Frozen Pond Adventure in Cheyenne

Something new for Christmas

D was working and we were thousands of miles from the people we love. The girls and I decided to do something completly different this year for Christmas. We went to the zoo, rode the chairlift, saw the lights of the electric safari and visited some of our favorite animals. It was a fabulous night. Merry Merry Christmas...

Merry Christmas

 

12 Days of Christmas

We miss our Kentuckiana family and friends. We decided we better get busy making some Christmas memories here.  We decided to start the 12 days tradition. Everything is more fun when you add "special Christmas" to the description.

On the First day of Christmas the Roberts' family...

Went to Freckles' Special Christmas band concert. (and celebrated cookie's birthday) The cute brunette with the French horn was our favorite of the 200 plus sixth grade band members.  Freckles also won an award for the most improved Band Member this semester. Yeah!  Teacher said that her practice is really paying off.

On the Second Day of Christmas the Roberts' family... built our first special Christmas gingerbread house.

On the third Day of Christmas the Roberts Family... Watched Rudolph and drank Special Christmas hot cocoa

On the Fourth Day of Christmas the Roberts family... Painted special Christmas ornaments and made chocolate "belly button" pretzels.

On the Fifth Day of Christmas the Roberts family... Went to watch one of our favorite dancers in the Nutcracker, had dinner and special Christmas gelato with our friends.

On the sixth day of Christmas the Roberts family... had Special Christmas pizza with our small group from church and volunteered to wrap presents for the Colorado springs Rescue mission Christmas toy drive.

On the seventh day of Christmas the Roberts family...finished decorating the house for Christmas. Then Freckles had some friends over for a hot cocoa party

.On the eighth day of Christmas the Roberts family...had Christmas brunch with friends.

On the Ninth day of Christmas the Roberts family...delivered cookies to the fire station to wish the firemen a Merry Christmas.We had a tour of the station and thanked them for their service.

On the Tenth Day of Christmas the Roberts family...We felt led to sponsor Michel through
Compassion International. Michel is HIV positive and lives in poverty in Bukina Fasso. We have been praying for Michels family and reminding ourselves of the blessings. We are happy to share with Michel this season and in the months to come.

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas the Roberts family... visited with our neighbor, maked some cookies and finished our Christmas Shopping.

butterfly release

We got the catapillars...Fed them sugar water... Watched as they made their chrysalises....Waited...Saw them emerge as a butterflies... Waited while their wings dried... and finally released them. 

COOKIE: I want to keep them, Mom.

MOM: Butterflies don't really make good pets, hon.

COOKIE: I think they like me

MOM: Of course they do. Who wouldn't?

COOKIE: Think they will come back to visit me?

MOM: Yup. I am sure they will... now tell them goodbye.

COOKIE: goodbye butterflies. Come back to see me!

New house for Christmas

Mom's club Christmas Parties.

Santa: Hi Cookie. What would you like for Christmas?

Cookie: ( long pause) I don't know. Santa, Surprise me.

Cookie says all the time that she is going to marry Jakers.  Her Barbies are named Cookie and Jake. It's sweet. I try to tell her that she can't just tell him they are getting married, that she has to wait for him to ask her and give her a ring. She got a spider ring for halloween and told me it was for Jake to give to her... oh boy. what are we in for? 

Love ya, Sara. So glad we are friends.

This is our Mom's club board. We had a fabulous dinner at El Tesoro. So glad to have mom friends...

Birthdays. birthdays, birthdays.

Freckles- I'm embarrassed about how long it has taken me to blog about Freckles's birthday. It was September, but it is finally up now. check out: Freckles turns 12

 Tuesday we celebrated cookie's 4th birthday. She took pink rice krispie treats to school to share with friends. Then after Sister's band concert, we headed to cookie's favorite restaurant... Chick fil a. We had nuggets and played on the playground. then her friends Jake and Cade came for icecream. All she asked for for her birthday was a penguin... so almost all of her gifts had a penguin theme. It was perfect. smile.

We were able to celebrate with Appa and Poppa for Charli's birthday this year! We celebrated over thanksgiving weekend at the Hampton Inn in Salina, KS

Satanta

Thanksgiving with Mendy! I finally made it to Kansas and it was a fantastic trip.

A bike ride around the town of Satanta to see the sights. This was the kids' school. We loved the playground

We took the kids bowling and had a blast! It was Cookie's first time.



We went to the family farm to see the minature horses and animals. It was so peaceful. Our highlight was seeing the donkeys walking along the road. We had no idea where they came from and they were plenty friendly. This is a pic of my new friend...

We love these guys...

We were able to visit Boot Hill in Dodge City. It was great to step back in time with our Sasparilla and enjoy the little town. We saw it all and spent ages in the gift shop. It was a fantastic day.

Thank you Howe's for having us! We love  you.