Happy Holidays 2010

When asked what he wanted for Christmas by the first Santa, Colter replied "I'm really into medieval daggers. If you go to medievaldagger.com you can pick one up for me for about $10. Just ship it UPS, the UPS guy brings all of our stuff" Um.....yeah, I was trying not to crack up. Dylan replied "Candy Cane!" Santa handed him one and Dylan was amazed.  He said he wouldn't cry while sitting in Santa's lap anymore.

Love this! We have figured out how to tire him out, skiing works great.

 The local kids made a giant gingerbread house this year. Colter was showing Dylan the roof tile he made.
 
Dylan and Rider are both skiing solo these days. They are big enough to ski, but still small enough to bring their stuffed animals along for the ride. They are so cute and love to go skiing together. After the cold snap at Thanksgiving, it warmed up for December. We were out in 30-40 degree weather most of the month.

Ok, Santa roundtwo. "Hi boys, what do you want for Christmas?"
Colter "A cap gun, a medieval dagger (again!!!!) viking style, not knight and....."
Dylan "a bulldozer that makes noise, a dump truck that makes noise, a firetruck that makes noise,  and a cap gun like Colter"
Yikes, I am surrounded by boys.

Colter has been snowboarding a few times this year and he is doing great. On his first day out this year (second day ever off the magic carpet) he boarded down Lift 1 and got his heel side edge. On his second day out this year, he went down Lift 10 with me and Dylan and started using his toe side edge. He seems to like it and is picking it up very quickly. His balance has improved a ton in the last year, karate has played a large part in that I'm sure.

I love the rosy cheeks and messed up hair that come with a fun day of skiing. We were at Gorrono Ranch with Rob and Eli.

We had the chance to meet the US Snowboard team while they were in town for the World Cup races. Some of them went to Colter's school and Daddy went up with Colter to meet them. Later that day we all went to get signed posters. Dylan called them the "Mazing Snowboarders", they liked that. Best part of the whole thing is that Seth Wescott (gold medalist, world cup champ, etc) is best friends with our friend Heinz. So Colter walks up to Seth, who is probably expecting the usual compliments, and says "So, you're friends with Heinz?", Seth says "Yeah, you must know him too" and Colter says "Yup, he's pretty cool, he blows things up in bon fires and shoots guns" Seth started laughing and said "Still? We used to do that when we lived together". So Seth gets points in Colter's eyes because he blows things up in campfires, not just because he is the best snowboarder in the world.

This is Dylan, Eli and Colter flying down the Meadows.

Colter made a maze of snow tunnels that he could crawl through. Fun afternoon activity.

Dylan loves puzzles these days and the Dinosaur one is a favorite. He will take it apart and put it back together over and over again.

Both boys had little trees this year. This is Dylan's brought by Grandma and MacMac. Colter had this one when he was two, I think.

Modee and Pappy also came up for Christmas Eve and Christmas day present opening.

The boys were not super excited about taking pictures. They barely sat still and wouldn't give out much of a smile, oh well they were focused on opening presents.

Oh look, a bulldozer that makes noise and two cute boys dressed up in red sweaters.

 He is so adorable. He has lost six teeth now and the grown up ones are starting to come in.

Look at my giant pile of boys! We actually had to wake up the boys at 7:30 to open presents. We were expecting a much earlier wake up call.

Dylan was cracking us up this year. He dove under the tree and grabbed all presents that said "D-Y-L-A-N" and ripped them open. He can read his name and say "D-Y-L-A-N" very fast and loud, but can't figure out the "To" and "From" part, so he opened several extra. He would go from one to next to the next, just dancing around the room laughing and tearing into wrapping paper.

Colter took a different approach this year. He sat on the couch with Dad and opened his presents one at a time, slowly, enjoying each one before moving on to the next. He loved his karate sparring gear and was appreciative of every gift. He was, however, keeping a watchful eye out for any gift shaped like a dagger. We had carefully placed that one for the very end.

