Christmas in Colorado

We spent Christmas in Colorado this year.  Brett's mom and stepdad moved there in April and we were excited to see a new area.  After 2 planes and a 3 hour drive from Albuquerque, we were so excited to finally be at Nana's and Grandpa Joe's.  The kids were so excited to have so much snow to play in and found the perfect hill to go sledding on.  They were there quite a few times, until Brett broke one of the sleds!  Brett's mom was so great and bought us all tickets to ride the Polar Express.  I don't think I have ever seen two kids who were more excited.  T loves trains and was in heaven to be able to ride the train.  M was so afraid that she would lose her golden ticket and held on to it tightly the whole way.

We had a great Christmas day.  The kids got so much stuff; we had to ship some of it home!  We had a great day and got to meet some of Peggy and Joe's friends.  The kids had fun playing in the snow, riding the 4-wheeler, and spending time with Nana and Grandpa Joe.  Brett and I enjoyed playing games every night, watching a lot of football (Brett, not me), and seeing new places.  We were there for 16 days and though it seemed like a lot, it went by very fast.  

 

Our return trip to NJ was quite an adventure.  I didn't look at our tickets right and when we got to the airport, realized our plane had just left because the time had changed!  The airline worker was great and got us on a plane to Minneapolis, instead of Atlanta, that was leaving at just the right time for us.  However, we ended up leaving late because the plane was too heavy.  I have never had that happen before, but 6 people had to get off the plane to lighten the load.  Because our plane was delayed leaving, we had to "Home Alone" it through the Minneapolis airport.  We had to go from gate G11 to C5.  Lets just say we made it with 5 minutes to spare.  We were sure glad to be back in NJ when we got home.

Christmas at home

Christmas came early to our house this year because we were spending Christmas in Colorado.  We have a little elf named Christopher and he asked Santa to come early.  M and T were so excited to wake up and have their presents to open.  M got a bunch of American Girl stuff for her doll and T got a Leapster Explorer.  He loves it!  M and T got some super cute clothes from Grandma and Pa and sleeping bags from Mom and Dad.  They love their sleeping bags and requested a camp out that night. I think the pictures say it all!

Friend day in NYC and Boys day out

M got invited to a birthday party at the American Girl store in NYC.  Since it doesn't take much to convince us to go to NYC or the American Girl store, we were so excited to go.  We caught a very early train to NYC and booked it to the American Girl store.  The girls had so much fun having brunch with their dolls.  We then went to see the tree in Rockefeller Center and then headed to Central Park and let the girls go crazy playing on the rocks, while the moms had fun chatting it up.  After Central Park, we took the subway to Bryant Park for ice skating.  It was so much fun, but so crowded.  The girls were so tuckered out by the end of the day.

While M and I were in NYC, Brett and T were having fun at the squadron Christmas Party.  T loves airplanes and so wanted to spend most of his time on the C-17 on display.  He loved going and sitting on Santa's lap and telling him everything he wanted for Christmas. 

Olympic Gymnasts

M loves gymnastics.  She made a team last April and started her team practices in June.  Ever since then all she wants to be is a gymnast.  While watching the gymnastic team qualifying round of the Olympics, M told me that she wanted to be on that team.  I am very proud of my little girl for having such high dreams, even if I  am going to have to start a "Send M to the Olympics" fund.  Anyways, in November, I got a phone call from one of my friends about taking our daughters to see the show the Olympic gymnasts put on.  I told M when she got home from school that we were going to see the show that night and her entire face lit up.  She said "It's not even my birthday!"  That made it all worth it.  That night M sat on the edge of her seat the whole time.  She loved the show.  She loved it even more when we moved down to the really good seats at intermission.  Here are some pictures of her with her friend at the show.

First Snow

 We had our first snow storm of the year right after Hurricane Sandy.  Good thing school was already cancelled because of the hurricane. The kids had so much fun playing in the snow.  Too bad we have not had that much snow since then.  T got all of his snow gear for Christmas, way after this storm!

Our T Man

We took this video of our little man.  It totally shows his personality!!  He cracks us up on a regular basis!