party time!

we had the nicest little party for carlyle and luella.  we projected mary poppins onto our vaulted ceiling.  tomlin indoor theater revived! such fun.

   

i loved having people from all aspects of our colorado life here at the same time.  and, everyone got along just swimmingly!   the kiddos had quite a grand time.  they keep asking to have another party...and obviously more cupcakes. 

 
after the party, the four of us opted not to clean up our oh-so-messy house and to just plop right back down on the living room floor and watch more of the movie.  dare i say, it really was supercallafrajallistickexpealidocious (hey, nerds, out there, i don't know if i spelled this right or not). 

birthday day

 remember these babies?

 

or these little toddlers?

 or how about these little people?

 well, just look at them now!  three years old and as busy as ever.

we had just a wonderful day.  it started with some lamar's donuts--carlyle and luella both chose the chocolate ones with little candies on the top.  then, we came back for presents!  they were quite occupied by those for awhile.  then, we all went to the lyric cinema cafe which shows free cartoons every morning...plus an all you can eat cereal buffet!  the kiddos discovered lucky stars and looney tunes.  we came home for naps and more playtime and various skype dates (uncle branden, eddy family, mimi and papa).  after dinner, we had their birthday cakes (they did not want for sugar today).  maybe my favorite part of the day was watching luella sing along with us to carlyle and then carlyle singing along with us to luella.  they are such great kids.  seriously, the sweetest little individuals.  we topped off the day by going to the gardens on spring creek where they put up all kinds of awesome christmas lights.  yay.  then, we came home and all went to bed at eight thirty.  i mean, celebrating hard will wear a family out!

carlyle's sweet expressions

i think i am posting this right now because this sweet boy is in his bed happily yelling "mommy, mommy, i'm not taking a nap" over and over again.  oh...boy. 

thanksgiving

thanksgiving was just wonderful.  unfortunately, i was enjoying it way too much to go look for my camera.  so, i have no documentation!  but, it was a really great day.  much like last year, mike, jayme, and carmen drove out for a few days.  and, uncle russ, tiffini, and elizabeth also came.  this year, our dear friend rachel and francis joined in for the festivities.  a really swell group.  lots of good conversation, a quick round of bocce ball, and some card playing...plus, the kids watched dora the explorer while we all ate.

i think we prepared everything we did last year.  plus, this year, i attempted "the green", my grandma betty's famous jello mold.  in the end, everything came out just splendidly and i must say it was all pretty easy to eat.  in true toddler form, carlyle and luella ate rolls and store bought mac and cheese. 

sadly, the night after thanksgiving, lulu woke up sick and i fell ill the next night.  that was no fun, but oh well.  it certainly was nice to have some extra helping hands on those days.  hopefully, mimi and papa and carmen didn't get sick though!

it's so fun to have little kids around for holidays.  they were quite excited for this holiday and especially loved all the attention from their grandparents.  our kids are so blessed by them...and so are me and t.j.

november in photo

i think we spent most of november trying to settle into a rhythm.  we have been going going going since last spring.  and now, i think we are trying to find our way in this new place--new routines, new discoveries, new systems, new memories.  this move is something we were really excited for, but that doesn't mean it hasn't had its challenges.  that doesn't mean that it hasn't been hard.  isn't change always kind of hard? 

but, the dust seems to be settling and we are finding our way... we like to play out on the driveway whenever it is warm enough and luckily, the sun shines late into the afternoon onto the front of our house... i love to sip an afternoon cup of coffee in the far corner chair of our living room... on saturdays, we like to go the winter farmers market in old town... if we do that, we always stop by the toy store for a few minutes... both cars fit in our garage now and t.j. and i often revel in the fact that we don't have to scrape windshields when it snows... the kiddos and i make weekly trips to both king soopers and whole foods (which they call the beautiful store)...

that's just a little sampling... p.s. look how old our kids have gotten!