White Christmas in Longmont

 We went to mass at 6pm in Lyons on Christmas Eve and just as we came out it started snowing. This is how our house looked on Christmas morning after we shoved the driveway and the sun came out. As you can see the driveway is almost dry already. They say that only 13% of the time does it snow here on Christmas. I guess we are lucky we got a white Christmas on our 2nd year in Colorado.

 Here is our tree with presents around it. Not too bad for being a "lean" year.

 Here is the view from our side yard looking down the street. The snow is so pretty.

Looking down from upstairs at our Christmas table. It's so nice having more space in this house.

Christmas with Grandsons

 The boys with their new blankets from Auntie Candace and the plate they are leaving for Santa.

 The Kirkland's had a great "Charlie Brown" tree that Nathan and the boys cut down in the woods.

 Grant got his own "Ninjago" watch from the Faulkner's---he loves it!!

 Carsten with his "fake" magic wand from Santa.

 We got Grant a tool box full of real tools and some wood he can use to practice with.

Carsten got a real microscope so he can be on his way to being a scientist.

Longmont Christmas Parade

 It was VERY cold with a chance of snow but we bundled up in long johns, jackets, mittens, beanies, wool socks and boots and went to watch the parade. We brought popcorn to keep the boys busy while we waited. Grant loved cuddling under a blanket with grandpa.

 Here's what Carsten thinks of the waiting..... Both boys were very good sports.

 My company "Wright Kingdom Real Estate" was at the beginning of the parade since we were the main sponsor of the fireworks. Below the boys are happy to be back at our house showered up and ready for bed. They fell asleep in their sleeping bags on our living room floor 5 minutes after I told them good night!! (Grant is wearing his "Ninja" pajamas.)

Christmas Cookies

I had the boys over last weekend to make Christmas cookies. I had pre-made the cut-out sugar cookies and the boys got to help mix up 6 colors of frosting.

 We had to do a lot of mixing and adding powdered sugar to get just the right consistency.

 Grant is wearing the Christmas apron that my grandma Ames made for our girls. Carsten insisted on one that didn't look like a "girl" apron. They did a great job decorating the cookies!

 Then we made my grandma Dunivent's sugar cookie recipe where you roll the dough into balls, dip them in colored sugar and then bake them. Carsten got bored and let Grant take over. Grant really enjoyed rolling the balls and was very good at making them the same size. Rena said his teachers at pre-school say his favorite thing is doing the housekeeping jobs. He will make someone a good husband some day!!  It's pretty cute considering what a tough boy he can be.

Chritmas Time is Here

 Posing in front of our beautiful Christmas tree, all dressed up and ready to go to my work Christmas party (except my shoes which killed my feet all night). The party was at the owners house in Boulder and it was a lot fun visiting with agents and staff members.

 Here are some of our decorations...the Santa bank that mom and dad got us in Mexico when the girls were little. and the mugs and plate from Donna and Ed Farnum.

This is the nativity scene that we bought for my mother-in-law many years ago. She always loved it and now we are enjoying it.

Last Thanksgiving Pictures

 We spent Thanksgiving day at Nathan's cousins house in Ft. Collins. Mike and Ryka have two Great Danes. The kids were AMAZED by them!!  Look how big this dog is next to Ms Charlie!

 Grant decided to stand back just a bit until he checked them out.

 Here are the cousins watching a movie together. Mike and Ryka cooked an delicious Thanksgiving feast of prime rib, deep fried turkey AND beer-can chicken PLUS all the trimmings!!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we had Robin, Ross, Ross' parents (Don and Mary) and the Engasser family (Candace's best friend from Corona and her husband and daughters) over for dinner at our house.

 That's Laney, Robin, Carsten, Candace, Grant, Daphene and Charlie above.

And here are Ross, Don, Mary, Rena and Robin and Ross' friend Sam. It was SUCH a joy having a full house!!  The kids had a blast playing outdoors and the adults had a blast inside, eating and drinking and chatting up a storm. We loved getting to know Ross' parents and visiting with Becky and Johnny and their girls.

More Fun With Grandkids

 Making bead necklaces--all the kids loved doing this.

 Even Laney was able to string her own beads on the string.

 Then grandpa and the kids made a cinnamon roll Christmas tree.

