National Western Stock Show

When the National Western Stock Show came in town this year we made an appoint to check it out. The biggest thing to catch the kids eyes? Check it out!

Snow fun

Here is a video of Andrew and his nephew Jay. Andrew got him pretty good. the other video I had I recorded vertically so this is all I have but you can tell they were having fun. While we were there we probably had a total of 4 feet of snow. It sure was beautiful.

Zach's ski day

Zach got to ski 6 days on this trip and he skiied on both Dollar Mountain and on Baldy. By the end of the trip he was having fun going on little jumps. His only problem-he doesn't do a lot of turning which means he skis fast and straight down the mountain. He skis so fast that I can't video tape him for long. I have to catch him at the bottom of the hill.

Avery's first ski day

Avery had her first opportunity to ski while we were in Sun Valley and she loved every minute of it. Not once was she cold or anything. I think Andrew was more tired than she was-after all he had to ski in a wedge all day!


She skiied 2 days and can't wait to do it again.

Avery & Blake sledding on Dollar Mountain

Avery was first-followed by Blake. I took Blake on the sled too but luckily there is no video of it since we crashed onto the magic carpet and were both covered in snow. Now if you ask Blake if he went on a sled with mommy all he says is eye, eye, snow, eye!

Christmas in Idaho

After leaving El Paso-the kids and I flew up to Boise, Idaho where Andrew picked us up in a snowstorm. He and Zach drove from Colorado to Idaho while we were in El Paso. We were able to spend lots of time with Andrew's sister Dana and her kids and we also got to spend time with Andrew's dad as well. We were there for 2 weeks and had such a great time. The kids had so much fun with their cousins and we hope that we can spend even more time with them. Click here to see all of the pictures of our holiday fun and I will also get some videos of our sledding and skiing fun too.

Family time at the airport

Our 3 generations!
Grandma & Grandpappy sharing their Starbucks

Blake loves his Poppy

Josi & Avery

El Paso Trip

On December 15th, 2008 my Grandpa Barrett passed away at the age of 86. I took both Blake and Avery down to El Paso so that we could attend the services. My parents flew in from Russia and Josiah drove in from Ft. Benning, Georgia. Although under unfortunate circumstances it was so nice to spend time with my family and the kids had a great time with them as well. While we were in town we visited with our friend Pancho who used to work for my grandfather when I was just 6. He had always been like a extension of the family and it was nice to see him and his family while we were there.

Pancho & Rose's house was a dream come true with the awesome treehouse, the pool and the pink house. My kids could hardly contain themselves.
Blake especially liked the riding tractor. It took him a while to figure it out but once he did-he thought it was so cool!

More rodeo fun!

Andrew's old roommate and dear friend was in town as well for Baseball Winter Meetings. We hadn't seen him in probably 5 years and it was great to catch up.
Cass & Dana sittin and enjoyin!

Got to love those Texas cowboys!

Rodeo Time in Vegas

The whole gang outside of Binions-(my lucky spot-$1400 won in last 2 trips), Dana, Tim & Cass, and Dana & Darren



Here we go again. We had such a great time in Vegas last year for the National Finals Rodeo that we had to do it again. This time we were joined by Tim & Cassidy and Andrew's sister Dana & Darren. Our friend Steve was also retiring from Coors and he was a great host as always. While we all rode the bull-I think those videos are best left in our minds of those who were there. We of course spent time at the rodeo and we also ventured downtown again.

Christmas card photos

Zach 9

The whole bunch

Blake 22 months

Avery 3 1/2

Who would have ever thought that getting a Christmas photo could be so difficult. All I wanted was 15 minutes of cooperation-yeah-no chance. We did manage to get some nice shots and since I had to mail my Christmas cards from memory-(not the addresses part) if you didn't get a card here are the photos that you missed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving this year we have no pictures. What I do have are pictures of Avery's Thanksgiving program at her preschool. We went to Nebraska to celebrate with our friends Tim & Kelly Utrup and Bret & Nancy Beer. We also went to see a heartbreaking game that the Buffs almost won! Seriously who kicks 57 yard field goals! Anyways it was a great time to see friends and all the kids had a good time-I guess you could say we were a bit outnumbered in the kid department. Between the 3 of us couples there are 10 kids! Thanksgiving kicked off our holiday season in style! We have so much to be thankful for!

Here is part of Avery's program!

He's got the look

For anyone who sees

us on a regular basis-this is no odd look for Blake. Blake wears this hat all the time and gets nothing but compliments on it. This is Blake's version of a security blanket i guess.

Sibling love

Avery and Blake are getting to the stage where they are fighting what seems like all the time. However-I managed a photo of them just loving on another.

Jay's visit

Zach and Andrew's nephew Jay

The boys took a ride on the Buff' fire truck during the Friday night parade the night before the game.

November was really the start of our crazy holiday season. We had our nephew Jay come down for a visit from Idaho for a weekend of football and fun. He and Zach had a great time and Avery and Blake loved having a new face in the house. The last time we had seen Jay was in the summer of 2006 so we were so happy to have him come visit again.