Vail

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY ANDREW AND ZACHARY!!!
Last weekend we took our annual trip up to Vail to celebrate Andrew and Zachary's 4th birthday. Unfortunately we were in the house most of the trip as a nasty stomach bug got passed around the kids. However, we did get to make it tubing the day before the boys turned 4. Just like last year the boys could not get enough. They were going up the tow rope and sliding down the mountain all by themselves this year...so fun and yet so hard to watch them become independent!
Tubing at the top of Vail Mountain...




Andrew loved everything this year, including a ski lesson with an instructor and riding the chair lift for the first time. Picture lots of yelling 'Pizza!, BIGGER pizza!!!!' as our risk-taking very determined little Andrew heads down the mountain by himself!
He spent two days skiing and went tubing twice too!

Unlike Andrew, Tessa spent almost all her time inside because she was sick. Very unfortunate because she just reached the 36 inch height requirement for tubing this year. (And I think she would have loved it!)

January 1oth was a very mellow birthday for the boys. Andrew spent the morning skiing and Zach hung out watching TV all day (he was feeling a little under the weather). Nonetheless, Andrew and Zach both perked up for this very special cake! (It read: 4 is Magic)...

Monkey Bizness

The boys celebrated their 4th birthday with their friends at Monkey Bizness. They had a ton of fun and were exhausted after the party. 2 hours of bouncy fun after a two week break from school was a good release of energy!



Zach and Andrew loved playing air hockey!...

Christmas Morning

After writing their letters to Santa, the kids were excited to get up christmas morning and see if Santa left them presents!
Here they are waiting for Tessa to wake up so that they can all do downstairs...


Coming down the stairs...

P-R-E-S-E-N-T-S!!!!!




Love this photo of the girls...can't believe Lexi is growing up so fast!

Christmas Eve

It was the night before Christmas and we all ate dinner...

Zacky loves his "kid wine"...

Tessa thinks Daddy is the coolest!


Grandpa and Andrew...
Auntie ZZ and Grandpa....
Kids wrote notes to Santa...




Have you ever seen kids so happy about going to bed...

Lexi is 6 months!

....already!!!
can't believe how fast this happened- really! Lexi turned 6 months old on December 7th! She is growing so fast-- not only is she huge (can't get enough of her chunky thighs!) but she is already sitting and eating. (just cut her first tooth) She still loves to smile, and I think her favorite pastime is sitting with Grandpa (her face lights up when she hears his voice) She loves to sit in the corner of the couch and watch everything her brothers and sister do. We love our little Lexi!

She also loves her bath time....

Hanukkah

On Wednesday and Thursday, Andrew and Zachary performed in their school's annual Hanukkah performance. It was fun for everyone, including Tessa. The boys did an excellent job singing their hearts out in front of a large crowd. After their performance we went back and had a party in their classroom.






Tessa joined in on the encore performance back in the classroom. She has been practicing singing with the boys every night at the dinner table!

Playing dreidel with their friend Avery...


They had a repeat performance on Thursday!

Broadmoor

This last weekend we took a mini-vacation at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. The kids enjoyed staying in the new "cottages" with Grandpa.
Here are the kids after swimming. They swam until they were blue and shivering...

The Broadmoor had many holiday activities for the kids. One of the things we did was make snowman cupcakes. The kids loved it..especially because they got to eat it!




Such a cute idea! The finished product wasn't around long...too yummy to pass up...



Most of the weekend was spent just relaxing in the hotel room. (If there is such a thing as relaxation with 4 kids!) Here is Daddy with his two girls...