A Snowy Mountain Christmas!

On Christmas eve we began our trek from Farmington to Bailey, CO to spend Christmas with Tim's family. We were about 30 miles away (mabe even 20, I'm not sure now) and the road was CLOSED!!! Oh I just wanted to cry at that point. We had to decide if we were just going to wait it out (and risk not being able to pass until the following day) or take an alternate route that would add about 3 hours on to our journey. We eventually chose the latter. It was a long day for us and we missed Christmas Eve church services, but at least we all made it there in one piece! We had such a nice, relaxing time at Carol and Lee's house up in the mountains. We didn't leave to go into Denver at all! Jake also got to try out sledding for the first time! It was a great Christmas!

Ryan checking out his stocking stuffers

Jake lining up is loot

OooooH! A Diego Watch!

Playing with his new Dora and Diego figurines

Still digging around

Ryan giving Jake a hand

Jake tearing into his new train set!

Sledding!

Having a blast!

Walking back up the drive with Auntie Cassie

Christmas Before Christmas

A.K.A The Child Who Won't Smile Normally

The boys and I went out to NM for about 2 weeks before Christmas so we could spend time with my family before heading up to CO for Christmas. Of course Ryan got sick on our drive there(because someone always has to get sick when we travel), but after that we had a great time and enjoyed getting in some much needed family time! I didn't take many photos while we were there, but here are a few from our pre-Christmas celebration at both my moms house and my dads house.

This series of pictures cracks me up because Jake just refuses to give me "normal" smiles for the camera

Ryan with his new race tracks

Jake with his new airplane tracks

Hanging on Grandpa Al

The family, minus Tim & Ryan (no idea why they didn't join in on the photo fun) and Auntie Steph - who we missed very much!!!

Thanksgiving Up North

I have to apologize because I didn't really take any pictures this trip with the exception of the boys outside in their sweaters, and really the only reason I did that was because I was scrambling for something for our Christmas card. I wish I had though, because I missed out on catching some great memories of the boys with their grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-aunt. Next time we are up there the boys will hopefully not be as hard to keep up with (wishful thinking??). At least Ryan won't be into every single cabinet/drawer/breakable/sharp/pointy object he can find. It gives me hives just thinking about all of the trouble he tried to get into. We had a lovely Thanksgiving in Bismarck and had pretty nice weather while we were there.  We also got to meet the newest baby in the family - Bobbi Lynn!

Jake playing outside with his new dump truck!

Seriously, don't ask because I have no idea what this was all about.  All I know is he did it by himself without any prompting from us. 

Sweet little Bobbi Lynn

The Christmas Card Photo Shoot of 2009

I thought about using this one for the cards, but something about the demonic expression in Jake's eyes as he is about to pummel his brother with leaves made me change my mind.

Taking a little break for baseball