We're your Backyardigans!

Yep, that's right the older boys love the Backyardigans almost as much as little Curren.  And I have a picture to prove it!

Cabo San Lucas...yes again!

Last week we took the kids (and my mom and step-dad) back to Cabo San Lucas, MX.  We just love it there and since we finally broke down and bought a timeshare there we thought we'd escape the cold temps and snow for a little while.  Plus, with purchasing the timeshare we also received some bonus points so it allowed us to stay in one of their penthouse rooms.  It was HUGE with great views of the ocean and pool.

The kids had a blast playing in the pool as well as the beach.  It was Curren's first time at the beach as well as playing in "real" sand and he couldn't get enough of it.  The water...not so much.

Most of the time was spent at our resort, but we did take everyone out to some great local taquerias, down in to Cabo San Lucas (we now stay just north in San Jose del Cabo) to Pedregal to see some whales on the Pacific side as well as a local beach Chilleno where we usually go snorkeling.

It was a great trip!  Nice and relaxing and a good amount of time for the kids.  By Friday (the day we left) they were ready to head home to their normal surroundings.  We did have a snafu with our flight, which could've been disasterous..at least from a mom perscpective, but thankfully turned out well.  As the flight was taxiing on the runway the pilot told us they were having problems with their electrical system.  Of course Curren was napping at that time and I was hoping he's sleep a good portion of the flight.  (It's only 3 hours.)  To make a long story short, we sat on the tarmac for 3 hours while they tried to fix the problem and ended up taking off from MX when we were supposed to land in Denver.  UGH!  But the kids were troopers and behaved well.  Thankfully it wasn't a full flight so it was easy for them to get up and move around.  The pilot made up some time, thankfully and we got to Denver in 2 1/2 hours.

Can't wait to go back again!  It's nice going to a place we love and a place we're familiar with too.  It's easy for us to navigate through town and we know some great, but inexpensive places to eat.  Plus it doesn't hurt that Rick's BFF lives down there with his family too.

Snow, snow, snow

It took a long time for us to really get some snow, but over the last few days and weeks we've been hit with some good storms as well as some REALLY, REALLY cold temperatures.  (Thankfully we were in Cabo San Lucas for the cold temps.)  Anyway, here are some pictures of the boys playing in the snow a few weeks ago when we didn't have school.

BTW, it's so bright outside that I make them wear their goggles/sunglasses. Learned a couple years back when the older boys eyeballs, yes their eyeballs got sunburned while sledding.

Kellen is 6!

It's hard to believe, but Kellen is 6 years old already! We celebrated by going to Chuck E. Cheese. (Unfortunately, Aidan was really sick the week of his birthday so he couldn't join us.:()

(A visit from Chuck E. Cheese!)

(Kellen and his buddies)

(Kellen in the ticket blaster)

Then the following evening my parents took the family out to Red Lobster for Kellen's birthday dinner. Of course in typical fashion, Curren woke up from his nap with a high fever so I ended up staying at home with him. (At least Rick brought me some dinner.) Even with sick siblings Kellen still had a great birthday and received lots and lots and lots of Hot Wheels toys! Nothing's better than that!

Christmas

Hard to believe Christmas has come and gone already with 2011 right around the corner! We had a wonderful Christmas this year. My whole, and I mean WHOLE family came to town. My brother and his family (6 of them) drove from NC, plus my dad and step-mom came from Western CO and of course my sister, mom and step-dad who live here locally. So that means 16 people spent most of Christmas week at our house.

(Love, love, love this picture of all of us!)

The cousins had so much fun playing with each other and us adults had a great time talking and hanging out. We went to the Denver Mint, The Denver Art Museum (The DAM) to view the King Tut exhibit, Rick and my brother David spent a day on the slopes at Copper Mountain, Rick, Aidan, David and one of his sons' Quin went to a Colorado Avalanche game (hockey). Did a little hiking on Spruce Mountain down near Larkspur and we enjoyed lots of good food.

(Aidan, Kellen, Truman and Quin outside the State Capitol Building)

(All the kids around the gingerbread train my dad and step-mom made. A Christmas tradition in Sweden. The kids couldn't wait to eat one of the cars.)

