The Fun of it all.

Lauren never seems to get too excited about presents - they are cool and all. Before breakfast, she got to get into her stocking. After breakfast, we opened up the presents under the tree. It was a great Christmas.

I have been dreaming of a white Christmas...

So they predicted only 1 - 3 inches of snow on Christmas and I thing we ended up with close to 8 inches on Christmas Day. It was a good day to stay home and play with all the new toys. Here are a couple of pictures of out front of our house. It was terrible driving to Grandma and Papa O'Connor's house. We just went to visit in the afternoon.

The Reason for the Season - via Linus Van Pelt

Charlie Brown: Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?

Linus Van Pelt: Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about.

Linus Van Pelt: Lights, please.

Linus Van Pelt: "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.'"

Linus Van Pelt: That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

Merry Christmas to everyone. Sending love and wishes to you during this wonderful season!

~Trish, Tom and Lauren

Snowman Watch - Picture 2

I'm melting. I'm melting.

My Ballerina

Here are some artsy pictures I took last night during class.

The Chicken Dance

Dancing to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Last night, parents and grandparents were invited to come and watch the girls perform. They did a couple of songs - such as this one.

Snowman watch!

Lauren and I went out and built two snowmen. We will posting pictures each day this week at the temperatures rise in Denver and the snowmen lower.

A Big Weekend!

On Saturday, Grandma Beth, Lauren and I went to see The Nutcracker at the Colorado Ballet. It was awesome. I loved it. Lauren loved it. Grandma loved it. We got all dressed up and had great seats. Lauren just kept saying when it started "What the..What the...". She was amazed by the sets and dancing. Afterward, we all went to dinner. At dinner, Papa said that "Every little girl should go and see The Nutcracker at least once." I said that "Even big girls should go and see it." I had such a great time.

On Sunday the kids were preforming thier musical for the church. My group of Pre-Schoolers were susposed to get up and say a short verse but most didn't know it. I tried to get a nice picture of all them sitting together but by the time I snapped the picture - this is all I got - a empty stage. Those 3 & 4 years sure domove fast. I couldn't keep them seated at all.

Once they got up on stage, they were the hit.

A visit with Old St. Nick

Preschool has Santa come and visit with the kids. It was nice. He was good Santa. He read Twas the Night Before Christmas to the kids. They were restless.

Lolly was very intent on watching and listening to the story.

She didn't even chicken out. She walked right up there and told him her name and sat on his lap. She was so exicted to go to this last night that at 4:45 p.m. she already had her coat and boots on - the event wasn't until 6:00 p.m. It was really cute. The only problem is that Santa had already decided on what to get her for Christmas so now "she" needs to make another trip to the store.

Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,
I want Luvable Bears, a giant Dora, a Dora tent, a princess table, a notepad , a puppy and that's all. Thank you Santa.

Love, Lauren

P.S. Could I also have some ear muffs?
(This was added just this morning on the way to school)

Christmas message for Grandma Meyer

(It isn't Grandma's birthday!)

Decorating the Christmas Tree

We decided to get a tree. Since we didn't think a real tree would be a good idea with Boggs, we decided to go with a fake one. And it you are going to go fake, fake it all the way. It is really pretty with the glass balls and lights.

Lolly wanted to put the angel on the top of the tree. She really enjoyed decorating everything.

Here is Lolly with the tree.

Grand to be a kid

(Not the greatest pictures)

Parade of Lights

This is the start of our evening in Downtown Denver. We went and had dinner at Dixon's and then walked up to the Parade of Lights. This is one of the best parades of the year. It is cold but well worth it. At this point in the evening, it was probably around 36 degrees. We saw dancers, bands, floats and balloons.

Here is the dancers!

A float.

And of course the balloon. Not sure what he is doing. I think he had a little too much to drink to stay warm before attending the parade.

And this is Lolly's perspective. We acutally got a place on the fence so she was right there to watch but her space kept shrinking. I had to be watching her a lot to make sure no one squished her.

Pumpkin Pies

Here she is...assisting in the making of the Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie. She helped here and there with the baking. She really like helping rolling out the rolls. But she is better at the Christmas Cookies.

Artsy Picture.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tonight Lolly and I are baking rolls, pumpkin pie and a brownie dessert. I will have Tom get some pictures of the event. We will be going to Jim and Beth's for Thanksgiving. It is a great time but its just not like when I was growing up - lots of people and lots of food.

Miss you - Mom & Dad, Sara, Chip, Quentin, Flash, Jocelyn.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Merry Christmas! (2nd snow of the season)

Today was our second snow of the season. This is a picture outside of work this morning. We had a lot more snow up in Arvada but this is the only picture I got this morning. It was slick driving in. I almost slid through the intersection of Wadsworth and 32nd Street. I was glad that we got an early start. Love the snow!! Wearing my ice skating penguin socks today!

God's Wonders - Part 2

This is outside of our house in the evening.

Raking Leaves - Action Pictures

God's Wonders...

