Jett's birthday "party"

WATIKI WATER PARK IN RAPID... breaking news...

On December 30, 2009 Jett gets to take his friend, Tate, and his brother to Watiki for an early birthday celebration... what fun they had... swimming, sliding, floating on the lazy river and lots of junk food in the motel room! What a great way to celebrate EIGHT!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FIRST BORN.... JETT!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Jesus is the reason for the season we always say! I am thanking to God for a fun Christmas Eve with my family. Christmas Traditions.... new and old....

4TH year in a row ...
GINGERBREAD HOUSE MAKING!!!! I still had to do the icing but
the boys did the rest by themselves!

3rd year in a row...
(Pretending to make) Gingerbread Men Cookies! Really,
I did most of it and they watched and argued!!!

Posing by the tree after Christmas Eve Church Service

AND here we are right before we get ready to eat our "new soup." Cory made Pintos and Barley Soup from scratch. We were in hopes that this soup would be so yummy we we have it be our new Christmas Eve meal tradition. It was very good and very healthy but we are thinking we need to perfect this recipe before we commit it to a new Tradition. (It just wasn't the same as the Pintos and Barley Soup we had at Sweet Tomatoes in Denver!)

Anyway, we are now waiting for the boys to go to sleep so we can "play Santa." I think they know better, especially Jett, but they like to play it up so they can "get a Santa Present!"

Our other new Tradition we started this year, thanks to Uncle Troy and Aunt Christi was
"Elf on a Shelf." This little Elf is so cute. He comes with a book that explains he will come out and appear somewhere around the house around the Holidays and every night he uses his magic to fly to Santa to report about how the kids are behaving, and reappears somewhere different in the house the next morning! Then, on Christmas Eve, he "stays with Santa until next year." Well, this year we only got a few days with this new member of our family, Weezer Random Neuharth, but he was fun! Although, Jett was very unsettled as we tried to explain how this Elf works. He was certain I moved him last night,,, but I wasn't lying when I said I didn't touch him, because Cory moved our little Weezer to a "new spot." HOW FUN!!!!

Well, I better get those Santa presents out and get myself to sleep!

Praying all of our friends and family have a very Merry Christ Filled Christmas!

What a memorable THANKSgiving!

Yep,,, we made some memories! We always do when we go to Colorado to see the French family! It is also, always interesting to see how two families totaling nine and half humans cohabitate in a three bedroom house. We actually do quite well I think. Little Myles, who is Oakley's age had to give up his room for our family. However, this time he had a neat little cot that he slept on, in his room with us! It was me and the boys for a sleepover,,, bunk beds, sleeping bags, a cot, three giggly boys and one snoring daddy! Myles has two little sister's, Maddi and Addy (I've posted about them all before) who taught us a lot about baby girl stuff! Cory got some lessons on how to change a wild 9 month with one agenda,,, getting up off her changing table! Cory also got a taste of some crying throughout the night as they were teething and just not sleeping well with all the extra chaos in the house! I for one was actually quite glad for him to get a realistic taste of what it is like to have a baby in the house!

Cory did quite well with the girls, who both took a likin' to him! Especially two year old Maddi who knew how to get her "Koweee's" attention! One time while riding in the car next to Maddi, Cory got a little back rub as she quietly whispered, "Koweee." And then the favor was returned last night as Maddi crawled up on his lap next to me and requested a cuddle and a back rub! Cory and I both enjoyed snuggling and rubbing her back before she went to bed last night!


We had a blessed THANKSgiving dinner with the French family! The weather was beautiful Thursday and Friday so the kids were able to run off some energy outside! Cory and I took the four oldest kids to the park before our Thanksgiving meal and the three boys spent most of Friday in the backyard getting full of fun and sand!

Yesterday (Saturday) we (Melissa, Cory and I) loaded up our "MSC" (many small children) in her Expedition and headed to north Denver to the Butterfly Pavilion! I must say, this is the perfect age to attend the "Butterfly Place." We saw so many unique insects, arachnids and of coarse butterflies! We even saw some baby stick bugs which made me sad and miss our three we had!





Well, we are home now, catching up on laundry and reminiscing about our wonderful THANKSgiving vacation in Colorado!

Oh BOY, OH Boys!!!!

Playing their new game, "Pass the Pigs" from cousin Evonna! They love it!

Here they are on a Sat morning, dressed up as little trolls! I don't really know what they were doing. They went around the house grunting at everyone and everything for about an hour... I guess they were taking "Three Little Billy Goats Gruff" (that I read them the night before) seriously!

happy Halloween to daddy's big deer!!!

Cory got his first Archery Deer Halloween night! He was extremely elated and so were the boys! After our Trick-or-Treating we rushed home to see the deer! The boys were excited to jump up in the back of the pickup and get their hands on the deer, even though they were still in costume! Needless to say, they were very proud of daddy shooting this old 5x5 whitetail deer with his bow and from almost 40 yards away. WAY TO GO HONEY!!!!

*** on a side note*** Those of you who know, cousin Matt Blakeman,,, doesn't Jett look just like him in this picture!?!?! :)

Happy Halloween!

The boys were very happy they got to go Trick-or-treating this year!!! We went into our

friends house to go around their neighborhood with them! We had a great time! Amanda, a fifth grader, was an excellent Trick-or-treating edict role model!

Oakley was David from the Bible story David and Goliath! He was very proud of his costume that mom and Grandma whipped up 30 minutes before we went out on the town!
TRICK OR TREAT!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!

October Pumpkins!!!

The boys carved their pumpkins at our friends & neighbors last weekend! The Damberg's had a big pumpkin carving Fall Party! It was fun despite the rainy weather. All the kids went on a tractor hay ride in the rain. They had a blast! They drank lots of hot cocoa and then enjoyed carving their pumpkins. We were very proud of Jett who carved his own, all by himself! And Oakley was just amazed at how much "guts" came out of his pumpkin!

THIS was a SAD year that we didn't get to go to Ft Collins to visit the Pumpkin Patch with the French Family,,, as we have for many years previously but this party was a fun, and CLOSE to home alternative! We plan to go to see the Frenchies in Colorado for Thanksgiving! We will have so much to be thankful for!