Final pictures of the year...

I just realized that I still had a few pictures from some of our Christmas parties that I had never put on the blog. I couldn't let some of these pass, so enjoy!!

At the Borden's Christmas party, my dad, Justin, and Gene got into the holiday spirit!! Aren't they all so cute?! Notice Justin's shirt (this was his attire for all our Christmas parties)...It says "Official Mistletoe Tester"--he cracks me up!

Here is Kathy, me, and my mom at the same party--we look much more mature than the men!! Just kidding! =) I'm not sure what happened to the lighting in the picture though--Kathy is in the dark and my mom is glowing!

We also had our lifegroup Christmas party at the Lunsford's house, and had so much fun! Here are Mark and Anne, our lifegroup leaders...We did a secret santa gift exchange, and I almost got this snuggie. But, I traded it away at the end for a really cute Christmas rug for the front door!
Here are Jordan and Lisa, our new friends!

Here are the Harmons, Brandon, Michelle, and sweet Addie! Doesn't she have the brightest, happiest eyes ever? They are such sunshine-y eyes! What a sweet little girl!

Here are the Ericksons, Pete, Jolene, and little Henry. He is such a cutie pie!! I can't believe he is already so big!! It seems like I was just visiting them in the hospital!! (Jolene--I borrowed some pics off your blog that were cuter than mine! Thanks!!!)

Here are the Krewsons, Katie and Harry. Fun friends! They were in Colorado the same time we were, but they were smart and got there quickly by flying!

We also were able to bring along some of our college friends that were in town visiting. Josh and Heather Davis, along with their cutie-pie Luke, came up from the San Antonio area to visit us for a few days. We had such a fun time with them, catching up, getting to know Luke, and finding out how much our husbands have in common! It was so great to see you guys! Let's do it again soon!

