Happy Halloween

We had a blast trick or treatin' this year. My friend came over and went with us; she made her sponge bob costume (isn't great!). It was so fun walking around with Sponge Bob, all the kids looked and you could hear them say "Look, it's Sponge Bob"! Katelynn was great this year, she ran right up to the houses and knocked on the door and said "Trick or Treat" and always followed with a nice "Thank you". We ended up with our next door neighbors as well which made Katelynn's day to be with her little friends.

The next morning Junior even slept in until 7:45 (6:45 with the fall back), Katelynn was up at 7am, but it was better than 6am!

4th of July Weekend

Happy 4th of July!

We had a fabulous 4th of July weekend. On Thursday night after work the kids and I went over to a neighbors house and Katelynn got to jump on their trampoline and play with their kids, she hadn't seen them for awhile so she was in her glory. Junior and I hung out with the adults and did some visiting (aka gossiping) and headed home around 8:30pm, way past Junior's bedtime, but he took a catnap while we were there. Friday we just hung around the house and Katelynn and I finally decided that we needed to run to the store because I figured we wouldn't have time or want to on Saturday, so off we went. We stopped at Lowe's first and picked up some PVC pipe and supplies so Dan could make us the Lawn Golf game and then we swung by Target for a couple of things. It didn't take Dan long to make our game and we were playing that afternoon, we normally just sit around in the backyard so it was fun to have something that Dan and I could play with as well and Katelynn likes it too. We were tired from Thursday night so we went to bed at a fairly decent time. We invited friends over for Saturday to BBQ and hang out, so Saturday morning we were cleaning the house and checking over what we may need. Dan ran and picked up beer and we decorated the backyard with some flags and got the lawn golf game out for people to play. People showed up around 2:30pm or so which actually worked out nice because it gave us time to hang out and enjoy the excitement of the day as a family. Junior hung out in his swing and we just played around the yard. About a month earlier I had picked us up all matching 4th of July shirts, so we were all sporting them for the day and took some pretty cool pictures. We didn't get a complete family picture though because when people showed up Junior was napping and then we were visiting and such when he woke up. Katelynn and I made Red and Blue jello cups and had cool whip for our Red, White and Blue treats which all of her friends really enjoyed (and of course with each group that stopped by Katelynn had to have one with them). We did get hit by the rainstorm and made due with having the kids play in the basement and us hanging out in the house and in the garage, but it did clear up and then drizzled here and there throughout the night. Dan cooked steaks and brats for those that stayed for supper. The kids were waiting and waiting for it to get dark enough out to light off fireworks and finally we just started lighting them off and letting them light some sparklers. We did have to retreat to the house and hide all evidence at one point during the night because our city has a no fireworks law and the police heard one of ours "screaming", but all was good and we lit off the rest and then put the kiddos to bed and hung out with our company for a little while longer before heading to bed ourselves. It was a really good time. Sunday was another relaxing day. We got up (both of us) with the kids in the morning and cooked breakfast, cleaned up our mess from the day before and then played outside. When the kids were napping I went out and tanned outside for awhile and then I took the kids to the outlet mall shopping for some clothes so Dan could get a nap in. Junior was basically just along for the ride. We stopped at a Cafe' and I got a coffee and Katelynn got a smoothy, she thought she was pretty cool. It was back to work on Monday morning. Here are some pictures of our 4th of July. I think we look pretty darn good in our matching attire!

(Katelynn took this picture for us)

Easter Family Pictures

I have been making sure each year since Katelynn was born that we are taking a family picture, nothing fancy, but it is fun to look each year and see how much changes in a year's time.

2009

2008

2007
2006

I think it's funny when you look at Dan throughout these pictures and he really hasn't changed, but I look completely different every year and of course Katelynn grows and grows.

Easter Pictures 2009

Coloring Easter Eggs

My Beautiful little girl.

Hoppy Easter!

Christmas Morning 2008

Our presents that we opened on Christmas Eve. Unfortanetly I was not feeling well at all X-mas eve and crawled out of bed long enough to have everyone open gifts, so I didn't take any pictures that night. I felt pretty bad too, since Dan and Katelynn ended up eating pizza for supper instead of our traditional Lasagna meal and getting all dressed up for dinner and having a really good night. Katelynn Christmas morning coming to see what Santa Claus left for her.

Emptying out her stocking
She got her princess kitchen that she asked Santa for!

Christmas 2006

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year I don't even know where to start. Besides last year it has really just been me and Dan here for Christmas and this year we had family and company! It started with my mom and grandma flying out from Minnesota and a friend of ours moving to Colorado Springs from Minnesota.

Christmas Eve included myself, Dan, and Katelynn, my mom and our friend Tim. We had lasagna for supper (made from scratch by your truly - for those of you who think I can't cook). We opened gifts after supper and Katelynn went to bed around 9pm that night. The adults drank some beer and wine and we played a few games of darts and the party ended up in the garage (of course, we can't smoke in the house) and some of us drank too much and stayed up too late.

Christmas Day included myself, Dan, and Katelynn, my mom and our friend Tim, my aunt, uncle and 2 cousins and my grandma. Let me tell you, there is a lot of work that goes into hosting Christmas, I had to get up early and start (help my mom) make appetizers, throw a ham in the oven, I made a white sangria wine drink and some hot dip for veggies and trying to keep the house in some kind of order and get everyone showered before company arrived -whew!

But it all went off without a hitch and we had a blast, we visited and then we ate, then opened some presents, more darts, and then we played a game called "Catch Phrase", I have to say this is a fun game that anyone would enjoy (even Dan played and liked it).

