Christmas

I always try to make homemade gifts for my family at Christmas time. I just realized that I've never documented them on the blog because I didn't want to spoil the surprise... SO, these are my crafty crafts from the past few years....

I made a version of this for everyone (wall hanging, quilt square, etc.) the only common theme was the trees (I loved these trees :)

A wooden nativity
Table runners, I LOVE these. They were pretty labor intensive, but totally worth it.
And my present this year has been my favorite so far! I made profiles of all the families! I love these things, and I love my parents the most (the grandkids walking). The best part is that these were pretty quick to make, as soon as I got the pictures.
The families... top to bottom, left to right... My family, Jason & boys, Melissa & girls, Steve's family, grandkids, and Nichole's family

Here's a close up of my favorite
As you see I also always make something for myself :) This was the first year that I didn't make a christmas only decoration. I don't want anyone to feel obligated to hang something up all year round, but I couldn't pass this up.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! We love this time of year!

Birthday boy

Before bragging about Alex I wanted to put a picture of Dave as a wise man for the stake nativity. They do this production every couple of years and apparently wanted some younger men this year... as you can see they all look like little boys dressing up as kings :) It was fun to watch him, especially for the kids. And it's always fun to see a live nativity.

Alex is now 7 years old! He lost his front tooth a few days before his birthday so now we have this grin for all the pictures.
It's always hard to have his birthday so close to Christmas for me... but I think he really enjoys having them so close together :) We went to a trampoline house with his buddies, and then had cake and ice cream. It seems pretty low key, but I was still a little STRESSED! Maybe just having 6 boys running around does that...

Alex is so much fun to be around. He's sweet and kind and funny, and he's respectful. He also likes to do all those "boy" things. He can't sit down during an exciting movie... and has been known to scream and shout at the screen :) He loves to read and in the morning when he's getting ready for school I usually find him half naked sitting in his chair reading a book (I'm not very nice about finding him like that either...) I love watching him grow and learn and I'm excited for this next year!

Alex

Alex was recognized at school this month for being a CARE student... he exemplified respect :)

I had NO idea! No calls, no 'congratulation' papers home, nothing. He randomly got a coupon for a free Frosty from Wendy's, but I didn't think much of it. Yesterday he brought this home and said it was hanging in the hallway all month! Maybe there's a reason that they don't tell parents until after the fact... but I can't think of it. I'm pretty proud of my boy :)

sports

We've been wrapping up our sports season this last week and I will miss them, but I'm excited for all the extra time during weeknights and saturdays!

I coached a volleyball team for the teenage girls in our church. After a rocky start we not only won the area tournament, but we also won the regional tournament! That's as far as we go, so it's done, but I'm SO proud of my girls! They really stepped it up. They're all 12 or 13, except for one 16 year old. YEA 2nd WARD!!!!

Alex also finished up his season with a bang. This was his first try at soccer and it was really funny to watch :) He likes to guard, and thinks a little too hard when trying to kick the ball. By the last game (during a HUGE wind storm) Alex ended up scoring THREE goals!!! I cheered like crazy (although, you couldn't hear anything because of the wind :)

Here's his cute little team, his cousin Elijah is on here too (to the right of Alex, black hair, serious face :)
I love love love sports, and I hope my kids will realize how much fun it is to work with others.

Halloween week

Who knew October was going to be so crazy busy! I haven't been home at night since the 14th... and I still have a few days to go. But I wanted to blog about the fun stuff, so here we go!

I was in charge of the ward halloween party, and my mom and Dave were automatically on the committee :) Dave challenged some 7 year olds to a jello eating contest (yes, he won).

Our pumpkins :) Alex carved his own this year (a bat), mine is the "boo", and Lydia's is the cat. I don't know why they look like we lit bonfires in them...
Alex, or Anakin Skywalker (I'm SO sorry to the star wars geeks if I spelled that wrong...)
Lydia the spider (thank you thank you to Melissa for both costumes, I did tweak the spider a little)
And I tried to make her hair a web :)
Lydia was really sick about a week ago. I told her she needed to rest so she could go trick-or-treating, to which she replied "it's OK, you can just take my bucket out for me and give me the candy". Awesome. Happy Halloween everyone!

FALL!!!

Fall is our favorite time of year around here...

The leaves...

When mom forgets your jacket in the mountains and you have to snuggle
The giant pumpkin parties (this one is almost 1000 lbs!)
Homework assignments that consist of gathering as many different colors of leaves as you can
Having the putt putt golf place all to yourself
yup, love fall

Italian FEstival

This week we're watching my mom's dog (the one she got when we got Aspen). His name is Rollo, and we're pretty sure he's Aspen's son. They LOVE being together, and are always side by side. Alex now calls them Rollio and Aspenette (aka Romeo and Juliette). I thought it was fitting.

Lydia asked me this morning to put a "love heart" in her lunch. I asked her what that was and she said, "a piece of paper with love written on it". I guess the other moms are writing little love notes in their kids lunches... I'm glad Lydia knows that she needs to give her mom little helps with this kind of stuff :)

Last weekend we went to the Italian Festival. We go every year because it is always so much fun, and GOOD FOOD! Alex and Lydia crushed grapes again, Alex still doesn't like it :)

We also got to dance in the streets too. My old friend Chelsey (sumner) and her little boy danced with us (they're in the blue shirts) Lydia seems to be showing off her calf muscles quite nicely in this picture :)
I also danced the tarantella with Alex. I had forgotten that I put our Italian waffel cookies in my bag right before... this is what they look like after a vigorous tarantella :)
Hopefully we'll get more next year!

