What a great place we are in life. I really have nothing I can complain about. Sure we stay busy all the time, but that just means that our lives are filled with good things: a child, family, friends, God’s provision with us both having jobs, a good church, and a beautiful place to live, volunteer, and exercise to stay healthy. It’s a good life!

This summer has definitely kept us busy with all of those things. June was a time of celebration! After the birth of little Luke, we all celebrated Father’s Day here at the Green Mtn Falls park. Hey, I thought I got rid of all of Tony’s floppy fishing hats!

What’s even more exciting than celebrating Father’s Day? In the midst of my baby food-making quest, I noticed that the colors of the food were the EXACT ones on our dinner plates! Spinach & peas were bright green, mangos & apples were a cool orangey yellow, and blueberries & peaches, a jewel purple. Needless to say, I was ecstatic. I’m such a mom nerd.

Up next was the celebration of our independence. Sky Sox baseball games on July 3rd continue to be the family tradition and having babies in the family this year made no exception! After the game of course came the fireworks, and both Micah and Aidan handled them quite well. Micah climbed as high as he could on my lap and buried his face into mine, but he never cried. Every now and then his curiosity got the best of him and he’d turn to watch. What a trooper. Of course with Dena sitting in front of Dad, Ma, me, Tony, and Jon, we HAD to mess with her. She was wearing a jacket with a hood! So naturally our trash ended up piled high in the hood. I even got a dirty diaper in there without her knowledge. hehe

The GMF fire dept participated in the annual Chili Cookoff to benefit Muscular Dystrophy Association. Held downtown Colorado Springs, the streets were blocked off and PACKED with people, tasting and voting for their favorite department chili and/or booth creativity. Our guys chose an Operating Room theme, with the CPR dummy lying on a table, drapes over her midsection with a huge hole cut out… that’s where they put the pan of chili. Yah it looked like nasty guts, but they won 2nd place for creativity! The dept members all dressed up as surgeons too.

Next up, my 28th (whew!) birthday! The friends all got together for a yummy dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery and game night at the Moore’s. The girls WHOOPED on the boys at the Bowl Game and at Pictionary Man, but of course we were gracious winners… no? My friend John made his own special version of Monkey Bread for my cake. Oh I can only eat that deliciousness once a year.

A couple weeks later, I snapped some cute shots of the boys while we celebrated Ed’s birthday at the park. Micah’s new favorite face is a scrunchy nose face; he does it when he’s happy, frustrated, tired, bored… whatever. It’s just so dang adorable. He also somehow discovered that he’s supposed to cheese it up in front of the camera. You’ll notice from now on that many pictures of him contain a toothy grin. He ALSO started saying his first ‘word’! He calls me Mamamam. I love it!

And Skiba’s right… Aidan DOES look like the E*Trade baby!

Uncle Jerry and Jacob stopped by for a few days and stayed in GMF. Their visit reminded me of happier times when the family was all together! I miss my family so. But at least we got to hang out for a little bit, and they spent some time with Micah, who they met for the very first time. Micah LOVED them… it’s obvious that we’re all family, because he was so comfortable and entertained around them.

What’s summer without “chillin’ out maxin’ relaxin’ all cool” outside by the pool? Oh yes it was Micah’s first pool experience and doesn’t he look thrilled? He actually didn’t seem to mind it. Didn’t make a sound the entire hour or so we were in the pool. He just contentedly played with his toys. I think the baby floaty-cabana-yacht made the difference.

Aaaahhh Bronc Days. The annual GMF town-wide celebration, including the pancake breakfast at the fire station, vendor booths, rail race, duck race, and who could forget the riveting parade? Even though the Storm Troopers didn’t show up this year, any float that throws candy to the crowd is a winner in my book. Sorry no parade pics this year… just ones of the boys as we enjoyed our pancake breakfast.

