Off to the CO...

So. By now most of of you have heard, if not then we're making it official now. We're moving to Denver this summer. I know this may come as a surprise to some. I originally turned down the offer to move, hoping we could find something here in Houston. But with the state of the economy and with the feeling it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. I was approached by a colleague of mine inquiring if I was still interested because they had one position still open and if I wanted it, it was mine. We jumped at the chance, so needless to say, as soon as I accepted I was thrown into fire. I was immediately sent out to Baltimore for a week to finish training and follow up with a new hire, and am planning on being back out there in two weeks. So they're keeping me busy.
We are going to miss all our friends that we have made in Texas, we have really enjoyed our short time here. The boys are going to be in for a shock come winter time when they get to play in the snow once again, and we'll miss the spring time in Houston, but you you guys can keep the heat from the summer! I'm looking forward to being able to play some golf in July without being soaked to the bone from the heat. Our plans will be have us moving the first part of July. So we plan to make the most of the time we have left.

We're still here!

Parker tried to feed himself yogurt for breakfast. Not too shabby for his first try.

Just wanted to make sure everyone is aware that we're still breathing. This year is going by WAY too fast. Jared started back to school taking 14 credits, on top of working 50+ hours at work. And between Church callings, helping at the boys' school and the everyday challenges of life it seems that this New Year has already passed us by. Jen got to go back to Utah for a few days for her Birthday, We'll post some pics of that next time. Parker had Bronchitis at the beginning of Jan. and a really bad ear infection the last few weeks of Jan. He had to have Breathing treatments done every four hours for a couple of days, which he did not like one bit. After the Bronchitis cleared up one of the tubes that were put in his ears over the summer fell out, and that ear got infected. Finally after a few trips to the doctors and medicine it seems it had all cleared up. He's getting so big, he jabbers all the time, and his new thing is saying "OH, WOW!" at anything and everything. His favorite thing in the whole world is seeing Christian and Brandt off in the morning to the school bus, and you should see his face when they come home in the afternoon. As for the other two. Brandt had his 6th Birthday a few weeks back. We had a combined birthday party with his best friend since their birthdays are only few days apart. Altogether we had about 27 six year old's running around at the party place. That was a sight. As for Christian, he's getting so much older, he's growing like a weed, and I'm just waiting for the day when he's taller then me. He's still practicing his swimming and told us the other night that he wants to learn to play the Violin. So here a a few pictures from the past few weeks...

Brandt and Ryan the Big Six year Olds

Split B-day cake, Brandt wanted Indiana Jones theme, Ryan wanted Speed Racer.

All the kids eating Cake and Ice Cream.

So one night Parker was really in rare form. He was just running everywhere, happy as can be, so we got the video camera out to try and capture it. Wouldn't you know it he calms down for the camera. He was doing this thing where he'd run in place and then stop and fall backwards on his butt and just laugh and laugh. This was a very funny night.

Christmas Morning

Christmas is very anti-climatic. You spend all this time getting ready, shopping, wrapping presents, decorating the house and it's over in a matter of hours. It's exhausting. My hat's off to Jen who did a wonderful job making sure everything was taken care of. All I had to do was sit on the couch and watch "A Christmas Story" (Best movie EVER!) and eat Milk and Cookies. It was great. The boys had a blast ripping through the paper to discover their treasures. The big gifts this year were roller blades for Christian, a Skateboard for Brandt, and a Car for Parker. All three enjoyed themselves so much.

You'd think that Parker was crying in this one, he's not, he's pulling his "Rockstar" face.

We always let the boys open one gift on Christmas eve, it's usually a game that we play as a family. This year it was Cadoo. This is a fun game that is great for any age, you can play as teams or individuals.

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and wish you all the best in the New year!

Christmas Boat Parade

We went down to the Kemah Boardwalk to see the Boat Parade. Everyone adorns their sailboats and yachts with lights and decorations and they parade up and down the channel from the Marina, right in front of the boardwalk. It's something that ever since we have moved to Texas we wanted to see. Each year we had planned to go but something came up. This year we didn't think it was going to happen since Hurricane Ike had destroyed a good portion of the Boardwalk in September. But they still had it, a week later then normal, and it was fun to see. Most of the boardwalk was still closed only three rides were open and a handful of the restaurants as well. The kids like the big boats that threw candy and bead necklaces the most.

Winter Wonderland

It was a perfect ending to a perfect day. I was home with my mom making Christmas cookies all day, listening to holiday music and the sweet smell of treats lofting in the air. We looked outside and to our surprise our Christmas wish was answered early this year, but it didn't last long. On Wednesday afternoon it started snowing! Parker loved it so much, that after being outside for a while we were freezing, so we came in, and he proceeded to pound on the door to be let back outside. So I opened the door and let him rome outside freely, he thought that was great seeing all the little snowflakes. Christian and Brandt liked it as well. Brandt was mad since it didn't snow enough to make snowmen or snowballs. Christian and Brandt were at school when the biggest flurry was happening, but the teachers let all the kids outside to see the snow falling. Christian said all the kids in his class were screaming and having so much fun running around in the snow. He said it was funny to watch everybody react to the snow. Though it didn't blanket the ground, it was still a nice suprise. When Jared got home he said it had snowed quite a bit at his office that his car was covered and since we got rid of our snowbrushes when we moved here he had to use his arm to scrape the snow off the car.
There's just something about seeing snow and Palm trees in the same picture.
Brandt, though you really can't see it, there are snowflakes in this picture.

Christian freezing from the cold.

See, it really did snow! This is what's left of it.