A White and Wonderful Christmas

On the 23rd Mason and I headed up to my parents to begin baking and preparing for Christmas. Matt had to work part of the 24th:( Mason was a great taster and he ate a few to many of the date rolls!!!


It snowed most of the 23rd and on Christmas Eve. Not a lot of snow because it was too cold. As soon as Cade and Em got there with the kiddos we headed out to the barn hill for some quick snow time.



The guys minus Cormic, he will be big enough to hang with them before we know it.

Hey I want to be in the picture.

My dad on the UTV, that thing is so fun to drive.

Keegan our little snowman.



After we froze our tushes off we headed inside for some appetizers, hotty toddy's, and family time.

Mason was teaching Cormic the ropes. "Hey man I am 7 months older than you, let me show you how to operate this thing."

"I can even push you into this furniture and give you some whip lash."

"Maybe you should just get out so I can drive."

"Now that's how its done."

Don't worry Grandpa rescued Cormic before Mason rammed him into to many things. These boys I tell ya. Isn't Cormic cute?

Mason was not into opening the presents. Dragging them around and climbing onto them and jumping off was his act.

Christmas 2009 family picture.

My daddy, my hero:)

I tried to get a cousin picture but Mason was not having it. Cormic is so chill.

Keegan was a lot of fun this Christmas, he was so excited to open presents. But he would open the present and immediately want to play with it, most of the gifts required assembly so the parents were doing their best to persuade him to keep opening the others. This worked UNTIL he opened his Transformer and than that was all he wanted to play with, we would have had him open that first had we known.

Mason got a hold of one of the whip cream beaters. My mom made Grandma June's Chocolate Cream pie...yum. We went to bed Christmas eve with our belly's full and our minds and hearts excited for the celebration of Christmas.

The next morning we enjoyed my dad's pancakes and sausage. He makes the best pancakes. Mason enjoyed his with his favorite food on earth...blueberries.

After our tummies were full we packed up and headed North for the next round. Thanks mom and dad you are the best and I am so proud to be your daughter. Looking forward to 2010!

Angela and Theresa did a great job of taking pictures, Mom would be proud.

Grandma Bert with Ellie and Lauren.

Mason was kind of pouty. All the excitement and sugar is not part of the regular routine but hey its Christmas and cookies for lunch are acceptable. Also our son is a blanky kid...he won't leave home without this polka dot blanket.

Nick and our nephew Luke, he is the oldest of the Gilbreath grandkids. Parents lock up your daughters.

Ellie and Mason, she is such a good helper.

The Gilbreath guys.

I love this picture.

And I really love these two.

T and Ang. T has been part of the family before Ang was born but they look the same age:)

Uncle Chris getting some Mason lovin.

Our teenagers....its doesn't seem like that long ago when I was this age but it makes me feel old that they are TEENAGERS!

Our nephew Christian Troy, he is such a heartbreaker.

Our beautiful niece Bella.

And our darling niece Ellie.

Ang and I made tie blankets for all the grandkids. Nancy loved to make these and has made several for all of us kids so we picked out fun fleece fabric to fit each of their personalities and cut and tied a lot in the weeks before Christmas. I think they were a hit.


Jeanette (Matt's older sister) and Uncle Rick.

Uncle Nick and Aunt Ang., they are moving home soon and we can't wait.

Aunt Jeanette got some cuddle time with Mason.

Auntie Ang and Uncle Jason. You two always coordinate you are so Duggar:)

The Gilbreath kids with Papa Gilbreath. I know Nanc was smilling because all of her chickens were under one roof, nothing made her happier.

The adult clan of Gilbreaths.

Grandpa and his grandkids.

The holidays were of course very bittersweet this year with the loss of our "Christmas Angel" but we know her Christmas was beautiful and spent with Jesus. We felt her near us and we cried and laughed a lot. It has been a heck of a year but we are so blessed to live on this wonderful earth and we thank god for all the challenges that make us stronger and we pray that we can live each and everyday in his grace.

A months worth of activities

Wow! We have been absent from our updating. We are working between two computers which is effecting my picture storage.

