Tis the Season

Merry Christmas everyone! We've been enjoying the season. We've trimmed the tree (well actually just the top half!)

Brooke enjoyed her Sunday Christmas outfit. She did really well during the Christmas program while I sang and Tracie played the piano.

On Friday, Tracie had her first Christmas recital. 5 beginner students, 11 songs, and 15 minutes later we were all enjoying the refreshments. All the parents really enjoyed it and it was a fun night.

On Saturday night we went to the Zoo Lights at the Denver Zoo. Brooke was excited to spend the night in the stroller...

... and really enjoyed the decorations! Despite the chilly weather, we had a lot of fun. Brooke enjoyed the animal lights especially, and we may have to make it an annual tradition.

Making sugar cookies? Follow these easy steps.

Roll out the dough...

Cut into Christmas shapes...

Place on a baking sheet...

Add belly buttons to the gingerbread men...

Get mad at Dad for squashing your creative expression!

Cookies, cookies, cookies, and recipes too

This past week has been a busy one for me. I participated in my first and possibly last cookie exchange. (I only say last because I don't like having to bring home the same amount of cookies I brought) 16 ladies participated but luckily the gal hosting said that we would only need to bring a half dozen per lady. Phew but that's still a lot of cookies to bake. Luckily I've got a trusty baker husband that can roll out 9 dozen cookies with no problem. I only mention that Troy baked/made the cookies because I was busy putting together our ward's Relief Society's holiday cook book. At the time I volunteered to do it I had no idea what I would be getting myself into but after a lot of hours all 118 cookbooks are printed, assembled, and bound. Troy has been a huge help in keeping me sane this past week. Thanks love!!!!!

Intermission

It feels like Holiday Half-time for the next couple of weeks. Not a whole lot going on. Which maybe explains why Brooke keeps herself entertained doing this...

... and this. Quite the budding artist.

But mostly this.

We did go to one of our friend's holiday party last night, which was nice.

Other than that, we are looking forward to our Christmas plans, as well as making plans in 2011 to see Les Miserables and Lion King.

2 Weeks In A Jiffy

Here is a brief (but lengthy in pics) recap of our last 2 weeks:
Shane, Heather and family came to visit the week before Thanksgiving. We headed off to take a tour of a local candy shop.
Then learned about the Amazon at the Denver Nature & Science Museum
We went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. The weather was perfect.

One of the only times you'll catch Brooke willingly holding someone else's hand. Notice that it's neither Troy's nor I's.

Getting up close and personal with the giraffes.

Feeding the parakeets.

Getting a little Squishy time in. She really is a the perfect kid cat.

Can't let Wii boxing pass up.

Thanksgiving Bingo
Date night with Shane and Heather to dinner at Steuben's (feature on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives) then off to an Avs game.
Catching a cat nap in between all the action.
Making the dessert for Thanksgiving Day.Squishy and Lexie enjoying the fruits of our labor. (or Libby's)

Cooking up some good grub during the week

Making a delicious turkey.

Enjoying our Thanksgiving feast.

Enjoying the dessert.

And lastly, decorating the Christmas tree.

We have had a fabulous 2 weeks spending time with our families. The holiday season is definitely in full swing here. We just need a little bit of snow for it to feel complete. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!!

Melting Pot

A week ago we went on a double date with our friends Justin and Kristen to the Melting Pot.

Brooke was a great 'fifth' wheel and enjoyed the bread and kept herself entertained by watching Toy Story 3.

The company was great, the food was pretty good, but the dessert was fantastic.

Brooke hit the wall during the second hour there, but caught her second wind when the brownie bites and oreo crusted marshmallows came out.

I spent a couple of days in South Carolina on business, went to the BYU-CSU game on Saturday, and we generally spent the rest of the week preparing for family to come visit. This is Brooke's welcoming face!

Daylight What?!

As I'm sure everyone is aware (or at least I hope they are by now) daylight savings time ended on Sunday. In conjunction with this, late church, no nap, and Brooke really having absolutely no idea that time decided to play a trick on her, this is what we ended up with. Hope you enjoy!

Happy Day!!!!

Last week went by in a blur but luckily we were able to celebrate Troy's b-day (or as Brooke likes to call it, his "happy day"). I surprised Troy with a date Friday night. The date was supposed to be a surprise but he ruined it by trying to schedule our home teachers to come that night. We left Brooke with a babysitter and headed out for dinner. We arrived to Cheesecake Factory to find out that there would be a little bit of wait. Well, with my finagling I managed to get us a table right away and we even were able share it with some friends. At least I was able to pull off a little bit of a surprise. We enjoyed dinner and cheesecake then headed back home to play some games. Originally I thought about doing a surprise b-day party but decided that was way too much work and that there would be no way that I could hold a secret for that long.

Saturday was a busy day. Our neighborhood had the annual Pumpkin Fest. I totally forgot to bring a camera but Brooke enjoyed petting all the animals at the petting zoo and picking out our pumpkin. Later in the evening was our ward's Trunk-or-Treat party that included a chili cook-off. Brooke definitely got the hang of saying "trick or treat" in order to get candy pretty early on.

Can you tell what Brooke and Troy are?

Sunday, we finally got around to carving our pumpkin and later in the evening we trick-or-treated to a few houses in our neighborhood. All in all the weekend festivities were a lot of fun and now it's just getting Brooke back to being normal and off her sugar high.

Oh, and P.S