Our Christmas...

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. My mom and Bob came up from NC to join us. We all attended Christmas Eve service at our church, which was awesome! Then we came home and got ready for Santa. Hayden had a great Christmas. He got his laptop, a Jay Cutler jersey (our Denver family would approve!) and lots of games and toys. On Friday we all went to see the movie "Bedtime Stories", which was fun. And on Saturday, we all went to the Hershey Bears hockey game. It was the first hockey game for Nana and Hayden. We had so much fun and Hayden is ready to go again! Here are just few pics of our holiday time. Love to all.

Gingerbread Men party

Tonight was the Christmas Party for Hayden's Cub Scout Pack. Each scout family was asked to bring cookies to share. We chose to make gingerbread men. I have never made them before and had a recipe that was sent to me last Christmas (Thank You Aunt Deb!) so we figured we would try. So yesterday afternoon, along with Hayden (wearing a Yankees apron and chef hat), we went to work. Now I can't just bake cookies. I have to decorate them as well. So here are a few pics of our finished project. Todd said it looked like they were having a party in our kitchen and I guess they do. I hope they had fun!

Once they got to Scouts, the party was over!
Here is our Cub Scout in action!

Santa comes to the Meadows..

This is what awoke me from my nap today... (No, I don't usually nap, but I am fighting another sinus infection and the pink eye that came with it..yuck!)

Every Christmas, Santa goes through all the neighborhoods in our area on the fire truck. Today was that day. As you can hear, they go all out with the lights and sirens and Santa rides on top. His "elves" have a bag of candy for each kid and oranges for the adults. This was extra cool today since this was the same truck that Hayden rode to school a few weeks ago and the firemen remembered him from that day.

This is another one of the benefits of living in a "small town"!

Merry Christmas!!

Our many blessings..

We were able to get back to Denver for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time. On Thanksgiving morning, we drove up to Aurora to visit with Angie's Aunt Becky and her family (who are more like siblings than cousins). The entire family was there and we finally got to see the precious little girls that we have only seen through pictures! Even though our visit with them was short, it was great.

Then we headed back out to Todd's parents in Larkspur where we were joined by the rest of his family for Thanksgiving and football. Todd's younger brother Patrick and Teresa were not able to join us, as they were at the hospital in labor (okay, Teresa was in labor!).On Thanksgiving evening, they had a little girl. We were truly blessed to be able to share that with everyone and to visit our new little niece in the nursery. It was so cool to see Hayden go in to see her. She is beautiful and we can finally buy some pink!!

The next day we did family pictures at Arrowhead golf course, which was gorgeous. We also went up to see the house that Todd's brother is building for his family. That was gorgeous as well. We can't wait to see it when completed. The views are fantastic and reminded us of the beauty of Colorado.

On Sunday, the forecast called for flurries so we expected to wake up to a little snow on the ground. But when we got up, there was already about 3 inches, and it snowed, and it snowed, and it snowed! When it finally stopped that evening, the flurries totalled 16". We just sat and watched the snow while our Jets were romped by the Broncos! It has been awhile since we have seen that kind of snow and it was "magical". This is what saw out their family room window!That evening, we took a photo of the "boys". The next time, they will have to make room for the little lady! The three older boys had a sleepover/camp out for 2 nights downstairs and played Star Wars for 4 days! Hayden had a wonderful time with them. The youngest was content to hang out with the rest of us upstairs and be my buddy!

It was very hard to leave everyone back in Colorado, but we know that God has his plans for us and that for now we are to be in PA. We love you all!!

Now the pics...

Here are some pictures of Hayden's day. The firemen picked him up at the house at 8:15. He was the first one on. Then they went and picked up the 4 other winners. At about 9:00, the winning classrooms went outside to wait. The fire truck pulled into the school, with lights and sirens going, to drop off the kids. It was a pretty neat experience for an 8 year old!!

The large photo is all the winners along with our principal and the two firemen that picked the kids up.

Monday Morning...

Here is a quick video clip of the fire truck arriving at school this morning. The winner's classrooms each came out to greet them as they arrived. It was pretty cool (even though it was about 30 degrees out)!

First Place goes to...

