Thanksgiving in Steamboat~2012

Helping Nana cook

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week in Colorado!  I flew to Denver the Saturday before Thanksgiving with Isaac and Emma.  My sister-in-law, Kristy, also flew into Denver on Saturday with her two boys, Griffin and Sawyer.  Nana and Papa picked us all up at the airport in Denver, and we headed up to Steamboat for a great week.  The Rinn "boys" (Dave, Jon, & Michael) joined us all on Wednesday evening.  Needless to say, this made for a lot of fun cousin time, especially for Griffin and Isaac...Emma and Sawyer just mostly looked at each other.  ;)

Here are a few favorite pictures! 

Waiting at the airport early on Saturday morning..."Emma, look at all the airplanes!"

Emma and Sawyer hanging out  :)

Griffin and Isaac playing...

...and making projects...

...and reading books...

...and more books...

...and even more books!!

One morning, we took Griffin & Isaac to "House of Bounce" in Steamboat.  They had a blast (and burned off a lot of energy.)

    

There wasn't much snow at all.  Isaac found this mound that hadn't yet melted near Papa & Nana's deck, and he played in it for a looooong time.  (He's definitely a Texan to be that excited about a small pile of snow!)

Playing outside with Nana

Roasting s'mores with Papa at the firepit

Playing with Uncle Mike!

My mother-in-law is a fantastic cook--Thanksgiving dinner was amazing!!

Papa getting ready to carve the turkey!

Thanksgiving dinner!  (I think everyone was more interested in the delicious food than smiling for the camera!)  ;)

Yum!  Isaac said the pie was "tasty!"

The "adult kids" gave Tim & Susie a family photo shoot as an early Christmas gift.  Here's a sneak peek at our pictures...apparently, it's a little difficult doing a photo shoot with two babies & two 3 year old boys.  :)  Even so, we still got some cute shots!

  

Thank you, Papa and Nana, for such a fun week!  
We can't wait to all get together again!

We hope you had a great Thanksgiving, too!

Father's Day~2012

It's a week past Father's Day, and I am finallly putting pictures up! 

Here are a few moments from Father's Day 2012.

I am so thankful that God gave these precious children to this father!

I interviewed Isaac for Father's Day.

My favorite answer is to the question, "What does Daddy like to do with Mommy?" :)

Reading "All about Daddy" after church and lunch

Swimming with Daddy and Papa on Father's Day evening!

"Hands down, you're the best papa ever!"

I found this gift idea for Isaac and Emma's Papas here. My first one was done in a rush since I was trying to send it back to "Colorado Papa" with Nana when she came last week. This is a picture of the second one, which turned out better--probably because I wasn't Modge Podging it together at 11pm. :-)

Speaking of Papas, we are also thankful for the amazing Papas who love our children, too.

"Papa Kal" with Isaac and Emma on Father's Day

"Colorado Papa" with Isaac on our last trip to Colorado.  Isaac can't wait to see him again next month!

And, just because it makes me laugh, a picture of these three from a few months ago all in their hooded sweatshirts!  :)

Thank you, Jesus, for the amazing fathers you have put in our lives!

David and I are also thankful for the gift Isaac and Emma's birthfathers both gave us when they willingly signed to allow their children in our family...from the bottom of our hearts, thank you!

Our Valentine's Day

I'm a few days behind...but here are a few pictures of our Valentine celebrations!

A few weeks before Valentine's Day, I ordered this shirt for Isaac.

We took these pictures at my mom and dad's house to use in cards I made for

Isaac's grandparents and great-grandparents. 

A few days ago, Isaac had a little Valentine party with some other toddler friends. ;)

Here he is busy working on his bag for the Valentine exchange.

These were his Valentines for the exchange...

perfect for a little boy who loves planes and "airplane-ports" (airports) right now.  ;)

I just love this boy!

And, I love this one too!

We had an early Valentine breakfast on Sunday before church.

I made these heart doughnuts, which my friend Meg shared on her blog.

I am so thankful for these boys God has given me to love!

On Valentine's Day, Isaac and I went to visit Grandma Joan.

Isaac loves to charm all the residents at Watermere, where my grandma lives. ;)

David, Isaac, and I also had a fun Valentine dinner and exchanged gifts on Tuesday night before I flew to Minnesota...but those pictures are at home on a memory card.  ;)

We hope you had a sweet Valentine's Day, too!

Make It: Valentine Ornaments

I saw this idea on one of my new favorite blogs, Playing House in Maryland, and thought it would be fun to try and make them.  Isaac is so into "helping" whenever I am working in the kitchen that I knew he'd enjoy mixing up the dough (recipe from here). 

