup insured!! 

Since Glenn will be using the 02 Explorer for his appointments now, this poor baby has to sit out in the cold so we can keep the daily drive vehicle in the garage!  Of course, maybe if we moved around all of Glenn's THINGS in the garage, both would fit - hmmmmmmm - we'll have to think about that!

Our Christmas Celebration

Merry Christmas!!  Even though we said it to each other on Saturday (our celebration day), the meaning was the same!

 

Everyone was all smiles as the smell of Jessi's homemade cinnamon rolls filled the house and we prepared for our Christmas Day Celebration!!

 

The Savages and the Smiths arrived right on time - and we moved right to the coffee and cinnamon rolls - yum - Jessi does a fantastic job on these and everyone was smacking their lips!!

And then it was time to open presents!!  Once again we had the "Opening" chair and Parker quickly got the hang of it - you called his name and he would crawl right up on that chair with a big smile!

Wasn't it only last year that we were buying toys for Rayna???  Probably not - but it sure did seem strange for her to just open clothes and boots and slippers and volleyball items!

Kenzie was all smiles on everything she opened - especially the dolls!

Jaime had my name this year and I received a wine rack, wine pourers and stoppers, a beautiful pair of silver earrings and a black cape!  Glenn bought me an IPOD Shuffle (I already have an IPOD but I wanted just a smaller version to put all of my Christmas CD's on - and I've already started the task of downloading all of them to my computer - a major task!!) and a laptop holder - a lot of times I'll take my laptop to the lower level and use it while we watch TV and I discovered last night that the holder is WONDERFUL!

I bought the 3 little ones these cute lanterns - and I even put batteries in them before I wrapped them - they were a big hit of course and I guess I should have gotten a couple for Kylan and Evan too!

Both boys are into Angry Birds - don't they look cute in their new hats?

This year instead of doing small flip books for the little ones, I did posters!  They turned out really cute and each one's background was a different color!

We got both Kylan and Evan remote controlled vehicles - Evan's was a truck and Kylan's was one that flipped over - I'm not sure who liked them more, the boys or their dads!!

Our 3 beautiful girls!! (NOTE:  Not only did Jessi and Jaime have on the same shirts, but Rayna's matched Jill's!!!)

After the opening of gifts, we had brunch which was our usual fruit with dip, egg bake and sausage casserole - we decided that for next year, we do need to make double batches of the casseroles - the kids are growing up enough that we need MORE food!!

The guys decided to go ice fishing and we played some games and cards with the kids!

What a cute looking bunch of grand kids!!

The guys enjoyed their ice fishing and came home to a wonderful dinner of prime rib, cheesy potatoes, baked beans, crunchy coleslaw, crescent rolls and punch!  It was all SO GOOD!!!

And of course the girls and then the guys had their annual stocking exchange - it's always a lot of fun and I received a cute plaque to hang in my laundry room that has the LAUNDRY RULES on it!  Glenn received a box of hand warmers (which he used the next morning) and a visor with lights on it!  It's always fun to watch the guys - I think they're more into it than the girls are!!

By evening we were all winding down - the Savages left to go home and soon the Smiths left for their house - and soon we hit the sack too!!

Sunday Jessi and I slipped away for coffee - always a must when I'm in Denver and then on to church!  Jaime had to work - Gary had to work - and Glenn and Brad went ice fishing!!  I took Rayna to a movie "The Rise of the Guardians" and we both enjoyed it!!

More games - more food - the day was fun just being with the grand kids!  After leftovers for dinner that night, Jessi and I watched a holiday movie.

Since Glenn had so much fun ice fishing, I told him to go ahead and go on Monday and we would head home after that - so he and Brad went fishing again and I took the Keppys out for breakfast at Village Inn - YUM!!!

After spending 3 nights up in Denver, it was a quiet ride home and even MORE quiet at the house!  But quiet is good sometimes - and we were both excited when it started snowing on Christmas Eve night - driving to church that night in the snow was wonderful and we woke up to a beautiful Christmas Day, spent at home relaxing and watching movies!  It was a wonderful 4 day holiday!

