This picture represents just one of the tall drifts that kept many of us from traveling on Christmas Day. We were able to spend Saturday with my family though. It was reported that we had between 10 and 12 inches of snow Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The roads are much better now despite the tall drifts that fill the ditches.

Nineteen years ago today my little brother and good friend was brought into the world. I thank the Lord each day for him.

Happy 19th Birthday Daniel! I love you!

Recently I have noticed that this holiday season's greeting has changed from 'Merry Christmas' to 'Happy Holidays.' I think it's important that we remember the reason for this season and most importantly don't call it X-mas. Keep CHRIST in Christmas.

We wish all of our family and friends a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR. Best wished to each of you as we begin 2010.

We are ready for the holidays!

2nd Big Snow of the Season

We have gotten close to 8-9" of snow over the past few days. With the wind and snow, I was able to stay home for two days and do most of my holiday baking. It was great!

Yesterday Heath got to stay home too as there were 6ft drifts reported in some areas and he didn't think he could make to to work. We spent the afternoon playing Monopoly and shoveling our driveway so we could make it out for work today. The roads were plenty slick for me this morning, but I made it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! I HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT DAY!

A lot happened this weekend. We celebrated Thanksgiving with family, I braved the crowds in the early morning hours to shop with my mom, I took pictures for Heath's sister, she took pictures of us, we painted the downstairs bathroom, decorated for Christmas and still somehow we both managed to make it to work on time today!

We had a lot of fun and enjoyed making memories. Above is one of the pictures Heidi took of us. It turned out well! Stay tuned for more pictures to come!

Things are progressing with the basement. We are going to start painting the bathroom tonight and hope to have the sink and toilet set by this weekend! It's certainly a busy time of year. We celebrated Thanksgiving Sunday with my family. We had a great time and ate way to much as always. We will be opening our home up to Heath's family on Thursday as well. I am sure the weekend will be filled with decorating for Christmas. I just love to do that!

We have been progressing on the basement. All the studs are up and last night Heath and his dad hung sheet rock. Our electrician has started the wiring and will hopefully wrap up soon. I purchased the paint for the bathroom yesterday. I am very excited to start painting it!

Looking into the timber. The trees look so pretty with the snow. We did however lose power twice for about 2 hours each time. Luckily we had candles and flashlights. I hate to be in the dark.

The first snow of the season. We ended up with 8 or so inches.

Max gets to come in the house (only the basement) every once and a while. Last night we had some friends over and played the Wii. Max thought he should get comfortable. The next thing I knew he was sound asleep on our couch! He didn't care too much to go back outside either!

Heath has been diligently working on walls in our basement. You can see the bedroom and bathroom walls. We hope to have a working bathroom soon!

Happy Anniversary to my husband, my best friend! It has certainly been a great 4 years. I love you!

We have enjoyed the great fall colors over the past few weeks around our house, but I noticed yesterday that the leaves have fallen and you can now see our house from the road. I think this is a sign of winter....

Go State

Heath and I had the opportunity to attend the KSU v. Colorado game this weekend. We tailgated wtih my dad and his college friend and were joined after the game with my college roomate and her husband and daughter. We had a great time!

This week has been a busy week. I had my annual conference for work. I had the opportunity to stay with my brother, which I enjoyed, but I am glad to be back home. I think somewhere along the way I missed "spring cleaning" so I've made up for it this week. I cleaned out our closet, cleaned the kitchen and bathrooms thoroughly! I guess you could call this "fall cleaning." I hope to continue with some more cleaning this weekend as well.

While I was in town this week I noticed many stores have Christmas things out on display already. Each year it seems to get earlier and earlier. I have seen very few Thanksgiving things. I think it's important to take time and be thankful for the things we have been blessed with.

Kid Pics

I recently took some photos of my cousins kids. They are quite the posers and had a great time at the Pumpkin Farm too!

We took a short vacation this weekend to visit Heath's sister and family. We got to help our niece celebrate her 3rd birthday, see their new house addition, carve pumpkins and spend time together. We had a blast!

This past weekend was filled with fun and food! Friday night Heath and I enjoyed dinner with his parents at a steakhouse. The food was mighty tasty! Saturday we played in a benefit softball tournament for a lady that has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. We had a great time despite the COLD weather! I keep telling Heath that is why I'm so sore, but he doesn't seem to believe me. He keeps telling me its because I'm getting old. Well I am another year older. I got to celebrate my birthday yesterday. We enjoyed lunch with my parents, brother and grandma. I begged my family to not tell the waiter it was my birthday. I know the history of birthdays at this restaurant...its whipped cream in the face. Needless to say, I got out of there with no whipped cream!
We're off to another busy week!

