A Snowy Day

Yesterday a snow storm hit Denver...lots and lots of snow!!! We have about 18 inches outside (of course I am guessing because I have not dared to venture outside yet)...but we are up, Eva is having her warm milk, sitting in her chair, cuddling with her blankie and cat in the hat ( a recent addition to her plethora of toys-will be explained in a later blog) and watching Curious George.

I figured that now would be as a good a time as any to get caught up on some blogging!!!

So I will start with Eva and Drew's snow adventure yesterday! Of course it only lasted less than 10 minutes, but let me tell you, Eva really loves the snow! Drew can't wait to take her skiing when she is just a bit bigger and I bet she will love it! I think we are going to try to go sledding tomorrow. Will take more pics then!!!

All bundled up to head outside!

Hanging with Daddy...snow is coming down!

Hey...this snow is kind of hard to walk in. 

Sitting in the snow...EATING the snow! YUM

Silly Daddy

Taking a ride on Daddy's shoulder

Hey this is kind of fun!

She kept face planting it...on purpose! It was sooo funny!

Okay...ready to go in. It is cold out here!!

All in all...it was a successful trip for our little snow bunny! Will probably go out again today...because, there is a lot of shoveling to do out there! Although, our really, really awesome neighbor was snow blowing our sidewalk yesterday! He may have that really bad RV in his backyard (you can see it from our backyard and in the pics above)...but he is obviously a good neighbor...may have to bake him some cookies!

Christmas is over... (fyi-I started this blog on 01/05!!)

...and I can finally take a second to sit down and blog! The decorations are put away, there are no more Christmas sweets in the house, the Christmas lights are still hung up outside, but they aren't turned on. All in all, that is kind of depressing since I love the holidays, but Christmas can't come again next year until it is over this year, right?

On Christmas Eve, my parents, brother, sister and brother-in-law gave us a NEW CAMERA!!! I am beyond excited and obviously we are still learning how to use it! It was just an awesome surprise and the best gift because now we can finally get some good pics! We took over 700 for the holiday alone! So, I am going to document Christmas here mainly with a bunch of pics (I promise not all 700!!)

Eva waking up Christmas morning...I think I was more excited than both Mot and her for Santa's visit!

A little milk with her FAVORITE monkey before opening presents.

Going downstairs to take a look at the presents for the first time.

Hey...this isn't half bad!!!

Mot getting in on the action...doesn't he look thrilled?

Eva's new towel and Daddy making her laugh!

Wow...rocking out with Elmo! 

Once Eva opened her book, she was not interested in the rest of the gifts! She loves to read!

Beautiful Colorado day for Christmas...sun and a little snow on the way to my parents house.

Peanut getting in the spirit

Gramma made a Sock Monkey blanket for Eva (or Drew??) 

Grampa got Eva a sled!

Mot was apparently a little cold...needed a new sweater!

Drew being, well, DREW!

A kiss under the mistletoe with my love.

Me madre and myself. 

My bro, Andrew...same shirt as Drew...new holiday tradition. 

Grampa making the ginormous prime rib!

Poor old Thor being forced into the Christmas spirit.

Hard to believe Christmas has come and gone. It is my favorite time of year and was a total success this year. 

Happy new year to all! Hope it is good to you! 

Now...wedding time!!!!!

Congrats to Baby Ethan!!!

Last Tuesday, we witnessed Baby Ethan's baptism. He is such an amazing baby boy, who I know will be an amazing little boy and grow up to be an amazing man! I am excited to see him grow up...just not too fast!!!

Congrats to Michelle and Simon - and the proud God Parents Dylan and Sarah!

PATHETIC!!!!!!!!

There are simply no words to excuse the fact that I have done NOTHING with this blog for over 2 months! I have had many friends and family tell me to get on it!!

With Christmas projects and cards and decorating, etc, I don't have time to write a long post...so I will catch everyone up with pictures and then try to be better about blogging from here on out!! So here goes...(also, please excuse the poor quality of the pictures...our camera is awful, will be getting a new one for Christmas!!)

 We had Eva's One Year and family photos taken. Have I ever mentioned how incredible our photographer is??

Halloween...included a trip to a pumpkin patch, a field trip to my work for trick-or-treating, trick or treat street at the outdoor mall with Michelle, Simon and Ethan, and the real deal...trick-or-treating in the neighborhood!

Riding the tractor to the pumpkin patch.

I think this is the 'one'.

Family photo op!!

Michelle and Ethan (cutest little pirate ever!!!) and Daddy and Eva (cutest little peacock ever!!!)

She wanted to be carried the whole way! Which I didn't mind, except her costume was a little hidden. 

Visiting Momma at work in my pretty costume 

Trick or Treating with Daddy

Eva's hair has gotten long enough to put in a 'pebbles' pony tail on top of her head...even pigtails. The problem is that she refuses to leave the bows, barrettes and hair ties in her hair for any length of time...she always pulls them out and the result of this is a REALLY, REALLY bad hair style. See for yourself! 

Cute Hair...

Not so cute hair....

Really, really BAD hair!

For Thanksgiving, Aunty Jen, Uncle Brian and Cousin Sam came to visit! This time, Eva and Sam got along pretty well! I guess third time is a charm since the last 2 times that Sam saw Eva, he was not a fan! But this time, they played together, chased each other, roared at each other like dinosaurs, went to the museum together and had, what seemed like a pretty good time! By the end of their trip, Sam wanted Eva to stay at Gramma and Grandpa's when it was time for us to go home! It was so sweet...already miss them!

Sam and Grandpa cooking for the big meal.

Eva "helping" cook.

The day after Thanksgiving, we celebrated Christmas with the kids...we decorated the tree and the kids opened their presents. Spoiled rotten little ones!! It was a really nice time. 

Eva helping Sam open his presents.

This is a terrible picture, but the last one that I snapped the night before the Cox family left to go back to North Carolina. Sam is kissing Eva goodbye. This was followed up with a dinosaur roar and a big hug!!

Here are some other random photos from the past few months!  

Eva is "riding" Grandpa's motorcycle.

 As some of you may know, we had a bit of a scare last month with Eva. She got a horrible fever (almost 105) and when we went to the doc, they found evidence to suggest that she might have the same kidney disease as my dad. After multiple urine and blood tests, ultrasounds and check ups, the doctor determined that they think it must have just been a virus. Thank God! But they are going to continue to monitor her to make sure that nothing pops up again. It was a rough few weeks, but thankfully, she is back to normal! 

My sick baby waiting at the doctor's office. 

She is still sick here...but the fever had lifted and she was goofing off a bit for the camera!!

One more thing that I wanted to make note of is that last month (the same weekend that Eva was ill), Drew's mother passed away. Drew and his two sister's, Veronica and Emily, went to Chicago for all of the arrangements and to meet up with that side of the family. I never met her, but my hope for her is that she knows she was loved and that she finds peace.

It has been a very busy few months! So many other things have happened (that either, I do not remember or I do not have pics to show-again because the camera sucks!) I am looking forward to sharing the Christmas season with Eva and seeing her take it all in! We have been working with her on what Santa says. She started by saying "ho"...we have moved onto "ho, ho"...I figure by Christmas, she will have it down!!

Love to you all...I am back from being MIA!!!