Christmas Eve

Happy Holidays!  I always look forward to the Christmas festivities and this year was no exception - my Christmas "travel" tree and all the decorations were up early so we could enjoy them - the little bit of Christmas baking I did was done - gifts were all wrapped and under the tree - and the Christmas music has been playing ever since Thanksgiving!

 

This year we changed it up a little - the girls were wanting to spend Christmas morning with their immediate families so our celebration was celebrated the weekend before Christmas!

 

Glenn and I closed the business at noon on Friday and after a stop in the Springs for a couple of last minute gifts, we headed up to Denver!  We unloaded all the gifts at Jessi's before heading over to Jaime's for OUR Christmas Eve celebration!

 

Everyone was there by late afternoon and we started the festivities with a glass of wine!

 

Our Christmas Eve menu is soup:  baked potato and meatball tortellini - you can tell the grand kids are eating more and more as there was only a cup of soup left!  Add in some veggies with dip and Hawaiian sweet rolls and you've got one great dinner!!

The little ones sang "Away In A Manger" and attempted to do most of the actions in front of the tree plus a couple more songs - it's always fun to play the guitar and sing!

Next on our list of traditions was the reading of the Christmas story from the bible and The Night Before Christmas!

And then it was time for our "Prediction Questions List" - I KNEW Glenn and I weren't going to win this year but we were only ONE behind the winner - in fact the Keppys and the Savages tied - which means we go to the tiebreaker question - the price of gas at the Western in Woodland Park!  Even though Jaime and Brad were NOT in the running for the frog, they guessed the EXACT amount of the price of gas!  And in the end, Jill and Robby took the frog home...........I'm just sure next year will be OUR turn again!!

Jessi had a great idea already planned out for the next event - she had gold tickets printed out and we pretended they were the special tickets for the "Polar Express" - Gary punched each of the kids' tickets with his special punch he uses on his bus route and they all grabbed their coats and mittens and we headed out the door!!  We all got into 3 cars and did a special loop of looking at Christmas lights - it was wonderful and we all thoroughly enjoyed it!!!

Some of the homes were beautifully decorated and had music set to the lights!  What a fun night and we decided it has to become one of our traditions!  Then it was back to Jaime's for festive yummy jello cake!!  What a fun evening spent with the kids and grand kids!

Tea at the Castle

Cold icy weather, snow coming down, and crazy howling wind..........but it wasn't enough to stop the "church ladies" from heading to Colorado Springs to have Christmas Tea at the Glen Eyrie Castle!

 

It was fun to dress up a little bit (but dressing VERY warmly too) and walk into the castle which is always decorated so pretty at Christmas time!!  Here's our menu:

 

The hot dip was waiting at our tables when we sat down and we were immediately served tea - it was delicious and smelled like almonds!  Here's a picture of our main course that we thoroughly enjoyed!

And last but not least was our dessert - we were quite full by our last course!

Merry Christmas Joyce, Arlyne and Karen - what a fun day we had!

Trout For The Freezer

The ice is finally frozen around here and with a new auger in hand, Glenn headed out Sunday to do some ice fishing at 11 mile!

 

He was smiling from ear to ear when he walked in later with his 3 fish!  And of course last night he asked me if I posted the picture on Facebook!!!  I said no, I RARELY put pictures on Facebook but I would be glad to blog about it!  So he said to say, "I not only caught 3 large trout, but also a great can of coke!"  Leave it to Glenn.............

 

Trees Now Adorn Our Showroom!

Bringing the outside into our showroom is a magical effect!!  And what a beautiful job Amy Springer did!! 

 

Glenn had met her when she had done a painting on a wall of one of his clients and invited her to come in and meet me - after I looked at her portfolio, I knew she just had to do some trees on one of our walls!!

Her detail is impressive - and though you can't see it in the pictures, it's a 3-D effect as the base is like a plaster template and then she paints over the top of it!

The aspen tree is my favorite - because of the build-up she did in the corner, you can actually "feel" the holes in the tree!

