December....Leading up to Christmas!

I LOVE decorating for Christmas and it was fun to let the boys help me this year! These pics just show a few of our decorations!   

This thing was pretty awesome.  Santa spoke with Jack right out of his workshop and talked to him about trying to be nice and get off the naughty list.  Pretty neat.  (I got to put in info before and then got a video that I could watch with Jack!)

My cute boys dressed up to go to a Cowboy Athletic Department Christmas party!  If I actually had done a card, these pics would have been on it! :)  

Love my handsome boys!   

One of my favorite EVER of Z!  

Here they are enjoying Santa, gifts, pinatas, and treats at the fun Athletic Department Christmas party!  

The boys with Santa at the art museum after we walked through and saw all the fancy decorated trees!   

Oh and we can't forget that Zander FINALLY had his FIRST hair cut in December, at age 19 months old!  (He looks scared in this picture, but it actually went really well!)  Dustin didn't let too much come off.  He loves Zander's long, wispy blonde hair! :)  

I made plans to head to Utah for Christmas this year.  Get lots of visiting in, go to the Belnap Christmas party, etc.  Dustin would fly into Salt Lake after a basketball game and join us later for Christmas, then he would drive back after then come back again when the team played this way again....

Anyway, almost everything went according to plan, except for that my beautiful, amazing Grandma Hansen passed away a few days before I made it out to Utah.  It was awful driving to Utah knowing I was going to be there for her funeral, but I would not get to visit her in person.  Her funeral was fun, very nice, and a good celebration of who she was: a beatuful, strong, spunky, sassy, loving, woman.  This picture is of my Grandpa, his kids and their spouses after the funeral.    

I also wanted to put this picture on here. Remember the beauty of my Grandma and a picture depicting the amazing, strong love my Grandparent's had for each other  for over 60 years on this Earth that I am sure will continue for eternity!  

Somewhere in between the viewing and the funeral time, our family was able to get together at Alex's Outback Steakhouse, and she treated everyone to a yummy dinner.  If you can't see what the word's say that Alex is pointing at, it says, Alexandra Hansen, Proprietor.  

It was really fun to be able to attend the Belnap Christmas party this year.  It was a "Polar Express" theme and it was so cute and fun.  Everyone got to wear pajamas, the food was delicious, esp. the hot chocolate, and the activities were fun too!  Z was really good I am sure which is why I am making an awesome expression and pointing at him in one picture!  

My cute Grandma and Grandpa Belnap in their pj's at the party!  

More fun!  

 



The boys at the Idaho State vs. Wyoming basketball game. We got to bring Daddy home for Christmas after this game! :)

I also got to see my good friend and old teammate Chelsy and her cute family at the game! :)  

Another fun night was when I got to get together with a bunch of my old high school pals. We had a little reunion and it was so much fun to see lots of people and get caught up! Too bad this picture was taken after a lot of people had already left!  

A few other random shots.  

 CHRISTMAS EVE!  Sitting out a note and cookies for Santa. Posing in our Christmas pajamas.

 Dustin's family always open's their presents on Christmas Eve, so here we are opening some of the gifts from the Enslinger side of the family!

Our happy family!  

 CHRISTMAS MORNING! Check out the loot!  (And the excited looks on my kids faces!)  Oh wait I have a very excited look too because Mom and Dad Enslinger got me a Kindle Fire!! :)  We always get so, so spoiled!  :)

The rest of December still to come....

November

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  I know it is July and I am still blogging about November, of last year. But I am determined to catch up!  (Slowly but surely it will happen!)  Anyway, here is November:

Gotta love discount Halloween costumes:  My cute little ninjas!  

 Oh the fun with Jack's home preschool.  Here they are turkeys! :)  The kids actually dug a song I totally made up about turkeys to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot."  Went a little something like this:  "I'm a little turkey, fluffy and brown.  Here are my feathers and here is my beak.  Oh no! It's Thanksgiving day!  Quick!  I better run away!"  Kids loved it.  Yeah. I am awesome like that. ;)  

One of the main events of November:  Jack's 4th Birthday! (Anyone else having a hard time believing I have a kid this old?)  Here he is getting a sang to and getting a free dessert at Applebee's.

 He decided he wanted a "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" birthday party this year.  It was actually really fun to plan a Pirate Party!  Here are the little pirates in their bandanas they got when they arrived! Simeon, Braedan, Eli, Phoenix, Dwayne, Jonah, and Jack.  

It was fun!  We played Pin the Treasure Chest on the Map, colored pirate masks, played Musical Pirate Dots, ate pirate themed food, did a treasure hunt and collected gold dablooms and fount Pirate's Booty at the end, and I attempted a treasure chest cake and a pirate cake.  Good times.  

My cute little pirate!  Opening presents, eating, and checking out the cake and treasures!  

 Opening his gifts and super excited about Monster Trucks!  He also got a Monster Truck launcher stadium, Hi Ho Cherrio, and some other fun gifts!

Here he is opening his birthday package from Grandma and Grandpa Enslinger!  As you can see he was SUPER excited about his Monster Trucks, Shake and Go Lightning McQueen, train, church clothes, and MONEY! :)  

Hope our cute little 4 year old had  a fun birthday! :)  

Our other silly little pirate! :)  

 Just a fun picture! Yes I came in one morning to find jack and Zander both asleep in the crib!  Please ignore the ghetto diaper box and bungee cord thingy we rigged on the end of Zander's crib to prevent him from climbing/falling out of his crib! :)

A fun cheeser of Z-man!

