Waiting for Christmas...

We are starting to settle into a holiday routine around here. 
Ms. Barb asked us to particpate in the Toys for Tots with her church again this year. 
We also had Chance go through his toy box and clean out toys that he rarely plays with so that he can "make room for Santa to bring him more."
Chance was such a good sport about this and agreed to donate many of his toys. 

He did make me laugh for several days after the donation though because he kept opening his toy box and saying..., "Momma! I don't like Christmas much!"


Ms. Barb really wanted a picture of Chance and Savannah in the middle of all of the toys that they had wrapped to donate. 
 

We got our photos after several takes and we learned that....

Savannah will try and put everything in her mouth, and

Chance will do almost anything if you bribe him with a cookie. 

Speaking of cookies....

Our other holiday tradition has turned into making cookies and watching football on December Sunday afternoons. 

 

 

My old friend from high school, Brandi Andersen and her daughter Reese,  joined us for the cookie bake this year.

Reese and Chance play so well together. 

We had a blast and laughed more than one should whilst making cookies. 

 

 

and
our newest addition to our Chirstmas tradition is plasma car racing!
I can not tell you how many times we have all raced around the dining room, kitchen, and toy room on this little car. 

We are so excited for Christmas.

Lights and Limos

We kicked off our December party season with our now annual "Lights and Limos" Chirstmas party with our friends again this year. 


Although...things have really changed for us from years past. 
We skipped the pre-party sushi dinner so that we could play with these little cuties. 

Savannah is pulling herself up on everything and is really starting to find her legs. 

Chance loves making forts and is completely into imaginary play.  I love listening to some of the stories he comes up with.

I'm so glad that we skipped dinner to play longer with the kids.


I also worked during the day to make the kids a shared room.
After much debate, we decided that it was better for our living space and our family to at least try to keep the kids in the same bedroom together. 
It took a little work, but here is what we came up with...

 

 

After our work was complete and the kids were in bed, we headed out to meet our friends in this...

We were greeted with smiles and champagne.  Who could ask for anything more?

 

 

We had an amazing time.  We laughed, sang, and danced our way to the lights. 

We drove around to several neighborhoods with amazing light displays. 

 

We ended our tour at the capitol building in downtown and then called it a night. 

It was an amazing night with an amazing group of friends. 
Great kick off to the Christmas season!

The Children's Museum and Decorating our Tree

One of Chance's favorite places is the  Children's Museum here in Denver. 
We had a rare free day over the Thanksgiving holiday so we decided to spend it by playing with Chance and Savannah at the museum. 
We called Barb to tell her that she had a free day too, but she decided that the museum sounded like a great idea so she met us there with Isla.

Chance still loves playing in the kinetics area with all of the balls. 
Max made sure to build the best ball ramp in the building for Chance and Isla.  

We ran into my friend Mandy from work and her three kids while we were there.  Savannah was crazy about Josh! She had the biggest smile on her face the entire time he was playing with her.

See...I told you!
Only the best ramp will do. 

Ms. Barb is crazy about Savannah.  We are so lucky to have her!

Chance jumping on the tubes to make the balls fly into the air. 

We also discovered that we have a little artist. 
Chance takes painting rather seriously. 

Savannah just loves being held.  She is so content as long as she can look out at all that is happening around her. 

Of course, the bubble room is always a huge hit. 

 

 

 

We ended our trip to the museum by playing with Savannah in the infant crawl room. 

She is growing so quickly and has the most laid back happy personality. 

We had to stop at Moe's BBQ on the way home. It was the perfect afternoon lunch spot. 

We had the place to ourselves.  Savannah napped and Max and Chance took advantage of the arcade games. 

We ended our weekend by getting our house decorated for Christmas. 

Chance was so excited about the tree.  He was very helpful and wanted to hang all of the ornaments himself. 
Notice the long line of ornaments in a row :)

Getting excited for Christmas! Can't wait to celebrate it with these two little ones this year!

 

Thanksgiving

We celebrated this past Thanksgiving at home in Denver.  It was definitely not the same as being with our family, but we did enjoy our day. 

We have been getting our first spell of really cold weather and I have been putting Savannah in her snow suit every time we leave the house.  Savannah does not like this new routine. 

She is so busy and crawling into everything.  She likes to pull out every single one of the toys from the toy box and then put them all back in again.
At least she is easy to enterain :)

Chance has his own way of entertaining us. 
I told him last week that I like it when it snows. 
He decided to surprise me one evening by making it snow in his bed room. 
This picture does not even begin to describe the amount of baby powder that was scattered all over his bedroom.  I didn't even have the heart to be mad at him though because he was so proud of himself for making me a good surprise. 
I guess I just need to clarify from now on....that I really like snow..... outside!

Chance loves reading to his sister. 

On Thanksgiving morning, we got up early with the kids and took them to Wash Park to play on the playground. 

 
We soaked in the sights and the atmosphere of the Mile High United Turkey Trot and walked around the park lakes. 

In the afternoon, we headed over to Danny and Laura Eakin's house for dinner. 

We made homemade stuffing, a crescent roll stuffed with brie, and neiman marcus brownies for dessert. 
It was fun to cook and share a meal with friends. 
All of the kids played so well together. 

Chance and CJ had a blast outside running and playing with the cars together. 

I loved catching up with my old friend Vega, and playing with her children. 

Dinner was a complete success. 

We reconnected with old friends, made some new friends, and went home with very full bellies!

 

We have so much to be thankful for.