Christmas Morning

This is a "photo story" of our Christmas morning. There are not a lot of pictures because everything happened so fast. Our Christmas now is so different from what it used to be. We no longer wake up at the crack of dawn. (It was sometime between 7:30 -8:00). There was a race to open all the presents and start our day. Usually on Christmas day, we just bum around the house. We just relax and enjoy each other. We watch movies and eat leftovers from the night before. I am so grateful for my family! They have been wonderful to me. Especially as I have struggled with my mom's illness. They have been real supportive when I have been down. Everyone is ready and willing to give hugs when I am in need. I can not ask for a better family! Merry Christmas to everyone...especially those whom I LOVE!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve once again...
All of my siblings except for one attended. What a treat!
Here is a picture of Linda and Dad (trying to hide his face)


This is Jason, Sienna & Diana

Here is Jerry, doing "Bella Duty". Bella was too excited with all the kids and wanted to play with all of them. It was a little scary for some of them, so poor Jerry and Cindy took turns holding Bella.

Here is Paul relaxing before dinner.

Gracie kept busy with Tiffany's toys.

Here is Lori & Mom.

Here is Diana...I'll let you guess what she is doing (Sienna is under that blanket)

I caught Cindy while she was "zoning"...ha,ha (don't kill me for this one!)

Here is Rick enjoying the conversation.

Here is Zoey and Cali. This was they only time they were still (while eating) The rest of the time was spent playing with all the other kids and having a GREAT time.

Here is Cindy doing her "duty".

As soon as Brian & Kari arrived, she snagged Sienna. They did some "bonding" together.

Our meal was low key. We had Prime Rib, ham, green beans, rolls, scalloped potatoes, jello and salad. It all turned out YUMMY!

It was a WONDERFUL Christmas Eve! Thanks to everyone who attended and helped out!!!!!!!! I love you all!

Gingerbread House Building

Christmas isn't Christmas without building Gingerbread Houses. Here is the "photo story" of our afternoon.

My 20th Wedding Anniversary

Can you believe it has been 20 years since I married my sweetheart? Hard to believe. The time has flown by! I am so fortunate to have married such a WONDERFUL man! He has been a FANTASTIC husband, a TERRIFIC dad, my BEST FRIEND, and a great provider. Can you ask for more? We started as friends and that friendship has only grown. We enjoy our weekly dates, and really feel shorted if we have to miss it for some reason. We enjoy doing EVERYTHING together. Wayne has even put up with my shopping and has learned to enjoy coming with me.

This year for our anniversary, we went up into the mountains. It was great. We started our "little get away", by visiting Old Colorado City. It is a neat place to walk around, with little shops to visit. We enjoyed strolling around for a little bit. We then ended up at one of our FAVORITE restaurants...Jake and Telly's. It is a Greek restaurant. It probably has the best Greek food I have ever tasted!

In the picture below, the restaurant is located on the top floor. ok, so this really wasn't our meal.

We ended up sharing a Mediterranean Pasta with Chicken and their Mixed Mezze (it is a sample plate with spanakopita, gyro meat, dolmadakia, keftethes, hummus, tzaziki and grilled pita). We ate too much...then they gave us a dessert on the house for our anniversary. We decided to try something different so we had Stuffed Figs. It basically was a fig that was stuffed with a walnut and marscipone (sp?) cheese. Then it was served on Greek yogurt that was mixed with cinnamon and honey...wow...talk about a shock to the taste buds. It was alright...a good experience, but I wouldn't order it again. Personally, I think we should have gone for the Chocolate Mousse.

After dinner, we headed to our mountain get-a-way...Pikes Peak Paradise Bed and Breakfast. It is in the middle of nowhere (or so it seemed), perfect for what we wanted. It had the most breath-taking views of Pikes Peak.

Below are pictures from their website (is that legal?)

This is their lobby...Can you believe the view??

That is Pikes Peak in the back ground!

We were in the Roman Room. We had our own personal Hot Tub and a private deck...ok, so it was too cold to go out on the deck!

I have to say that it was nice and quiet!

After our get-a-way, we decided to go home early and spend some time with our family, since it technically is the 20th anniversary of when our family started. We splurged and took all the kids to see "New Moon". Overall, it was an AWESOME anniversary.

Now for my present!!!!!

It arrived Saturday (after our bike ride).

It is a Polished Ebony,

Young Chang Baby Grand Piano.

It is BEAUTIFUL!

I'm not sure who is more excited...me or Jessica!

After it arrived, EVERYONE wanted to play it! It has a beautiful rich sound. After having an electronic piano...

it sounds HEAVENLY!

I am the luckiest girl in the whole world to have a husband like Wayne! I love him with all my heart. The other night for family night, we all took turns telling what we liked about each other. When it got to my turn to talk about Wayne...I told everyone that he is truly my "soul mate", and I meant it! He has filled my life in so many ways. Wayne...you are my EVERYTHING!

