Sledding on New Year's Day 2008

On New Year's Day, we decided to hop into the truck and head up into the mountains. We went up to Breckenridge and found a great sledding hill that was free. We had so much fun! It was the kids' first successful sledding trip (tried it last winter and Halie HATED it!) and it was a perfect day until we got back into the truck to head home. Then it all fell apart! Luckily, since it had been such a great day, Jon and I could just laugh as the kids melted down before our very eyes. The ride home was a bit tricky, but it was all worth it. This is what we love about living in Colorado!

More Christmas

Here are some pictures of the kids in their fancy Christmas clothes. Halie is holding her little nativity that she made in church. She absolutely insisted that it be in all the pictures!

Merry Christmas 2007!

Christmas morning started out nice and early! The kids were pretty excited to see what Santa had brought them. Halie was thrilled the most with her Barbie Rapunzel movie.

Cayden could not have been any more excited about his ball pit. That thing kept him happy for the better part of the morning.

Halie opening more presents...

Cayden really got into this one!

Halie discovered that the doll house that Uncle Ben and Aunt Ursula sent was just the right size for her Polly Pockets!

We spent the morning at our house and then headed off to Loveland for Christmas dinner with my sister, Nicole, and her family and in-laws. The cousins had a great time playing together.

Christmas Eve 2007

Christmas Eve was busy with last minute shopping, dropping off goodies to our friends, and of course letting the kids unwrap their pajamas. Halie was pretty excited to get slippers and a robe along with her pajamas this time. She felt like quite a big girl with her robe! Here she is striking a pose!


And here's Cayden, who could not have cared less about his pajamas, but really wanted one of those candy canes off of the tree!


Halie poses with her Daddy in front of their gingerbread house that they worked so hard on.

Making the Gingerbread House

Halie LOVES to make our yearly Gingerbread house. Thank heaven for Costco, since they always have these super easy kits. Over the last couple years, this has been Halie and Jon's task and they do a fantastic job!




Cayden loved the Gingerbread House tradition also, though only because he thought the frosting tasted pretty good!



Here's the finished product!

Ice Skating in Louisville, CO

We have loved living in Colorado, and especially in the winter. We chose a beautiful Saturday before Christmas to go to downtown Louisville (next town over from us) and go ice skating. It was both Halie's and Cayden's first experience on the ice! Halie absolutely LOVED it! Cayden, not so much! He was only happy when daddy was holding him. We went with the Huntsmans (Monica's sister's family) and Halie had a ton of fun skating with her cousins. As always, Nicole was very prepared with hot chocolate for us all after skating. It was such a fun day.





Halie and Macie wonder if they should dig the skater out of the snow. Nah, let's just pose for a picture instead!




Halie loved skating with Alicyn. She loves Ali!

Trip to Utah

Jon had to go to Salt Lake for work this past weekend, so the kids and I joined him. We had arranged to meet Eileen (Jon's mom) and Dani (Jon's sis), Bob, and their kids for a pre-Christmas get together. We had a really great time! We got into Salt Lake on Friday night. Saturday we started out with a stop at Ikea. Then later that day we hopped onto the train from Sandy to downtown SLC to check out the Christmas lights and take a carriage ride. Here are some pictures of that:

On the train


Halie and Grandma on the carriage. It was cold!


Cayden and Daddy bundled up



At the end of our ride...freezing, but still happy!



Halie wanted to get a picture of our horse, Ace.