I guess because fall is my all time favorite season anyway, the aspen leaves make me smile every time I look at them - some of them are even painted a metallic and when you stand in a certain spot and the light hits them, they sparkle!!  WOW - I am truly impressed with her work and we have a small display set up, hoping we can drum up some business for this truly artistic gal!

A Special Hug

Our oldest granddaughter, Rayna, is growing up - she's almost 11 and into that kind of awkward "tween" time - you know, where you're embarrassed by your parents and really don't like to hug or kiss Nana and Papa anymore!!

She can be quite moody at times - and then a few minutes later, be laughing and acting like a kid again!!  Ah, I'm SO glad I'm not starting the beginning of those teenage years!

Sunday when they were ready to leave, she gave me the obligatory hug and walked out to the car!  I ran to the office window to watch them leave and saw her hugging and I mean HUGGING Glenn like she was never going to let go - and she let him kiss her on the cheek and she hugged him tight again!  And then I saw her run towards the house and I raced into the living room as she opened the front door and threw her arms around me, hugged me tight and told me she loved me.  When we broke apart, we were both crying................now that's ONE SPECIAL HUG from a granddaughter who will always be extra special to us, just because she was the first!!

A Cripple Creek Christmas

Cripple Creek here we come!!  I had 2 things planned for Jaime and Rayna - tea at Creations Everlasting and tickets for "A Christmas Carol" at the Butte Theater!

 

Rayna looked cute as a button in her new sweater and leggings!

 

Take note - this may be the LAST time you see Mr. Frog sitting on the fireplace because once again it's time for predictions on Christmas Eve and trust me, Glenn and I did NOT win this year (I only know because I had to look at ours to let the girls know what things they need to have ready by prediction night - heights and weights, etc.)  He sure does look cute in his red hat and scarf........

The tea place has moved - it's now at the other end of the town in a much smaller place but still cute as can be!!  We introduced Rayna to the proper way of drinking tea (or we tried to anyway!) and told her that the dainty sandwiches were NOT to be stuffed in your mouth in one bite!  She begged to differ!

I had  cranberry pomegranate tea while Jaime chose the Christmas chai and Rayna had some type with peppermint which she did like!

Aw, mother and daughter full of smiles!!

We had a lovely time at the tea and Rayna really appreciated the fact that we did indeed get dessert as she thought she was going to starve with just the little tea sandwiches!!  The scones (apricot and cranberry) were fresh out of the oven and SO soft and good - also served were tiny key lime tarts which were excellent!!  Rayna loved them and proceeded to eat I believe around 6 of them!!

Next was the C. Crk production of "A Christmas Carol" - it had been rewritten around the town of C. Crk and there were lots of laughs!!  But as you recall, it's also sad in certain parts and Jaime and I found ourselves wiping our eyes several times!!  The cast did an excellent job and I highly recommend seeing it!!  Of course we sang Christmas carols before the production and afterwards was the famous OLIO which was great!!!  What a fun day we had!!!

We arrived home to find that Papa and Kylan had had a fun day too - they went to the feed store and bought some grain for the deer and actually stopped at the play park for a while, even though it was cold and windy out!!  After dinner and a movie, it was off to bed!!

We knew it was supposed to snow and I woke up around 2:00 and looked out - yes, it was coming right down!!!  I was even excited to get up in the morning so I could look outside as I sat in front of the fireplace...............I LOVE watching it snow!!

Rayna discovered she liked playing Phase 10, the card game, which is one of my favorites too!!  It was quite funny as everybody was waiting for an "8" and they just never seemed to show up!!  So I looked through the pile after one of the hands and sure enough, there was only ONE 8 there!!!  I ran to the closet to look in the basket where I keep the game (and just so you know, the box WAS falling apart) and sure enough, there's a stack of about 30 cards, including the rest of the 8's!!  We got a chuckle out of that!!

Kylan was patient and helped his mom play and then we played Go Fish with him!!

All too soon it was time for them to brave the snowy roads home...........another fantastic weekend with lots of memories!!!

