First Half of December!

This is turning out to be a very full month, so I thought I'd go ahead and post mid-month to avoid an overload of pics at the end! It's been a very fun and "typical" December...sending out cards, decorating, doing some shopping, having and going to some Christmas parties, running my annual Arbonne sale, etc....but we have also been blessed by some new Christmas activities! I don't think I've "officially" announced this news yet, but we are moving to Virginia this summer! Therefore, we are doing our best to enjoy everything we can here in Colorado before we leave. Here is what we've done so far this month....

O' Christmas Tree!

We were able to get our decorations up earlier this year, which is great by me so we can enjoy them longer! I always love looking at our tree :) And so far, the boys haven't messed with it at all...not sure why, but I'll take it!

Ski Trip to Vail!

This was a surprise last minute trip, but we are SO glad we were able to go and that my mom could go with us! She had a great time and it allowed us to do more since she was there to help :) We had 2 full days there, and the weather was cold but great for skiing & sledding! Lawson had his first ski school lesson and it was Peyton's first time to really play in the snow. We were so proud of Lawson for going to ski school all by himself and he loved it! We also went sledding both evenings we were there...we had a blast sledding down a nearby hill and then just walking around the neighborhood pulling Lawson along. Here are some pics from that fun weekend....

Eating out at The Red Lion the first night

We took Peyton to the "Pirate Ship" while Lawson went to ski school so he could run around in the snow...he loved it!

He's such a cutie all bundled up :)

In the picture above, Lawson was excited and smiling at me as the lady put his ski badge on. Below are pics of him that we secretly got while he was in "school"...it was so fun watching him

Sledding with our boys! After Peyton would go home, we would take Lawson around the neighborhood as the sun was going down. He would just sit there and put his gloves out in the snow as we walked along...he had the best time making "tunnels" in the snow

Relaxing by the fire after a cold day

CiCi reading Elf on the Shelf to her 2 favorite boys!

Steven and I went skiing the next day....super cold but lots of fun!

More Playing Indoors

This picture of Peyton cracks me up!

The Madrigal Banquet at Glen Eyrie

The Glen Eyrie Castle is a very beautiful and historical place right down the street from us right near Garden of the Gods. It is a hidden castle that was originally owned by General Palmer, the founder of Colorado Springs, and is now owned by The Navigators, a christian organization. This is where we took the pictures on our Christmas card :) They have an annual Christmas dinner that is like no other...it's so neat that it is hard to explain, but it is basically a dinner show where singers and dancers all play the parts of Renaissance era characters. From the King and Queen to the Page to the servants, it is all fantastic. It was a 5 course meal that lasted 4 hours and then we got to spend the night in the Castle! Such a treat :)

It's like the room was meant for me...how did they know what my maiden name was?!

Reading in our lovely room!

How we were greeted at the front door of the Castle

The beginning of the Madrigal before we went up to eat dinner

View from the dinner table....I think the servants were bringing in the salad to the King and Queen at this point :)

Updates on the Boys

Peyton

-Continues to do amazingly well! He is running around all of the time trying to keep up with his "Big Bro" and his speech is coming along great! Some of his favorite things to say right now are "milk peese" and "ho, ho, ho" He is picking up new words every day and is starting to put 2 words together here and there.

-He is getting RSV shots again this year, but once again, he has been super healthy so far this winter and we pray it continues. He's only gotten the sniffles once and that is it!

-We saw the eye doctor again, and it was a mixture of good and bad news. The good news is that his left eye hasn't gotten that much worse since the last 2 visits, but the bad news is that he expects it to get much worse in the future than we were anticipating. There are a couple options we have when he is a kid and even more when he is an adult and technology continues to improve in the optical world, so all we can do is pray and trust God that He will continue to provide for Peyton like he always has. We will also be patching him even more now since patch time at this age is so valuable for his brain and forcing him to use his left eye, so that is why almost every picture for awhile he will probably be wearing one!

-He fell last week and hit his head so hard on the coffee table that he got a "goose egg" on his head....it scared us since we had never seen one before and since it literally got huge within a matter of seconds. Although you can really tell how big it was by this picture, here it is....poor guy :(

-Here are some pictures of Peyton at Gymboree.....!

This is him about to jump!

Playing with his good friend, Hope, after class :)

Just being cute and waiting for someone to pull him in the cart!

Lawson

-The main news with Lawson is that he continues to love his "school" and is doing really well there. We had our parent-teacher conference a few weeks ago, and it turns out that he knows way more than we thought! We are thinking we need to "up the anty" here at home! His favorite activities at school (besides running around outside, of course) are the ones involving numbers and maps. He is also starting to trace his name...here is a picture of his recent work as well as one with his teacher at the Christmas party....

He made a Gingerbread house and was pretty proud of it

-He is also still growing like a weed...he already wears a size 11 shoe and it seems like he is taller every day :) He loves his little brother...so much that he plays a little too rough with him sometimes. And he is super excited about Christmas this year! We have a calendar and he is diligent in counting down each day until Jesus' birthday....so sweet :)

Lots more to go for December! We visited Santa at the North Pole on a real passenger train, so we will tell you all about that in the next post, as well as all of the Christmas memories yet to come....AND Peyton is turning TWO on the 28th if you can believe it!!! Merry Christmas!