The girls spent a fabulous weekend in Estes Park in honor of our very own Amber Meola-soon-to-be-Robertson. Oh we girls went crazy. Do you expect anything less? SUCH a fun time!

And finally… I cannot even begin to tell you how odd it is to me that mine and Shan’s little ones are turning ONE! It doesn’t seem like it all happened a year ago! We’ll have a big ol’ celebration for Micah next month, but this month is all about Ella Bella. Our little lovers always have a good time when they get together. Well, Ella has a good time. It usually ends in her attacking Micah in some way. It only makes him stronger.

So check back next month for pictures of our little man’s first birthday party!

Where to begin? I really don’t want this to take you an hour to read and me 4 hours to type and upload images! So, I’m thinkin a summary is in order as we ‘ketchup.’

Well to start off, I am an official aunt all over again! My brother Michael and sister-in-law Becky had their guy on June 3rd. Luke Joseph Martinez. What an absolute cutie! A good mixture of the two of them… hard to determine who he looks like more.  Michael and Becky are already doing a fabulous job as parents, if I do say so myself. Just look at em!

The house! Well we had camera issues, so we were not able to get evidence of moving day. We’ve figured out the problem, so those pictures should be coming to you next time. It’s a good thing we have friends who are willing to spend a day (or two or three) unloading all our crap and cramming it into corners and crevices! Being a homeowner is a blessing beyond words… just to know you can paint, nail, damage, add-on, and claim as your very own every part of the house, in addition to plant, mow and fence our very own yard? Well it’s something I hope all of my friends and family can experience one day.  Sure our old, rickety, quirky home has its problems, but you won’t hear me complaining… for at least a couple months. By the way, our mailing address changed. It’s now PO Box 602, Green Mtn Falls 80819. And for those of you who feel inclined to send UPS/FedEx, our physical location is now 10374 El Paso Ave, Green Mtn Falls 80819.  Yes we moved from El Paso Trail to El Paso Avenue on the other side of town. Sounds like someone got lazy with the street naming.

Well we moved JUST in time for Micah to start crawling! He was just waiting for us to provide him ample floor space. Although he had been somehow moving from point A to point B erratically, Micah finally got his legs and arms in agreement with each other and can now move intentionally towards his toy box for playtime! Today it was so sweet… he was on the other side of the livingroom. Looked right at me, swiftly crawled to my chair and reached up one arm for me to pick him up. He got a huge grin on his face when I did. Before he had to whine from where he was to get my attention. That’s gotta give him some relief to have control over those things now. Here’s a video of some of his first moves:

This boy has grown into some personality in his 9 months of life! Courtesy laughs have become common, along with his laugh to get attention. His new smile causes him to bare all teeth (all SIX of them!), and snort in and out of his scrunchy nose. We captured a half-way version of it.

When he gets giggling, sometimes the smallest things will set him off.

In Tony news… he is now an official certified EMT! Those classes seemed endless, but alas they are complete! His next move once his state cert arrives, is to apply for the local ambulance service for a shift every week. He’d love to work part time in that field. Or full time one day, Lord willing. In the mean time, he enjoys working on his very own lawn and installing random appliances in our house. I just think he likes having an excuse to use his tools.

In Tawni news… I began working part time for some friends of ours who are very successful realtors; the ones who helped us buy our house. The office is BUSY and very challenging, but you know I like that type of atmosphere. I work all day Mondays and Fridays while my Mom watches Micah. I feel like I’m finally making a contribution to society again! And it’s nice to be able to help our financial situation now that we have a mortgage.

