This Week

Phew....The past three weeks have been a whirlwind (you could tell by the state of my house...which by the way I am thankful you can't see). We were in KS for 7 + days for thanksgiving, arrived home on Sunday and my parents came to visit Monday. They left early on Thursday, then friday we left for Durango.... Came home from Durango Sunday evening and look what we woke up to Monday morning?!?

SNOW! and very very cold temperatures.
Needless to say with the cold weather we did a lot of art projects and crafting this week. Here is Cami painting with some of the craft stuff that she got to open early from her Nana and Pop.
Here she is making homemade tree ornaments that we will be giving to our friends and neighbors.

We did some of the usual stuff, went walking at the mall, visited daddy at work and ran a lot of errands finishing up christmas shopping.

Friday, some of my friends from high school were in town and I decided that the easiest way for us (and our kids) to get together was to have a little play day at my house. I live relatively centrally, so it was convenient. It was wonderful to catch up with these ladies and see how big their kiddos are getting.

This is Lauryn's son Daxton, he just turned 2. She has an older daughter Madison (but she was in school) and is expecting her third early this summer.

This is Shayne, Lindsay's oldest. Shayne is about 10 wks older than Cami.
Here is Lindsay with her youngest Ryley, she turned a year in July.
Couldn't leave Cam out of the mix of photos
Cutie pie Laney, this is Jenn's little girls and she is working on 18 months.

Saturday morning we met up with the Altman's at the Christmas Corral. We had been trying to get together and our schedules have been so busy. Luckily this worked out perfectly and got the kids out of the house and into the fresh, not too cold air. We had a great time. Thanks for the invite!

Daddy and Cami standing in front of the Christmas Corral. This was one of the few nice (not brutally cold) days this week.
Writing a letter to santa
Playing in the workshop with some of the toys
More toys

This was the school room. I'm guessing where the elves do their school work.

Cami as Rudolph.

Unfortunately since I forgot my camera this day I didn't get a single picture of Cami and Olivia together. They had a great time. We all went out to lunch at Dions (that is what I was craving, luckily everyone gave into the prego girl).

After our Christmas Corral adventure and lunch, we had a few thing to do at the house. Matt worked on getting the outdoor Christmas lights up and I was busily making sweet treats.

Saturday evening, we went to a Christmas party. As it turned out, Matt's second cousin Heather has recently moved to our area with her family. We were able to reconnect with her. Matt hadn't seen her is 15 or so years and I obviously had never met her. She and her husband have kids Cami's age and Cami had a great time playing at their house.

Needless to say I am hoping for a more 'normal' and less exciting week....but don't think that is going to happen! Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their holiday season.

Durango Part 2

After swimming, we came home and had lunch and took naps. The girls (and parents) were pretty wiped out. Then we went 'snowing' as Piper called it. Sometime during naptime, it began to snow again, so it seemed just perfect. Luckily it wasn't too cold mid to high twenties so the girls had a great time!

The daddies and the big girls leaving the cabin getting ready to hit the 'little slopes'.
First we went to the side of the cabin. There is a little hill there, but the snow wasn't packed enough for the guys liking.
So, we headed to the back side of the cabin for some better slopes and hills.
Matt and Cami

The girls had it easy ....they got to ride going up and down the hills

I think the daddies got their work out for the entire weekend!
Piper had the time of her life.....can you tell by that huge smile!
Chris and Piper going down the sled together
Cami making a snow angel
Cami and mommy heading back in to get warm and dry!

What a fun, fun, fun weekend! Thanks so much to the Hauquitz fam for allowing us to join in on your fun!!!

Durango Part 1

This past weekend we went up to Durango with our friends Chirs, Hailee, Piper & Sydnee! Their family has a cabin up there and they invited us to join them. It was kind of spur of the moment (which if you know me, I'm kind of a planner) but we were so glad we decided to go!

The weather forecast in Durango called for snow most of the weekend. We decided that it would be fun to get the girls into some real snow go sledding and play! This post is only half of our trip. The Hauquitz fam has been wanting to try out the Durango Community Center pool, so Saturday morning we got around and headed there. We are SO glad that we did. Everyone had a great time and it was so reasonably priced. The kids got in free with a paying adult and each adult was only $5.75. The reason I talk about the price was I was so astounded that such a great family friendly place could be so affordable!

