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.