Visit with Santa - 2013

 

 

This year, Santa made his annual visit to Fox Hollow on December 6th.  The girls were excited to go see him and even practiced what they were going to say.  Zoey asked for a Furby Boom and Kaitlin asked for a microscope.  Santa asked them to be nicer to each other, to not fight so much, and to keep their rooms clean.  (I appreciated that!!) 

 

When we got home from our visit with Santa, we found that our Elf on a Shelf, Sara, had snuck into the house, put up a miniature Christmas tree, and brought tickets to Disney on Ice.  What a nice little surprise, huh?



Grades

 My grades for the semester are in!  I got a 106% in Geography and 97% in Integrated Mathematics.  Sweet, huh?  Classes start again Jan 21, 2014.

The Day My Sister Was Born by Kaitlin Carnahan

Kaitlin did this little project at school.  The link is on Mrs. Kelly's website under student projects. (It is funny to listen to some of the other kids' stories, too!) 


I hope with all my heart that this link stays forever and ever. I'm not sure it will, so check it out while you can:

http://k12share.com/s25183/


The story goes more like this:  My water broke, my parents came to our house to stay with Kaitlin while Brandon and I went to the hospital.  Almost 24 hours later, I had Zoey by C-section.  My parents brought Kaitlin the next day to meet Zoey.  She met her and then watched a movie and ate applesauce because honestly there's not much else to do in a hospital room.  After two days, we took Zoey home. 
However, I DO like Kaitlin's memory of the event!  It seems like so much more fun to crawl under people to get the first glimpse of the baby.

Enjoy! ♥

13.1

On Oct 20, 2013 I finished the Denver Rock and Roll Half Marathon with Tim and Kyle!  Our official time was 2:10:21 which was way under my original anticipated time of 2:30. I felt so proud to accomplish this goal I set earlier this summer.  Reaching this goal took a significant amount of training hours and a lot of motivation and support from my friends and family.  I appreciate everything.  ♥ ♥

I'm already looking forward to doing the half-marathon again next year!  Mark your calendar:  Oct 19, 2014.

A New Car!

Meet the newest member of our family....

....our new 2006 Nissan Pathfinder!  While it's not a *NEW* car, it's new to us and has a lot of the features we were looking for.  Besides the third-row seat, the second best feature is the dual climate control.  This is especially exciting for us since Brandon is always burning and I am always freezing.  Now I can crank my side up to 90 and he can leave his at 60.  Win, win!  ;-)

When you make a large purchase like this, there is always doubt in the back of your mind.  Did we make the right decision, did we pick a good vehicle, etc... 
The day after we bought it, I was flipping through the owner's manual and two four-leaf clovers were stuck between the pages!  We figure that *must* be a good sign.  RIGHT?!?!

We've had the Pathfinder for just under two weeks and so far its been great.  The girls looooove climbing to the far back seat.  It makes me feel a little like a bus driver, but that feeling goes away when I see them smiling ear to ear in my rearview mirror.

Just let us know if you want to go for a ride sometime!  ♥

Happy Birthday, ZoZo!

On Sept 7, Zoey turned FIVE YEARS OLD! 

What a sweet, funny, caring, smart, beautiful, lovely, adorable, bright, amazing, huggable and happy little girl we have.  ♥

St. Mary's Glacier

It seems like this super-cool hike has now become a yearly tradition. 

St. Mary's Glacier is just past Idaho Springs, CO ~ about an hour away.  Its a quick hike- less than a mile, and has lots of big rocks to climb over. 

The best part is the payoff at the end ~ the glacier, the lake, and the surrounding mountains are absolutely gorgeous. ♥

Here's a picture of Brandon teaching the girls how to skip rocks:

 

While we were there, the storm clouds started rolling in...

....but that didn't stop us.  ;)

 

 

We made it to the glacier, took a couple pictures, ate lunch...

 

... and then made it back down before the rain and the hail came.

 

See ya next year, glacier. 

Denver County Fair 2013

Here are a few pictures that I took at the Denver County Fair.  The girls had a great time seeing the animals up close and were excited to ride the ponies.

 

The one event that I didn't get a picture of, but should have, was the pie eating contest.  Luckily, none of us participated because honestly it was really kind of gross to watch people scarf down an entire pie in three minutes. :-\

 

Lakeside Amusement Park

Last week we went to Lakeside Amusement Park.  We had a great time and ended up with quite a few cute pictures ~ enjoy!