Could a girl ask for a better anniversary?

Veteran's Day Parade

First of all, my whole family would like to THANK all those who serve in our armed forces! We appreciate the sacrifice you AND your family make. Being in a "military city," Veteran's Day seems to be a BIG deal. Every year, they have the Veteran's Day Parade. As it begins, there are usually flyovers from military planes. It is real neat to see them so close and in the air! This year's parade seemed to be one of the larger one's I have seen. It lasted almost 2 hours. It is so comforting knowing that our military people are here to protect us!

Along with the Military appreciation.....we are band geeks here at our home. Yes, everything seems to revolve around band...We must now switch our attention to my children.

Lucky for us, we were blessed with a WARM day! I ended up exhausted. I traded schools and helped out with the middle school. (only the 8th grade band gets to march in the parade) I was the "equipment" person. We took both seats out of my van and filled it with all the drums and LARGE instruments. I dropped off the instruments at the starting area of the parade, then went on and followed the buses to park the van at the END of the parade route. Notice that I was parked at the END of the parade route, and the kids were at the BEGINNING of the parade route! I had to walk back to the kids (1.6 miles...yes, I measured it on our Microsoft Streets and Trips program). I helped out with the kids, then went back about half way so that I could take pictures. Then I walked the rest of the way back to the buses with the band. (yes, that is a total of 3.2 miles just in case you wanted to know AND it was HOT outside!)

Chris, who is in his last year in middle school, got to march in his first parade.

Here is the start of the Timberview Middle School band. Here, we have Chris in the warm up area. Here he is at attention. He is the 2nd person back with his trombone covering his face.

(hmmm was that done on purpose?) Here he is actually marching in the parade.

Ok, so I'm a proud mama!

Here he is playing in the parade while marching.
Talk about talent!

Let's not forget Liberty High School.
They got to participate too.

Here is Jessica in the warm up area.
Notice the NEW color guard sweatsuit!

Here she is with her friend Amy.
The 2 have been in Color guard for all 4 years.
They also served as Co-Captains last year. Here is Ryan in the warm up area.
Isn't he so handsome in that uniform!?!
I still don't know how he can carry
that HUGE instrument all over the place! Here is Jessica actually marching.
Unfortunately, I was unable to get a picture of her performing. Even though you can't tell that Ryan is in that line,

he is the 2nd tuba over.

Notice how STRAIGHT that line is!

I have really enjoyed spending time with my children by helping out with the bands. I feel privileged to have such talented kids! They have really made it fun to be a mom. Sometimes, it is very tiring, I admit, but it is ALWAYS worth it!

Murder Mystery Dinner Party

Wayne & I are in a dinner group. There are 4 couples that are involved and we meet for dinner every other month. We take turns as to whose home we have dinner in. The host gets to decide the theme and provide the main dish. Each of the other couples brings either an appetiser, salad, or dessert. It is a fun group to be in! My turn happened to fall in October. The first date we could ALL attend was October 30. So, I decided that we needed to have a FUN theme.

We had a Murder Mystery Dinner Party.

The Good, The Bad & The Guilty

All got to dress up in their respective characters.

No one knew WHO the murderer was...we were all suspects!!Here is the beautiful table that we all spent the next 4 hours at...

don't forget that we ate almost non-stop the entire time.

Appetisers - Wyomin' Cow Pucky's

(bread with melted cheese, green chilies and seasonings)

Salad - Can't remember the name. I will edit it when I find out!

(Spinach Salad with candied pecans, and lots of goodies)

Main Dish - Goat Stew with rolls

(ok, so it really didn't have Goat in it!)

Dessert - Mean Apple Pie

Here is the whole gang

Back row : Elias Truist-Heath; Dee Adela Muerte;

Elvira-Lynn Fekshin; Wyatt Hertz

Front Row: Butch Chastity; P'Elvis Swagarin;

Helena Handcart; Chief Breaking Wind

Elias Truist-Heath (Wayne) and Dee Adela Muerte (Sandie)
Wyatt Hertz (Tracia) and Elvira-Lynn Fekshin (Brenda)

Tracia stepped in for Brenda's husband since he was unable to attend.

P'Elvis Swagarin (Don) and Butch Chastity (Kathy)
Helena Handcart (Mary Lynn) and Chief Breaking Wind (Dale)

We were all suspects to the murder of one Judge Waylon Payne.

Each of us had a motive...a good one too!

Only one actually KILLED him!

Unfortunately, I cannot reveal who the murderer is...since I will be passing this game along to my sister...however, I can say that the characters were quite SURPRISING! All of the characters were a little risque. I recommend if you ever get this particular game, you have people over with a VERY open mind!

We really had fun!