(Kellen, Truman and Aidan leaving cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer.)

(My nephew Grey is an amazing artist. He likes to design his own shoes with sharpies.)

Christmas morning actually started off later than expected...thankfully. The kids didn't start stirring until 7:45am or so and we actually had to finally wake Aidan up so he didn't miss out on the gift opening festivities.

The weather has been very California-like. No snow anywhere in sight.... well you can see the snow topped mountains from our house, but none in the Denver Metro area. In fact, Christmas day was in the 50's so we spent a lot of time outside, playing basketball and riding bikes.

(Aidan's new bike - a gift from everyone - thanks!)

(Playing a little basketball with Kellen in the foreground trying out his new scooter.)

The week with my family sped by way too fast and we were really sad to say good-bye to everyone, especially the cousins. Too bad there is about 1600 miles separating us. Thankfully we did get some great pictures of my whole family to memorialize Christmas 2010.

(Eden (17), Kellen (6), Quin (11), Truman (9), Curren (2), Aidan (9) and Grey (15))

(David, me and Kirsten - just for the record, I'm the baby:))

Testing for his yellow belt

Today Aidan tested for his yellow belt in martial arts. He was pretty nervous (because this was his first time testing and he didn't know what to expect), but he did great. Master Scott gave him some good critique to focus on for the future. However, we did have to explain to him that Master Scott wasn't mad at him, but giving him some information on how to improve. Isn't that what life is about? I believe he will be presented with his yellow belt in class on Monday.

WAY TO GO AIDAN!!!

(FYI - the video is just a snippet of all the things he had to perform during his test. And this was taken with my iPhone so I'm unable to zoom in.)

Halloween weekend

Nowadays it seems Halloween isn't just a day it's a whole weekend. At least that makes it fun for the kids, but exhausting for the adults. (Although I had fun too, watching my kiddos have fun.)

Friday were Aidan's and Kellen's school parties. Their school doesn't allow them to dress up and the party must be called a "fall party". Go figure. At least it's something they get to look forward too. Of course with Kellen being in afternoon kindergarten their parties were at the same time.

So I split my time between the two of them.

Kellen's class had a little visitor before I arrived. A nice hairy, brown and black tarantula! EEEEK! I walked into the room just as Kellen was getting ready to touch the thing. Eeek! I really don't like spiders and definitely not the big hairy kind.

Afterward, his class separated into groups with one group making spider cookies and the other group making a spider treat holder. Curren had fun eating his spider cookie.

Heading over to Aidan's class I walked in while he was decorating his mummy cup. After he was finished he got to fill it up with candy. They had some games, face painting, food, lots and lots and lots of popcorn (A big black garbage bag was filled with popcorn, graciously donated by the movie theater.) And boxes filled with disgusting items to feel with your hands.

That evening Aidan and his friend Parker headed over to Aidan's martial arts gym to eat pizza, snacks and watch the new Karate Kid. When I went to pick them up after the movie they said they had a good time and the place was filled with kids. Great event by his martial arts instructors. (Not to mention a great PR event for them as well.)

Saturday was our ward's trunk or treat event. We had a chili cook-off, a spook alley (my kids had no desire to participate in that), an amazing Thriller re-enactment and of course the kid's favorite - trunk-or-treating.

Sunday evening I did allow the boys to trick-or treating on our street. They were pretty bummed they couldn't trick-or-treat the whole neighborhood, but it was a Sunday. They ended up being good sports and had fun handing out candy to the kids who came to our house and emptying out their bags to see what goodies they received. It was also really cute to see how quickly Curren caught on to this whole trick-or-treating thing. Once he realized from his trunk-or-treat experience that he receives candy in the bag mom was holding for him there was NO way he was going to let me hold it while we trick-or-treated the few houses in our cul-de-sac.

Weirdly enough we didn't get many trick-or-treaters this year. Not sure why, but we did handout candy by the handful so we only had a few pieces left. I've also convinced my kids to sell their candy to their pediatric dentist. They receive $1/pound of candy and the dentist's office ships the candy overseas to our troops.

Now it's time to take down the Halloween decorations and gear up for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Isn't it almost that time again?