This post includes a lot of pictures which start from last weekend, Mason's birthday and Thanksgiving.


We went to Zoo lights this past weekend with the fam. Grandpa was trying to induce smiles, the cold really takes it out of the kiddos.


Siblings. He is taller then me but I am smarter:) Just kidding Cader you know I think you are one heck of a guy.

Our little family, Mason was not digging all the clothes and being confined to his stroller. He would much rather be running around.

One cozy and happy family.

My handsome husband making a run for the exit. He is not a big fan of massive crowds but he hung in there after I threatened to tell Santa about his bad behavior.

Cormic is nice and warm! He reminds me of Maggi from the Simpsons in this picture.

Grandparents are such suckers, not sure what they paid for these crazy light swords but Keegan and Mason loved them. The parents did not share the same affection for the headache inducing toys.

Zoo lights was fun but I like to see more animals when I go to a zoo, crazy huh? Most of the animals were inside due to the chilly weather. We lasted about an hour and a half before Mason had had enough. Maybe we will try again in a few years when he does not have to be confined to a stroller.

So lets see, we have been up to the traditional holiday festivities.... wrapping presents, attending plays, and decorating.

Mason is quite the helper when it comes to wrapping gifts:) Actually he likes to make our living room look like a bomb has exploded gift wrap everywhere.

Grandma Bert took Ang. and I to a holiday play at the Arvada Center. "Joseph and the Technicolor coat." It was a lot of fun. Great Story, great dancing, cute actors, and lots of singing. And of course spending time with two of my favorite people.

The first weekend in December we headed North to decorate Grandma and Grandpa's Gilbreaths house. Everyone except Nick and Angie were in attendance (because they live in Arizona right now), we missed them but next year they should be back in CO. We ate chili, listened to Christmas music, cried, laughed, and enjoyed our time together.

Sisters!

Aunt Jeanette and Uncle Rick Getting us started.

Mason checking out his Uncle Chris. His cousin Luke bought him a bib that says "Am I really related to these people." Very fitting.

Aunt Theresa and cousin Christian.

Mason's favorite view.

Cousins Ellie and Bella putting Mason into Gilly's cage. Actually Mason crawled in there himself, he does this a lot with boxes.

These two are enamored with Mason and he is enamored with them. I found them in the bathroom trying to put some makeup on Mason:) They also did some cheers for him and he danced and giggled. He is not shy to female attention, we will explain the cousin situation later.

Jason you look so cute with that little dog! We might need to buy you a murse. We love Ang.'s boyfriend definitely a keeper.

Decorating was of course bittersweet but we all enjoyed the day! It was really fun to watch the kids decorate the tree.

Nancy loved Christmas and she would decorate the upstairs tree every year with different colors that symbolized something big going on in the family. For example when Matt and I got married, she used our wedding colors. When Ang. graduated high school she decorated it in her high school colors and last year it was blue decorations for Mason. SO we stuck with tradition and decorated the tree in Nancy's favorite colors; bright pink and gold.

The tree looks so beautiful.

Here are some random pictures but I have to include them!

A daily activity of dumping out my purse.

He has executive traits:)

Wearing Dad's hat.


12 month checkup. Healthy. Tall. And still dislikes shots. The MMR gave him a rash over the trunk of his body which happens to 5% of people, poor dude.

Mason first birthday was fun and a lot of work:) Most of my pictures our on the other computer, like the first taste of cake, but here are a few.

We had a sock monkey theme hence the shirt.

I made lasagne's, salad, bread and of course cupcakes.

This was one of his favorite gifts, the Nike basketball.

The balloons were a hit as well. We kept them for a few days so he could run through them again and again.

Our baby boy is one! He is quite the handful these days but man does he own our hearts.

Thanksgiving 2009 at GG Berts and GG Larrys.

And to conclude our post Grandma Bert reminiscing about young boobs. I know our family is odd but we have a lot of fun.

Happy Holidays to everyone! I can't wait to see pictures and read blogs after the festivities and I will try not to wait a month to update again. Love all of you.