Here's my final recap {mostly in pictures} of 2016!
September and October brought on beautiful weather and many celebrations! We celebrated Alivia's cross country season where she received a fun award for placing in the top 10 in at least one meet. We celebrated Nolan's 5th birthday, a little late, with friends and family. He has such a delightful time. We enjoyed a really wonderfully organized Trunk or Treat put on by Ben's work. The kids had a blast. The charterer on the bottom right was free for attending. I love it and the artist's interpretation of Graysen just cracks me up. We had our 2nd annual Halloween gathering with our good friends, the Jardons, where we enjoyed dinner as a group then went out and to trick or treat. The weather was perfect for Halloween this year. Our large group of kids had so much fun together. We did allow our kids a few processed pieces of
The Denver Zoo has "free days" every year. This year, Ben was off work for one in November so we decided to pull Alivia from school and have a family day! It was honestly the BEST day trip out of Colorado Springs that we have ever had. We had so much fun. Things just worked out as planned and all of the kids had great attitudes all day. They listened to us and there was very minimal whining or complaining! It was a memorable experience. I'm so glad it worked out with Ben's schedule to make that day trip. The zoo also had a traveling art exhibit of all these really amazing sea animals made out of trash that was collected in the ocean and on the beaches. They were seriously really cool. We tried to take a picture of each one we came upon.
We had such a fun time gearing up for Christmas. We did an advent this year called Truth in the Tinsel. It's a really neat program where there is a highlighted theme/bible verse, a piece of the Christmas story read from the Bible, and a related craft. We did most of the days until my family arrived in town. The kids enjoyed the craft time and liked doing them with Ben. They loved decorating our real Christmas tree together as a family. We went to a pajama cookie decorating party at our church. Graysen only liked the frosting and it was pretty adorable to watch him stuff his face in the frosting. Nolan didn't eat his cookie because he doesn't like frosting but he loved the decorating part. Alivia found enjoyment in both decorating and eating her cookie! Alivia had plenty of friend time from one of her best buddies birthday party to a slumber party at our house. Graysen had his first ice cream cone and made the biggest mess but loved it! Alivia got to go to the Nutcracker for the 2nd year in a row with her Grammy and had an absolute blast. Nolan and I have been enjoying yoga together and we introduced some of the videos to Alivia during her time off of school.
This year we had the pleasure of hosting Christmas at our home for my side of the family. My mom, who lives in town, my dad, and my brother and {his now} fiance joined us for a wonderful celebration. My mother-in-law and Ben's grandma also came over for our Christmas dinner. The kids were spoiled and loved it. One of my dad's gifts to us was an experience gift to go and see the musical Shrek. It was seriously amazing, funny and over all well put on production. My dad who has been to many theater productions around the world even said it was really well done. And, it kept Nolan's attention the entire time so that has to say something! :) The kids had tons of family time, especially with Papa. The biggest news this year was that my brother proposed to his girlfriend. He chose the Broadmoor to ask the "big question" and the pictures of where he popped the question are beautiful. The adults got together for a surprise dinner (to Kristin) to celebrate their beginning at a local spot call the Warehouse. It was so fun to see them both smiling from ear to ear and beaming with joy! We can't wait for their wedding in late 2017!
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