Snow Days!

Two days off from school due to snow storm. It's not even Halloween yet and we have SO much snow. The boys went out every day to play in it. One day they went out three times. They would come in super wet and ready for Hot Chocolate. This is the reason I love Colorado. The seasons are so much fun. We had the fireplace going and treats and hot chocolate non stop. I may have gained a few pounds, but totally worth it! Check out these photos:

The side of our house got huge snow drifts. They were pretty much as tall as the boys.

Snow days wouldn't be as fun without the sledding. We need to find some steeper hills for the next storm or for tomorrow even. We still don't know if tomorrow is a snow day or not.

Happy Birthday Big Boy!

We used to call Christian Big Boy when he was little. It's been a while, but I remember it used to be his only name for a time. He would carry around this navy blue blanket with white stars on it. I can't believe my big boy is eight. I'm so proud of him. Who would have thought this kid who used to talk in a Darf Vader voice would turn out to be so kind and loving. Christian has a big heart. It kills him when ever he does something wrong. He's smart and great at the piano. He can take Izzy out of the crib for me and does so all the time. He's good about getting his homework done after school and loves playing video games. His favorite color is blue, changed from orange. His favorite food is Chicken Pot Pie and Chicken Bakes from Costco. He loves to ride his bike and read the Diary of a Whimpy Kid series. He also finished reading Where the Red Fern Grows with his Dad and decided to read it on his own in school. I love christian and I'm so proud of him for getting baptized and realizing what an important step he's about to take.





So his birthday started out with a big birthday breakfast. We made oreo pancakes (chocolate and vanilla pancakes) with bacon and hash browns. He LOVES bacon. I think at one time he may have said he would marry bacon?! Since it was during fall break, we had his party at Chuck E Cheese's that afternoon with his friends. I love parties away from home. So easy to clean up! Birthday week continued with a birthday dinner at home on Sunday with family. I made him the Fun Fort cake from the kid's cook book he and Nico are totally into these days. He was so excited about the cake-love it when I get reactions for things I do (how selfish of me). And, birthday continued on to the Monday after when I sent in Jamie with a super fro wig to hand out treats to his class. Christian did say he was emberrased at first, but then he thought it was way cool. Thanks Sandee for your great birthday ideas-so much fun! And thanks to Jaymie Thorpe for the Wig-great costume! So, it was a great week for Christian. He is now anxiously anticipating his baptism in November. What a great kid!

Fun Fort Cake. Not bad for my first time using icing tips and such. Kinda liked making it.

Chuck E Cheeses. Spend 3 hours there. I believe that gives me amunity for at least a year!


Daddy Fro, Ms Hanni and Christian. Look how happy that boy looks!

I love the tiger on the back of his shirt. He found it at the Goodwill for $5 bucks. Love thrift stores for that reason.

Fall Break and Swine Flu?

So Fall break started on a Thursday. The kids got home from school, just in time to have Nico come down with a fever. But I should back up to Monday night of that week where we went to a function where my kids where exposed to the flu. By tuesday I knew Izzy wasn't feeling well, so the next day I took her in to the Doctor. She wasn't feverish or throwing up, but she was just laying around like you see below. If any of you have a one year old, you know that's not normal. By the time I took her in on Wednesday, she had developed a fever of 101 (not too bad), but got progressively worse by the end of Wednesday. She ended the week with not eating, throwing up, fever and laying around all the time and wanting to be held (is that so bad?). By Thursday night Nico had it and held on to it. By Sunday night Christian had it. It took us a whole week to get better. Good thing fall break is two weeks. So by the second week we started to feel better and so I promised them to cook some of the food from their kids cookbook Nico had purchased at the book fair. (He loves it when I call him My Little Chef. This came from Hallie, Summer and Jaxon who called him this once he made his favorite soup for them-top roman). So, we started with these cookie caterpillars-totally gross. I wouldn't even eat it. They were fun to make though. Then moved on to Pizza pinwheels-big hit! We also did Octopus something, the pic is below. That is pretty much what kept us entertained for two weeks since we were all sick and by the second week Christian had developed a secondary infection in his ear, so we tried the pool after he was better, but not a good idea when you're recoverying from an ear infection. Great break!

So, we had one doctor just say that Izzy had the flu, while the ER doctor said she had the Swine flu. Funny thing is that if you test possitive for Influenza A, doctors where automatically saying it was the H1N1 virus. She didn't even get the test for Influenza because the doctor said she had all the symptoms of the flu and had already been screaming the entire time. Poor doctor probably didn't want to hear any more after swabbing her to check for influenza A. It turns out that only a handful of labs in the US test for the H1N1 and it costs about $300 for the test. So, most doctors are not testing for it. The influenza A can be tested in the doctors office very easily. It only takes a few minutes. So, I would like to think we received a free vaccination of the H1N1 that week since Jamie and I also got sick-no fevers for us though. We may get the flu again this year (hope we don't), but I must say the media sure is hyped up about this. We did give Izzy Tamiflu right away, and she was still pretty sick. Out of the five of us, she got it the worst. Phew! That was long winded.

don't they look cute in the photo? My boys where bummed because their cookies didn't look as good as the picture. It really was much tougher than it looked!

Family Pictures

We did some fun family photos at the Ogden home in September. Wish we all looked good for the camera, but one can only dream of such a day with 3 kids. No need to explain, just enjoy:

This is a classic Nico look. If I posted any other photo it would not do him justice.

If I could let my boys pick which picture to put in their room, Nico would totally pick this one. He loves to grab Christian's face for photos. What a strange kid.

Labor Day Weekend - Utah

For the Labor Day weekend we headed to Utah. We always have so much fun when we go. Alan and Elisa are always making sure we do fun stuff. I personally would be more than happy to sit around and hang out, but it sure is nice to have so much fun. The boys took the bigger kids to ride dirt bikes while the girls shopped with the babies. It was heavenly!

Uncle Dewayne! What a champ. He didn't have any of his kids there, but was such a trooper hanging out with the kiddos. Love that guy!

Jaxon, Nico, Christian and Hallie. These four love each other so very much. I love to see them together hanging out. They had so much fun that day!