What a day! I am not usually at school to work until later in the morning, but on Wednesdays I volunteer in Hayden's classroom. Our school has Lion-TV every morning with the National Anthem, the Pledge of Allegiance (yes, we do still do that!) and then announcements. This is all done by our 5th graders. As I am there later, I do not get to see Lion-TV very often. When I arrived at Hayden's room, he was not there. His teacher told me that he was going to be on Lion-TV but she did not know why. To make a long story a little shorter, they were announcing the winners, by grade, of the poster contest for our local Fire Department. All 3 winners from 3rd grade were from Miss Murphy's class so we all waited to see how it would play out. They announced each grade winner by 3rd place, 2nd place and then 1st. Hayden wasn't 3rd, then wasn't 2nd, so obviously he was 1st!! You could tell by his reaction on the TV that he was completely surprised! I was so proud of him and it was cool to watch his class react as the names were announced. I don't have a picture of the poster that he made, but here is a picture of him with his First Place blue ribbon!
Check back on Monday evening for pictures of the prize! All the first place winners will be picked up at home on Monday morning by the firetruck and will ride the firetruck to school! How fun!!

Visiting Gettysburg

It was an absolutely gorgeous day here today, in the 70's, so we decided we had to do something outside. As we are only about 40 minutes from Gettysburg, we headed down there. The tree colors were amazing considering it was Nov.1st. We visited the Military center and then took the 24 mile auto tour. The tour had about 16 stops to get out and look around and hike. It was a chronological tour of the battle that took place there. It was pretty cool to see where each infantry/brigade from each state was located during the battle, and to walk around on the same ground that these troops did back in 1863.

Here are a few pictures from our day!

Trick-or-Treat...

Here is Hayden on his way out to trick-or-treat! Yes, I know it is Oct. 30th, but things work a little different in Central PA! The individual townships set the date and time for trick-or-treating. So ours was tonight from 6-8. I think they do it for safety reasons and it is somewhat nice because you don't have anyone at your door after 8.

If you can't tell, Hayden is wearing a Robin costume from the older Batman movie, Batman Forever. He had to have that specific one, which was not easy to find. Yeah for Ebay!

Hope the rest of you enjoy your treat nights!

Hayden's pumpkin

So when I asked Hayden what kind of pumpkin he wanted me to carve, this is what he chose!

He is still very much in to this political stuff and is very proud to show it.

He went with me to the McCain-Palin office near us to pick up our yard sign. While we were there, he was talking it up with guys that are running the place. He even made a campaign sign for them! So when we have trick-or-treat this week, we will proudly show off our political pumpkin!

Fall in Pennsylvania...

This is what you get when you leave two young creative minds to themselves outside on a cool, windy, autumn day in PA.

Hayden and his friend Eliza made a Fall Tree by decorating one of our backyard trees with toys and other stuff from our garage! They were very proud of their creation. The hard part will be getting them to clean it all up!

I am so proud of my future President...

This is what Hayden did in his free time at school yesterday. He is very pro-McCain/Palin. And he seems to have very strong opinions (negative ones) about that other guy. We have had to explain to him that it is okay to have opinions, but you need to express them "nicely". He came home the other day telling me that he was taking a poll at school and somewhat campaigning for McCain!

Who knows, maybe someday we'll be campaigning for Hayden Doyle!

Who would believe it..

That same weekend, Mom and Bob surprised Hayden on Sunday afternoon by showing up. They were at the Tennessee football game on Saturday, then drove up to PA. We knew it was a possibility that they would make it, but we did not tell Hayden just in case plans had to change.

We had just arrived home from church and the doorbell rang shortly after. Now that usually means that Hayden's friend behind us, Eliza, is coming over to play. Imagine his surprise when he opened the door and there were his Nana & Bob! Todd took Bob golfing (big surprise!) and Nana hung out with us. Hayden even got her to play his playstation baseball game with him. I had to get a picture of that because I have never seen her play a video game!

Falling behind....

Okay, so I have definitely fallen behind on our blog, but I am trying!

Two weekends ago I finally grabbed a shot of Hayden at one of his baseball games. He had a walk and a hit so this is a pic of him on 1st base! He loves to play short stop just like his favorite player, Derek Jeter.

