A Day of Christmas Fun

Poor Daddy was at a basketball tournament all day with his eight grade boys team. Meanwhile, my mom and I took the two kids to downtown Fort Collins for their holiday festivities. They had free horse drawn wagon rides and a chance to see Santa. They ended up cancelling the Tuba Christmas performance, so Noah was a little disappointed not to see the band like the "Buckeyes". He did enjoy Santa this year, as opposed to last year when he took one look at him and screamed. He walked right up to him and said, " I want a noisy drum!" I guess that is what Santa will bring him this year, since that is all he has really said he wanted over and over again. It's not like it will get any noisier around here. Ryleigh and Noah make plenty of noise with their own voices! Ryleigh would have nothing to do with Santa as expected, but maybe next year. She does enjoy trying to sing Christmas songs and playing Daddy's harmonica.

A Day with Baby Audrey

We spent a fun-filled day showing Baby Audrey (my brother's daughter) around Denver. We went to the downtown aquarium and ate lunch right next to a tank with at least five foot sharks. We then went to Denver Bronco stadium to look around. Noah sure likes his cousin and is much gentler with her than his own sister. In fact, he said he wants a baby brother just like her!!

A New House

My (Heidi) mom is building a new house just up the road from my childhood home. We spent a lot of time this summer packing her up to move her to a rental, and now, it finally seems like a reality that she is moving on to a better house! The new house is completely framed, sided and the roof is on. Everything is supposed to be done by New Year's Eve so perhaps we will get to watch the Buckeyes in the National Championship on her new plasma TV! It has been fun to show Noah the building process--he especially liked the big diggers making a big hole in the ground. He also likes to have his picture taken in the new "toy" room. Ryan is really exicted too--this means that he won't have to do his numerous duties at her house like cleaning out gutters, pruning extremely overgrown trees, handy man work, etc.

The Buckeyes are Number One!

What a great year for sports in our household! The Bucks are awesome, the hometeam Rockies made the World Series, and Denver Bronco tickets are getting easier to come by! Besides that, a Michigan loss to little Appalachian State, a loss by all of Ryan's other despised teams (Florida, Oklahoma, USC, Nebraska, etc), and we've got a near perfect season! Ryan and I took Noah to see the Colorado State Rams play the Air Force Falcons--he was the only fan wanting to know why the game was over after a major beating, constant rain, and freezing cold! GO BUCKS!!!

Fall Fun

We've already had lots of fun family adventures this fall.

A visit from "Uncle" Colby in September--we all went hiking one day and then, the adults went to see Florida State beat up on poor Colorado (Colby was sure happy!).

Ac couple of weekends ago, we went to the Harvest Farm for our annual corn maze and pumpkin picking night with the kids. It was 74 degrees during the day that day, but wouldn't you know, as soon as we pulled into the parking lot, it got crazy windy and COLD. We finished the corn maze with rain pelting us in the face, but as we were pulling out of the parking lot, Noah told us that we forgot to do the hayride! Obviously , the elements didn't bother him one bit! Ryan and I were so glad to get to the car that we let Noah pick his own pumpkin on the way out-- a huge deformed thing that cost us $9.00! The kids sure enjoyed watching Dad do all of the work carving the thing--Ryleigh just enjoyed stepping in the goo. It turned out really cute though.

Noah's THIRD Birthday

We can't believe it, but our "little" boy is now 3! We had a fun party with mostly family. Noah chose a Diego party (for those of you that don't know, Diego is a cartoon boy that rescues baby animals in the rain forest). We had a picnic lunch with jungle foods (snake sandwiches, snails, frogs and ants on logs). Then, we all headed off to Fort Fun to play Noah's favorite game--minigolf! He has been such a blessing for the last three years, but I will say that Ryan and I are hoping for the TERRIFIC threes to follow the TERRIBLE twos!

