Snow in CO

Well, it snowed!  (It definitely took long enough).  Cambrie couldn't wait to go play and put on her snow gear before even an inch accumulated.  She filled up her bucket then ran out of things to do.  So she came in to warm up while more snow fell....then it was time to go right back outside. 

She desperately wanted to go sledding, but we still don't own a sled.  So Jeremy used an old cardboard box and fashioned a very fancy sled for her. 

He was her Clydesdale and pulled her all over the front yard.  What a blast. 

Splish-splash

To the Aquarium!  Caution...wet area ahead. 

There's something really cool about aquariums.  The blue light cast by the light reflecting through the water that makes everything around it shimmer....it's pretty magical.  Plus, you get to see all of these animals that are impossible to see otherwise because they're so reclusive.  My dad and McKenzie were fascinated by the sea turtle swimming over their heads, definitely magical. 

Now look at this picture of Cambrie.  You can see the giant fish she's posing next to, but that sea weed next to her isn't sea weed, they're moray eels.  Creepy, creepy things. 

My girls sitting near their new nurse maids, nurse sharks. 

Aren't sea horses cool? 

Cambrie and McKenzie loved playing in these little domes because they put you right in the middle of one of the tanks.  You can just see the top of McKenzie's bunny hat. 

Piranha's...they're from the AMAZON.  McKenzie was trying to give them kisses, but after a few times she misjudged the distance between her and the fish and slammed her face against the glass.  She was crying but the piranhas never even flinched. 

We were able to touch some starfish. 

And the shark viewing room is way cool.  Cambrie was trying her best to look through the floor window for a shark.  

McKenzie is in love with my dad.  And when she was getting bored looking at the fish, my dad was always able to make her laugh. 

When it came time to feed the rays, Camille was hysterical to watch.  I wish I had the whole thing on video because she kept jumping, laughing, and dropping the fish.  She'd put her hand in the water but whenever a ray came over to eat she pulled her hand up out of reach.  The rays would get as high as they could to reach for the fish and would start splashing her which made her squeal even more.  She finally calmed down long enough to get her hand back in the water, but still let go at the first touch of the ray.  She was soaked afterwards with ray water...what a hoot! 

A neat-o picture of an octopus. 

And a quick family picture outside under the lights before we all froze.    

Random moments

Here are just a few moments from my parents' visit that make me smile.  My dad brought the girls a couple more Christmas presents.  My mom was just as surprised as the girls when McKenzie opened up her very own CD player.  

Kenzie is in love with this thing!  She straps it over her shoulder and totes it all around the house.  The CD's are plastic and therefore non-scratchable (yes!).  Just look how excited she is! 

Camille and I spent a lot of time in the kitchen baking.  Cambrie received a couple new aprons for Christmas, and Camille thought it would definitely be more fun to wear the child-size aprons than the mom-sized ones.  Regardless of what aprons we were wearing, our pies tasted fantastic! 

Jeremy and I also finally bought our first entertainment center.  We have been using dumpster finds and old end tables for our entire marriage, and decided it was time to upgrade.  It was surrounded by these cardboard blocks in its packaging and Cambrie thought they made great building blocks.  She and my mom made a ramp for her Zhu-Zhu pets. 

And then Cambrie wanted to make Philadelphia.  Not too bad eh?  Although she's missing the burned out row homes, and the trash, and the horrible drivers :)

Skittle Bowling

My parents came out to visit...yea!  And while they were here we tried to do as many fun activities as possible.  Because of the snow storm that hit and the freezing, freezing, freezing temperatures we had to find some things to do inside.  Our first choice was bowling.  I haven't been bowling in a really long time and this was Cambrie's first experience.  She was so excited to wear her bowling shoes! 

We found the smallest ball possible for her, put up the bumpers, and even found a ramp for her to use.  My dad and Cambrie were sharing a lane and I loved watching them bowl together. 

He would aim the ramp down the lane while Cambrie went to get her golden ball.  It was heavy and she really had to concentrate as she was carrying it, but she never complained and more importantly, never even dropped the ball. 

They would get the ball situated on the ramp then Cambrie would give it a great big push and watch it as it rolled towards the pins. 

We're pretty sure that her lane sloped to the left, but it didn't stop her from getting the second-highest score of the day with a 108.  Definitely high-five worthy.  

 McKenzie was intrigued by the ball retrieving machine and kept pushing the balls around.  I'm really glad she never got her fingers pinched.  

My sister and dad hanging out waiting for their turn. 

My dad had a good day at the bowling alley, but the rest of us had sub-par games (Cambrie beat the rest of us). 

To mix it up a little we added Skittles to the game.  Red = bowling normally, green = use your opposite hand, purple = granny bowling, orange = bowling backwards, yellow = turn in a circle as you're throwing the ball.  The most entertaining Skittle was the yellow by far.  So many times we would spin and the throw the ball directly into the gutter.  We always hopped for the left-gutter-hop at the end of the lane which would give us one or two pins. 

My mom bowling backwards. 

Camille willing her ball towards the pins. 

And on our last frame we all bowled like Superman.  It was hysterical watching everyone throw themselves towards the pins on their bellies.  This is Jeremy right after his release. 

What a fun day at the bowling alley! 

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas was absolutely fantastic this year.  Every year it just gets better than the year before because our girls get more and more excited.  There was so much anticipation for Santa to come that Cambrie had a hard time falling asleep last night.  Once she woke up this morning she couldn't wait to see what Santa had left.  Here is what she saw this morning. 