We had such a wonderful Christmas that next year we may just have to jump on an airplane (or if Dan has his way in the truck) and make our way home to spend it with family again, we know each year that a little piece of our holiday is missing without family, but you really don't feel completely until you have it again.

Thank you everyone for making our 2006 Christmas so memorable.

Christmas Eve and Presents

Here is the first post of our Christmas at the Davids' home in Colorado!!

Katelynn was a wonderful little Santa and helped hand out gifts to everyone and even opened her own. She was an appreciative little girl as well, after each gift that was hers she would make a comment on how much she liked it, one gift was stacking cups (one of her favorite things) and after we took them out for her she said "Oh Boy"! and after another gift it was "Oh Wow!" and another was "for the Baby!" She even guessed correctly on the books that we bought her as gifts before she unwrapped them, smart little turkey!

Here are some pictures of her new favorite thing to play with and the great part is mommy can fold it up and put it away when not in use!!

More pictures to come later this week! We are buckling down for another supposed blizzard starting tomorrow - good lord, I thought I left Minnesota!

Take Care,

Taryn, Dan, Katelynn and this weeks special guest - Grandma.

Katelynn's Pretty Red Christmas Dress

Here are a couple of pictures of all of us and Katelynn in her Christmas dress we bought her. We are very excited to have my mom and grandma joining us in Colorado for Christmas this year, it was a last minute thing, but the more the merrier!!

Decorating for Christmas

Here are some pictures of us decorating for Christmas. Most of this was done the day after Thanksgiving (minus all the light mishaps)everything went pretty well and both Katelynn and the cats have left both trees alone! Katelynn has now added "TREE" to her vocabulary. She tried to get into the gifts only once and is now more interested in getting daddy's train and accessories. Also, if you look at the TV in one of the pictures we are watching It's A Charlie Brown Christmas, (this was to keep my brother happy since I got my butt chewed for missing the Halloween Charlie Brown episode).

Personalized Letters from Santa

This is very cute and a great idea for all parents, your child will be tickled to get a real letter from Santa! and the best part - this one is FREE!!

F71348url=http://www.aaasouth.com/newsletter/1205/santa/santaletter.asp

Thanksgiving and More

Happy Thanksgiving to my family and friends, we hope that you had a wonderful holiday!

Our Thanksgiving started out by Dan & I trying to figure out what time we should eat, we wanted Katelynn to be able to join us at the table and her naps on days that she's home with us seem to vary, sometimes it's a 2 hour nap starting at 10:00 and sometimes it's a 3 to 4 hour nap starting at 11:00, we discussed and contemplated and decided it would be best to eat at noon. So Wednesday night Dan prepared his Turkey and double-checked all of his fixings for the next day and I made a pumpkin pie (my husband doesn't have much faith in me so he bought a back-up just in case, my pie turned out just fine and the counterfeit didn't get eaten over the weekend). We set the alarm for 6am so Dan could get up and preheat the oven, throw the turkey in and get back to bed (one nice thing is Katelynn sleeps until about 7:30am when she's doesn't have to go to daycare, this is heaven in our new world.)
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, biscuits, and pumpkin pie - this is a lot of food for 3 people to eat. Katelynn did end up napping through the meal, but it actually gave me a chance to eat while my food was still hot! We watched some football and just hung out the rest of the day.

Black Friday:
I was not too entirely impressed with the after Thanksgiving day ads and sales that I saw, but Friday morning I was out of the house by 7:30am, nobody else was even awake yet. First stop, Target - I picked up a couple of gifts for Katelynn and for a couple other people on our list, it was not too crowded, I was pleasantly surprised. Second stop, Old Navy, now they did have some good sales going so I bought a couple more gifts and of course something for myself and off I went. Third stop, outlet mall, I went to Osh Kosh B'Gosh and found Katelynn an outfit for her pictures next weekend and then went to the toy store and found another gift I was looking for for her - off and running again. Last stop, the Promenade mall in Loveland, I went to Best Buy first and this is where I ran into the crowd of people, mobs of them, in every inch and section of the store, I was looking at a small flat screen for Dan for our living room upstairs and found one on sale, but Best Buy is a sneaky store - the sale price was great, but the money that you save is on a rebate, not at the register, they are definitely banking on people being to busy through the holiday season to remember to mail it in, so too many people and not really a sale, off to Macy's I went and found Katelynn's x-mas dress! It was $44.00 and on sale and then I had my coupon of course and got it for $17.00 - you can't beat that! A couple more stores and a couple more presents and I was homeward bound.
Pretty satisfied with my morning and shopping.

Saturday:
I did a double-check on the ads after I went through my list of what and who I still needed to buy for. Why are dads and men so hard to shop for? You are a lucky one if your father or husband have a hobby that you can purchase things for them, mine have neither, my dad - I struggle with every year and Dan's hobbies are too expensive to buy for and if he decides that he wants something he goes out and buys no matter what time of the year. I did think of a couple more things that I wanted to pick-up and we needed diapers to make it through the long weekend so Katelynn and I took off in the afternoon back to the stores.
Check, Check, and Check, the shopping is done!

Sunday:
Football day! Okay, so no matter what I still get up giddy on Sunday's for football and get my Viking wardrobe on and dress my kid the same, I like to keep the hope alive. We did win this Sunday so I am now looking forward again to going home in a couple of weeks to get the rush of being at the game and with the crowd.

We did do some Christmas decorating, but that is another blog to come.

Happy Thanksgiving!