There were too many...

... cute pictures from Christmas. Here are few more. Enjoy!

Anna excited about some earrings she got in her stocking. he he

Me and Catherine

Padriac enjoying his new sled, inside

Catherine hanging out with daddy

Grandparents and their grandchildren

On Christmas day, my parents really wanted to get a picture of them with their three grandchildren... it was really hard to get a picture of all the kiddos happy AND looking at the camera. In fact, it didn't happened. The succession of the photos are fairly humerous:

It was a good thought, anyway!

Our Christmas #2

Yes, we did have two "Christmases." After leaving my parents house on Friday, we opened yet MORE gifts at our house... Jonathan and Catherine had a good time getting more new toys and adorable clothes.

Again, so many great pictures... hard to choose which ones to post

Catherine and I opening a gift for her

Jonathan enjoying one is his gifts from Aunt Amy

Catherine having "fun" with one her new toys from Santa

Jonathan's big gift from Grammy and Granddaddy, was a train set with a table! He loves it!

Chris's big gift was a poker table... he can't wait to host a poker game! My parents got him some matching folding chairs. All he needs now is players! Anyone game??

Christmas

Merry Christmas, family and friends! What a GREAT season!! Christmas is my favorite time of year... and what a wonderful time we have had the past several days.

On Christmas Eve day we drove down to Colorado Springs to spend a couple of days with my family. We continued our 8+ year tradition of going to a local Chinese restaurant with another family after Christmas Eve Mass... Chris and I were very nervous about bringing the kids to a nicer restaurant after their bedtime for an extended meal. It was pretty amazing how good the kids were! Jonathan literally sat, very happily, in a high chair for a little over 2 hours! Then, our friend put Catherine to sleep right before our food showed up. It was a wonderful evening of joyful celebration of the birth of Our Savior.

The following morning my brother and his family came down for the day... we opened gifts, ate lots of food and played Wii. Again, another wonderful day of celebration.

Here are few fun pictures of the time down with my family. There were so many great pictures, it was hard to choose!!

Jonathan and I enjoying one of his new books, from Santa.

Quinn opening her stocking

Chris and Quinn playing Wii

Catherine hanging out while we were opening gifts

The whole clan (minus Justin, the soon-to-be son/brother-in-law)

Preparing for Christmas 2

A tradition that I grew up with around Christmas, was decorating the Tree as a family. It was a big to do. My mom would make lots of appetizers and have quite a few sweets for the evening. Together as a family we would eat, hang ornaments, listen to Christmas music, sing songs and have a few laughs. Dispite the strong opinions I may have had as to where I thought which ornaments should be hung where, it was always a nice evening with the family.

So, with the few ornaments that Chris and I have we decorated our tree on Sunday. Overall, we had a great time! Though we soon found out that ornament hooks are imperative to the process. he he

Jonathan had fun taking the ornaments out of the boxes and wrapping, and pulling off the ones already hung.

I am confident as the years progress our tradition will only get more and more fun.

Have a blessed remainder of Advent!

Our tree with no ornamentsWe are close to finished!Snack time for Chris...... and for Jonathan

And, we are done!

Preparing for Christmas

One of the traditions that Chris's family has during any holiday- especially Christmas- is making sugar cookies. By the time we were married I had received close to 200 cookie cutters from his side of the family. It was apparent that I was to follow closely the tradition of the making of the sugar cookie. :-)

Chris's late grandmother, Grandma Bea, had an incredible recipe for a 'melt in your mouth cookie.'


So, when a holiday rolls up, we are rolling out... dough that is. Today was the big extravaganza for the making of the Christmas sugar cookies! We might even frost them tonight!

Rollin', rollin', rollin'. And cutting, cutting, cutting.

In the oven for 10 minutes.

Don't they look scrumptious??

Too good to be true...

... I don't think that I will have to be vaccuuming again anytime soon! YIPPPEEE!

5 1/2 months and hanging out

Catherine is 5 1/2 months now! She is smiling and laughing a ton. She has also found her feet... but we are anxiously awaiting for her to turn over from her back to stomach, which will make sleeping at night a lot easier for her (and us) because she likes to sleep on her tummy.

It is hard to take a picture of just her... Jonathan gets SO EXCITED to be in any picture these days. :-) Here are some recent pictures of us:

Forgiveness

The other day I was trying to get something done on the computer and Jonathan kept playing with the keyboard, pulling things out of the drawers, begging me to read him a book, unplugging things he shouldn't, etc... After awhile, I got fairly frustrated and raised my voice with him- which ended up with Jonathan crying and me more upset. All I wanted to do was to take 20 minutes to get whatever it was done on the computer without any distractions. And things didn't go as I had planned, then blew up at someone who was just vying for my attention. A few minutes after the "eruption" I calmed down. I decided to let go whatever it was I was doing, and to sit down with Jonathan and play- because it was obvious that is what he longed for. As we started playing I glanced at Jonathan and was overtaken with love. I looked at him and said, "Jonathan, I am sorry that I got mad at you. I love you." He simply looked back at me, smiled, handed me a book and plopped on my lap. What a lesson in forgiveness for me! How many times do I hold grudges, and like doing it? That day, Jonathan taught me- even though he wasn't intentionally doing so- what forgiveness really is: to forget and continue to love!

Catherine and Catherine

When we moved to north Denver, we were introduced to an incredible family that attends the same church and live only minutes from our house. Over the past year we have grown incredibly close with them and spend as much time with the family as we can. A lot of our Sundays are filled with donuts, coffee and brunch with one another. Several times I have even been asked if I am the sister of Nicole- the wife and mom- the woman I have become so close with. There are people at our church who have a difficult time telling us apart. :-)

They have three girls and a boy, and their second daughter is also named Catherine. The other day they were over and we decided to take a picture of the two of them together! Soooooooooo cute!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend down in Colorado Springs with my family. This is the first Thanksgiving that Chris and I have spent with my family- for the past several years we have been able to travel to see Chris's family for the holiday, which has been a blessing. (But traveling with two little kiddos is difficult- at least for us. :-) )

Thanksgiving was a fantastic day filled with fun, lots of yummy food and great conversation. Thanks to my mom for doing all of the cooking and hosting! We are truly thankful for the incredible family- near and far- that we have been given.

Over the weekend, my parents reserved rooms for all of us siblings to stay in Breckenridge. Most of my family skied, but Chris and I opted out and decided to just hangout, use the pool and jacuzzi's and just plain old relax. We spent quality time with all of the family and enjoyed the beauty of the mountains. It snowed all weekend- which made everything even more spectacular, but made the 2 hour drive home a 5 hour one... the roads were terrible. But, despite the bad drive home we are truly grateful for the time we had together as a family and that we arrived home safely.

On the way home, Jonathan got tired... and this is the way he fell asleep:

I hope you all had great Thanksgivings as well! Thank you for your friendship and being so faithful in reading the blog.