If you know me....

you know that I am a little particular about my kids clothes and hair. Over break we have been taking it really easy, not doing too much! But when we do venture out, Allie has been making her own fashion statement! It should make for a nice battle when she heads back to school!!!

Riley....

Riley came home from the pet store with Kennel Cough.....lovely, I know! He was in the vet hospital for two days, he got to come home Christmas Eve day and is slowly but surely getting better! He is such a good puppy, already telling us when he needs to go outside! His spunk is coming out little by little, but for now he loves to sleep and cuddle with whoever will hold him!

And as for Max.....he loves Riley, we even caught him with his little paw around Riley taking a nap this morning. (I wasn't quick enought with my camera!)Here they are all dressed up for Christmas Eve!

Christmas Day

On Christmas Day the girls slept until 8am....I know a lot of you parents out there are really jealous right now! Santa had showed up sometime during the night, thank goodness! Kayla got exactly was she wished for, a Nintendo DS and Allie got her pink guitar she had been dreaming of!



We to my parents for a prime rib lunch and then headed to the bowling alley!

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve we took my parents, grandparents and brother to dinner at East Moon Hibachi.....as you can tell, it is one of our favs! Everyone really ejoyed it, my grandparents had never seen anything like it! Afterward, we came to our house for dessert and to open some presents! And the favorite presents of the night were....


Kayla and her American Girl Doll Samantha!!!


And Allie and her Swim to me Puppy!!!

Christmas Came Early!!!

So, we surprised the girls with a new puppy today for Christmas! I know, I know, it's early....but it's really hard to hide a living thing! They were so excited, they have been begging for months and we have been ignoring them! So, welcome Riley! He is a Yorkiepoo and is so darn cute. Him and Max have done good so far, Max is a little scared of the little ball of fur! We will keep you updated!

Kayla's Holiday Party!!!

And.....Kayla had her party this afternoon! She had an exciting one as well. She make a couple crafts, wrote a letter to us, had a visit from the Mayor of Fort Collins and his wife who read a story and a visit from Santa Clause! Talk about a busy day.....we are all ready for the break!

Allie's Christmas Party!!!

Allie had her Christmas pary this morning at school! It was a ton of fun and I must say Amy Jo and I did a fantastic job of planning, organizing and throwing a top notch party! They did a couple crafts, played a couple games and had a snack! The Christmas countdown if offically on at our house!

Christmas Caroling in the morning....

At school this morning they gathered outside to sing Christmas Carols and have hot cocoa! It was really cute and the kids loved it even though it was FREEZING!!!

Funny Story.....

Kayla and her best friend Lauren showed up to school today with the same outfit on! I had no idea until I picked them both up from school to come over and play! We just had to take a picture......


And this entry would not be complete without a picture of Allie and Cooper posing for the camera....

Family Celebration Night....

We had a family celebration with our friends, the Axes tonight! We started by going to The Nutcracker Ballet and then heading to dinner at East Moon Hibachi! It was such a good time! The guys thought we were torchering them by making them sit through a ballet, but we made up for it by having an incredible and entertaining dinner!

Christmas Cookie Extravaganza!!!

We went to Axe's last night to make Christmas cookies....we had a great time! The kids made some butter cookies with the cookie press and sugar cookies cut-outs and decorated them beautifully! Thanks Amy, Cooper, and Lauren for having us over...they are YUMMY!

Allie Joins Daisy Scouts

Allie started Daisy Scouts today! She is loving it so far! They wrote letters to Soldiers today and did a craft. They recieved their pin, that was place upside down until they do 3 good deeds to officially be a scout!

The Avery House at Christmas

Last night we went to the Avery House, a historical house in Fort Collins that was built in 1879. They decorate the house for Christmas with decorations from that time period. Everything there is authentic! They have a couple nights during December to go see the decorations and have story time for the kids. All the kids really enjoyed it!

Pioneer Day

It is Pioneer Day for the 2nd graders at Kayla's school today! They have an entire day filled with activites and the teachers are really excited to play the part!

Wrapping for Santa Cops

We had the opportunity to go wrap gifts for those in need in the Fort Collins area tonight. Larimer County law enforcement delivers presents in December to lots of families. They have a make-shift store set up with hundreds of gifts that have been donated,all the volunteers get a list of children, their ages, and what they would like or need. The kids were able to "go shopping" for the kids and we all did some wrapping. We went with the Axes and my mom also joined us! It was lots of fun and a great way to give back to our community and get into the holiday spirit at the same time!!!