1 cup of salt

2 cups of all-purpose flour

1 cup of lukewarm water

Mix salt and flour together, then slowly add in water.  Stir until completely mixed.

Remove dough from bowl and knead for 5 minutes. 

This is where the project got a little tricky.  We rolled out the dough and started to cut the shapes, but it was nearly impossible to transfer them to the cookie sheet without ruining the edges. 

I let Isaac play with the dough, rolling pin, and cookie cutters for awhile, and then I rolled the dough on the cookie sheet itself.  I made the shapes with the cookie cutters and then peeled the extra dough away.

Before baking, I used Isaac's thumbs to make a "heart" in the circles. 

Bake at 200 degrees anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours, depending on thickness.  I ended up baking ours a little over an hour.  They may slightly brown, which isn't a problem since the browning won't show with paint.

The shapes shrunk quite a bit in the baking and drying process.

Then, we got out the paints--which there aren't any pictures of because I was trying to make sure the paint stayed on the project and not the table, floor, and window seat.  It got really messy.  ;)

I know I'm a little crazy about thumbprint and handprint projects...I just love them!

After painting, I hot glued magnets onto the back.

These are Isaac's Valentine gifts for his grandmas and great-grandmas. 

And we hung one of these ornaments from each light in our kitchen chandelier.
 

Make It: Valentine's Day

Lately, I've had a lot of fun finding crafting ideas on Etsy and Pinterest.  I don't have too much time (or skill!) to make a lot of them, but this is one I made this past week.

I didn't have any Valentine's Day decor, and I just thought these were too cute!

Who doesn't love conversation hearts?

(My friend pinned this on Pinterest, but the original idea is from here.)

A Colorado Christmas

We flew to Steamboat on Christmas Eve morning and had such a wonderful Christmas with Tim, Susie, and Michael.  After our disaster adventure of having to sleep in our vehicle due to a blizzard, I am so, so happy that we got to fly to Steamboat.  Isaac loved the plane and had so much fun pulling this little suitcase.  He was determined to do it himself and would not let David or me touch it..."I do Isaac's suitcase, Mommy" was what I heard over and over.  :)  He also kept saying, "Go see Nana in 'Rado!"

Isaac helping Nana bake coffee cake on Christmas morning...recently he has started pushing a chair over to the counter whenever I am cooking at home.  He loves to "help!"

I love this picture, even though you can't see the words on the apron.  Isaac is wearing the apron that says "Grandma's Little Taste Tester" that we first bought when we were pregnant.  We saved it and several years later gave it to Susie when we announced that we were adopting!

Opening stockings on Christmas morning...I'd bought Dave's favorite book from childhood, The Tawny Scrawny Lion, and put it in Isaac's stocking.  Dave still had the entire book memorized! 

Isaac is wearing his Thomas the Train sunglasses from his stocking, too.  :)

Isaac loved playing with his Uncle Mike!  Susie had pulled out a box of the boys' old Matchbox cars, and Isaac played with them the whole time he was there.  I think he would have been thrilled with just that box of cars for his Christmas present!



Tim read the Christmas story, and then Isaac got to put Baby Jesus in the manger.

Opening presents!  Tim & Susie gave both Isaac and Griffin this fun woodshop. 
Isaac's favorite part is the "rill."

Christmas dinner!  Susie made her famous prime rib!

We also had so much fun playing outside in the "nose" (snow, according to Isaac).  Even though Steamboat has an abnormally small amount of snow right now, it was enough for us Texans to enjoy.  :)

Isaac was so brave when we went tubing.  He'd lay down on the tube headfirst and wait for a push.  When he got to the bottom of the hill, he'd roll off and clap for himself!

Papa also took Isaac on his first snowmobile ride on Rabbit Ears Pass.  Isaac's favorite part was walking in the snowmobile tracks, which he called "train tracks."  This picture doesn't show how incredibly beautiful the scenery really is up here!

One night we roasted s'mores outside in the firepit. 

Below, we are sitting in an original Steamboat ski lift chair that Tim had hung in the backyard.

Isaac always wanted to check on "puppy dog," Kelly, and loved giving her kisses.  Since we've been home, he's been calling his stuffed dog "Kelly."  :)

This picture makes me laugh!  Isaac had so much fun jumping into the snow and convinced his Nana to jump with him, too!  :)

We also drove down to Loveland one day to visit Grandpa Rinn.  It was great for all of us to see him, since the last time we were together was well over a year ago! 

One more sweet picture of Isaac with his Nana...I think his hand position is looking pretty good, don't you?  ;)

Well, I think this wins for longest post ever!  Thank you for such a wonderful Christmas...we can't wait to see you again soon, Papa & Nana!