A Great Thanksgiving (but with no pictures)

I know, no pictures!  I had my camera and everything, but we just relaxed and enjoyed the company.  It was nice to have some days off, apparently also from documenting family memories with pictures !  We had a really nice Thanksgiving.  My sister and her husband and my brother and our family went to my parents house.  We stayed for 3 days, a fun little mini vacation!  Madagascar 2, James Bond, games, great food, family, and friends!  It was great!  There were all of my family, and my sister's husband, Paul's Family for Thanksgiving.  My mom is a great cook, so like always the food was great.  Jean made some yummy pies and appetizers, and Maxine made her delicious orange rolls.  Allen had a good time playing football that morning, Brrrrrrr.  Porter and Sidney love spending time at Grandma and Grandpa's, and Rylee loves to explore all the fun (and non-Rylee proof) things to play with! 

I love this time of year and look forward to enjoying our kids this Holiday season.  We only wish we could spend more time with our "California" family.  We miss you guys!

What a Trophy Weekend!

We had a fun packed weekend with the end of soccer for Sidney and football for Porter.  These are Sid's team pictures.  She did such a great job and had a lot of fun.

That is her first trophy and it is a very prized possession.  Sidney, "Look, it is SO beautiful!  I will be super careful with it because it is glass."  Me, "It is beautiful, but I don't think it is made of glass."  Sidney, "Look closer!  You didn't see how bea-u-ti-ful it is.  It must be glass!"  I think you can even see her white knuckles locked onto that glass beauty :)

Porter loved flag football this year.  He was totally into it.  He did a great job and learned a lot about being part of a team.  He had interceptions, touch-downs, great catches, great blocks, tackles (pulling of the flags), was a super fast runner, and had some great plays and passes as quarter-back.  Allen helped to coach for a good amount of the season and they had a great time together.   We made it through the season with only one torn bloody fingernail. I doctored that right up and continued to thank my lucky stars that this is Flag Football.  I have been informed by Porter that Dad said he could play tackle football next year and that I am the only hold-up.  Get it together, Mom!  Wow, we ended up with over 300 pictures with this round of soccer and football.  Let's just call that good parenting, O.K.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

What a fun day of great weather, parties, singing, scary music, and good old trick or treating.  Poor Porter wasn't feeling very well today.  I know, Halloween and Christmas have got to be the saddest day for kids to not feel good!  So he missed his school party :(  He is such a sweet kid, he relaxed and slept most of the afternoon and felt a lot better for the evening festivities!  He was able to get some great trick or treating in!

Here they are ready to head out for the great candy round-up.  They weather was great!  I think it got up to 78 degrees today.  I can't remember a Halloween that nice in Colorado.  We are usually bundled in so many layers no one knows what your costume is.  It was fun to enjoy walking around the neighborhood without freezing.  Porter was a great pirate this year, Captain Jack.  Sidney was a princess of course, Belle.  Except when she wanted to be cool like Porter, then she was "Captain Belle"!  And Rylee was our little cow!  What a great costume, we got it for Porter then Sidney wore it and now Rylee has worn it for two years!

She was so funny today.

Sidney had a Halloween Party at preschool today.  These are some of the cute girls in her class.

Her class has been learning Halloween songs and they had a program and sang them to all the parents today.  So cute, she had so much fun.  We have all had a lot of fun with Halloween this year.  Porter and Sidney both had Halloween birthday parties with costumes and the Ward Fall Festival of course, along with so many other fun activities!  Here's to a great Halloween!

More Fall Fun at the Corn Maze

We braved the cold a week ago and went out to the corn maze.  The kids loved it.

Rylee was all bundled up and enjoyed watching everyone!  
There were carnival rides there so Porter and Sidney decided they wanted to ride the "Tornado"!  Sidney was a little nervous at first, but was soon begging to ride again!  Fun times as a family!

Pumpkin Carving!

Porter and Sidney were so excited to carve pumpkins this year!  They have been talking about it all weekend.  Here they are ready to get started.

Last year we couldn't get either of them to touch the inside of their pumpkin!  We even tried bribery :)  This year they both cleaned out the inside of their own pumpkin, and they were excited about it.  Bring on the pumpkin goo!

Rylee and her baby pumpkin.  She enjoyed watching everyone and trying to sneak a stray pumpkin seed or two!  And trying to pull out the pacifier in her pumpkin, she was not sure she wanted it there!

Sidney and her scary pumpkin.  She knew exactly what kind of face she wanted. (Right after Porter decided what kind of face he wanted, She wants to be just like her big brother!)  

She drew her own face and helped to carve it out!

Porter and his scary pumpkin.  Porter drew his own face and carved it out, all by himself!  Wow, I can't believe he is that old!  Thank goodness for very small carving tools, not the big huge knives we used to use.  Made Mom a little less nervous.  Good job, Porter!

All ready for Halloween!

