Christmas

Family Photo at Denver Botanical Gardens Holiday Lights...don't mind the reflector on Stan's jacket!

We drove to Virginia for Christmas, arriving at Grandma Gail and Grandpa Tom's house on Friday, Dec 20th. We had a belated birthday party for Garrett which included yummy ice cream cake and a new scooter.

Making Christmas Cookies with Aunt Kel, Aunt Marcy, Lily and Jack at Grandma Gail and Grandpa Tom's house.

Santa came to visit on Christmas Eve.

After crying when Santa first came in, Garrett pulled it together to accept his present from Santa.

Christmas morning...Jack, Garrett, Casey and Lily are ready to see what Santa left for them.

Santa brought Stan a beard...

 Casey got what she asked for from Santa...American Girl doll, Kit Kitteridge.

We then headed to Roanoke to celebrate Christmas again with Gramma Lois. Aunt Lisa, Ashlynne, Morganne and Max came up from Alabama.

Horsing Around

Cheesing with Aunt Lisa

We also got to see Aunt Cousin Blair, Uncle Cousin Chad, Grayson and Everett in town from Oklahoma. We visited the Science Museum and Butterfly Pavilion with them, as well as, Aunt Linda and Uncle Marvin. The kids got to touch horseshoe crabs, starfish and sea urchins. Look how brave Everett and Garrett were.

Though you can't tell in this photo with Gramma Lois...Casey was a little freaked out in the Butterfly Pavilion...she absolutely did not one of them to land on her.

Who bought these kids drums?
Oh their parents did!
I think we bought them more for us than for them;)
Garrett is a big fan of them. He'll drum away, then say, "Daddy's turn." "Mommy's turn." 
For a couple weeks after getting back from Christmas, Garrett was walking around with a guitar magazine saying, "Geetah." He wanted to sit in the rocking chair and read it, show the pictures to everyone, look for the green Geetahs. He then added a tiny skateboard to his group. So then it was, "geetah. saboard." He then moved onto Sport Illustrated magazine and pointed to every ball he could find, "foobah, bazebah, bassbah."

Casey will play the drums every once in a while, however, her passion is singing. She has a microphone plugged into Stan's old amp and she likes to belt out made up song after made up song.

We arrived home the weekend before school started. We had a great trip to the East Coast. It was fun visiting everyone and we appreciate the hospitality!!  Happy New Year to everyone.

Thanksgiving and Other Stuff

We spent Thanksgiving at Snowmass Mountain in Aspen. Aunt Kel come into town to celebrate and to upgrade us to an amazing suite right on the mountain. Mark and Amy also joined us for the weekend. We hit the hot tubs in the mornings and the slopes in the afternoon and yummy turkey Thanksgiving night. Saturday, on the way back to Dillon, we stopped at the Glenwood Hot Springs. The kids had a blast in the huge hot pools. Casey is swimming underwater and is much more confident swimming around on her own.

Sunday, Casey sang with the children's choir at church. They performed at both services. She was really nervous on the way there, but when we got to church, she walked right into practice. She performed the first 2 songs great...big smile on her face, singing while looking around...
Then came song #3...looks closely... The boy behind her threw up all over her back. She tried to hold in her tears, but then she saw her back. We went to the bathroom, cleaned it off, got her a cookie and she pulled it together and went back for the second service and sang all the songs no problem.

This past Monday, Casey got her Daisy Scout vest! All the girls were SO excited! So far, she has really enjoyed Daisy Scouts. She started out quiet and shy and now she plays along with all the girls.

We've been skiing a few times since we got good snow in November. Garrett enjoys his plastic skis, or at least puts up with them for a few minutes. Casey is great on her skis. She is very fast and can turn really well. We just need to work on her confidence some more. Garrett has been continuing his tumbling career every Thursday. He loves it and is really good at log roll and swinging on the bar. His favorite part of the obstacle course is the tunnel slide and of course, ball time. Casey takes tennis on Sundays. They have been working on front hand, back hand and volleying. Today they worked on moving toward the ball while hitting front hand.

at tumbling...he likes when i roll him around in this. or he acts like he's in a hammock sleeping.

is she 5 or 15?

taking a breather

carrying her own skis and ready to shred

shrowing the pow

 
Thursday night the kids got to visit with Santa Claus. Casey ran right up and jumped on his lap. Garrett was a bit more apprehensive, but he sat there wide eyed, looking around, but no tears.

who is this guy?

why is she hugging him?