The Big City..

How we spent our Saturday....in the Bronx and New York City.

On Thursday, I happened upon someone that was selling their Yankee tickets for Saturday. As we have not made it to a game this season, and it is the last season in this stadium, we jumped at the chance to go. Even though it has been a rough season, there is something about watching the Yanks in Yankee Stadium, and it is the same no matter how many times you go. We take the subway in, which Hayden loves (and you'll see that he made a new friend as usual) and it drops you off right by the stadium. The new stadium is being built right next to the old one and it was pretty awesome to see the two side by side. The pictures from outside were taken with the new stadium in the background. We sat about 25 rows up from the field along the 3rd base foul line. The pictures inside show a lot of empty seats, that is only because the Yanks were down 7 to nothing and I took the picture in the 8th inning. Prior to that, pretty much every seat was full! Of course we had to eat while we were there. The food tastes so much better when it's cooked in Bronx water. They have the best chicken fingers and hot dogs (and pretzels and ice cream for Hayden). After leaving the game, we headed to Times Square. Hayden wanted to "conquer his fear of the dinosaur" in the Toys R Us there. It is a very large, moving with sound effects, dinosaur from Jurassic Park. All the times we were there before, he has been terrified of it. But not this time! We tried to eat in the city, but as usual on a Saturday night in Times Square, the waits were about 2 hours. So we decided to head out of the city and stopped in Jersey for dinner before heading home. We left the house at 8:15 am and returned home around 11:30 pm. A long tiring day, but so worth it. Please enjoy the pics from our day!

No picture but...

You'll be happy to know that Hayden is sporting his Bronco pride again today. Yes, we got to watch the end of the game (we don't get many Bronco games back here) and it was awesome.

Bronco Blue...

Even though we do consider ourselves primarily JETS fans these days, we realize that the Broncos are still in our blood. So today Hayden is off to school showing his pride in the blue and orange, especially after they throttled the Raiders last night. Keep in mind that he will definitely stand out as he is among a huge, did I say HUGE, community of Steelers fans around here. But our Denver connection would be proud as one of our teachers is a Bronco fan and has quite the display in his room.

We will continue to cheer on our dear old Broncos (as long as they are not playing the Jets).

Happy Football!

First day of 3rd grade...

Just a quick picture of Hayden on his way to 3rd grade this morning. His class is now upstairs so he is moving up in the ranks!

Goodbye Summer....

Today was the last day of summer vacation for Hayden and me. Tomorrow we head back to school. So we decided to drive over to Hershey and hang out at Chocolate World for a few hours. We took the Chocolate Tour ride (about our 10th time on that!). It takes you through the process that they use to make all their yummy treats and then they always give out samples of their newer candies as you get off the ride. Then you can shop in the Hershey store for pretty much anything Hershey, including lots and lots of chocolate and candy. Of course, we can never leave without buying our favorites as well as their newest creation.

Then we drove over and met Todd for our annual "night before the first day of school" dinner out.

Now it's off to bed with visions of school in our heads!

The saga continues...

Hayden has been waiting for months for August 15th. The new Star Wars:Clone Wars came out and he has been so excited to go see it. On Saturday we headed to the theater for opening weekend. Not too crowded, but it is the animated version of Star Wars so there is not quite the following that the movies had. But he enjoyed it and that's all that matters!

As you can see, the boys got out the light sabers for a pre-movie duel on Friday evening. Yes, that is Todd as Darth Maul. Then Hayden did his jedi pose, of course wearing his Clone Wars shirt, before we headed to the movie. Saturday evening they took the duel outside and were joined by Hayden's friend, and our neighbor, Eliza. It was quite a sight to see them all running around the yard with the light sabers!

Start your engines...

If you know much about NC, then you know that NASCAR is BIG down there. We have visited Lowe's Motor Speedway several times during our visits, but this time we hit the Speedpark so the boys could do some driving of their own.
You'll see Hayden, with Todd behind him, driving the first track. Then they drove the next one together.

We all played the miniature golf course, then Hayden and Todd hopped on the bumper boats to cool off.