Halloween Party

Allen and I went to a fun Halloween party on Saturday.  We had a great dinner with yummy soups, salad, and bread!  Check out that awsome pumpkin cake, gotta give a shout out to Michelle for that one!!  It was as tastey as it was pretty.  Jenni just happened to make my favorite M & M cookies, and frosted sugar cookies!  Did I mention the food was great?

Then each couple carved their pumpkin, something Allen and I haven't done just the two of us in Forever!  We took the kids to pick out pumpkins a couple days ago and found this "special pumpkin".  We thought it had potential and had to try it out!  Luckily it happened to have the same shape as a skull so we went that direction!  Turned out pretty good.

Everyone's pumpkins!  We also played a fun game that involved a lot of laughing!  I think my cheeks are still sore!!  Thanks Chris and Jenni, Nate and Michelle, Derek and Mina, and Mark and Tiffany for a fun night with friends.  

Big Thanks for the pictures Jenni :)

Laundry Day with Our "Little Pumpkin"

It was Laundry Day at the Welch's house.  Rylee thinks she is such a big helper.  She helped me "unload" (throw all the clothes out of the basket that were already folded).  Then she decided she would sit and have a little break!  She is so cute.

Rylee is loving the Halloween decorations, she carries this pumpkin around and fills it with random things all day.  If anyone is looking for anything we all know to check Rylee's pumpkin, it has likely been stashed!

Estes Park

Allen and I went to Estes Park for the Elk Festival!  Just kidding, we went for the wedding of some friends that Allen works with.  But it was a busy weekend in Estes Park, they take the Elk Festival very seriously!!  My parents came and stayed with the kids.  We had a great time, it was so nice to get away and enjoy some time together.  This is the beautiful Church Andy and Liza were married in.

We saw a lot of Elk!  They must have been in town for the festival!  :)

We went to dinner, hiking, shopping, walking, and enjoyed the wedding and reception.  Our hike was beautiful, these are some of our favorite pictures.

Sidney's 5th Birthday!

Our little Sidney turned 5 years old today!  I can't believe it!  Five just seems so much older than 4, I know that sounds lame, but it seems like a big jump!  She had a great couple of days.  Yesterday we had a party for her friends.  We did a cooking party.  We made aprons, decorated cakes (tiered, no less), and had treats and presents!  Everyone had fun and was so sweet to her.  Here are all the girls in their aprons!

Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa Welch!  Sid loves the walkie talkies!  She and Porter are loving using them all over the house!  She thought the princess kitty card was "SO beautiful, I will save it forever!"  
Today Sidney wanted to go swimming, so we hit up the rec center this morning.  Then we had lunch and got ready for preschool.  She took sugar cookies for treats.  In true Sidney fashion she wore her "birthday crown" all day so everyone would know it was her special day!  Then we had a little party with my parents tonight.

I had fun with her cake this year.  I did a princess castle cake.  She was so excited it made all the hard work worth it!  Sidney is such a sweet heart, she is all girl and drama and she loves her brother and sister.  She still loves to dress up, color, watch movies, and ride her bike.  She is a great helper and friend.  I have enjoyed the extra time with her not starting kindergarden this year.  She is my little sweetheart.  In her own words, "I am SO happy to be 5!  Now my bones are 5 years old!"  Happy Birthday Sidney!  We love you!

Fun with Porter

Porter has been having a lot of fun in school.  He has  a lot of friends and is such a good kid.  His school had a Move-A-Thon, where he has people sponsor him to "move" for 1 hour.  He is such an athletic kid, he was very excited about it.  This is Porter and his friend Gage doing relays.  They had to run while holding a tennis ball between their shoulders.

They had relays, a rock wall, basketball, target throwing, frisbee, and jogging!  It was fun to go and watch him and cheer him on.  Plus it was great to not have to feel pressured to go around selling stuff this year :)  I am not a big door to door seller!  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for sponsoring Porter!

They also had spirit week at school.  There was sports day, which is always a favorite of Porter's.  He has a hard time picking which sports attire to wear!  They also had backwards day, Pajama day, and crazy day.  This is a picture of crazy day.  They are supposed to be mismatched and just crazy.  This was the hardest day for me as a very matched and not so crazy mom!  Port was very excited about the mohawk!  I struggled to find some clothes that didn't match (it just isn't right not to match, even for one day)!  Luckily I found it in myself to go a little crazy and he had a fun time.  I am so glad he is enjoying school!

Pictures are always fun, right?

So last Sunday the kids were all ready for church a little early and I thought, let's get a few pictures of the kids.  Pictures are always fun, right?  This is how we started....

Rylee wasn't so excited.  
                                                                                                                                              Maybe holding her blanket will help?  Not so much.....Let's go outside, it's a beautiful day!


Sidney, fix your dress.  Porter, look at the camera.  Rylee, sit still.....  Did I say this was supposed to be fun?

                                                                                                                   Maybe if we give her a rock to hold?  Nope, just wants to eat it.

We did turn out with a couple that were ok.  We also ended up being sweaty, frustrated, and rushing to church.  I am realizing the odds are against us now with three kids to get them all looking at the camera!  Good times!  Good memories!