Merry Christmas...a little late!

I haven't actually downloaded pictures from Christmas yet, so Christmas Eve will have to do. I always got one present to open Christmas Eve, new pajamas. So, I have carried that tradition on with my kids. It is fun, they were so excited to have new pajamas. It didn't hurt that they were Star Wars. It is fun now that Ry and Kol are really old enough to help with the Santa prep and Tate was old enough this year just to have fun, but he was still a little overwhelmed by it all.

I couldn't figure out where to hang the stockings this year, so we got creative and used the foosball table!

Santa got some good snacks this year, we decided to give him a break from cookies and we made Rice Krispie treats with M&M's in them. We were out of carrots, so the reindeer got apples, I am sure they didn't mind. ;)

We had a really great Chritsmas and hope you all did as well!!!

Castle Rock...the whirlwind tour

I think most of you know by now that we are moving. Marty accepted a job offer in Castle Rock, Colorado. It is almost right in the middle of Denver and Colorado Springs. I was hoping for warmer weather, but we prayed a lot and this is definitely the best move for our family. I think I will be more excited when we are actually moving. Right now, the stress of prepping the house for the market is all I can handle.

My parents got me a ticket do I could fly out with Marty for his interview, thanks again!! It was the craziest 2 days we have had in a while, but we were able to see a lot of the town.

We made a very quick stop at the temple, it is only about 15 minutes from Castle Rock, that is luxury we have never had, it will be nice!

This was out first glimpse as we drove in on the interstate. The rock is obviously a main focal point. In the foreground is the outlet mall, that is a key to the city's economy and won't hurt my feeling to have that close by, too.

The main street area, there were a lot of cute shops and buildings.

The new library, they also have a new fire station and city building downtown.

It snowed the second day we were there. It was actually cloudy both days, so we didn't even see the mountains. I guess we will have plenty of time to admire them.

Scuba Santa

The Newport Aquarium has a fun Christmas event, Scuba Santa. There is a little story to it, the reindeer got out and he had to come to a magical underwater world to find them. So, there are reindeer statues all over the aquarium for the kids to find.

This is how Christmas should be! :)

Kol loves the frog bog, I think he is going to do his science fair project on protecting local species. Frogs are actually a key indicator of the health of an ecosystem, so it should be a good project.

I Guess I am Jumping on the Bandwagon!

Okay, I think I have subconciously avoided this Twilight craze, but I went to the midnight showing of the movie with some of the gals from church. It was fun, it is 3:20 AM and I just got home a few minutes ago. Sometimes, we have to break the routine! But, I did enjoy the movie, so I guess I will have to read the books because I am way too impatient to wait for the sequel.

Leaf Jumping

It is hard to believe this was just over a week ago. It was in the 70s and the boys were wearing shorts. Tomorrow, we have a chance of flurries. Crazy! Anyway, I made one mean pile of leaves for the boys to jump in. They had a great time spreading the leaves back all over the yard! :) Tate wasn't sure about it at first, but he got into the spirit of it quickly enough. I think he enjoyed dragging the rake around the yard more than anything.

The Aquarium with Aunt LoLo

My little sister, Lauren, was able to come over a spend a long weekend with us for her fall break. The boys love spending time with her. We went and saw High School Musical 3 on opening day, which we all loved! We also went to the aquarium. They were having some special events for Halloween, so that added some extra fun!

The local Radio Disney station was there playing games and giving away little prizes. We actually stayed there playing a lot longer than I thought we would. I think we all won something. Lauren won a Sleeping Beauty poster and a couple other little things. Ry won a Cars stationery/coloring set. Kol won several small prizes. I won a fun bowl, a HSM3 poster, and a Camp Rock hat. I wish my luck would be that good when big prizes are on the line.

They also had underwater pumpkin carving. The fish seemed to enjoy nibbling at the pumpkins.

The Frog Bog is one of our favorite areas of the aquarium.

Lauren found the shark petting to be more enjoyable than she thought it would be. Kol will usually get a really quick touch in, but we have yet to convince Ry that they will not turn and take his hand off. :) I think Tate would be a willing participant if he could reach!

Happy Halloween...a few days late!

I thought I better get these up before Halloween is too far gone. The boys have wanted to be clone troopers for a couple of years and I finally got up enough nerve to test my creative abilities. My sister and mom made Tate's Yoda costume, it really turned out awesome. I think they all looked pretty good. While we were trick-or-treating, one older lady asked us if Tate was a brussel sprout. We thought that was pretty funny!

Halloween at Kings Island

We hit Kings Island a couple of Saturdays for their Halloween festivities. They converted the picnic area into several fun Halloween activities for the kids. They had trick-or-treating, a hay maze, fun house, pumpkin patch, mask making, and several carnival games that were FREE! The prizes were cheesy little things, but the boys had fun regardless.

Tate was pretty excited about his pumpkin. He ran around squealing his happy squeal (there are definite differences in his squeals dependent on his mood!)

Irons Fruit Farm

Yet another school trip, this activity was at an apple orchard. I was actually a little disappointed with the tour. We stood for a long time listening to them talk about different aspects of the orchard, which did not keep the kids attention for very long. I was hoping for a hay ride through the orchard or something to make it a little more fun, especially since we had to pay for the tour. Oh well, we made the best of it. It is pretty old school, they pick all of the apples by hand and do all of the sorting by hand also. They do have the best apple fritters I have ever had, but, of course, they were out that day! It is also hard to believe that this was just 3 weeks ago and we were wearing shorts and t-shirts and now, we are getting quite chilly. It actually looks like next week should be in the high 60s again, so I guess we can't complain too much.

All of the boys loved the little pumpkin patch, but Tate was the most enthralled with it. I think he tried to pick up every pumpkin, without much success.

Ry and Kol, however, were testing their manly muscles and seeing how big of a pumpkin they could pick up. I kept waiting for them to bust one, but we managed to escape with all of the pumpkins unharmed!