First Snow!

Well, it wasn't exactly his first snow, but it was the first time he was able to actually play in it. Lets begin, shall we? First off, mama couldn't find his gloves - so we improvised with socks. He hated, I mean HATED the 'gloves'. He screamed when we put them on. He screamed with dad put his on. Strangest thing. So eventually we nixed the 'gloves'. 

We have split the pictures into 'pre-nap' and 'post-nap' for your enjoyment 

PRE-NAP:

Still getting used to the white stuff

Yup- there it is. What he did the entire time he was outside

Dad says 'whats your deal?'

 POST-NAP:

No gloves

He LOVED to shovel. Who knew?!

Daniel would get a scoop started and he'd push it

Being a big helper

Such concentration 

Look at my sweet little poof ball :-) 

It was heavy, wet snow and really hard to push- he did a good job though

This is him waving 'bye' to us because he was leaving to go get rid of the snow. 

Look at those rosy cheeks :-) I love him 

A video of the snow shoveling 

"Dad, my hands are cold and there is some white stuff on them..." 

Dad gets off the snow

And warms up the little frozen phalanges 

Alex's interpretation of Daniel warming up his hands :-) 

Daniel jumping in the deep snow

"I wanna come!!"

But really he wanted to be like dad and lay down in the snow 

Oh my gosh, I can't get over how adorable he is

Just me and dad 

Hangin out in the snow

Helpin' Mama

We had a glorious snow fall a little bit ago. So I decided to dust off the 'ol Kitchen Aid and make some cinnamon rolls. Alex loves nothing more than to help in the kitchen, so naturally he was my right hand man through the whole process. 

First you roll out the dough and then smash it with the empty cinnamon jar

Then you 'pat, pat' the cinnamon into the rolls

Ya, might as well get the whole arm involved. Make sure its good and stuck

Pat, pat the raisins in

He was much more interested in buttering the counter than posing for mama

Watch the oven and make sure they are baking

Eat a little breakfast while waiting (yes that is a lunchable - don't judge me:-))

Stir, stir the frosting

He really liked the oven mitt... who knew

All done!

Its chow time. One sippy has APJ and the other had hot chocolate...APJ won most of the attention

Season Pass to the Zoo.... Best.Idea.Ever!

Telling me what an elephant says

Eating a plum while watching the elephants, what more could a kid ask for?

He totally looks like he purposefully went to pose by the giraffe... In reality I just got a lucky shot 

And of course the favorite Tiger again

First Haircut!

We were getting a little shaggy... alright, lets be honest- we were down right white trash sporting a mullet! SO with mixed feelings we got the hairs chopped. Just in the back, but still. His golden locks are now in the process of reinventing themselves :-) 

Side View- check out the hair comin over the collar! 

Back view, so cute 

And here we are!!! After!

Mom and Al's photo shoot

Look how big he is getting!!!! 

Ah Spaghetti O's- they taste better on your hair than in your mouth :-)

Daniel is 27!!

We had another AWESOME birthday weekend with our family! Daniels sister Amy and brother-in-law Ben and their family came out once again for the occasion.

It was a lot like last years but why reinvent the wheel?! We had such a blast last year and this year didn't disappoint either!!

The weekend started Friday night with my family, Ben and Amy and our bestest friends Tammy and John at Les Miserables! Its one of our favorite musicals and just so happened to be in town the same weekend. Wahooy! It was awesome, to say the least. Sadly I was too preoccupied to have taken any pictures :-(

Next day we got up and raced to the BEAUTIFUL Colorado mountains for some four-wheeling. I tell you what, my dad has converted many 'o' Jacobs to the wonderful world of ATV's :-) Including our son. He is no longer scared and jumped right on the second he got out of the car.

It almost fits him! (hint, hint dad :-))

He's a natural

Mommy and son in Grandpas big truck!

And here is dear sweet little Leah. She was just having so much fun!

She LOVES daddy!

Caleb and Mark just coming back from a ride.

Here we are! One happy fam-damly!

When your riding you don't think your getting that dirty! That's part of the fun!

Oh Jacob! If he were in charge he would have been riding all day, literally. We could hardly get this boy off the machines.

Daniel.... he didn't want to get his new shoes dirty so he wore booties from the surgery rotation that he is on... sometimes he's such a pretty boy

Big Al, lovin the mountain life.

The boys chillin' - John is so clean because after wrecking twice at this campsite he has sworn off the Rainbow Falls trails for good.

Brother and sister :-)

Seeestars!

The brown eyed clan minus Caleb, he was digging in the dirt...

Daniel has been and probably always will be the only person on my side of the family that can start an amazing fire. He's got mad skills. Later his tattered booties were ceremoniously burnt, followed by a moment of silence at the request of the birthday girl, I mean boy! :-)

Dear Caleb- he spent almost the entire afternoon digging around in ash and dirt and rocks to find every single one of these beads that someone had dropped. He later washed them and found bullets and ya, he's pretty much the cutest kid alive!

Momma and Al- he was grumpy that we weren't going anywhere

Alex's first S'more! THEY WERE SO GOOD!!

But it was getting late... Poor guy

After an extremely COLD night we got up at the crack of dawn and drove home to go to church. Then we had Daniels birthday party! He requested my dads AMAZING famous Mexican food. My mom made some fun cup cakes. Golf. Because that's what she had the ingredients for :-) Brenna and the kids helped! My family LOVES the Ratys! Our friends Devin and Lauren also came down for the occasion. It was a beautiful day and we had such a great time.

The golf cupcakes!

Daniel's Josh and Johns cake! SO YUMMY

Here we are last year! Almost the exact same situation.

And us this year! Happy birthday Daniel!

Monday my fam went back up to the mountains. But the Jacobs and the Rayts needed a little break from all the craziness and the whirl wind of the weekend. So we just hung out at my parents house. Played games. Ben made at AWESOME breakfast! Ah, such a good day.

Alex LOVES LOVES ZOE! That poor dog. Alex can never get enough of her.

The amazing birthday breakfast

Chef and patron

Later that night we enjoyed an adult dinner at our favorite restaurant Maggianos. SO nice to have adult time. My parents always went out to dinner when my aunts and uncles came or grandmas and grandpas came into town and I never understood why. I mean I was fun! Why wouldn't someone want me around?! :-) But oh I see it now! Boy I see it now!

Here we are after dinner.

Ah, such a wonderful weekend! Such a wonderful, wonderful weekend! Thank you to my parents for feeding, housing and dealing with us. Thank you to the Knudsens for coming to Les Mis with us! Thank you to the Ratys' for coming all the way to CO to celebrate! And ya... it was awesome.