Adopt a Solider

The entire second grade at Kayla's school has adopted a US Soldier to send care packages to for the holidays. The newspaper came yesterday to do a story about it! It has been a great project to teach the kids to think about others and do what they can to help out! You can click the Adopt a Soldier title to view the article.

Our First REAL Tree!!!

This sounds really silly....but this is the first year we have bought a real tree! We have an artificial one that we have always used, I think because we always had a cat.....but no more cat, so we went for the real thing this year. We had a few minor arguments over which one to pick but finally agreed on "the one!"

Turkey Weekend!

We spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Nebraska with my grandparents. We had lots of fun catching up with family we don't see very often! There was lots of Wii action....we got everyone hooked! The girls had a great time as always keeping their great-grandparents busy, very busy! We even had a chance to hit up a couple great movies. We all went to Bolt on Friday night.....it was a great movie and Andy and I went and saw Four Christmases on Saturday....all I can say about that one is, HILARIOUS!!!

Happy holidays!!!! Christmas is right around the corner....

Who would have thought????

It has been in the 70's here for the last 2 days! It has been absolutely beautiful and a nice surprise to spend sometime outdoors in the sun! Today we went to the park with Allie's best friend Cooper and BJ teddy a class stuffed animal we get to bring home and journal about every once in awhile!!! They say snow tomorrow....we'll see!!!

Rock Star

Today we went to lunch with our friends, the Axes. Lauren was singing Hannah Montana the whole time and having Kayla record her. So, as soon as we got home the girls thought it would be a great idea to have Allie try it out! Kayla would never let herself be recorded so she is the videographer and Allie is the performer!

Fort Collins History

Kayla's class had a field trip to the Fort Collins Museum today. Fort Collins has so much history that I completely forgot about. I probably learned it in 2nd grade and we know that was a long time ago!!! Anyway, it was a ton of fun and I learned a lot too! I had a great group of kids from Kayla's class that I got to hang with for the day!!!

Skate Party Incident...

Kayla and Allie's school host roller skating parties every once in a while for fundraising purposes. We always have a great time there and last night Kayla finally got the whole concept!!! Unfortunately at the end of the night she took a spill that left her with a fractured wrist:( She is going to wear a brace for 3 weeks and then should be just fine. She has had a few minor issues with clothes and such, but is doing okay. She will have to miss swimming for a few weeks which is a big bummer!

Alter Egos...

Allie is obsessed with Hannah Montana and Gabriella from HSM. We found some clearance costumes after Halloween and she has been having a good time this morning discovering all of her alter egos!

Special Visitor!

Our friends Marc and Sam had a baby just over 2 weeks ago, his name is Quinten and he is such a cutie! They stopped by to say hello last night and I especially had a great time holding a new born baby!!! We tried so hard to wake him up so he would sleep for his parents but it just didn't happen!

Not so shy Allie....

Allie has a "vowel" song from school that she would love to share with everyone she knows! So.....here it goes!!! Enjoy:)

Swimming Pictures

Kayla got her Swim Team picture taken on Wednesday for Team Vortex. She has been swimming for them since August - 2 days a week, 2 hours a time. She loves swimming and is in a group with mostly teenagers. She is hoping that one day she will make it to the Olympics!

CSU Saturday!!!

We took the kids to their first CSU Football game today! Andy and I had both been pre-children, but have never had a chance to take the girls! The weather was beautiful and soccer's over, so we thought it would be a great day to go! They have Ram Town before the game with lots of neat activities for the kids! It was a great game, even though CSU lost!

Trick-or-Treat

The kids just left to go Trick-or-Treating with Andy, Kelley, Lauren, Cooper and their Uncle Sean as Indiana Jones! Max is dressed up as a Skunk because most of the time he stinks!!!

Pumpkin Fun!

We carved pumpkins this afternoon! Kayla carved a Haunted House and Allie carved a Skeleton Pirate! It was absolutely beautiful here today, temperatures in the 70's! I think this will be the first Halloween it hasn't been brutally cold, snowing, raining, windy or all of the above!

School Halloween Parties!!!

The girls had their school Halloween parties yesterday at school. They have the day off today so we can get all rested up for Trick or Treating tonight! It was a busy day for sure, but they both had a ton of fun with their classes!