Electric Safari

It was another jam-packed weekend with the final set of kids arriving!!  We actually met Jaime, Rayna and Kylan (Brad was in Georgia hunting) at Captain D's for some fish in Co. Springs and then headed to the Electric Safari which was at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo!!

 

We had went years and years ago and loved it back then - believe me, we love it even more now!!

 

The place was packed and we put on our hats, scarves and gloves - and SOME put on snow pants and long underwear (alas, not me and I was COLD!!!) and we headed into the zoo!!

There are over a million lights decorating parts of the zoo - the paths were marked of the places that were open with lots of lights to light the way!!  The first stop was the giraffes and we fed them lettuce - the kids thought it was pretty gross as the giraffes kept drooling!!

There's a new elephant pavilion going up and it's almost done - it will be awesome once it's completed and we could easily see the set-up and what it's going to look like - I can't wait to go back in the summer when it's complete!!

There were lights like the one below all over the zoo - it was SO much fun to just walk around - and luckily they had campfires going throughout the zoo so you could stop and get warm if you got cold - that would be me!!!!

Our favorite bear where we always take a photo!!

We even got to see the moose - not only this lit up one but the real one - he was just sitting there close to the fence enjoying all the people!!

Rayna and Papa pretended to mimic the boxing kangaroos!!!

Our final stop was to ride the tram!!!  There was no line and we crawled right on - oh my gosh it was cold riding to the top!!  But it was worth it to see Colorado Springs all lit up!!  It was a quick stop not only because it was so cold but because they announced on our way up that the zoo was closing in 1/2 hour!!!  So we were the last ones off the tram and the parking lot was pretty empty by the time we left - oh well, we missed the traffic anyway!!

After a stop at Starbucks for some hot chocolate for the kids and a peppermint mocha for us, we headed back to the house and enjoyed the rest of the evening with some yummy chocolate caramel turtle cream pie - delicious!!!!  To Be Cont'd.............

I Want To Play Too!!!

Check it out - a NEW playroom for the kids!!!

And the reason it came about is because I took all of my scrap booking into work - the table, bookshelf, shelving unit and ALL the supplies!!  Which left me with one pretty nice space in our office and I immediately knew what I was going to do with it - make a play area for the kids!!

Up to this point, all the "toys" were in a tub in the closet along with all the other stuff and I would drag it out to the living room where the tub was promptly emptied by the kids and not only was all over the living room floor, but spread out into the dining room and the kitchen - total disaster!!  So I ordered the brightly colored unit in the picture and was surprised at how much it held - there are even little covers for all the containers!

Now at least it is contained pretty much to one room!!  And of course there's more room for 2 little girls in sleeping bags to sleep too!!

All in all it was a huge success and the kids loved it!  So does Nana and Papa!!

Christmas Parade

Grab the snowsuits, the boots, the hats, the mittens and the scarves and dress 4 little ones and then try to fit them into their car seats - it's a challenge!!!  I did snap a picture of them outside on the deck before we left!!

We took 2 cars into the parade and parked in our usual spot - the biggest difference between last year and this year was the temperature!!  Last year it was 7 degrees out - oh my !!!!! This year I actually forgot to look but I'm thinking it was around 30 degrees - a world of difference!!

Don't we look cute all bundled up?

This is right before the parade started - the kids had just received their glow sticks ad were pretty content to just sit on the quilt and wait!

The parade was awesome!!  Because we weren't cold at all, the time just seemed to fly by!!

Although you really can't see them, I DO have my new ear muffs on - the kind that go behind your head - since I usually live in the dark ages, I had no idea that was the NEW style!!  Luckily I have daughters who can keep me informed on these things!

After the parade, we all headed home amidst the heavy traffic and then it was time to sing Happy Birthday to Kenzie and to eat some yummy brownies with ice cream!

Jessi was in charge of reading the bedtime stories and once again, they all slept great!!

What a fantastic weekend with the kids and grand kids!!  I love this special holiday weekend and hopefully they'll be back next year so we can do it all again!!