Steamboat winter adventures

This past weekend we went to Steamboat for the Winter Carnival with our good friends the Solleys.   Although we didn't get to see much of the festivities we had a great time, funky smells, busy beavers, setting off the fire alarm, someone calling 911 and all -- 2302 ROCKS; 2304 smells! 

While mama was packing everyone Zachary spent time 'exercising' in his jump-a-roo which he loves.
 
Once in the mountains, Zachary and Isla were ready to hit the cold in their snow buntings (so cute!)...
Tim SAID he didn't share his bottle with Zachary, but I'm not so sure about that face...maybe they shouldn't snuggle so much!! :-) 
Hey, whatcha talking about mama?
We even had story time before bed for the boys
Here are a couple snapshots of Zachary in the condo.  He seemed to have a great time and loved watching everyone.  He always has such goofy looks on his face whenever we snap a picture...here are a couple examples.  You can see his beautiful big blue eyes in a couple of these though.
Order up!
Downtown on main street right after the parade...Ian is smiling because we were on the way to the candy store!
On our last day we all went snowshoeing...after a bit of an attitude and equipment adjustments everyone had a great time.  Ian and Quin were rockstars!
Zachary's first snowshoe trip!

Merry Christmas! ...and Happy New Year!

OK so you'd think since I'm not working anymore I should be able to update the blog regularly now right?  WRONG...I think I have less time now!  But I'll try to get caught up to date now and TRY for more regular posts, maybe weekly?

Anyway, we had a great Christmas.  Ian was so excited about Santa and learned most of all the kid Christmas songs...and he's still singing them.  But he likes to mix things up a bit and sing his own medley that incorporates Christmas songs, songs from preschool and from movies.  It's quite interesting!  He was super excited this year to be introduced to our new elf on the shelf, whom he named Gobby.  Every morning he'd wake up and see where Gobby decided to land after his overnight flight to the North Pole -- which coincidentally is also "where Liam lives,"  many nights he would say good night to Gobby and then say "say hi to Liam for me, and Shannon and Ken. So cute!  For Christmas he got Buzz and Woody, a light saber, rollerblades, bumblebee transformer and a bunch of other cool stuff.  QUITE spoiled indeed!
Here is our picture from our Christmas party at church...so corny its cute!


For Christmas this year, Ian made a bear for Zachary at Build a Bear.  We named him Bear Bear (original, eh?).  Zachary loves him and spent a good chunk of Christmas day gabbing away with Bear Bear filling him in on all that he had learned about the Feighny family in his 3.5 months with us.

Ian and Zachary got to see Santa multiple times....here at preschool:
AND at the Bjorland's annual Christmas party...he was pretty excited and was quite consistent in his requests for a Buzz Lightyear and Bumblebee transformer (which of course he got both):
All this partying was too much for Zachary and he fell asleep in many peoples arms over the holidays.  Very well loved and such a great baby.  He's growing like a champ, super strong and always happy.
Mike, Clay and Marissa played all of us Christmas carols at the party too!
Ian in his new Bumblebee outfit:
and playing with his super cool new hot wheels set (like I said they are pretty spoiled by many great friends and family!):

We also went to get some family pictures by Solly Photography (Thanks guys!) in the beginning of Dec...here are just a few screen shots of their awesome work!
Ian with 'Blue' his FAV-O-RITE guitar.

After the holidays we headed down to Denver to check out the Nature and Science museum, Ian was so excited about it all but loved the space area and dinosaurs the best.

Last week we were able to go over to UNC with Ian's friend Quin and see all the snakes in the snake room with Dr. Mackessy.  The boys LOVED seeing all the snakes and got to hold a hognosed snake, touch the rough-necked lizard and listen to all the rattlesnakes.  Ian is still talking about how cool it was!

OK so that is a quick overview of our very very busy past couple of months.  I'll try to update more often and maybe even get in some info on Mike and my life -- as well as some of the great stories about the boys.  Right now I am loving staying at home, teaching on-line and was also elected as VP of Ian's pre-school (which means I'll be president next year!).  I can't express how happy I am to be with my boys and am so grateful for this opportunity.  Mike is working hard and enjoying being able to come home to a home cooked meal and clean house!  This weekend we are off to Steamboat for the annual Winter Carnival with our friends the Solley's so we should have a bunch of good pics and stories coming soon!