Although the good times are rollin, we’ve had some really hard times affect our friends and family lately. There just seems to be quite the spiritual battle going on with SO many people I know. To mention just a couple… my good friend from high school, Lynae, had a horrible ordeal a little while back. Her son Ian (the one born just hours before Micah down the hall from us in the hospital) suffered a brain injury while at day care. To make matters worse, all evidence points to Shaken Baby Syndrome. When it first happened, we were hearing a prognosis of ‘If he wakes up, there will be severe damage to his mobility, eye sight, behavior, and many other functions.’ We had family, friends, and friends of friends, even strangers praying for this little 7 month old precious boy. There was a prayer covering over him like I’ve never seen before. Some friends went to the hospital to pray over and annoint him one day. Within the hour of them leaving, his vitals immediately improved, at a level that shocked the doctor and nurses! Minute by minute, Ian began to improve to the point where the hospital staff began referring to him as their ‘miracle baby.’ Ian woke up, breathed on his own, moved all of his limbs, and slowly started regaining his old personality! He simply is a miracle. Of course Lynae and Kevin are dealing with the aftereffects of this incident. Ian requires therapy to regain full use of his right side and eye sight. But Lynae told me that every day she sees a visible improvement. They must now live through the ordeal again however, while going through the justice system. The state of Colorado does not take child abuse lightly, and they will prosecute accordingly. Your continued prayers are greatly appreciated, as the woman who caused this injury may not be telling the entire truth to the authorities. I don’t know how many details I’m allowed to divulge, so I’ll leave it at that for now.

Another sad incident happened with the death of Tony’s dad’s wife. Yvonne and Jim were married this last September. Didn’t even make it to their 1 year anniversary before she passed. Yvonne suffered from a very rare form of cancer, in her bile duct. Interestingly enough, her first husband died of the exact same rare cancer. Jim is trying to process all of this with a positive outlook, saying that he very well could have been put in her life solely for the purpose of encouraging and comforting her through the death process. At the funeral, Yvonne’s family spoke of this time with Jim being the happiest they had seen her. They lived their lives to the fullest. Yvonne was a believer, so there is comfort in knowing where she ended up! Tony and I took a quick weekend trip to SoCal to attend the memorial service and family events surrounding it. We were both glad to have been able to make the trip.

The rest of our past couple months have been filled with lots o’ friends, family and fun. I’ll just tell you about some of the events through pictures.

Superman PJ's

Like Grampa Like Grandson

Good times at the park

Micah's dedication to the Lord

De Fam

First baseball game!

He can officially sleep anywhere!

Fun at the zoo

1st Rockies Game (and vs. the Dodgers)!

But his Daddy and Grampa made him rep the Dodgers too.

That about sums it up for now. I’m sure I forgot a ton, but there’s always the next blog. As you can see, I finally figured out how to add videos to this site! So I’ll be creating a page devoted entirely to videos… they go back as far as Micah’s birth date, so stay tuned!

Just wanted to update everyone on our crazy situation… we’re MOVING into our new house this weekend! The craziness begins on Thursday, and I don’t know when I’ll have a couple hours to sit and edit/upload pictures and write a blog in the next couple weeks. So, I just wanted to let you know that I have been collecting a bunch of pictures, and have much news to catch you all up on, including our emotionally-packed last couple of weeks. When it rains, it pours! But we know that God is good in everything. Here’s a list of stuff I’ll write about soon: the big move, Micah’s FOUR teeth, Tony finishing EMT training, my friend Lynae’s son experiencing a brain injury, the death of Tony’s dad’s wife, our upcoming quick trip for the funeral, Micah’s dedication to the Lord, and my starting work. WHEW!

The week started with a visit from our beloved Becky, who came into town for her baby shower. Pregnancy definitely suits her. I just wanted to keep going up and wrapping my arms around that belly (I don’t know why it was cut out in this picture… oops! I’ll have to find more from that day. Trust me, that belly is cute.)!

On the home front, Micah attempts to sit up on occasion. He steadies himself with his hands on the floor. This pic is the closest he’s come so far. Hey, it’s hard to keep up that huge head and torso! Have you SEEN the naked pics? He’s good until a cat walks by, and he tries to pet it. Totally throws off his balance, and he teeters head first to the floor.

