Merry Christmas

Santa came, just as promised on Christmas morning.



Apparently he didn't realized the limited space we had to bring things back - guess we'll need to have a talk to him about that next year.



But first we had to start with some holiday (green and red) waffles. Once Jaydon realized he could have whipped cream on them he wasn't so interested in the waffles anymore, just the toppings. After breakfast then it was time to open stockings.



Tylor really didnt understand what was happening but he did know that Jaydon was excited so he was too.



He got some power rangers.



Some gooey, gummy lizards.



He let his dad wear the silly glasses he got (they were way too big for him).



And a basket full of plastic fruit that he happily fed to everyone. After stocking were opened it was time to get showered and dressed, which with a house full of people can take a long time.



Tylor happily played with the army men, standing them up and knocking them over and doing it over and over again. Both boys got lots of fun presents. Tylor got a new style of pacifier.



Something he's never taken too but with all the attention he was getting for this one I think he started to reconsider



(so it quickly disappeared after the Christmas fun was over).



Aunt Sarah got a cute Penguin hat from the boys.



Steve got the wine carraf he'd been wanting (talk about difficult to get home...), I got a new i-pad



and Jaydon got to be Rudolf for awhile (until the batteries ran out).

After all the present opening fun it was time for naps. The boys had quite a morning but the day wasn't over yet. After napsit was time for family photos.



We hadn't originaly planned to do them on Christmas but with the snow storm that came in they got delayed and it ended up being a great activity for the afternoon.



The day was perfect, warm enough to be outside for a little while without a jacket.



Everything had a new layer of nice fluffy snow.



After a while the boys got tired of the posing and smiling so we let them play with some of the airplane toys they got. Poozie, our photographer and long time family friend (she did the photos at our wedding) got some great shoots of the boys having fun on Christmas in the snow.









Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday Uncle Mike

Back to Palisade just in time to see some Sunday football.

Steve took the opportunity to start to educated Tylor on it. Tylor was just thrilled to be allowed and sit and watch TV for several hours at a time with the adults.

Christmas Eve is Uncle Mike's birthday so our family's tradition is to have birthday cake.

First Uncle Mike got to open up all his presents, with the help of his nephews of course.

He got a Worlds Largest Gummy bear which is 5 lbs in total weight. Also something the nephews were happy to help with.

We also topped it off with the some doctor cake pops which ended up being too cute to eat. Once Uncle Mike opened his presents then the boys were able to each open one gift.

Tylor got his first Broncos pillow.

He's really started to talk lately so it was cute to hear him say "thank you mike", I almost got it on video...

Jaydon got some neat airplane toys.

Aunt Sarah and Jaydon decided to make a ginger bread house.


And Tylor just focused on quality control of the building supplies.


Tylor also created a new fun game of "Where's Tylor" in the curtains. He would go in, hide then call for himself which was just too cute.

Withe the help of Dad, he also discovered a great way to get lots of laughs with a little tape.

Now every time he sees tape he want's us to put it on his nose.

Fun in Steamboat

With so many people all in one house there was always lots of food to eat and fun to be had. Every family took one night to cook up their own special feast.

When Mike's friends heard that he was in Steamboat in a house with lots of extra beds they took the chance to come up and join the fun. It was great for Jaydon since it meant he always had someone else in the bunkbed room with him. Marsha and Westy came bearing decorations for all.

Tylor loved the beads and spent hours playing with them.

For Jaydon the highlight was meeting Mike's girlfriend Jen.

He fell head over heals for her. Where ever Jen was so was Jaydon. Good thing the couches were big so he could get lots of cuddle time with her.

Jaydon also discovered the fun of nail polish thanks to Aunt Bun-Bun and much to the chagrin of Steve.

Aunt Bun painted his nails with christmas colors and he loved it. She said he was the most patient (almost) 4 year she'd ever given a manicure too, he was very careful to let them dry and didn't smudge a single one (mom on the other hand was not so careful).

Tylor also discovered that his dad an actually an elf from the North Pole...

More snow in Steamboat

Next on the itinerary was heading up to Steamboat for some more fun in the snow with the family.



The boys loved seeing all the snow, there were piles of it everywhere and it even covered the roads to their amazement.



In steamboat we had a very large crowd joining us so we rented a 7 bedroom ski in/out house on the slopes. It was a beautiful house which was specifically designed for accommodating large skiing groups. The kitchen was huge, the downstairs ski closet had boot dryers installed, the bunk bed room alone could sleep 9 people, not to mention all the master suite room with jacuzzi bathtubs.



The drive way heated which was perfect for the kids.



We spent the first day just playing in the snow bank.



Showing the boys how to make snow angels (though it was almost too deep for that).



Collecting icicles from the rafters which were ready made weapons of all sorts.



I was very happy how fragile they were and the new game became smashing them rather than stabbing each other.



The heated driveway was very steep which meant we had a ready made sledding hill that was protected from the actual road. It took some effort to get a trail broken to get a sled down but once we did Jaydon got to give it a try.



He's not a big risk taker so after 2 fairly unsuccessful attempts he had had enough.



Tylor wanted to join the fun but the snow was to deep for us to carry him in so he was left on the driveway which he was not happy about.

Grandma was able to get a few good runs in though.

But Tylor did have all the snow he could ever want to eat right at his glove tips.



It snowed 6+ inches every day that we were there so it was difficult to see much of the view. One morning we decided to take the boys on the gondola anyway, just for the fun of ridding it high up in the sky.



Well our luck panned out and the skies cleared just as we were coming down from lunch time and heading back home for nap time. The boys loved the gondola. The next day we planned to take them again but Jaydon got sick so I stayed home with him but Steve and Tylor rode it up and down for about 2 hours. Tylor loved it and called it the bus. Jaydon and I did discover a chairlift swing the house hd in the backyard.



Jaydon loves swinging so this was a good consultation prize for him.

Tylors first snow

Two days after we arrived we had a big snows storm that covered everything in a mystical white.


Now this was what the boys were expecting when we said we were going to Colorado and were going to see snow.

 It was the nice light fluffy kind perfect for making snow balls.

Which the boys caught onto very quickly.

Tylor was finally getting a little more comfortable with all of his snow gear and was willing to venture out in it with his big snow boots on. And even when he did fall it was no big deal because the landing was soft (though he needed help up every time which he didn't like).

He thought it was really neat that the snow would stick to his gloves, he also loves to eat ice so eating snow was a natural for him.

Dad gave them a schooling in how to make, and then throw snow balls.

After the camera mom and grandma got tired of being the target for all their carefully made snow balls, and Jaydon figured out that dad was a pretty good aim,

we diverted there attention by suggesting they make a snow man.

It took steve about 3 attempts before he could roll a big ball that would not be immediately destroyed by the boys.

Once they got the destruction out of their system then they were all about making their new snowy friend.

Jaydon carefully found rocks to make the face with.

Tylor decided he was more interested in eating the carrot rather then letting the snow man use it.

He later learned that dipping the carrot in snow was an extra yummy snack. With cold fingers and wet clothes we got one last picture with the snow man and headed in to warm up.