Holiday Photos with Tyler & Ethan

 Both Ethan & Tyler love to help mom in the kitchen - but Ethan is becoming the one most interested in the entire process of cooking from the measuring - mixing and assembling to the actual stove and oven cooking.
So when it came time to make Holiday cookies - Ethan was right there with his little stool and ready attitude to help.

Ethan has a very "let me do it mommy" attitude - he wanted to break the eggs & put them into the food processor.

Mommy doesn't look at all concerned does she.....

Turning on the processor with all the noise and whirling was something he loved to see happen.

Ethan had to stand on his tippy-toes at times to reach the top of the processor.

At times he needed help - like the strength to really push hard to roll out the dough for the cookie cutting.

Tyler has more strength so she was able to roll out her own cookie dough.

Both Tyler and Ethan were very serious when it came to using the cookie cutters - they wanted their cookies to look perfect.

Ethan serious when using the cookie cutter too.

The cookie cutters didn't work as easily as we had hoped so plan-B was to make balls and flatten them out as circles.

That was fine with Ethan - getting your hands right into the dough is more fun.

And being able to flatten the little balls with your hands is full too.

After shaping and flattening the cookies - it was time to add the sprinkles

Some sprinkles for the cookies and some sprinkles for snacking was the rule of the day and almost the best part.

Of course as we all remember - the best part is licking the spoons after the job is done......

And waiting for the cookies to come out of the oven to eat some that are nice and warm.

Denise & Gary wanted a few shots of the family for the holiday cards -

So of course I couldn't take just one photo.

I got each of the kids with their mom

And as you know photographing your own family is harder than photographing strangers - so we had to work quickly before they kids started to 'melt down'.

Tyler is my little model she's so used to having me take her photos - but Ethan is a typical boy - full of energy and contradictions.

Dad & Ethan look great together.

And Tyler is really Daddy's little girl.

In the end we finally got one great shot.

And here are a few photos that I took here in Az at our retirement park.

Happy Holidays to all and a safe and healthy New Year ahead.

My New Colorado Home

Hi all - well I did it!  I bought a place in Colorado!  It's in the town of Arvada and under 2 mi. from the center of Olde Town Arvada which is a cute little town established in 1870.  There is a charming little historic district with lots of the original little cottages that have been restored and renovated.

Our place is in a development called Four Acre Lake - a small Condominium Complex built around a little man-made lake.

This is the lake and as you can see the buildings that surround this lake.

This is our building, there are only 8 units per building - 4 units on each side.  You are looking at the front side of our building with 2 units on the first floor (one on left and one on right) and 2 units that have lofts on the 2nd floor.

We are on the bottom floor - Unit on the right - all units are corner units which means we all have plenty of light coming in.

There's plenty of space between buildings and there are only about 10 buildings within the entire complex so it's a small development. There is a great walking path all around the lake which Blanche & Lucy already love. 

The thing we love most about this place is there is very few amenities - which means very low HOA fees and which also mean very few families as there is no big pool, or clubhouse or activities to attract families and kids. This is a little enclosed Gazebo that you can have BBQ's in and family gatherings/picnics in or where you can put your lawn chair in and just sit and enjoy the sunset or the view of the lake.

I took these photos of the interior when we did the inspection - and it was filled with the sellers furniture - but it will give you an idea of what the interior looks like better than if it were empty.  This is the living room with 2 big windows and beautiful hardwood floors.

View from the living room to the kitchen & dining area.  There is a breakfast bar where we can put stools for casual dining.  I love the wood floors throughout - easy cleaning with the pups..

This is the Master bedroom with also 2 nice big windows (they had huge furniture that really filled the place).  Burber rugs in both bedrooms.

Great tile floors in the baths - this is the master bath.

Master bath has just a shower (which is all I ever take anyway).

This is the spare bedroom - they had 3 little kids here!!  This room will function as an office most of the time - but I will have a Trundle bed in here with a desk so that when you come to visit we have sleeping quarters for you.

The guest bathroom has a full tub and shower as well.

 I hope you come to visit us in our new home sometime - Colorado is wonderful and weather is always great... Our place is only 31miles away from the grandkids - and an easy ride to visit them or for them to visit us and for the kids to stay over grammy's....   Arvada is under 10miles north west of downtown Denver and right next door to Golden and Boulder and very close to the foothills of the Rockies...
if you have time and want to know more about the little town of Arvada - visit the website http://arvada.org/about-arvada
Its a wonderful little town and one that we look forward to discover more about.