We went to 4 more Christmas parties, but I guess I didn't take any pictures of them! Oh well! But honestly, I'm glad all the parties are over! We are just going to stay home, watch movies, and eat chili tomorrow night for new years. Our kind of night!!

~~~

Had to add just a few more...I took the first one about a month ago, the first time it was really cold out and Justin wanted to go running. He came out like this and I wasn't sure if it was my husband or a ninja. So...of course, I had to take a picture!

And what would be one of my blogs without a picture of a puppy or two??! Here are Molly and Betsy with pretty bows on their ears after getting their Christmas grooming.

Don't you just love cocker spaniels?? I sure do!

I hope you have a very happy New Year's Eve!!

Christmas in Denver--2009

This blog has A LOT of pictures, so I apologize ahead of time! I just wanted to make sure that I get this Christmas onto the blog so we can remember it! Enjoy! (And I also posted a short blog before this one about our anniversary!)

Getting to Denver...
We left at 6 am on the 23rd for our 13 hour drive to Denver, hoping to miss all of the bad weather/blizzard type conditions that were being reported on the news. It was a long drive, but it was, except for the last hour, completely bad-weather-free!! We hit a little bit of blowing snow from Colorado Springs to Denver, but we made it through and arrived safely! I just loved the mountains as we got farther into Colorado. It is amazing how much you miss seeing mountains when you live in a flat place!! I think everyone heard me say, "Oh, look at the mountains!!" about 50 times in these last few days!


Betsy enjoyed the ride. For her, it was a 13 hour nap!!


Once we got to Joy's house, Ryley and Betsy were so happy to see each other!

Betsy wasn't quite sure what to think about Juliet, their year old puppy! She had to do a bit of growling at first, but soon, was pretty tolerant of being around her. I don't know that Betsy will ever really like being around other dogs--I think we have completely spoiled her and made her the princess that she is! Oops! But we LOVED meeting sweet Juliet, and had such a great time with her this week! We'd forgotten how much energy puppies have! So much fun!

Justin and Joy--the first of many silly pictures taken of themselves this week. This was the most normal one! Fun cuddling with Ryley--what a little lady she is becoming!!

Joy, Ryley, and Juliet (dressed as Mrs. 'Paws') Outside in the snow with the puppies--they love the snow!!

More beautiful pictures of the snow, at both Joy's house and Justin's Aunt Coleen's house...It was so pretty to see snow everywhere! It snowed 3 of the 4 days we were there, but also had these clear moments of sunshine and blue skies. SO gorgeous!!!

Christmas Eve...

We had a lot of fun on Christmas Eve, and we were so glad to get the entire day there. Originally we weren't supposed to arrive until afternoon, so we had a whole fun day!

Here is their living room all decorated for Christmas!

And Ryley and I taking pictures of each other taking pictures!We then went to go ice skating! Can you tell Ryley was excited?!

The kids all got to skate free, but the adults had to pay. We weren't going to skate, but once we were there, I really wanted to! So I convinced Justin to skate with me, and after we got past the skates killing our feet, we really had a great time!!

Justin's cousin Aleesa (above) and Jake (below). Their brother Austen and parent's Brian and Julie skated too.Jake and Ryley used these cones to skate (and do tricks) with, and I think they spent more time on the ice than up on the skates!! They had so much fun, and they never seemed to be hurt!

Joy skating

And here are the 2010 Olympians...yeah right. But we had fun!!

And then Justin and Brian tried a hand-in-hand lap around...Brian fell and Justin ran into the wall about 10 seconds after this picture!

Then we went back to Joy's house for dinner, Christmas songs, and a talent show!

Betsy enjoyed loves and cuddles from almost everyone--she loved Aleesa!

For the talent show, Jake, Austen, and Aleesa did a great recitation of the Christmas story from the Bible. They are such sweet siblings, and get along so well!!

Then came a wonderful rendition of "My Little Buttercup" by Joy and Justin. Enjoy the video if you like! (Sorry guys--I just had to post this!!)

Christmas Day...

We started Christmas early at 6 am with a very excited 6 year old!! (She was actually up with her daddy at 5 am, but he was able to stall her and give us another hour to sleep after we all spent a late night helping Santa! Thanks Ryan!) Santa brought Ryley her very own writing desk and chair that matches her furniture, and she was so happy!! It was so fun to be a part of Christmas through the eyes of a 6 year old!

Betsy was very excited to help out by eating the crumbs Santa had left on the plate!

Later in the day, Betsy had fun playing with her Christmas present from Ryley and Juliet, and plastic waterbottle cover in the shape of a pig that she would chew on. She loved it!

Christmas is a tiring day for a dog!!

Begging on the stairs to get upstairs to the Christmas food will tend to tire dogs out!!

But they were very happy, especially Betsy!! Isn't her face so cute?!

Kids table!

Day after Christmas...

A lot of the family was planning on going back to Nebraska the day after Christmas, but the roads were closed due to ground blizzards. So we had an extra day of fun together, and the kids got more time to swim! While they were swimming, us grown ups were amusing ourselves with our iphones. Most of us seem to be on them quite a bit, so we thought it would be funny to have some pictures! (We're weird.)

(I think we annoyed Kathy with our iphone use--sorry Kathy! =)

We then decided that we should take some family pictures with the beautiful snow

And I just couldn't resist doing a snow angel...

And remembering my sweet angel boy at the same time.

We then came back for some game time!

The dogs wanted to play too!
Well, maybe not Betsy. She'd rather just lay on a pillow and eat her Dingo!

You can't really tell too well here, but Justin and his cousin had to have a little snowball fight too! I don't know if anyone actually got hit with a snowball, but they sure did have cold hands!!

Last but not least, my silly Justin...

For those of you that really know Justin, know that he is one silly guy. Justin loves to make people smile and laugh! He just had to try on Joy's pink Snuggie,

Her Christmas tree hat (not too sure he wanted me to take his picture in it though!),

and trying out Ryley's new stilts!! He just cracks me up!

Over all, we had a wonderful Christmas week in Denver with Justin's family. We can't believe that it is all over now! Christmas just seemed to sneak up this year, and now it had snuck away just as fast! So nice to get to be with family, and we already look forward to next year's holidays!

(Way to go if you made it through this entire blog!!)