December 2014

The beginning of December flew by!  With Vinny and I both finishing up another semester of school and the boys busy with school and wrestling Christmas Break was MUCH needed.  We didn't do a whole lot of much besides enjoy time with family and celebrate the season.

The bottom Ty happens to be Ty...with his high score of 125!
He had the highest score out of all the boys both games we played!

We had some crazy cold temps..that's right you are reading correctly -5

Luckily, there were a few warm nights and we took the kids to the zoo..always love seeing all the lights!

Heading to Christmas Service.

Merry Christmas 2014

A Ft. Worth Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we made a quick trip to Ft. Worth to spend some much overdue time with Vinny's side of the the family.  It was wonderful to see everyone...it's amazing how much all of the cousins have grown!!!

The boys on Thanksgiving

While we were there we ate SO much.  We had to eat at our Texas favorites: What-A-Burger...the absolute best fast food burger!  We also had Shipley's do-nuts.  Hands down the BEST do-nuts EVER!!!  Their hot and fresh glazed do-nuts are amazing, melt in your mouth...they also have kolachies (think pigs in a blanket only much, much better)  sausage, cheese, and jalapeno.  Shipley's has ruined all other do-nuts for me (when we lived in Houston we would eat there once a week if not more).  I don't want to think of how many do-nuts I consumed while we were there and my stomach literally just growled thinking of those do-nuts!  If the closest Shipley's wasn't 577 miles away I would totally make Vinny drive me there in the morning (yes I did just look it up!)  Vinny's brother took us to a true whole in the wall Mexican restaurant..that was delicious.  We ate Fuzzy's Tacos...weird name, but very good!  Then Saturday we went to the flea market mostly so we could get our Mexican cup of fruit with lime and chili powder. 

Besides all of the going out to eat, we had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner.  We had a TON of family at Vinny's brother's house.  We had 4 turkeys, 2 deep fried by Vinny and 2 baked and then all the traditional fixings.  We were all stuffed!  Both of Vinny's brother were there and this was the first time in like 15 years they have all been together for a holiday.  After eating we played some games, Left Right Center, Spoons, and Poker.  I even went out "Black Friday" shopping with my sister-in-law and her sister.  It was pretty fun!

We made a trip to Cabela's and this was the best Cabela's I've ever been in.  It was so awesome.  They have a ton of taxidermied animals, but they have them grouped in sections almost like a museum.  Plus they have a huge aquarium.  (Oh and across the street in a huge pasture, there was a herd of buffalo!)

Love those Texas sunsets!

Those are birds!

I have a big love/hate relationship with Texas, but while there I was reminded of a few things I love: #1 Family, of course!  and then the big beautiful sun sets (Colorado sunsets are amazingly beautiful, but very different because we have the mountain in the way and it is so very different!) and the crazy amount of birds that just sit on each intersections light posts.  It's one of those random things that I completely forgot about living in Colorado, but was a regular occurrence in Texas.  I don't know why it just fascinates me!

November 2014

November was a good month for us!
Ty celebrated his 5th birthday at this awesome place called Dart Warz!  It was so much fun and we are all dying to go back!  It is an indoor Nerf  battle ground (think paintball except for inside with Nerf guns!)  It was seriously so much fun, I wish I had a better picture of Ty's vest pocket because you were supposed to keep the darts in your pocket that way you can have them ready to shoot.  He had his pockets stuffed, whenever he would bend over or run darts would spill everywhere!  We all highly recommend you check it out.  (Must be 5 years old to play and they offer black light play where you must be 8 years old.)

Ty in action!

Our "Team" minus me and Bella!

After Dart Warz we had the rest of the family meet us back at the house for a small party, a Green Bay Packer birthday party!  I made Ty's cake again, this time a camo colored cake on the inside!  (Those two ball cake pans are the best money I've ever spent!!)  All in all, Ty had an awesome birthday!

Ty's actual birthday is on Veteran's Day and there was a huge snowstorm that day so we didn't get to eat our normal Golden Corral meal, but he was okay with it.

The Sunday after Veteran's day Vinny, Tucker, Trey, and I ran in the National Veteran's Day 5k.  Now remember when I said that there was a huge snowstorm on Veteran's day, well the weather hadn't warmed up much, so it was FREEZING!!!  There was still a ton of snow and ice on the course.  It was seriously the coldest race I have ever ran!  Vinny and I ran together the whole time and even though I was running, I just couldn't seem to get my body warm, it was the slowest I have ever ran before, but it was actually nice to do this with Vinny.  Trey smoked all of us again, but got his slowest time ever because of all the ice he said he had to walk quite a bit.  Tucker keeps improving upon his 5k time each time he races and I am proud of him for taking on these runs.  It was a great way to honor Vinny and all of the Veteran's and the proceeds went to a pretty good cause too!

