December 2013

Okay folks, on to December! More photos in the December Picasa Album.

I forgot when I posted about DeeDee and Granddaddy's visit over Thanksgiving that they were here for the first Sunday in Advent, which was 12/1. That morning DeeDee and Emmy worked on their annual gingerbread house.

Santa Pickle ready for church the first Sunday of Advent.

So hard to choose, but here are a couple of the cute pictures of tree decorating. It was snowing outside the first night we worked on it. So cool! Check out the rest in the December Picasa Album.

Artic blast 2013 came in early December. Here's the house in the snow. Usually snow melts pretty fast here, but since it stayed below freezing for almost a whole week, it melted very slowly and our street was a layer of snow and ice for days. Thankful we bought an AWD this fall!

It was so cold the condensation froze inside the window, leaving a layer of ice.

 Mid December we had some Wofford friends, Karen and Tanner, visit for a few days to house hunt. They moved here in January, we are so happy to have them here! I took no pictures of them during their visit, but they were present for dinner in the picture below.  Turns out that they know our friends who are our here already, Beth and Jon and their kids. Tanner and Jon went to flight school together so we all celebrated Beth's birthday one night.

Beth's birthday dinner. I love all the kids' faces in this one.

Fun glasses from a school birthday celebration.

I wear my sunglasses at night.

 We went to see the zoo lights shortly before Christmas with Elly and her pal McKenna.  I forgot my good camera so I don't have a ton of pictures of the evening since iphones don't do well in low light, but here are a couple.

Frozen fog on a tree at the zoo. Such a cool phenomenon.

Zoo lights!

And then the Saturday before Christmas, we went to bring home a new member of the family, which was a Christmas present from Charles and me. 

New American Girl baby doll she named Katie. Such a fun night! Except it snowed like crazy on the way home and took forever to get back thanks to slick roads and wrecks on I-25 (the store is about an hour north of us).

Next up, Christmas!

November, Thanksgiving, DeeDee and Granddaddy visit

As promised, more fall adventures! More pictures in the November 2013 Album.

My birthday cake Charles made me. So sweet of him!

Love how these birthday flowers looked when they opened up.

 The 2nd weekend in November we had the Soldiers from Charles' shop over for a lunch. We did appetizers, soups, breads, and desserts. It turned out well. I don't have a ton of photos of the even but here are a couple, including my favorite helper.

Flower arranger in training. She was so proud of this.

Oatmeal cream pies and a Cinderella cheesecake - brownie and peanut butter. Yum!

Flower arrangements and no party is complete without beer.

Thanksgiving came and DeeDee and Granddaddy came to visit!  I had so much fun getting ready this year because I'd found a table setting in Southern Living (you can see photos of it here) that I wanted to try and replicate.  It used a lot of blue and white pieces, and if you know me, you know I have a good bit of blue and white, so it was a great opportunity to use it. It might be my favorite table I've set ever. Well, so far.

Kids table

The crayons and stickers definitely kept them entertained a bit longer so the adults could eat in relative peace.

Sadly, I took no pictures after everyone was there, ridiculous, I know! I'll have to ask Richard for some because I know he took a good many. He is our family photographer! Our friends Beth and Jon and their four kids came to eat with us. We actually did our big meal on Friday because their family came down with a bug so we gave them an extra day to recover. Totally worth waiting to have everyone together! 

The next day we went to show DeeDee and Granddaddy around Colorado Springs a bit more. We went to the Garden of the Gods and drove into Manitou Springs. On the way home we saw a Boy Scout troop selling Christmas trees, so we stopped and picked ours out. More on that to come with December adventures!

Garden of the Gods

Yay, DeeDee and Granddaddy are here!

 

She wanted to send her Daddy a picture of her haircut. We had girls dinner at Lark Burger after her appointment.

More pictures in the November 2013 Album. Enjoy!

Fall 2013: September and October

The fall brought many more adventures, along with several visitors! Here are a few highlights. Lots more photos are in the Fall 2013 Picasa Album. I only had time to get to September and October tonight, so November and Thanksgiving to follow!

Taking photos to use for her school placemat and locker. Had to have them ready to take on the first day and we had fun playing outside and taking a few. More in the Picasa album.

Insane rain caused a lot of flooding in the area. We were lucky. I think at we had 13" in just a few hours when this was taken.

Street totally covered in places. A 7 ft. deep lake that did not exist previously formed on post in one of the parks, just about 5-10 min from our house.

Visit from April and John, AKA AA and Uncle John. Having a blast in the park.

Garden of the Gods

Headed up to the top of Pikes Peak on the Cog Railway!

Did you know Katharine Lee Bates wrote America the Beautiful while making this trip up to the summit of Pike's Peak? So beautiful indeed.

Oh wow, it was sooo cold at the top!

With April and John. Lots more photos of the view from the top in the Picasa album.

 

Our train car. There is no heat, so this time of year is about as late as we'd want to go. It was warm and in the 50s down in the Springs. And I think it was 20 at the top? I cannot remember.

 

Reading to AA and Uncle John on the train ride back down.

Put seeing the aspens change on your bucket list. Absolutely stunning. More photos of them in the Picasa album, I could not choose more to delete.

Love this photo of these two.

Picked out our pumpkins at the pumpkin patch with Aunt Sarah!

Royal Gorge

Gorgeous at the Gorge! The huge bridge was closed due to the fire over the summer.

Mueller State Park

First time singing in the Cherub Choir for church!

So glad Aunt Sarah was in town!

Loving on Adelaide

Cooking fun

After Aunt Sarah left, Jason and Josh came to town for a couple of days. We had to show them the Garden of the Gods.

Then we headed to the Cliff Dwellings. Photo bombed by Emmy at the teepee at the entrance.

  

This was how the people got in and out of their tiny homes. Good thing they were small people!

Reading to her baby in the bike trailer while we did more yardwork.

Ready for Boo at the Zoo

Keaton, Miller, and Emmy

Halloween 2013

She drew the face on her tiny pumpkin. So cute!

Lots more photos are in the Fall 2013 Picasa Album.  Enjoy! If you have trouble with the link, let me know!