Aidan and Micah had a lovely time at the Flan’s last week. Micah reached out to ‘pet’ Aidan, only to find that he didn’t have the same furry feel as the cat.

Jon on the other hand, did. His hair felt just like the kitty’s, so Micah peacefully laid there and pet Jon’s head.

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Colorado had some major snow this week. The folks, the Flan’s and I decided to go out and enjoy it. No we didn’t go sledding or skiing… we went out to breakfast of course! At Green Mountain Falls’ hidden jewel of a restaurant: The Pantry. Micah was just haaaaangin out, looking like he had too much to eat. And this picture cracks me up, too, because my dad attempted to put his ‘Moose boots’ (the CUTEST knit Ugg-looking boots that my mom found at a garage sale) back on after they fell off, but they went on backward.

An exciting thing happened this week! Tony and I discovered that Micah’s hair is long enough to create a fohawk! Tony styled it after Micah’s bath, and it stayed like that for church the next morning. Can’t wait until he fits into his Chucks from Uncle Jerry and Aunt Jana, which we’ll pair with some torn jeans and a ‘Boyz Rock’ camo onesie. I told you… exciting things are happening here.

The other day after church, we went out to eat for lunch, like usual. This kid is getting used to being out and about during naptime. He’s adjusting just fine I think!

After his catnap, he was ready to rock!

Ok enough about Micah already! A couple weeks ago, Shan was having THE hardest time deciding whether or not to just chop off her hair. She’s been toying with the idea for over a year now. It was the day before her salon visit, and she called me to talk it over. I kept telling her, ‘Just DO it, you’ll be so happy with the change!’ Then out of nowhere I said, ‘Fine. If you get the courage to do it, I’ll do it too!’ It just popped out without a thought! Well, WE DID IT!

It was the perfect opportunity when Becky came out, for her to cut my hair. I LOVE it… so much easier to deal with now. It’s hard to see in the picture, but the back is pretty short! Some of the layers are as short as the top of my ears! My one stipulation was that I can put it in a pony tail still, which I can do… barely. But I’m really happy with it.  Thanks Becky! Shan, I’m happy you got the courage to go through with it!

For those of you wondering about the house stuff… there are some updates. The seller generously agreed to all three of our objection terms! They will have the roof replaced (saves us around $2,000-3,000), the precarious tree has been removed (saves us $500-1,000), and the septic will be cleaned and inspected (saves us about $350 or more). I think we find out about the appraisal today. We also got locked in at a 5% interest rate, and if the national rate declines, we’ll be able to get a lower rate! It’s also really amazing to see how the Lord is providing the money we need for a down payment. Closing is only about 6 weeks away!

The infamous Bruce Wayne made his appearance in Colorado Springs. That’s right, we got to meet Michele’s boyfriend, who happens to share his name with Batman. What a cool guy! We’re all very happy for him and Michele. We all got together for some breakfast at Marigold’s.

At home, Micah looooves to play with Rocky. The cat will jump up while I’m holding Micah and try to sit on both our laps. Micah proceeds to ‘pet’ Rocky by grabbing chunks of fur. Rocky purrs and doesn’t seem to be phased by the fur-pulling. He actually seems to enjoy it!

Frankie also enjoys entertaining Micah, by hiding underneath his play gym. I think Frankie’s actually more entertained than Micah.

The transition to solid foods has been surprisingly smooth. So far, Micah enjoys all flavors I’ve thrown at him. He’s gotten to the point of anticipating the next bite, by kicking his legs and holding his mouth wide open while smiling and grunting (sometimes loudly babbling), while waiting for me to scoop out the next bite.

Man, doesn’t that last pic look like my brother Michael’s baby pictures?

I love noticing the little idiosyncrasies he’s picked up from both Tony and me. There’s this thing that my Gramma, my Dad, and I all do: we always sit with our ankles crossed and rub our feet back and forth over each other. Micah does that ALL the time. He also sleeps with his ankles crossed sometimes. It kills me!

