...And A Happy New Year!

We spent Christmas in St. George this year. It was nice to take a few days off and especially nice that the whole family came. Christmas eve stared with kids. I made a homemade gingerbread house to decorate. Jonas had a lot of fun (see bottom left picture). I'm not sure he understood that the point of the activity was to decorate.

Then they opened jammies from my mom. Makayla had it right when she said "well, that's not very exciting." But they sure looked cute! It was at this point my camera battery died :(
Luckily, we got a free Itouch for signing up with our bank last August which has a camera on it, but I realized this after opening presents. (I got everything I wanted including an electric throw blanket, a Boulder area hiking book, other books, stamps, and clothes.)
Tim and I got my dad some clay pigeons for Christmas, so we took the guns out to use them.

I have to admit, I look pretty hard core. Too bad the guns were so heavy I couldn't handle very many shots-at least with the shot guns.
We did manage to sneak in some grandkid pictures for my mom.
I sure have cute nieces and nephews!Unfortunately, that's all the pictures I got of Christmas.
On New Year's Eve, Tim and I held a party with lots of food and friends. Sadly, that is when I realized my camera was still dead, so I hooked the battery up to charge and didn't take any pictures.

Yesterday, Tim and I took our new snowshoes up Boulder Canyon to try them out. We found one trail with barely enough snow and took our maiden voyages with them. It was tons of fun!

I even took a picture of my feet in honor of Aubrey.

Though always too short, we had a great holiday season. Tim is grateful he passed all of his classes, and is starting his second semester in a week. I am getting into my new job and started teaching Sunbeams again this year. Hopefully 2011 will be another great year.

Our Almost-Christmas Christmas

As we are about to (try to) head to Utah to spend Christmas with my family, we celebrated Christmas this morning by opening 2 bigger presents from Rod and Diney. Let me just say...We are SUPER excited about our new SNOWSHOES!

I also got some nice mixing bowls with lids and Tim got a dutch oven! Thanks Mom and Dad Larsen.
Bring Christmas on...

Christmas is almost here!

With finals over (finally!) we can start celebrating Christmas! Thanks to Groupon, Tim and I went to Denver's "Trail of Lights" It ended up being kind of lame, but it did the trick to get us in the Christmas spirit. This tree was amazing!

Luckily, they had a "warming hut"

We had the missionaries over for dinner and some holiday fun last night...

Elder Rodriguez grew up in Argentina and he thought it was ridiculous to waste perfectly good candy on a gingerbread house.
They also did a little service and helped us decorate our tree!We are officially ready for Christmas!

Turkey + Gingerbread = Fun!

We were once again blessed with more visitors! Rod and Diney (Tim's mom and dad) drove here from Texas last Saturday and stayed with us for the week. Tim had the week off, so they did a little touring. On Wednesday after work, we drove to Utah to spend Thanksgiving with Tim's grandparents. We ate at delicious Thanksgiving feast that Grandma Larsen prepared.
(though I helped decorate the cornucopia in the bottom right picture.)

Notice the cool butter sculpture above.

Chelsea and Bryan came over for pie and some gingerbread decorating. There was some dispute over the gingerbread "men/women."

I was also able to visit my Grandma and Grandpa Lotz and get some relaxation time.
It was a great weekend and so much fun to get to see family-something we are both very thankful for.

Fun with Aubrey!

We were excited to have our very first visitor here in Colorado! Tim's sister Aubrey came out on Thursday and stayed until Sunday. I was busy starting my job this week (still in training-it's boring), but Tim and Aubrey explored Denver on Thursday (with me joining them for dinner at Cafe Rio!), and Boulder on Friday. On Saturday, we went out to support the CU Buffs...
Their mascot, Ralphie, joins us at the start of every football game. These guys running with her have to stretch to warm up and then sprint down the field and hand the reins off half way so they can keep up with her. I think Ralphie's run was the highlight of the game for both me and Aubrey, but I was disappointed to find that she only runs once a game.
Saturday night we went to downtown Louisville (the city we live in) and skated at the cutest outdoor rink.
The atmosphere was so fun with lights and Christmas music playing.
Aubrey has taken ice skating lessons and skated like a pro compared to me and Tim.



And we didn't forget to celebrate Tim's birthday with a delicious homemade ice cream cake!
I would say Aubrey's visit was a success! Thanks for coming!

Happy Birthday Tim!

On November 9th, Tim is turning 28. In honor of this big celebration, I am going to list 28 reasons I love him:

1. He genuinely loves to spoil me (like making me cocoa and playing with my hair).
2. He is a great story teller (probably got that from Grandma Bywater).
3.He is a really good cook-especially with Southern Food.
4. He watches chick flicks with me.
5. He is really smart.
6. He helps out around the house ...a lot (and will have to start to pick up more weight again once I start my job)
7. He has a strong testimony and really knows the gospel
8. He knows almost everything there is to know about sports and teams (okay, so I don't necessarily love this, but it's just him).
9. He is good-looking. I hope our future kids get his eyelashes and dimples especially.
10. He didn't complain (more than about 7 times) when I wanted to foster dogs this year. This was a BIG commitment and he helped out a lot.
11. He is funny -even though he doesn't think I think he is.
12. He LOVES holidays and gets really excited for special events.
13. He reads to me and so I can fall asleep.
14. He is working really hard in school and has high ambitions.
15. He always puts my needs first.
16. He often acts like a little boy. His family knows that if we are out on a hike or something and there is water, he will touch it. No matter the risk.
17. He supports me in all I do.
18. He is very patient.
19. He was an excellent sunbeam teacher (3 year olds at church). He's really good with kids and will make an excellent father.
20. He is a good writer and even has good handwriting.
21. He does a lot of stuff I don't want to do-even when it involves spending a lot of time learning (such as figuring out what is wrong with our car or fixing a drain).
22. He always takes care of the details (whether it is our checking account or mapping the roads on a trip).
23. He is funny about some things-like he is very picky about what jeans and ties he wears, but they're not necessarily fashionable, they're just...Tim.
24. Did I mention he spoils me?
25. He has gone without a car for over 3 years so I could drive to work. Sacrifice.
27. He's always saying nice things to me. Sometimes I just have to tell him to stop.
28. He's my BEST friend and we just have fun together!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIM, I LOVE YOU!

Halloween in Nederland

Happy Halloween!
We were invited by some friends from church to go to a "cabin" (mansion) up Boulder Canyon in Nederland for the weekend. We had an awesome Halloween Party on Friday night. Tim and I couldn't agree on a costume, so we went the cheap route and got sponsored by the local grocery store.
This couple below had my favorite costumes. Emily is a teacher, so she dressed up as a chalkboard and her boyfriend was chalk (although Tim kept saying he looked like a cigarette).
A party isn't complete without a roaring game of Scary Pictionary.
(My word: Twilight Fans)
Our house had an amazing view. Tim was having fun using our panoramic feature:

Beautiful.
The girls: Emily, Jaime, me, Natalie, Krystal (minus Kristin)
Our "cabin:"
Nederland (Note you can see Eldora, the ski resort in the mountains)
The only thing to do in Nederland - Ride the Carousel of Happiness. Tim and I were the only ones besides Jane (the cow pictured above) who rode it. Tim couldn't pass up riding on the donkey carrying barrels of monkeys on it's back (look closely). I chose the dog and bruised my knee on its ear. The bottom left picture is of the Nederland Police Department and Library conveniently located in this mini-mall.