Decorating

So, I am not sure if others are like this but I definitely have preferences on the way the holidays fall on the calendar. This year, Thanksgiving was super late and then Christmas was in the very early part of the kids break. Those are both a plus for me. I could go on... but I won't bore you today. The only problem with this set up is that it seems like there is no time between the two. I was definitely behind with decorating.

Leo was right on my tail as I started to get all of the boxes out!!



The kids narrate for him all the time, so here they would say, "what's in this box, can I eat it?"


Max's contribution was to bring down a present he found up in my room and place it under the tree. This did a lot for his anticipation; from this point forward, he could.not.wait! for Christmas! oh, and ignore the wires, we are still figuring out how to put everything in this house... it's only been months:)



Ross just supervised, with his Christmas Craft Colorado beer in hand.



And Zoey wanted a picture of her and Leo in Santa hats with his bone!



As you can see, the bone didn't make the picture. Leo has a lot to learn about being in pictures.



And voila, our tree...




We used to put up two trees in Ohio, just because we could. One was my tree (artificial)that I could color coordinate or whatever, and the other (that was real and we went and chopped down each year (miss that)) the kids did by themselves. In our downsizing we went back to one. Last year, I found out I was allergic to our real tree (booo!) so this year we stuck with our artificial one. Maybe I will try again next year. who knows, maybe I am just allergic to Ohio trees! HAHA!

I love just white lights, but the kids like color, so they win this time. But if I change my focus, I get just the whites...

Hiking

While we were in Phoenix, we went on a little hike. It was nice, the weather was just perfect.




We didn't go to far. I don't think we planned well in terms of timing and snacks. Maybe next we can do better and go farther.



















Such crazy terrain. I am not a hiker, so I have nothing to compare it too. We do hope to do more here in Colorado once the weather warms up a bit.




Leo went too. He enjoyed it, of course.




Looking back towards civilization. I think this is sort of a northwest view.








It's weird to think about how long this guy has been here. He doesn't even grow an arm until he's like 100!


going up was way easier than coming down, although it doesn't look that way from this picture.




another look back... I think that you can see the football stadium where the Cardinals play.


And then, we saw a tarantula. And Ross wanted to take it home...



back at the bottom, looks like only one happy camper


we're getting there...




here we go, I just needed to change the viewpoint and bring the dog into the picture!!



I like it, so here's a zoom in!


and a picture out the window as we headed away from arizona....

phoenix

So as I looked through my phoenix pics, I realized not one picture of my mom! I am very very bad about getting family shots. I think most of the time I just subconsciously put the camera away and enjoy the moments, and also, I don't think people want my camera in their face all the time. BUT, I will try to get better this year! Plus, more of me. But I say that every year.

What I do get pictures of when I am Phoenix, however, is the backyard birds!

Check out this chub... maybe he thinks he's in a colder climate and needs to bulk up for winter?



little reddish guy



sleepy head... looks like a mug shot





Pretty morning light... do you see the heart?



Leo came out and scared the birds away and proceeded to eat the bird food out of this bowl... goofball dog



And here he is next to St Francis... licking his head probably... cuteness

headed south

The kids had the whole week of Thanksgiving off so we decided to head down to Phoenix!

This was somewhere along our drive that wasn't supposed to be snowy (I was watching the weather all week) but ended up pretty bad at one point. We almost considered turning back, but thankfully... we made it.



And, in the warm sunshine... took Leo to a dog park. Max had fun too.


These two had fun, but were going for each others throats after a while.




The dog park has a fishing lake and a pretty big playground nearby. Max turned this into his own Mario video game. We got a random number generator app on our phone so that he could "roll a dice" to determine how many blocks to go. he's clever like that.



He just rolled for me! (I lost)



Z played too!




snapped a picture while they were stuck on the same block.



They took turns rolling and they were always close to each other, while I somehow ended up in the back the whole time.... hmmmm...



And then, to get back to the car, we passed the dog park where Leo stirred up trouble from the other side of the fence.



And since this was still November (cough cough, so behind!) I was taking my daily pics. This day was number 3! and well I made it through about 75%... so technically not a complete fail! I need to do it again when I have more daylight.

more random and november daily pics

took Leo to the dog park... he likes to instigate things with the big dogs and then run under the park bench where they can't fit...




Christmas lights, setting up for our Christmas card...



And this is our town! no populations in Colorado, bragging rights go to elevations, apparently.



And crazy clouds one day!


November daily picture - theme was MUSIC!



crazy icicles!



Another November daily picture was FORK... here are two, I couldn't decide between.





And Little Leo has to be in the mix of everything. Here he is "helping" Ross put together a bench...

Waneka Lake and Park

We took a walk around Waneka Lake...





played on the playground...








These next two are some of my favorites that I have taken of Max in a long time. It really captures him, but also makes him look a lot older!

again...

Playing Catch Up! Again... I was in the middle of doing my November photo challenge when a crazy deadline came up and then we went on vacation for Thanksgiving... So I tried to keep up, but didn't do so well... Here is a random bunch of pictures.

Happy Puppy sleeping away..





Right across the street from us is a property that has horses. These guys come right up to you if you walk to the fence. Leo thinks he is something fierce and growls and barks like crazy at the horses. They don't even bat an eye.