Finally, I just have to end with a crazy hat picture.

I know what you’re thinking. It IS so unlike me to write 2 posts within a week! However, I wanted to share some great news. We are under contract for a home!! It happened like a whirl wind within this last week, but as of this morning, we are accepting the counter offer on a home in Green Mountain Falls! Of course the process isn’t even near completion, but it’s been amazing to see God’s handiwork thus far.

Tony and I have wanted a home for a loooong time. Most of you know that we’ve been working hard on paying off our debt, while living with my parents. Another reason for living with them was to make it possible for me to stay home and not work during my high risk pregnancy. Well, now it’s time to move on! Micah will be on the move sooner rather than later, and I’m ready to have a kitchen of my very own again.

A couple weeks ago, Tony and I (along with the entire family!) tagged along with Anna and Kenny as they walked through the 3 available homes for sale in this entire area within our price range (we have to stay within the fire district for Tony to stay with the department). There was a 4th home we looked at, but it happened to be outside the fire district. The first house was the one of which I fell in love. Kenny and Anna are buying the second house. The third house was waaay below the standards of the first two. That’s it! Two houses fit our criteria in this entire area… not much of a choice! We knew the chances would be slim of us actually getting the house we both loved. And it is a great house! It was recently upgraded with a brand new kitchen, granite countertops, new carpet and wood flooring, window coverings, walls knocked out to make a better space, new septic and furnace, and the price was lowered a good deal too! Not to mention, it’s directly behind the fire station, a 20 second walk to the center of town, where you’ll find the lake, gazebo, playground, park, restaurants, ice cream shop (uh oh!), and a little further down you’ll find another park with tennis and basketball courts, and the community pool. It’s 2 bed, 2 bath, 2 stories, 2 livingroom areas, about 1300 sq ft. Perfect size for our small family. There is also a huge ‘utility room’ which we could use as a laundry room, but it could also house a guest area. hint hint.

So, I decided to pray. And pray and pray and pray. Pray that all the doors would open if this is God’s will; and that they’d slam shut and make it obvious to us if it’s not. I prayed that ‘our’ house would become invisible to those driving by and looking at the listings. I recruited a couple friends to do the same. I also needed to find out how financially we are going to make this work, with the small downpayment we’d need and the other fees that seem to add up when purchasing a home. I told my mom ‘It’d be great if like $6,000 just dropped into our laps.’ Well…

The ’spendulous bill’ as we like to call it may actually do us some short-term good, even though we’re going to be paying for it for years to come! We will qualify for the $8,000 first time homebuyer’s tax credit. Once we receive the closing papers, we take them into H&R Block and write an addendum to our 2008 return. Two weeks later, we’ll have $8,000 directly deposited into our checking account.  Hmm… there’s more than the $6,000 I asked to drop in my lap! Cut to last weekend.

We met with a family friend who is a mortgage broker. He made it clear that we are MORE than qualified to get a loan. We thought it would take at least a few more months of paying down debt to be in that place, but apparently we’re in a much better position than we originally thought. After the meeting, I called another family friend who happens to be one of the best realtors in Colorado. He set up a second showing of the house 2 hours later! The next day, our offer was sent to the realtor. She countered with exactly what we were thinking and budgeting. We’re getting an amazing deal, with them paying the closing costs and us having instant equity in the home (the most recent appraisal had it at $15,000 higher than our purchase price).

Now I know the process has just begun. We still need to figure out where some of the down payment money will come from. And sure, some minor things need to be done to the house. BUT we’ve gotten this far, so much further than we ever imagined we’d be in such a short time. We’ll continue to pray for a smooth process. If all else falls into place, we’ll get the keys on April 30th!! Thank you Lord!

Here are some pictures from the listing:

P.S. Congrats to Amber and Mark, who are recently engaged!!!

