Let's Go Sledding!

Here are some recent pictures of the family!

We got a really good snow storm a couple of days before Christmas! We haven't had a "White Christmas" since we've lived here. We spent the morning playing outside in the snow. It was the first time that Ryan had been outside to play in the snow and he really enjoyed. He looked so cute in his snowsuit. We didn't have a snowsuit for Ryan, but were blessed by some friends who had one that was just his size with snow boots too!

We didn't really go sledding on a hill, but Daddy made a little hill in our front yard and we used the new sled that Grandpa gave the boys. Sean had a lot of fun and we finally had to drag him inside because his cheeks were so red from the cold.

We brought Timber outside because he is a snow dog and he loved it. Since his breed are also sled dogs, we tried to get him to pull us on the sled.

Christmas

Derek's mom ("Grams"), step-father ("Gramps"), and sister Megan visited for Christmas this year. They arrived the Sunday before Christmas and we had a really fun week just spending time together. The boys were so excited, especially Sean. He wanted to spend every minute of every day with his Aunt Megan. He didn't want anything to do with me! One the boys were in bed, the "adults" enjoyed playing games and staying up late!

Christmas was so much fun this year! I think Derek and I were just as excited as the boys! I could hardly sleep the night before. Grams slept on the couch by the tree waiting for the boys to come down! Thankfully, the boys slept until their normal time so they weren't up too early.

We found a toy kitchen over the summer at a garage sale at a great deal and it was in near perfect condition. We had it ready for the boys as they walked downstairs on Christmas morning. Once Ryan saw it, he just starting playing and didn't even want to open any other presents at first. Sean was full of energy and so excited! He got several board games, a Star Wars blaster gun and figures, Playdoh sets, cars, pajamas, savings bonds, and some movies.

Ryan's favorite gift (besides the kitchen), was a set of Mickey Mouse books. Good last minute find Daddy! Every time Ryan opened a gift he would say "ooh" - it was so cute.

Grams and Gramps also gave the boys these interactive hamster toys called "Zhu-Zhus". I guess they are hard to find. Anyway, the boys really love them and laugh at all of the noises they make. Sean named his "GI Joe".

I think the boys were overwhelmed by the experience and were tired pretty early on in the day. Around 11 am, I found Ryan with his pacifier and blankie laying on the kitchen floor trying to fall asleep! I've never seen that before!

We are very thankful to God for his love and blessings. It's so easy to be pre-occupied at Christmas time with shopping, parties, cooking, etc. This is one of my favorite songs (year round) called "How Many Kings" by Downhere that is a great reminder of God's love for us and the true meaning of Christmas. What an awesome God!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iSivQmzJ_w

Sean's School Christmas Program

Sean's Christmas program was so cute again this year! He would come home from school singing the songs and when I asked him about them, he would say "mommy, it's a secret!". I really enjoyed listening to Sean singing and seeing his enthusiasm. Ryan enjoyed it too - he would clap his hands and smile after each song! Before I know it, he'll be up on stage too! :-(

After the program, we celebrated Jesus' birthday in Sean's classroom with cupcakes. Sean also presented us with a homemade Christmas present - a picture ornament!

Here are a couple video clips - Sean is on the far right in the middle row wearing the blue sweater with stripes:

We love Christmas!

Whew - December was a busy month (that's why I'm finally getting around to updating the blog in January!)! Among the Christmas shopping, parties, school stuff, etc., we still took time to partake in one of Sean's favorite family Christmas traditions: decorating a gingerbread house. We got a better one this year that already included pre-made frosting and had a handy plastic base to hold the house in place. Sean did an awesome job at decorating and eating the candy too. Actually, he kept eating the frosting which was pure sugar! Ryan was excited to help too, but he just kept saying "andy" (his word for candy) and just kept eating the candy. He would even take the candy off the house as we decorated it!

The boys have also enjoyed watching Christmas movies - their favorite was the old Christmas classics - Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

Cute story - the boys and I were waiting at the post office a couple of weeks ago and the man said "Merry Christmas", "Happy Holidays", "Season's Greetings", "whatever you like" and Sean looks at him and says "No, we say Merry Christmas"! It was so cute because he said it so serious!

Christmas Family Pictures

Christmas family picture time is always interesting in our house. It would be a miracle if were all still and smiling at the same time. Last year, our picture captured Sean trying to run away. This year wasn't much better, but we did our best!

Thanksgiving

We decided to put up our Christmas decorations early this year and started the weekend before Thanksgiving. It took us nearly a week to get everything put out though with the boys getting into everything! :-)

Sean was super excited as we decorated the tree. You can tell which ornaments he put on the tree because they are all clustered in one spot. There are 5-6 ornaments on each branch. It's pretty cute. For some reason, Sean calls ornaments "labels". I don't know where he learned that, but he says it just like that's what they are "labels"!

