Christmas in CO.

So for all you readers out there, I must warn you that this is a long post so if you don't have time to read right now, I'm warning you. So here it is. Our December and first part of Jan. Another note, this post is completely backwards. For all of you who know me will understand that the computer and me don't always see eye to eye so this report goes backwards in time. ok. This is me and my mom. Yes you all know how much I love my mom. She and my dad put us up in their new house that they moved into. We joked around that we each had our own wing. It was kind of nice though to have our own spot for three weeks. So thanks for letting us stay in the basement wing mom and dad.

This is almost the last night. Joe and Lara stopped by on their way home from St. Louis to say hello. It was nice to see them, I only wish we could have spent more time with them.

We were just visiting and shooting some pics. Here are my boys and my mom.

The boy cousins of the St. John fam and Joe and Lara's fam. Cute little people. Let's see if we can get some girls in these families.

My very nice dad took us up to Winter Park with some tickets he scored. My mom watched the kids and the snow was plentiful. We took some beauty shots to remember our home for when we returned to the land of Norfolk.

I thought these trees almost looked fake. It had snowed the night before and everything looked like a post card.

Michael and I at the top of Mary Jane. Zeke came with us and we got some pretty good shredding in.

This is a terrible story. One morning we woke up a 6:00 to find that our dear Adam had blown up in his face. This is the picture post ER when they decided we could finally go home.

Our sad little man. He had some sort of allergic reaction to something, which we are still unaware of and needed a shot of epinephrine.

He hated this pulse thing on his toe more than anything.

This is the pic just before we went into the ER. We currently have no insurance so we were trying to decide what to do. Michael had diagnosed him correctly and thought we should do everything they ended up doing in the ER but we didn't have an Epi pen. We looked at this sad face and of course decided that we must go. His poor face was blowing up like a balloon. This happened the last Sunday we were there. He was just fine by 3 or 4 that day, back to his normal self but this was definitely scary.

Christmas day at Buckwalter homebase. We had yummy food and we went to Castle Rock care centers and sang to the people there. It was fun.

Jenny and Emma

Mom and Dad

Here is Brian helping Liam and Sean build the Lego Buzz Lightyears they got for Christmas.

Liam just loves projects and he hardly needed help. He just followed his little book of instructions and built himself a lego Buzz Lightyear.

Michael and I had our basement wing and we put a little tree down there so we could have our own little family Christmas on Christmas morning. There is a fireplace down there so that made is easier for Santa Claus to come and fill the stockings. Christmas is sooo fun with little kids. They get so excited.

Here is Liam checking out his stocking stuff. Adam loved the goldfish andthe swedish fish.

The boys playing Connect Four. They are pretty cute.

Sean showing his Buzz Lightyear. This was the one big present. The rest came from the dollar store which is the new place I have discovered with my new financial situation. It has lots and lots of stuff and really, I must take advantage of my young children who really don't mind what they get.

Michael and Liam. Liam was able to use five dollars this year at the Santa store at his school and he bought everyone in our family a present. He got Michael and pen and a mirror for me. What a cute boy.

Christmas Eve at the St. John house. Dolores and Jim always put on quite the party. We had ribs for dinner with home made potato salad and corn casserole. It was all so so tasty.

Dolores even gets stockings for everyone. What a nice treat.

Dolores and the boys diving in to all the Christmas goodness. The boys were pretty lucky to get fun presents from Grandma and Grandpa St. John.

Even Adam got presents. I'm currently at the point where since Adam is only 1, I don't buy stuff for him. He's good with all the many other toys that are around. He was pretty excited to open the presents though.

Grandma got Liam and Sean the Fantastic Mr. Fox CD. It's fun to listen to in the car. The kids are loving listening to it here in VA. Thanks Grandma.

Sean got the pirate ship he really wanted. He was pretty excited.

The three boys on Christmas Eve.

They are my favorite little people.

This is Adam with a little baby. This is my first child who has really been into carrying around a baby. At home he carries a baby around everywhere. When we got to CO, he immediately found a baby and made it his own. He is such a sweet little guy.

This is a pic before we left for Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas Eve festivities. My dad was so nice to let us use his truck while we were in CO. Thanks again.

These are taken right outside of my parents new house. It is quite the dreamy winter wonderland. The first thing the kids did when we got to CO was sledding. There was a great kid hill right in front of the house that the kids went up and down.

More beautiful screensavers for VA, life with no snow.

When we first got to CO, the condo was available so Michael and I took all the kids up and had a party. We went to Breckenridge for yummy pizza.

We went to the hot tub and pool with all the kids. They had lots of fun playing with their cousins.

Here they are playing out in front of the condo. They were doing some serious sledding here also.

Cute little Sean with a huge snowball.

Adam feeling a little confused about the cold feeling that the snow is giving his fingers. He sure is cute.

Michael and I got to partake in Copper Ski Days with the Boy Scouts. This is one of the first seasons I'm not pregnant or nursing a new child. It was fantastic spending the day on the slopes with my Michael not worrying about the children. Dolores was so kind so watch the kids on this day. Thank you.

I can't wait to teach Liam, Sean and Adam to board/ski. They will love it. It will be so fun to be able to board with my own kids. I'm thinking I will get Liam started next year.

The man who helps make it possible for tons of kids to get the opportunity to ski for a reasonable amount of money. My dad brings up all the food and feeds thousands of people chili in the middle of their ski day. He is an awesome dude. Thanks for teaching me to ski/board many years ago. It is one of my favorite activities in the world.

Michael even found some time to keep up on his studies. He took this pic for his instructor to show what a good student he is. Good job Michael, the man who got straight A's is first semester of Anesthesia school.

We started out the vacation with a birthday celebration for Sean who turned 4 on Dec. 21st. Liam joined in on the party since his bday was in Nov. They invited all their cousins and friends and had a great time.

Their one wish was to have a pinata. We found this parrot one thanks to Aunt Lizzie. Thanks Liz for the cool parrot.

Liam Sean

Adam

My boys. It was nice to get a Colorado recharge. We needed it. Here we are again in lovely Norfolk VA. I'm telling you, it's way colder here than it ever is in CO. The humidity makes it so very cold. We can't really go outside but the sun has finally come out. It was hiding for the months of OCT, NOV, and DEC. That was a bit depressing. Michael has started school again. I think we'll do better this semester bc we know what to expect. We will miss Michael while he is learning but this will all be worth it in the end.

We had a lot of fun in CO. We were able to see lots of friends and family. Thanks to everyone for helping us have a wonderful time. We'll keep you posted on our life in VA. ok, goodbye.

Sorry about the very long post.