 Here are Grant and Charlie watching TV together...Grant better wake up!

And Miss Charlie cuddling with a rock in our yard.

Thanksgiving Turkeys

 Candace helped the kids make these cut turkey hats.

 Silly turkeys!

 And now the turkeys have a snack outside...

and play follow the leader.

Here they are with their hats and their necklaces.

Fun Times with the Smiths

 We had so much fun with Candace and the girls over Thanksgiving week. We spent a lot of time with Carsten and Grant as well. Here is Carsten playing with Miss Laney. The boys were very patient with the girls even when Laney hit them a time or two and had to get "time outs".

 Laney found this little gun of the boys that shoots plastic disks and she named it the "smacker". We have no idea how she came up with the name but she was infatuated with it.

 Here are Carsten and Charlie with their awesome drawings. Do you notice they are very similar? Charlie is wearing her Hello Kitty winter hat we got for her.

 We had beautiful warm weather and we didn't mention the fact that we didn't have snow to Charlie. She was hoping for snow but we kept her busy and we don't think she missed it. She looks so cute in her glasses and here she is getting "the business" from her mom.

Dennis loves giving the grand kids treats. Here they are waiting for their ice cream cones with chocolate syrup in the middle!! 

Cousins

Here are 4 of our 7 grandchildren enjoying a snack and playing in our backyard the Saturday after Thanksgiving. From left to right are Grant (4), Carsten (6), Charla (4) and Alaina (2). They had so much fun together!

Gooseberry Mesa

Dennis met his friends Todd and Shawn in Las Vegas Friday evening at the American Motorcycle Hall of Fame Induction ceremony. Today the three of them went mountain biking at the Gooseberry Mesa trail out of Hurricane Utah. Dennis has wanted to ride this trail for years. He said  it was awesome and the scenery doesn't look too bad either.

Favorite Quilts

Here are some of the quilts I have made over the past few years.

 

 This one was for baby Katya. This was the first quilt I made after mom helped me buy my Pfaff sewing machine in Boulder CO when we were both visiting Rena and family. The quilt was not quite finished in this picture; it still needed to be quilted and the binding put on.

I made two of these "truck" quilts for Carsten and Grant when they got their bunk beds.

 This was a small wall hanging made from a kit with civil war fabrics.

This was Grant's baby quilt. It was only about the 3rd quilt I had ever made.

This one was for baby Charla. Since we didn't know if she would be a girl or a boy I made it gender neutral.

Fun Times with Family

We had a great time with Colleen and Skip and we SO appreciate that they made the trip. It was really wonderful to have family in the house and I am thinking that their good vibes will carry us through the long winter. We met them last Saturday night in Denver at Wanda and Clarence McDavid’s house. We also had the pleasure of meeting Colleen and Skips friend’s Vicky and Charles that they first met in Omaha.  We all went out to dinner at “Ted’s”, as in Ted Turner, where we chose various bison selections from the menu and celebrated Colleen’s birthday.

On Sunday we had Rena, Nathan, Carsten, Grant and Robin and Ross over for bison burgers (what, bison again?) and celebrated Colleen’s birthday again!! 

Dennis had a small job on Monday and then he and Skip went mountain biking on a trail in Lyon’s behind Rena and Nathan’s house. Colleen cooked us a great dinner of roast chicken and veggies.

On Tuesday Dennis had two jobs so Skip drove me to work so he and Colleen could do some sight-seeing in Boulder, have lunch on Pearl Street and then visited Dennis at his second job.

On Wednesday, Dennis and Skip went on a mountain biking adventure at Buffalo Creek, a cool area about  2 hours south/west of Longmont. I took the afternoon off from work and Colleen and I did a short hike in Lyons and then visited a quilt shop in town before the boys got out of school. Rena and Nathan made us a fantasic dinner and then the ladies took the boys trick-or-treating while the guys handed out candy. The kid’s neighborhood was a blast and there were tons of kids out and lots of spooky houses to visit. Nathan bought 170 full size candy bars and handed them ALL out!!! 

Today was Colleen and Skips last day with us and Dennis drove them to Robin and Ross’s in the afternoon. They will hang out with them for a bit and then Robin will get them to the airport.

It will be very quiet in the house tonight. Thank you again for the great visit Colleen and Skip!!!