A fun getaway!

This weekend, Andrew and I had a rare treat....a night away from the kids! Andrew works for a marketing company, and I am proud to say that this year his hard work has resulted in him having the top sales in his office. As a reward, Andrew's boss offered to put us up in a hotel after the company Christmas party in Denver which was already scheduled for last night. Due to the fact that we also have some amazing friends who agreed to watch the kids, we jumped at the opportunity to get away and reconnect. Before meeting up with Andrew's co-workers for dinner, we checked into our room at the Marriott.

In our hotel room heading out to dinner.

The evening was so much fun. There were about 20 of us who ate at a trendy restaurant in downtown Denver called The Corner Office. After a yummy meal and fun conversation, we all headed across the street to Buell Theatre to enjoy a show by Blue Man Group. It was super entertaining and very cool, and I would definitely recommend going to see them. We then went back to our hotel, and thoroughly enjoyed sleeping in until 10am this morning. There is no better treat than that for a couple with two small kids. We got ready and enjoyed some Starbucks, shopping, and a great Mexican restaurant before heading home. We are so thankful to Andrew's boss, Pete, and his wife, Kim, for their generosity as well as our good friends Troy, Stephanie, Corey, and Blythe for taking such good care of the kids while we were gone. We are so thankful for all of you!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Today we finally got around to putting up our meager Christmas decorations. I like to have them out a lot earlier than this, but we have been so busy that it obviously wasn't meant to be this year. At any rate, we had fun making it a family event.

Andrew and the kids "fluffing" the tree.

Fixing the tree skirt.

A couple of years ago, my mom got us this Christmas decoration that plays a song when you push a button on it. Both of the kids LOVE playing with it.  

Parker lining up our stocking hangers.

We each hung our own stocking!

Sadie was having one of her "bad mood" days, and didn't want to take this picture with me.

Parker and Daddy wrapping some lights around our stair railing.

I love this time of the year -- the lights, the yummy holiday food and beverages, the traditions. Can't wait to take in all of the festivities!

Last-but-not-least Thanksgiving!

The last part of Thanksgiving week we spent with Andrew's mother's side of the family. There were 21 of us total, and we had a really fun time hanging out, eating, and talking. We even crammed 11 people into Andrew's grandparent's smallish TV room to watch a great bedlam game between OU and OSU. Good times. Here are some pics from our time there.

Andrew with his little "Sweet Pea".

LOVE this picture of Parker and I.

Our lovely little family.

Watching Dora with cousin Abbey.

Some of the group at breakfast one morning.

The kiddos with Papa and Gram....

....and with their Nonni!

Some of the group (Andrew's sister and family had left the day before, and Gram is taking the picture).

We had a great time on our trip, and we are thankful to have so much family to share our holidays with!

Thanksgiving Strait style....

On Thanksgiving Day, we spent the day at Andrew's aunt and uncle's house out in the country. There was a grand total of 28 people there to celebrate. We had fun visiting and catching up with everyone, and I even shot my first *gasp* real gun! Andrew and some other family members were out target shooting when I went out to observe and got talked into it. I've always been a bit leery of guns, mostly because I didn't grow up around them and had never before handled them, but I am proud to say that I overcame my fears. Here are a few pictures from our day.

Andrew and the kids with Andrew's Grandma and Grandpa Strait.

Parker and Sadie with Grandpa.

Parker wanted to pet the horse.

Our family on Thanksgiving!



Thanksgiving in Enid....

For the past week, we have been in Oklahoma celebrating Thanksgiving with family. We started by going to Enid for a few days and spending time with my family. We had a relaxing few days playing cards, going shopping, and just doing nothing. Here are a few pictures we took from our time there.

The kids with my Grandpa and his wife, MaryLou.

The kids with Poppy and Grandma.

Our family.

Playing cards!

First snowfall!

Last night we had our first snowfall of the season! The kids were super excited to check it out this morning....

Fun at the zoo!

It has been unseasonably warm here the last few days, so we decided to take advantage of the nice weather today by going to the zoo. Our last trip (or attempted trip) to the zoo, which as a side note was exactly one year ago tomorrow, ended in our Jeep being totaled and all of us going to the emergency room for a few hours. We were definitely ready to move past that memory, and I'm happy to report that we had a great time. We went to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo here in Colorado Springs, and they have a large giraffe exhibit. You can actually purchase crackers to feed the giraffes which is quite fun. Here is Parker feeding a giraffe.... 

....and Sadie feeding a giraffe. And yes, she tried to get the cracker to her mouth first. Emphasis on tried.

The bird exhibit was also lots of fun. You could buy little seed sticks, and a bird would land on your stick to eat.

Sadie was in a little bit of a mood all day long, but was actually pretty good considering her disposition.

Parker was SUPER pumped to see the hippos.

Parker and Andrew with some orangutans.

Riding the carousel....Parker was so excited about riding that he has a small meltdown when it was over.

Andrew and Parker. Can you spot the mountain lion in the picture?

Parker and I with a moose.

Walking with Daddy....

We have been to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo three times, and every time we have seen at least one deer wandering freely through the zoo at some point. Today was no exception.

Andrew and the kids at the lion exhibit.

All of us at the end of our fun day at the zoo!

My exhausted, little Big Boy.....

The Dinosaur and the Flower

Last year for Halloween, our friends Corey and Blythe invited us over to their house for dinner and trick-or-treating. This year they did the same, so a few hours ago we headed to their house for an evening of fun. For the kids costumes this year, I snagged an awesome deal at a consignment sale a few weeks ago and got both costumes for $9! Here is a picture of the two of them together....this is best picture we could get because they were too excited/hungry/unwilling to sit still.

Parker was a dinosaur! I got this costume for $4, and there is even a button to push on the left hand that makes a roaring noise.

Sadie was a flower. Her costume cost me $5, and it still had the tags on it!

Here are Parker and Daddy heading out to trick-or-treat.

Sadie wanted to walk by herself, and she would not let go of her pumpkin basket for anything.

Waiting at a house....

The kids had a great time! Parker, my social butterfly, obviously loves seeing and talking to people, and Sadie was so polite saying 'tain too' (thank you) to almost everyone. We ended the evening by returning to Corey and Blythe's house where we had some amazing food, and we all decided that this is going to officially be our Halloween tradition!