Its been 7 years since I started this blog

And it happened because I wanted to keep you all, near and far, updated on our newest arrival, Alina Grace.  Well, that sweet baby is now a spunky little first grader! She is smart, creative, and can be found dancing or singing most of the time.  She's also sensitive, a great big sister, and very aware of those around her and their needs.  We are so blessed to have her!

And since it's been 7 years that I've been keeping this blog, you may have noticed that I'm getting a little lazy about updating (which is why you will find monthly or even seasonal summaries at times:).  For now I will try and maintain (if anyone besides Ashley is actually reading it), but it will probably be a little more sporadic in my posts.

For now, here are the highlights of Alina's seventh birthday.

A white birthday!

On her actual birthday, we celebrated with a dentist appointment (ha!), dinner from Chick-Fil-A (her favorite) and presents at the house.

On Saturday, we had a birthday party for her and some of her friends at Angelo's pottery.

The girls each got to decorate their own piece and everyone had a great time!

We love you sweet girl!

December

Here is a summary of our December.  We enjoyed a Christmas parade, festival and children's programs.  After school let out, we drove to Texas to spend Christmas with family and had a wonderful time.  Once we got back we had an opportunity to go skiing with our friends, the Clarks, who came to visit from South Carolina and to go sledding with the Grubbs from our church.  Its was a month full of fun, but we are ready to get back into our regular routine.  Here's the highlights of the past month.

Parade of Light , Alina is the green ornament

Visiting Santa at the Palisade Olde Fashioned Christmas

Adriana loves her bitty baby!

It was Star Wars all around for Nate this Christmas!

Riding Max at the barn with Aunt Kim

Cousins:))

We've enjoyed all the snow once we got back to Colorado!

Skiing with Brantley!

Sledding with friends from church

Telluride

In November we had two opportunities to visit Telluride again. Its a beautiful, little mountain town that is a fun place to visit.  Our first weekend there, we spent with Justin's parents in a great vacation rental up in Mountain village.  The following weekend we went with my sister and her family and stayed in a condo in town.  Both visits were great!  Justin and I got to snowshoe up the road that goes to Black Bear Pass and both times we did some shopping, eating and lots of riding the gondola. 

Elsa, Iron Man and the cutest cow ever!

Here's some pictures from Halloween.  We really do have some adorable kids! Once again, we went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, and once again, the kids started to beg us to go back home because they were cold, tired and had enough candy! Of course we agreed, but its just surprising to see them want to stop when there were plenty of houses left willing to give them free candy:) I mean we only went like 2 blocks.  But I figure they will figure out this whole, the more you go the more candy you get thing in time, no need to rush them.  Besides, at our rate of one or two pieces a day, we still have quite a bit to finish in their buckets!

The Michauds come to town!

While we lived in South Carolina, we made some dear, life-long friends, such as the Michauds. They left SC in 2010 to move to Tennessee and we moved to Colorado in 2011, but Jessica and I at least have seen each other once a year since then.  And even when its been awhile (Matt and Justin hadn't seen each other since 2011), its like no time has passed.  Our kids play together and love each other like cousins and our time together is always wonderful.  We were so happy to have them visit us this October and we had such a fun time hanging out together.  Here's some highlights of their trip to Grand Junction.

 Hiking at Devil's Kitchen

Fun at the pumpkin patch

We made it through the corn maze!

Picnic by the waterfall in Ouray

Box Canyon Falls in Ouray

We also had a fun (and exhausting) night at the trampoline park

We ended our visit by celebrating Matt's birthday with some yummy cake.  

We can't wait for the next time!

The most wonderful time of the year???

Its a toss-up, I do love winter and Christmas time, but maybe fall is the most wonderful time of the year.  Once again we drove to the Mesa for a picnic during peak color time and as always, it was beautiful! It was even quite chilly and as we drove off, we may have seen a few snow flakes!  Here's some pictures of the color on the Mesa this year.