Sean kept telling Ryan all about Christmas and how much fun it was going to be for him. It was really precious. We are excited because we know that Ryan is going to really enjoy Christmas this year!

We had a low key Thanksgiving this year at home with Derek's dad, step mom, grandma, and our good friend Christie and her 2 girls. The weather was surprisingly warm (it was a blizzard last year) so the boys played outside most of the day.

We are so very thankful to God for all of the blessings he has provided the past year. We've had some tough times lately and He has always provided. Maybe not in the way we want, but in the way He knows is best for our family.

The night before Thanksgiving we learned about a tragic accident that happened on a men's outing with our Arizona church family - Northwest Valley Baptist Church. Derek and I were members of the church since before we were married. We were the first couple to be married in the church. The men were in Northern Arizona on rugged terrain when one of the vehicles fell off the road more than 120 feet to the ground. All 4 men were killed. One of the church's pastors and his 15 year old son were killed. He was married with 6 children. We did not really know the other 2 men who died. The pastor who died was such a Godly man. He was the church's Administrative pastor and the school principal. He always showed care and concern for everyone, it didn't matter who you were; he always had time for you. He helped Derek get a job one summer while we were in college. We went through 2 parenting classes with him and attended his Sunday School class for many years. He helped my sister and her kids so much at the school. I could go on and on. There are many great memories! This news made for a somewhat sad Thanksgiving day, but we are thankful for the time God gave us with these wonderful people and the impact they had on our lives. What a blessing that he is rejoicing with the Lord now, but he will be greatly missed! Here is an article about the accident: http://www.kpho.com/news/21734356/detail.html

Derek and I braved the Black Friday sales and waited for about half and hour at Target at 4:30 in the cold! We got some pretty good deals and got most of the items on our list. Some of those people are just crazy though! I talked to several people who had been out since 10:00 PM on Thanksgiving day.

We are looking forward to celebrating our family Christmas traditions this year! I can already tell that Ryan is really going to enjoy Christmas! Sean's ritual in the morning is to get up and examine the Christmas tree. I put some candy canes on it the other night and asked Derek how long he thought it would take for Sean to notice and Derek's response was "right away". Well, he was correct. Sean noticed it first thing when he looked at the tree and spent the morning asking how those candy canes got there even though I told him that I put them on the tree. He insists they are magical!

I'll try and be better about taking pictures of the boys!

Meet the Newest Member of the Wilson Family!

Don't be fooled by the title of this blog - we just got a puppy! :-) We recently got a new puppy Samoyed who we named "Timber". We've had him for about a month and he is 15 weeks old. We had a hard time coming up with a name, but ultimately decided on Timber because Derek and I graduated from Northern Arizona University and our college mascot was the Lumberjack. We also just thought it sounded like a Colorado dog's name!We decided that we wanted to get a bigger dog this time so the boys could play with him more. He will probably be about 50 pounds.

We discovered quickly that Timber loves the snow. When it snows, we can hardly get him inside. He loves to lay in the snow, roll in it, and just eat it! Samoyeds are cold weather dogs, so Colorado is perfect for him.

To be completely honest, after the first weekend with Timber we wanted to take him back. We completely forgot how much work a new puppy is, especially when you already have 2 toddlers! We are crate training him and he's doing really with with his crate. He sleeps in his crate and for the first couple of weeks we were having to take him potty once in the middle of the night, but now he sleeps through the night.

Potty training is another story. Just when we think he's trained, he has an accident. We started puppy training last week so hopefully it helps. Poor little guy is pretty much contained in the kitchen right now until we can trust him not to potty on the carpet. We don't know what to do with him right now! Our trainer has offered to take Timber once a week for a while to work one on one with him. He also has a Samoyed who is 8 years old.

He has a pretty mellow personality, but is still a puppy and likes to chew and gets hyper especially in the morning. His favorite thing to do is pull off your socks! He always seems to go after Ryan when I am holding him and just takes off with the sock. When Ryan is eating in his high chair, Timber usually takes his socks in no time!

All we can say is that this is tough work and look forward to the days when we can really enjoy him! There are many days when we wonder what we were thinking when we decided to get a puppy. It does help that he's one of the cutest pups I've ever seen.

We took him to the vet today and he gained 9 pounds in the past 4 weeks! He's growing so fast!

Here are some pics from when we first got him, but he's nearly doubled in size now. The top picture is from this weekend and the others are from the day we brought him home.