 Fun with pics after church one day....My handsome boys.  Doesn't Z look like the Nutty Professor!?

 Another church pic of my handsome boys!  (Jack in his new birthday outfit!)

And our final big event of November - THANKSGIVING! I took the boys, yes by myself, and headed to Kansas to spend Thanksgiving with the Enslingers because we would be in Utah for Christmas. Here are some highlights from the trip.

Jack having some chat time with his amazing Great Grandpa Enslinger!

 Both boys really enjoyed drinking out of fancy cups for Thanksgiving dinner.  And the food was DELISH!  It always is when Great Grandma Enslinger cooks!

 The boys had so much fun playing in a big box of leaves with Grandpa in the backyard!

 Some other highlights:  Hugs from Great Grandma, eating at Greg's (Oh how I love the yummy fried spicy cheese balls!), hanging out at Enslinger lumber, riding the toys, and playing Hide N' Seek behind carpet samples, seeing Aunt Melissa, Uncle Shawn, Gillian, and Audrie, a fun parade and meeting Santa Claus after at the park where we also got hot dogs and hot chocolate,, and playing at Grandma's house with cars and cooking sets.

 A few more fun things from the trip:  Going and watching the La Crosse High School leopards play in the State Championship game, watching everyone open our Christmas presents from us early, and Jack and Z opening a couple too.  I love how my homemade presents for Gillian and Audrie turned out! Glad the fam agreed to open everything in front of us so we could see, and glad I was actually done with Christmas shopping by November! :)

And looky there. Finally to December! :)    

Catching Up: October (Warning: Super long post!)

October was a fun month!  Even though I was recovering from knee surgery, we were still able to do some fun things with the boys and as a family!  

Here we are at the UW Homecoming Parade.  

The boys after the parade! I absolutely love this picture of them!   

The boys enjoying some Daddy time!  (Ya know they have to do that before basketball season starts and they don't see their daddy nearly as much!)
The weather in October is crazy.  One day we got a TON of snow. It was probably one of the biggest storms of the entire winter!  The boys loved going out and playing in the snow. Making snow angels, throwing snowballs, eating snow, etc.  This was really one of Z's first times really being old enough, big enough to play in the snow!  

We then, of course, had to go inside for some hot chocolate!  

Another fun weekend we had amazing weather! So we took the boys and our rakes and went to a park. We (meaning Dustin because I was still gimpy) raked up leaves there and let the boys jump in the leaves!  They had a blast!   

Here is our family in the leaves!  

A few more shots of our fun at the park!  

We were so lucky to have Grandma and Grandpa Hansen come out for a visit!  We went down to the Denver Zoo for a crazy free day! There were tons of people, but we were still able to have fun and see everything.  I gimped around on crutches and a giant brace, but it was still fun to see the zoo, and even better, experience it with Grandma and Grandpa!  

We loved seeing all the animals, the statues, and going on the train ride around the zoo!  

So much fun with Grandma and Grandpa at the big zoo!  

By the dinosaur statues on the way to our parking garage.

Another highlight for Jack was getting his early birthday present from Grandpa - a fishing pole!  Here is  a picture of the prepping of the pole.

Once we had the worms and got the pole ready we headed to the park to fish in the pond!  Check out how Jack caught a fish!  

A he did catch a fish!  In fact I think he ended up catching like 5 fish! When he caught his first he was so, so excited until he went to touch it and it started flopping.  Then he was terrified.  If you can't tell, in the top left picture he is both crying and smiling!  

A few more pics from our fishing adventure!  

Saying goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa! It was such a fun visit!  I took the boys to do lots of fun Halloween activities. I love Halloween.  I love dressing them up. I love candy.  The decorations.  (I love being scared!)  I just think it is a fun holiday.  I am trying to pass on the excitement of it to my boys, cuz Dustin hates the holiday!  So we made sure to decorate the house cute, carve and paint pumpkins, wear fun Halloween clothes, and go to lots of Halloween activities! 

The outside of our house.   

Grandma and Grandpa brought the boys some little pumpkins and some  big ones that we could carve. Here are the boys painting their pumpkins while Grandma and Grandpa were here.  

Carving Pumpkins as a family.  The boys were both disgusted and fascinated by the goop inside of hte pumpkins!  

Cute Halloween pajamas and shirts!     

Here are the boys Trick or Treating at the Children's Clinic.

  Here I am making them pose by our decorations before Trick or Treating fun!  

Me with my handsome doctor and cute little monkey!  

Visiting Daddy at work after Trick or Treating at the Clinic.

 I think Jack thinks he has to have multiple costumes each year, because for the last couple of years he has had more than one.  he wears a different one for each event.  Here he is as a doctor (with his monkey of course!)

We also went to the Downtown Trick or Treating at local businesses!  Here Jack is Spiderman!  They got to play some fun games and do some fun activities while picking up loads of candy! :)

 Then we went to the Stake Trunk or Treat on Halloween night.  A cute older couple always brings this fun little set up for people to get pictures by, so here is our family on Halloween!

 Jack and his best buddy, Phoenix, were both sporting their Spiderman looks! :)  

Our family!  

 Yes.  The boys and I sure enjoy Halloween!

And as if this post hasn't already been long enough, here are few parting photos of my cute, crazy guys!  

I love Jack and his fun personality!  He can be crazy but so, so sweet too! :)  

My handsome boys before church one day! :)

Sorry for the duplicate pictures, but gotta show our crazy Zanderman some more!