Christmas Time

Well this isn't Christmas time...Reece spent his birthday money on some Minecraft toys.

Caramel-chocolate covered pretzels... our non baking tradition!

For the first time ever, I gave the boys the job of wrapping dad's gift from them... it was very entertaining. And the TV must have been entertaining to them as well. 

They each took a side.... Reece is left and Riley is the right.

Riley showing off his new holiday hat for spirit week.

Riley had the best spot for his Christmas band concert.

Sledding with the Scrutons

A few videos to start off this post...

We had been cooped up with the cold for a little too long, and when the sun decided to shine, we had to take advantage. We started on the small hill to get warmed up and quickly went on to the big hill and had two hours of fun!

Hello Mount Sopris!

I took this picture to try to show off the snow. Powdery snow has a whole new meaning to me. If I wasn't in it and touching it and wouldn't believe it was real! I wasn't brave enough to go down on the sled, so I was in charge of photos and videos and making art in the pretty white stuff!

Riley, Celia, Abby and Reece.

The end of our fun afternoon. Picture perfect!

Arctic Blast

It's safe to say, we need to get used to our winters lasting longer...and snow. Definitely need to get used to snow. We have been here less than 5 months, and winter (although the calendar says it's fall) has rocked us!! We've been told several times this was an unusual arctic blast and it's so rare to have snow days...well I guess the McMillans brought it with them. It's funny, when we moved to McPherson we were told snow and snow days were rare...our first winter there brought 8 snow days and our third winter brought the same. So go figure the weather is all out of whack when we moved to Glenwood Springs.

I don't recall ever being in such cold temps. (I know...my Kansas friends and family had the same blast too) We would wake up in the morning to -18 degrees...and that doesn't include the wind chill. It was so cold that poor Jake's truck didn't want to start. (It gets temperamental in negative temps.) With the blast came 6-10 inches of snow, depending on which part of the canyon you were in. We've been told snow will usually melt on the streets right away...well not with these drastic temps. 

Let me tell you about a few nice things about winter here... The snow is beautiful!! As you see from the above picture from my back door. Snow is so much easier to drive on than ice, which was common in Kansas. Although getting an AWD vehicle could easily contribute to that fact. Lastly, there is very rarely wind here to cause that wind chill to be a factor. During the extreme cold days, I kept saying these were the warmest sub zero temps I've ever been in. It's true!! It's amazing how "not cold" it feels here in the mountains. It's mind boggling! 

Well, we've survived our first blast and so far I think we can do it...check back in April or May when the white stuff has a good chance of still being around to see what I think about it then.

Wintery Hike

The weekend after Thanksgiving, while I was couch ridden with the flu, the boys went on a hike. Riley's favorite hike is Hanging Lake, so they gave it a try. There was a lot of snow and slick spots, but they made it up and found a partially frozen waterfall. It may be time to invest in some grippers for our hiking boots to make winter hiking easier...either way they had fun, even while sliding down the trail here and there.

Nine

My baby is officially in his last single digit year! How can this be??

It was his day. We started off with presents, then he specifically asked for an egg sandwich at McDonalds, followed by some bowling, then I made him a cheesy, rice/pea/hamburger casserole (his request) and lastly we topped it all off with M&M Blizzard ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. Yep...it was a warm 11 degrees outside, but is it ever too cold for ice cream?

Reece got the new "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" book and a must have Minecraft shirt.

And a gigantic Star Wars Lego kit (AT-TE)

We picked up these cupcakes for him to celebrate on Monday with his class.

YUM!
Happy Birthday, Reece!

Reece's Favorites...

Food: pizza

Dessert: ice cream

Restaurant: The Canyon Brewpub (he loves their homemade rootbeer)

Best Friend: Luke (Colorado friend) Nicholas (McPherson friend)

TV Show: Spongebob

Clothes: His new Minecraft shirt

Book: Diary of a Wimpy Kid series

Movie: Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters

Outside activity: Soccer

Sport: Soccer

Animal: cat (thanks Aunt Jaime)

Game: Minecraft (video) Apples to Apples Jr (board)

Future career? He wants to be a Lowes worker like dad...

Free Skis

It's official. The boys are signed up for ski lessons. They begin February 1st, at the Buttermilk slopes (close to Aspen.) We got a partial scholarship for them, which included free ski and boots. The Gorsuch family makes sure everyone has equipment (it's hard starting from scratch.) They donate to everyone and only ask that when you no longer use the skis that you give them to someone in need instead of selling and making money on them. 

The certificates for the boys' free equipment.

Proud new owners of skis and ski boots.

It might be a long 6 weeks waiting for the first day of ski lessons!

Oh, BOY!

Since moving here a little over four months ago, we've received a few baby announcements...and they were ALL boys!

First was my newest nephew, Lucas. (I've cropped each announcement to keep personal details off of here.) I'm so excited! 17 days till I head back to meet him for the first time!

Then Jake's cousin and wife, Jesse and Amanda, had their first boy, Jackson. So sweet!

And lastly, my good friend, Becky, had her second boy...Brody.

As you can tell, there is a whole lot of cuteness hanging around on my fridge. 

I LOVE BOYS!

Stop Motion Movie

Riley and Celia made a very cool Stop Motion movie in tech class...ENJOY!

Blue & Red

Half of our life is currently is storage during this transition year. Including all of our Christmas decorations. We decided to have a little, simple fun. We got a tiny tree from lows, red and blue lights and ornaments and let the boys go at it. It was all them, as I watched from the couch sick from the flu. You can't deny our fanhood... we are representing KU from Colorado. 

Grandma's annual handmade ornaments got here just in time for the tree!! Thanks!

Our "Elf on the Shelf"... 

Got our first Christmas card!! Merry Christmas!