Christmas 2014

We are extraordinarily blessed, and it seems as though every year we have an amazing, over the top Christmas. What I will remember the most about this Christmas was the relaxing break it served to be for our family, after a very busy few months leading up to it. Kent has been working tons and tons of overtime at work in an attempt to get "caught up," which seems to be an impossible task lately. We were able to spend almost 2 weeks together around the holiday, and it was heaven!

We went to Grandma and Grandpa Judson's for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner, and the cousins gift exchange. As usual, the kids were pretty excited and spent much of the evening wrestling and expending all that Christmas Eve excitement. It is such a joy to watch them play and enjoy each other's company. Even Skyler gets in on the action!

At home that evening, our kids got to open their Christmas jammies.

 

Broncos Jammies -- imagine that!

Christmas morning came bright and early, but not as early as we expected! Kent and I were awakened by Nana and Poppi texting me repeatedly at 6:30 in the morning -- "Are you guys up yet?" "Text me when Taylee wakes up!" "The roads are snowy, we are going to head over now..." LOL, they were on our doorstep before Taylee was even awake.



Everything came together nicely, when Taylee woke up at 7:15 and Skyler rolled out of bed without us even waking him. Taylee was excited to see that Santa had brought her a new 2 wheel Scooter, and a Sofia Royal Prep Academy! What a generous fellow! And he ate almost all the cookies we left out, as well as drinking most of his milk. Taylee was just tickled pink!

We like to take our time opening gifts, and each person takes turns. This extends our Christmas morning out over several hours. We love it!

Sofia the First Slumber Party Playset

Skyler's new Broncos Hoodie

New Snowboarding Pants for Skyler's Snowboarding Class this Semester.

Nana and Poppi got Taylee a Sleeping Beauty Castle! When you consider that Santa brought a Sofia Royal Prep Academy, Kent and I gave Taylee a Tinkerbell Pixie Cottage, and this Sleeping Beauty Castle from Nana and poppi, I think she has all the living accomodations a girl could dream of!

A surprise from Nana for our family. A Minky Blanket. It is so luxurious and cozy! I am snuggled up in it as I type this post. :0)

One bad-A HillBilly! Rockin his new hoodie, and his awesome new teeth thanks to Poppi and his creative gifting!

Just one of the FIVE new Hurley shirts Kent got for Christmas. LOL. We've got his style pinned! 

One of the new Broncos Shirts Kent got me. I love all 3 of them! And note Taylee tap dancing in her new Rapunzel Princess shoes.

Pretty Princess in her Pretty Picture Pose

Kent was pretty pumped about our new Cheese Slicer!

After our morning at home, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Judson's for some leftover's for Christmas lunch and our gift exchange with them. We extended a tradition of the last several years, and got tickets to a Jazz game for Grandma and Grandpa, as well as Kent and Skyler. 

My cuties!

We topped off our day with Christmas dinner at Nana and Poppi's - Filet Mignon, and it was sooo delicious! Even Taylee is now a fan of filet mignon.... Oh Boy! Expensive tastes!  We also had a few more gifts to exchange as well. The infamous stocking extravaganza that nana puts on every year, as well as a few more presents for us all.

Kent's New Broncos Hoodie!

My new jacket. So cozy!

Poppi, giving the camera a normal look...for once. A real Christmas Miracle!

At the end of the day, despite being so immensely spoiled, I feel like we close this holiday season with a feeling of great joy at our immaterial blessings. Our loved ones and the time we are able to spend together... What joy!

Festival of Trees!

The Festival of Trees is a fundraising event designed to raise money for Primary Children's Hospital, which is (obviously!), a cause which is near and dear to my heart. I got a call way back in October from my friend Necia, letting me know that she would be coming to town to volunteer at the festival! Necia and I met nine years ago when her sweet little girl Hallie was in my unit. She and I developed a strong and longlasting friendship during her stay at Primary's, and we still talk regularly, despite her living in Chicago now. Hallie's Grandmother also happens to be a member of the Primary Children's Fundraising Board, and plays a significant role in the organization of the Festival of Trees.

We decided to visit the Festival on Opening Night, along with most of the population of the state. I am often familiar with many of the children being honored at the Festival, so it can be a bittersweet event for me.

This year, the Neonatal Nurse Practitioner group, along with the nurses in my unit sponsored and decorated a tree for our well loved and respected Dr. Null, who is leaving our hospital in February. It turned out beautifully!

Dr. Null's Tree

My favorite tree, however, was the amazing tree that was decorated in honor of Hallie. The theme was loving life, and that is a perfect description of Miss Hallie's spirit. To learn more about my sweet Hallie Bug, visit HelpingHallie.com.

Hallie's Tree!

Taylee enjoyed the event, and wanted to take photos with just about every tree we saw.

And her crazy poses! This girl just kills me!

 

Fall Family Fotos (Fourteen)

A friend of ours took our family photos this fall. We decided to go for a "cityscape" this year, as our previous family photos have been done in a natural landscape. I really love how the pictures turned out, especially our cute kids!

 

Naturally Curious???

The day after Halloween was cold and rainy, so our original plan to go to Black Island Farms went out the window. We made a last minute plan to go down to Thanksgiving Point and check out the Museum of Natural Curiosity. It sure is a good time for a couple of kiddos, and Taylee and Aden were in heaven for hours! We had to drag them out  to meet up with poppi in Salt Lake. We were celebrating a little late with birthday dinner for poppi at the Cheesecake Factory. Yum!! A fantastic ending to a fantastic little weekend!

Steering a Train Car around the track

Aden's Floating Head

Taylee's Floating Head - she wasn't so sure about this particular game!