Yes, she got her one wish from Santa, a bouncy ball with a handle.  She immediately hopped on that thing and started bouncing all over the house.  It was hard getting a picture of her because she was moving so fast!  The rest of the day when she wanted to go from one point in the house to another, she bounced the whole way there.  Even when she went to the bathroom she had the handle looped around her foot so the ball wouldn't go anywhere.

Santa brought her two so that she can share with her friends when they come over.  McKenzie wanted to be just like her big sister and carried the extra one around until she would bump something and tumble to the ground. 

When it came time to go through their stockings they found some pleasant surprises and new flavors.  Santa had left squeeze applesauce...that's pretty space-age and cool...and Twinkies.  This was Cambrie's first experience with the baked goody and she was not disappointed.  McKenzie preferred just to carry it around in it's plastic cover and squeeze it until all of the filling oozed out. 

Kenzie wasn't sure what she was supposed to do with her stocking. 

But after she found her banana that's all she could focus on.  She's getting really close to saying banana.  Sometimes it comes out, "Nanana"  and sometimes it sounds more like "Bah, bah."  This just looks like, "Mmmm..." 

Jeremy brought home all of the balloons from the dealership yesterday and attached our new key to them.  There wasn't quite enough wrapping paper to put the entire car under the tree, but this was still very festive.  And I couldn't resist capturing the moment with my new camera!  (If you notice the "before" picture of the tree...it is fuzzy and the colors are not so hot...but the colors from the shots following are so much better!  Yea for being able to capture my girls' smiles on film!)

Here we are trying to decide how many more balloons it would take to lift McKenzie into the air.  Luckily for McKenzie we never found out. 

Santa left a Little People farm for McKenzie, which she enjoyed. 

But her favorite toy of the morning was her instrument set. 

She received a little drum with drumsticks, a tambourine, and a few different kinds of shakers/rattles.  She knew exactly what to do with the drum and just started pounding away.  The little egg shakers fit so perfectly in her hands that she carried them around for awhile.  We always knew exactly where she was in the house just by following the "shake, shake, shake".  She is definitely our musical baby; whenever she hears music she starts smiling and dancing and gets a big goofy grin on her face.

  It's great being a mom and seeing your kids get so excited about things.  Cambrie was literally jumping up and down for all of her gifts, even the simplest ones like new Play-Dough. 

Each girl received a couple of new books.  Cambrie got "Where's Waldo,"  and so far has been great at finding the man in white and red.  I don't think I had even finished reading the text on the first page before she had found him. 

McKenzie got a book with lots of little mirrors in it and insists on licking/kissing each reflection.  Super cute, but very slobbery. 

I got a new running jacket!  Don't tell the girls I run with, but I really only have one or two shirts/jackets to wear when we go running in the morning.  It will be a relief not to have to reuse all of the time. 

Jeremy was estactic about this gift, a new car jack.  He enjoys working on the Jetta but the jack he has is a rinky-dink standard jack that often slips.  I'm glad he hasn't been crushed yet.  Now that won't be a problem. 

Cambrie sporting her new tiara.   She also got some fancy dress gloves to match, just like Fancy Nancy. 

What's wrong with this picture?  Oh ya, the baby is upside down.  So much for a great big hug for her look-alike doll huh? 

Jeremy challenged Cambrie to a race on their bouncy balls.  Who do you think is having more fun? 

Cambrie's Lego collection is slowly growing and she received some cars for it this year.  She will play for a very long time with her Legos, just like her daddy. 

My mom gave this goofy gift to McKenzie.  It is a pull-toy chicken that clucks while you pull it.  The funny part is that it also lays little baby chicks as it goes along.  You put them in the front (as shown by Kenzie) and they pop right out the back.  It's hilarious!  We all got a kick out of it and took turns pulling it around the house. 

Cambrie loves to help me in the kitchen.  We have been doing a lot of frosting decorating lately and sometimes (okay, always) the frosting bags make a huge mess when Cambrie uses them.  My mom found this great little cooking set where you can put the frosting in a syringe (with different decorating tips) to help keep the frosting under control.  Now that she has a darling new cupcake apron and mini-cupcake tin, we are going to have to make some serious cupcakes. 

It was a year of puzzles for Cambrie.  She received a floor puzzle at Breakfast with Santa, a psychedelic Tinkerbell puzzle from Santa, and another floor puzzle from Grandma and Grandpa.  It's a good thing she enjoy putting them together. I also think the floor puzzles are way too cool.  Here she is cheering, "Hooray!" after completing this one. 

After all of this unwrapping...

McKenzie was plum tuckered out. 

In fact all of us were, but the day wasn't over yet!  The Bohn's were able to come over and enjoy Christmas dinner with us.  It was our first year staying at home with the girls and we weren't sure what to expect-if we would enjoy being at home with no obligations, or be bored and run out of festive things to do during the day.  So it was really nice to have friends over to share the holiday.  We roasted a ham, had some funeral potatoes, fresh rolls, Cobb salad, and even pulled out all of the fancy serving dishes and goblets for the occasion.  The kids played with their new toys while we played a new game we received from the Farnsworths, Dominion (really fun by the way).  When it was time for them to leave we couldn't help but think that it was really one of the best Christmases we have had as a family.  We were all thrilled with our new toys and the joy of seeing each other happy just kept spreading.  I hope that everyone else also had a very Merry Christmas.