Miracle

I just witnessed a miracle. Alex ran outside to play with his socks on, and as he opened the door I yelled "take your socks off!" So, as usual, he tore off his socks and threw them back inside. Then it happened, he said "oh! I was trying to stop that habit!" and ran inside, grabbed his socks, and put them in his room in the hamper! HALLELUJAH! It was amazing, I almost cried :)

Labor Day

Lydia finally had her first day of preschool today! She was super excited. The large purse she is carrying is actually her lunch box! So cool, way better than my tin she-ra (sp?) lunch box when I was her age :)

For Labor Day we went to the Rockies baseball game with my parents. We had a blast! And got great tickets really close for really cheap. Here Alex is wearing his rally cap (er, visor?). The Rockies were behind 3-10, and when he turned it this way the final score ended as 7-10! I had no idea how powerful this superstition was! (yes, the rockies did still lose...)
My mom bought the kids giant icee's, Lydia munched through hers in about 10 minutes :)
And finally, I LOVE having my parents so close. We do fun things with them all the time. We went to Heritage square, and Alex took this picture :) I wish I would've hidden my leg...

First day of school

Alex started first grade this week! We're excited that he gets to eat lunch at school now, and he only has lost his lunchbox once (eeek!)

Lydia also chose to get into her first day of school clothes, although she doesn't start preschool until after Labor Day. We're new at this all day school thing, so we've had a few hiccups... like the lost lunch box, I put him in flip flops on his PE day, and he's still not sure how the seating hierarchy on the bus is set up for the afternoons (apparently it's different than the mornings). Other than that we're having a great time (although Lydia really misses her buddy)

pickles

I've been growing pickling cucumbers this season, and I LOVE it! I have about 2 gallons of these beauties. And even better is the fact that you can now "pickle" things and it only takes 2 days, instead of 2 months! YEA!!!! So, this is the size we like to pick them at...

I messed up and didn't catch this one in time... that's a big pickle!
Then Dave told me one that was by the fence that was getting "pretty big", imagine my surprise when I saw this...
oops, big pickle anyone?

Dog :)

Well, I won :) Dave and I have been debating a dog for months now (maybe even years) and we finally bought one....

This is Clover (we'll probably change her name). She's a pound dog, totally adorable, about one year old, and Dave was putty in her paws. Who knew all Dave needed was a lick on the leg?

Any names suggestions are appreciated :)

Water Fight

The last day of track for the kids is always a water fight. It was one of the funniest things to watch ;)

Do you remember long ago when there was only the one kind of water gun? It was just a water pistol and would basically spit water at someone? Then, the world of water fighting was revolutionized by SUPER SOAKER! Do you remember? Well, they've come a LONG way since then :)

Of course, people still choose to go old school, pitchers and buckets were a plenty. And they do a great job

I bought Alex and Lydia some pretty sweet guns, that weren't too heavy :) That poor kid in the back has a spray bottle... that might be worse than the water pistol, might.
Here's a pretty strong shooter
This one is ridiculous, I mean it's easily 2 feet long, probably weighs about 10 pounds. That kid holding it is like eleven years old (and my height). It also has a orange screen on one side with a bulls eye target on it, so you can shoot accurately. It's insane!
But, no matter how good all those buckets and fancy guns were... this guy definitely won :) Right now he's squirting the 3-6 year olds. Don't you think he'd feel bad about this? Turning a FIRE HOSE on to little kids with pathetic little spray bottles? I don't think he felt bad at all
It was a great fight this year. We love giant water fights :)

Our wonderful garden

We had a poor start to gardening this year. Out of our 20 little seedlings, only 5 survived... and two died in transplanting. The seeds we started outside were drown in a freak rainfall that lasted over 3 days. So, we're very excited about getting ANYTHING this year :)

Alex is standing next to the zucchini, which is doing awesome. I made a mistake and also planted pickling cucumbers and butternut squash in this little box. It's a little ridiculous

I tried soybeans and they're awesome! If you pick them early you have edamame, which tastes SO good. So we'll have to pick these suckers pretty soon :)
These are our two tomato bushes. I've never had tomatoes grow so big before. We had tons of rain in colorado this year, which apparently the tomatoes LOVE. (I did trim that plant, those branches left are all the ones with green tomatoes on them... yum!)
And, lest you think I have a green thumb, I wanted to show you our broccoli plant. So sad! We planted 3, this was the only one that survived, and it seems to have some crazy bug or disease, because those leaves should be big and full, not spindly and holy.
If anyone wants some zucchini or butternut squash, let us know!

camping

When Dave was younger his family would always go camping at Red Feather Lakes. This year we decided to continue the tradition, and we were not disappointed.

Dave got up early in the morning to fish each day... crazy! He caught 6 fish, not too shabby for someone who hasn't fished for years.
We invited the grandparents, of course! My parents and Dave's mom Jaynie came, here's a really intense game of Go Fish.
And Alex trying to reel in his first catch... he never could get one to shore.
I actually caught two, on the same cast, along with a crawdad! I was showing Alex how to cast out and when I reeled it in I had caught someone's old stringer. It was totally awesome! Of course, we didn't eat these, who knows how long they'd been dead.
It was a BEAUTIFUL camping spot, and I'm so glad Dave introduced us to it. We finished the vacation very dirty but very happy! And maybe a little bigger because we ate a LOT of smores :)

Firsts :)

First lost tooth, which took WAY too long to come out :)

First blue ribbon in track for Alex, first track meet for Lydia
First Mauger family reunion (that we attended), first Glenwood springs swim, first 'verbal warning' for speeding for Kendra :), and first time we were in 4 states in 4 days

We're gonna try to slow it down for a while here :)