Family Vacation

To end the summer, the Smith family spent a week traveling throughout the beautiful state of Colorado. We visited the giant Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde cliff dwellings, took a 3 1/2 hour train from Durango to Silverton, and had a lot of fun camping and hiking. One morning, we spent at Purgatory ski resort having fun with their summer activities--mini golf, alpine slide, climbing wall, and trampoline bungee jump. Noah even did the bungee jump all by himself, flying over 20 feet in the air and laughing the whole time! He is afraid of nothing.

"The Monarch of the Front Range"

We have finally conquered Longs Peak (14, 259 feet)!! Everyday for three years, we have looked at that mountain on the horizon and talked about climbing it. Yesterday, for our eighth anniversary, we decided to do it. We left our house at midnight with little to no sleep so we could get started on the trail by 2am. It was a 7.5 mile haul to the top in the moonlight, with the last mile mostly rock climbing. The summit was breathtaking, with views for over 70 miles in every direction. As one guy put it, we then had to finish the 7.5 mile "death march" back to the trailhead. All in all, it was an incredible day and an anniversary to remember!

Ryleigh's Birthday Party

Ryleigh had a special party with lots of family on Thursday. She had her first pizza for dinner which she loved. However, she took one look at her cake (a cute little butterfly) and just cried! She didn't want anything to do with it so no cute messy face pictures to show for her first birthday. We can't believe she is quickly turning into a little girl instead of a little baby!

Ryleigh is ONE!!!

Our baby is one today! She is turning into such a wonderful little personality and yesterday, she actually stood up on her own! Wow. Before long, we'll be chasing two. Her party is tomorrow so we'll have to add those messy cake pictures later.

Summer is almost here . . .

The weather has been awesome these past couple of weeks--yesterday and today, we hit 80 degrees! We've been taking advantage of the sunshine and started longing for the lazy days of summer. On Saturday, we took the kids to a Rockies baseball game, and they had a blast! Noah couldn't wait for "one more strike, then we sing" the seventh inning stretch. Ryleigh basically just snacked her way through the entire game, enjoying all of the little treats that Noah carried in his sports lunch bag.

The kids seem to be getting so big these days. Ryleigh is eating "big girl" food like a champ. We modified a log bed for Noah, and so now he sleeps in his very own "big boy" bed. He also is already making friends with the neighbor girl by chatting over the fence and sure has enjoyed getting to be outside to play with his soccer goal and learning to ride his new tricycle.

While the kids are getting bigger, Ryan and I are getting smaller. Ryan bought a used Bowflex, and we decided to take on the six-week fat loss challenge. It really works! Ryan made fun of me a little over a week ago when I suggested he try on smaller shorts--they fit then and now they are hanging on him! He's always been good-looking, but check him out in the pictures now at 22 pounds lighter and with lots of new muscle! And me, I am just happy that I have finally almost removed every last pound of so-called "baby weight." It feels great!

Easter

What a great day! The program at our church was really amazing and powerfully reminded us of the precious gift of the Cross--the reason for the Easter celebration! This was also the first year in many, many years that my mom didn't spend the whole day by herself in the office doing other people's taxes! Instead, she had our family and some aunts, uncles and cousins over for good food and fun. Noah had a ball searching for Easter eggs all over the family room and decorating cookies with Cousin Jenny and Cousin Scott. At one point, we lost count of the number of chocolate eggs that he unwrapped and gobbled up--an unusual treat for this little guy!

Springtime

It sure has been beautiful for the last couple of weeks. In fact, last Saturday, we were all outside in a tanktop and shorts. The kids have loved spending time outdoors--Ryleigh in her swing and Noah on his slide. Just like last year, the Little Tikes hoop and his new basketball are the highlight though. In fact, he asked us to raise the hoop higher and has started to try to "dribble." Perhaps we're a bit biased, but he's GOOD. It just may turn out that instead of our dream of a Buckeye linebacker, we end up with the next Buckeye hoops star??