Christmas

This past week has been very busy getting ready for Christmas.  School ended on Thursday and we got together with another family (the girl's best friend Amelia) to visit the Denver Botanic Gardens Trail of Lights, it was fantastic.  Friday we put on our Christmas dresses and met Jon and Grandpa Jerry downtown for a special lunch.  Keenan and Ashley were here for the weekend and we opened gifts with them at Grandpa & Grandma's house.  Unfortunately Quinn came down with the stomach flu after that and has been pretty miserable.  Needless to say both girls were not feeling good Christmas morning.  Quinn perked up a bit for some of her gifts but as of 11am she is back to sleep!  A pretty quiet Christmas morning around our house...

Ashley surprised Keenan with a new hunting rifle, he as pretty excited!

Christmas Eve, everything is wrapped and the kids are in bed...what a nice quiet evening.

Addison & Jon got Nerf dart guns from Santa, unfortunately not long after we fired the first dart there were problems...luckily Jon is an engineer and he took the gun apart and it is now working again.  It is like WWIII right now with little green darts flying everywhere!

A white Christmas!

Addison turn 6!

This year for Addison's birthday we had a Magic theme with a Magician.  It was a fun time with all of her friends.  She had a birthday celebration at school and then presents with Grandpa Jerry and Grandma Susie one evening.  

Addison floating!

Celebration at school

A new ski jacket!

The Parade of Lights and SANTA!

This past weekend was the Denver Parade of Lights in Downtown Denver.  We stayed downtown Saturday night, had dinner and attended a party on the parade route.  A company that Jon works with has a party every year for the Parade, this way we get to watch the parade from indoors and there is plenty of food/drink and of course a visit from Santa!

Before leaving the hotel for dinner, they loved their hats!

Quinn LOVES Santa, she could have sat their all night and talked to him.

Addie loves him too but didn't have much on her list for him, we will need to work on that

And the Tree goes UP!

After a great Thanksgiving it was time to get in the Christmas spirit.  We spent several days putting up Christmas lights around our property.  The barn, house and deck all have lights.  I put lights on some of the trees this year and it looks great.  We got the tree up and decorated and I am still working on other decorations.

Thanksgiving

The week of Thanksgiving brought visitors to our house....Mark, Rochelle, Hailey & Hannah arrived on Monday and stayed until Friday.  We had a great visit.  

Mark helping Quinn bowl

Miss Hailey!

We found a ramp for Quinn and she really got into Bowling after that!

Miss Hannah!

She got tired of bowling and "had to make some calls", we are not sure who she talks to but it is pretty funny to listen to her one-sided conversations!

Apparently her calls are finished and she relaxed on the bar stools

All-in-all I think they had a great time, now off for a pizza dinner

Rochelle and I had to get some pictures of them while they are all together 

I think they were singing at this point!

Gunner watched the photo session from the sunny porch

Of course he couldn't stay out of all of them

Later that day, he was totally worn out and had to sleep in my chairs

 

Prepping the turkey with Garlic butter injections

And in it goes

Now their part was done, onto some Jameson...

...and Grey Goose

Not a bad way to cook/drink

While we were cooking the girls had a great time in the playhouse

 

A family portrait!