Christmas 2009

For Christmas this year Joe's Mom (maw-maw) and Grandma (Nonny) came out to visit. It was so great to have some family out here to make the holiday more festive! We had such a great time eating, baking, eating, talking, shopping, eating, and just hanging out. (sorry about the commentary-I am having a hard time getting the formatting to work the way I want it to)




decorating the tree



ooohhh



do these shoes make me look taller?













Say cheese










putting together the presents

Robin was there via skype!














The girls in their scarves

Allie loved watching a slide-show of herself on the computer
Cuddle time with Molly

Sandestin round 2

These pictures were taken with my Mom's camera and I finally got the cd this weekend. So here are the rest of the pictures from our trip to Sandestin in October! Ahh to be at the beach again :-)


Riding the "Stretch" golf cart to the wharf for dinner!
The guys playing golfAllie running around on the tennis courts
Beautiful beaches
into the hole you go
All smiles while being buried in perfect white sand


Joe's fish
Garrett's shark!
saying goodbye to Mom and Wayne

Mom's Wedding and Atlanta Christmas

My mom has been dating a wonderful, sweet and loving man named Wayne Helms for almost 2 years now. They decided they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together and thought they should make an official commitment by getting married. They had a beautiful ceremony with family and a few close friends at Ruth Chris Steakhouse in Atlanta. Allie, Joe and I flew down for the weekend to support my mom and witness her nuptials! We had a great time hanging out with our new stepdad and Allie's new Grandpa (aka Gpa). My aunt Joyce flew down from Massachusetts to support her sister, and it was so great to see her again! My Mom and Wayne will be celebrating their wedding and their retirement by spending 3 months in Scottsdale, Arizona!! We are happy for them in this new journey in life and happy too that we have somewhere warm to go when the winter gets too cold here in Colorado!

We spent the rest of our time in Atlanta visiting Joe's Dad and stepmom, Chris. We met up with them on Sunday morning at the Georgia Aquarium and had a great time. The displays at the aquarium are beautiful and the tank that you can walk into the tunnel is really amazing! Allie loved running from tank to tank saying "sheesh, sheesh" (fish)! After the aquarium we went back to Grandpa and Cici's house to have an early Christmas celebration. Allie was spoiled by Grandpa with about a dozen stuffed animals from the aquarium! And Joe and I were spoiled with a Cannon EOS digital SLR camera!!

It was surely an adventure traveling with a 19 month old who doesn't want to sit still, but with skilled distraction and lots of helpers we had a weekend full of good memories :-)

Christmas Tree Hunt

For the last 2 years now we have gone to Red Feather Lakes (outside of Ft Collins) to cut down our own Christmas tree! It has been an adventure for sure! Last year Allie couldn't walk but she was still cranky cuz she was hungry, this year Allie wanted to walk in the snow, but her steps are still unsteady in the snow. So that made her frustrated, then it was FREEZING, and Allie decided that it would be fun to pull off her hat and her gloves then complain that she was cold!! Ahh the adventures of going places with a strong willed toddler!!! Eventually we decided that Allie and I should warm up in the truck and Joe should go cut down our tree. He picked a perfectly authentic Colorado pine that will live in our living room for the next month!















Molly was all tuckered out after our search for the perfect tree so on the way home she rested her head on Joe's seat! Too cute

Whirlwind of visitors

Since Robin is leaving for the great country of Costa Rica in one week, her mom and dad and stepmom wanted to come out for a visit before she left. Barb (aka MawMaw) visited for 4 days, then a day after she left Rick (aka Gampaw) and Chris (aka Cici) came out for 7 days. It was a great visit from everyone, we all had a great time and everyone fell in love with Allie all over again!