Dylan was "on fire". These gloves earned Grandma and MacMac the coveted "Yahoooooo" from Dylan. He calls them his snowboarding gloves, but he informed me that he will wear them for skiing too.

Tim and Tracye joined us as well, and had fun trying out Colter's sparring gear. I think Tracye won.

Yes, he did get a medieval dagger. I struggled with this decision, as I do not care for weapons of any kind, but in the end decided that moderation is the key. It is a costume dagger that the grandpas made sure couldn't do anything but spread butter. Colter was so excited that he ran straight to his room and put two nails in his wall to hang it for display. He brings it to me to put away anytime anyone comes near his room. Wonder what's next in his mind?

Last year we went up on the mountain for Christmas day and it was about 10 degrees, this year it was 45! It was a beautiful day and the boys showed Dad all their new skills. It was good to get some exercise before eating all the good food that all the grandparents had waiting for us.

Project time. Both boys had toys to assemble and love using tools whenever possible.

One of their presents was a fairy tree house. I'm not gonna lie here, I have wanted one of these for years and came across this one from a friend and couldn't pass it up! I wasn't really sure the boys would like it, but it has been a big hit so far. They have been using the pulleys and different stuff to make zip lines and pulley systems to move things all over the place. Dylan likes to set up all the figures, furniture and that stuff so that Colter can load it in buckets and move it around. Nice to add a little lesson in mechanical advantage to the holidays.

Sledding tubes were under the tree and got some action on the hills behind the house. The boys had a great time and these sleds are light and easy to haul up the hill a hundred times.

Tim and I took the boys up to Lift 11 yesterday to play in the little terrain park and we were, again, amazed at the boys. Colter launched off everything in sight, including the rails and fun box and Dylan watched him the first round. When we got to the lift to go back up, Dylan says "Mom, I want to jump", I say "Ok' and then he says "on the rails, Mama", I say 'ummmm...Ok". So up we went and he did it. He followed Colter and jumped off of everything!

The first pic is Colter and the second one is Dylan.

In other wonderful  news, Rob and Sheila welcomed their fourth baby into the world on December 21st. Grace Elinor Blakney chose a very powerful full lunar eclipse, full moon, winter solstice birthday and we are excited that she is here- happy and healthy.

Thanksgiving, dance parties and....skiing!

 Dylan loves to paint. We do this almost everyday, usually with fun songs and lots of hand prints. In this picture he was telling me exactly how to do what he wanted for this picture with several details that all ended up looking like hand prints. Dylan says everything takes "forevah" and loves puppet shows with Ava, other Ava, horsy shark, puppy and two-can. They all like to eat the alligator. He still likes to do his "bottom dance" and hosts dance parties whenever possible.



Costumes are again a major form of entertainment around here. I love it. For several weeks after Halloween, Dylan did not leave the house without his muscleman suit, superman or soldier costume. This night we were having karate/tackle/ninja sword fighting.

 And then there is real kempo karate class------they have started sparring. Colter quickly declared this to be his favorite thing EVER! He was so excited that he sat still and paid attention the entire time, that says something. He is doing really well with this class and seems to enjoy karate. He says that he wants to compete, especially in sparring, in a few years. His teacher is amazing and has a great way with all the kids.

 Seriously, do you see the smile on his face? Not sure where Loudon's helmet was in this pic. Loudon is one of Colter's new buddies. He lives across the creek from us and the boys now have walkie talkie that they can use to talk to each other from house to house. So funny to hear the "Loudon, are you there, OVER 10-4 buddy"

 We went to Durango and rode on the Polar Express train. It has been a few years since we have made the trip and I'm glad we did. It is so cute and I'm not sure how many more years we have of Colter thinking it is fun.

 Dylan was so excited when Santa gave him the silver bell from his sleigh.