Halloween 2014

We had a special treat this year for Halloween. Our sweet cousin Aden came to visit during his fall break, which allowed him to visit for the holiday weekend. Taylee had a great time playing with him all weekend long! We started off with some pumpkin carving...

 

Our fantastic jack-o-lantern carving! Aden's Cheshire Cat, Taylee's Tinkerbell (carved by Kent :), My Nightmare before Christmas-O'Lantern, and Skyler's original creation

On Thursday, Aden came and helped out with Taylee's class Halloween party. It was a blast. Taylee and her Kindergarten classmates put on a little costume parade that was super cute! Most of the kids loved the pass the pumpkin game. Taylee included!

Party Games!

 I worked Thursday night, and Taylee and Aden spent the night at Nana and Poppi's. Fun times for the kiddos. Once I was awake and moving on Halloween, we got Taylee and Aden dressed up and ready for some Trick or Treating. We took our little Rapunzel over to grandma and grandpa's house for a quick visit, and a photo op with Cody and Hunter.

 

Cody the Ninja, Hunter from Special Forces, and Rapunzel, (errr... I mean Taylee)

We headed back and made an obligatory stop at the neighbor's little Halloween pizza shindig, before arriving home and heading out for some Trick or Treating!

Peyton Manning had a party to get to, but we caught him for a quick photo before he left.  

Peyton, Rapunzel, and Raphael. This is the only picture I got of Aden on Halloween. Bummer.

Taylee and Aden trick or treated their hearts out! They went to twice as many houses as Taylee normally does. It was quite a workout!

 

And falling asleep on the couch is what happens when a little princess is all tuckered out from Halloween fun!

Denver vs San Francisco!

For our second trip over to Denver this year we went in mid-October to see the Broncos play the San Francisco 49ers. The best part---I was healthy! We were all healthy! The trip was a blast!
I can't remember exactly why, but we didn't fly into Denver until about 4:30 on Saturday afternoon. This limited our time to play a little, but we definitely made the most of our evening. We enjoyed a pretty fabulous meal at The White Chocolate Grille. Yum! Kind of Cheesecake Factoryish... But with unique, amazing desserts, that were not cheesecake. Our meals were good, but our dessert was fantastic!
Sunday was a beautiful October day, with sunshine and warm temperatures. We spent the day in downtown Denver at the 16th Street Mall. We had lunch at the YardHouse, where we were able to watch the early games and relax. Eventually I dragged Kent, Scott, and Lisa out into downtown for some shopping. I had a great time! Not too sure about all the rest though... but it wasn't for long, because it was soon time to head for the stadium. This was yet another Sunday night game. We have never attended 2 evening games in one season, but it worked out well this year - we won them both!
Go Broncos!

Lisa, Scott, Kent, and me. A little pregame action.

And then there was this guy. What a character! Luckily, despite his scary appearance, he wasn't too mean after all! And quickly found his rightful seats. An entire section away from us.

And we had a chance to witness history!!



Kent and I celebrated the new Pat Bolen statue with a post-game photo op!

 

Besties

Taylee and her best friend Kate started posing for a spontaneous little photo shoot one day after school. They are just so stinkin' cute, and I love them so much that I just had to share these photos!

Ahhh... The joy of childhood best friends!

 

 

 

 

Denver vs Indy!

 We started off the Broncos 2014 season right, with a  trip to Denver for the home opener against the Indianapolis Colts. We flew in early Saturday morning, and headed straight for Elitch's. A day at the amusement park is always a good time! Even I had a pretty good time (when I was well medicated). Long story short, I went to Denver thinking I had some kind of nasty cold, causing body aches and nausea. I was on around the clock dosing of advil and tylenol, and only barely surviving. I believe I actually fell asleep on the bench at Elitch's while the others were on rides. Eeek! On Sunday morning, we went to InstaCare, where they diagnosed me with Enterovirus D68 (a new respiratory virus that was just hitting its peak in Denver at that time). Since they couldn't do anything for me, I continued with my advil/tylenol regimen and pushed on. By the time we were home on Monday I had worsened significantly, and by Tuesday when I saw my doctor I had full blown pneumonia. Go figure! The pneumonia story is long enough in itself, but after 3 more days, 3 Chest X-rays, 2 shots of Rocephin, 2 bags of IV fluids, a trip to the ER, and a course of oral antibiotics, I was on the mend! Phew!

My savvy little traveler.

Sun kissed fun! Taylee wasn't 100% sure this ride was fun and not scary.

There were many bright spots in our day at Elitch's, despite my illness, and I had many moments of fun with the family. And of course, Taylee and Aden were thrilled to play with each other, as always!

Just flyin' away!

I love these two cuties, and they sure love each other!

After our InstaCare visit on Sunday morning, I spent most of the day sleeping in the hotel room, while my mom took care of kid duty. Kent, Garrett, & Skyler took a little escapade over to the new Viewhouse Restaurant for some lunch and football. I can't wait for a chance to go with them!

 

I dragged my sorry self out of bed, put on my game face, and we headed over to the stadium in the late afternoon, for the Sunday night game.

Game Day!

The Season Opener is always an exciting game to attend, but even more so when it is the Sunday Night Opener! There is a palpable excitement in the air! We took plenty of photo ops before heading into the stadium.

Photo op with the SNF Bus!

See how Kent fits right in with all the players on the bus?!

Luckily, my illness gave me a bit of a reprieve that evening, and the four of us were able to truly enjoy the game. It was a nice, solid win against the Colts, and we were a happy bunch!

 

Check out the game faces! I <3 face="" free="" p="" painting="">