My parents gave us all an early Christmas presents of taking us to watch Wisconsin play CC.  We all proudly wore our WI Red, but got spanked by CC!  It was a lot of fun going to the game anyways!

We have had quite a winter so far and man has it been beautiful!  I just love the mountains covered in white!  I just had to throw this picture in here (I actually took it with my new phone..I am loving the camera and the phone in general.)

November also brought the official start of wrestling season!  This year all 3 boys are wrestling.  Trey finally decided to wrestle, but strongly told us that he is only doing practicing and only to keep in shape for running and soccer.  I think it is extremely important for the kids to participate in some sort of physical activity so Vinny and I were completely fine with him doing practices and no tournaments.  (I know there are a lot of people who do not like wrestling, but I honestly thing it is one of the greatest sports for kids to participate in, I know it's not for everybody, but if children are coached correctly the benefits are huge..I think I might have to post a separate post on this because it's kind of hard to explain in a few short sentences...)
Tucker moved up to 10 and under this year and it has been tough.  He now has to wrestle 5 matches instead of 3 and he is in A class, which is made up of very good wrestlers, some of these kids have been wrestling for over 7 years now, where as this is only Tucker's 3rd year!  Although challenging for him, he has made a big mental breakthrough, which for him the mental/emotional stuff is his biggest challenger.

Well remember how I said Trey only wanted to do practices, well the second tournament of the year, his cousin Bella (yes girls do wrestle, we have 6 in our club and they are AWESOME) decided to do the tournament, Trey, not one to get shown up by his cousin, decided to do the tournament too.  To say I was nervous was an understatement!  However, this boy got on the mat and it was like he has been doing this for years!  He did amazing!!!  He wrestled hard and listened to his coaches.  I was so proud of him!!  He took 2nd place (but he should have taken 1st, but the Ref was messing up on the handing out points and gave points to the other kids, and when our coach tried to talk to the ref about it, the ref wouldn't admit his mistake...so Trey ended up loosing by points..when he actually won!)  However now we always have two coaches on the mat, one coaching and one taking points down!  Trey has done every tournament since then and has taken 2nd twice and 1st 3 times.  My favorite part about him wrestling is that when his coaches tell/show him to do something in between rounds or when time has stopped, he will mimic their actions on the mat.  It is so comical, but it works for him because when the match starts he will do what they told him!

New Years Eve 2013

Our New Years Eve started off with wrestling practice and then back to Kim's house for a Mexican Food Fiesta.  We ate a ton and played some board games and popped some poppers to welcome 2014.  I have been bad about bringing my camera a long with me places lately and plus my phone has been shutting off anytime I try to take a picture lately...so here is one I stole off my dad's phone... 

Ty wrestles hard at practice, he fell asleep on the floor in the living room (with a bowl of Nilla Wafers) around 11ish, and slept through the all the poppers.
 

2013 ended on a good note for us and we are looking forward to 2014.  We want to wish you all the best it has to offer.

Christmas 2013

We had a great Christmas.  It was nice and relaxing and we just enjoyed being together as a family.

The group of kids on Christmas Eve.

My cute boys on Christmas morning!

Getting ready to open their first gift from Santa

All dressed up for Christmas service

Merry Christmas 2013

It's good to have him home :)

Decorating Christmas cookies as a family!

Getting in the Christmas Spirit

I don't know the last time I've actually posted something in the same month that it actually happened in..phew!!

 

We got into the Christmas Spirit by decorating our tree as a family!  Ty got to put the angel on top of the tree this year. 

Thanksgiving 2013

We started a new tradition for Thanksgiving where we play football before eating our dinner.  It is a lot of fun and I'm happy to say my team won!

Picture break at half time

The winning team!

The whole football gang

Family shot!

Very Yummy Turkey!!!

Summer 2013 -- Grand Adveture -- Illinois Paradise

My cousin invited us to stay the night at his house before we headed for home.  They own some property and it is absolutely gorgeous!!  We swam in their little pond, had a fish fry, then did some fishing, and enjoyed a campfire.  AMAZING!  John and Cindy are so hospitable and we wish would could have spent more time with them.

Swimming in their little pond.

Trey was hesitant to go out to the dock, but I finally got him out there.

Everyone enjoying the water...it was nice and warm!

We got out the boat and did a little fishing.

The first one Tucker caught.

My handsome little man.

Tucker was in fishing heaven!

Trey's first catch.

4th of July Fun

Despite a fire ban (again) we had a fun 4th of July.

Bunch of nerds...but I love them!

We used poppers instead of sparklers.

And Glow sticks instead of fireworks!