 This is Dylan's buddy Ryder and his mom Annica. Dylan is loving all of his new friends. He is planning this amazing sleep over with his friends Ryder, Magnus, Porter and Gideon (maybe in a year or two?).

Dylan and Noah in the little Jeep. I remember when Eli, Colter and Gideon fit in this! These two were whipping around the yard and playing together so nicely.

 At Uncle Rob's house there are several levels of driver's license: student license., solo license. and passenger license. (meaning you can have passengers). This picture is Colter with his solo license practicing so that he can earn his passenger license. He is very proud of his progress.

 Gideon and Dylan had their first sleepover together at Modee and Pappy's house while Colter had a sleepover at Eli's. Everybody had fun and it was a great bonding time for the these two.

It is that time of year again. Cold and snow are not always my best friends, but we do have fun together most of the time. This is the next step in sledding at Modee and Pappy's, first was the front yard, now it's the hydroplant hill. Great teamwork and a couple of good wrecks made for a fun afternoon.

Next up was snowmobiling at Rob and Sheila's. Colter has been solo and passenger approved since last year, and Dylan was doing his student training with Daddy. "Look Mom-No Hands" over the jump was the last step to solo status.

He was so excited to drive by himself, we couldn't get him to stop! He did a great job and I think both of my boys will be great drivers like Daddy, maybe a bit crazy for Mommy to watch!

Turkey Carving class was cute and since it involved large knives, all boys were interested. They all took turns and did good.

 Dylan takes his hide and seek very seriously, Noah is along for the ride on this one. Noah had declared that couch the Moab boat and anyone that sat on it was on his trip to Moab. He and Dylan are both very excited to get back to the desert as soon as possible, of course so are we!

 As Dylan says "yippie, shippy" it's skiing time! We are having a super fun time so far. Dylan declared "no harness, I ski mine own self" and he is. He is skiing great and can do The Meadows like a champ. He giggles when he falls and says "wipe out". He has great speed control and can turn when he wants to. AHHHHH.....FREEDOM! This will be the first year in five that we won't be bent over with a kid between our legs or running a harness down the slopes. Don't get me wrong, I am glad we started them at such an early age, they love to get out and it saved all of our sanity to get out of the house and on the slopes in any capacity these last few years. It is so fun to watch them learn. grow and enjoy their time skiing and so much easier to get everyone going when they can be a bigger part of process. Colter is a great skier and is jumping, racing and even doing runs with friends by himself. He and Rocky made laps all day today while Anneliese and I skied with the littler guys.

 Dylan has a little "hot chocolate" dance he does on the last run when he knows it is time to go in for a little break, I will have to get that one on video.

 One of Trevor's friends is Danny Thompson, son of Mickey Thompson of Mickey Thompson Off Road, and he lives in Ridgway. He has a great shop that is basically a museum of cool race cars, trucks and motorcycles. This is the unofficial fastest car in the world (unofficial because it only ran one time down the track instead of two because of weather). Danny was nice enough to let the boys sit in it and let Colter ask all the questions he could think of and believe me he kept Danny busy. The boys loved it and Dylan thought it was an airplane. I think Trevor was happier than the boys!

Colter's room Christmas tree. He chopped it down, hauled it to the truck, set it up and decorated it. He is so creative and resourceful! He decorated it with some of his artwork, gave it a tree skirt and put a stuffed puppy under it to guard it (and because he wants a dog under the big tree Christmas morning......maybe next year buddy).

Dylan and Ryder waiting for Santa. Now it is on to Christmas season. Wow, where did the year go? It has been another whirlwind of activity. I am soaking up every precious moment with my family and doing my best to enjoy and remember all of the sweet, fun, cuddly, entertaining, and beautiful things that occur every day while my boys are young. I can't believe how fast the boys are growing and changing, I love them as my babies and also love seeing them grow, explore, learn and gain their independence. This Mommy thing is such an amazing journey of holding them close and letting them go at the same time.