Garrett turns 2!

Garrett turned 2 on Sunday, November 17th. He weighs 26.5 lbs (46th percentile) and stands 34 inches high (32nd percentile). We had ice cream cake and opened some real cool presents, including his big gift, a basketball hoop.

The weeks leading up to him turning 2...he started putting a few words together and he answers questions, "yeth" "K." He is also answering "No" quite a lot. He constantly says "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy." He knows how to bug his sister...sometimes he just leans against her, sometimes he just touches her. The other day, he climbed on the couch, while Casey was watching a show, laid on his belly, feet towards Casey and started kicking.

Turning 2 made today his first day in the 2 year old, Bumblebee room at school. He LOVED it.

birthday cake...mmmm

next day bday ice cream cake...mmm

Frankenstein and Spider Girl take October

We had Frankenstein and Spider Girl living with us for most of October. We visited a few pumpkin patches, trick or treated in Frisco and partied with school friends at the Summit Cove Fall Carnival.

Casey and I also fit in a trip to DC to cheer on Aunt Marcy while she ran 26.2 miles in the Marine Corp Marathon. She finished strong!!! While in town we got to stay at Aunt Kel's new house, had a nice lunch in DC, made a quick trip to the zoo and hit up the Burke Pumpkin Patch/Playground/Spooky Hayride with Grandma Gail. Before leaving for home, we celebrated Uncle Stuart's birthday with bbq and pumpkin carving with Grandma Gail, Grampa Tom, Aunt Kel, Aunt Marcy, Lily and Jack. Good times!

Arapahoe Basin Ski resort opened in October and we went opening day and we (including Casey) took 1 run.

Casey is settling into Kindergarten. She is sounding out words and learning her sight words quickly. She loves books. We have been reading The Magic Treehouse series at night and she is great at keeping up and recapping the story to us, since we trade nights putting her to bed. She can speak a little Spanish, "Mi llamo Casey. Por Que?" Her favorite class, PE, is even more favorite, now that they are doing Gymnastics. Yes, she is comfortable at school and still loves it. She did tell us she fell asleep during computer class a couple Fridays ago..."I was just really tired."

As for Garrett, the big news is...he no longer uses a pacifier. We stopped cold turkey 2 weeks before his birthday. The first day I put him down for a nap, he cried for about 5 minutes and the rest was history! He now jokes about it, asking, "Pathy, Pathy." I say we don't have anymore and he just laughs. Garrett is talking more and more each day. "Pancake peeze. More sausage...peeze." "Ah treat."  He is also more active in the crib. He has escaped from his crib a couple times. We had to remove the pillow pet, which gave him just enough height to escape. Also, every once in a while, I'll go up to get him from nap or in the morning and he is standing there pant-less, holding his diaper. He hands it to me and say, "Poopy." Luckily they have not been poopy...yet. However, everything is "ah poopy" to him. He constantly says he is poopy, when he is not; all the dolls are poopy; his cars are poopy.

So there is October...

Early morning in the DC metro on our way to Aunt Marcy run the Marine Corp Marathon

Marcy's marathon fan club

The last .2 miles and she is still smiling...

Cousins at Aunt Kel's new house

at the Burke Pumpkin Patch with Grandma

playing

picking a pumpkin

how do you like our pumpkins

who's the horse head?

being sweet at the pumpkin patch

do si doh

Connor/Batman, Casey/Spider Girl, Dillon/Iron Man, Garrett/Frankenstein trick or treat

Trick or Treat or Rock Stars

Camping, Daisy's and The Bug

We are all recovering from the dreaded stomach bug. Garrett got it first, then Casey, then Stan. The kids had it for over a week and they all still have a cough. No fun!!

Since our last post...

The weekend of Sept 19th, Stan went to Iowa with Steve, to golf and play in the annual "Olympic" games (including foosball, darts, cornhole, battleship, etc). While he was gone, I decided to take the kids camping with some friends. We went to Fruita for some 80 degree weather and camped at Highline Lake State Park. There were 2 other families with boys that were Casey's age and girls that were a year older than Garrett. The kids played in the lake, on the beach, rode on the paddleboards with us adults, biked and found all kinds of forts throughout the campground.