Having a rough day!

Yesterday when I picked up Lolly, she was telling me what a rough day she had.

1. Jacob ripped the ball off her stocking cap

2. She was bit on the leg because Jacob was pretending to be a vampire (but he left a bruise through her jeans)



and the kicker of the day was: (drum roll please)



3. A bird was "mean" to her. According to Lolly, the bird "threw up" on her coat when she was on the playground. We concluded that she was pooped on by a goose. Once she realized that, she had to take her coat off as soon as possible.



What a rough day!

It is a time of Thanksgiving.

I wanted to express how thankful I am for my family. Today I had the pleasure of going to my daughter's Preschool Thanksgiving Lunch. Now, it may not sound like much fun - having lunch with forty 3 & 4 year olds but it was. It really lifted my heart to have Lolly excited to see me in the middle of the day and to get the chance to spend time with her at school.

Last night Lolly experienced an atomic meltdown (it doesn't happen often but when it does - WATCH OUT!) that really saddened me and made me angry but today I felt nothing but joy to see my little girl acting like such a beautiful & smart child. I felt joy because I was able to be there for the lunch. I am very lucky to work at a place that I some flexibility to be able to get away for a few hours.

Sometimes we have to sacrifice for our kids -

time away from work:2 hours
extra driving in the car: 30 miles
smile on my daughters face when she asks if I want the other half of her cookie: Priceless

Music Review

Tom turned me on to a new CD and artist - Shooter Jennings. Now, we are not country fans. I would rather be submerged in hot oil before I would listen to any modern country music but the old stuff is great. Give me Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson or Waylon Jennings. That is the cool thing about Shooter - he is Waylon Jennings and Jessie Coulters son and he sings some mean old time country music. Check out his website www.shooterjennings.com and listen to some tunes.

The Bird is the word! (Excerpt of story)

"Wyoming coach apologizes for flipping bird during Utah game"

ESPN.com news services

CASPER, Wyo. -- Wyoming coach Joe Glenn didn't like how Utah tried an onside kick with a 43-point lead, and he let coach Kyle Whittingham know by giving him the finger.

On Monday, Glenn apologized, and the Mountain West Conference issued a public reprimand for the gesture, which violated the conference's sportsmanship policy.

"I met with my team on Sunday and apologized to them for the gesture I made toward the Utah bench during the game," Glenn said Monday in a statement. "I also want to apologize to all fans for that action. Football is an emotional game, and I let my emotions get the best of me. I felt it was appropriate for me to let my team and all fans know that I am truly sorry for that emotional moment."

Glenn said after the 50-0 loss that he didn't remember giving the finger.
"Honest to God, I can't even respond to it," Glenn said. "Maybe, I don't know."

Find the crow and I'll eat it.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Rush

Just had to post the picture of Rush. (No I am not a fanatic - just really like thier music. Blame it on Tom because I never used to like them.)

When will Rush be taking the stage...

We went to hike at Red Rocks on Saturday AM and was surprised at how many people

go to work out. We had just planned to have a walk with the dog. But Lolly had to play around (of course) and this is her sitting by herself. I had to add the graffiti to the picture because she is so small - you might have missed her.

Happy Birthday to me!

Happy Birthday to me
Happy Birthday to me
Happy Birthday dear meeee
Happy Birthday to me!

I turned 32 today.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween evening started and ended great! Lauren was ery excited to go Trick or Treating. The evening starting with getting dressed and she was a beautiful Cinderella. We did her makeup and hair. Tom took her to Grandma and Papa's house to start. when they got back it was just getting dark. Lolly and I headed out through our neighborhood to trick or treat. She was running up to doors and talking loud and remembering to say "Thank you". On the 9th house, the guy had a bowl with a hand in it. That was the end of our experience. She wanted to go home after that. I got her to go to one more house and we walked by the houses that were decorated. We decided to head over to our church for the Fall Festival and we had fun playing games and getting candy there. We had fun and I hope y'all had fun on your Halloween. Next up - Trish's 32nd Birthday!!

Love ~ trish

Sunning himself...

Just had to post this great picutre of Tom sunning himself over the

weekend. It was such a beautiful day that it was too nice to hang out inside - even when you didn't feel good with a cold.

Casa Bonita

On Friday night, we headed to Casa Bonita because Lolly could wear her costume. Our little Cinderella has a grand old time. If you haven't been there, it is really fun. One picture is Lolly in front of the diving pools where the cliff divers jump. Lolly also found a treasure chest with a great treasure - tootise rolls (ick). We will be posting more pictures tomorrow from our forays during Trick or Treating.

The Great Pumpkin

Apparently, you need to kick the pumpkin before you pick one. It is kind of like kicking the tires on a car, I guess. I had to stop her from kicking all the pumpkins. She ended up getting two pumpkins. She had to have a small one. I will post pictures of her pumpkins that she carved. She was very excited.

Papa takes his pumpkin picking very seriously. He is very intent on finding exactly the right pumpkin.