A Difference in the Neighborhood

My great grandfather's house was pushed in yesterday. Here is a before and after picture. The home was run down and hadn't been lived in for several years.

Congrats Mike & Stacy

This past weekend we had the opportunity to celebrate a wedding on Heath's side of the family. We enjoyed seeing many family members and friends. This photo was taken of all the family that was there. I never realized how big the family actually was and there are actually several missing!

Last week we had a suprise visit from our niece and nephews...and their mom too! Here are a few moments I camptured. Notice both of these are of the same nephew. Well the other two didn't really care for Aunt Jennifer to take their picture! Maybe next time!

Last night Heath and I planted a tree near our deck in hopes it will provide shade for us as we enjoy time on our deck. It was a bigger tree than we planned to get, but we're glad we did.

Heath and I had the opportunity to visit the State Fair this past Friday. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed walking around and viewing the many exhibits. We had the chance to catch the Pig Races and the Equestrian Acrobatics as well.

Looking at the results it appears we have some talented 4-Hers in our county!! :)

Deck Party

We had several family members and friends over for a Deck Party! It was great to fellowship with everyone, however, I'm not sure many even sat on the deck! We all enjoyed a variety of BBQ foods and several games of volleyball!

This weekend we also had the opportunity to spend time with Heath's sister and her family. There were several photo opportunities! I must say that it is a challenge to get 3 kids to look in the same direction at once!

More Sunflower Pictures

Tara and her baby boy!

Sunflowers

The Deck Is Complete

We power washed the deck and Heath sealed it over the weekend. It is complete and looks amazing. You cannot even tell that the benches are from an older deck. They cleaned up nice. We are really going to enjoy entertaining on it! I think we even have our first party scheduled!

I think Heath is glad to have this project completed so he can move on to one of many other projects (not at our house)!

Here it is! The building of the deck is complete. We just have to power wash it and seal it! We are very excited to have this project done! We look forward to entertaining on it as well.

New landscaping that we added to the east side of our home! There are similar plants on each side of the porch.

Heath completed work on the deck bench last night. We just now have to remove the pole, wash and seal the deck. This pole was going to be part of a clothesline, but we decided that wasn't important so it's going to be removed!

This was another picture from our vacation. This is actually a volcano (not active) that is in my cousins backyard.

I thought after the county fair was over things would slow down, but even Heath mentioned last night that we haven't slowed down one bit. We played in the town ball tournament this past weekend and have been trying to stay caught up with our garden. I have zucchini and tomatoes galore!

We plan to finish up our deck this weekend too. Watch for pictures!!

NRA

Daniel and Heath checking out one of the many exhibits at the NRA Center.

James, Me and Daniel posing for a picture at the NRA Center in New Mexico.

While we were in New Mexico we had the opportunity to visit the NRA Center. Heath really enjoyed this stop. I think he could of spent the whole day there! There was a small museum, practice ranges, gift shop and even a library.

The End of our Vacation

While we were on vacation we had the opportunity to visit some family in New Mexico. We took a scenic drive from Colorado to New Mexico and got to see some very pretty scenery. In the picture above is the first great grandchild on my dads side. He enjoys helping his grandma water her flowers. .

Our second day in Colorado

Our second full day in Colorado was spent on a train ride under the Royal Gorge and rafting on the Arkansas River. We spent most of our time on the open train car catching in all the pretty views. After the train ride we enjoyed a BBQ lunch and then loaded the bus for our rafting adventure. Despite some nervousness before the rafting trip, we had a GREAT time. Heath and Leigha even jumped out of the raft for a short swim. The scenery was beautiful!

Our Adventrue Begins

We traveled to Sharon Springs, Kansas for the first night and then continued into Colorado Springs for the beginning of our first full day. While there we toured the Garden of the Gods, Seven Falls and other things around the city. It was a rainy day in Colorado and kept us from spending a lot of time outside as the temperatures were low. Heath, Daniel and Leigha did manage to hike up 224 stairs to the top of Seven Falls and then over to Helen Hunt Jackson's grave and back down 224 stairs!

The day concluded with us checking into our motel in Canon City. We spent the evening in the hot tub and heated outdoor pool.