Casey started Daisy Scouts. She had her 2nd meeting this past Monday. It's held every other Monday right after school in the school art room. There are 12 girls. I got talked into becoming co-leader with 2 other moms. So far, so fun!

We are getting into more of a routine with school (besides last week, where Casey stayed home most of the week sick). She is very good at getting up, making her bed (still working on it), getting dressed, grabbing her backpack, etc. without any arguments. We still meet Ryan and Hogan at the front and they all still walk back together. Sometimes we drive Dillon to school too. She definitely comes home telling us about her day and telling us things she has learned. She knows all the pieces of a computer; She is learning to discuss stories and think about what might happen next; She knows her days of the week, and that Saturday is no school.

Though she does come home tired and a little grumpy, she has been really sweet to Garrett, most of the time. She helps him with a lot: she will take him upstairs with her to play, tries to read him books, brings toys into the play house, walks him down the stairs. Very sweet to him, until he starts getting feisty and takes a toy she wants or when he hits her because he didn't get his way.

Garrett loves playing upstairs where the toy room is. Sometimes he'll be playing in the living room while I'm in the kitchen and then I'll hear him make his way upstairs. He is trying to say more words and sometimes he'll "say" a full sentence and look at us like we should understand him completely. He is also interested in the potty. Yesterday after I told Casey to use it before we leave, he raced her into the bathroom and was pulling at his pants. So I put him on the potty and he just grinned, so excited...he did not go potty, but we'll get there.

It's been getting cold here. It's in the mid 30's in the morning and 50's/60's in the afternoon. We got snow last Friday/Saturday. The resorts have started to make snow. We are ready to shrow the poow!

Onto pix...

Garrett's new "cheese" face...

Walking down to the lake from the campground...Garrett, the ladies man.

another "cheese" face

Garrett not feeling so well...chilling on the couch, watching some football

princess Casey

at the playground with Dillon and Connor

Kindergarten and more...

Casey loves school. I drive Casey to school, because Summit Cove Elementary is not our neighborhood school, so there is no bus. The first 2 weeks I walked her to her line and left after the 1st bell rang at 8:40 (this is when eveyone lines up and the teachers come outside...2nd bell rings at 8:45 and the classes walk into school). The 3rd week of school, we started meeting her Kindergarten friends, Ryan and Hogan, at the front of the school at 8:35 a.m. and the 3 of them walk in together. She gets so excited to meet them, there is no hesitation and barely a "good bye" anymore. This past Thursday was school pictures and Back to School Night. Casey had a blast showing us around her school. She has "specials" throughout the week, including PE, Media (Library or Computer), Spanish, Art and Music. So far specials are her favorite part of school, especially PE.

Ever since Casey started school, Garrett has been getting some quality time with Mom. I think he misses Casey during the day because he gets really excited when we go to pick her up and sometimes when she comes downstairs in the morning. The other morning, Garrett was playing in the living room when Casey woke up. He heard her door open, looked up and saw her. He squealed, ran to the bottom of the stairs and waited for her to get down with his arms open. He gave her a big hug when she finally got down.

He has started saying more words, though most people probably wouldn't recognize them like we do. He is also communicating better with hand movements, pointing to where he wants you to sit or to something he wants. He is very into books right now, looking through them himself and having us read them to him. He likes to "jam" on his guitar. I will try and get video this week. He usually wants me to jam with him though.

Garrett started tumbling on Thursday. He is one of the youngest in the class, but did a great job listening to instruction. He still can't jump though...hopefully this class will help.

Labor Day weekend we took the good ol' jeep on an adventure to Peru Creek Trail. We got to check out an old mining town. That Monday we rode our bikes from our house to Breckenridge, about 16 mile one way. Casey rode the tag-a-long attached to Stan's bike and lasted the whole day. Garrett rode in the Chariot, reading his books and napping.

This past weekend, we went to Vail for Oktoberfest with Steve and Stacia. Good times watching the VT game, playing washers and cornhole, touring Oktoberfest and swimming at the condo pool.

We have not been great at taking pix, but here are a few...

Helping Daddy make BBQ sauce

Mining House off Peru Creek Trail

very short hike to a waterfall

Casey found some cool mushrooms

Go Hokies!

No school Friday, so we went to the Breckenridge Children's Museum...Casey built this cool bridge

"who's ready for cornhole?"