Grand Junction, Trip Uno

Some pictures from our first trip to Grand Junction:

 

Cameron was my brave child who sat on Santa's lap.  Tiernan would have nothing to do with it.  Libby was giving Santa the business about all the presents she wanted.

Tiernan was SOOO excited to help decorate the tree since we weren't able to have a tree this year at our house.

We visited a "museum" and the boys loved looking at and sitting on all the equipment and watching the trains.

Zane loves his Grandma!

The big boys loved watching the huge model train set up.  Those train guys are serious about their trains!  I personally see no reason for a grown man to dress in overalls and play with trains, but maybe that's just me. 

Well, we've completely lost it

So, in case our lives weren't crazy enough, we decided to list our house for sale in September.  Our house was located on the corner of a relatively busy street, and we'd been concerned for some time about the safety of our boys.  Plus, the layout was not great (laundry in the basement, two story, no master bath, one car garage.)  We considered waiting, but recognized that life is not going to get any easier as the babies get older.  Showing the house was a bit of a nightmare.  Have you ever tried keeping a house clean with a four kids four and under?  Plus, showings always seemed to be during naptimes or mealtimes-yuck!  Fortunately we got a contract on the house at the end of November and then the real fun began!  Have you ever tried PACKING with four kids four and under?  This is pretty much the progress I made:  two kids in boxes that I had just filled with stuff 

 

My parents came over the first week or so and helped finish packing up the kitchen and stuff I was anal about.  Then, the boys and I went and lived with them for a week, before coming back for closing (we stayed with Ethan's parents) and then back to my parents for Christmas.  Right now we're staying at Megan's house while we move into the rental in Greeley.  To say the least, I've had it with living out of suitcases.  I'm ready to have my own space again-but feel discouraged because I know we have to move one more time into our real house.  I know it will be worth it in the end but what a hassle!  We are praying that the most perfect house shows up here soon and we can become more permanantly settled.  I am thankful that so far the boys have handled the transition well (except for some meltdowns at preschool) and that Ethan and I are still friends!     

November (yes, I'm behind)

Here is our November, in no particular order:

 

Crazy Zane

I'd like to think I live somewhere near a beach.  But alas, I live in landlocked Colorado, where we just have brrrrr freezing lakes.  November was very mild-we got to spend alot of time outdoors, and one day I was very brave (and/or crazy) and loaded up the boys to go to the park near Windsor Lake. 

Jaxson finally decided that the Bumbo was not so scary

Doesn't Jaxson seem so thrilled?

Ethan was horrified one day that I let the boys play with my eyelash curler.  Hey, there's only so much entertainment you can have indoors....

All tuckered out.  I love pictures of the boys sleeping.

Apparently this is the only blanket I ever get out to lay the twins on.  We have three million baby blankets, and we use one.

 

Another favorite indoor activity-building blanket forts. 

Trying to be a more responsible parent and actually feed my babies real food (if you consider baby food real food)

 

The boys had so much fun that week getting into the wagon and rolling down the small hill in our yard.  I thought it would end in disaster, but they actually did pretty good sharing. 

Snoozy Jaxson

My favorite!

Halloween and Visiting Wyoming

At the end of October we visited Jerod's parents' cabin up in Centennial, Wyoming.  Of course, it had been beeeeeautiful the weekend before, and the weekend we chose to go up, it was frickin' freeeeeeezing!  It had snowed the few days before that, and in true Wyoming form, blew wind like crazy the whole time we were there.  So that was a bummer, and we only ventured out a few times since it was so cold! 

 

Here's a few pics of us getting ready to go for a walk.  We were only out for probably 15 minutes.

We decided to try to go to our church's fall festival this year on Halloween night.  I think the boys were just a little bit too young to "get" all the fun games they had set up, so we only did a few and they played in the bouncy house the rest of the time.  Maybe we'll wait till everyone is a few years older to try it again.   I "somehow" didn't manage to get a picture of all four boys together....

 

Zane was a horse, and Jaxson was a jaguar (cheetah??)

Zane the horse

Cameron was Lightning McQueen-his favorite!

Zane got cranky and Ethan had to hold him.  Cameron jumped at the chance for a spot in the stroller. 

Our little jaguar

Tiernan was a jack o' lantern

So happy!

Oh my gosh, I dug up this picture of Tiernan in the same costume-crazy!!

 

Visiting the Farm and Pumpkin Patch

The boys were so excited one Saturday in October to visit the Cozzens' farm.  We had hoped that they would get to ride with Grandpa while he was harvesting beets, but of course the one day the whole month it happened to downpour was the same weekend we visited.  The boys still had a great time sitting in all the equipment and Daddy even took them for a spin around the yard in one of the tractors. Good thing they are young and easily entertained!

 

 

An old and new tractor....

 

Tiernan is so brave and will climb right up the ladder into the cab of the combine.  I was terrified he'd break something since he loves pushing buttons and is SO curious about what all the knobs and levers do.  Good thing his Grandpa loves him!

The following pictures are of our annual trip to Tigges farm near Windsor to hunt for pumpkins.  As usual the boys were probably more interested in sitting in all the old farm equipment than the pumpkins, but all the boys humor me by acting interested in Halloween tradition.

 

Zane got to ride in the wagon with the big boys while Jaxson rode in the Baby Bjorn.

 

Tiernan was such a good helper and so proud to be able to pick up the pumpkins and load them into the wagon.  Not to be outdone, Cameron also wanted in on the action....

 

All my boys!  I am a blessed mama!

 

He couldn't handle it for long, and had to pull the wagon himself.  Well, that, and the pumpkins took over the seating area in the wagon.

 

I couldn't choose between these two pictures of Cameron and his daddy.

 

We had to take turns on all the fun things to sit on.