Mr. Lando is Three!

Our "baby", Landon, turned three on December 21.  When we asked him where he wanted to have his birthday party, he said McDonalds.  I thought about it a little and decided that McDonalds was a great idea!  Easy food, an indoor playland, and a special time to celebrate Landon Bruce.  Funny how last year, we went to Village Inn for pancakes and sausage.  Apparently, this boy really loves his food. :)  

So, on a snowy Saturday afternoon, we headed over to meet the family.

We ordered a ton of cheeseburgers, nuggets, and fries.  So, we took care of eating first.

The whole gang minus the grandparents.  They joined us later at the house.

I think the hole in the front of Landon's mouth is the perfect slot for fries!

Landon's not the only one who enjoys McDonalds...

Landon and his buddy/cousin Cohen.  These two are such good friends.  They love to talk on the phone together.  They sound like two old ladies.  It's hilarious!

I didn't get any pictures of the kids playing in the playland.  They had a great time in the tubes, slides, ropes, etc.  And the adults enjoyed a few minutes of uninterrupted conversation!  

After about an hour, we headed back to our house for some cake and presents.

Landon posing with his haul!

Landon got a cool Broncos hat from Uncle Bradley, Auntie Jayne, Cohen, and Arie.  This meant he could finally join the cool cousins club.

Nolan was also sporting his cool Rockies hat!

Uncle Marky, Auntie Abby, Nolan, Heath, and Brooks got Lando a giant Monster Truck.  He loved it, but I think Heath and Brady were equally as pumped to help him open it :).

Checking out all the new stuff!

Arie borrowed a hat so he could be part of the club as well.

Landon also got a Ninja Turtle from Oma and Opa, a cool chair from Grandma Tammy, and a big boy bed from us.  It will arrive in January, so we will post pictures of his new room soon!

And finally, it was time for some football ice cream cake!

Towards the end of the video, Uncle Marky calls Landon "raisins".  This is his special name for Landon, and Landon's face just lights up.  So cute!

Landon Bruce, how is it that you are already three?  You are smart, funny, and a talking machine (even with a stutter!).  You are growing up so fast, yet you remind us daily that you are still the "baby" with your ear piercing scream any time your siblings do something you don't like :).  You are creative like your sister, love sports like your brother, and yet you are entirely your own person.  Happy Birthday Buddy.  We love you so much.  

Christmas Tree Hunting

As is our family tradition, on the weekend after Thanksgiving we pile into the car and head up to mountains to cut down our tree.  It's been a long time since we've gone with any snow, and this year was no exception.  It was sunny and pretty warm, which with kids, is actually pretty nice.  It just doesn't exactly feel like Christmas.  Maybe next year?! This year, we were joined by Brad, Jayne, and the boys, and my mom and dad.

Sportin' some shades on the way up to the mountains.

Again, it was a beautiful day.  Brad and Jayne led the way.

These two are best buds.

Arie in the backpack ready for an adventure!

The girls.  This is a terrible picture, I think we all have our eyes closed or squinted.  But, we rarely get in the pics because we're behind the camera, so I'm including it anyway.

This year, we kind of all split off in different directions.  I think our strategy, which proved to be unsuccessful, was to spread out in search of the illusive blue spruce.  Some day...Brady had a great time throwing what little snow was on the ground into his brother's face.

If there was any wildlife in the area, our volume level would certainly scare it away!

Trying to blend in with the wildlife.

After an hour or so of hunting, we finally settled on "the one".  All three kids wanted to help cut it down.

We dragged it back to the car, strapped it to the roof, and found the rest of the group.  Brad and Jayne found an absolutely enormous tree!

And, that's pretty much it.  We headed home, strung it with lights, and had a good family time decorating.  No pictures of that, for some reason I forgot.  But, here she is in all of her glory.

Not sure where she ranks in our many years of trees.  Probably somewhere in the middle...not the best, not the worst.  But, now that it's almost time to take her down, I can say that she did a great job helping us celebrate the 2014 Christmas Season.

A Bake Exchange And So Much More

Abby, Jayne, and I hosted our 2nd Annual Cookie Exchange on December 16.  Even though this was only a few days after the tragedy at Arapahoe, I didn't want to cancel.  I felt like continuing on with our holiday events and being surrounded by friends was an important part of moving forward.  It was definitely the right decision.  To quote my friend Trish, "we turned to our friendships for a good laugh and a reminder of love, kindness, hope, and joy."

Dana, Lindsay, Trish, Jenn, Wintre, and Gwen.

Claire, Vivian, Jayne, and Katie.

 Liz, Becky, Sue, and my Mom.

 Sassy Kim, Abby, and Lindsay.

 One more of these cute girls.

 The spread.  Each lady bakes a double batch of their favorite cookies.  We round the table and take a few of each kind.  We all go home with an amazing spread of deliciousness!

 The hostesses.  We have all been through a lot lately, and it's been a true blessing to have each other as part of our support system.

It was a wonderful night.  I am so lucky to have such an amazing group of friends and family, and their support and friendship means so much.

Thanksgiving 2013

I have been meaning to publish this Thanksgiving post for a few weeks now, but just never seemed to find the time.  The pictures have been loaded, I just needed to add my narration.

On December 13, 2013, a student entered the building where I have taught for 13 years and opened fire. The details surrounding the day are not something I want to write about here.  Just know that in many ways, it was the worst work week I've ever had.  Sad, scary, and emotionally exhausting.  And yet, through the amazing outpouring of love and support from my family, my friends, and the entire community, a lot of good has surfaced as well.

I guess my point is that I will still add the basic details of Thanksgiving below, but I will now write about them with a deeper understanding of just how blessed I really am.  

We were able to host Thanksgiving dinner for the third year in a row (I think).  It's great to be able to use our kitchen and dining room for their intended purpose, but it's not really all that stressful because my parents still cook the turkey down the street and everyone pitches in to bring a dish or two.  We are always responsible for pies.

So, on Thanksgiving morning, the kids woke up early to start helping us out.  Payton loves to make little dough cup pastries.  This year, she added peanut butter to them, they were actually quite good.

This year, we made cherry and blueberry.  We had high hopes for the blueberry, but using frozen blueberries didn't really work out very well.  We will have to try again this summer.  At least they looked good!

Tammy brought this amazing spread as an appetizer.  Yum.

This is Wes's new toy.  His friend from work owns one just like it, and they have gone a couple of times.  We are hoping to be able to use it camping next summer!  Everyone had fun taking and giving rides.

Our cousin Peter from Austin, TX came for a visit.  We hadn't seen him in almost ten years, so it was awesome to reconnect.  We went out to dinner with him the night before Thanksgiving, and then to see Catching Fire on Thanksgiving Night.  

My kids LOVED "Uncle" Pete, he spent a lot of time just playing and connecting with them.  Thanks so much!

Auntie Jayne and Cohen.

Little Rascal Arie.

P-Dog.

A little brotherly love and a ride for Heath.

Grandma Tammy.

Nolan's Turn!

Silly Uncle Marky.  

And finally it was dinner time!  We had a HUGE crew.  Oma, Opa, the Syers 5, the Jansen 5, Abby's mom Pam, the other Jansen 4, Peter, Sue, and Dave.  20 in all, our largest yet!

I didn't take any pictures after dinner, because we were cleaning up, eating dessert, and hanging out.  Abby had just had her surgery at the beginning of the week, so it was so great that she could join us.  We put her seat right be the couch in case she needed to lay down :).  

Abby said something very similar in her blog, but we have all been through a lot in the past few months, so lately, it has been really special just to be together.  Happy Thanksgiving.