Personality traits are a funny thing. They show up so early in one’s life, and it amazes me that most of them seem to stick! Micah’s personality has grown leaps and bounds since birth, and it seems to mold him more and more into this little distinguishable person. Sweetness remains throughout most of the day.

I do catch a hint of stubbornness (when he doesn’t want anymore cereal, he purses his lips closed and grunts) and definitely loads of energy. His little legs don’t stop moving when you hold him up on your lap! Typically a fairly laid-back baby (for now!), he enjoys observing quietly when we’re out and about; but at home, he jibber jabbers quite frequently. Unless of course he’s in his grumpy mood (which typically happens right before he’s ready for a nap… just like his daddy and grandpa). One thing that is so entertaining… he is mesmerized by singing. He stops whatever he’s doing and turns to pay attention to singing on TV, the radio, or even when it’s me singing. Of course, he only likes good music. Come on, knowing good music just runs in the family (if I must say so). His favorites, though I bet his father would beg to differ, are Little Big Town and Carrie Underwood. He LOVES Carrie. This is his listening to music face:

Aaaaand ready for a nap:

He loves playtime…

…usually until he’s all tuckered out. Speaking of tuckered out, he’s now officially sleeping through the night (3 nights in a row counts as official, right?)!

Eating is still his other favorite pastime. He tries to caress the bottle or hold your hand:

His physical characteristics are still yet to be determined. Although Micah was the spittin image of his daddy when he was born, the Martinez genes are creeping in slowly.

One thing is certain. He’s a tank! Last week at a checkup, he weighed in at 21 lbs, 13 oz! A heavyweight contender for sure.

His daddy got to hold a lightweight this week (little Aidan Corbett), although it’s hard to believe Micah was lighter than this when he was born!

I’m so excited to see the next set of personality traits emerge!

Daaaaaaang. Tony was right. Last Monday at his 4-month checkup, Micah weighed in at 18 lbs, which is in the 98th percentile for his age. Whew! He’s at 27 inches for height, putting him in the 99th percentile. These numbers add up to an 8-month old… literally! But the Doc said not decrease feedings or be concerned at all, because his weight is directly in line with his height.  Here are some naked pics where you can see the beginnings of chi-chi’s (hehe) and his tree trunks for legs.

Oh and I forgot to mention last time that Micah has been turning over from his tummy to his back and vise versa. I swear he’s gonna be walking before he crawls too! Anyway…

Tony passed the Firefighter 1 exam at the top of his class. Dad was just a couple points behind him. Those two always seem to be the very best at whatever they try! The next class up? EMT Basic, which Tony started last Monday. It will definitely keep him busy, as they meet every Monday, Wednesday (6-10p) and half the Saturdays (all day) from now through April. I decided that Tony wouldn’t be the only one enriching himself! So, Anna and I decided to really focus on the Bookkeeping business by completing the classes I started and stopped a while ago. We’re also meeting every Monday and Wednesday night while my parents graciously watch Micah. We’ve finished 1/8 of the entire thing so far!

Last weekend was the big celebration for Tony’s birthday. Friends joined us for dinner and Benjamin Button afterward… such an interesting movie! For the family portion of it, we all went to a new BBQ place with a Fire Station theme, called the Firehouse. Tony’s meat fantasy came true.

And we were glad Boob Man was there in case things got out of hand.

The day after Tony’s birthday, we got to witness the blessed event of little Aidan Christopher Corbett’s birth. The entire family was present during most of the labor. The boys voluntarily left before the pushing and accompanying ‘exposure’ began. My mom and I got to stay in there with Christine, Jon, Dena, Jon’s mom Shirley, and the family photographer/brother Kenny staying at Christine’s head of course. I felt so lucky to be of some help while she was pushing. Christine did a fabulous job, and Kenny got some priceless shots of it all.