Needless to say we had a great time at the pool and completely wore the kids out!

tackling daddy
Cami climbing up the castle stairs

Piper catching a ride on her daddy's back.

Cami going down the slide of the castle!
Big girls playing in one of the many water features.
Hailee and Sydnee. Even though we went right during Sydnee's normal nap time, she was a perfect little baby and had the time of her life splashing about.
Braving the big slide. The girls each went down a bunch with mommies and daddies, this time they were climbing to go all by themselves. They are both pretty brave. I mostly put this picture in to show how tall this slide was!

Cami going down the big slide all by herself!

Piper going down the big slide all by herself!
I'm not sure who looks more worn out here....Cami or Daddy?
Down the frog slide
Playing in the pool. We literally had to drag Cami out of the pool. She loved this place!
Piper Girl warming up on the side after a lot of fun and swimming!

This community center was so fun and a must do for future trips ... even in the summer.

More pictures and another Durango post to come! We had so much fun, it couldn't fit in one post!

Thanksgiving Trip to Kansas

Thanksgiving.

This post is long with lots of pictures. We left for our Thanksgiving trip the Friday before Thanksgiving so that we could have a nice long visit. We aren't making it back to KS for Christmas this year so we needed to squeeze all our holiday visit into one trip.

Stopped at a nice big park in Amarillo before eating dinner. A nice way to break up a long trip!

Feeding the ducks and geese at a park in Amarillo when we stopped for dinner. It was pretty windy but we enjoyed stretching our legs and getting some energy out!

One of the perks for Cami in our long travels is staying in a hotel on the way to KS. She is a little fish and just loves the water. First thing in the morning (6:45am) she gets out of bed and looks out the window and yells..."its morning we can go swimming now!"
More swimming at the hotel in OK. The perk for Mommy and daddy is she is pretty worn out when she gets in the car for that last 5 hours of our drive!

Leaf Jumping!
Going to find some cows with Daddy and Papa

Grandma getting some snuggle time with Cam while watching Cinderella 2

I bought Matt tickets to catch a K-State Basketball game while we were in KS. Matt and I were able to steal away up to Manhattan and left the kiddo with Grandma and Papa. It was a great little get away for Matt and I. We were able to catch up with a few of Matt's old friends, do some kid free Christmas shopping and cheer on the wildcats!

Luckily while we were in KS, the weather was actually very nice for the end of November. This meant that we were able to play outside pretty much everyday that we were there. We played in the leaves, rode the tractor, the big kids hit golf balls and played in the timber and we played lots of hackey dodge ball. What is hackey dodge ball you ask....well its a combo of hackey sack and dodge ball. It was so fun.
Cami and Josh were too little to play hackey dodge ball, so Cami improvised and just chased the ball where ever it happened to go!
Paige and Cami
Papa and Cami having what looks to be a pretty serious conversation.
Hackey Dodge Ball. Parker with Uncle Eric looking on

Carter
Crazy cousins...and Uncle Eric
Playing in the leaves
Cami's thanksgiving outfit! Thanks Michele for the adorable shirt!
Cami got to ride/ drive the tractor. She LOVES this! She literally had a huge smile glued to her face the entire time!

Papa and Cami heading back towards the house after a ride.
After a ride around the pasture.
Big shot Farm girl. This is one of her favorite parts of being at Grandma and Papa's house.
Grandma bought some gingerbread kits for the cousins to work on. This was a big hit, although I must say I think Cami and Josh ate more candy than they put on they're houses.

Cami working on her house and surveying all the candy in front of her.

Uncle Matt reading to Cami and Joshy. There was also a twinkle, twinkle little start concert, which was adorable.
Celebrating Papa's birthday. Josh and Cami helped Papa blow out his candles.
I'm not really sure what was going on in this picture. But it is obviously some kind of slumber party in Grandma and Papa's room! In this picture is Papa and the 4 youngest cousins.
We had a mini-Christmas. Since we won't be back for Christmas we had a few presents for people to open while we were there. Here is Cami helping Grandma with her present.
Just Dance game on the Wii the last day we were there. It was pretty entertaining!

We had a fantastic time and we were so sad to leave. We sure are going to miss everyone at Christmas time.