On a much lighter note (yet just as important I’m sure), we ended the week attending the 1st Official Unscheduled Alternative to the Canceled Beer Exchange. Even though the boys so looked forward to attending the Annual Beer Exchange, it was canceled last minute; so our good friends the Skibas decided to take on the disappointed beer/football/meat lovers with a party of their own. John even made official t-shirts… including one for Micah!

As of Thursday that will be true… geez! Micah’s new ‘milestones’ for this month are: interacting with his hands and feet, adding more syllables to his gibberish (I swear he’s a genius because he says ‘Mamamamaaa’ when he’s upset… that counts as his first word, right?! Does that remind anyone of the Friends episode where Rachel swears that Emma saying ‘gleeba’ is her first word? Anywho…), becoming much more patient when it’s time for food or to get out of the crib, marching his legs back and forth on our laps while we hold him, and the best of all: sleeping much longer at night! He’ll sleep about 6 or 7 hours, then take a 15 minute feeding, then back to sleep for another 3 hours. It’s been tremendously helpful to his tired parents. I’m curious to know his current weight; Tony’s bet is 18 lbs! My guess is around 16. He has his checkup next Monday, so we’ll know then for sure. Micah sits up really well now; so well in fact that he sometimes sits in his Bumbo by himself and watches Baby Einstein when I need to get something accomplished. I had to capture that sight, cuz it’s just so dang cute.

Now that he has control over his head and neck, Micah’s been able to enjoy his big boy toys, like the Johnny Jump-Up in the doorway:

Teething is the new dreaded word du jour.  At least I think he’s teething. He’s refusing to eat half the time (you don’t understand, eating is his FAVORITE pastime), way more fussy than usual, wants to be held mostly, and has been drooling more than Hooch from Turner and Hooch. He doesn’t have the shoelaces sticking out of his mouth yet, but I bet if we didn’t sop up his mouth all the time, I bet he would. When he’s not eating, marching or pooping (he can’t do anything else while he poops; it takes much concentration for him… but isn’t it the same for all of us?), the fingers stay in his mouth.

As you can tell, I have a bit of catching up to do on the pictures. I agree with my friend Shannon… nobody wants to read yet another blog about someone else’s Christmas weekend, with all the mundane details, going on for paragraphs. So, I will sum up with pictures.

.                Meeting Uncle Michael & Aunt Becky          Showin’ a little crack and muffin top

.               Santa’s Little Helper                        Opening his many many gifts

The sweater that his Great Grandma made

‘Hey everyone, come see how good I look!’

I always have the Black Eyed Peas song playing in my head when I say that. Anywho… the Christmas count-down has begun in our household. The tree is up, the decorations have been hung, snow is on the ground, and we’re already broke from buying presents. Ahhh Christmas. Just kidding… we actually planned ahead this year, making it possible for us to pay for gifts with cash! Thank you, Dave Ramsey.

As you can see, Micah’s been doing some celebrating of his own.

He also helped us celebrate the other night. After bundling him up in the thickest, stuffiest snowsuit (he couldn’t move his limbs, but he kept warm… and definitely adorable!), we headed on out to the Parade of Lights in downtown Colorado Springs. Shan & Aaron, Mike & Becky (Kenney, not Martinez), and Heid & Toby, plus all the kids met us down there. We also ran into Kenny & Anna while there. Somehow we shmoozed our way into the VIP area right after the parade started, so we had some primo seats on the bleachers instead of standing in rows on the sidewalk. The parade was pretty fun, but we had a BLAST talking amongst ourselves and laughing at the drunk guy next to us. He brought his own bottle of wine. He literally stood and cheered loudly for EVERY float that went by! Then we ended the night at one of Tony’s favorite places: Red Robin.

Yesterday I caught the kitties cuddling up to the decorations in the bathroom.

Finally, tonight is the “Cowboy Christmas” Concert at my parents’ church. No joke. My friends and family in California will laugh I’m sure. But these guys are talented! I’ll let ya know how it goes…